Villa Incognito

 

As of midnight on 3 July 2021, Jakarta will be surrounded with military and national police blocking all the exits, supposedly until 20 July.  No one will be allowed to enter or exit the city.  Folks will be allowed out of their houses to go to the supermarket, but nothing else.  To avoid being hassled, folks are encouraged to have as much as possible delivered - because, um, that doesn't spread viruses, I guess.

The Tempo article notes, "Specific Jakarta protocols "the police would bar people from conducting outdoor activities following the imposition of the policy. People are only allowed outside of their home for emergency and essential purposes. "

We chose to bug out rather than live through the sequel to The Year of Living Dangerously.  We brought our daughter, her husband and our granddaughter to the mountain house 100km south of the city.  It is difficult to express the joy at being free of masks and constant pressure to get vaccinated, where the air is fresh and a full 10 degrees cooler than Jakarta.

Here's an example of the insane rubbish being foisted on Indonesians by the President's personal physician:

 "Dapat konfirmasi dari pak Martiono Hadianto (mantan Dirut Pertamina), bhw betul beliau terpapar Covid dan saat ini sedang isolasi di RSPP.
Dari hasil analisa medis, beliau terpapar Covid varian Delta (India), beliau sudah vaksin 2 kali (selesai). Beliau tidak tahu kira2 kapan & dimana terpaparnya. Namun dari penjelasan dr Muthalib (salah seorang dokter Presiden), kondisi di Jakarta spt dibawah ini.
Pak Martiono memberi saran:
1. Dalam rumah agar secara rutin disemprot disinfektan.
2. Keluar rumah, walaupun hanya dihalaman agar menggunakan masker dua lapis.
3. Menurut dr Muthalib, ukuran virus varian Delta ini jauh lebih kecil dp varian sebelumnya, sehingga virus varian delta ini bisa melayang bebas diudara. Sedangkan varian sebelumnya melayang mengikuti droplet ludah dari orang yang sedang berbicara (jarak 1,5 meter dari lawan bicara droplet sdh jatuh ketanah).
4. Saya serahkan pada masing² individu utk mencernakan saran pak Martiono, apakah diterima dan dilaksana kan seluruhnya, dilaksanakan sebagian, atau diabaikan. Monggo saja, karena itu hak masing2 individu.
Saya mohon kalau teman2 berkenan utk mendoakan kesembuhan pak Martiono.
Terima kasih.
Wass ww. Samto Utomo

Dr. Muthalib :*
✅Minggu 27.6.21 Dihimbau jangan buka masker di manapun, Varian Covid Delta sudah rata di udara kota Jakarta, penangkalnya hanya pakai masker double."

"I can confirm from Mr. Martiono Hadianto (former Pertamina Managing Director), that he was really exposed to Covid and is currently isolated at RSPP  [Ed. Pertamina Hospital]. From the results of medical analysis, he was exposed to Covid Delta (India) variant, He was vaccinated twice (finished). He doesn't know about when & where he was exposed. However, from Dr. Muthalib's statement (one of the presidential doctors), the condition in Jakarta was below. Mr. Martono gives this advice: 1. In the home, routinely spray disinfectant. 2. Outside the house, despite lack of evidence use a two-layer mask. 3. According to Dr. Muthalib, the size of the Delta variant virus is much smaller than the previous variant, so that the Delta variant virus can float free in the air. Whereas the previous variant floated on saliva droplets from people talking (a distance of 1.5 meters from the origin of the droplets. 4. I submit to each individual to decide whether Mr. Martiono's suggestion is accepted and carried out and entirely, partially or partially carried out, or ignored. Just so, as is the right of individuals. I beg for friends to pray for Mr. Martiono's healing. Thank you. from WW. Samo Utomo Hansel Muthalib: * week 27.21 is encouraged to not open your mask anywhere, the Covid Delta variant has been flat in the air in Jakarta, using a double mask."

 

So here we have  a supposed :expert" first using fear (former employee of the national oil company getting "exposed to a supposed "variant").  Then, he tells us that the "sick" person was vaccinated and has no idea where or how.  Then he appeals to authority, a formal fallacy, by quoting the President's personal doctor, who says the "Delta variant" is "smaller" and so floats easier on the breeze.  Then the"doctor," who has offered no science or reference for the ridiculous assertions, to continuously disinfect our homes and wear two masks at all times (24/7), despite the provable fact that masks do nothing to stop the older, "larger" virus.

All of the statement are speculative, anecdotal and completely devoid of any evidence whatsoever that the information is true or based on any objective facts, or that the recommendations have any efficacy against any virus, much less against a supposed COVID or any variant by any name or "size".

That this "doctor" would assert that the "smaller" size of the Delta variant more easly floats on the wind is so utterly devoid of rationality as to make one question his sanity, much less his accumen.  The average size of the hundreds of types of corona viruses is around 0.125 micrometers.  That is hardly an impediment to "wafting".  Furthermore, there is no mention of the sanitizing effect of UV-A light (sunshine), nor the fact that virus density in open air can practicaly never approach infectious levels (viral load). 

Either this "doctor" is a complete babbling idiot, or he is a fear monger trying to drive the masses to PCR tests and vaccines, which have vast financial benefit for the Insiders, who are skimming off the top of all this money being sloshed around.

In addtion, having a military deployment pays soldiers active-duty bonuses, keeping the military placated and compliant to the political PTB.

What I hear is that an "authority" figure "tested positive" using PCR tests that have been widely proven to be cheap knock-offs, with people rinsing the swabs to pocket the money used to purchase them, and the "authority can not think of any risk factors or possible sources for his "positive" result?  In one question, I drove an entire fleet of trucks through the gaping hole in logic.  The only exposure mentioned is the fact that the former Pertamina Big Wig has been vaccinated twice, which must be assumed to be the most likely source of any exposure.  We are not told which vaccine the "authority" used.

Given Indonesians' unwillingness to read or research for themselves - much less use critical thinking - and their seeming innate credulity of anyone with a title or position of "authority," they actually circulate this silliness like passages from the Koran.

Based on wholly unscientific information and completely speculative and anecdotal information like this, the president has shut down the two most populous islands in the country, and conveniently the capital city.  The "authorities" are now considering expaning martial law outside Java and Bali, given the unmitigated and abject failure of the effort so far.

My use of the term "martial law" has been challenged, but when the militiary is deployed for civil enforcement, it implies that the civil authority has failed and the only option to maintain order is deployment of military on the streets - martical law.  In other words, the civil authority has declared itself incompetant.

I have had two colleagues independently mention the similarities with current events to those under Soeharto, when he assumed power in the 1960s, a parallel that echoed my own personal thoughts.

A president issuing edicts with punitive consequences without the issuance of laws from the Parliament is a dictatorship under any definition of the term.  As Mark Twain warned us, history seldomly repeats, but it often rhymes.

At the moment, the current situation here is rhyming like a fascist dysfunctional Dr. Seuss..

Indonesia Under Martial Law

 

With the stroke of a pen, President Joko Widodo has nullified Indonesia's Constitution, cancelled all Human Rights and placed the military in charge of enforcing his unilateral dictatorial edict, and all on the eve of the country's 75th anniversary of independence.  They should all be charged with blasphemy and jailed for no loess than two years for denying Divine Providence.  Soeharto was never this bad.

By His Majisty's Royal Pen:

The government has officially established Emergency PPKM in Java and Bali as of July 3. Rules apply until 2 weeks after that.

There are several important policies taken by President Jokowi in this regard. Just to stop the spread of the corona virus.

The following are the complete rules in the Emergency PPKM:

=============================================================

I. Implementation Period of Emergency PPKM: 3-20 July 2021, with a target of decreasing the addition of daily confirmation cases <10 thousand/day

II. Area Coverage: 45 Regencies/Cities with an Assessment Score of 4 and 76 Districts/Cities with an Assessment Score of 3 in Java and Bali.

III. Scope of Activity Restrictions:

1. 100% Work from Home for non essential sector [Ed.-house arrest]

2. All teaching and learning activities are carried out online

3. For essential sectors, a maximum of 50% of work from office (WFO) staff is applied with a health protocol, and for critical sectors a maximum of 100% of work from office (WFO) staff is allowed with a health protocol.

a. The coverage of essential sectors is finance and banking, capital markets, payment systems, information and communication technology, non-quarantine handling hotels, and export-oriented industries.

b. The coverage of critical sectors is energy, health, security, logistics and transportation, food, beverage and supporting industries, petrochemicals, cement, national vital objects, disaster management, national strategic projects, construction, basic utilities (electricity and water), as well as industrial needs fulfillment everyday staples of society.

c. For supermarkets, traditional markets, grocery stores, and supermarkets that sell daily necessities, operating hours are limited to 20.00 local time with a visitor capacity of 50% (fifty percent); Ed. - curfew 8p to 4a]

4. Activities at shopping centers/malls/trade centers are closed

5. Restaurants and cafes only accept delivery/take away

6. The implementation of construction activities (construction sites and project sites) operates 100% (one hundred percent) by implementing stricter health protocols;

7. Places of worship (mosques, prayer rooms, churches, temples, and pagodas, as well as other public places that function as places of worship) are temporarily closed. ]Ed.- suspension of religious rights]

8. Public facilities (public areas, public parks, public tourist attractions and other public areas) are temporarily closed; [Ed.- suspension of right to assemble]

9. Art/cultural, sports and social activities (locations of arts, culture, sports facilities, and social activities that can cause crowds and crowds) are temporarily closed;

10. Public transportation (public vehicles, mass transportation, taxis (conventional and online) and rental/rental vehicles) is enforced with a maximum capacity setting of 70% (seventy percent) by implementing stricter health protocols; [Ed.- suspension of right to travel]

11. The wedding reception is attended by a maximum of 30 (fifty) people by implementing stricter health protocols and not allowed to eat at the reception. Food can still be provided in sealed containers to take home.

12. Travelers who use long-distance transportation modes (airplanes, buses and trains) must show a vaccine card (at least dose I vaccine) and H-2 PCR for planes and Antigen (H-1) for other long-distance transportation modes.

13. Regional Government Satpol PP, TNI, Polri to carry out strict supervision of the implementation of the tightening of community activities above, especially in point 3. [Ed.- martial law, military enforcement]

14. Strengthening 3T (Testing, Tracing, Treatment) needs to be continuously applied: [Ed.- suspension of right to privacy, specifically violates Article 28(g) of the Constitution]

a. Testing needs to be continuously improved to reach a minimum of 1/1000 population / week. Testing needs to be increased until the positivity rate is <5%. Testing needs to be continuously improved for suspects, i.e. those who are symptomatic, and also in close contacts.

b. Tracing needs to be done until there are >15 close contacts per confirmed case. Quarantine needs to be carried out on those identified as close contacts. Once identified close contacts should be checked (entry-test) and quarantine needs to be carried out. If the test result is positive, then isolation is necessary. If the test result is negative, then quarantine is necessary. On the 5th day of quarantine, it is necessary to carry out an exit-test to see if the virus is detected after/during the incubation period. If negative, then the patient is considered to have completed quarantine.

c. Treatment needs to be done comprehensively according to the severity of the symptoms. Only patients with moderate, severe, and critical symptoms need to be hospitalized. Isolation needs to be done strictly to prevent transmission.

15. Achievement of vaccination target of 70% of the total population in priority cities/districts no later than August 2021

===================================================================

Personal Report:

In the town of Kudus, Central Java (pop. 94,000), a major effort was undertaken to vaccinate the entire town in early June.  In the past week and a half (as of July 1), we have lost two in-laws and two friends, and the problems there have made global news.

My wife's cousin reports that a similar vaccination campaign took place in the town of Jatiwangi, Central Java (pop. 83,000), and nearly the entire town is now sick or dying.  There appears to be a complete blackout on this story.

JIExpo Convention Center in Jakarta has been identified as a potential emergency field hospital and I have seen truck-loads of soldiers coming and going in the past several days.

Though the emergency is being blamed on "Delta Variant," it is clearly related to areas where vaccinations have had the widest distribution.  The primary vaccine being used here is SinoVac, developed by SinoPharm.  AstraZeneca is also being distributed, and much of the supply for this one comes from the EU and Australia, who have stopped using it and are dumping it in the Third World.

The "Delta Variant" seems clearly (to me) to be vaccinosis and not a virus of any kind, much less a variant of SARS-COV-2.

Be Vewy Vewy Qwiet

Well, it's that special time of year again, when Muslims the world over go into hibernation during the daylight hours, known as Ramadan.

If you don't live in a predominantly Muslim country (yet), you may not be aware of what it means to observe the Holy Month.  You also may not be aware that the observance is based on the Lunar Year, which is about two weeks shorter than a Solar Year, so over the years, Ramadan slowly precesses up the calendar, coming slightly earlier than the year before.  For instance, when I first moved to Indonesia in 2008, to escape the Shrub Administration in the US, Ramadan was in October.  This year it began in mid-April.  

 And here Catholics thought trying to figure out when Easter comes in any given year was complicated.  At least you know it always happens on a Sunday.

So anyway, during the 29 days of Ramadan, the observant practitioner refrains from eating or drinking from sun up to sun down.  In fact, the strict observers will refrain from even swallowing their own saliva, which in some places offers an interesting sight of hundreds of folks spitting all day long.

In my experience, many folks just sleep all day, so as to avoid temptation.  After about 7am, neighborhoods become deathly silent until about 5pm, when the womenfolk commence to rattling pots and pans in anticipation of sun down.

Ramadan culminates in the Eid al-Fitr, or Idul Fitri in Indonesian, which is the Feast of Breaking Fast.  To give the Western reader a sense of what this is like, imagine Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and St. Patrick's Day all rolled into one.

In Indonesia, Idul Fitri is followed by Lebaran, which is officially a three-day holiday, but in practice is anywhere from two weeks to a month.  This holiday involves mudik (exodus), in which every living being abandons the city to pulang kampung, or return to the home town.  Mudik is followed by lavish feating and one of the most amazing redistributions of wealth known to Humankind.

Leading up to Lebaran, people exchange gift baskets of sumbako, or essential foods, usually rice, fruit syrups for flavoring water, canned goods, and homemade snacks in the form of bite-sized cookies and other sweets.

It is also a time for Tunjangan Hari Raya Keagamaan, or more commonly THR.  This literally means, "Religious Holiday Subsidy".  Employers are required by law to give all employees a 13th month of salary, while out in everyday life, it means everyone and their brother expects a tip for everything and the police become extra diligent in enforcing traffic laws.  Meanwhile, back at the kampung, folks return home with wads of cash (borrowed of course) to hand out to family members, displaying their financial success in the previous year for all to see.

One curious feature of this ostentatious display of imaginary wealth is that new car sales spike just before Lebaran, and then slightly used car sales spike roughly two to four weeks later.

The practical side of all this is that those of us who stay in the cities find ourselves in literal ghost towns for a couple of weeks after 90% of the population scattered to the winds.

Except for this year - and this is the fun part.

This year, Jakarta's illustrious and all-knowing gubbener declared that Lebaran, and specifically mudik, are cancelled in the battle to contain the spread of the Fauci Flu Damn-Panic.  Beginning May 1st, no one will be allowed to leave the city.

In most countries, this kind of officious edict might be taken seriously, but this is Indonesia, where finding creative ways of circumventing the law is a national pastime.  Instead of waiting for the annual THR payment a week before Lebaran, folks began packing up and moving out almost as soon as Ramadan began.

Around my neighborhood, shops and restaurants have shut down.  Food stalls that appear on the streets at sun down have vanished and one can actually stroll down the sidewalk unmolested.  Traffic has dwindled to early Damn-Panic levels.  The floating oil slick euphemistically called "air" in these parts, has cleared.  Offices have emptied out and ride-hailing services have added 25% to 50% to their normal tariffs in hopes of encouraging drivers to roll out of bed.

Given that Idul Fitri begins on May 12th, and under normal circumstances this would all occur around the 9th or 10th, this is really quite humorous, and it highlights not only the illusory self-importance the politicians put on themselves, but also the fact that the people aren't buying the Damn-Panic.

This shows, in all its absurdity, that numbnuts sitting in their pre-embargo ivory towers have exactly zero real power to change human nature.  It shows that folks can't be fooled forever, when they see empty hospital wards and the gubbermint handing out free Fauci Flu vaccines to dogs and cats to inflate the distribution numbers, and especially when they don't see people dropping dead in the streets.

While the early shut-down and exodus has caused some inconveniences, I still thoroughly enjoy seeing the complete repudiation of "authority" and I appreciate the Indonesian impulse to simply ignore the rules when it doesn't suit their purposes.

Most of all, I enjoy watching the delusional "leaders" being mocked in a passive-agressive kind of way.  It's almost as if folks vote for class clowns, in order to isolate them from the sane folks, where we can keep an eye on them and they have to write down all their plans so we can carefully avoid them.

Who said anarchy can't be fun?

============================================

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The Real Sickness of Official Dumb

Jakarta's so-called "officials" have taken to making people lie in a coffin in public, in addition to a $29 fine, for not wearing a mask in public.  Not only are these bozos and buffoons completely clueless about the studies and science regarding the use of mask - and likely being paid by WHO and other NGOs to promote this crap - they are relishing their imaginary power.

Since blasphemy is still a crime in Indonesia, punishable by jail sentences up to 2 years, it is now appropraite to counter-charge these noneheads for their profound lack of faith in Allah's mercy, wisdom and grace.  Forcing folks to wear masks and take medical treatments flies in the face of Allah's Great Plan for Humanity, and they are thus blasphemous.

If they can throw the former governor Ahok in jail for nothing more than quoting the Koran, then this is much, much worse.

Jakarta Riots 22 May 2019

Zen And The Art Of Roasting Coffee

Living, as I do, in Java (itself a slang name for coffee) and just a short jump from Sumatera, home of one of the legendary coffees of the world, I decided it was high time to roast my own. I was also motivated by my deep and abiding hatred for Starbucks and those California cutsie chains that are not only taking over the world, but sell more political agendas than coffee.

My wife and I have decided to get into the business of selling raw, green coffee as part of our online empire. We have a plan to retire to our mountain retreat and spend our feeble years running a business on the internet while living well outside the madding crowd of over-dense cities.

We found several very good sources of raw coffee from Bali, Java and Sumatera, and we received enormous bags full of samples, ranging from mountain Robusta and Arabica beans, to the precious Kopi Luwak that sells for up to a few thousands dollars per kilo.

Having never done it before, I was a bit intimidated at the prospect of learning to roast coffee. What with all the mystique and legend built up around the little greenish-white beans, I figured this must be some occult ritual that required years of training and perfect alignment of the Heavens.

I was wrong.

If you've ever popped corn before, you can roast coffee. Yes, there are some timing issues and you have to pay close attention to the process, but you certainly don't have to be a magi to do it. There is a learning curve, but it is blissfully short and with a little practice, you can have the precise coffee you want every morning, fresher than anything you will EVER get from a store front, and the flavor of self-satisfaction is unmistakable and oh-so-sweet.

To roast coffee beans, I use a very high-tech and mystical device called a pan. It is vital to have a heat source, so I use an incredibly up-to-date propane stove. Turn the stove on to medium, throw a couple of handfuls of beans into the pan, shake it around for about 5 minutes, and POOF!

OK, it's a little more delicate than that, but not much.

First, DO NOT use oil or water, just beans. Second, anything that can make popcorn can roast coffee. If you use one of those hot-air poppers, though, remember that the fan noise can mask the "crack" sound, the importance of which will become apparent in a moment.

There are two important events during the roasting process that are vital to the outcome:

First Crack: at around the 3-5 minute mark, you will hear the distinct sound of the beans popping, just like popcorn. Again like popcorn, it will start with one or two pops, and then pick up speed. This is a critical moment. For lighter roasts, you will stop when the cracking stops. If you want darker roasts, you will go a few SECONDS to 1 MINUTE longer, until...

Second Crack: this time, it's not so much of a "pop" noise as as "sizzle" noise. If you go this far, stop immediately or you will be drinking charcoal water for breakfast.

Anything past the light roast phase is somewhat of an art form. Knowing precisely when to stop to get the exact level of roast you want is a trial-and-error process. Because each reader will use different equipment, live at different altitudes, et cetera, you will want to get a "feel" for how much longer past First Crack you want to go.

Lighter roasts give you a "smoother" flavor because the beans retain more of their natural sugars and starches, making the result a bit more naturally sweeter. This is the point of peak caffeine, as well, which for some of us is a major concern.

Darker roasts take on a more "full bodied" flavor, but also get increasingly bitter. They also get oilier, which some folks don't like.

Back to the process.

Once you decide to stop the roast, you will need to get the beans out of the heat and onto a cooling surface. This can be a cookie sheet, spread-out newspaper, or a wok like the one I use. The point is to cool the beans quickly by maximizing the airflow around them.

I suggest doing this outside, as the roasting process causes an ash-like chaff to burn off the beans. Coffee beans, like peanuts, have a skin on them that turns to burn-paper like ash when cooked. Rolling them around on the cooling surface and lightly blowing will remove the chaff and aid in cooling.

You're not quite ready to grind, though. The roasted beans will out-gas CO2 for up to 24 hours after roasting, and it's important to get rid of the gas for the best result. After cooling, I usually put the beans in a Tupperware container with an air-tight seal, but don't snap it all the way shut overnight. That will allow the gas to escape while retaining as much of the essential oils as possible, giving you the best results.

When I'm ready to use the roasted beans, I take only as much as I need, leaving the rest whole. You may not care, but I figure this preserves the essential oils and flavor better over time.

One note here: if you are roasting coffee because you think it will fill your house with the mouth-watering smell of fresh coffee, forget it. The smell is more like burnt sugar or chocolate, and it can be rather smoky and unpleasant in unventilated spaces. I like the smell, but it is entirely an individual thing. About an hour after you cool the beans, the familiar coffee aroma will start wafting through your humble abode.

That's it! You are now an amateur coffee roaster. With experience, you could rise to the level of Master and speak in mystical tones about the occult aspects and techniques that you have acquired. You could even get into the art of blending beans and roasts to get that Ultimate Cuppa Java. Until you get the hang of it, though, I wouldn't jump right into the Kopi Luwak that you just paid US$300/pound for.

In the past few years, there's been a green coffee fad with all sorts of magical health claims made about it. Personally, I think if it were that healthy, it wouldn't have taken several thousand years to figure it out, but that's up to you. Additionally, I don't particularly like the flavor, but again, that's entirely up to you.

My wife prepares it by taking the whole green beans, putting them in a glass container, and adding warm - but not hot or boiling - water. You must then let it set as least 24 hours and strain the liquid into a glass. She tries to get me to drink a glass of it every day for the anti-oxidants and other health y stuff, but I am hard-pressed to do so when I have piles of glorious hand-roasted beans just waiting for my loving attention.

Depending on your needs or tastes, having a supply of green coffee beans on hand can provide hours of palette-stirring excitement, both for the rich flavors and from the satisfaction of knowing you are far more talented than any Starbucks barista, and don't need fanciful foreign titles to make the job appear to justify the bloated prices.

If you want this glorious feeling of achievement every morning to start your day, then contact us at Radio Far Side (luap.jkt@gmail.com use Subject "Coffee") to get prices and shipping times for some of the most sought-after beans in the world, delivered directly to your door from Indonesia.

Soon, you will be serving premium, hand-roasted coffee to your guests at Maxwell House prices, and blowing them away with flavor, aroma and delicacy. Imagine the story you can tell them when they invariably ask, "Where did you get this coffee?"

Keep an eye on our D-Tube channel for a coming real-time (yes, it's that fast) how-to video for roasting your own coffee.

Living Dangerously, Again

This month saw the swearing-in of Jakarta's newest governor, Anies Baswedan.  At least once or twice in the ensuring weeks, Anies has declared Jakarta to once again be in the hands of the pribumi, or pre-colonial, people.  One must assume that Anies is either deliberately inciting trouble, or he is woefully ignorant of Indonesian law and history.  In the eyes of some commentators, he is both.

It is the habit of some demagogues here to declare that Indonesia is (once again) Muslim in a kind of "tent revival" analogue to the waves of Sillyanity that sweep the US on occasion.  Anies is one of them, and has made noises of allowing Islamic prayer in the governor's mansion, a proposition I am not entirely opposed to, as long as the Christians, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists, and Taoists are allowed the same facility.  There are, in fact, six contitutionally-protected religions in Indonesia.

When I hear these demagogues rail about the colonial days and how this is a Muslim country in the same breath, it makes me laugh.  That has got to be one of the most ridiculous assertions an educated person can hear, at least here.

The name Jakarta is a conflation of two Javanese words: jaya and karta.  The term jaya karta can be translated as "city of prosperity," and was coined sometime in the 17th century.  The city's most direct lineage traces back to the Hindu Kingdom of Sunda, which dominated western Java for centuries. 

Arab invades colonialized a significant part of what is now western Indonesia and Malaysia, coming both directly from the Arabian peninsula and via conquests in India.  The invaders brought Islam with them and forcefully subjected any peoples they met along the way, demanding adherence to Islam or offering death.

By the mid-1600s, Islam had conquered much of eastern Java (the Jawa kingdoms), but the Sunda had put up quite a fight, preferring their native religion - a variant on Hinduism - to the harsh rule of the Islamic invaders. 

At roughly the same time, Portugal "discovered" the archipelago in its quest to control the spread of Islam and find new trade.  The natural wealth of the islands, both in things like gold and the unusual array of spices and flavors of food, with a year-round growing season, as well.  The Portuguese and Sunda king made common cause against Islam, and the Portuguese fleet needed a safe port in the area, as well. 

The first treaty ever executed between powers in Europe and the islands was done here in Jakarta in the late 1600s, memorialized on a large carved stone that was only recently recovered during a construction project in the old city.    It details an agreement between the Sunda king and Portugal, whereby the fleet would receive safe port while they helped to defend the Sunda from the Jawa/Islam invaders.  Elements of Portugal's presence are still found in northern Sulawesi and Ambon, Flores, and Timor L'Este, where the wholly different culture of Portuguese architecture and lifestyle led to bloody suppression and the deaths of hundreds of thousands when Indonesia tried to force Islam on the eastern half of the island.

As a bonus fact, Timor L'Este is just the words for "east" in the local language and Portuguese.  The name literally means, "East East."

A very long story short, the archipelago has roughly 1,000 inhabited islands, out of about 17,000.  Some of the islands have been inhabited since Hono Erectus took up digs here, well over a million years ago.  We can't forget the Flores people, too, who are commonly referred to as the Hobbits.  If recent discoveries and research bear out, there are pyramids here in West Java that are 20,000 years old, on top of all else.

Since the dawn of humanity, wave after wave of people from all over Asia have colonized these islands.  Aboriginals in Australia either came through here on their way south, or more controversially, worked their way north.  Some research says people from Taiwan were the first modern humans here.  The Chinese and Arabs have had a go at it.  Most recently, Europe, Japan, Britain, and the US have all had their hands in the resources found lying about the place.

For any group of the hundreds of cultures found across the archipelago to claim pribumi status is thus demagoguery or just plain, unvarnished ignorance.

In 1965, the Year of Living Dangerously, Jakarta had its first Christian governor, Henk Ngantung.  He was deposed by the coup d'etat that unseated President Soekarno.  Jakarta had its second Christian governor in Ahok, who was deposed this year after being railroaded for blasphemy only because he is a Christian of Chinese descent.  This led to the election of Anies, who has declared a victory for Islam.

This is dangerous talk, Pak Anies.  Every time it has happened before, a lot of people died.  Furthermore, there are SIX protected religions in the Constitution, not to mention dozens of ancient and indigenous religions practiced across the archipelago.

Are we headed for yet another Year of Living Dangerously?  Or perhaps the goal is more localized, along the lines of the 1998 Riots, or perhaps Timor L'Este?  Fascism is born of intolerance, and is no stranger to Indonesia.

This is a republic, Pak Anies.

Strange Gods, Foreign Altars

A great many Americans and Indonesians seem to labor under a similar misconception, though the circumstances are slightly different.

Ask a random sample of Americans, and the majority will likely say that the US is a Christian country.  In Indonesia, the same question is liable to get the majority response that this is an Islamic country.

Both majorities are wrong.

The US was neither founded by Christians, nor was it intended to be a "Christian" country.  In fact, many of the founders of the US were Deists, which are defined as folks who believe the Creator is separate from the Creation, and that Humanity is allowed to go its own way within the Laws of Nature.  They reject the supernatural and shy away from revelations and miracles, preferring a more scientific approach to things.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because the ideas are woven into the US Declaration of Independence and its Constitution, especially the part where it says, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion, or prohibiting the free practice thereof..."

We must keep in mind that a large number of folks who came to the New World from Europe were, if fact, religious heretics and nut cases (by some accounts) and roundly persecuted for it back home.  All the wanted, really, was to be left the hell alone so they could do whatever it was that fulfilled their spiritual needs.

It's a slightly different situation in Indonesia, but the impulse is the same.

When the founders were trying to forge a nation out of a bunch of wildly different cultures with widely varying beliefs stretched out for thousands of miles across thousands of islands, that had all been colonized for centuries, they had to placate many different beliefs.

What eventually made it into the Indonesian Constitution is:

Article 29
(1) The State shall be based upon the belief in the One and Only God.
(2) The State guarantees all persons the freedom of worship, each according to
his/her own religion or belief.

In actual practice, this has come to mean that you are free to worship if you belong to one of the six "recognized" religions - Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, or Islam - and oh, by the way, Islam is more equal than all the others.

This was no more apparent than in a recent story out of Medan.  In brief, a baby boy was found nearly frozen in a cardboard box, abandoned in the town of Binjai, in Sumatera.  A Christian policewoman wanted to adopt the child, but was told she could not because only Muslims are allowed to adopt abandoned children.  Consequently, the evil Social Services (same in every country) snatched the child away and put him in an orphanage in Medan.  Obviously, they are really concerned for the welfare of the child, since an orphanage is preferable to a loving home.

The article goes on to state:

"...A national law, Government Regulation no. 54/2007 on Adoption, states in article 3, “In cases in which the origin of the child is unknown, then the child’s religion is conformed to the religion of the majority of the local population.”

In Indonesia, the religions may not be mingled.   Marriages and adoptions may only be among those of the same (or assumed) religions.  This law is primarily to protect Muslims from internarriage and/or the shameful possibility that children could be raised with liberal ideas concerning religions, such as may happen in a "mixed" marriage or cross-adoption.

To be fair, the Roman Catholics have done the same thing for centuries, though in this supposedly Enlightened Era, this kind of practice seems draconian, if not down-right medieval.

Indonesia is often referred to as the largest Islamic nation on Earth.  It is not.  It has the largest Muslim population under one flag, but it is supposedly composed of six equal religions.  In practice, however, this is obviously not true.

Not only are mixed marriages and adoptions forbidden, but Muslims receive preferenctial treatment by the government's Ministry of Religion, converts TO Islam are perfectly acceptable, but FROM Islam can and often do result in disinheritance, excommunication and even death in some areas.  Everyone is expected to respect (even follow) Muslim practices such as Ramadhan, but Muslims routinely ignore those fasting for Lent.  Mosques are built roughly every 200m all over the country, and their loudspeakers are cranked to 11 with no recourse, but churches and temples are highly regulated and frequently destroyed before construction is finished.

Had a Muslim policewoman, such as in the story, found an abandoned baby in a predominantly Christian area and wanted to adopt, I would likely not be writing this article, as it would never have become an issue of national attention.

I frequently hear local Muslims grousing about the way Muslims are treated in Europe and the US, and even Myanmar.  It is difficult to point out that perhaps some Islamic practices and demands rub the wrong way on others.  Perhaps, I want to say, intolerance begets intolerance.  Perhaps the willingness to heap suffering even on the innocent causes others to recoil in disgust, maybe even horror.

Certainly the upwelling of indignation in Indonesia over this particular case shows that a large number - even a majority - of people in this country want fairness, compassion and generosity, over dogma, inflexibility and favoratism.

Perhaps it's time for Muslims in Indonesia (and elsewhere) to re-examine the meaning of Pancasila and the founding principles of this nation.  People are either free or they are not, there are no partial steps or gradients.

A woman's love and care of a child is endowed by God - not your god or my god, but THE God.  Only a man could find it acceptable to put a child in an orphanage to "save" it from a life under the "wrong" religion and deny a woman's instinct to care for and protect a child.

It's time to ask what is more important, a book or a life?

An Immigrant On Immigration

Two recent events, that coincidentally occurred on the same day, set me to thinking.  Yes, I see you roll your eyes at the prospect, but bear with me, dear reader.

This past Tuesday was both my 56th anniversary on this planet, and the same day I received (at long last) my permanent residency in Indonesia.

In the Indonesian tradition, the personal celebrating a birthday is obliged to feed everyone, so I created a feast of rare and exotic delights: burritos with all the trimmings.  My family is finally coming to appreciate odoriferous and unusual spices called chilli powder and cumin.  Rather than being happy, I am rather upset since in the past I was able to have double portions, given that no one else would touch the stuff.  This last round, I was only able to salvage two burritos and was forced to drown my sorrows in chocolate cake.

I mention this only in passing to that the reader can appreciate that some things we take for granted in our everyday world can become rare gems when we are far removed from them.  It's also amusing when Asians assume that Westerners don't eat rice and stand agog when I bring out a steaming bowl of paella as part of my ethnic feast.

All that aside, it was the permanent residency that really had me thinking.  I've been here for 10 years now, and in that time, I've made 10 annual pilgrimages to the immigration office to renew my long-stay visa.  This onerous duty has cost me many hours and somewhere in the range of about $8,000 over the decade.

When I arrived here, there were no social service nets, no free dwellings, no food stamps.  I had only what I brought and could manage to acquire once in country.  I worked incredibly long hours building a network, establishing myself, and saving my money.  The result is that I now have a family, some property and a couple of growing businesses.  More, in fact, than I ever had in my native country.

Perhaps it was the motivation of having no safety net, perhaps it was a much lower cost of entry.  Whatever the reason, I can say with some pride that my wife and I earned everything we have, and it gives me some ownership in my adopted home.

When I look at the US and EU, with their horrific immigration problems, I scratch my head in amazement.  The policies applied toward immigrants are probably some of the most abusive and hurtful ever conceived, and will ultimately do far more harm than the well-intentioned but deeply misguided folks can possibly know.  These policies will also prove to be ultimately destructive to the societies that adopt them.

If you are a believer in social safety nets, then you are probably staring at the screen wondering what kind of heartless crank would write such a thing, but hang in there.

When I arrived in Indonesia, I had a single suitcase and $1,000.  That's it.  I knew four people here, and that helped a little, but not much.  I didn't know the language and the culture was about as foreign as anything I have ever encountered in my travels.

My first purchase was a translating dictionary and I immediately began learning the language.  Within three months, I could negotiate a meal and buy necessities at the local store.  Keep in mind that I was not in Jakarta or other big, cosmopolitan city.  I was in Balikpapan in Borneo where no one spoke English - at all.

I cam with several plans of attack to make money.  By the end of the first year, I had burned through all of them and was fully improvising as I went.  Within six months, I was able to rent a furnished apartment and pay my bills by literallly teaching English door-to-door for cash.  At the end of the first year, I hired a live-in maid to cook and clean while I worked 15-18 hours a day.

No welfare checks, no food stamps, no freebies.  Just wits and work.

When the Western countries import people, which is what they are truly doing, and hand them pretty much everything for free, what incentive is there to become productive?  What's worse, when the free ride ends, as all politically motivated programs do, these people will be cast aside, never having learned the language or culture, having no local support network and having no way to return to whence they came.  In effect, the current feel-good immigration policies are a huge humanitarian disaster waiting to happen.

Most of the thousands of immigrants were lured with hand-outs, much the way one might lure a wild dog or cat in an effort to tame them.  These people have been shoveled into ghettos where they are able to use their native language and are never forced to learn the lingua franca of their adopted lands.  Most of them have little or no contact with the local inhabitants and do not have jobs - nor do they need one - since everything is handed to them on a platter.

What happens to these people when the rug is pulled out from under them?  When the political tide turns and the will to completely support thousands of people is gone, and they are thousands of miles from anything they know, how will these people survive?  They have no local contacts, don't speak the language, have developed no skills, don't know how to pay bills and taxes, and are fully and completely unable to support themselves and their families?

Oh sure, a few enterprising individuals will adapt, even thrive, but they will be the exceptions.  The vast majority will have nothing to survive on and nothing to pay passage home again.  They will become either a new slave class, or more likely, a despised and forgotten mass of humanity left to rot.

Political will is a fickle thing and can change on a whim.  It is also completely without foresight, preferring instead to service instant gratification, rather than look far into the future of possible outcomes.  The ones who always suffer for this lack of vision are the pawns in the political games.

In an attempt to assuage some kind of guilt in the liberal mind, the policies have instead sentenced thousands to a life of misery, and very likely death.  It does no one any favors to hand them a free life, because at some point the one handing out the goodies will have a change of heart and resent the grasping hands of the recipient.

Take it from an immigrant - it is too late to fix the damage done, but it is not too late to stop the horror from growing.  It may seem in the short term that one is doing a great humanitarian service, but in the long term these policies will become a horror that takes decades or more to repair.  There is no benefit to any side in this horror.  The givers will eventually tire of giving, and the takers will have no means by which to survive when the tap runs dry.

Organic immigration - people like myself who choose to live elsewhere and are prepared mentally and physically to work for it - is a time-honored function of humanity.  It is a vital part of mixing and growing societies and civilizations.  The uprooting of masses to satisfy political whims, though, is a disaster in the making and will damage societies and civilizations, possibly beyond repair.

Now, if I remember correctly, there's still some chocolate cake buried at the bottom of the fridge.

What Goes Around

You might want to cue up Billy Preston's big hit from the 1970s as we trundle through current events on diametrically opposed sides of the world today.

Back in 2014, a Populist reformer who goes by the nickname "Jokowi" (Joko Widodo) was elected president of Indonesia.  It was a hotly contested election against the Establishment choice, a lovely man by the name of Prabowo Sugiarto.

Prabowo figured he had it all locked up.  He was the darling of the Establishment, had spread the appropriate amounts of money in the appropriate places, and polls showed him having the edge on Jokowi.  It was a done deal.

Until it wasn't.

Prabowo lost the election by a slim margin as huge numbers of people that weren't counted in the polls showed up to vote for draining the swamp.

Enraged over losing the office that Prabowo thought was his for the taking, he mounted protests (paid warm bodies in large groups chanting prepared slogans), filed challenges in the courts (all the way up to the Supreme Court) and generally did anything to disrupt the new administration's ability to make headway in reforming and streamlining the national government.

Jokowi was elected governor of Jakarta in 2011 (Jakarta is a city, state and seat of the national government), along with his reformist ally Basuki Tjahaja (Ahok) Purnama.  When Jokowi won the presidency, Vice Governor Ahok took over the state government, becoming only the second Christian of Chinese ethnicity to hold the post (the first was 1964-5 shortly before Soeharto took over).  However, Prabowo didn't go quietly.

Prabowo moved to the background and began a campaign to get his people inserted into key positions in the Parliament, which resulted in barricade after barricade to Jokowi's reforms.  At the same time, Ahok was attacked repeatedly via his greatest weakness - saying what he thinks.  Ahok famously made a comment in September 2016, which was construed to be a slight against al-Qur'an, and Ahok was ultimately convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to 2 years in prison.  The conviction came after a hotly contested governor's election where Prabowo's chosen candidate, Anies, was elected over Ahok after a concerted effort by Prabowo's political machine to discredit the Chinese Christian based on racial and religious grounds - certainly not based on his record of cleaning up the city's operations.

Deprived of his staunchest ally, Jokowi has been left dangling in the wind.  He literally has no one watching his back now - literally or politically.  For the past two years, he could leave Jakarta to attend to the country's international interests, knowing that Ahok was keeping things under control back home.  Now, however, Ahok is well tucked away and Prabowo has installed his people in every quadrant around Jokowi.

This has led to numerous rumors flying that Prabowo will mount a coup d'etat in late July, while Jokowi attends the G20 summit in Hamburg.  True or not, it is a sign of Jokowi's weakened position that such talk can even be taken seriously.  The conditions certainly match many that existed in 1965, when another former general, Soeharto, mounted his coup.

If you are one of our thousands of North American readers, and all this sounds familiar, then you are right.

In 2016, Establishment darling Hillary Clinton thought she had the presidency of the US sewn up.  She lost by a narrow margin to a Populist reformer named Donald Trump.  After the election, a number of legal challenges were mounted against Trump, and ultimately Clinton slipped into the background where she formulated a stealth attack to block every single action and policy of the new administration.  This has led to unprecedented infighting and witch hunting in an effort to unseat the duly elected president.

The parallels are curious.  I have pointed out the many similarities between the US and Indonesia, and the fact that nearly identical political situations exist in both countries now is even more curious.  As researchers like Peter Levenda and Allan Nairn have pointed out in recent articles, the ties between the Establishment of both countries run rather deep (pun intended).  That nearly identical tactics would emerge in both places at roughly the same time seems less coincidental than intended.

This situation, combined with Macron's victory in France, Merkel's survival in Germany, and the incredibly languid foot-dragging going on over Brexit, it seems that the Establishment is engaged in a scorched-earth effort to prevent the world from escaping their iron fist.

The masses have a really bad habit of thinking elections take care of the popular agenda.  It's really not entirely their fault, since they've been indoctrinated from birth to think they live in "democracies".  They get all riled up during the election cycle, get their candidate elected, then go back to whatever it was they were doing before.  In a few years, they look up again and notice that nothing got done and they proceed to elect another reformer, who also gets nothing done.  Meantime, the Establishment runs all the way to the bank.

As George Ure likes to say, history doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.

The Establishment are obviously hurting, or they wouldn't be so blatantly obvious in their machinations.  They're spooked by their slipping grip and will risk exposing themselves in order to maintain their cushy positions of imaginary power.

How all this will unfold is anybody's guess, but it seems we can make a fairly solid prediction that the remainder of 2017 will be one for the history books - filed under "Rhymes".

Tales Of Intrigue

Photo courtesy Vice.com

Events here in Jakarta have stirred up quite a bit of interest, with a ton-and-a-half of email and well over 500 readers all trying to get a handle on what happened yesterday.  The questions and hits have come from every continent but Antarctica asking what happened and what next?

Well, let's see if I can boil this down to the marrow.

Jakarta's Governor Ahok, a man of Chinese descent and Christian - only the second in history to hold the office - was found guilty of blasphemy against al-Qur'an and sentenced to two years in jail, to start immediately despite his intention to appeal.  He was taken into custody and sent to Cipinang prison in East Jakarta, but later last night was moved to the custody of TNI - the Indonesian army - for "safety" reasons.

Vice Governor Djarot was advanced to acting governor until the end of the term in October, when the governor-elect, Anies, will be sworn in.

The blasphemy charge was based on a speech Ahok gave back in September to a group of supporters.  The speech was recorded on video, then edited out of context and mistranscribed to mangle the Governor's words and meaning.

The actual verse in question is from the book Al Maidan 51, and is translated into English (only Arabic is considered the true Word of Allah) as:

"O you who have faith!  Do not take the Jews and the Christians as masters; they are master of each other/  Any of you who submit to them is indeed one of them.  Indeed, Allah does not guide the wrongdoing lot.

Setting aside the long historic antagonism between Christians and Jews, this has frequently, especially by hardliners, been interpreted to mean that Muslims may not have any non-Muslim over them, whether it be political, social or religious in nature.

Thus, it has been interpreted to mean that even in a secular republic, such as Indonesia, where the Constitution recognizes five religions on equal footing (Judaism not among them), Muslims may not allow a non-Muslim to be elected to a government office.  Never mind the concept of a public servant being below the common citizen, not above.

In any event, Ahok was reported to have said to the crowd that they shouldn't be "deceived" into thinking that this verse refers to office holders in a republican form of government.  It only means that a Muslim should not serve a master who is non-Muslim, nor should he accept religious instruction from a non-Muslim.

Well, the choice of the word "deceived" set off a shit storm.  Ahok was accused of insulting al-Quran by misinterpreting the words and using scripture for political purposes.  I don't know.  I wasn't there.  All I can say it what was reported in a video that I know is not an actual representation of the moment (it was edited) and a transcript that even the man who did it admitted was not accurate.

At any rate, one of the most honest and hard-working politicians, certainly in my memory, who did an amazing amount of good for the city of Jakarta in the four years he served, is now in jail for two years under highly questionable circumstances.

First of all, the documentation is suspect.  That much has already been stated.  Second is the question of whether a non-Muslim can be said to blaspheme a book that is not sacred to his own religion?  Blasphemy is typically limited to believers.  Third, what are the motivations behind the conviction?

It is this last question that has caused so much consternation.  You see, Ahok was originally elected Vice Governor under the current president Jokowi.  They were a team who came riding into town on a populist/reformist wave in 2012, from the city of Yogyakarta, where they were widely heralded as having cleaned up local government and ridding the city of entrenched corruption.

They were elected governor and vice governor together in Jakarta.  Two years later, Jokowi won the presidency and Ahok took over as governor.  During his tenure, the city buses actually started running on a schedule, the mass transit system was overhauled and an MRT system was inaugurated, city employees were made to show up on time and work full days, and corruption declined precipitously.

When Jokowi ran for president, he was opposed by a man named Prabowo.  Prabowo is widely considered to be part of the Establishment: a former general in the army and one of the deep crony insiders.  One could think of this match-up as similar to Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton.

Prabowo was so sure that he would win that the loss led to court battles and media slurs and all kinds of political maneuvering behind the scenes.  In short, the Establishment had lost a major battle and were on the outs, but that didn't stop them.  The lay in wait for a hole in the Jokowi/Ahok armor, which came in the form of a highly questionable comment back in September.

Ahok was recently defeated for re-election by a man named Anies, who is supported by Prabowo and the Establishment.  Many consider the election to have been rigged, but in the interest of stability, no one stood up to challenge the vote, least of all Ahok, who was under trial at the time for blasphemy.

The trial, too, is suspected of being rigged.  Even some of the people involved in the trial have said the judges need to be investigated for accepting bribes, since the prosecution asked for two years' probation, but in a highly irregular move, the court (five judges) threw the book at Ahok.

At any rate, this leaves President Jokowi completely isolated without any powerful allies.  He is under relentless attack by Prabowo and the Establishment, and rumors have gone around that Jokowi has been directly threatened since the Ahok result.  Jokowi stands for re-election in 2019, if he makes it that long.

In what could hardly be considered a coincidence, Agung - the son of the former president, Yudhoyno - has announced his intent to run for president, and he is openly allied with Prabowo and possibly with Anies.

In other words, the whole sordid affair has all the hallmarks of a subtle but distinct coup.  The reforms and constant attacks on corruption in government have taken a toll on the Establishment, which is widely known to use the State Treasury for political activities.

Knowing this, Ahok is reported to have placed a triple password on city accounts, with one of them being in the hands of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), meaning that even if the Establishment regains power, they may have a difficult time dipping into public funds.

It should also be noted that Djarot, the new acting governor of Jakarta, is openly antagonistic to Jokowi.

Whatever the truth is, the appearances are suspicious to a lot of folks in these parts.  Apparently, investors feel the same way, as the Jakarta Composite Index dropped precipitously after the verdict, and is continuing the down trend as I write.  A bill in Parliament banning alcohol across the country would further undermine the economy by killing tourism, and the general uncertainty is surely causing a lot of foreign investors to think twice about committing funds in the country.

Much remains to be seen, but among expats there is considerable discussion of bailing out and looking for more stable digs elsewhere - like Vietnam and Singapore.  The coming days, weeks and months will tell a tale, and many folks are sitting on their wallets expecting another 1965 or 1998 blow up.

Indonesia is the largest and richest economy in Southeast Asia, and what happens here will ripple throughout the region, which has enjoyed significant stability over the past 20 years.

More to come...

A Taste Of The Far Side

UPDATE: Ahok found guilty, sentenced to 2 years in prison.  Ahok files immediate appeal to Constitutional Court.  Governor-elect Anies trying to take over office 6 months early.

It's an interesting time to live in Indonesia.  The largest Muslim country on Earth by population is undergoing a self-examination, with full knowledge that this nation is composed of vast numbers of wildly different cultures (all indigenous) and the only way to hold it together is to ensure they all are equal.  In other words, just because the majority believes one thing doesn't mean every must, and the minority must be protected.  In other words, a republican form of social order.

Indonesia shares a lot of political philosophy with the founding ideals of the United States.  The national motto is Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which is the Jawa Halus version of E Pluribus Unam.  If you don't read Javanese or Latin, it translates as "Unity in Diversity."  The Pancasila, or "Five Points," constitute the national ideals.  They can be summed up as:

1. One Nation under God
2. Equal Protection of the Law
3. Allegiance to the Flag
4. The Republic for which it Stands
5. Liberty and Justice for

Despite these espoused ideals, the governor of Jakarta has been on trial for "blasphemy" for the past several months, and was soundly defeated in the recent election, because he is of Chinese descent, a Christian, and dared to quote al-Qur'an while giving a talk.

What, you might rightly ask, did Ahok say about al-Qur'an that could land him in jail for the next 2 to 5 years?  It must have been a terrible thing to be called blasphemy, right?

Well, basically he quoted a verse that forbids Muslims from submitting to religious oversight by "infidel" faiths.  Ahok pointed out that it says nothing about politics, and that religion and politics should be separate entities.  A video of the talk was edited to twist the context and quote, making it appear that Ahok had insulted al-Qur'an and used its words in a profane manner.

During the trial, the editor admitted he deliberately twisted the words, the head of the Ministry of Religion (MUI) testified that Ahok did not blaspheme, and a number of academics said that Ahok's interpretation was more or less correct.

Yet, the trial has been used by extremist groups seeking to overthrow the administration of the current president Joko Widodo (a populist) and install someone much friendlier to military authority, all in the name of battling "communism".

It's all terribly complex, so please read Peter Levenda, Joseph Farrell and Allan Nairn for perspective and context.

You are probably asking what any of this has to do with readers in the Western hemisphere.  Well...

Joko Widodo and Ahok were elected together as Governor and Vice Governor of Jakarta back in 2012, as populist reformers.  In fact, they were along the leading edge of the Populist Wave that eventually elected Trump and most recently ended in France (we'll see what South Korea does today).  In 2014, Jokowi was elected president and Ahok took over as governor to finish out the term

Even more interesting are the connections that Donald Trump has to all this mess, and Allan Nairn's article sheds some interesting light on the subject.

No matter what happens today, all hell will likely break loose.  The bought-and-paid-for protesters will not be wasted.  If Ahok is convicted, he will likely get probation and the protesters will riot because he didn't go to jail.  If Ahok is not convicted, they will riot because he will be seen as having OJ-Simpson-ed.  Either way, the Powers That Be will get their way.

The spooky parallels and ties between the United States and Indonesia are numerous.  In many ways, Indonesia is like a photographic negative of the US.  Then there are the similarities with the motto, Pancasila and the eagle mascot.  The rabbit hole, however, only starts there.

Stand by.  Indonesia is yet another battle ground in the Globalist war on People Power, and they cannot afford to allow Indonesia - a strategically rich target - to go down the path of true independence.

The fun starts now.

Both Sides Against The Middle

The insanity continues apace.

Here in Jakarta, it has taken an especially hard twist.  In the recent governor election, incumbent Ahok lost to challenger Anies.    What makes it a highlight of global insanity is that the winner ran on a religious platform, saying that Ahok ( a Christian of Chinese descent) was unfit to govern because the Koran says that Muslims cannot be subordinate to non-Muslims.  He, of course, completely misinterprets the lines in question while at the same time accusing Ahok of blasphemy for a statement that has been categorically shown to be false.  Even the Minister of Religious Affairs said that Ahok's comments were mistranscribed - probably on purpose - to discredit the reformist governor.

Where it gets really fun is that Ahok came into office as Vice Governor to the current president, Jokowi.  When Jokowi won the presidency, Ahok ascended to Governor and subsequently won re-election.  Ahok has been roundly praised for cleaning up Jakarta, clearing out slums, upgrading the mass transit system, and rooting out corruption.  Indeed, though many people grumble about actually having to follow the law now, the city has improved quite a bit in the past five years.

Anies, on the other hand, is allied with Prabowo, a man widely seen as corrupt and desperate to take the presidency for himself (he lost to Jokowi in a hotly contested election two years ago).  In the time honored tradition, the ruling political parties raid the State treasury for funds to drive political campaigns, only Ahok has put a triple lock on the Treasury door, with one of the keys being held by the KPK, or Corruption Eradication Commission.  This means all expenditures must be approved by the use of three separate passwords, whith the governor holding only one.

Anies ran on a religious platform, but many people view him as a return to the bad old days of rampant corruption in the Regional government.  Despite Anies wearing his religion on his sleeve, photos made the rounds of social media of drunken parties following his victory - a scandal.  Anies also used a State helicopter to tour his domain, something that Ahok and Jokowi have both eschewed during their tenure, preferring to endure the same traffic issues everyone else does.

Ahok has gone one further now.  During the campaign, Anies adopted a "me too" echo chamber, saying that he would do anything Ahok promised to clean up the city.  This included shutting own one of the most notorious night spots in the city.

To understand the subtleties of this particular challenge, one must understand that the military is widely viewed as having an iron-fist grip on the country's drug trade, and Prabowo (major supporter of Anies) is a former general in the army.  Thus, the gauntlet that has been thrown is a challenge to Anies' loyalty and honesty in a very interesting and low-key manner.

In other developments, food stalls have been returning to areas previously cleared out by Ahok, who thought sidewalks should be uncluttered for pedestrian comfort and safety - a novel idea in Indonesia, where food vendors take advantage of public spaces for rent-free operations.  Also, public employees, who have been forced to punch a clock and actually perform their duties under Ahok, are starting to show up late or not at all for work.

Naturally, a great number of people, who have enjoyed the modernization and efficiency introduced under Ahok, are just a bit worried about what's to come.

There is no doubt now that Prabowo and his Gerindra party will launch another major offensive during the 2020 presidential campaign.  The governor of Jakarta is generally acknowledged as a major stepping stone to national leadership

In effect, this all appears to be a strong political assault on Indonesia's populist revolt, which began in 2010, and a return to the oligarchical rule of yesteryear.

Though this counter-revolt is dressed in all the finery of religious zealotry, it is actually the front of a major shift in Indonesia's demographic composition.  The country's middle class explosion of the past 20 years has allowed an entire generation of Indonesians to be educated overseas.  Combined with the internet and social media, they have become increasingly enamored of truly open and democratic societies elsewhere.

This new generation is much more lenient on drugs (especially marijuana), less controlled by religion, and are far more affluent than even their parents could have imagined.

In other words, it is a mirror of the 1960s, and even more so of the Millennials among their Western counterparts.  In a country where Islam has dominated the social and political landscape for centuries, this is a direct and existential threat to the Powers That Be.  The old control buttons and levers aren't working and they are trying to clamp down to retain their privileged positions.

The problem is, Indonesians are growing accustomed to having disposable income and being able to travel abroad and shop for prestigious brands and drive their own cars, as only the richest folks could do just a short time ago.

Jokowi and Ahok are the crest of a huge wave of change coming to Indonesia, and Anies and Prabowo are the breakwaters trying desperately to slow the tide.  It is the classic case of the rock and the hard spot, with a large, sparkly diamond of middle class affluence resting tenuously in between.

Though it hasn't risen to the level of prominence that the Trump and Le Pen candidacies have, Indonesia's power struggle is nonetheless significant, as it is the premier economy of Southeast Asia.  It is significantly tied to other economies, like Sourth Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines, all of which are on center stage in the massive tug-of-war between the East and West.  The West would obviously feel more secure with an Indonesia that is socially backward and mired in internal corruption.

If Indonesia were to become a major player in regional politics, as it easily could with its vast natural wealth, it would likely align more tightly with China - a prime trading partner - than with Western interests.

Enter Mike Pence, the US Vice President, who recently visited Indonesia.  Coincident with his visit (ahem), Freeport-Macmoran secured an export license that has been in bureaucratic limbo for years pending the outcome of various major lawsuits.  Freeport operates some of the largest gold mines in Indonesia and it isn't hard to imagine the Veep promising to buy up the exports to keep them out of Chinese hands, not to mention the silver and other strategic raw materials that are a bonus of gold mining.

No matter how you slice the pie, things are getting rather interesting here in the archipelago, not just because of the imminent threat to and by North Korea, but also because of the ideological clash that is shaping up in these parts.  Witness Duterte's rather blatant threats against Islamic terrorists in recent days.

For those tracking the political tides of the world, Indonesia bears a close watch, as the incoming Anies administration in Jakarta will be a bellwether of currents in the entire region.  The major concern to Western interests is keeping a strong relgious influence over this government and preventing Indonesia from joining the Shang Hai Accord countries (BRICS).  Indonesia's wealth would greatly benefit the BRICS, and Indonesia itself would benefit from cheaper loans, better trade deals and infrastructure support from China and Russia.

That giant sucking sound is a helluva lot of people holding their breath.

Whose Heaven, Whose Hell?

Ogoh-Ogoh

Well, we're back from Bali with a trunk-load of pork, a bottle of 3-year-old Cuban rum and a handful of Cubano cigars.  Time to catch up on this here blog.

It's Hindu New Year, the thrid of five New Year celebrations in Indonesia, and Bali is shutting down tomorrow for the Day of Silence.  All electricity is shut off, no one leaves the house, there are ogoh-ogoh everywhere and fruit offerings in front of houses to placate the jin.  The airport stops operating this evening and basically the entire island slips back a few centuries for 24 hours.  Roads were being shut down for cleansing/blessing ceremonies as we left the hotel en route to the airport.  Even the TeeVee networks interrupted their schedules to broadcast Hindu prayers at noon.

If I take anything away from this trip to Bali and the Disney-fication of Southeast Asia, it is the stark lines of demarcation of religion in Indonesia.  It is a rather interesting case, perhaps somewhat analogous to the Bible Belt in the US, where joyless Baptists hold sway over social and political life.

The oldest known treaty between a European power and people in the archipelago is signified by a carved stone now residing in a museum in the Old Town of Jakarta.  On it, the king of Sunda granted Portugal free harbor at Tanjung Pluit in exchange for protection against the Muslim hordes attacking from central Java.  Thus, the name Jakarta - or Jaya Karta - which means "Free City".

Of course, now about 80% of the population in Indonesia profess to be Muslim, including the Sunda, but there are pockets on various islands where other religions hold sway.  There is also the Indonesian Constitution, which grants full legal status to five religions - Islam, Hindu, Catholic, Christian, and Buddhism.

Despite the pretense to religious tolerance and moderation, there is even at this moment violent protests about an hour outside of Jakarta in a tow called Bekasi, where Muslims are being tear gassed as they protest the building of a new Catholic church.

In fact, the country is starkly divided by religion.  The northern Sumateran region of Aceh is under strict Muslim law (Shari'a) and people are beaten severely when unmarried men and women get too close to each other.

Bali is the last remaining predominantly Hindu region, which used to cover Java and southern Sumatera, as well.    Muslim animosity towards Hinduism is a very ancient problem, with millions of Hindu being murdered over the centuries for their beliefs, and ultimately leading to the separation of India and Pakistan, and the on-going tensions in the Punjab and Kush regions.

East Timor is predominantly Catholic, which led to its secession from Indonesia and the violent attempt to crush the half-island.  Well over 200,000 people were slaughtered by Muslim forces under Soeharto in the 1970s.

Northern Sulawesi is also predominantly Catholic, as is Papua and nearby neighbor the Philippines.  Papua has famously had secessionist movements flare up over the years, as they fight perceived oppression and impoverishment by a Muslim-dominated central government.

Here in Jakarta, an historic event took place several years ago when an ethnic Chinese Christian commonly called "Ahok" became governor of the DKI Jakarta province.  Not only is it historic because of his ethnicity - ethnic Chinese are generally reviled in Indonesia - but also because he is Christian.  It is a well-known fact that non-Muslims will not rise to political power, nor even leadership positions in the various state-owned companies (persero).  Ahok has been under near-constant attack for the past few months, trying to unseat him in the upcoming election.

Not only has the attack on Ahok been entirely fabricated, the attempt to unseat him is almost entirely based on religious bias and fabricated evidence, and certainly not on the efficacy of his administration, which has overseen a vast reduction in corruption and a general clean-up of the city.

Although quieter, there are long-standing resentments that have simmered across the country.  There are dozens of indigenous religions that predate any of the five recognized and "protected" imports.  These religions have no protection, no status and no support from any faction.  When found, these ancient religions are persecuted with impunity, since they have no legal recognition nor protection.  They occasionally attempt to get status, but at the best and most benign level, are simply ignored.

Finally, there are the various factions of Islam in Indonesia that are constantly bickering and occasionally violent.  Indonesia is predominantly Shafi'i Sunni, Most of the Shia live in and around Jakarta, and there are some small pockets of Ahmadi Muslims in Java and other islands.

The Ahmadi are the most persecuted, with incidences of persecution that go as far as murder, while being displaced is not unusual, either.

The fact of the matter is that most Indonesians are peaceful, tolerant people who could care less what anyone else does, as long as they don't impinge on the languid life in the tropics.  Unfortunately, as in many countries (including the US), it is the noisy intolerant folks that take over the podium.  The most annoying incident of this intolerance is the month of Ramadhan, when everyone is expected to respect Muslim religious observances.

This forced respect is limited only to the Muslims.  Neither the Christians nor Catholics force anyone to defer to their Lenten practices.  The Hindu of Bali require everyone to adhere to the Day of Silence, but it is blissfully limited to a single day of the year and incidents of violence against non-participants are rare.  In fact, a certain latitude is granted to hotels and other places where tourists stay.

The point of all this is that the mix of religion with politics, even in a nominally secular country, is particularly volatile.  At some point or another, all religions have been guilty of violent purges of competing views and ideas.  The very nature of religion is to spread itself in order to justify its intolerance.  After all, if a religion were to be the last one standing, it would perforce claim that its methods were correct by virtue of the outcome.

Religion is infectious.  It has pathological effects on reason and tolerance.  It is the concept of religion itself, more than any particular incarnation of it that causes so much damage.  What's worse is that all religion claims to have the only means to achieve eternal afterlife - a claim which can never be proven or disproven, and therefore can never be guaranteed by or to anyone.

The right of folks to believe anything they want is absolute, provided they extend the same courtesy to everyone else.  Muslims are only the latest in a long line of folks to steal the podium.  It is time for more rational minds to take the lead amongst the faithful.  Everyone should be free to believe (or not believe) whatever they wish.  If a religion wants converts, it should be able to find them by providing an example of its beliefs, not by forcing others to profess membership.

A religion, or any other system of belief, does not win when folks are forced to follow.  People will say almost anything to avoid violence, and thus professing belief out of fear is not belief at all.