Another sign that too many officials in Indonesia have shit for brains. This draft law, if passed, seeks to penalise fucking among the unmarried.
Unspun is curious Wahiduddin Adams, the director general for legislation at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry thinks are “the prevailing norms” of this society.
As far as Unspun knows Indonesians like a good fuck as anybody and if it is out of wedlock it becomes more tantalising. The worst offenders are usually the politicians and the senior civil servants who get all expenses paid famiilarization trips to fuckshops disguised as Karaoke joints.
So what are the prevailing norms of Indonesia?
A draft of a criminal code KUHP revision proposed by the government for debate earlier this month punishes unmarried people caught having sex, a report said on Thursday.
“It [singles engaging in premarital sex] is liable for up to five years in jail,” Wahiduddin Adams, the director general for legislation at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, said, as quoted by Tempo Interaktif online.
In the current penal code, only adultery is punishable under article 284.Wahiduddin said that the government included non-married individuals in the proposed revision because it reflected the prevailing norms in the society.
“Our society is not like in the old penal code, that allows this,” he said, according to Tempo Interaktif.However he said that the law could only be used if a report against an individual was filed by others who deemed they have been put at a disadvantage because of the action.
“Therefore, it cannot [be used] in a sweeping operation in the field,” he said, referring to the raids often conducted by police and officials on hotels and inns to look for unmarried couples sharing a room.
Wahiduddin said that the draft penal code revision also threatened unmarried couples living together with up to one year in jail.Ida Ruwaida, a sociologist with the University of Indonesia, questioned the effectiveness of such articles in the penal code.
“It would be senseless if there are no regulation or control in the field,” Ida said, according to Tempo.However, she said that the rules were not intervening in the privacy of individuals. “The intention of the government is good. This is a regulation for a social order,” she said.
Syarifuddin Sudding, a lawmaker from the People’s Conscience Party Hanura, said his political fraction had not yet discussed the matter but he agreed that they should be dealt with under the law.“I think, it would be good if this is regulated,” Syarifuddin said.
Should Malaysian citizens file a class action suit for wholesale incompetence while spending the taxpayers’ money?
A general election is expected next month in the Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia, and that usually means political shenanigans—abuse of national security laws, media manipulation and character assassination. After the last election in 2008, when the ruling coalition barely held on to power, public anger at such practices prompted Prime Minister Najib Razak to redraft laws and reform the electoral system. However, new revelations that his government paid American journalists to attack opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim raise questions whether those changes went far enough.
In January, conservative American blogger Joshua Treviño belatedly registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, revealing that from 2008-2011 he was paid $389,724.70, as well as a free trip to Malaysia, to provide “public relations and media consultancy” services to the Malaysian government.
These consisted of writing for a website called Malaysia Matters, now defunct, as well as channeling $130,950 to other conservative writers who wrote pro-government pieces for other newspapers and websites. When questioned in 2011 by the Politico website about whether Malaysian interests funded his activities, Mr. Treviño flatly denied it: “I was never on any ‘Malaysian entity’s payroll,’ and I resent your assumption that I was.”
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim
The campaign was more targeted than the Malaysian ruling coalition’s domestic attacks on Mr. Anwar. Mr. Treviño’s site mainly went after the opposition leader for anti-Semitic remarks and his alliance with the Islamist party PAS, and even accused him of links to terrorists through the International Institute of Islamic Thought. Mr. Anwar has made anti-Semitic comments—though that’s in part to fend off domestic accusations that he’s too cozy with Zionists. He also has ties to organizations that have taken Saudi money, but the suggestion that he somehow has “ties to terrorism” is preposterous.
The site also defended an outrageous charge of sodomy brought against Mr. Anwar from 2008-2012, and it criticized the U.S. State Department and The Wall Street Journal for taking Mr. Anwar’s side. These postings were clearly aimed at sowing doubt among other would-be Anwar defenders in the U.S., especially on the right of the U.S. political spectrum.
Mr. Treviño paid other writers who know almost nothing about Malaysia but mimicked his propaganda. The New Ledger, edited by Ben Domenech, was even more vociferous, calling Mr. Anwar a “vile anti-Semite and cowardly woman-abuser.” One posting was entitled, “Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist money flowing to Anwar Ibrahim.” According to Mr. Treviño’s filing, he paid Mr. Domenech $36,000 for “opinion writing.” Three contributors of anti-Anwar items to the New Ledger—Rachel Motte, Christopher Badeaux and Brad Jackson—were paid $9,500, $11,000 and $24,700 respectively.
Mr. Treviño was initially paid by public relations multinational APCO Worldwide, which had a longstanding contract with the Malaysian government. APCO’s Kuala Lumpur representative through 2010, Paul Stadlen, now works in Prime Minister Najib’s office. David All, who at the time ran his own PR firm and collaborated on Malaysia Matters, also provided cash.
But from 2009-11, the Malaysian money came through Fact-Based Communications, which under the leadership of journalist John Defterios produced programs on client countries for CNN, CNBC and the BBC. After this was revealed in 2011, the three networks dropped all FBC programs, and Atlantic Media Company President Justin Smith resigned from its board.
Influence-peddling has a long and sordid history in Washington, and governments that use repressive methods at home yet want to remain on friendly terms with the U.S. typically have the biggest bankrolls. It’s not unheard of for PR operators to pay less reputable journalists and think-tankers to write favorable coverage, as the Jack Abramoff case in the mid-2000s showed.
The Malaysian scheme, however, is notable because it drew in respected writers such as Rachel Ehrenfeld, who has contributed to the Journal in the past and took $30,000, Claire Berlinski, who got $6,750, and Seth Mandel, an editor at Commentary magazine, who was paid $5,500. Some of the articles appeared in well-known publications such as National Review and the Washington Times.
Mr. Najib’s falling popularity at home suggests his days as Prime Minister could be numbered. The irony is that he was more democratic and played a more responsible role in the region than his predecessors. Even opposition figures have quietly admitted to us that he has steered Malaysia in the right direction. That should have been more than enough for a legitimate public relations operation to work with. Resorting to underhanded tactics to undermine the opposition has only backfired for Mr. Najib, at home and abroad.
A version of this article appeared March 9, 2013, on page A12 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Malaysia’s U.S. Propaganda.
One for the record. Will this up the game for TV business news reporting in Indonesia? What would it mean for companies operating here? Do they need to have better media handling skills to take advantage of this development?
Bloomberg LP will start broadcasting Bloomberg Television Indonesia in May, more than 20 years after the financial news and information giant opened a bureau in the world’s fourth-most populous country and Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Andrew Lack, chief executive of Bloomberg Media Group, said that Indonesia had huge potential as a market for media content. Bloomberg LP established the Bloomberg Media Group — a combination of its television, print, radio, mobile and digital media properties — in 2011.
Indonesia’s economy grew 6.2 percent in 2012, among the fastest in the Asia-Pacific region and faster than developed economies in Europe and North America. Among the 10 Asean member states, only the Philippine economy expanded at a faster pace.
“When you are in the finance and business information business, you’ve been watching Indonesia in the past several years … I ask, ‘How do I get to Indonesia and how soon?’” Lack said on Thursday.
A survey by market researcher Nielsen in 2010 estimated that there were around 50 million TV viewers in Indonesia, of which around three million were pay TV viewers. Indonesia has a population of more than 240 million people. Bloomberg LP says on its website that the Bloomberg Television network is available in more than 310 million homes worldwide.
To set up its Indonesia operation, Bloomberg Television has formed a partnership with Idea Group, a media holding company backed by Recapital Group, which is headed by Sandiaga Uno and Rosan Roeslani. Idea Group was also behind the creation of the online marketplace Bukalapak.com.
Adithya Chandra Wardhana, the chief executive of Bloomberg Television Indonesia, said that it planned to work with existing broadcast companies in Indonesia on free-to-air, pay TV, Internet and mobile platforms.
Adithya said that the company had secured a deal with local regional television networks such as Jakarta TV in the capital region, Surabaya TV in East Java and Depok TV in West Java. Bloomberg Television Indonesia is also in talks with Makassar TV to provide content for the eastern part of the country.
Bloomberg Television Indonesia is also in talks with several major pay television networks, Adithya said, but declined to name them, as the deals have yet to be finalized. “We target middle-, upper-class and affluent audiences. We will be the only television network that specializes in business and financial news here,” he said.
“We will create business content in Bahasa Indonesia, about 80 percent local and 20 percent international.”
The company has recruited Kania Sutisnawinata and Tomy Tjokro, both of whom are former Metro TV news anchors, and 50 other journalists.
Bloomberg Television Indonesia will also air live from the Indonesia Stock Exchange every day to its global network, which is expected to benefit Indonesia.
“I think Indonesia will benefit most from the exposure that we bring,” said Parameshwaran Ravindranathan, head of Asia Pacific for Bloomberg Television, based in Hong Kong.
To many people, doctors today generally elicit more contempt than admiration because they have sold themselves out to Mammon. For those of us who have to undergo operation and pay the costs, you wonder if you’d be left for dead if you don’t have the moolah or you forgot to insure yourself.
But every now and again comes a story to restore your faith in the medical profession. Two years ago when Unspun had to have a quadruple bypass he met Dr Rozali Watooth in Malaysia who won his admiration with his skill, humanity and dedication. You can read about it here.
Since then Unspun’s had other heart complications arising from atrial flutter and that was when he was introduced by a good friend to his brother, a cardiologist at the Cinere Heart Hospital in south Jakarta.
The doctor was very competent, humble and helpful but today I learned that he was also a hero. Faced with a dying patient, he put his professional life and future on the line by performing a cardiac procedure on a stranger whose employer who took him to hospital could not pay the fees and whose family could not be contacted.
The doctor was in a double quandary. If he did nothing, the patient would surely die. But if he treated the patient, he not only ran the risk of the hospital he worked in not being paid its due; he could also be sued by the patient’s family for malpractice since they were not there to give him permission to treat the victim.
A legal suit would definitely destroy the career he had wanted since childhood and has spent over a decade building.
What did he do? Here’s an account by his sister, who translated a posting from their brother. I feel so honoured not only to have known and be treated by Dr Jeffrey but also the family, particularly their mother, who raised such fine children.
So here’s a salute to mothers who raised children to do the right things; and to the children who dared to risk it all for what they believed in.
Kinda restores you faith in doctors, doesn’t this?
This is the most worthy story that I ever wrote for my blog. No card. This is just a personal, true story that I feel worth sharing.
I translate this directly from what my younger brother Jerry Aurum wrote:
A seamstress laid in the ICU room of a certain hospital in Jakarta. He was taken there by his employer. A young doctor checked on him and found out that this man had a heart attack and they need to do a coronary stent, that cost hundreds of million in rupiah (thousand of dollars in US currency).
The employer said he couldn’t afford the cost and they couldn’t contact the patient’s family. Dealing with heart attack, each minute counts. In fact within the 15 minutes the patient was in the hospital, his heart stopped 3 times, but each time the doctor was able to revive him.
The doctor asked his colleague what should he do. If they don’t do anything, the patient will die. The colleague said well it is what it is, what can we do. Unsatisfied with the answer, the doctor went t the hospital director. Same answer. As a doctor he’s facing the dilemma, if he takes an action without the permission from the family and the hospital and no way to know how the patient going to pay for the procedure, he is facing a high risk that could cost not only his career but his own life (being a doctor is his life).
At the end, the doctor decided to do the coronary stent on his patient who is dying. Without any way of knowing who would cover the cost for the procedure, without any back up from his colleague or the hospital. And if he failed, he would be the one that being accused by the family as being responsible for the death. In his mind he only think of 1 thing. This patient is only 32 years old and who will feed his little children if he passed away?
With God’s blessing, the patient survived. When the patient’s wife arrived (she’s only a maid with low income), she was so thankful. And the doctor was able to convince the hospital to not charge anything to the patient and asked the employer to help with the cost of the medicine that the patient will really need to stay alive and get well.
A few hours later, this story go around the hospital and became hot topic. Some nurses cried and thank the doctor even though they don’t know who the patient is.
When I heard this, I told the doctor, there’s moment in life that show a doctor his quality as a doctor and there’s also moment that show a doctor his quality as a human being.
This young doctor name is Jeffrey Wirianta, a well known cardiologist in Jakarta who loves being a doctor more than anything. And me, Jerry Aurum, is his younger brother who is so proud to have a brother who truly dedicate his life to his work and even more his dedication to other human being. ~
You see, the cardiologist in this story, Jeffrey Wirianta is my big brother. When I read this post on my younger brother’s Facebook wall, I found myself crying with so much love and admiration. And true to his style, when I told Jeff how proud I am of him, all he said that at that moment all he could think of is saving this man’s life. And that he was afraid. Afraid of what “might happen”.
And that makes me even prouder. That he was afraid, yet he did it anyway. The world need more doctors like him. He always wanted to become a doctor since he was only 5 years old. That’s the only answer he ever gave when people ask him what he’d like to be.
In high school, my mom asked him why he wants to become a doctor and he said to save life. To this day, despite all his success, he stay true to his reason and I know my mom is one proud mom at this moment. If you ask my mom, I know she’d said she reached her life goal, which is to raise decent human being.
Mom, I think you did an amazing job in raising us. Especially with Jeff as he became such a good role model for us to follow. To Jeff, thank you for making me believe that there’s still good people out there. That there’s still real doctor out there who really about saving lives.
Right now, I feel like my heart would burst with so much love and admiration. Jeffrey Wirianta, I am so blessed and proud to have you as my brother. You are the best! Love, love, love.
Apres lui, le déluge? One can only hope
Banda Aceh. An elderly Indonesian said Monday he had won a rare victory against a noisy mosque, despite being forced to withdraw legal action after an angry mob threatened to kill him.
Complaints against the loud speakers issuing the call to prayer have been met with extreme opposition in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation that is home to about 800,000 mosques.
And when Sayed Hasan, 75, filed a lawsuit in December in the city of Banda Aceh, in which he complained of being disturbed by lengthy recordings of Koranic verses, it was met with strong protests from the community.
But Hasan, a Muslim, said despite being taken to see the deputy mayor and Muslim leaders, and then being escorted to the court where he was forced to withdraw his legal suit, he had ultimately won a rare victory.
“I was forced to withdraw my lawsuit as an angry mob threatened to kill me,” he said. “But after I dropped my case, the volume was significantly turned down by about half.”
A local Muslim leader said the imam had decided to reduce the noise.
City dwellers in Indonesia are often woken up before dawn by intermingling calls to prayer from three or four nearby mosques. Many also blare Koranic verses or broadcast day-long events through loudspeakers.
Ninety percent of Indonesia’s 240 million citizens are Muslim. While most practice a moderate form, Aceh province has implemented Sharia law, which is enforced by special Islamic police.
It isn’t eyebrows but heckles that Indonesia’s new education curriculum should raise.
What sort of reasoning goes behind an education philosophy that requires a 10th grade student to learn to be disciplined like an electron, “which always moves within its orbit.” Quacks talking about quarks.
And there’s more shit-for-brains reasoning: Students, proclaim the new curriculum should learn how to behave in a heterogeneous society after studying linear and non-linear equations.
The mind boggles at how presumably educated people can come up with such pseudo-science recommendations with which to shape our children’s minds. But we have them by the spadeful in the Education Ministry and endorsed by the Education Minister Muhamad Nuh.
How can we rid ourselves of such imbeciles in such positions of responsibility and power?
Hans Nicholas Jong, Mon, February 18 2013,
The government has long attempted to incorporate character building in the nation’s education system, but teachers never thought that they would ever be asked to tell students that they would have to learn about discipline from the behavior of electrons — until they saw the new national curriculum.
The Indonesian Teachers Unions Federation (FSGI) has expressed its confusion over the new national curriculum in which the Education and Culture Ministry officials appear to be ridiculously trying to shoehorn civic and religious education into subjects such as chemistry and biology.
“The new curriculum states that a 10th grade student must learn to be disciplined like an electron, which always moves within its orbit,” FSGI secretary-general Retno Listyati told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. “How can my students behave like electrons?”
The teachers were also astounded to learn that they would also be required to use math to instill tolerance in students. “The students are expected to learn how to behave in a heterogeneous society after studying linear and non-linear equations,” she said. “How is that even possible?”
In response to the criticism, Deputy Education and Culture Minister Musliar Kaslim said the new curriculum was simpler and therefore more superior to the current curriculum. “We have integrated and simplified elementary-level subjects. They have been condensed into two books,” he said in a phone interview.
“We have improved what needed to be improved and got rid of heavy material that was burdensome to the students.”
With its thematic and integrated approach, the deputy minister claimed the country’s new curriculum was even better than that of international schools. “Their curriculum is only integrated, while ours is integrated as well as thematic. We apply a holistic approach that unifies diverse subject matters with a central theme.”
Teachers, he said, might initially find it difficult to teach multiple subjects in one class sitting.“If you think about it, then it might seem weird,” he said, adding that once the teachers understood the new curriculum, they would adapt to it.
The ministry, he said, had planned to train highly skilled and qualified teachers to ease them into the new curriculum so they could pass on the skills to other teachers. “We have submitted the list of teachers to the regional administrations,” he said.
“The regional administrations will then review the list and decide on whether the teachers on the list were qualified or not.” The ministry is expected to complete the training, with each session lasting one week, within one month, he said, adding that the training will commence in April.
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Unspun’s agnostic about religion, but cares about discrimination in any form. So when the makers of this film wrote to help them publicise their efforts, Unspun heartily agreed.
The subject matter is intriguing: What did the early Christians in Hindu-steeped Bali experience in propagating their faith? From the title of the project it seems that they experienced discrimination, but in what form and of what severity?
Regardless of your religious persuasion Unspun thinks that this is a project worth paying some attention to so here’s what here’s one of the filmmakers Makrai Balazs wrote to Unspun. Enjoy.
DISCRIMI-NATION FILMDiscrimi‑Nation Project expands the horizon of the classical documentary style and the way we think about social discrimination.
The first episode explores the struggle and rise of Christianity in Bali.
To make this unique project reality we NEED YOUR HELP! Please donate a few dollars on our crowd funding site:http://igg.me/p/318488/x/2183743The project is closing to its finish line: we have got just 1 WEEK LEFT!For further information please visit our website and check our trailer video: