August 19, 2014 edition
The management of state-owned company Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) should not be complacent after all the praises heaped on them. As the major organizer of Lebaran transportation this year, they can be said to have succeeded. Travelers opting to go home by train increased manifold, yet the company can claim to have had a zero-accident record in terms of passenger safety.
The same can be said of booking tickets. With marketing networks established at mini-markets and through online services, travelers were able to get transparent and fair deals. The usual long queues drastically declined with the setup of self-purchasing ticket machines. These new measures benefited KAI which saw its capacity during this Lebaran rise to 12 percent.
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More Opinion articles in other editions
August 12, 2014 edition
JOKO Widodo's breakthrough in establishing a transition team to prepare for the new government is commendable. This entity is seen as important, to ensure that the president-elect and his deputy, Jusuf Kalla, will be able to hit the ground running following their inauguration in October. But he faces a tough challenge during this transition period: forming the best cabinet to implement the programs that were promised during the campaign.
Jokowi should not worry about discordant views-especially those from the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa camp-charging that forming this transition team is unethical, given that the result of the presidential election is still being challenged at the Constitutional Court. With no intention to undermine the ongoing legal process, Jokowi and Kalla have the right to establish a team to consolidate their work program.
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August 5, 2014 edition
REGRETTABLY, the Trans Sumatra Highway remains nothing more than a plan in the last days of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's presidency. There has been no directive to act as a legal umbrella for the construction of the 2,771-kilometer freeway, despite the plan having been included in the Yudhoyono administration's Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Economic Development.
Without this legal umbrella, the project to link Aceh with Lampung faces an uncertain future. The source of the funding is unclear, and the government has not managed to convince the House of Representatives (DPR) on the importance of developing this piece of infrastructure. The DPR has refused to authorize the disbursement of state funds for the project last year and this year.
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January 1, 1970 edition
IT is not difficult to explain the rise of a new phenomenon in Indonesia's electoral history, and that is the massive participation of volunteers during the recent presidential election.
First, president-elect Joko Widodo was the only candidate facing an opponent who represented a dark past: Prabowo Subianto, the former son-in-law of the late President Suharto, but who is better known for his dubious human rights record.
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January 1, 1970 edition
THE clumsy move by a few members of the House of Representatives (DPR) should not be a cause of concern to the management of state radio station Radio Republik Indonesia. This overreaction was nothing more than a final attempt at a show of force in the midst of attempts to understand the confusion of determining the way the political wind is blowing. In other words, this maneuver was an attempt to try their luck.
Using the excuse of lacking in common sense, the chair and vice-chair of DPR Commission I bragged that they would summon the RRI executive director to "demand an explanation". The public broadcaster was seen as being 'hasty' in organizing and broadcasting the results of a quick count that it carried out during the July 9 presidential election. According to some legislators, broadcasting the quick count adversely affected the neutrality of RRI. The question of funding was also raised as it involved the State Budget.
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July 15, 2014 edition
THE contest should have ended. According to the quick counts of seven credible survey groups, Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla won the presidential election by about 5 percent over their rivals Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa.
The provisional victory, which still needs to be verified by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on July 22, was enthusiastically welcomed. We should rejoice that one day after the election, the stock index went up by 73 percent, the highest since the campaign began. The rupiah exchange rate gained 52 points, the best throughout the election period.
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January 1, 1970 edition