Beware of heading into a crisis
IO - On Wednesday, 5 September 2018, I sent data to nearly 150 journalists from various media, comparing economic and political conditions in 1997/1998, 2008, 2011, and 2018. This data also included a graph...
Where’s the mental revolution?
Where’s the mental revolution?
“Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.”
Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright
“The presidency is not merely an administrative office. That is the least part of it. It is preeminently a...
Freedom From The Press
“Goebbels was in favor of free speech he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. ...
New technology erases the social stigma of former prisoners
IO - Articles and shows about living in correctional facilities displayed in the media easily attract the attention of the masses. Imprisonment has a dark romance because we usually associate “imprisonment” with “worst punishment...
Rupiah continues to slide: how will Pak Jokowi dig us out of this crisis?
IO - The Indonesian Rupiah has been sinking steadily and acutely throughout the year, losing over 7% against its 2015 value. If it continues its downwards slide (and this appears to be quite likely),...
Assessing the candidates (part I): Jokowi’s Mission (should he choose to accept it)
IO - When Jokowi first appeared on the national scene as a presidential candidate, his profile as an outsider and fresh face in politics were assets with an electorate tired of elitism. His promises...
Tawuran: Identity-based violence among students
IO - Recently, another tawuran or student’s mob fighting occurred in Jabodetabek, causing yet another useless loss of life. Tawuran is a sadly frequent reality here in our country. According to Indonesia’s Commission of Child...
The Polling Business
IO - This is a response to the questions asked regarding the vastly differing results from presidential election polls. For example, the polling from ILC-TV One which was very transparent and participated in by...
A truce in the “trade war”?
The Financial Times of July 26 came up with an encouraging headline, “US and EU declare ceasefire in their trade war”. However, its editorial referred to the agreement between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker...
Dying Democracies: The Hard Truth About Jokowi (Part II)
IO - Earlier this year I wrote a column about the decline of liberalism. How serious a decline? According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, which publishes an annual index on democracy, last year was...
Dying Democracies (Part I)
IO - Eric Posner, an American law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, is part of a growing pool of scholars studying the steady decline of democracy, not only in the United...