Discussion on Neo-Liberalism Policy, Left and Right

The era of Neo-Liberalism Policy apparently had ended. Market force is no longer assumed as sacred and always right. In a meeting at Toulose, French President Sarkozy declared: "The thought about market force as super-force that cannot be defeated by whatever regulations and political intervention was a mad idea".

Prime Minister of Australia from Labour Party, wrote an essay in "The Monthly" magazine earlier this year: "The global current economic crisis is the peak of the "Neo-Liberalism" policy that had been used as a guideline of many governments since 1978". Mr. Rudd now replaced that policy with a new policy called "Social-Democratic Capitalism".

Mr. Rudd promised the active Government role in controlling the economy, eventhough he still keep the policy of "Open Market" for Australia.

The world is now replaying the situation of the year 1920's. In 1926 John Maynard Keynes wrote "The End of Laissez-faire" and showed how productive was capitalism if it was managed, not let run freely. Not long after, America and Europe tried to combine the dynamics of capitalism with smart mananagement of technocrates, a new economic policy popularly called "Keynesian Collaboration".

Well-known economist Joseph E. Stitglitz queried if we are now imomplementing the "Keynesian collaboration", for seeing from the USA to Indonesia - the change in the traditional economic policy by increasing the role of Governments in controlling the economy, such as providing public funding for "economic stimulus package" to stimulate the country's economic growth.

Vice Presidential candidate that strongly critisized the Neo-Liberalism Policy is Mr. Prabowo Subianto, who declared that Indonesia should discard this Neo-Leberal economic policy and replaced it with the new "Peoples-oriented Economic Policy". With this new policy, he assured that Indonesian economic growth can be increased to a double-digit growth to bring prosperity to the wjole people of Indonesia.

TV Discussion by three Indonesian economic practitioners

An Economic Discussion Forum was held on Sunday night, May 17, 2009 on how best to manage the Indonesian Economy for the next five years to be adopted by the winner of the coming Presidential Election on July 9, 2009. Three economic practicioners were present, namely Mr. AS Dillon, and two former Indonesian Ministers, Mr. Siswono Yudhohusodo and Mr. Rizal Ramly. The following is the summary of the discussion:

• A good government leader is the one who works hard to promote the interests of the people of Indonesia, and not his personal interests, his group or the interests of foreign entities.
• According the US National Intelligence Committee (NIC) there are five countries that have future development, namely China, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil. However, Indonesia with its large natural resources may not be successful because its leaders were not wise and had a changing economic policies.
• We need to have a clean Government that have responsible economic policies.
• We need to create a new economic policy that defends the interests of the majority of the Indonesian people, such as in the management of the natural resources, and the exploration of them to the benefit of the Indonesian people, and not for the benefit of foreign investors.
• We need to create Indonesia that has self-confidence and able to manage its natural resources, not depending on foreign experts.
• We need to create a wealth of jobs for providing welfare to the people of Indonesia.
• The future Government of Indonesia should be able to stabilize basic needs prices for creating welfare and security for the people of Indonesia.
• The Goverment of Indonesia should provide sufficient health care budget, so as to make Indonesian people healthy and strong to be more productive.
• There is a need to control the Indonesian population growth, so that the welfare of the people would not be degraded by the lack of foods.

Many Legislative Candidates who failed the election got stressed and committed suicide

• Several Legislative Candidates died of shock for failing to win the Election.
• One failed candidate took back a carpet he donated to a local mosque, because no support from his neighbors.
  
• Another failed candidate from South Sulawesi Province closed a village road passing a land donated by his Grandfather.
• Artist Diah Pitaloka (si Oneng) got more votes than PDIP's Chief Adviser Taufik Kiemas in West Java election region.
  
• Artist Wanda Hamidah and Actor Mandra got more votes than Golkar's Deputy Leader Agung Laksono in Jakarta Province election region.
  
• Moslem Mullah H. Ujang Hambali from Cirebon was reported to try to cure stress deseases of 21 Legislative Candidates who failed the election, 10 had heavy stress desease, one candidate became mad. The occupations of those candidetes range from businessman, local government executives, and some are unemployed.
• The failed Legislative Candidates became stressed because the felt being cheated by their Success Teams. The had spent millions of Rupiah for paying campaign expenses, such as making campaign billboards, ballyhoo, shirts, and campaign rallies.
  
• One failed Legislative Candidate from Ciamis, West Java committed suicide by hanging himself because of heavy stress desease.

Quick Count Result of Legislative Election: Partai Demokrat leads

• From a sample of Quick Count of 2.100, number of polling stations that was successfully recorded was 2.092 (99.6%).
• There were 4 polling stations not observed: East Flores Regency and Lembata Regency because of religious holiday. Election will be conducted on April 14, 2009.
  
• Four other polling stations in Papua Province were not observed because of difficult terrain and comminal conflict.lainnya berasal dari Provinsi Papua.
  
• The following was the result of the Quick Count of the Indonesian Survey Institute:

University of Indonesia's Opinion Survey

The University of Indonesia conducted an Opinion Survey that resulted the following:

1. PDIP = 19,60%
2. Partai Demokrat = 19,18%
3. Partai GOLKAR = 18,25%
4. PKS = 8,78%
5. PPP = 3,50%
6. Gerindra = 2,46%
7. PAN = 2,18%
8. PKB = 1,57%
9. Hanura = 1,35%
10. PBB = 0,35%
11. PDS = 0,19%
12. Abstained, No Vote = 35% - 40%

Maia Estianty campaigning for Gerindra’s Presidential Candidate Prabowo

Leader of a lady band “Ratu” Maia Estianty had joined the campaign team of the Gerindra Party with Mr. Prabowo Subianto as their Presidential Candidate for July 2009 Election. She said that she joined the campaign team because believe in Gerindra cause and programs, and because the presidential candidate is attractive and handsome. She was often seen going together with the Presidential Candidate during the Gerindra campaign in Surabaya, Semarang, Manado, Maluku and Papua.

During the Gerindra campaign in Bandung yesterday, Mr. Prabowo Subianto was accompanied by artists Diva and Rachel Maryam who was a Legislative Rep candidate for West Java region II.

Dangdut singers Meggi and Jaja Miharja were also present.

In the mean time, a Grand Kampaign of Geridra was held today at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta, attended by red-capped military-style supporters and including goats in a parade of supporters to greet the Gerindra Leader Prabowo Subianto.

Other participants from the general public were also present at the ceremony to enlive the parade. Representatives of peasants and fishermen also took part in the Gerindra parade.

Leadership, Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Programs

With Election Polling Day of April 9, 2009 is nearing, many people are still wondering whos Party or Legislative Candidate or Presidential Candidate will be his or her best choice. In order to assist the undecided voters, we would like to give a short advise about their best choice:

1. Leadership: Who can be called a Leader? A leader is one who knows the way, shows the way and goes the way.

2. Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Programs:

A leader must have a good future view or a dream or a vision of the country that he/she is leading: A just, prosperous and democratic country of Indonesia, which would provide good employment for all of the people, sufficient salary to pay for monthly living needs, peace and welfare for all of the people of Indonesia.

In order to realize his/her vision, he/she must be able to express clearly and logically how he/she would like to do when he/she is elected as a Leader through a short term statements of Mission, Objectives, Strategy and programs. These statements are very important for all of the people to understand and follow up during his/her term as a Leader of the country. People can also see if these statements are realizable or not, or just empty slogans to please the voters.

Strategy statement is an explanation of how he/she would achieve the mission and objectives which he/she has made, through a clear, logical, clever, creative and strategic way that can be realized in practice.

Programs are the details of his/her main programs which he/she will execute for the duration of his/her term as a Leader of the country.

A better way for a good Leader is if he/she could express clearly his/her first 100-days Programs as a clear indication of his/her best and correct choice of the most important actions to be done to significantly impact the improvement to the condition of the country he/she is leading. A good example of the Fiist 100-days Program of a Leader is shown by President Barrack Obama of the USA, whom he had shown to follow it as accurately as possible, and did give an impact to the improvement of the country’s condition.

If any Legislative Candidate has not made the above mentioned statements, then he/she only have a few days left to make it or amend it. However, for a Presidential Candidate, he/she still have exactly three months to make the required statements or to improve or to amend them.

It is interesting to see how the current positioning of Presidentail Candidates as given in the Election Polling on the left.

Whether having the suggested statments of Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategy and Programs could alter the above Election Polling result remain to be seen in three moths time.

We hope the above information will be useful for making your correct decision of our future leaders.

May God bless us all.

Economic Challenges for Presidential Candidates 2009

The Legislative Election is only a few days to come, yet many people still do not know the reason why they should choose one or another party or candidate, because they can only see a few parties’ banners, slogans or promises along the Indonesian road sides. During the past four-and-a-half year of the current government of President SBY and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, people were experiencing risning oil, food, and basic needs prices, growing unemployment, and growing number of poor people. The current Global Financial Crises only added up to the economic problems of Indonesia, causing reduction in export, business trade, rising US Dollar exchange rate and the fall of domestic shares prices.

People are wandering if the results of the current Legilstive Election and Presidential Election could improve the Indonesian economic condition and improve the people’s welfare in general, because only a few candidates could express logically and clearly if they are elected, they will execute economic improvement programs for the country during their five-year rule. Most candidates could only make good promises without any futher explainations.

However, we were lucky to watch a discussion program on “Economic Challenges” a few days ago at Metro-TV, presenting Dr. Pande Raja Silalahi from CSIS and Dr. Hendri Saparini from ECONID. The two speakers were basically expressing the positioning of “established” presidential candidates: SBY, JK and Megawati; and the “alternate” presidential candidates: Wiranto, Probowo and Rizal Ramli.

The economic policy of the “established” presidential candidates in principle is to start with existing economic conditions, and gradually improving without much significant changes to the existing system. They also welcome the foreign investors and foreign role in the development of Indonesia.

On the other hand the economic policy of the “alternate” presidential candidates in principle is to reject foreign domination in the development of Indonesia, and try to use as much as possible local expertise and resources in the development of Indonesia, and to establish self-sufficiency.

The detailed variation of each presidential candidate economic policy is presented as follows:

1. The incumbent President SBY: continue the current economic policy of the current Government, because it was considered to be fairly successful.
2. The incumbent Vice President Jusuf Kalla: (a). Self-sufficiency in rice production; (b). Increase investment; (c). Develop infrastructures.
3. The former President Megawati: (a). Create cheap supply of basic needs of the people; (b). Create more employments; (c). Improve the welfare of the people.
4. The alternate Presidential candidate Wiranto: (a). Change economic direction so as to be free from foreign influence; (b). Indonesian natural resources is mainly for the benefit of the Indonesian people.
5. The alternate Presidential candidate Prabowo: (a). Create a just and right economic policy to ensure the improvement in economic condition of poor people; (b). Peasants and fishermen to become the economic backbone of Indonesia; (c). Developing Indonesia as one of Asian economic “tigers”; (d). Reject the sale of State-owned Enterprises.
6. The alternate Presidential candidate Rizal Ramli: (a). Nationalization of foreign-owned Indonesian companies; (b). Reject foreign influence in the development of Indonesia; (c). Reject IMF influence.

It is to be noted that the alternate Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto is the most communicative candidate, judging from his almost daily appearance in Indonesian television ads, and his most outspoken views of the future Indonesian economic policy. He is the son of the Indonesian economic “Guru” the late Prof. Dr. Sumitro Djoyohadikusumo.

By knowing the summary of each Presidential candidates, we can now decide whose policy is our best choice to realize the long awaited ideals of the people of Indonesia: A just and prosperous country for all people of Indonesia!

Who is your choice? Please have your comments and suggestions

On Day-6 Open Election Campaigning, sitution becoming warmer

Today, Saturday March 21, 2009 the situation on all campaigning locations throughout Indonesia were becoming warmer. Presiden SBY with his wife Any Yudhoyono and son Edi Baskoro ware present at Partai Demokrat (PD) campaign at Captain Japa football field, Padanggalak, Denpasar, Bali. The three sang together campaign song of PD “Sempurna” (Perfect) with a few modification of its lyric:

You are my Protector, You are my Leader, You are my Life, Please complete my Life, Oh my Democrate You are ,,, so Perfect..

The Presiden spoke about the successes of his Government that had been achieved up till today. The Padanggalak area was fully filled with PD supporters. Singer Andra and “The Backbone” musical band were present to support the President’s campaign team. The Team arrived in Bali using a Garuda Indonesia Airlines executive class flight and a chartered aircraft.

In Makassar on the same day, Vice President Jusuf Kalla and his family joined the Golkar campaign for the first time, after his absence from campaign activities of Golkar Party for the first few days. The Vice President said that in order to form a strong government, there should be supports from large political parties. The Golkar Party in Makassar support the candidacy of Jusuf Kalla for the coming Presidential Election on July 9, 2009.

In Central Java Chairwoman of the PDIP Megawati Sukarnoputri attended PGIP campaign at the village of Patalan, Jetis, Bantul near Yogyakarta. She was accompanied by Mr. Theo Syafei, the Regent of Bentul Mr. Idham Samawi and Chirman of PDIP Bantul Mr. Joko Purnomo.She warned again about the manipulation of the Fixed Electors List that could cause the failure of the election. She urged all people to exercise their voting rights and asked them not to join the Non-Voters group, because it would distort the democratic process.

Meanwhile Mr. Muhaimin Iskandar at the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB) campaign in Subang, West Java was proposed by his supporters to become Presidential Candidate for July 9, 2009 election. He was considered as the most eligible candidate since he is young, smart and popular, and was expected to be able to unwind the complex problems of Indonesia.

In Sunter, Jakarta Partai Gerindra held a campaign attended by Permadi, Rachel Maryam, Halida Hatta and Budi Satrio Djiwandono. Several children were present at the campaign to watch clowns acting at the campaign stage, eventhough the Election rule prevent them from attending campaign.

Prabowo Subianto, the popular Presidential Candidate of Geridra, after discussing the serious errors in Electors List with Megawati Sukarnoputri indicated to propose to delay the 2009 Election to correct errors. However Mr. Fadly Zon, the Deputy Chiaman of Gerindrea said that the election should go ahead as scheduled.

Megawati: BLT degrades people’s and nation’s Dignity

Former President of Indonesia and Chairwoman of the Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (PDIP) in her open campaign speech in Jember, East Java yesterday, Friday, March 20, 2009 said that the Government Program “Direct Cash Assistance” (BLT) to the people only resulted in lowering the dignity of Indonesian people and the nation, because it forced people to be beggars by lining up on a long and overcrowded rows for just to receive a mere Rp200,000 per perperson for two months.

She accused that this program is only for spending government money, which should be better if it is used to build roads, public water supply or toilet, instead of BLT.

On her 30-minute speech, Megawati reminded about the manipulation in the last East Java Governor/Deputy Governor election that resulted in the defeat of PDI supported candidates. She was afraid of the same case happen during the current Legislative and Presidential election. She advised her supported not to participate in money politics that would affect the outcome of the election.

President SBY made his first campaign at the Gelora Bung Karno Hall

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) patron of the Ruling Party Partai Demokrat (PD) started his political campaign to support his party’s cause for the Legislative Election on April 9, 2009 at Gelora Bung Karno Hall (GBK Hall) today, Friday March 20, 2009 attended by about 50,000 supporters, or about a half of the GBK Hall capacity of 120,000 people.

The President was scheduled to make three 7-minute speeches during today campaign and sang his new campaign song “Sempurna” (Perfect), composed by Andra and sang by “The Backbone” musical band. His previous successful campaign song was “Pelangi di matamu” (Rainbow on your etes). However, the President only gave one 7-minute speech and then left the audience. There was an impression that the President was not happy because the campaign hall was half-fiiled. The President said in his previous Press Conference at his Cikeas residence that he would do campaigning for his PD Party every Friday, Saturday and Sunday till April 5, 2009, the end of open campaigning allowed by the Election Regulator (KPU) for the Legislative Election.

On the same day the Partai Keadilan Bangsa (PKS) held a campaign rally at Blok-S Jakarta on a smaller stadium. The stadium was fully attended by PKS supprters and after the campaign, streets surrounding the area were jammed by the PKS supportes. Chairman of PKS Tifatul Sembiring made his party’s campaign speech.