Pak Tono, Lenteng Agung

Pak Tono is a tailor and repairs the seat covers for taxis in South Jakarta. 

He spends a lot of time with his grand daughter (another picture of her is here, too) and used to babysit our niece, Laras, when she was very young.

Kids Playing In Floodwaters, Jakarta

If you are in Yogyakarta then head along to the Jogja Gallery for the photography exhibition Exiled to Nowhere on the Rohingyas.

The Jakarta Globe has an informative Q&A with the photographer, Greg Constantine.

Further information on the Rohingyas:

• The Rohingya are a persecuted Muslim minority community in Myanmar. They had their citizenship cancelled by the Burmese state in 1982.
• There are significant numbers of Rohingya asylum seekers fleeing Myanmar and reaching Thailand, Malaysia & Indonesia.
  • "This violence in the Burmese heartland follows on from, and is clearly inspired by, the massacres of Rohingya Muslims around Sittwe, the capital of the western state of Rakhine, that happened last year. About 180 were killed and over 100,000 Rohingyas made homeless in two bouts of ethnic cleansing. Those Rohingyas now live in squalid refugee camps, under curfew and prevented from travelling into Sittwe, let alone to anywhere else in Myanmar. Cut off from their sources of income and livelihoods, many attempt each day to flee to neighbouring countries in rickety fishing boats. Some make it, but others drown. Still more fall victim to traffickers."

The Economist, Communal Violence in Myanmar: When The Lid Blows Off

• "In the two years following the June 2012 outbreak of inter-communal violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, some 87,000 people – mostly Rohingya but also Bangladeshis – embarked on the dangerous journey in search of safety and stability."

"In Indonesia, 60 Rohingya approached UNHCR in Indonesia between January and June – a drop of almost 90 per cent compared to the same period last year. By the end of June 2014, there were 951 Rohingya registered with UNHCR, mainly people who arrived in previous years from Malaysia. In the first half of the year, nine boats travelling towards Australia with more than 400 people were intercepted under the government's Operation Sovereign Borders. Seven were returned to Indonesia. One boat with 41 passengers was returned to Sri Lanka. The 157 people on board another boat that left from India were transferred to Nauru, pending a decision by the Australian High Court on how to process them.

All these developments take place in the context of a very challenging protection environment for refugees in the region. States, including Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, are not signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and lack formal legal frameworks for dealing with refugees. Without a legal status they are often at risk of arrest, detention, and deportation under immigration laws. It also makes legal employment impossible and drives many people, including women and children, into exploitative and vulnerable situations."

More than 20,000 people risk all on Indian Ocean to reach safety: UNHCR report

• Their plight has largely been ignored by main stream media, due in part to the unpopularity of a 'persecuted muslim' narrative & played down by Aung San Suun Yi for political purposes in deference to the Buddhist majority as Myanmar opens up to trade and investment opportunities. 

Ali's Family, Jakarta

"It’s a little known fact that Muslim visitors first arrived in Australia well before the British established a colony in 1788. From at least as early as 1650, Muslim fishermen from Makassar in Indonesia made annual trips to Australia's far north coast in search of sea cucumbers—or trepang—which are highly valued in Chinese medicine and cooking. Indigenous Australians also journeyed to Indonesia, trading tortoise shells, tools, tobacco and other goods."

Islam & Indigenous Australia

Monyet & Children, Lenteng Agung

Anyone can take pictures.

A primate (sic) example is the macaque from North Sulawesi who stole David Slater's camera and took a series of selfies (apparently hundreds).

Monyet, Lenteng Agung

"Each year, thousands of long tailed macaques are bred and captured from the wild for sale in Jakarta where they face a life of exploitation and cruelty. There are three main fates awaiting macaques: the pet market (including “Topeng Monyet”), research (export) and food (Indonesian based Chinese restaurants).

Over recent years JAAN has actively campaigned and lobbied to end the exploitation of macaques in Indonesia, in particular those macaques used for the cruel “Topeng Monyet” trade.

Young macaques are caught from the forests by poachers and sold (the price straight from the trapper is Rp 25.000 or US$2). In Jakarta, for Rp. 70,000 (US$7) a young macaque can be purchased. Macaques are sold in pet shops, bird markets and in front of shopping malls by street vendors. The baby macaques attract people because they look cute and are cheap to purchase.

The macaques can be seen kept on short chains, on the street and often in front of the owner’s house. While growing up to adulthood, the chain often grows into the skin, leading to horrific infections and tetanus. Macaques are highly social creatures and in need of social contact. Macaques also form potential health hazards in urban areas due to the likeliness of disease transfer.

...

Recently Governor Jokowi agreed with the need to stop this practice. 

The new regulation formed by Governor Jokowi was implemented in October 2013 and is a very big step towards primate protection and general animal welfare in Indonesia and will end the cruelty now inflicted on thousands of monkeys captured from the wild to be exploited on Jakarta’s busy streets."

Jakarta Animal Aid Network ("JAAN")

Hari Raya, Lenteng Agung

I've just returned from Jakarta for Mudik, where I spent Hari Raya with the family. It's a lot like Chinese New Year and Christmas with many visits from and to relatives and friends. Children are given packets of money and you ask forgiveness of one another for your physical and emotional wrongdoings.

I've also just finished Elisabeth Pisani's wonderful, must read book, Indonesia Etc. I am always amazed how little Australians know about Indonesia, reading this book is an ideal starting point. 

Pankaj Mishra has a thoughtful, optimistic review in the New Yorker. 

"The Indonesian archipelago is unlikely to descend into the violent secessionist anarchy currently on display in the Middle East and North Africa. However, what it still needs, as Geertz once argued, is a “structure of difference within which cultural tensions that are not about to go away, or even to moderate, can be placed and negotiated—contained in a country.” Such a reconfigured national consensus, or a way of doing without one, seems equally imperative in the case of Hispanic immigrants in America, Muslims in France, Palestinians in Israel, Tamils in Sri Lanka, Kurds in Turkey, and Tibetans in China. The old question—what is a country, and what is its basis?—has become menacingly relevant long after it appeared to have been settled. In that sense, it is not facile to wonder if we are all Indonesians now, facing the perplexities of a shattering old order."

Karaoke, Jakarta Selatan

Jokowi has won.

It's official I read it in the New York Times:

"Mr. Joko will lead a country that has successfully consolidated its democracy and enjoyed strong economic growth under the departing president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has served two five-year terms. Indonesia has had one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia in recent years, along with China and India. But that same economy, which achieved annual growth rates of more than 6 percent from 2010 to 2012, mostly thanks to the country’s abundant natural resources and robust domestic consumption, is facing several serious challenges.

They include a trade deficit, a national fuel subsidy that sucks tens of billions of dollars each year from the state budget, inadequate infrastructure, corruption, poverty and a growing disparity between the country’s rich and poor."

Alison Martin comments in the Guardian on what a Jokowi Presidency means for the Indonesian Australian relationship:

"Indonesia went as far as to directly request Australia not take unilateral action on that issue, saying Jakarta's "close cooperation and trust" was at risk. Australia, true to form, forged ahead with its "turn back the boats" policy, later prompting Indonesia to deploy warships to monitor its southern border. It is relatively rare for an issue relating to Australia to make front-page Indonesian news, yet these incidents have been regularly canvassed. The relationship is in the diplomatic doldrums, and improving slowly.

During last month’s foreign policy election debate in Indonesia, both candidates acknowledged the distrust between the two nations. Although each indicated they would seek to heal the rift with Australia, they also agreed that Indonesia should not allow itself to be belittled by its neighbour.

In light of Australia’s military intervention in East Timor just 15 years ago, and its role in Konfrontasi some decades prior, there is understandable anxiety when an Australian government brands its border protection programme, which impinges upon Indonesia's sovereignty, “Operation Sovereign Borders”. It's easy to comprehend why national security has been cited by Jokowi as a priority, suggesting further incursions will not be received lightly.

In contrast to SBY, Jokowi will not be so personally invested in the bilateral relationship. Australia will have to work much harder to collaborate with Indonesia."

Political Rally, Jakarta

Joko Widodo looks set to be formally declared the winner of Indonesia's Presidential elections today - although Subianto Prabowo is pushing for a delay to the announcement, its unlikely he'll succeed. However, he may then file a police report against the KPU and appeal to the Constitutional Court and there are concerns that riots may erupt when the result is announced today.

"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for the losing candidate in the presidential race and his supporters to accept defeat graciously once the official announcement of the results is made on Tuesday, with Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo virtually certain to be declared the winner.

“Admitting defeat is noble, congratulating the winner is beautiful,” Yudhoyono said in Jakarta on Monday."

22 July 2014, Jakarta Globe

The Family Votes

On or around 22 July, the Indonesian Presidential election winner will be officially announced. Initial polls and pundits say Jokowi will win but Prabowo is also claiming victory. It's likely Prabowo will appeal to the Courts and a period of increased uncertainty and turmoil may begin in Indonesia.

Bob Lowry in The Strategist, The Jokowi Presidency on some of the key challenges facing Joko - not least what to do with both Jusuf Kalla & Prabowo:

"The anticipated election of Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi) is a John Fitzgerald Kennedy moment in Indonesian history—a change of generations and a herald of hope that Indonesia can take a great leap forward in reforming its sclerotic state apparatus and unshackling its economy."

"The closeness of the vote demonstrates that there were considerable doubts about Jokowi’s readiness for the presidency so he’ll need to move quickly on forming his cabinet, creating a workable parliamentary coalition, and use executive powers to set his program in motion. He’s unlikely to be challenged in the way Kennedy was over Cuba but he could find some of his domestic opponents and vested interests just as tough."

A more pessimistic tone is taken by Ed Aspinall & Marcus Mietzner in New Mandala, Prabowo's Game Plan:

"...the confusion is part of Prabowo Subianto’s strategy to steal the election, a strategy that evidently has been long in the making. Reportedly, one of Prabowo’s chief campaign strategists, Rob Allyn, has been known not only for his expertise in negative campaigning but also for producing surveys which create the impression that an electorally weak candidate is competitive, and using the subsequent confusion among the electorate to manoeuvre this candidate into a more favourable position. Allyn has been known for this strategy in Mexican elections. It seems Indonesia is fertile ground for the same method."

"We think that it is likely that Prabowo will fail in his efforts. The scale of Jokowi’s victory is such that too many votes would need to be shifted to Prabowo’s side of the ledger in order to steal the result. However, we cannot be fully confident about this prediction: what we know about Prabowo’s ruthlessness, past experiences of widespread fraud in vote counting, the weakness of the PDI-P’s monitoring apparatus, the strength of the Prabowo’s political networks in the regions, and the vast material resources they have at their disposal all suggest that the Prabowo camp will be able to make a concerted effort to overturn the result. Doing so, however, will not be easy. The scale of the manipulation required means it will be relatively easy to detect, and it will invite massive resistance from Jokowi’s supporters. A major escalation of political conflict is possible."

This is the start of a fascinating period in Indonesian history.

We'll be back in Jakarta from 25 July for Hari Raya Idul Fitri and it will be good to hear Papa Eko's experiences working for the KPU (National Electoral Commission).