December 22, 2015 edition
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Sidelines
The Leftist, Without Adjectives
Special Report
Benedict Anderson 1936-2015
The Last of the Great Liberals
Sidelines
In the early winter of 1956, when Ben Anderson was aged 20, something happenedsomething that changed the course of his life.
That day, on the campus of the University of Cambridge, a group of Indian and Sri Lankan students were voicing impassioned protest. Ben, who was in his last year in the Classics Department, went to listen. But suddenly some English youths started singing God Save the Queen and assaulted them. They smashed and beat up the thin dark-skinned students who were demonstrating. Ben, a short-sighted and puny young Irishman, tried to break things up. But he got punched himself. "I had never been so angry in my life," he later said.
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Special Report
Lying in state at the Adi Jasa funeral home on Tuesday, December 15, Ben Anderson was clad in a brown-colored Madura batik shirt. "That's my batik shirt," said Sugito, the driver who always accompanied Anderson since 2009 whenever he toured East Java. Sugito wiped his tears and tenderly touched the edge of the laced cloth covering the coffin.
Anderson arrived in Surabaya with his close friend, Edward Hasudingan, a.k.a. Edu, five days earlier. Both met in 2004 when Edu studied at Ithaca College in the United States. They stayed at Hotel Santika Pandegiling in Surabaya.
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Interview
The name Iko Uwais began to grab public attention since his first film Merantau ('Sojourn') was screened in movie theaters around the country. Then, one after another, the films he starred in made it into the market, like The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2: Berandal. Both films, directed by Gareth Evans, were quite successful in the United States and Europe.
From then on, there was nowhere else to go except Hollywood. Together with his co-stars in the Raid film series, Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman, Iko is now featured in Disney's latest production Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was released last week. Iko plays the role of Razoo QinFee, a member of an intergalactic crime gang called Kanjiklu, led by Tasu Leech (played by Yayan).
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Horizons
Eni Lestari Andayani's cellphone never stops ringing. She might as well be a walking, talking call center. Almost every day, Eni, 36, takes between five to 15 calls or short messages through WhatsApp and Facebook. Like her, the callers are domestic workers holding jobs in Hong Kong. But to them, she has become the confidante whom they can pour out their grievances.
The number of callers further increased seven years ago when Eni came to be chairperson of the International Migrant Alliance, an alliance of migrant workers from 32 countries. The grievances vary, from working relations with their employers to their rights over family matters. The latest case involved a worker form Pati, Central Java, who complained about the Indonesian government's new data recording system that implicated her in forging documents. As a result, since December 11, the person has been detained in a Hong Kong prison.
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Word Watch
My last column was about word doubling in Indonesian, but it is such a rich topic that I thought a double column about doubling was in order.
It's just that once you start looking for doubling in Indonesian, or tune your ear to it, you find it absolutely everywhere, and it functions in so many fascinating ways. We already talked about onomatopoeiasound words where the vowel changes, like we have in English (clip-clop, pitter-patter and so forth), and which Indonesian has in spades. We have also talked about doubling nouns as one way of making them plural. Then there are other doublings we discussed last time which create all kinds of nuances of meaning including: making actions reciprocal, or repeated; a sense of something being constant and ongoing; giving actions a sense of play or aimlessness; making things deliberately less specific, or sometimes precisely the opposite, making them more so.
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Diplomatic Bag
The Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki appealed to the international community, including Indonesia, to act against Israeli aggression in Jerusalem. "More than 3,000 people are injured, half of them children. Israel has violated international law and human rights," he said in a press conference with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Gedung Pancasila in Jakarta last week.
Retno said Indonesia's stance on supporting the status of Eastern Jerusalem as the capital city of Palestine had never changed. Moreover, the country stands by the two-state solution, with Palestine and Israel co-existing side by side. "We also fully support Palestine's effort to achieve independence," she said.
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Law
IN Aceh, lashings are given for almost all transgressions by the general public. The unemployed who like to play dominoes, if unlucky enough to be caught gambling, can end up getting the cane. Public lashings also go to couples caught in the act.
It is, however, a different story for perpetrators of severe crimes such as corruption. Since the Islamic sharia law came into effect in Aceh, not a single provincial regulation, or qanun, required corruptors to be caned. The backs of people abusing state funds seem to be spared from caning.
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National
Sarifuddin Sudding, a People's Conscience (Hanura) Party politician, cracked a joke last Tuesday during the fit-and-proper test of one of the candidates to head the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Basaria Panjaitan. "Actually, I would like to ask more questions, but I see Trimedya keeps looking at me. He's not even blinking," he said to the laughter of those present at the meeting. Trimedya Panjaitan, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, only smiled weakly when his colleague cracked a joke at his expense.
The suitability test of the retired police officer with the rank of inspector-general was the only one Trimedya fully attended. The deputy chair of the House of Representatives' (DPR) law commission stayed seated throughout the session from the start. That was understandable as Basaria was one of PDI-P's favorite KPK leadership candidates. Trimedya said her track record is clean because she was never made a regional police chief. "She's unblemished," he said.
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Opinion
The Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Bank Indonesia must immediately resolve the dispute between employees of the two important banking institutes. The conflict involving facilities demanded by OJK employees who originally came from Bank Indonesia is no light issue because it can be a threat to the continued existence of the OJK.
According to Law No. 21/2011, the basis for the establishment of the OJK, the institution is a merger between the Capital Market Oversight Board and the Financial Institute (Bapepam-LK) and the section to monitor Bank Indonesia. Gradually, in stages, the OJK employees will be asked to decide whether to go back to their original offices or remain at the OJK. In mid-2013, about 800 OJK employees from Bapepam-LK decided that most of them will remain at the independent oversight financial services board.
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Indicator
THE results of an audit conducted last June by the Jakarta Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) on the purchase of land owned by Sumber Waras Hospital caused quite a commotion. The BPK claims the purchase of the land, located in Grogol, West Jakarta, resulted in a loss of Rp191 billion.
The Jakarta BPK accuses the government of Jakarta of purchasing the land at an extremely high price of Rp755 billion, whereas two years ago, the land was almost bought for only Rp564 billion by Ciputra Karya Utama to build a shopping center. The Jakarta government is also considered irresponsible for purchasing a plot of land that is difficult to access, prone to floods and is still under dispute.
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Letters
Ruki's Right to Respond
IN reference to the news report in Tempo's December 14-20, 2015, edition with the cover title The Rot Within, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) hereby states its right to respond to the news in question, since it could create some misperception toward the KPK, specifically towards its acting chairman, Taufiequrachman Ruki. We wish to state the following:
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Outreach
IT is little surprise that the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Berastagi, North Sumatra, often makes it onto lists of Indonesia's 10 most beautiful churches. Built in 2005, the church boasts a distinctive architecture influenced by local Karo traditions.
Father Leonardus Egidius Joosten, the church's priest, had the idea of building the church in 1999. The 73-year-old Dutchman wanted to construct a church that drew on local influences rather than western ones. "It is worth lamenting that churches over here don't use the local architecture," he told Tempo two weeks ago.
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Economy
Welcome to the era of tighter dollars. Last Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve raised its interest rate by 0.25 percent. So, less amount of dollars is available to grease the emerging-market economies.
This hike was also the first salvo of more to come. The Fed has set a trajectory for its interest rate rise in a document called the Summary of Economic Projection. The plan involves gradual increases until the Fed's reference rate reaches 1.5 percent at the end of 2016 and around 3.5 percent at the end of 2017.
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Cover Story
When Ade Komarudin attended the plenary session at the House of Representatives (DPR) last week, he realized he had become a special person. When he entered the Nusantara I building in the Senayan Complex, he was welcomed by many who rushed to congratulate him. The day before, the Golkar Party officially announced that he was chosen to replace Setya Novanto as speaker of the House.
Clad in a black suit and yellow tie, Ade smiled continuouslyand greeted everyone he met. When Tempo asked him about support from the Palace, he let out a loud laugh. "Thank God for that support if there was one" he said.
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Tempo Talks
Improving Connectivity, Boosting Cooperation
This year, Indonesia and India mark 75 years of diplomatic relations. However, the ties between the two nations have existed much longer, predating the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia and the Republic of India. These connections span social, cultural, religious, economic, and trade aspects. But do those close ties of the past have any bearing on the present relationship? Why is there no direct flight between the capitals of the two countries?
Indian Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Sandeep Chakravorty, shares his views on this matter at TEMPO TALKS.
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