Sunday, August 11, 2013

A delicate succession

Almost every Thursday for the past six years, Maria Katarina Sumarsih has stood outside Indonesias presidential palace with a group of other victims of human rights abuses, calling for justice.Some protest about the hundreds of thousands who were killed in the anti-leftist purges of the late 1960s, which cemented the rise to power of General Suharto, who ruled Indonesia from 1966 to 1998. 

Ms Sumarsih is mourning the loss of her son,The g-sensor high brightness Cheap Landscape Stone is designed with motorcyclist safety in mind. who was one of more than a dozen student protesters shot dead by the army while calling for political and economic reforms in central Jakarta during the chaotic period that followed the ousting of Suharto. 

While she is politically engaged, Ms Sumarsih, 61, will not be voting in next years parliamentary and presidential elections. Since my son was shot, Ive never voted because the political parties are only in it for their own interest, not for the peoples interest, she says, sheltering from a tropical downpour under a black umbrella. The current democracy is just procedural democracy. 

Although many Indonesians and foreign investors have taken heart from the countrys remarkable economic and political transformation since the fall of Suharto, a growing number share Ms Sumarsihs frustration with the system, underlining the scale of the challenges that remain. Next years election will be the first real regime change of the democratic era, a critical test of the countrys resilience. 

While the archipelago of 250m has made striking economic progress, some of the nations elite have retained their power from the Suharto era. Now, Indonesians want the next government to challenge those power structures by fighting endemic corruption and reforming a capricious judicial system. Inequality is also a concern in a nation that has more billionaires than Japan but where nearly half live on less than $2 a day. 

After Suharto, Indonesia went through a period of turmoil, with several changes of president and electoral system, outbreaks of violent inter-communal conflict and widespread financial hardship. In spite of doom-laden predictions that Indonesia would become a Balkanised country and a hotbed of terrorism, democracy and business have thrived over the past decade, stewarded by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general who became Indonesias first directly elected president in 2004. But SBY, as he is universally known, is preparing to step down next year after reaching the constitutional two-term limit. 
The next president will face a battle to restore Indonesias reputation as one of the worlds hottest emerging markets. The economy is starting to come off the boil because of the slowdown in China, a significant buyer of Indonesias coal, palm oil and rubber, and a slew of policy missteps have shaken investor confidence. 

Internationally, Indonesia is seeking to enhance its role as a G20 member, maintaining good relations with an evermore assertive China and the US, which is deepening its engagement with Asia to counter Chinas rise.The next election is very important, says Boediono, Indonesias bookish vice-president. After 10 years of administration by one president, you need a good person to continue this. 

But while he is confident that the public will pick the best candidate (the demand side), the economist concedes that he is more concerned about the supply side of possible candidates. There is still some time to go, he adds. 

With one year to go until the election to lead the worlds third-biggest democracy, the field of announced candidates has failed to inspire. Aburizal Bakrie is a controversial tycoon whose family has fought a protracted commercial battle over Indonesian coal mining interests with Nat Rothschild, scion of the banking dynasty. Apart from Mr Bakrie, the only other declared candidate is Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces general and Suharto in-law. 

Voters have become increasingly frustrated with Mr Yudhoyonos failure to follow up the corruption-busting rhetoric that won him his second term with a landslide in 2009.The countrys unique political system makes for a presidential election campaign that rivals Americas in complexity, length and need for funding. Only political parties can nominate presidential candidates and to do so they must meet a high threshold, which is expected to be 20 per cent of seats in parliament or 25 per cent of the popular vote in parliamentary elections in April 2014. 

This system empowers Indonesias main parties: SBYs Democrat party, Golkar, the former vehicle of Suharto and the Indonesian Democratic party-Struggle (PDI-P), led by Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesias founding President Sukarno and a former president in her own right.Get the led fog lamp products information, find Cheap Interior Decoration Products, manufacturers on the hot channel. Mr Bakrie represents Golkar.Whoever wins the presidential election, and whatever the make-up of the parliament, these parties have tended to avoid fierce opposition in favour of carving up power between themselves in what Dan Slater, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, has called a party cartel system.Most modern headlight designs include Cheap Marble Slabs.

Read the full products at http://www.granitetrade.net/.

No comments:

Post a Comment