——————If an expatriate is, as I believe, someone
——————who never forgets for an instant
——————being one,
——————then, no.

——————But, if knowing that you always
——————tote your country around
——————with you, your roots,
——————a lump

——————like a soul that will never leave you
——————stranded in alien subsets of
——————yourself, or your wild
——————entire;

——————that being elsewhere packs a vertigo,
——————a tightrope side you cannot
——————pass up, another way
——————to show

——————how not to break your pretty neck
——————falling on skylights:
——————reward-laden
——————mirages;

——————then, yes. All homes are home; mirages
——————everywhere. Aside from
——————gravity, there are no
——————limits,

——————never were, nor will there ever be,
——————no here and there to foil
——————your lotus-dreaming
——————legend.

——————Stay on the planet, if you can. It isn't
——————all that chilly and what's more,
——————grows warmer by the
——————minute.

——————Dorothea Tanning (1910 – 2012)

However, in labelling 40 year old Jim Keady as “a Crusader”, I am referring to the fourteen (count ‘em!) years of his single-minded efforts to achieve basic human rights for the workers in the Indonesia’s sweat shops producing Nike sports goods for export, goods that the workers cannot afford on their earned income. As I will point out a bit further on, it is worth noting that many of the companies sub-contracted to Nike are Korean, albeit with Indonesian partners.

The workers are mostly Muslims whereas Jim is a committed Christian and sometime teacher of religious education to American high school students.

Having supported Jim’s work through this blog for a few years, we finally met up last Sunday for a couple of hours. Much of what follows is gleaned from our chat, as well as the immense coverage on the internet of his fine work.

I knew that he was forced to resign from his New York university; he was studying for his master’s degree in pastoral theology) when he refused to wear the sponsored sports gear from Nike because of their operation of sweat shops, i.e. cheap labour working onerous hours. Also exacerbating matters was the title of his thesis: “Nike and Catholic Social Teaching: A Challenge to the Christian Mission at St. John’s University,” examining the company’s business practices and challenging the university’s sponsorship agreement with Nike.

He was also not given a renewed contract by his semi-professional football club where, he told me, he was ‘understudy’ to Tim Howard, the current Everton FC goalkeeper, as well as being an assistant coach. Jim told me that he would have been satisfied to have been on the bench as reserve goalie at a major match, but it was not to be. He also told me that, unlike me, he had visited Charlton’s new stadium at the Valley and was a fan of Charlton, having also visited their training ground.

He still looks very fit; he had been for a workout that morning and was tucking in to a substantial meal at Ya ‘Udah when I arrived.

With a core of supporters who donate to Team Sweat, a not-for-profit organisation, Jim works alone, highlighting the appalling conditions endured by workers in factories in Indonesia sub-contracted to Nike, albeit with an expanding group of supporters who through their donations support him. I asked a number of questions, which arose through our conversation rather than having been thought out beforehand.

For example, I wondered whether there were any prominent sports stars prepared to be associated with him. Tiger Woods of Planet Golf and Roger Federer wear Nike gear, but neither were doing very well in June 2010 when I listed the football stars featured in TV ads coinciding with the World Cup in South Africa. None of them did very well: Theo Walcott of England and Ronaldinho of Brazil didn’t get to go and Cesc Fábregas played just 59 minutes of Spain’s four matches.

But I digress, and my question was somewhat naive anyway. After all, who’d want to bad-mouth their kit sponsor when they’re paid vast sums to wear it? In 1998, for example, Nike paid Tiger Woods $28 million. (Contrast that with the $100,000 spent in Indonesia from 1998 to 2000 on continuing education programmes for Nike workers and $150,000 on small loans to unemployed and disadvantaged people.)

I did wonder why Jim works alone and also why he focusses on the Nike sub-contractors in Indonesia; wouldn’t a broad coalition be more effective? As the Nike Anti-Sweatshop campaign says, it is but “one branch of a larger global movement aimed at raising awareness about labor conditions in manufacturing zones of developing nations where major global corporations increasingly contract for the manufacture of their products. There are hundreds of web sites concerning these issues.” (Actually, many thousands.)

Furthermore, Nike isn’t the only American corporation whose products are produced in factories abroad which operate free of the health, safety and labour laws in force, but not always enforced, in the USA. (Think Apple: they knowingly used child labour and outsourced workers in China whose “horrendous” working conditions were such that at least 19 were driven to suicide.)

One factor Jim mentioned to me was that it is common for NGO’s to be sucked in by the perks offered by such conglomerates as Nike. Offers of all-expenses paid factory tours abroad and round table meetings can be seductive. You can see that first hand here in Jakarta. I’ve often thought it strange that I should be paid no more than an adequate amount for teaching the children of rich parents, whilst international NGO staff obstensibly working on behalf of the downtrodden masses live in upmarket areas with the usual expat perks.

Jim’s approach is radically different from the better financed and/or sponsored NGOs: he spends time living with Nike factory workers on a typical wage of c.Rp.44,000 ($4.70) per day, which, pegged against inflation, is less in real terms than the c.Rp.11,500 (c.$1.25) a day they earned in 2000 when Jim first came here.

He has had meetings with union officials such as Siti Nurrofiqoh, the Chairperson of Bangkit Labour Union (Serikat Buruh Bangkit or SBB), who is deeply appreciative of Jim’s efforts, as this letter makes clear.

Union officials at PT SM Global, managed by Koreans, in Tangerang, “received pressure, repeated rotation of their positions, [were] downgraded, and [were] blamed by the management of the factory in front of all the workers saying that the factory will be closed as a result of the action of union officials … [thus] … making the union officials as the public enemy for the workers.”

The “workers were requested to sign a pre-arranged statement stating that they were in good condition, have no problem, and will not demanding anything.”

“Good conditions”? Only if the workers were prepared to accept an obligatory three hours of overtime per day, and that the women workers would show blood-stained sanitary towels when seeking their mandatory two days menstrual leave.

That last degrading action has long been a practice in factories managed by Koreans. I first heard of it during a football match some 20 years ago when one of the opposing team highlighted the issue, and stated that the women were forced to stand in the open, under the tropical sun, whilst undergoing the inspection. On that occasion, the managers were deported.

Maybe that is also the standard practice in Korea; Koreans are not noted here for much beyond their kimchi, and brutality which I witnessed at first hand when a teacher at the Jakarta Korean International School (JIKS) for three years until Xmas 2003. I was horrified at their use of the euphemistically named “love stick” (and occasional fists) to administer corporal punishments.

As for focussing on Nike, Jim says that if the market leaders change then others will have to follow.

Indonesia is Nike’s third largest manufacturing base, behind China and Vietnam, with 140,000 workers in 14 factories, and productivity is high. For example, 18,000 workers at PT Nikomas in Serang produce more than 2,000,000 pairs of Nike sneakers per month. If you discount the administrative and warehouse staff, drivers, security guards, and other non-assembly line staff, that’s c.four+ pairs a day per worker sold retail for anywhere between $50 to $500.
(See comments for updated stats.)

For 18 years workers at Nikomas complained about forced overtime and wage cheating, but it is only now, after a year’s hard work of research, lobbying and negotiations that a breakthrough has been achieved with Jim Keady’s help, lobbying and single-minded focus.

He is now proud to report that following almost a year of investigation and negotiation, 4,437 Nike factory workers will be paid $1 million dollars for overtime they were forced to do without payment. The settlement between SPN and the factory management reflects 593,468 of unpaid overtime hours that workers put in sewing Nike sneakers at the plant during the past two years.

But his work is not done yet; Indonesian law only allows redress for the past two years so that’s 16 years of unpaid overtime owed by Nikomas, with a further few thousand workers who are not part of the deal. There are also another 42 factories which are not yet party to such a deal.

I’m not a psychoanalyst, nor am I particularly enamoured of the notion of having another’s hang ups hung on you, so I can only surmise that Jim’s single minded-focus and self-sacrifice comes from his wellspring of Christian faith. That may be why his chosen position in a football team was goalkeeper, a position which demands the utmost concentration and patience, with a readiness to spring into action when required.

I’ve generally played as a defender, and I’m happy to have such a role supporting Jim in his humanitarian crusade.

One further point, as friend Oigal asked in a previous post of mine about Nike’s lack of oversight of their sub-contractors here: When do countries like Indonesia have to take responsibility for their own affairs?

Whilst employers here often ignore the prevailing labour law,Act No 13, 2003, and seek amendments to their advantage regarding severance pay,  this week the Constitutional Court annulled Articles 59, 64-66 regarding contract and outsourced workers, stating that “every company carrying out short-term projects had an obligation to treat their contract workers and permanent staff equally.“

I’ll leave it to Jim and the union representatives to examine the ramifications, if any, for the workers they are trying to help.

And I wonder if that ruling will be of any benefit to expatriates on fixed-term contracts?

His Sun, a daily tabloid, with its Page 3 Stunnas (all with large bosoms, presumably a manifestation of his innate oedipus complex) and the Sunday ‘News of the Screws’ with its diet of celebrities doing ordinary things like getting divorced or going barebreasted on a beach on some remote tropical isle, and general and ephemeral tittle-tattle which pandered to base instincts, displayed a contempt for ordinary folk.

Although millions read his tabloids, I didn’t, but until he bought the Sunday Times in 1981 I was a regular reader. He bought the Times at the same time, but I was already a Guardian reader, a broadsheet without the overt cultural imperialism of the former. The integrity of the Sunday Times editors and journalists was regularly on display, especially through its series of Insights, investigations into corrupt practices.

In order to expand his press empire with these acquistions, Murdoch accepted a series of guarantees which were then endorsed by the government – and by extension Parliament – as conditions of his takeover, but within a year he broke every guarantee.

My intuitive mistrust of him hardened into my revulsion when, in 1986, he abruptly fired 5,000 employees as his print empire was moved from Fleet Street, the historical centre of the UK’s newspaper industry, to ‘Fortress Wapping‘. It was an underhand operation, backed by the police, and the first evidence that Murdoch had suborned politicians, via the state apparatus, for his own ends.

And now, at long last, the British public collectively reviles him and the politicians he had pocketed have turned on him, free at last from the fear that their peccadillos would become front page news. That he used his control of the British media to make and break British governments through his pre-election support (or criticism) of political party leaders, and that he encouraged former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to join America’s illegal war in Iraq is now public knowledge.

However, it is thanks in large part to investigations by the Guardian newspaper, and the ‘confessions’ of a journalist or two within News International who had a shred of integrity and faith in journalistic ethics that we have learned of the endemic hacking of voice mail messages by News Of The World journalists eager to suction up tittle-tattle for scoops which would boost the newspaper’s circulation – and profits for New International.

That the phones hacked included those of a murdered schoolgirl and soldiers killed in Afghanistan was enough to condemn this latterday Citizen Kane; the sundry ‘celebrities’ targetted were more articulate but had less public credibility in their justified outrage, and it has taken the repulsive intrusions into private grief to finally focus on the venality of News International in its search for banalities it could publish.

But, one may ask, what’s this got to do with Indonesia? For a start, does Murdoch have any say in the media here?

The simple answer is ‘yes’. On September 30 2005 Star TV, a satellite and cable operator based in Hong Kong and Rupert Murdoch’s Asian broadcaster, bought 20% of the national network ANTV, giving it a firmer foothold in Indonesia;  Star TV pay-television services were already available on cable and satellite in Indonesia.

The deal is a politically delicate marriage. Advisers to the Star-ANTV transaction were concerned that Mr. Murdoch’s high profile could spur public opposition to the deal. Moreover, ANTV is owned by the family of Aburizal Bakrie, Indonesia’s then chief economy minister, drawing even more scrutiny.

There is a consolidation of media companies underway in Indonesia. On June 11th 2011, it was reported that Viva, 7.5% of which is owned by Rupert Mudroch’s (sic) News Corp., would seek to raise roughly $80m by placing 14.7 per cent of outstanding shares on the Jakarta stock exchange on July 1. The Bakrie family is bundling its television and online media outlets, including Indonesia’s most popular broadcaster, and listing them on the Jakarta stock exchange.

A week ago, Anindya Bakrie, head of Indonesia’s Bakrie Telecom, said that the world’s sixth-largest mobile telecoms market had to consolidate and he planned to kickstart the process by merging with or acquiring a profitable competitor. Mr Bakrie, the eldest son of business tycoon Aburizal Bakrie, told the Financial Times in an interview that just one or two companies fitted the required profile and discussions were ongoing. He declined to give names.

I presume, without finding evidence to the contrary, that the “firmer foothold” quoted above in 2005 refers to Star TV which was then available to the few who lived within the limited coverage of KabelVision (now part of First Media which is, to my knowledge, the only company offering fibre-optic cable broadband to home subscribers.) I still don’t – I’m literally the wrong side of the tracks, although the upmarket housing komplek the other end of my street does have it.

However, I do subscribe to Star Movies and Star Sport, but not Sky, Fox News or some National Geographic Channels which are also part of the Murdoch empire, via Indovision’s satellite service. This is part of Media Nusantara Citra (MNC), headed by Hary Tanoesoedibjo who, it was suggested in 2002, was fronting for Bambang Trihatmodjo, Suharto’s second son, when he bought most of the stock of Bimantara Citra, the Suharto family’s flagship holding company. This brought in RCTI, the first private TV station in Indonesia, and TPI, now known as GlobalTV, formerly owned by Suharto’s eldest daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana.

Hary is apparently also keen to expand his media empire, which, James Riady’s Jakarta Globe reported in February, controls around 40% of audience ratings, putting Chairul Tanjung’s Trans Group, rather than Bakrie’s Viva Media Asia, second. This week Chairul Tanjung’s Para Group has bought Indonesia’s largest internet news portal, Detik.com, for c.$40million.

Hary has said that his business maneuvers over the past decade have taken him close to powerful interests, including the country’s presidents.  “I am close to them all, the late former President Abdurahman Wahid, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, because of my position in the media,” he states, though downplaying the significance by saying anyone - except for Jakartass? - can be close to a president. 

So, apart from having a slice of Bakrie’s pie, does Rupert Murdoch have ties with any of the other oligarchs?

I’ve found little through googling, pondered the little I’ve gleaned, smoked a few kretek cigarettes and rung my inside man in Jakarta’s financial district, who advised me to google because there is little transparency in the country’s financial dealings.

However, I did find this article from Ben Bland.

On September 30th 2009, in Washington DC, Rupert Murdoch had dinner with Mari Pangestu, Indonesia’s Minister of Trade. Murdoch’s News Corporation was hosting an “Evening Celebrating Indonesia” and Mari was the guest-of-honour. Accompanied by a delegation of government officials and businessmen, Mari spoke about her desire to attract more US investment into Indonesia’s emerging film and entertainment industry.

And she was most grateful to Murdoch for sponsoring the event, saying: “I want personally to congratulate the Chairman of News Corporation, Mr. Rupert Murdoch and CEO of News Corporation, Mr. James Murdoch who make this important event happened. May you have continued success and hope this is a starting point for Indonesia and US film cooperation.”

Nearly two years later, I can find nothing else apart from the plans of the media oligarchs profiled above to continue expanding. Is Murdoch embedded in Indonesia’s media indusrty?

Strangely, even if he is, I don’t think Indonesia has much to fear from him. I don’t say this because his aura is rapidly fading worldwide but because Indonesia’s political pie has already been carved up by the media oligarchs in league with whoever remains active of the Cendana Clan.

One such is Surya Paloh, owner of Metro TV and Media Indonesia daily newspaper. A noted reformist in May 1998, he was the main rival for the chairmanship of Golkar in 2009, eventually won by Aburizal Bakrie. He still has his eyes on the presidency and last year joined Hanura, the political vehicle of Gen.(ret) Wiranto, Suharto’s last Armed Forces chief.

The biggest worry about the Indonesian media landscape is that it is being concentrated in the hands of too few oligarchs.

This week, a coalition of media watchdogs sent a letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressing concern over the relative concentration of TV station ownership among too few companies.
The letter was also sent to the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), the Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Agency (Bapepam LK) and the Constitutional Court.

Article 18 of the Broadcasting Law, limits a single person or corporation’s control of private broadcasters, and Article 34, which prohibits the transfer of broadcasting licenses.

My conclusion is therefore very basic: Indonesian media barons have learnt a lot from Rupert Murdoch’s megalomania. They seek to emulate him and are unlikely to allow him greater access to their power bases.

So, what was Mari Pangestu trying to do?

Footnote.
Both Bakrie Bros. and Hary Tanoesoedibjo have recently expanded their coal mining interests, as their export of Indonesian resources gives them short-term cash to pay off debts and reduce future loans needed to buy more media outlets and coal mines.
……………………………………………………
Further Reading
Two reports demonstrate how the élite use Suharto era defamation laws to shield themselves from criticism.
The Threat from Within: the 2010 Annual Report of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (.pdf), makes grim reading, with accounts of journalists being viciously beaten, and the use of defamation laws which criminalises journalists, and ordinary citizens, even when they report documented facts.
Turning Critics into Criminals: The Human Rights Consequences of Criminal Defamation Law in Indonesia.
(To be fair, when Tempo magazine depicted Aburizal Bakrie with the devil’s sign, 666, on his forehead, he complained to the Press council rather than resorting to criminal proceedings.)
Rupert Murdoch as Citizen Kane
Unspun has the inside track on media ownership.

It was a short article in today’s Observer (UK) by octogenarian Katherine Whitehorn which lead me to this post. As Britain begins to suffer under the cuts in public services caused by the bailing out of the banking system, which had overpaid the bosses, by the previous government, she suggests that much as we may hate the bankers “there is a way we could win them over.”

“If a slice of just one man’s bonus might save a community centre or a playground, wouldn’t we admire him then?“

Well, I wouldn’t as I still wouldn’t trust them.

My last full-time job in the UK was as the co-ordinator of a registered charity providing resources for children living in the surrounding ghetto estates of south London. Fund-raising was crucial and I worked closely with a number of charitable foundations, some with national briefs and others with specific localised objectives.

I was given an introduction to a yuppie financial type who lived in an upmarket part of London as apparently he and his social network liked to give. I called by his mansion as he was hosting a cocktail party. However, it was the visibilty of his giving that he wanted, an altruism for personal karma, a trait that I distrust. This was confirmed when he suggested that if I had photos of pot-bellied children or filthy street urchins, then he could possibly help.

I didn’t stay long. Besides, he didn’t offer me a drink.

Philanthropy takes many forms, from company sponsorship to the provision of tools.

Jesus may have fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes, however, in general, my credo would be “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day but give a man a fishing rod and he feeds himself.”

Community self-help, localised culturally sensitive actions are more beneficial in the long-term.

The super-rich, such as Bill and Melinda Gates, are spending billions on worldwide disease eradication, through their foundations. They’ve also attempted through the Giving Pledge to get other super-rich to give away half their wealth. Several have signed up, but these are Americans.

I wondered who the major philanthropists are in Indonesia. I’m not enamoured with Djarum, the kretek cigarette manufacturers who believe that “sport plays an important element in our health, happiness and well-being“, and are committed to grooming new talents to become great (badminton) shuttlers and world champions. And smokers?

There is an Asian Philanthropy Forum where “where donors, philanthropy advisors, nonprofit professionals, and other social sector investors unite, act, share best practices, and leverage their philanthropic capital and knowledge to advance human justice and security, improve quality of life, and to protect the environment.“

A search for ‘Indonesia‘ produces very little, although the series entitled ‘A Philanthropy Advisor in Indonesia’ is of interest in that it highlights localised efforts in post-tsunami Aceh. This was written by a consultant with Give2Asia an organisation based in San Francisco, California, and their site gives a few details http://give2asia.org/?s=Indonesia   of the few organisations (yayasans) they aid financially here.

Wikipedia has a page on philanthropists sorted by country; the Indonesian page lists just one person, Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha, a Dutchman who died in 1928. He came to work on a family-owned plantation (presumably rubber) but as a physicist was instrumental in setting up the Bosscha Observatory in Lembang, West Java, and what is now known as the Bandung Institute of Technology.

But what of those Indonesian millionaires who are still alive?

A quick google turned up a page from Wikipedia entitled Biggest Indonesian Philanthropists which, quite rightly, was deleted on 26th May 2008 because it does not cite any references or sources.  Nor does it have much correlation with the wiki list of the richest Indonesians.

This may mean that rich Indonesians don’t like to give, but four Indonesians have been named in the Forbes List of Region’s Top Philanthropists,

Putera Sampoerna is the only one on the rich list. He is the 59-year-old founder of the Sampoerna Foundation, a group focused on improving public education in the country. Sampoerna is a familiar brand of cigarettes, although 97% of the company is now owned by Philip Morris, “the leading international tobacco company with products sold in over 180 countries.”

James Riady, is the 50-year-old chairman of Lippo, associated with Yayasan Obi, a humanitarian relief organization that has provided free medical care and established hospitals. The source of his wealth is primarily real estate.

George Tahija, 49, and Sjakon Tahija, 54, sons of late mining tycoon Julius Tahija, also made the list. Through the family’s foundation, Yayasan Tahija, the two have sponsored schools in Banda Aceh, supported a US Centers for Disease Control program to reduce dengue fever, donated land for nature reserves and supported other causes.

The co-founder of investment firm Saratoga Investama Sedaya, Edwin Soeryadjaya, 58, also got a mention for funding microcredit programs, schools and humanitarian groups.

So what of the deleted page?

What I find particularly interesting is that alongside each name is an estimate of their net worth in US$ millions and then what is termed their ‘Wealth Giving Ratio’ (WGR).

William Soeryadjaya, the father of Edwin, gets a mention with a WGR of 53.8%, as does Mochtar Riady, the father of James, with a WGR of 37.6%, so presumably philanthropy runs in the family.

Aburizal Bakrie (of Sidoarjo mudflow infamy) is now only 10th on the rich list with $2.1 billion and his WGR is 10%..

Meanwhile, Anthoni Salim of Indofoods and every other Indo-company is worth $3 billion and his WGR is 11.4%. This, of course, makes Bakrie appear to be a skinflint, which he is if we didn’t consider his largesse to the Golkar Party cadres who voted him their chairman.

There are various mind boggles on the deleted list.

For example, some prominent folk seem to be seeking the pastures of penury. Ex-presidents Habibie and Megawati both have WGRs of 145%, which is just a little bit more than that of the Suharto offsprings whose collective WGR is given as 132.2%.

So what’s my conclusion from all this?

There don’t seem to be any playgrounds to save, but I think I could put together a portfolio of photographs featuring pot-bellied Papuans.

On advice from Dan, our gunungbagging expert, our team opted not to carry the ashes up to the summit, a grueling whole day expedition suitable only for the young and fit. Instead we followed an attractive trail through montane forest to the Salak crater, some 800 meters below the summit. This path starts from the road adjacent to Javana Spa, a health resort with beautifully tended gardens and, germanely for us, a spacious car park.

Despite worries that a large vehicle might struggle on the narrow turns up to the start point, the Elf that Chris had hired for our eleven-person group turned out to do just fine along the narrow village tracks, past the clusters of warung on the way up to the forest and the gates of Javana Spa. For those who might want to do this hike themselves, access is from the Ciawi-Sukabumi road; just after crossing the railroad track there is a large Javana Spa sign indicating the turn-off to the right, with a further 12km up to Javana Spa. The hiking trail starts about 200m before the Spa entry at a small ranger hut with an iron gate and some steps leading into the forest.

Our hike started with an effort to find a shortcut from the Javana Spa car park directly onto the crater trail. This did not actually lead us where we wanted, but did give us a chance to view a large nursery of saplings donated by dozens of generous spa guests (including a few celebrities!). After contemplating the hope for reforestation we eventually backtracked down the road to the ranger hut and made our start from the “official” gate, which is also the starting point for the most popular Salak summit hike.

Our original plan was to walk the whole 5 km to the crater together for the scattering of the ashes. However it soon became apparent that our team- now twelve people with Byron having ridden up his trail bike to join bus-borne Terry, Lily, Jesse, Tim, Chris, Mark, Vonny, John (me), Iin, Simon and Dan-  were of such widely differing ages and speeds that a more sensible alternative was for only the fitter members to press on to the crater while the rest of us enjoyed just the first couple of kilometers along the forest trails. This is a beautiful lower montane forest, lush, green and cool, leaves dripping with moisture and birds twittering constantly from the undergrowth.

No wonder it is a popular destination. We met half a dozen groups heading up and down to camp or hike. One intrepid gang were even wheeling bikes up the trail. That, I suspect, was a misjudgment. Although the trail involves only a small overall ascent, it rises and falls over frequent small ravines of slippery rocks, where cycling up would be impossible and cycling down would be a kamikaze mission.

Besides a number of Indonesian hikers, we also met a fast-moving fellow Englishman, on an urgent mission to get ahead in a hurry. “I’ve got to catch up with some mates,” he explained breathlessly as he steamed past. “You mean, the guys taking David Jardine’s ashes up the mountain?” we surmised. “Yeah, that’s right!”

This, in fact, was Will, a late addition to our party who struck out boldly from Jakarta by train to Bogor and then by ojek up to the start point, all the while receiving cellphone updates from Simon about how to find the route and whether he had any realistic chance of catching up with us before we were already back at the car park resting our legs.

As it turned out he was well in time for the actual scattering of the ashes, which we divided into two phases, one at the crater itself, and one at the wooden bridge closer down toward the spa. This setting certainly inspired us with a sense of wonder and brought David back at one with the nature for which he had such feeling. As we Jakartans eye up the mountains on those haze-free days, Mount Salak will continue to impose itself on our senses, just as David’s memory will live on in our minds.

As a reminder that Indonesia can sometimes be a most frustrating place, as well as a most inspiring one, we spent six hours stuck in traffic on the road back to Jakarta, specifically Jalan Jaksa, where we recovered with a much-needed meal and drank to his memory. What would Dave himself have had to say about our little jungle jaunt in homage to him?

I don’t know. But I think he would have had a twinkle in his eye.
………………………………………………………….
Contributed by John Hargreaves.

We were both English language teachers and part of a thriving community yet relatively small fry in a larger expat pond. Our drinking haunts were then centred around the Blok M bars, where we mingled with brawny American and Australian oil workers, geologists and other hard-drinking folk.

We had a few things in common: we were both former UK primary school teachers with responsibilty for managing our respective school's football teams, we both supported the football clubs of our teenage years – his was Carlisle United and mine still is Charlton Athletic – through good times and bad. (These past two seasons, our clubs have languished together in the third tier of the Football League.)

Another key to our relationship was that, although I'm a Londoner, I spent a few years living in West Cumbria, a few miles south of Carlisle, where I developed a lifelong antagonism towards the nuclear power industry. We were both keenly aware of the economic dependency of the region on the one remaining major industry – the Windscale Nuclear Plant. To balance this, we were also able to share reminiscences of hiking through the fells of the Lake District and the beers to be found in country pubs. (Our tipple of choice here is Bintang – there isn't that much to choose from.)

Both of us shared a horror of Margaret Thatcher, a trait which remained close to the surface throughout the rest of his life. He would regularly send me links to articles about the various horrors and ills which he perceived throughout the imperialist camps of the UK and USA,

When we met he would have a full-blooded rant, much of which I tried to tune out because my moans and rants have generally been more parochial, focussed on the world in which I live, Although, like all folk 'exiled' from our native lands, our perceptions bestraddle two worlds, Dave was raised as an airforce brat, regularly decamping to his father's overseas postings. To my knowledge, he only once rented a semi-permanent home in all the 23 or so years he lived in Jakarta, and latterly, Bogor.

Not being a psychoanalyst, I hesitate to wonder why he never formed a lasting relationship with a soulmate. Just once he almost achieved one and Dave arranged to take her back to the UK to meet his family. She never turned up at the airport. Maybe that is why he often appeared to wear an aura of alienation. To the many folk who encountered Dave in recent years, he was the 'bag man', a cantankerous and opinionated old sod. He was profoundly deaf in both ears. At times it was difficult to penetrate his ramblings; though perhaps he just didn't hear our interjections,

But then, he was also our 'Quiz Master', displaying a profound knowledge of many topics. He was someone who could retain dates and names of so many seemingly esoteric subjects that there were few who would achieve high scores. At times the Bintang got to him and a quiz would suddenly cease because of a perceived slight, perhaps a moment of inattention as a team member wandered off to order another round, or to make room for it. There were also occasions when the quiz didn't actually start: the Bintang had reached him before we did.

A few years ago, in 2004, he returned to the UK for an operation on a cancerous growth on the left side of his face. Knowing that his income depended on articles he wrote for a number of English language publications, friends organised a benefit for him so that he would have some cash in hand as he tried to sell, and get paid for, another article.

I suspect that his book, Foreign Fields Forever, a short, compact history of one of Britain's forgotten ‘little’ wars, namely the conflict with the new Republic of Indonesia from 1945-1946, will be hard to find.

However, many of his articles can be found in these publications:
Tempo
Jakarta Post
Socialist Worker (UK)

I have been sent an archive of articles from the monthly magazine JakartaJave Kini which I can't upload as it's a zip file. Email me if you'd like to read them.

I've also published a number of articles on Jakartass when the main media have decined to publish them. Access them here.

When I last saw Dave, just over a week ago here in Jakartass Towers, I thought he looked better than in a very long while. He was in a very positive frame of mind and, at his request, I willingly agreed to publish an 'advertorial' for his self-produced 'Mutton Mutiny Scrapbooks'. This now won't happen. Dave deserves a wider audience and as a suitable epitaph I may open a blog containing his articles.

Although I'm immeasurably sad at his passing, maybe the nature of it was kind. He was sitting in an armchair, hand on his chest, so the end was in some ways merciful. We're all getting older – Dave was 63, not 60 as media reports suggested – and the future here can be bleak for those of us far from our 'homelands'.

His family are due to arrive tomorrow (Wednesday) to arrange his cremation. On a number of occasions Dave expressed his wish that his ashes be scattered on the slopes of Gunung Salak. An exhibition is already planned for the end of this month and although his family may have other wishes, the hike will go ahead as a mark of respect.

As a mutual friend has written, "it's a cliche, but this is like the passing of an era."

Well, not yet, as I hope the wake, yet to be arranged, will prove.

In classical theory, people who are fixated at the Oedipal level are 'mother-fixated' or 'father-fixated', and reveal this by choosing sexual partners who are discernible surrogates for their parent(s).

Freud posited that boys and girls resolved the conflicts differently as a result of the male's castration anxiety (caused by Oedipal rivalry with the father) and the female's penis envy. He also held that the unsuccessful resolution of the Oedipus complex could result in neurosis, paedophilia, and homosexuality.

In a coherent letter to the Jakarta Post this week, friend and former colleague John Hargreaves offered a different analysis of what makes TS tick, and what gives the rest of us tics.
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From a psychological approach, the statement made by Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring in connection with his shaking of hands with US First Lady Michelle Obama can be considered as narcissistic.

This description is from Erich Fromm’s The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness.

“Only he himself and what pertains to him has significance … and because of this double standard the narcissistic person shows severe defects in judgment and lacks the capacity for objectivity. Often the narcissistic person achieves a sense of security in his own entirely subjective conviction of his perfection, his superiority over others, his extraordinary qualities...”

This sort of personality is well-suited to people in professions with celebrity status, including politics, where he can be surrounded by fawning admirers, who are oblivious to their hero’s lack of genuine conviction or real accomplishments.

Since a narcissist politician will be considered insufferably vain if he merely proclaims his own personal brilliance, he creates, or appropriates, a group or ideology, building a symbiotic relationship with his followers.

As Fromm points out, “fostering group narcissism is very inexpensive from the standpoint of the social budget; in fact, it costs practically nothing compared with the social expense required to raise the standard of living.”

An historic, Indonesian example is Sukarno. Besides recruiting a stream of submissive women to gratify his personal narcissism, he showed a narcissistic orientation in his vision of Indonesia, promoting aggrieved slogans such as “Crush Malaysia” and “To hell with your aid” rather than pursue welfare policies that would have required him to confront economic reality.

Of course Tifatul has none of Sukarno’s greatness, but he has a very potent channel for group identity.

What are the practical implications of all this?

One is that many urban Indonesians, who are severed from their roots in the soil, from creative opportunity and from economic prospects, will seek new roots in group identity. If leaders fail to offer a vision of Indonesia founded on realism, inclusiveness and tolerance, then many people will succumb to visions founded in narcissistic self-deception, exclusiveness and intolerance.

A second is that education should promote reason, realistic observation, critical thought and imagination, rather than peddling illusions of certainty.

Fromm again: “From an educated guess, to a hypothesis, to a theory, an ever increasing approximation of certainty exists mediated by reason, realistic observation, critical thought and imagination. For the one who has these capacities, relative uncertainty is very acceptable because it is the result of the active use of his faculties, while certainty is boring because it is dead. But for those without these faculties… the fanatic who pretends to be certain becomes a most attractive figure, somebody akin to a savior.”

John Hargreaves
Jakarta
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I have often suggested to John that he should archive his letters online. That he hasn't (yet?) is why I offer no apologies for reproducing his latest missive here.
J

Machiavelli is the only political thinker whose name has come into common use for designating a kind of politics, which exists and will continue to exist independently of his influence, a politics guided exclusively by considerations of expediency, which uses all means, fair or foul, iron or poison, for achieving its ends – its end being the aggrandizement of one's country or fatherland – but also using the fatherland in the service of the self-aggrandizement of the politician or statesman or one's party.

It has been suggested that I interview a lowly tax official named Gayus Halomoan Tambunan. There can be few Indonesians who are not aware of him, but my other readers might like to google his name to discover that he is a foolish fall guy and as much as he wants to save his skin by naming his bosses in the tax department, as well as prosecutors, police, judges and other highly influential low lifes in the legal mafia, most here are eagerly awaiting his pending lengthy imprisonment.

Especially as he was snapped in an appalling disguise enjoying the tennis match between Daniela Hantuchova and Yanina Wickmayer at the Tournament of Champions in Nusa Dua, Bali, on Friday 5th November, when he was supposed to be banged up in a police cell in Depok, a sunburb of Jakarta. Apparently, leaving his cell has been, but hopefully is now 'was', a regular occurrence, albeit at some cost.

If I had invited him around to Jakartass Towers I'd have had him say that it was an attempt to expose how easy it is to bribe one's jailers and that far from his escapade being an isolated case, as the police allege, he wanted to expose the 'one law for the rich' syndrome which is endemic here.

However, I can't sympathise with Gayus at all. On Monday, Gayus admitted to a panel of judges during a session of his trial (for allegedly bribing police detectives and a judge in exchange for being freed of charges of abetting tax evasion) that he had left the detention center for Bali for “refreshment”

"It meant nothing, I just miss my family. I just wanted some refreshment. I’ve been very stressed.”

Well, me too 'bro, me too!

But one question remains: why was tycoon/Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie at the same match? Gayus, as we know, had moonlighted as a tax consultant for Bakrie to fix his tax refunds and the Tax Office is continuing its probe into allegations of tax evasion by PT. Kaltim Prima Coal, a Bakrie company.