Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Jakarta yesterday, obstensibly to grab a few business opportunities. Coincidentally (?)*, earthquakes off the coast of Aceh in North Sumatra occurred almost simultaneously.

He and SBY witnessed the signing of $2.54 billion deal between national carrier Garuda Indonesia, which is majority owned by the Indonesian government, and the European Airbus.

Coincidentally (?), a Garuda Indonesia aircraft got stuck in the grass after it skidded off the runway at the Sentani airport in Jayapura, Papua yesterday morning.

Cameron, with his accompanying horde of businessmen, also touted "some of the best defense equipment in the world."

Weapons to be used against Papuan 'rebels' perhaps? After all, Indonesia has announced that it plans to buy eight AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from the United States which ETAN says "would pose a significant threat to West Papuan citizens."

The Indonesian military (TNI) regularly conducts "sweep operations," involving attacks on villages where innocent villagers are forced from their homes. The coalition of NGOs write  that "Papuan civilians either flee the attacks to neighboring villages or into the surrounding forests where many die or face starvation, cut off from access to their gardens, shelter, and medical care."

But enough of genocide.

What of high jinx in high places?

Cameron, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (i.e. Finance minister) and Boris Johnson, the Tory buffoon who is currently seeking re-election as London's mayor, are all graduates of Oxford University where they were members of the Bullingdon Club. This is an exclusive rich boys boozing and brawling (and marijuana smoking) 'dining club'.

The Club's modus operandi has often been to book a private dining room under an assumed name, as most restaurateurs are wary of the Club's reputation for causing considerable drunken damage during the course of dinner.

Occasionally, a few arrests have been made, but damage to premises having been paid for, and the fact that the members of the club  have to be invited by other members, all being from the monied classes, including royalty, sanctions have been light. (If you or I were to have such evenings, we could expect much more severe sanctions from the forces of law and disorder!)

I only mention this because Nathaniel Rothschild, a billionaire hedge fund investor, was a member at the same time as George Osborne. And Nat jumped into bed with Indonesia's Bakrie Family only to discover that "there are problems in dealing with debt-addicted billionaires from the other side of the world who have rather different ideas about the way a PLC should be run."

He was referring to his role as an investor in and then co-chairman of the heavily leveraged Bakrie company formerly known as PT Bumi Resources. That the Bakries have since sold off half their shareholding in Bumi PLC to meet a billion dollar debt owed to a consortium of Swiss and other financial houses holds little of interest to me.

What does, is that, try as they might to appear to be simple honest folk, all the Bakrie Boys would have been suitable candidates for the Bullingdon Club.

After all, it's only seven years since Abnormal, the patriach of the clan and self-pronounced candidate for the Indonesian presidenccy, admitted that he "probably met Michelle Leslie" who was arrested and deported following her conviction for possession of the party drug ecstasy.

No doubt AB and Cameron have had a fun couple of days together this week.
………………………………………………………………..
*Of course it was coincidental. This is why planet Earth burped.

The feeling that I get now all over the world [is] that the fabric of society is really stretched thin. Behaviour has gotten totally irrational and it can spark off at any moment.
Steven Soderbergh

I think he’s right; yes we are seeing the breakdown of civilisation as we know it and I believe that it is a ‘good thing’.

The downfall of autocratic dictators continues apace with Gadhafi of Libya the latest but by no means the last.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and President Ali Abdullah Saleh of the Yemen are both using their security forces to avoid Gadhafi’s fate – a lynch mob.

Others, such as President Mugabe in Zimbabwe told reporters in 2009 that he would retire “when I am a century old.” If the populace can wait that long, then it will be because of a forced accommodation with some of his critics, including protestors.

The ‘new’ parliamentary regime of Myanmar appears to have heeded worldwide condemnation about its treatment of its citizens, reaching an apparent accommodation with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Suu Kyi, and recently releasing some political prisoners as part of a broader amnesty. Whether this was a cosmetic exercise to overcome economic and political sanctions and to take the helm of ASEAN, the regional political organisation as scheduled next year, is yet to be evaluated. The treatment of its prisoners needs to be vastly improved and is but one of several steps it needs to take before its virtually universal opprobrium is overcome.

For North Koreans, there is little hope; Dear Leader Kim Jong Il may have suffered a stroke in 2008, but his third son is waiting in the wings.

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, has cited satellite imagery showing that the size of North Korea’s sprawling prison camps had gone up in recent years – and could now accommodate as many as 250,000 prisoners, most of whom are there until they die from overwork, malnutrition and disease.

Darusman estimated that two thirds of North Korea’s 24 million people are getting about half what they need to eat while suffering from “lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities, shortages of electricity and lack of minimum physical facilities” needed for basic medical care.

But it’s not just the citizens of ‘rogue states’ who are suffering.

The organic growth of the Occupy Wall Street movement was in part inspired by the “Arab Spring”, but was also inspired took its core ‘activism’, a camp in the city centre, from the 15-M Movement which started on 15th May in Madrid.

The Madrid protestors had a fairly well-developed philosophy.

Even though protesters form a heterogeneous and ambiguous group, they share a strong rejection of unemployment, welfare cuts, Spanish politicians, the current the current political system, capitalism, banks and bankers, political corruption and firmly support what they call basic rights: home, work, culture, health and education.

They call for a form of grassroots participatory democracy based on people’s assemblies and consensus decision making. These horizontally structured assemblies are completely transparent and open to anyone who wants to participate.

(See Divided We Stand IV, my call for the same objectives here in Indonesia.)

However, as Stephen Foley says in the Independent, the Occupy Wall Street Movement and the copycat demonstrations in other American cities and European capitals is self-defeatingly determined to avoid making any particular demands. One New York protester was quoted yesterday saying “the second we start making demands, we start splintering and we are no longer the 99 per cent”.

Change may be wanted, but without a strong sense of resentment, a set of goals, the willingness and a fire in the belly to make the necessary changes, then the ‘one per cent’ have nothing to fear. And if they do, then as witnessed in Rome, a few anarchic youths (or agents provocateurs) can easily subvert a cause.

Nevertheless, I support the occupations as a necessary challenge to entrenched power.

… suggests a BBC survey about the best country for entrepreneurs to start a business.

This somewhat inadequate poll was conducted by Globescan who questioned 24,537 people across 24 countries, which begs the question about the 171 countries which weren't polled.

Those polled were asked to assess the following four criteria on a scale from 1 to 4.
* valuation of creativity/innovation in own country
* difficulty to start own business in country
* valuation of people who start own business
* ease of putting ideas into practice

Tellingly, says the BBC, the poll does not provide evidence on why people took the views they did, and in some respects the results are consistent with widely-held perceptions of the country concerned.

Furthermore, Globescan says that majorities in 23 out of 24 countries polled thought it was hard for people like them to start a business in their country, Indonesia presumably being the one exception.

As GlobeScan Chairman Doug Miller commented: “It will be interesting to see if Indonesia’s positive mind-set leads to it outperforming relatively downbeat Brazil.”

I'd be interested to know something about who in Indonesia was actually polled. The estimated unemployment rate in February was 6.8%, though that is the figure for those actually looking for work. Without a unified social welfare programme which requires the unemployed to register, one has to wonder how such a figure is calculated.

Economic survival is often a matter of undertaking relaively menial tasks, such as wandering the streets repairing shoes or refilling disposable cigarette lighters. There are also many unlicenced warungs (roadside stalls) selling food, pirated DVDs, etc.,which are taxed by local hoodlums and/or officials from the local government, often (usually?) on a cash basis.

These folk have to have a keen sense of entrepreneurship, and have to have a positive "mind-set" in order to keep going.
……………………………………………..
One former businessman here is Michael Donnelly, a US citizen. He tells his story here.

"My ex-wife Ni Made Jati is an Indonesian citizen. We were legally married in California in 1985, moved to Bali in 1987 and led, at least at first, a normal and happy family life. We built two businesses, Uluwatu Boutiques and Kori Restaurant."

Then things went horrifically wrong and his account is being turned into a book.
……………………………………………..
Thankfully, I'm certain that the same fate does not await me, not least because I have few assets to be stripped by 'Er Indoors or the court mafia.

However, I do have an entrepreneurial spirit.

Coming soon will be the first Jakartass Anthology, largely the backgound to the contents of Culture Shock! Jakarta.

Also, I'm hoping that FullProof Services, now with 20 Associates (and more welcome) offering a full range of online language services such as copy editing, writing, translation etc., will be flourishing within a month or so.

Watch this hyperspace.

Part 1 is here.

For many years, world leaders have come up with grandiose schemes to solve the problem of 'World Hunger'.

The term "Green Revolution" was first used in 1968 to describe the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, and the distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.

For a while there were massive increases in crop yields and the free market, in the form of Monsanto, Novartis, AgrEvo, DuPont, and other chemical companies, rejoiced. The crops were grown on an industrial scale and destined for export where they could be traded as 'commodities'.

Yet the vast majority of the poor have remained poor as their purchasing power has not kept pace with the price of the crops on the open market. What, perhaps, is more tragic is that th small farmers' knowledge of local climatic, soil and topographical conditions has been ignored; this knowledge, built up over generations, is being lost forever with the displacement of these farmers from their smallholdings which had previously supplied their families' food needs.

And the land on which they lived and farmed harmoniously, in tune with the changing seasons celebrated with rituals, has become sterile as the unleashed fertilisers and pesticides have bled into and poisoned the water tables. Fertile land has been turned into dustbowls and deserts: abundant forests have been turned into monoculture plantations and cattle ranches: the oceans's fish stocks have been replaced with plastic dead zones: river life has been exterminated by industrial effluents.

Although the movement of tectonic plates and ocean currents force periodic cycles of climate change and Planet Earth is in a state of constant flux, industrialised farming is responsible for much of the damage which Mother Nature in time will rectify – long after humanity has become a minor sub-species or, dare I say optimistically, extinct.

And all to further enrich the haves at the expense of the have nots and never-will-haves.

If you think that is too much of a rant, Read these articles on the connections between climate disruptions, food shortages and political instability.

And what of here and the grandiose schemes, dreams and vacillations which regularly make the headlines in the Indonesian media?

In the late 1960s Indonesia imported more rice than any other nation. However by 1984, after the government introduced the green revolution rice technology and rehabilitated and expanded the nation's irrigation network, Indonesia achieved rice self-sufficiency. In 1985 the Food and Agriculture Organisation gave President Suharto a medal for self-sufficiency.

But after that about one million hectares of rice paddy in Java was sold for commercial and urban development. To compensate, in 1996 he decreed that an equivalent area be created out of lowland peat swamps in Borneo. The largest of these land conversion schemes was the Mega Rice Project in Central Kalimantan. In theory this proposal had much to commend it. However, it was the most glaring misuse of tropical peatland in recent times because the soil characteristics in Central Kalimantan are completely different from those of volcanic Java. The project was doomed to fail before it started.

It would seem that President SBY is keen to be seen as the latest 'Father of Development'.

A year ago I wrote that as part of the government's "2009-2014 Road Map for Food Development", which at first glance sounded wonderful, the members of Indonesia's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) – formerly headed by Mr. Detestable, Aburizal Bakrie – were rubbing their hands with glee.

Franciscus Wilerang, head of the Permanent Committee for Food Resilience at Kadin said that the successful implementation of the programme could contribute $101.5 billion to the country's revenues for the 2010-2014 period.

"Considering Indonesia's potential to achieve food self-sufficiency, we have to see the global food crisis as an opportunity and participate in efforts to feed the world."

Ah, yes, the global food crisis, to which must now be added the oil price 'crisis' exacerbated by the ongoing political unrest in the Arab world and the need for the world to bail out Japan in its time of need.

It is now 2011 and the road map is still not progressing, except through more grand schemes and dreams

One which is slipping through barely noticed is a food estate in Papua which requires the opening of more than 1 million hectares of land. The mechanism of food estate investments facilitates 32 investors from large companies to develop food production. It means the concept over food security is shifted from people’s sovereignty to private sector hands.

Through these investments, the Merauke Intergrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) [is] projected to produce more than 1.95 million tons of rice and tens of millions of tons food each year. The government has even dared to promise MIFEE as a solution to Indonesia’s long-term food problems.

Let us recall the cooking oil crisis that hit Indonesia – the largest palm oil producer in the world – in 2008. It turned out that the status had nothing to do with domestic cooking oil supply. Simply put, it was because most of the palm oil products were exported, affecting domestic supply.

And that seems to be the case in Merauke.

WALHI (Indonesia's Friends of the Earth) have named some of the companies involved: Wilmar, Medco, Bangun Cipta Sarana, Sinarmas, Bakrie Sumatera Plt, and Artha Graha.

The Environmental Investigation Agency, has reported to the UN on landgrabbing and human rights abuses in Merauke and their research indicates that powerful, politically-influential individuals and companies stand to obtain large land concessions under the MIFEE project, including former presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.

Scrutiny of the MIFEE plan shows how Papua’s natural resources continue to be looted by powerful commercial interests, with little heed for the welfare of indigenous communities.

Wimar International, based in Singapore, is "Asia's leading agribusiness group"

PT Medco Energi Internasional Tbk is Indonesia's largest oil company headed by Arifin Panigoro. One may reasonably assume that they are involved in Merauke in order to be a first base producer of biofuels.

PT Bangun Cipta Sarana is a real estate company active in Jakarta. It doesn't appear to have a website or wiki page, but Jakarta's Governor Fauzi Bowo has a profile of its CEO, Siswono Yudo Husodo, on his website. Apparently, Mr.Husodo was given the Entrepreneur Agribusiness Award in 2003.

PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology Tbk. (Sinar Mas) is notorious for its paper pulp operations   in the Lake Toba area of North Sumatra. The company is controlled by Indonesia's Widjaja family whose business empire was built on close ties with Indonesia's military. More recently, in 2001, as expansion lead to debts of $13.9 billion the company was protected through its ties with the Indonesian government, which was APP's largest single creditor.
.
The Commissioner of Sinar Mas is Rafael Buhay Concepcion Jr and the Vice President Commissioner is Simon Lim. These two are both directors of a Sinar Mas subsidiary company, Golden Age Resources (Golden Agri), which is the world's second largest palm oil plantation company and the largest in Indonesia with annual revenues of US$2.3 billion.

Last month Golden Agri claimed to have turned over a new (green) leaf.

The move – seen as a response to intense pressure and lobbying by green groups such as Greenpeace recently over allegations of illegal forest clearing – will not have a significant impact or cost on its operations, said the firm.
(This statement begs the question as to why they engaged in "illegal forest clearing" in the first place.)

Mr. Concepcion Jr. is a Director and Chief Financial Officer, whilst Mr. Lim is also Director and Deputy President of Asia Food & Properties Limited (AFP) (also headquartered in Singapore) whose Indonesia Agribusiness is one of the world's largest vertically integrated oil palm plantation companies operating palm oil processing mills, refineries and kernel crushing mills.

Like Sinar Mas and Golden Agri, AFP is controlled by the Widjaya family.

Then there is Bakrie Sumatera Plt owned by one of the most detested families in Indonesia, and Artha Graha, the vehicle of Tomy Winarta known for his political and military ties, and his alleged use of thugs to right perceived wrongs against him.

When Prabowo Subianto is added to the mix – presumably with the financial backing of his brother Hashim -  the self-styled 'farmers friend' who has urged the government "to continue providing subsidies to farmers to enable them to purchase non-organic fertilizers and pesticides", you have a recipe for disaster, much like his former father-in-law's Mega Rice Project.

Details about the disaster will be offered in Part 3, but this photo is an indication of it.

Since I was a mere lad going to the Saturday morning flicks at the ABC Roxy in Blackheath, I've loved watching films. For a time, before Jakarta became totally gridlocked and Our Kid came along, 'Er Indoors and I would go regularly to our local bioskop and luxuriate in large armchairs in air-conditioned splendour to watch whatever took our fancy.

Not that there has ever been much of a choice. There aren't any 'art houses' here such as I used to frequent in London, so trying to decipher the levels of, say, Luis Bunuel's Belle de Jour or exiting a cinema with a stunned silent audience after watching the 1981 version of Mephisto have been virtually non-existent treats.      .

The few Indonesian movies I've watched have, without exception, been of little artistic merit, nor for me have they had any entertainment value, except for those who deem the lowest common denominator as acceptable..

Back in 1996, my father, then 75, sister and niece visited us here and we took them on the regular two week tour through Yogya, onto Bali and then back here. The train journey to Yogya offers magnificent views, but I wish I could say the same for the overnight bus trip to Bali.

What was on offer on the onboard TV was a VCD of a ghost-kungfu-satanic-softporn horror of a movie. My father was the only one of us who seemed to take an interest in it, but none of us dared to ask him the next day what he'd thought of it.

Although I have yet to watch any of the current crop of Indonesian movies, just a few of which – such as Laskar Pelangi – have demonstrated an eye for social issues, I am doubtful that the industry has yet to raise its standards.

A major talking point this week concerns a perceived plan by the government to increase the tax on imported movies.

Indonesia's largest theater chain, 21 Cineplex announced earlier that the government’s plan for a new tax on royalties for foreign films distributed in Indonesia would force the Motion Picture Association (MPA)-affiliated distributors to stop sending Hollywood movies here.

MPA Asia Pacific president and managing director Mike Ellis, however, has recently denied the boycott threat.

As has the government, stating that what it is undertaking is a reassessment of the customs value of imported films.

This, of course, has nought to do with revitalising or, as some have suggested, killing the Indonesian film industry. A closer examination of the players, specifically 21 Cineplex (a.k.a..Group 21), raises some interesting conjectures.

21 Cineplex is part of the Subendra Group established by a cousin of then dictator Suharto, Sudwikatmono, who died earlier this year aged 76. His family ties enabled him to get very rich and be a member of the jet set. (His daughter, Martina, is a prominent socialite in Beverley Hills – the California one.)

The advantages of being part of what is known as the Cendana Clan (named after Jalan Cendana, the street in Jakarta where Suharto had his main Jakarta residence) are well-known. They owned the government and bureaucracy, and through the laws they promulgated and regulated, and the institutions they established, became the oligarchs of Indonesia. (Watch this slide show presentation for evidence that vestiges of Suharto's rule remain.)

21 Cineplex has twice been referred to Indonesia's Business Competition Supervisory Committee (KPPU).  This was established in 1999, post-Suharto, through Law No. 8/1999 on Consumers' Protection.      

In 2002, Monopoly Watch, an NGO, reported 21 Cineplex to the KPPU not only because the company was seen as being the prime importer and distributor of Hollywood movies but that they were first screened on the c.500 cinemas of the Cinema 21 network spread throughout Indonesia.

Through two companies, PT. Camila Internusa Film (PT. CIF) and PT. Satrya Perkasa Esthetika Film (PT. SPEF), a business arrangement for the import and distribution of films was made with Motion Picture Association (MPA ), an association of filmmakers including Columbia Pictures, 21st Century Fox, Buena Vista International, Metro Goldwin Meyer, etc.

These companies were obliged to pay royalties to the MPA.

Another company, PT. Nusantara Sejahtera Raya (PT. NSR), also under the umbrella of the Subendra Group, owned the Cineplex 21 chain and showed the films imported from the MPA, and from other sources.

The major problem focussed on by Monopoly Watch was that in controlling the number of film prints and showing the films on their screens first, 21 Cineplex denied other cinemas the opportunity to benefit from the topicality of the films (i.e. release dates) and through the scale of their operations, which allowed PT. NSR to offer comfortable viewing experiences, conquered the market. Many other cinema operators went bankrupt.

In 2003, the KPPU found that although PT. CIF and PT. SPEF controlled the distribution of MPA imported films, their control was less than 50% of the entire imported films in 2001 & 2002, "such that it is not a monopoly as stipulated in Article 17 Number 5 1999".

Also, the total number of films imported by PT. CIF and PT. SPEF [did] not exceed 50% of the entire imported films, such that it is not a monopsony (i.e. only one buyer for a particular product) as stipulated in Article 18 of Law No. 5 of 1999.

The KPPU did find various infringements of Law No. 8/1999 to effect some changes, but not enough for film lovers or other cinema owners to notice, except, perhaps, in Surabaya.

PT. NSR is proven to own the majority shares in several companies in the field of cinemas, they are PT. Intra Mandiri and PT. Wedu Mitra in the same relevant markets, that is in Surabaya. Cinemas owned by the two companies control more than 50% of the market segment, such that it does not fulfill the stipulations of Article 25 of Law No. 5 of 1999.

The KPPU therefore ordered PT. NSR to reduce its share ownership in PT. Intra Mandiri and or in PT Wedu Mitra by selling or transferring its share ownership to other parties or to take other actions such that [PT. NSR] no longer breaches article 27 within 48 (forty eight) days as of the date this ruling is read (1st April 2003).

The KPPU also sanctioned PT. NSR to pay a fine of Rp 1,000,000,000 (one billion rupiah) if the Accused [did] not carry out dictum

The KPPU also advised the Makassar Mayor to nullify Decree Number 54/2002 or to take other actions, such that there is no film distribution arrangement.

More recently, a new upmarket cinema group, Blitzmegaplex, submitted a claim to the KPPU alleging that Cinema 21 had monopoly control of domestic film distribution.

With all the nonsensical palaver in the print media in the past couple of weeks about cinema goers being deprived of western movies supplied by the MPA, not much of the issue of tax avoidance (or evasion?) by the film importers and distributors has surfaced.

According to government regulations, imported films are subject to a 10 percent import duty, a 10 percent value added tax and 2.5 percent income tax. The total combined tax burden might top 43 US cents per meter of film imported into Indonesia.

In addition, film importers and/or distributors are also required to pay a 22.5 percent income tax on the royalties they pay to movie producers.

The income tax is of course of no concern to the MPA as long as their royalties are paid. Government officials say local distributors of foreign films may owe Rp 30 billion (US$3.4 million) in unpaid taxes on royalties over the last two years.

In his first comments on the royalties, Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo said on Thursday that the Rp 30 billion in unpaid taxes was “scary” and involved 1,759 film prints.

What is scary is that, as the director general of the customs and excise officer, Thomas Sugijata said, the amount owed might top Rp 300 billion if fines, which range between range between 100 percent and 1,000 percent, were included.

If you divide US$3.4 million by the number of prints, 1759, that's c.US$ 2,000. Over a two year period, that's surely not an onerous financial burden, especially for a socialite or two.

Not that I particularly care one way or another. I pay a monthly subscription to Indovision for six movie channels.

And I have several  DVDs given away gratis by British newspapers as well as a stockpile of pirated and downloaded movies yet to be viewed,

Don't we all? So why all the fuss?

Oh yes. It was started by 21 Cineplex…

No, I've no idea what that means either, although I did make the effort to check out the website of Berau Coal who were using a quarter of a Jakarta Post page with this to let us know that they've moved their Jakarta office,

Their website is http://beraucoal.co.id but I wouldn't bother checking it out because it has been hacked and is infected with JS Redirector – CV [trj]. Incidentally, I use Avast, a free anti-virus programme, which offers frequent, that is at least once a day, updates which are small downloads, unlike those of Kaspersky, Comodo and others.

As for Berau Coal, it is apparently active in Kalaimantan and is Indonesia's "5th largest coal company by output". Investors also like the company because it is "more transparent and better at good governance"

Presumably the comment about transparency and good governance refers to Bakrie family controlled companies PT Bumi Resources Tbk,, PT Kaltim Prima Coal and PT Arutmin which are alleged to have bribed disgraced tax official Gayus Tambunan to the tune of Rp.28 billion (c.US$3 million) in order to escape company tax liabilities of Rp.2.1 trillion (c.US230 million). The case has yet to be settled, although the fallout from the matter lead to the forced resignation of well-respected Finance Minister Sri Mulyani.

Strange then, or maybe not, to relate that Berau Coal and Bumi Resources have done a share swap / reverse takeover deal with Vallar, the mining investment fund established by financier Nathaniel Rothschild earlier this year. Bakrie has thus gained majority control of London-listed Vallar and renamed it Bumi Plc. and will now be the largest supplier of thermal coal to China.

Vallar co-founder Nathaniel Rothschild said, “This is a business that by 2013 should produce 140 million tons of coal a year.”

Indra Bakrie, who is the younger brother of Adurizal who has presidential ambitions and now the co-chairman CEO of the new company, said, "For me, personally, it's just like getting your first bike when you're a kid. This Bumi Plc will be the coal champion in London. It's very exciting, very exciting."

From his chairmanship of Indonesian logging company Austral BynaIndra*, Indra bought a $11.5 million second home in Beverly Hills, California, some four or five years ago; this is hardly kid's stuff.

In the same edition of the Post is an advert from Namco Coal of India which is seeking to purchase 10 million tons of Indonesian thermal coal. This is mere chicken feed for the Bakrie Boys, but Aburizal may well be interested as, at position 10, he barely scrapes into the latest Forbes list of Indonesia's billionaires which is dominated by palm oil oligarchs. Given his push for the presidency – the next election is a short three years away – he needs every rupiah he can grab.

Good luck to the Bakries, I say, but it's a shame that whilst Indonesia's natural resources are being sold off, the rest of us suffer power cuts because PLN, the state electricity company dioesn't have enough funding to keep all its coal fired power stations running. 
……………………………………………………………………………………
There are too many Bakrie-controlled companies which cause havoc and 'strife in their exponential growth'.to enumerate, but these are a few of them: PT Bakrie & Brothers Tbk, PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk, PT Bakrieland Development Tbk, PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk and PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk. as well as Bakrie Toll Road, Viva News, ANTV, TV One, and Bakrie Life Insurance and ……

* Austral BynaIndra sought certification for its sustainable logging some 10 years ago.

I don't like Coca Cola, nor Pepsi come to think of it. Both are too sweet and far from refreshing, but, hey, I'm not going to tell Our Kid to stop drinking it while I'm downing a bottle or two of Bintang Pilsener during our regular sessions at Ya Udah.

Several years ago, because I thought that things went better without Coke, contrary to their then advertising slogan, and having no intention of teaching the world to sing, I went on several treks hoping to actually reach a place where I couldn't actually get a Coke, even if I had wanted one. I failed; I found it in tea stalls outside monasteries in the Karakoram range of the Himalayas, on the Burmese border of the northern hills of Thailand, and at the top of Gunung Batur in Bali.

Although I personally believe that their whole marketing strategy is one of cultural imperialism, what concerns me at the moment is their sheer cynicism – hypocrisy even – when it comes to their 'corporate social responsibility'. I'll explain this in a further post. First read this email I received yesterday from my favourite trough here in Jakarta.

Is Idiot Stencilled Across Consumers' Foreheads?

For over 10 years the Ya Udah Bistro has had on its drinks list Coca Cola products, such as Cola Original, Sprite, Fanta Red and soda water as well as Diet – now Zero – Cola. With the exception of Diet Cola, which always comes in a can, all others have been offered in 295 ml glass bottles. Recently, running low on Sprite, we placed an order with the Cola Company, but did not receive any delivery as they claimed that the 295 ml bottles 'tidak ada stock, i.e. not in stock.

After repeated orders and no delivery we contacted Coca Cola Sales and we were informed that not only Sprite but all other drinks in 295 ml glass bottles have been discontinued and only the baby 200 ml size is still available in glass bottles. There are now only their so-called PET plastic bottles and cans available.

Obviously we are not happy. Firstly, serving drinks in a can or a plastic bottle does not look great in a restaurant.

But what's more, Coca Cola are using this the size reduction as a reason to jack up its prices. After all, even a blind man on a galloping horse can see that one-way cans and plastic bottles cost extra which, alas, the consumer will pay for. With no need to collect and wash the glass bottles, it makes things easier for the Coca Cola Company. They can simply dump the stuff on consumers and have no further responsibility. We wonder if we just paid and did not get supplies, would that make it even easier for them?

And take this quoted comment from the Cola company for good measure: …Our suggestion is moving to can 250 ml which is more efficient because it is a one-way-package thus you don't need a large storage for our product. Plus an added value for our cans which are made by aluminum (Al Who?) and could be re-sold per kg in the market….

We do wonder what happened to avoiding waste, saving energy and all that stuff.

What are we going to do? Well, we have no other alternative but to serve the products in the baby size 200 ml glass bottle, but we shall not, cannot, lower the price. However, dear reader, we will try and discourage the consumption of these products and suggest that you consider an iced lemon tea, a milk shake or a smoothie instead.

One thing is for sure: we shall take the promo banner for Cola Zero off our website.

The Ya Udah would very much welcome it if you would let us know your comments and views on this.

Comment
Apart from continuing to personally boycott Coca Cola, I wonder if a possible alternative for Ya 'Udah and other like-minded establishments is Coke on draft.

Views
My views follow in a separate post – Hokey Pokey Coca Cola.