It’s Amazing: Win While War

Iraq clinched their first Asian Cup victory with a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in Jakarta. The final had been billed as a contest between the tournament's best attack in Saudi Arabia, against the tightest defence, but the Saudis much-vaunted strikeforce was kept well in check. In contrast, Iraq always looked dangerous on the break, with man-of-the-match Younes Mahmoud's pace a particular threat. Iraq's Brazilian coach Jorvan Vieira worked under difficult conditions, including being forced to prepare the team outside of Iraq. He said: "We all know the problems in Iraq but I have learned they are a fantastic people. We did not have much time so we had to work quickly. We sometimes fought, we sometimes argued but we got the work done. It was very difficult but I am very proud of these boys." Vieira announced he was standing down after the victory (quote fromhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/)

(the photo above captured from The Jakarta Post)

Skipper Younis Mahmoud's thumping headed goal crowned Iraq as the Asian Cup champions for the first time in the final of the Asian Cup at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Senayan, Jakarta - Indonesia, on Sunday, 29 July 2007. The Assood Al Rafidain or Lion from Mesopotamia –the title for Iraq's team- gave war-weary fellow citizens a reason to celebrate after upsetting three-time winner The Son of the Desert Saudi Arabia.

There's Always a Good @ the Beginning

Always Good At Beginning: INA defeated Bahrain 2-1.
In the year 1996, Indonesia got success in the first match at Asian Cup by make a draw score Kuwait 2-2 (Ina leading first 2-0). At 2000, draw again 0-0 to (again) Kuwait. 2004,
The first victory to Qatar, make Qatar’s head coach Philippe Troussier loose his job. Ina win 2-1. And finally on July 10th, Tuesday evening, on Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia –by the goal from Budi Sudarsono and Bambang Pamungkas- got their dream start to their Asian Cup campaign here as they shocked Bahrain –another Gulf country- by score 2-1 in group D.

Ranked 143rd in the world by FIFA, Indonesia bombarded Bahrain from the kick off with several well-coordinated attacks. Firman Utina become the man of the match. Indonesia will take on three-time Asian Cup champion Saudi Arabia on Saturday and later play two-time champion South Korea in its last group match next Wednesday.
That gave the minnows an unlikely victory over Bahrain, who finished fourth in the competition three years ago in China. The skillful Indonesians settled first, making light of their physical inferiority, and gave notice of their counter-attacking threat with a series of lightning forays deep into Bahraini territory that ended only with poor decision-making. Bahrain didn't heed the warning signs and the hosts deservedly opened the scoring on 14 minutes with a move of exquisite simplicity. The throbbing Gelora Bung Karno stadium, of one the biggest in Asia, erupted with unbridled joy. Bahrain were looking rattled but Indonesia's suspect defence always seemed likely to offer them a way back into the match - and so it proved on 27 minutes.
Ivan Kolev -Indonesian's coach from Bulgary- said on http://www.afcasiancup.com that “Thanks to all the players because they played like soldiers and played towards the target,” said Kolev. “They proved they could win. “Thanks, too, to the fans who came to the stadium. The people came to the stadium, just like we asked them to. And thirdly, thanks also to the people who supported the national team before the event started. Firman Utina was man of the match, but all of the players played well.”
The victory over Qatar three years ago was followed by losses against Bahrain and hosts China as the Indonesians struggled to continue their start and was part of a pattern that has seen the nation impress in the early stages of previous competitions before exiting at the end of the group stage.
Kolev, though, refused to dwell on past tournaments and chose, instead, to celebrate the win. “I don’t want to talk about the past, let’s look at the result today and be happy and then start thinking about tomorrow,” he said. However, Kolev’s celebrations could be tempered by injuries to captain Ponaryo Astaman and Mahyadi Panggabean, who were both taken off in the first half and the team will assess their condition ahead of the game against Saudi Arabia, and last game in the group versus Korea Republic. “Both players had old injuries, they weren’t new injuries and we will have our medical team look at them and do their best to make sure both players are ready for the next game,” Kolev said. OK Pak Kolev, good luck for the 1st play. But remember PSSI always got a good performance @ the beginning, but next... and the end... Lets go to Senayan
Source from: ttp://www.afcasiancup.com/, the Jakarta Post, http://www.brisbanetimes.com, another from goal.com

Maluku incident and another disintegration accident

The peak event of the National Family Day program which was attended by President Yudhoyono last Friday (June 29) morning was disturbed by a group of irresponsible persons who performed an unscheduled "Cakalele" dance. They claimed they’re from RMS (abbreviations from “Republik Maluku Selatan” the banned South Maluku Republic). Some people said they just had more courages and did not hesitate to create chaos. An incident in Maluku occurring when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited Ambon (Maluku`s provincia capital) last week showed that a separatist group still posed a serious threat on the unitary state of Indonesia, a legislator in The Jakarta Post (July 1) has said. Many hope the incident could be made an evaluation on our security system and the intelligence body`s performance. Such an incident should not recur and thus relevant authorities must conduct tighter security control in every state activity. Questions still to be continued why such an incident could happen. A researcher said that the security system for every state activity must be evaluated. Effendy Choirie from the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (National Awakening Party) called for the improvement of the intelligence body`s performance as such a separatist act had been committed bluntly. He said that the intelligence body might have detected it but measures on the disturbers must be taken by relevant authorities like the police and military. Many legislators said that Maluku incident proves separatists still pose threat, is it true?

Di tulisan ini aku ingin menghubungkan antara pembangunan, nasionalisme, dan Insiden Maluku (kemarin sewaktu acara Hari Keluarga Nasional). Beberapa hari sebelumnya, ada rapat Pemberdayaan Komunitas Adat Terpencil –selanjutnya disebut KAT- di 9 Provinsi yang berlangsung di Hotel Sri Varita, Senen, Jakarta. Ada kisah-kisah menarik bahwa yang diceritakan para wakil daerah tersebut. Misalnya yang terjadi di Kalbar –dan juga Kaltim- adalah masyarakat setempat malah memilih untuk jadi warganegara Malaysia dengan memindah batas-batas wilayah sendiri. Hal itu dipermudah dengan adanya jalan masuk ke Serawak sepanjang 904 Km yang mudah ditempuh dengan darat selama 3 jam saja. Kesenjangan yang terjadi di perbatasan kedua negara terutama adalah di bidang pendidikan dan kesehatan. Apalagi diperparah dengan antar masyarakat yang mudah untuk saling berinteraksi. Mereka merasa bahwa, ”Kami tidak tersentuh pembangunan sama sekali”. Masih ada 9000 lebih KAT di Kalbar yang belum tersentuh.
Kejadian yang lain berlangsung di Kabupaten Belau, NTT, yang sekarang ini terdapat puluhan ribu pengungsi terlantar. Mereka menghadapi kenyataan bahwa di Timor Leste susah mencari pekerjaan, tetapi di Indonesia fasilitas publik –terutama listrik- sangat buruk. Di Indonesia mereka bisa kenyang, tetapi di Timor Leste kalau malam mereka bisa merasakan listrik terang. Analoginya ”siang di Indonesia, malam enak di Timor Leste”. Kemudian wakil Sulawesi Utara menyatakan bahwa Bupati Talaud pernah bercerita tentang orang-orang di Pulau Mianggas orang lebih senang ke Filipina (Philippines). Pernah kejadian ketika ada warga digebuki Polisi maka masyarakat mengibarkan bendera Filipina. Apalagi kalau mereka menjual produk (pertanian) ke Filipina bisa dihargai 5x lebih tinggi. Bayangpun coba. Sedangkan Kepulauan Riau bisa dikatakan sebagai wilayah yang paling banyak berbatasan dengan negara lain. Kepulauan ini 98% adalah laut berbatasan dengan 4 negara yaitu Vietnam, Kamboja (Cambodia), Malaysia, dan Singapura (Singapore). Di Kepri ada 6 kabupaten kota dengan 2408 pulau, separuh penduduk tinggal di pulau Batam.

So pendekatan ala nasionalisme mungkin tidak relevan lagi sekarang, masyarakat di perbatasan negara akan bersikap pragmatis, mana sekiranya wilayah yang menguntungkan dirinya. So kejadian di Maluku, lalu kalau dihubungkan dengan Miangas dan Belau, merupakan cerminan bagaimana kesenjangan pembangunan masih drastis terjadi. Kalau di Pulau Jawa membicarakan disintegrasi akan sangat naif, karena di Jawa adalah pusat pertumbuhan Indonesia, so orang sangat menikmati hasil-hasil pembangunan di sini. Tapi bagaimana misalnya kita ambil Aceh yang jaraknya 3000 kilometer dari Jakarta tetapi hanya 700 kilometer ke Langkawi.
Ternyata pembangunan selama ini tidak menyentuh mereka yang beradius ribuan kilometer dari Jakarta. Dan apesnya mereka hanya berpuluh kilometer saja dari negara tetangga. Butuh uang yang besar untuk membangun seluruh Indonesia.

Kalau DR Damardjati Supadjar tahun 1994 dulu pernah mengatakan bahwa ibukota RI perlu dipindah ke Yogyakarta dengan alasan moral dan budaya –mungkin kita memang patut untuk mempertimbangkannya. Jakarta sudah sumpek. Tapi sepertinya ...Jawa juga. So mungkin kita perlu pindah ke Lampung sebagai ibukota baru. Dengan demikian Sumatera menjadi pusat pertumbuhan.
Money can do everything in this country thus our development. Aku kutip berita hari Rabu 27 June 2007 bahwa: Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Wednesday that Indonesia would need at least Rp 1,000 trillion (about US$111 billion) in new investment in order to achieve higher economic growth, which was essential to significantly reducing the country's currently high poverty and unemployment rates. Kalla told that the money, of course, should come from three sources, the government, the private sector and foreign investment. Kalla said that the current growth rate was not sufficient to alleviate poverty and unemployment. In order to create significant numbers of new jobs, growth would need to be at least 7 percent. "For this, we will need Rp 1,000 trillion in investment," he said. According to government estimates, every one percent growth in GDP creates 250,000 new jobs
Kita butuh modal besar untuk membangun negeri ini. Banyak uang yang kita perlukan. Fenomena Maluku kemarin menginspirasi untuk mimpiku: kapan Ibukota RI pindah dari Jakarta?

Glossary: Komunitas Adat Terpencil (KAT) is similar with " community of indigenous people". Jakarta is the capital city of Indonesia.

Ada 9 (sembilan) provinsi di Indonesia yang memiliki KAT atau Komunitas Adat Terpencil yaitu di Kalbar, Kaltim, Riau, Kepulauan Riau, Maluku, Maluku Utara,Sulawesi Utara, Nusa Tenggara Timur, dan Papua .
-Kang Aan-