10 Jul
Not Back To Skool
First the good news.
Six elections were held on Tuesday in Lampung district, South Sumatra, for regents and mayors. All candidates had to have the backing of political parties. Abdurizal Bakrie, chairman of the Golkar Party and probably the most reviled national politician in Indonesia, campaigned and predicted at least four victories.
Golkar was “soundly trounced” in five of the elections.
Now the not so new bad news.
Some stats from a recent Post editorial show that there is concern that many Indonesian children miss out on what is euphemistically called education but in fact is schooling.
National Education Minister Muhammad Nuh said that last year, around 1.7 percent of primary school students in the country were unable to finish their education, while 10 percent of those who graduated did not continue on to junior high.
Meanwhile, according to the national labor survey (Sakernas), 4.3 million out of 35.7 million of children aged between 10 and 17 in Indonesia have entered the workforces, which surely limits their opportunity to attend their classes.
Then there is a group children who can’t go back to school because of corporate negligence. And this one group in particular is the reason why there will never be a President Bakrie.
These children are among the 40,000 ‘refugees’ who had to flee the Sidoarjo mudflow, which, it is generally agreed, was caused by the incompetence of Lapindo Brantas, the oil drilling company owned by the Bakrie family.
Even cock-ups on a such a monumental scale as this one can be ‘excused’, but to ignore the plight of those who suffer from one’s incompetence cannot.
Mujtaba Hamdi of Coalition of Movements in Support of Justice for the Lapindo Mudflow Victims, which was founded for the sole purpose of seeking justice for the 40,000 people displaced by the disaster, said there were 103 children – from elementary to high school age – whose educations were now threatened because their parents’ incomes had declined following the disaster and neither the government nor Lapindo had provided compensation for education..
The coalition plans to collect Rp 43,644,500 (US$4,800) to buy books, uniforms and to pay for exams and building fees to help the Sidoarjo children.
Anyone wishing to donate can visit www.korbanlumpur.info and www.jatam.org.
Road condition and links to corruption?
Just back from the wonderful Anyer – Labuan coast. Coming back today one section 8k took 90 minutes in Kab Pandeglang, whilst all was relatively calm in bordering Kab Serang. The road from Anyer to Carita has degenerated in all ways – to the detriment of locals and tourists alike – I can only suspect because of the high incidence of recent corruption in the former Kab. I can only say that the road looks like it has not been repaired responsibly for over 4 years. The area has gone backwards – what an absolute waste – so much obvious bankruptcy.