Monday, July 20, 2009

Enough

Tonight Manchester United was scheduled to play a friendly pre-season game with Indonesia’s team in Jakarta during their Asia Tour. In the last month we’ve passed billboards featuring Manchester United players with the line “Mau?” (“Want?”) beneath it. TVs ads brought the same players asking the same simple question. A few weeks ago, after a half a dozen trips to a sponsoring store, I purchased tickets to the match. While the tragedy of the recent bombings surely does not lie in the fact the game was canceled, the billboards and unused tickets serve as a bitter reminder of what could have been.

On Friday morning I was negotiating a price for a motorbike ride around Malang in east Java. Just before we left, I received a text about the bombings from one of my language instructors. The messages continued throughout the morning and ranged from “It is not humane. We denounce all violence and terrorism. I hope you are always well” to “I’m so sorry, so very very sorry.” While on one hand the attacks were indeed directed at Westerners in light of the choice of hotels and timing, in many ways this feels equally to be an assault on Indonesians.

Just last week I posted about our day at the polls and the relative calm surrounding the election. I was not alone in my optimism regarding Indonesia’s presidential election. As the details of Friday’s bombings surface, it’s not entirely clear to what extent they are related to the election. But, many feel they were a desperate attempt on the part of extremists to call attention to their agenda, an agenda that appeals to few in this country, as the elections have shown. The majority of Indonesians continue to favor secular political life much to the dismay of those who would rather see Indonesia turn away from its history of pluralism toward an Islamic state. To some extent, I suppose the terrorists have succeeded in drawing the attention of the world, yet they don't have what it takes to gain support through legitimate means here. Enough is enough already.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

What the Polls Say



Indonesians headed to the polls last Wednesday to elect their next president. The incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, enjoyed a strong lead up to the election and has all but been officially declared the winner (story). For the majority of people, he’s the cleanest (clean as in the least corrupt) and best leader for Indonesia. Indonesia’s economy is expected to grow by 4% this year due to domestic markets, precisely at a time when some other countries are experiencing shrinkage. So, many conclude something is going right here. And, given this is a young democracy, and only the second time Indonesians have directly elected a president, the election brings cause to celebrate insofar as it was largely uneventful. No democracy is perfect, however. Most voters are village-dwelling and believe that they must vote, a way of thinking that is a consequence of 30 years of New Order regime under Suharto. In other words, they don't realize they have a choice not to vote.

On Wednesday my research assistant and I went to the polls to observe. I saw many similiarities between voting in the US and voting in Indonesia. There are people from the community who work the polls, there’s a line-up of boths, a stamp that one has completed the deed (for Indonesians its indelible ink on a finger, for the US it’s the “I voted” sticker). We also witnessed last minute decision-making based on a coin toss. What seemed different at the polls in Indonesia is the familiarity among voters. Perhaps I have missed out on amiable interactions living in a city like L.A. Here in Yogya, the people greeted the guards (presumably their neighbors) and chatted before heading into vote. A group of three guys waited for their friend to arrive so they could go into together. At another site, we were invited to sit down under the tent that was the polling station. The officials offered us something to drink, which we were reluctant to accept the first time around. Once we accepted the drink, we were offered lunch, which we also eventually accepted. So there I was eating satay and drinking a palm sugar coconut drink on election day. If you ask me, a day at the polls says that Indonesians, perhaps especially Javanese, live up to the stereotype of being exceptionally friendly.