Will the heroes finally be remembered?

The problem with Indonesia's history is it's Javanese-centric theme. Thanks to our great first two presidents, Soekarno and Soeharto, we forget the struggle of independence in other province.

One of the forgotten struggle was the underground movement of Pemerintah Darurat Republik Indonesia (Indonesia's Emergency Government / PDRI) which led by Sjafruddin Prawiranegara in 1948 - 1949. The PDRI has successfully kept Indonesia's spirit alive and broadcasted the our father's struggle to foreign countries. It continuously told the world Indonesia was exist and would never stop fighting until Netherlands affirm our independence.

The ignorance scheme began when Netherlands finally surrendered and affirmed our independence. However, Sukarno's greedy of power has made their struggle forgotten. It should be Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, not Soekarno, who had right to sign the treaty.

The signing of treaty by Soekarno who was at the time in Netherland's control has caused the treaty interpreted as the sovereignity transfer from Netherlands to Indonesia instead of acknowledgement of Indonesia's independence of 1945. No wonder, until recently, the Dutch and Europes does not acknowledge 1945 as the year of Indonesia's independence. Sutan Sjahrir, one of our wisest founding father realized what happened and criticized Soekarno. And that was the fallen of our triumvirate ( Tritunggal ) become duumvirate ( Dwitunggal ) which eventually became the Dictatorate of Soekarno in 1959.

The Dictatorate of Soekarno or also known as Old Orde ( Orde Lama ) was the nightmare for most of our founding fathers. Sutan Sjahrir was slandered by communist and imprisoned by Soekarno in 1962. Mohammad Hatta, became hermit and only giving lectures without involve in any political movement ( and being stamped as a coward by Soe Hok Gie). Most of PDRI's cabinet including Sjafruddin Prawiranegara was imprisoned for being accused as involved in rebellion of Pemerintahan Revolusioner Republik Indonesia ( Revolution Government of Republic Indonesia / PRRI ) in 1961.

PRRI itself is a unique rebellion. It protest the Soekarno's tendency to favor Partai Komunis Indonesia ( Indonesia's Communist Party / PKI ) and Java-centric policy and Soekarno's ignorance to other province. The supporter of the rebellion were too much so when central government finally subdued the rebel, they have to give mass amnesty.

Both of PRRI and Permesta were independence. However, the United States policy to against communist has made them supported. However, the support never came to real because US withdrew the support immediately after their pilot, Allen Lawrence Pope was shot and fell. However, the short incidents has made central government easily stamped them as Puppet of US.

When the regime was changed, when the Soekarno fell and Soeharto rose, our forgotten heroes' name did not rehabilitated. They were remembered as rebel to Indonesia's sovereignity and United States' puppet and less attention taken to the reason behind rebellion. The Java-centric government enslaved the other province for more than 30 years.

And we, the young generation forget how Indonesia was not founded by Javanese alone. We have people from Borneo ( Kalimantan ) and Celebes ( Sulawesi ). We forget how people from West Sumatra ( Minangkabau people) contributes a lot to our 1945 constitution ( Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 ).

Hence, if we still love Indonesia, we still believe there is such thing as Indonesia, we should remember our founding fathers, not only the Javanese one, but also from other province. Not only those who support central governments, but also those who criticized the central governments.


References:
Detik.com. Presiden Diminta Pulihkan Tokoh-tokoh PDRI. http://www.detiknews.com/index.php/detik.read/tahun/2006/bulan/07/tgl/26/time/215344/idnews/643917/idkanal/10 Last Accessed at 30th July 2006

Preventing the ummah divided or covering up the haqq?

As some of you have already known, Saudi Arabia has betrayed Muslims and there were no mass-media publish this treachery except MetroTV in a small parts in Headline News.

Yesterday, in Antara, in Pelatihan Menulis di Media Massa (Workshop of Writing in Mass Media) I met someone from Infopalestina.com and asked whether he knew the Saudi Arabia's fatwa. He answered he did know the fatwa but he (and his friends) didn't publish it because they afraid it will divide the ummah ( memecah belah umat ).

Indeed the ummah has been divided in the past and since the announcing of the fatwa, the ummah in middle east were become more divided, those who join Saudi Arabia with Wahhabi and those who agree with Ikhwanul-Muslimin in Egypt (who against Wahhabi's fatwa).

Will we become divided if our mass-media publish the foolish fatwa of Wahhabi?

I don't think so.

Indeed most of muslims in Indonesia are Sunnies. We have lot of disagreement with our brothers, the Shiites. However, has the facts ever inhibited us from be kind to them? Never!

We welcome The President of Iran, Ahmadinejad. We welcome Iran's movie. We support Iran for building Nuclear Reactor for their powerplant. And of course, we protest the aggression of Israel to Lebanon.

Now, look at what happened since the treachery was not published in Indonesia?
We protest the Israel (which they won't listened, especially since they have no embassy in here) and United State of America and United Nations but no one protest The Traitor, Arab Saudi.

Everytime an Indonesian doing umrah or hajj, he has paying money to The Traitor who try to prevent Muslims from helping his brother in Lebanon.

Everytime an Indonesian worker ( Tenaga Kerja Wanita / TKW )buying food or stuff in Arab Saudi, she has helped the Arabs to pay his taxes to The Traitor whose works are spreading Wahhabism to all of muslim world, dividing the Ummah to sects, Sunni and Shiite.

We criticize a cruel edict announced by Israel but we do not criticize Arab Saudi for their stupid-foolish-and treasonous fatwa.

Covering this fact is helping dividing ummah. Covering this fact is imprisoning the Ummah into their own environment, unsympathetic to other's problem.

"...Be upholders of justice for the sake of Allah as witnesses to the truth. Let not the hatred of any people move you away from justice. Deal justly. That is closer to being upright..." (Quran 5:8, Shabbir Ahmed's rendition)


I remember a story about the previous Pope, John Paul II. One day, he heard his cardinals criticized the cruelty of Serbia (which was representing Protestants in their opinion) to Bosnia-Herzegovina. The wise Pope, hearing their critics, told them not to forget that Croatia (which was Catholics) also attacked Bosnia-Herzegovina. He told them to be fair.

You, Muslims should be ashamed of yourself!!



Some people may said the ettiquette of criticizing a leader or such thing like that. They will say to critics quietly without hurting those people in public. They're correct if the mistakes did not injure the others. They're correct if there is no injustice being done by the mistakes. But this fatwa was an injustice and hurt people both in Palestine and Lebanon. And by covering this fatwa, we have doing injustice.

"Allah loveth not that evil should be noised abroad in public speech, except where injustice hath been done... " (Quran 4:148, Yusuf Ali's Translation)


... and God is sufficient as witness

Behind ORI (Obligasi Ritel Indonesia)

ORI? Are you sure?

It started a few weeks ago when I read a post which promoted ORI (Obligasi Ritel Indonesia) in ILUNI-12 mailing list. And then, I read tabloid Kontan promoted ORI in last three weeks (CMIIW). If you don't understand the idea behind "obligasi" you may trapped in to government's gimmick "The Promising Investation"

Disclaimer:
I'm neither an economic expert nor student of economics. You have to re-check what I said. I've just lucky by being a son of a bank employee. This article was made to my friends who neither economic expert nor student of economics.

Obligasi means "debt". End of story.
When you buy an ORI certificate, means you just lend the government money.

Aha! You should started to understand why the ORI was backed up by Bill of Government's Letter of Debt (Undang-Undang Surat Utang Negara).

Then what? Government will owe me moneys. Isn't it cool?
Well.. the problem is do you believe your government? Do you believe our government can pay their debt to us? Where do you think the government can have money to pay the interest?

Imagine the worst case:
What if our government broke in the future? How they can repay the debt to obligasi holder? Well.. in my mind there are two ways

1. Adding a new debts to pay the old debts whether it is foreign debts or domestic debts (obligasi), or
2. ask PERURI (Percetakan Uang Republik Indonesia / Publisher of Republic Indonesia's Money) to print more money. I hope they will not choose this or they'll make the same mistake as Sukarno's government's mistake.


Well.. in the end, there is a proverb in my family: "If you want to lend someone an amount of money, you should be ready to lose the money".

PS: another links ( I don't write this post based on those links.. it was purely came from my brain)
http://seputarekonomi.blogspot.com/2006/04/ironi-sektor-riil-dan-finansial.html
http://seputarekonomi.blogspot.com/2006/06/hati-hati-dengan-sun.html
http://seputarekonomi.blogspot.com/2006/07/iklim-investasi-vs-ori.html

The 14th Indonesian Otomotif

In Balai Sidang, Jakarta Convention Centre.

I think my comment is not needed. One picture is worth than one thousand words.








Hehehe.. This is what happened when cartoons turn out to be real..









Honestly, from all of cars exhibited in this show, I like this futuristic car made by Toyota. See the dashboard and its steer. Looks like Startrek doesn't it?







This one is an absurd robot.. ha ha ha ha







Whoa!!
Don't ask me this one..
This Venom car maybe the coolest car in the exhibition but it useless. Only one passenger (which is the driver himself) and there are too many speaker.

Who is In Violation?

The following paragraphs was post by Greg Kavalec from Texas in a forum.
I copied this because I agree to some points he wrote. The other points haven't been verified by me, yet.

Henry Lowi asks searching questions...

In the current Israel-Lebanon conflict (in which my relatives' home in Carmiel has been destroyed, and visiting Canadians have been incinerated in South Lebanon), the propaganda war is key. Here are some quick points to remember in the propaganda war:

1. Israel says that the Lebanese government is in violation of UN resolutions that require the Lebanese government to exercise state sovereignty in southern Lebanon, and disarm the militias.

We ask:
Since when does Israel comply with UN resolutions?
Since when does Israel respect state sovereignty?

2. Hizbullah is denounced as a "terrorist" organization by the army that it defeated.

We ask:
Since its founding in 1982, how many non-combatant Israeli civilians has Hizbullah killed?
In that same period, how many non-combatant Lebanese civilians have the Israeli forces killed?

3. Hizbullah is accused of having raided into sovereign Israeli territory and attacked and killed and captured Israeli soldiers on border patrol.

We ask:
Since its founding, how many Israeli soldiers has Hizbullah killed inside Israel?
How many Israeli soldiers has Hizbullah killed inside Lebanon?
How many Lebanese, captured by Israel inside Lebanon , is Israel holding?

4. Hizbullah has weapons that go beyond the traditional guerrilla arsenal, obviously supplied to it by Syria or Iran or both. At the same time, the Lebanese state has no air defences to speak of, and its armed forces play no role in defending the people of Lebanon.

We ask:
Why shouldn't a guerrilla organization, operating in southern Lebanon, have weapons, including longer-range rockets? Is Lebanon not threatened by its southern "neighbour"?
Aren't the Israeli forces fully armed, in fact, better armed?

5. The idea that, alongside Israel there should be a "demilitarized Palestinian state" (Geneva Agreement) or a Lebanon armed only with rifles, is an idea that goes hand-in-hand with domination and subjugation. In any war, each side seeks to disarm, dominate and subjugate the other, and each side seeks the weapons that are appropriate for that purpose.

We ask:
So, what is Israel's complaint?
Which states are the suppliers of Israel's arsenal? Who supplies what?

Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said that Israel is "changing the rules of the game" in Lebanon, and warned that "nothing is safe in Lebanon, as simple as that". But, everyone knows that what goes around comes around. That is why people are fleeing Haifa southward or taking cover in fortified rooms. The lives of Israeli non-combatant civilians are of no concern to Halutz. Nor are the lives of Israeli soldiers captured in battle. All are victims of Israeli militarism.

The familiar dance of death, orchestrated by the Israeli militarists and ethnic cleansers, will continue, with ebbs and flows, with ceasefires and "peace processes" and open conflagrations, with unimaginable misery, death and destruction, UNTIL the people of Palestine, Arabs and Jews, rise up to "change the rules of the game", to overthrow the Zionist pyromaniacs and poisoners of wells, and to rebuild the country on a new basis, on a basis that respects democracy and human rights and good-neighbourly relations.

All anti-war efforts in Israel, and all solidarity efforts abroad, should be directed to this goal.

Another post of Greg Kavalec was an opinion written by an Israel Jews and published in Haaretz.com (an Israel website):

Operation Peace for the IDF
By Gideon Levy

Every neighborhood has one, a loudmouth bully who shouldn't be provoked into anger. He's insulted? He'll pull out a knife. Spat in the face? He'll draw a gun. Hit? He'll pull out a machine gun. Not that the bully's not right - someone did harm him. But the reaction, what a reaction! It's not that he's not feared, but nobody really appreciates him. The real appreciation is for the strong who don't immediately use their strength. Regrettably, the Israel Defense Forces once again looks like the neighborhood bully. A soldier was abducted in Gaza? All of Gaza will pay. Eight soldiers are killed and two abducted to Lebanon? All of Lebanon will pay. One and only one language is spoken by Israel, the language of force.

The war that the IDF has now declared on Lebanon and before it on Gaza, will never be considered another "war of no choice." Let's save that debate from the historians. This is unequivocally a war of choice. The IDF absorbed two painful blows, which were particularly humiliating, and in their wake went into a war that is all about restoring its lost dignity, which on our side is called "restoring deterrent capabilities." Neither in Lebanon nor certainly in Gaza, can anyone formulate the real goals of the war, so nobody knows for sure what will be considered victory or an achievement. Are we at war in Lebanon? With Hezbollah? Nobody knows for sure. If the goal is to remove Hezbollah from the border, did we try hard enough over the last two years through diplomatic channels? And what's the connection between destroying half of Lebanon and that goal? Everyone agrees that "something must be done." Everyone agrees that a sovereign state cannot remain silent when it is attacked within its own borders, though in Israel's eyes Lebanese sovereignty was always subject to trampling, but why should that non-silence be expressed solely by an immediate and all-out blow?

In Gaza, a soldier is abducted from the army of a state that frequently abducts civilians from their homes and locks them up for years with or without a trial - but only we're allowed to do that. And only we're allowed to bomb civilian population centers.

The painful steps taken in Gaza, which included dropping a one-ton bomb on a residential building, or killing an entire family of seven children under cover of darkness in Lebanon, killing dozens of residents, bombing an airport, cutting off electricity and water to hundreds of thousands of people for months were a response lacking any justification, legitimacy or proportion. What goal did it serve? Was the soldier released? Did the Qassams stop? Was deterrence restored? None of that happened. Only lost honor was supposedly restored, and immediately the next evil wind showed up, this time from the north.

Two more soldiers were abducted and it was clearly proven that the deterrent power was not restored, while IDF failures repeated themselves. How does one erase those searing failures? On the backs of innocent populations. In Lebanon, the situation is more complicated. There is no Israeli occupation and no justification for provoking Israel. If Hezbollah is so worried about its Palestinian brethren, it should have first of all done something for the hundreds of thousands of refugees living in camps in Lebanon in conditions that are just as bad as those under the Israeli occupation, before it grabbed soldiers in their name.

But does the fact that Hezbollah is a cynical organization that exploits the misery of Palestinians for its own purposes justify the disproportionate reaction? The concept that we have totally forgotten is proportionality. While we're in no hurry to get to the negotiating table, we're eager to get to the battlefield and the killing without delay, without taking any time to think. That deepens suspicions that we need a war every few years, with terrifying repetition, even if afterward we end up back in exactly the same position.

The war we declared on Lebanon has already exacted from us, and of course from Lebanon, too, a heavy price. Did anyone give any thought to the question whether it should be paid?

Everyone knows how this war begins, but does anyone know how it ends? Heavy casualties in the Israeli rear? A war with Syria? A general war? Is it all worth it? Look what a new rookie government can do in such a short time.

Behind the operations in Lebanon and Gaza is the same foolish idea about pressure on the population leading to political changes that Israel wants. In the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, that concept has only led us from one disaster to the next. We "cleansed" southern Lebanon of Palestinians in 1982, and what did we get? Hezbollahstan instead of Fatahland. Hamas won't fall because Gaza is in the dark, and not even because we bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building at the weekend - another nonsensical move; Hezbollah won't be smashed because the international airport in Beirut has been put out of commission.

Israel once again is not distinguishing between a justified war against Hezbollah and an unjust and unwise war against the Lebanese nation. The camouflage concealing the war's real goals was ripped off by this defense minister, who says what he means: "Nasrallah is going to get it so bad that he will never forget the name Amir Peretz," he bragged, like a typical bully. Now at least we know that Israel went to war so that the name Amir Peretz is never forgotten. It's the war for the perpetuation of the name Peretz and the blurring of Dan Halutz's failures. And to hell with the cost.

The Treasonous Arab Saudi

Curse you.. 'O Family of Saud..
Woe to you.. 'O Wahabbi Ulama...

You should be ashamed, dividing us into sect and prevent us protesting the injustice happened in Lebanon and Palestine.

I'm not Shiite but what you did was a betrayal to Quran, Muslims, and Human Rights.


For you who didn't understand, read the following news:
Leading Saudi Sheik Pronounces Fatwa Against Hezbollah
Saudi Military Spending Rising to Meet Iran's Threat
Saudi Arabia seeks Lebanon Ceasefire in Meeting with Bush, Rice


What?
I can't hear you?
Do you believe the Saudi's nonsense? Do you believe Hezbollah was nothing more than Iran's puppet to dominate the world?

Then, you should read:
Attacking Iran Will Not Stop The Violence on Lebanon


Remember, O' Muslim!
And what is wrong with you that you fight not in the Cause of Allah, and for those weak, illtreated and oppressed among men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You one who will protect, and raise for us from You one who will help." (Quran 4:75, Hilali-Khan Translation)

For Muslim in Indonesia..
None of printed media mass published this. The only mass media I found reporting this treachery was TV stations.. and they didn't realize how treasonous Arab Saudi. They just though it was a small news.

Spread this news! or if you may check the news first before telling your friends..

US ally Saudi Arabia last week criticised Hezbollah and its backer Iran, saying "elements" and "those behind them" were responsible for the Israeli offensive.

The comments provoked heated debate in the Arab world, where there is strong sympathy for resistance to perceived US-Israeli hegemony in the region.

On Monday, Riyadh stepped up its criticism of Lebanese and Palestinian militants, saying their actions had allowed Israel to wage war against their people. ( see this link )

Coward!!
Being silence because afraid is one thing.. But speak up, pronounce fatwa, and condemn those warrior who fight for injustice, who tried to help Palestine by distracting Israel is treachery!

Woe to you Arab Saudi..
I don't care if you are guardian of Two Cities.. In the past, Qurasy were the guardian of Kabah.. and Rasulullah fought them of being injustice.

You are not suited to be guardian of Kabah..