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01 December 2004 - The government says it will gradually liberalize the domestic fuel market over the next five years, with the aim of completely eliminating costly fuel subsidies by 2010. "In the year 2010, fuel prices will be determined by the mechanism of healthy and appropriate competition, and the government will only give special help to replace ... ( read on )
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27 November 2004 - As soon as Tana Toraja was introduced to me, it was taken away as well. I still remember the fact that I agreed on those meagre four days in Tana Toraja ‘because my schedule is too tight’, as it always is. In the van, just leaving the hotel for the last time, I was ... ( read on )
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20 November 2004 - Finally we found ourselves in the heart of Tana Toraja, seen as one of the few places in Indonesia where tourists go to see something that has to do with the everyday life, which is also ‘protected’ by the Indonesian government. It’s good that they see that such an important part of Sulawesi (and ... ( read on )
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15 November 2004 - The new government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono faces a staggering array of problems — rampant corruption, continuing human rights abuses by the military, massive unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, and a judicial and law enforcement system that is little more than a legalised mafia.
Yudhoyono also faces an electorate that expects him to do something ... ( read on )
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13 November 2004 - Just outside Sengkang we brought a visit to some houses with traditional weaving installations under their house. In this way they are protected from the sun’s direct heat and they are working close to home. It’s nice to see the fabrics being produced in front of your nose, too bad it’s nothing for me ... ( read on )
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06 November 2004 - On a usual early morning, around seven, I woke up from my last night in Bira, a small coastal town on the lifted coral sediments of the south-western tip of Sulawesi. It was time to get dressed, have some breakfast, which isn’t much choice here, but well, it’s Bira, a place with only a ... ( read on )
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30 October 2004 - On several different occasions, I travelled by train over Jawa. Some of the trips were made in the evening or at night, so there wasn’t much to see except some white lights from distant villages and every once in a while a train station where we made a short stop to let other trains ... ( read on )
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20 October 2004 - For the first time in history, Indonesia has a president who was directly elected by the people. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla, or more popularly known as SBY and JK, will have taken oath this morning, as the country's new president and vice president. Hopes are high that the pair can make a ... ( read on )
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13 September 2004 - My mobile phone had been ringing incessantly and beeping a series of text messages when I first learned that my husband was hurt in the blast at the Australian Embassy on Thursday. I was ignoring it as I was in the middle of an interview during an assignment to East Nusa Tenggara, nearly 2,000 ... ( read on )
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06 September 2004 - Uncluttered by tenses, prepositions and grammatical quirks, Indonesia’s national tongue was once a gift to travellers who quickly grasped the basics. Now a bizarre passion for acronyms is threatening to engulf the language, leaving visitors and even locals lost in translation.
As more phrases are mangled into this ugly alphabet soup, academics fear tourists ... ( read on )
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25 August 2004 - All over the world bilateral relations and regional cooperation are flourishing, even if only a few people have noticed. The globalization of the economy is being followed by the globalization of politics. In the next ten years new worldwide networks will arise in response to global issues. Governments and societies are seeking closer ties ... ( read on )
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17 August 2004 - Indonesia will celebrate its 59 anniversary on Tuesday and many people nationwide are planning to welcome the anniversary by holding festivities around the special day. The Jakarta Post talked to city residents on what they planned to do on Aug. 17.
Ratna Sarumpaet, 55, is a playwright and chairwoman of the Jakarta Arts Council: I ... ( read on )
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13 August 2004 - From Jogja, it’s just a short trip by motorbike to Solo, also known as Surakarta. Short is relative, because it takes about as long as a train ride from my current hometown of Eindhoven to Amsterdam, somewhere between 75 and 90 minutes. The road to Solo is quite easy. In fact it’s one long ... ( read on )
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11 July 2004 - On my motorbike, enjoying the beauty of the Indonesian landscape – preferrably outside the cities – I see a lot of strange things. At least, they are strange in my western point of view. Some things make me wonder how they even got there.
 Most ... ( read on )
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03 July 2004 - Campaigning by the five candidates contesting the politically powerful post of president of the Indonesian Republic officially ended on Wednesday. Voting in the country’s first-ever direct presidential election is due to take place on Monday.
An air of unreality marked the entire campaign. All the candidates share the same basic right-wing nationalist outlook and belong ... ( read on )
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10 June 2004 - Borobudur temple rises in an immense dark stone pyramid from a fertile volcanic plain, a spiritual monument at the centre of a battle over tourism and commerce.
Indonesia's fortunes have waned since the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the world's largest Buddhist monument with its tourist pulling power is a cash ... ( read on )
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31 May 2004 - Airports are fun, not only in Indonesia, but everywhere on the world. After flying to Indonesia several times I have seen the airports of Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Zurich, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Denpasar, Surabaya and Makassar. Not an impressive number, but it’s still growing longer. However the remote destinations always seem more attractive for ... ( read on )
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30 May 2004 - He has established direct air links with Singapore and is negotiating similar links with Malaysia. And now, the Sultan of Yogyakarta province in central Java wants to change the value system of his bureaucrats to make them more entrepreneurial and understand the needs of foreign investors.
'Economically, I have a process of five years to ... ( read on )
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24 May 2004 - Soaring oil prices have again been creating headlines in the economic sections of most newspapers. After climbing about 40 percent last year, oil prices have continued to gyrate widely over the past two weeks.
Crude oil on the New York commodity market breached the psychologically significant level of US$40/barrel to hit a 13-year high of ... ( read on )
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16 May 2004 - After going to the airport in the early morning, flying to Surabaya and Makassar, driving from Makassar airport, which is in fact located in the town of Maros, to a little town of Bira, located along the southerneastern coast of the southwestern peninsula of Sulawesi, the day ended and the evening begun. As I ... ( read on )
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28 April 2004 - Well don’t get scared or shocked after having a look at the pictures above because that’s not pics from Iraq, Somalia, Palestine or even Aceh. But from my most favorite military enthusiast club Code 4 where I myself am a member – a club that is very different from any sports club. A sport ... ( read on )
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27 April 2004 - Asep, a Jakarta parking-lot attendant, rejoiced in 1998 when Indonesian strongman Suharto was overthrown after three decades of authoritarian rule. But democracy hasn't proved to be quite the boon he and so many other Indonesians expected. In some ways, says Asep, his life is worse now than ever before. Under Suharto, he says, at ... ( read on )
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10 April 2004 - In a series of short stories I will shine a light on things I have seen, I have done, I have smelled and touched in my three weeks stay in Indonesia (Jogjakarta and Sulawesi) in March 2004. Many things tend to fade away as soon as you are back home, picking up your daily ... ( read on )
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04 April 2004 - In a series of short stories I will shine a light on things I have seen, I have done, I have smelled and touched in my three weeks stay in Indonesia (Jogjakarta and Sulawesi) in March 2004. Many things tend to fade away as soon as you are back home, picking up your daily ... ( read on )
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03 April 2004 - Indonesia's old guard is eyeing a comeback in Monday's parliamentary elections, with nostalgia for the stability and economic growth of ousted autocrat Suharto's rule seen returning his former party to prominence. Around 90 percent of the 147 million eligible voters in the world's most populous Muslim nation are expected to take part in ... ( read on )
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22 March 2004 - On behalf of The United States-Indonesia Society and the National Commission on United States-Indonesia Relations, I thank you for this opportunity to present my perspectives on some of the major trends and challenges shaping priorities for U.S. policy in Southeast Asia. I returned yesterday from two weeks in Indonesia and also look forward to ... ( read on )
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24 February 2004 - The power behind the throne smiles. Mr Taufik Kiemas, the garrulous husband of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, sips hot Javanese tea and munches kueh lapis as he talks animatedly about his wife's impending re-election. He should know. The 59-year-old Sumatran-born business tycoon is the dalang or puppet master in the courts of power, working quietly ... ( read on )
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20 February 2004 - Staying in Jakarta for almost 5 years now inspired me to scribble this experiences and I would like to share with my readers in this article.
First I would mention if a westerner in Jakarta is being called bule we Indians in Jakarta normally hear or get teased by the (Bollywood) Indian movie song ... ( read on )
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19 February 2004 - Describing myself I am the thin slim 100,000 rupiah note that was printed years in a government workshop.The day I was born I was transferred to a bank with a bunch of my friends who were one by one were leaving for the free world.
Having a picture of Sukarno and Hatta on myself I ... ( read on )
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16 February 2004 - The Supreme Court decision overturning the conviction of House Speaker Akbar Tanjung landed with the thud of a police baton on the future of reform in Indonesia. The ruling will have its most direct impact on the July 5 presidential election, but ripples will be felt throughout society. Despite some potential bright spots in ... ( read on )
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06 February 2004 - Before he slipped into unconsciousness, six-year-old Kaptan Boonmanuj told his mother, "Mum, my chest feels like it's going to explode." On Jan. 26, after two weeks in a coma, Kaptan died in Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital, becoming Thailand's first victim of avian flu. His parents returned home to the hamlet of Ben Ya Pad, deep ... ( read on )
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04 February 2004 - Recent violence in Central Sulawesi highlights the nature and gravity of the terrorist threat in Indonesia. Analysis suggests that while the shorter-term prospects are somewhat encouraging, there is an under-appreciated, longer-term security risk.
The International Crisis Group’s latest report, Indonesia Backgrounder: Jihad in Central Sulawesi,* takes as a starting point an outbreak of violence ... ( read on )
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03 February 2004 - Election fever along with the inevitable campaigning essentially began as soon as the legislation was finalized by the House of Representatives (DPR) in mid-2003.
Efforts are already underway to mobilize funding to establish local committees, and prospective candidates have been selected and proposed from the various political parties. Based on the amended Constitution, there are ... ( read on )
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28 January 2004 - Every day now onwards since the busy way project has launched in Jakarta the media has been following it like Tom and Jerry cartoons. The media has not left any single incident happened unheard, from ever the busway has launched like long queues, drivers protest, accident s, and small incidents which make them ... ( read on )
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23 January 2004 - There are no actual proof in the existence of ghosts. When approaching claims made by people who have seen ghosts, we should approach those claims with skepticism. Before we accept those claims to be true, we should consider every single aspect of those claims from every different angle until there's no room for doubts, ... ( read on )
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21 January 2004 - Jakarta, a city which is famous for its night life, discos, pubs has also a hidden unmasked Zorro's which we call gigolos who never show up them selves freely in normal daily life.
Lapangan Banteng, a place in the heart of the city near Senen is a chosen place for these hidden folks to appear ... ( read on )
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18 January 2004 - Indonesia faces three national elections in 2004, including a presidential vote, but they are unlikely to bring fundamental change. Citizens are increasingly disillusioned with the half-decade of democracy and “money politics” they have experienced since the collapse of Soeharto’s authoritarian New Order.
The first election, on 5 April 2004, will fill almost 16,000 seats in ... ( read on )
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14 January 2004 - Superstition, facts and fantasy are a very common daily chit-chat life in our own metropolitan city Jakarta. Real Stories from Jakarta s own streets are a proof for this fact or fiction.
Places like the Ancol Bridge (Hantu Jembatan Ancol) which is still heard to be haunted by a girl who was raped and murdered ... ( read on )
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