I Am Bitching Already.
In: Uncategorized
13 Jul 2009
While I chose to abstain from the legislatory election, I decided to vote for the presidential election because I agreed with Parvita – if I voted, I could bitch about it.
I didn’t vote for SBY (if you really want to know, which I’m sure you do) but it didn’t matter anyway. He was made sure to win even before the election had started. A lot of people seemed to like him for some reasons, although I personally thought he hadn’t done enough to this country even during his previous five-year reign.
He couldn’t even maintain a safe and fair electoral process in which everyone could vote. Previously, some people had told me not to abstain because being able to vote was one of my rights as the citizen of Indonesia. But how about the other people who couldn’t vote, simply because they were denied from it?
It was all too apparent even since the beginning of the election process. Everything was so messed up, and amazingly enough, people – or should I say, the media – didn’t seem to give a shit about it. The fact that SBY had won the election was celebrated much to early, they forgot about the 35 million people who had been denied their rights to vote during the presidential election, because the electoral roll had messed it all up.
There were still people who were not registered, therefore they couldn’t use their right to vote. This happened during the legislatory election, but hey, apparently it wasn’t that big a deal.
There were people who had double slots to vote.
There were people who couldn’t vote because the voting booth had run out of voting papers. Go figure.
There were people like himself, who, coming from Semarang and living and working in Jakarta but couldn’t use his right to vote because he only had his identity card; and apparently if a person wanted to use his identity card to vote, the address had to be the same with their current residency. Plus, he must have a family card as well. So himself couldn’t vote because his current address stated that he lived in Semarang, although he worked in Jakarta.
I don’t know about you, but I think that’s really messed up. Do you seriously think a lot of people would go back to their hometown for just one day, right in the middle of the week and everything, just so that they could vote, and then bring their asses back to work the next day? I don’t think so. If someone had Rp. 300,000 to spend for travelling back to their hometown, they’d rather save it for Lebaran so they could spend it for a much better cause.
Even I wouldn’t do it, and I earn a pretty decent salary.
And that’s just talking about the electoral process. Don’t even get me started on other issues.
During SBY’s reigns, religious extremists were – and still are – present and acting up like they own this whole goddamn country. I don’t know why he lets them. Speaking of a peaceful country, I still don’t think it’s happening now.
The Lapindo mud is still eating up Sidoarjo, as we speak. Don’t know when the government is going to solve that shit. They’ll probably just let Sidoarjo disappear and pretend that the people will forget about it. Meanwhile, Bakrie and his money-spending family are still running free from responsibilities.
Malnutrition. Don’t even get me started. This is 2009. We’re a country of great natural resources. It is appalling how a child can be malnutritioned, when our soil can practically grow anything.
Floods in Jakarta. The monsoon season is coming soon. You better get ready, people. Now this could be caused by two things; the government not increasing the public’s awareness enough about the proper way of disposing garbage, and the malls that are eating up the lands in Jakarta, in which the licenses were approved by – tada! – the government!
Um. What else? Ah. Education. They say it’s free. But is it? Are the textbooks free? Or is it just the government’s way of cheating the people by saying that it’s free when it’s not?
And those policies on pornography and IT. What’s next, banning Facebook, or the internet? Why not just go back to the cave era where we are denied of technology?
Last but not least. Corruption. The government must think this is such a fucking joke. How some officials can get away by stealing billions of money from us and only get jailed for four years. Hell, even after they get released, they’ll still have plenty of money left to feed their great-great-grandchildren, and buy a brand new apartment somewhere in Kelapa Gading for their mistresses.
The fact is this; the richer are still getting richer. The poorer are still getting poorer. The politicians are still giving out empty promises, and I see no significant changes whatsoever from the way this country is going. We’re a rich country, but where does all the money go? To the corrupt politician’s pockets of course.
The people are poor not because there’s an economic crisis. I don’t believe in that shit. The people are poor because the government are corrupt. And SBY hasn’t done enough to deal with this at all. Five years is a very long time. And giving only four years jail sentence to someone who’d just made this country poorer than ever, making the people not being able to get proper education, proper jobs and proper lives, that’s the biggest crime of all.
So let’s just see whether SBY could do something different this time. But realistically speaking? I don’t think so. Not if he still thinks watching a soppy movie in the cinema is more important than dealing with the country’s problems. Not if he thinks the biggest threat to this country are premans (aka thugs), instead of corrupt government officials.
- Tags: indonesian government
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15 Responses to I Am Bitching Already.
boy
July 13th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
pasti pilih motor merek Mega-Pro yaaa?
regarding the richer is getting richer, in economics there is a saying:
“pro growth means rising inequalities”
yeah, it totally sucks. but if you don’t like it, you could switch to the communist because apparently none yet in this world has been able to find a better solution or middle-way economic approach.
Finally Woken
July 14th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I think it’s not about SBY himself but putting him against other candidates make him look the best. I can’t imagine someone like Prabowo or Wiranto running the country, they have had committed too much sins in the past. Mega is hopeless and acting like a petulant child and imagine if someone that temperamental runs the country. So it’s not about SBY has done something remarkable for the country, but more, well, we have no other choice. Sad.
Lorraine
July 14th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
I agree 100% with you “The people are poor not because there’s an economic crisis. I don’t believe in that shit. The people are poor because the government are corrupt. And SBY hasn’t done enough to deal with this at all. Five years is a very long time. And giving only four years jail sentence to someone who’d just made this country poorer than ever, making the people not being able to get proper education, proper jobs and proper lives, that’s the biggest crime of all.”
As an apathetic Indonesian citizen living abroad, I didn’t even make an effort to follow the campaign, hence the results wouldn’t matter. Our beloved country is hardly making progress.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and keeping me up dated.
GJ
July 14th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I didn’t vote, not able too, but it is a right that you need to cherish. Why??? because not being allowed to vote is much worst.
Has SBY achieved much??? I don’t know what the past was like but Indonesia has weathered the global crisis much better than many others around here.
The question is could someone else do it better?? If yes vote for them, which you did and good for you in making the effort. But with democracy the majority win, sometime it’s not the right result, but you can have another chance next time.
Just remember 10 years of democracy it’s very long, my country has had over 100 years of it and some people still go hungry and have limited access to medical care and education. It still way better than North Korea though.
Enough of the political lecture, just feel proud than you made the effort as the country gets as a leader what the country deserves as a leader.
GJ
Rob
July 14th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Viva Democracy!
It is not always pretty but it is always better (at least in my little mind) than the alternatives.
Just because it seems that SBY has won with 60% of the vote must not be construed as a vote for SBY and his policies or any supposed success through the first term. It is, as much if not more, a vote against the others who were candidates.
Let’s face it, SBY was running as an incumbent against a former failed president and her sidekick who is an acknowledged human rights abuser, and an egotistical incumbent VP and his sidekick who is currently subject to an Interpol ‘red notice’.
Nah, this win for SBY was more a vote against his opposition than it was a vote for him.
Nice rant though!
Dean Anders
July 15th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Actually, the abstainers (golput) win the election … it is 40%, 33% for SBY, 16% for Mega and the rest goes to JK.
mia
July 15th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I agree with Rob, the vote is not really or SBY but against his opponents. I tend to disagree with the list of “failures” that you wrote because it seems like a LOT of things to do within one term. Let’s face it, this country’s been screwed over too long by the previous presidents that it will take more than 5, heck, 10 years to fix. I personally believe that we very likely won’t live to see Indonesia become a prosperous and truly democratic country – but our children’s children might enjoy it. What SBY can do is only to lay to groundwork towards that direction. Albeit slowly, he’s already started doing that: NPWP, free fiskal, free education (even if not 100% free as yet).
You’re right to say that the election process is a mess because of the registration, KTP, kartu keluarga and all those things. I think the solution would be a single national ID system (contains ID, family card, driving license, voting registration, vaccination history etc) for everyone in Indonesia, that can enable Indonesian citizens within legal voting age to vote no matter where s/he is at the time of election. The Government should try to keep things simple rather than complicated.
parvita
July 17th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I’m happy you voted and happy it’s because of me, LOL. I’m sure it’s not but thanks for the credit anyways.
I agree with Mia, this country has been so screwed up in the past and the corruption seems like still there, but lets be fair, compared to Megawati, Gus Dur and Habibie, he did quite a lot for this country. Tax system has improved, at least, for me, the tax has been lowered. Having our NPWP is easy, go to the tax office and no fee required to apply for our NPWP. Fiscal for going abroad, is erased for those who has NPWP. That’s one thing that I can directly feel.
The DPR was dominated by Golkar and other ‘older’ parties; his party did not have much vote last term. Besides, Kalla as Golkar was his VP, not much he could do with Lapindo, who is owned by Bakrie, a filthy rich Golkar fellow. But this is what I see and maybe this is what most of the people also see in SBY: hope. After our ‘dagelan’ presidents (clowns: the funny technocrat, the blind and the dumb), finally there is someone that is healthy and strong to not make the country even worse. Investors are starting to believe in the stability of Indonesia again. Though some people are still questionable in his cabinet at the moment, I truly hope that SBY-Boediono will be better, knowing Boediono is not from either party.
I do have hope for the next 5 years (until this morning’s bomb)…arrrgh…I hope it will not affect the economy and business in Indonesia because safety and security is one component that SBY was able to achieve to some degree compared to the ex presidents!
Agree with Anita, too, I can’t see Prabowo, the aggressive kind and Wiranto, run the country. Let alone Megawati; she had her chance and we all saw her ‘performance’ in the debate.
As for golput, those who did not vote was not all golput. Like people know, the system is still far from perfect that those who wanted to vote could not. But then how many percent of Americans vote anyways, I don’t think it was even 50% (at least when I was there only about 47% voted).
therry
July 18th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
@All:
I’ve seen SBY’s performance for the past 5 years and I’d like to see someone with a different attitude. If he/she had to be aggresive, then so be it.
The fact is this; SBY is not firm enough to rule Indonesia. Especially with yesterday’s bombing which surprised us all nonetheless.
This kind of incident had hit us so many times and none of us learned from it.
Just now I heard from local TV about SBY’s comment regarding the bombing, in which he said, “Our national security has gotten worse and worse.”
I can’t believe a president could say something like that. Who was responsible for it? Wasn’t he the president since the past 5 years? If someone was to blame for not being able to keep us all secure, it should be him.
This was just like the time when he was telling off some government officials for falling asleep during his speech. Perhaps SBY hasn’t heard the saying of an apple not falling far from the tree. The behavior of his subordinates is just a reflection of his.
That’s great that our economy is looking up. But look how fragile it is that one single drop of a bomb could turn the whole country upside down. What is the use of a great economy when nobody in this country feel safe and secure anymore?
emmy
July 19th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
vote therry for president!
i wish the govr read this, and other postings of ppl’s thoughts bout their govr.. how they’re so blinded with their own obsessions and dont give any shit to their people who expect them to make a change!
i didnt vote, even it’s my first presidential election.
i dont think my credit will be considered even if i vote, since i think they have planned who win the election.
see.. i told u, i wonder if other countries, like UK or singapore, rule Indonesia, myb it’ll be better deh!
but im still hoping, whoever the next president will be, could do better job than the previous 5 years.
Oigal
July 19th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
As Rob says what was the Alternative..Scary indeed.
boy
July 20th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Who was responsible for it? Wasn’t he the president since the past 5 years? If someone was to blame for not being able to keep us all secure, it should be him.
—> if you recall, there were no bombings or major riots for the last 4 years. But during his predecessors’ reign (you know, just like Parvita said, the funny technocrat, the blind, and the dumb) there were bombings and major riots almost every year.
It seems you need someone to blame for 4 years of relatively peaceful situation which tainted by one bombing. That’s fine if you want to point your finger to SBY. This is your blog anyway
Bahtiar
July 21st, 2009 at 9:21 am
The funny technocrat, the blind, the dumb, and … guess who? the cry baby gushy …
Remember when he saw ayat2 cinta? … omg he was crying …
I cant imagine when he watch ketika cinta bertasbih …
And his speech after marriott-ritz bombing, … “look my people, i have intelligent data which is sombedy gonna hurt me – in other words he will say, … “i am the victim too … have pity on me, please”
SBY has bad luck too … aceh’s tsunami, jogja’s earthquake, airplane accidents, lapindo-mud, situgintung-little-tsunami, … and then marriott bombing 2nd, … so … what would be happen again … just another accidents?
Frankly, i dont like him without any reason … i just dont like him … just
rima fauzi
July 21st, 2009 at 8:48 pm
hey you..
sorry i havent been blogwalking in such a long time that I dont even know you had a new post.. (you usually tell me about it but this time you didn’t)
for me they’re all incompetent, and I really dont care who wins (although id much prefer it not be jusuf kalla) that’s why i didnt care to vote. i really believe that whoever wins things will stay the same, terrorists will still be supported and not condemned, corruption will still be our way of life and all the poor people will still be neglected.
call me a pessimist, but that’s how i see things..
btw, miss talking to you..
Diny
August 12th, 2009 at 8:49 am
nice writing, therry. nice flow, built up to a great conclusion. i could feel your frustration and was actually feeling a bit bitchy too as i was reading it.
for me, as soon as there’s a candidate who’d be able to give his/her solid, believable and promising word to ‘take care’ of the religious extremists -and i really mean ‘take care’ of them, put an end to it, no more ‘basa basi- then i’d probably vote from afar too.