Indonesia’s Peacekeeping as a Foreign Policy Focus

Indonesia has sent some 29,000 troops to UN peacekeeping missions since 1957, making them a formidable soft-power asset. (Antara Photo/Noveradika)

Indonesia and other members of the international community commemorated the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on May 29.

This was an occasion to salute the more than 111,000 peacekeepers serving in 16 missions in some of the world’s most volatile and dangerous environments. More than 29,000 Indonesian peacekeepers have participated in dozens of international efforts over the past six decades in countries all over the world. Indonesia has helped provide instrumental support to restore peace and security in areas devastated by conflict.

Presidential candidates Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo should have given mention, in their third debate on foreign policy and defense, the solid record that Indonesia has in its participation in international peacekeeping missions when they touched on the issue of Indonesia’s role in global peace.

Raising this point would not only have garnered them Brownie points with the public, but would also provide greater assurance to the Indonesian Military (TNI) that the new government will invest more to boost the country’s participation in global peace missions.

Since 1957, 29,178 Indonesians have served in more than 50 multinational peacekeeping operations, suggesting a pro-active foreign policy by Jakarta. It is true that foreign policy begins at home, when Prabowo repeatedly said that foreign policy should begin with a strong economy and military, and insisting that Indonesia would not win the world’s respect without it.

Nor was it wrong when Joko said the South China Sea dispute had nothing to do with Indonesia because Indonesia was not a claimant in the dispute.

However, both were wrong when suggesting that Indonesia’s foreign policy should prioritize either domestic or international matters only.

A balanced perspective of Indonesia’s foreign policy, pointing to the importance of Indonesia’s role in solving domestic as well as international problems, should be adhered to by the presidential candidates. James Rosenau, in his book “Scientific Study of Foreign Policy” (1980), noted that foreign policy goals would be best served by the balanced treatment of domestic and international affairs.

Assuming that Indonesia perceives itself as a “mover” in international peace, it actually attempts to gain respect from members of the international community for its policy of transporting its ways of solving international problems from one place to another place. 

This underlines the constitutional mandate and the everlasting issue of maintaining international peace and security.

Both Prabowo and Joko constantly mentioned the word “peace” in their third debate, but they forgot to let the public know that Indonesia has at its disposal the Indonesian Peace and Security Center (IPSC) in Sentul, Bogor, which boasts a peacekeeping facility. The IPSC ensures the persistent relevance and importance of Indonesia’s contribution to peacekeeping operations, in particular under the UN umbrella. Indonesia is the 10th-biggest contributor to UN peacekeeping forces.

The next government should craft out a strategic concept for global peacekeeping missions, through which it can aim to build a hub for the peacekeeping network in the region. The next five years should at least be seen as the period in which Indonesia tabled new elements in its agenda of cooperation with a view to forging a more integrated and multi-layered framework for conflict management. It is through such a mechanism that Indonesia, through its participation in UN peacekeeping missions, may apply its soft power to help reduce, if not resolve, armed conflict.

The above objectives are unlikely to be achieved unless the next government has a very clear strategic vision on international peace. The vision, however, should be as realistic as possible. The vision should be specific rather than a vague idea about the activities in the future. For example, in the context of international relations, a vision to forge international cooperation might be considered too broad, while a vision to participate and contribute to international peacekeeping missions in the future seems to be more focused and has the potential to be workable.

This means that when Indonesia designs strategic visions of international peace, it must pay attention to not only the environment in which the vision will be implemented, but also its capacity to carry out such a vision.

This is the litmus test for the next president. Meaning that he has to demonstrate the capability to adjust the new Indonesia’s international peace strategy, if any, with the long-term needs of its foreign policy.

The new president should recognize the fact that international politics is anarchic in nature, but cooperation in building peace is always possible. The next government should adhere to the view that Indonesia’s future role is not merely to keep the peace in a broad sense, but peace itself should pave the way for a political process toward democracy.

By Bantarto Bandoro on 12:01 pm Jul 03, 2014

 Bantarto Bandoro is a senior lecturer at the School of Defense Strategy at the Indonesian Defense University and founder of the Institute for Defense and Strategic Research (IDSR) in Jakarta

The New Casinos — Emerging Markets

(JG Graphics/Josep Tri Ronggo Laksono)

Had William Shakespeare been an economist, he might have observed that some economies are born great, some achieve greatness while others have greatness thrust upon them. If alive today, he might include in the latter category so-called “emerging markets” many of which have in effect had fame, or at least familiarity, thrust upon them.

The result has been the creation of a widespread belief that “emerging” markets or economies are approaching developed country status whereas, in fact, their physical, institutional and financial infrastructures remain relatively weak. Their stock markets have become casinos where chips are bought and sold largely by foreign investors, with marginal benefit to the domestic economy.

A couple of decades or so ago, relatively few people had heard of emerging markets, and far fewer of “frontier” markets. Yet today these territories are constantly in the news, the subject of regular claims about being poised, if not exactly to take over the world then, at least, to account for the lion’s share of global GDP within a decade or so.

That the progress of many among this group of 50 to 70 emerging markets, depending upon definition, has been impressive is undeniable. But as a group they have achieved a prominence that belies the relative lack of economic, financial, political, social and institutional development they still need to overcome before they can truly be said to have “emerged.”

The fact that a highly diverse group of economies have been labeled as “markets” is revealing as to why they have achieved prominence in a relatively short space of time. They have been “packaged” by Wall Street investment bankers and sold to international fund managers anxious to acquire overseas assets in line with the ongoing process of globalization.

This has been one of history’s greatest exercises in marketing, and the result has been that a bunch of countries which not so very long ago were of interest mainly to development professionals – economists, engineers or social specialists – which were known as “developing” or “third world” economies, “basket cases” even in some instances, are now regarded as vibrant and dynamic emerging economies.

Some might argue that this has been all to the good, raising the self-esteem of countries concerned while also boosting their image among the international community. But globalization of portfolio investment has also tended to create an assumption that by connecting developing countries to flows of international investment, development challenges can be overcome. This is often not the case, however, as glaring deficiencies of development come to light even after emerging markets supposedly graduated to a new “emerged” status. Among these deficiencies is their relative lack of basic infrastructure such as highways, railroads, power grids and sanitation networks, not to mention health and education systems.

The projected cost of such infrastructure — $8 trillion in Asia alone over the current decade, as estimated by the Asian Development Bank, and $57 trillion globally as estimated by the Organization of Economic and Co-operative Development — vastly outstrips the $1 trillion or so of private capital that flows annually from advanced to emerging economies, as estimated by the Institute of International Finance.

These discrepancies between supply and demand only begin to hint at the true scale and nature of the problem, however, which is that the packaging of emerging economies in a way that makes them attractive to global portfolio investors encourages an often short-term and superficial or “cherry picking” approach to financing their economic development.

Foreign portfolio capital, that is investment into stocks and bonds, naturally seeks the highest return in the shortest possible period of time and prefers existing enterprise with a track record of profit-making rather than so called “greenfield” ventures in projects such as infrastructure with a long gestation and payoff period. Likewise foreign “direct investment,” where corporate capital is directed into new ventures, tends to prefer manufacturing or service enterprises that produce returns in a few years rather than longer-term projects such as infrastructure. The upshot is that emerging economies receive an inadequate and unbalanced diet of funding.

Not only that, but the need for development of domestic financial systems that are vital to national economic wellbeing in emerging economies is often overlooked by those who focus on the supposed need to bring developing economies into the global marketplace for capital. Put bluntly, it is a case of emerging markets being exploited by the market itself.

This raises the question of how and why emerging markets did in fact “go to market.” Very simply, it’s “because savings in Europe began to exceed local demand [for investment] in Europe” during the late 1970s and in the 1980s, in the words of David Gill who might fairly be called the “father” of emerging markets.

This led to a desire on the part of European and later US investors to acquire portfolio assets outside of their own borders, according to Gill, who was managing director of the capital markets department at the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation during the seminal years of emerging-market development.

It was principally pressure applied from advanced economies, or rather from agencies acting on behalf of the Western investment community, rather than internal motivation that precipitated the activation of stock markets across the developing world, beyond the relative few that had had such markets for decades as part of a colonial legacy.

Antoine van Agtmael, a former investment banker at Bankers Trust in New York who later joined IFC, recalls that in 1981 when he “pitched the idea of a third world equity fund” to Salomon Brothers, he was told that it would never sell under that name. So, he came up with the label “emerging markets” — which stuck.

The marketing of these economies has been a remarkable success. Today, the value of stocks listed on the world’s emerging markets is around one quarter of the global value or capitalization of all listed stocks and that should reach one half within the next 20 years, according to estimates by Goldman Sachs.

Among the most prominent of the emerging markets are China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan while so-called “frontier” or not-yet-emerging markets include countries such as Argentina, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Jordan, Vietnam and others in various parts of Africa.

The aggregate value of emerging market stocks exceeds that of those quoted on the New York Stock Exchange, and in some of these markets the total stock market value or “capitalization” of listed stocks exceeds the size of the country’s economy. This reveals the huge discrepancy between stock values driven by foreign funds and the actual capital-raising ability of local stock exchanges for the domestic economy. In this sense, they are casinos.

Stock markets do play an essential role within any financial system, but the equity market mania that has driven their development in many emerging economies has arguably been at the expense of the development of banking systems and bond markets essential for raising long-term funds and of investment institutions capable of channeling local savings into local investment.

This says nothing, moreover, of the problems caused by the introduction of extremely volatile foreign capital flows into emerging economies via their stock markets, causing the creation, and subsequent destruction, of asset bubbles and posing problems for the conduct of domestic monetary policy. All of which suggests that stock markets have “emerged” prematurely across much of the developing world.

Anthony Rowley is a former business editor and international finance editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review and is currently field editor (Japan) for Oxford Analytica and Tokyo correspondent of the Singapore Business Times. During a long career in  journalism, Rowley has written extensively on  issues of economic and financial development in Asia and elsewhere and his books include “Asian Stock Markets – the Inside Story” published by Dow Jones Irwin in 1986 as well as “The Barons of European Industry” published by Croom Helm in 1973.

YaleGlobal

By Anthony Rowley on 07:49 pm Jul 02, 2014

The Thinker: China Gives Hong Kong Its Worst

Policemen remove protesters in the central district after a pro-democracy rally seeking greater democracy in Hong Kong early on July 2, 2014. (AFP Photo/Philippe Lopez)

If China wants Hong Kong residents to stop taking to the streets in protest, it should start picking better leaders.

Of course, that’s exactly why an estimated 300,000 demonstrated yesterday and almost 800,000 voted in a recent unofficial referendum: to gain the right to choose the city’s chief executive officer. China won’t let them and is noncommittal about when, or if, that might happen. Not surprisingly, anger about China’s meddling, surging property prices, pollution and income disparities are coalescing around Beijing’s handpicked CEO.

Since July 2012, Leung Chun-ying has stood aside as China clamped down on Hong Kong’s media, tried to make the city less transparent and moved to impose patriotic education on students. His predecessor, Donald Tsang, spent seven years looking the other way, while Tung Chee Hwa, the city’s first leader, enriched a whole class of tycoons, including Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-Shing.

When you look at the quality of Beijing’s picks, it beggars belief that the Communist Party can’t see why Hong Kongers want greater democracy. It’s equally shocking that China doesn’t get just how much it’s bungling its Hong Kong experiment. Before 1997, when the U.K. turned Hong Kong over to China, the city-state was a test case for all things laissez-faire: low taxes, minimal red tape, the rule of law and unfettered capital flows. But then something got in the way to send income gaps even further out of whack: China. Long before the British returned it to China, Hong Kong was an oligarchic economy. After 1997, though, the concentration of wealth accelerated as China’s influence grew.

Communist Party bigwigs with millions, or even billions, suddenly had ill-gotten dollars to stash and Hong Kong property became an obvious first stop. The torrent of money from China’s nouveau-riche politicians drove real estate into the stratosphere, stoking public discontent. Beijing has tried to make Hong Kong more opaque with proposals to block disclosure of personal data on company directors, muddying who owns what.

Hong Kongers are realizing just how rigged their system has become. Much of the blame must be traced to the patronage politics that shackled the city to Leung, the latest chief executive chosen for his connections, not skill. This cronyism has infiltrated Hong Kong’s first-world financial system. Of the 10 biggest stocks in the Hang Seng index, the majority are state-owned Chinese companies with Beijing-selected leaders. Wall Street’s infamous “sons and daughters” programs elevated mediocre talents to high places, subverting Kong Kong’s meritocracy while helping to further skewing incomes. As these dynamics become entrenched, Hong Kong is becoming more corrupt and less competitive. It hardly helps that China cowed Hong Kong’s media into censoring itself.

Now, things have gone full circle with even billionaires like Li — who has started investing overseas — worrying about waning trust in the leaders Beijing keeps foisting on Hong Kong. In a June 27 speech, a man who’s benefited royally from the status quo, said he’s worried that “more and more people will lose faith in this system, breeding skepticism towards what is fair and just, doubting everything and believing all has turned sour and rancid.” What’s fascinating about these sentiments is how they dovetail with Hong Kong’s answer to the Occupy Wall Street movement, Occupy Central. The kind of backlash about which China has long worried seems to be afoot. Students of economics and politics saw this coming. If the last 100 years have taught us anything it’s what happens when wealth and social disparities undermine order.

For all its wealth, Hong Kong is a potential powder keg. About 1.3 million of its 7.2 million people, or one in five, live under the poverty line. Its Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, rose to 0.537 in 2011 from 0.525 a decade earlier, and now is 12th highest in the world. And given the surge in property prices during Leung’s tenure, coming mostly from public servants in Beijing, it’s safe to assume the gap has widened more since then.

Not surprisingly, Hong Kong residents think they can do a better job picking leaders. After all, few of them trust Community Party leaders to do anything other than feather their own nests while inequality soars in Hong Kong. China’s heavy-handed efforts to contain the pro-democracy movement risks turning more and more of the city’s residents against the mainland.

Many Hong Kongers wonder how their city got to such a fraught place. But when even billionaires fret publicly about the risks of social unrest, and start investing elsewhere, Hong Kong is in trouble. If left to fester, something worse is possible. That’s bad for business in a place where business is supposed to come first.

William Pesek is a Bloomberg View columnist based in Tokyo and writes on economics, markets and politics throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

By William Pesek on 08:14 pm Jul 02, 2014

Nazi Symbols in Indonesia’s Election Campaign

Prabowo Subinato thanked Ahmad Dhani on June 20 on his official Facebook page.

Campaign teams of Indonesia’s presidential candidates have used historical references as part of their strategy. But nobody expected the election campaign to take last month’s turn when arock singer wore a costume similar to a Nazi uniform to promote Prabowo Subianto.

Ahmad Dhani created an uproar after turning Queen’s “We Will Rock You” into an election campaign anthem for Prabowo. Accompanied by young Indonesian singers, he sang in a video dressed in a military outfit similar to that of SS officer Heinrich Himmler.

Before long, the media picked up on the video. Queen said this use of their song was unauthorized. But despite taking the video down, Dhani, like some Indonesians, seemed to not understand what the fuss was about.

Dhani’s fashion crime is not the only example of the use of Nazi symbols in Indonesia. Recently, a Nazi-themed cafe in Bandung re-opened. It had closed last year following international uproar.

Why is Nazi symbolism used unthinkingly in Indonesia, while elsewhere in the world its use is political and social suicide?

It is not uncommon for Indonesians to say “I like Hitler” when meeting someone from Germany. This fascination with Nazism comes from a complex combination of elements, from poor history teaching and imported anti-Semitism to a long-standing romanticization of the extreme right.

Suharto used history lessons as a tool for government propaganda during his 32-year-rule. Everybody knew that the stories they learned in school under the New Order regime were distorted. But sorting reality from fiction was difficult.

Suharto’s fall in 1998 was followed by an outpouring of writings that aimed to “correct” history. Many were unreliable. The lack of formal education and the availability of unreliable information resulted in unique adaptations of history in general and Nazi symbols in particular in Indonesia.

Bookstores now sell Indonesian translations of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the fraudulent “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” along with a range of Holocaust-denial writings.
These sources convey the idea that a global Jewish conspiracy is working against Muslims. Indonesian support for Israeli-occupied Palestine feeds into a widespread belief in this Zionist conspiracy. The near absence of Jews from contemporary Indonesian society makes it easy to construct a distant and unknown enemy.

Interestingly, Dhani is of Jewish descent. The long-standing and small Jewish community of Indonesia was largely driven out of the country in successive waves between the 1950s and late 1990s. But a few individuals have married into prominent families. Another well-known Indonesian of Jewish descent is Yapto Soerjosoemarno, the leader of the paramilitary organization Pemuda Pancasila, which features heavily in the documentary film The Act of Killing.

This is where things become weird in the election campaign. Prabowo is a cashiered general and former son-in-law of Suharto. In his attempt to be elected president he has courted a range of violent groups from Yapto’s Permuda Pancasila to the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). The latter are thugs who attack anyone they deem anti-Islamic, including members of unorthodox Muslim sects.

Historical references in Prabowo’s campaign include a combination of symbols that represent the strongman image. Mussolini-style, he rides a horse in a stadium full of supporters standing in formation wearing white uniforms and red berets. He dresses in the style of Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, harking back to the period of “Guided Democracy.” At the same time he visits Suharto’s grave, appealing to the spirit of Sukarno’s enemy and successor.

The appeal of Nazi imagery is that it symbolizes militarism and the idea that Hitler brought Germany out of poverty and political defeat to become a world power within a few years. This message is still found in school textbooks, which make little or no mention of the Holocaust.

In various parts of Asia forms of Nazism and Fascism in the 1930s and 1940s were used as a tool for nationalist movements. Sukarno spoke highly of Hitler’s rhetorical skills while denying any association with Nazism as an ideology. Sukarno’s famous “year of living dangerously” line was taken from Italian fascist speeches.

Team Prabowo claims it does not see any problems with the offending video, although Dhani’s label, Republik Cinta, has taken the video off its Youtube channel.

It will be interesting to see how this scandal will influence the July 9 election result, particularly whether it helps increase support from hard-line groups for Prabowo. Perhaps one outcome if his opponent wins may be that a new government would add Holocaust history to the nation’s school curriculum.

By Adrian Vickers & Mirela Suciu on 08:20 pm Jul 01, 2014

Adrian Vickers is professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Sydney. Mirela Suciu is a senior special needs adviser at the University of New England.

Population, People, You and Me: A Growing Challenge for Indonesia

(JG Graphics/Josep Tri Ronggo Laksono)

Recently I have been contemplating populations. That is, population as a construct, as a concept, something to count, to measure and as a subject for policy. Population specialists, such as demographers, get quite enthusiastic about population data. For them, trends in overall population numbers, ageing populations, overwhelmingly young populations, population densities, population cohorts, total fertility rates etcetera are their daily fix. And so they should be. Few of us realize that big-picture population changes are critical and affect national development in so many ways, which in turn affects the benefits that accrue to each and every one of us as citizens.

The elements of population policy are relatively straightforward; there are two choices. Let people get on with their usual life cycle of birth, then living as long as possible, followed by eventual death, which allows populations to fluctuate naturally, or intervene in targeted ways to influence this fluctuation. It came as a surprise to me to learn that there are really only three legitimate methods to intervene: various forms of family planning, education or a mixture of both. Of course there are nuances to these methods, such as family planning with incentives, education about optimum family size but in essence the three choices seem to be it.

Asia has been at the heart of several well-known government-supported experiments in intervention in the life cycles of their citizens. The best known are arguably China’s one-child policy and Vietnam’s two-child policy. A generation or two on, impacts from these interventions are only now coming to light. Chinese men are in a desperate competition to find eligible brides. Abortion rates are ballooning in Vietnam as people seek to ensure at least one of their two children is a boy. Many other populous Asian countries, notably India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, have had their own issues with population growth.

In Indonesia’s case government intervention was so successful that it was awarded a prize from the United Nations. In 1989 the then-president, Suharto, was given an award for cutting fertility rates and reducing overall population growth to levels which were more likely to guarantee development for all. The 1980s and ’90s were both decades in Indonesia where family planning was the background mantra to better development. Liberally translated, the mantra espoused “Two children are enough; boys or girls, both are the same.” But apart from the award, what have been the long-term effects in Indonesia of this population intervention?

Certainly there has been no “artificial skewing” of the population ratios by sex, as there has been in China. Male and female birth ratios are well within normal limits seemingly as Indonesians took on the belief that male and female children were indeed equally precious. Furthermore abortion is not legal in Indonesia so most Indonesians would defer to nature or God on the sex of their children being born, rather than use illegal abortion as a way to select the sex of their children.

Research has shown that in many cases, the intended positive effect of having fewer children, combined with other economic factors such as increasing work opportunities, has increased overall economic development for many, if not all. Middle class Indonesians, who internalized the idea that smaller families were good, have passed on this ideal to their children, who in turn further contributed to continued sustained development.

Indeed the policy of encouraging smaller families was so successful, that having smaller numbers of children has surely become the norm in Indonesia. Through their own education and through the experience of their own parents, many young parents today may not even be aware there was a family planning intervention supported by government.

But recent figures have revealed they may be in for a bit of shock: it may be time for a new intervention. The birth rate in Indonesia is on the rise again. At a total fertility rate of 2.6, this means that more than five million new Indonesians per year are added to the total. Population projections for 2010-25 show levels which will move Indonesia into a scenario where populations may not be allowed to fluctuate naturally anymore.

Where is the recent trend toward larger families coming from? Some believe there is a religious element behind the trend with a growing number of people reverting to fate or God on how many children they have. This has in part been spurred on by some of the religious groups actively coming out and saying that family planning is haram , or at least that methods such as sterilization are. Others have criticized the methods of family planning, including availability of effective contraception, a lack of understanding of the relative benefits of long-acting methods, a preference for short-term methods such as monthly injections and the lack of involvement of most men in becoming users of contraception themselves, preferring to let their wives pick contraception of her choice.

Should Indonesia decide to ramp up a new family planning and educational campaign, this time it needs to be nuanced. In the so-called golden times of family planning in Indonesia, all parts of Indonesia were targeted equally, yet population densities varied widely. The densely populated islands of Java and Bali and Sumatra were treated in exactly the same way as the miniscule populations of what was then named Irian Jaya, or the sparse and widely dispersed populations of Kalimantan. This may need to change this time around.

While nowadays the population that is on most government minds is the voting population, as we move steadily towards the next political era in Indonesia’s history, should we not keep in mind broader population dynamics too?

We all share the limited resources available to us on the planet, as more of us crush into cities at risk of succumbing to natural disasters, as climate change increasingly affects all populations, though in different ways, should we not be mindful that populations are made up of not just other people, but of both you and me, too, and that each of us is capable of making our own choices for the good of the broader population?

 By Keith Hargreaves on 08:00 pm Jul 01, 2014

Keith Hargreaves is a project manager at Strategic Asia Europe.

The Thinker: Fasting and Football

Algerian players during a training session at the stadium Estadio Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on Sunday. (EPA Photo/Mohamed Mesara)

The World Cup and Ramadan — the ninth month of the Muslim year, during which strict fasting is observed from sunrise to sunset — last clashed in 1986. This year they did so again in spectacular fashion, with both the fasting month and the tournament’s Round of 16 beginning last Saturday.

Prior to Brazil 2014, Muslims in a range of sports fasted during their regular club competitions, with seemingly little or no impact. In Australia, Sonny Bill Williams joins Hazem El Masri as rugby league stars who have fasted during an NRL season, and Bachar Houli in Aussie Rules.

NBA great Hakeem Olajuwon’s playing stats famously improved while fasting in Ramadan. Liverpool and Cote d’Ivoire defender Kolo Toure says his body adjusts after the first few days.

This year, there are several Muslims in teams still in the knockout stages of the World Cup including at least five players from France, seven from Switzerland’s diverse squad, two from Nigeria, three from Belgium, two or three from Germany and most of the Algerian team.

There are several factors that suggest the clash of the World Cup and Ramadan this year won’t present a problem. For a start, there’s a general agreement among Muslim scholars that anyone who is traveling is included in the list of Muslims who are exempt from fasting, along with the sick, young children, and the elderly.

Several players have announced they will still be fasting, and won’t be seeking to make up the missed fasting days after Ramadan, as those claiming the travel exemption must do.

Algerian captain Madjid Bougherra who has played for a number of European clubs and fasted while doing so. Manchester City right back Bacary Sagna, who plays for the French national team, says he will continue to fast, citing the experiences of players who used to do so while playing in European leagues.

There is a growing body of research on coping strategies that Muslim athletes can undertake if they wish to continue fasting while playing, as FIFA found out.

Ramadan changes not just the amount of food and drink consumed by a fasting Muslim (none at all during daylight hours) but also his or her sleeping patterns (as a fasting person will get up pre-dawn for an early breakfast).
Muslims in general, not just those who play professional sport, are advised to consume a pre-dawn meal consisting of foods that release energy slowly throughout the day, as a listicle widely shared on social media in the days before Ramadan suggests.

Imagine the impact that a change in sleeping patterns and the timing of food and drink consumption might have on a professional athlete’s training regimen. Some studies suggest an increase in fatigue and a decline in speed and agility among Muslim athletes.

Others indicate that performance isn’t affected by fasting in Ramadan as long as regular training is maintained, and the same amount of nutrients are consumed (at night).

Finally, the Muslim world doesn’t have a central authority acknowledged by everyone who follows the faith.
This makes the fasting/sport equation even more complex because some religious figures looked up to by the players say that because of the nature of their jobs, they don’t have to fast even if they aren’t travelling and can make it up later or otherwise compensate for the fast.

Fasting exemptions for sports people are, of course, hotly debated and will probably continue to be discussed at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, scheduled for June 8 to July 8 in a year when Ramadan is expected to last until the first week of the tournament.

In a nutshell, it shouldn’t be an issue if Ramadan and the World Cup clash this year, as the players will be covered by the traveling exemption.

Those who don’t want to claim this exemption and still fast will be able to draw on the emerging research into how the body is able to adapt to fasting while maintaining physical performance.

By Nasya Bahfen on 07:00 pm Jun 30, 2014

Talking About US-Iran Relations: When History Isn’t History After All

(JG illustration)

I learned what a trickster history can be 20 years ago at Hanoi airport. After everything the United States gave and lost in Vietnam while trying to keep it safe from Communism, who would have thought you would find the lion lying down with the lamb at a business convention? But there it was, capitalism in capital letters, a billboard advertising VIETNAMERICA EXPO!

Who won that war again?

Things like that change how you understand the world — if only by teaching you to wonder about even those things you think you know for an absolute fact.

It happened again last weekend. I read something that laid waste one of the most common assumptions of Cold War history: that an expert 1953 CIA covert operation in Iran overthrew a democratically elected prime minister to put the shah back in control of his country. Ray Takeyh, an Iranian-American historian and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues persuasively in the July/August issue of “Foreign Affairs” that President Dwight Eisenhower’s CIA did not actually bring down Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh after all.

Huh? There had to be some mistake. Could it be that the United States is not the Great Satan the Middle East has made it out to be all these years? That the Iranians embraced the shah all on their own?

Maybe that is the reason why the people of Iran have always evinced more affection for the US and its citizens than their government does. They knew all along what US historians did not — the truth.

Takeyh can see it clearly. “The CIA’s impact on the events of 1953,” he writes, “was ultimately insignificant.”

This is historic revisionism that cuts deep. The “truth” being revised has been the subject of soul-searching by US presidents from Harry Truman, who refused to authorize covert ops in Iran, to Barack Obama, who, with implied contrition, invoked the CIA’s role in “the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government” during his much-covered speech to the Arab world in 2009.

The notion that the US deposed Mossadegh and reimposed the shah on the people of Iran is one of the founding myths of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and among the most poignant intricacies of the American-Iranian relationship-one that is right now poised at a moment of great danger and great potential.

With the region being fractured by sectarian violence, with extremists on the far side of Al-Qaeda taking over whole swaths of Syria and Iraq and threatening to carve a radical Sunni heartland out of the desert borderlands now only nominally controlled by Damascus and Baghdad, Iranian and US officials actually met this week to discuss cooperation to keep Iraq from blowing up entirely. And while negotiations are far from concluded, the outlines of a deal that would contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions are already coming clear.

This makes Takeyh’s rewriting of history of more than academic interest.

His point, in brief, is that while the CIA and MI6 did plot to bring Mossadegh down, the written record proves that their plotting was ineffective and that everyone knew it. General Walter Bedell Smith gave the news to Eisenhower straight. “The move failed,” he wrote. “We now have to take a whole new look at the Iranian situation”

Only after Western intelligence backed off was Mossadegh brought down-not by the CIA or MI6, not even by the shah, but by the Iranians themselves, in a coalition of disaffected politicians, military officers, members of parliament, and Iranians of all stripes who took to the streets — led by none other than the most important religious leader in the country, Ayatollah Abul-Qasim Kashani and fellow Iranian clergy.

“You have to understand that Iran in the 1950s was a different place,” Takeyh said in an interview. “The shah was tentative, deferential, not the megalomaniac he would become in the ‘70s. The clergy was more quietist and moderate than they are now, and apart from a few relatively minor disputes they had very good relations with the monarchy.”

Takeyh’s careful scholarship is bound to be contradicted by historians and politicians in both countries who have published the conventional story or have an interest in sustaining it, but the evidence for his case is strong, and it comes at a time when the need for a “reset” in US-Iranian relations is compelling.

Though the correction of a 60-year-old mistake is unlikely to produce a breakthrough in Syria, Iraq or nuclear negotiations, it does subtly change one of the negotiators — from helpless victim of the imperialist dog to a country that, however much its leaders may wish to distance themselves from it, shaped its own history.

Reuters

Jim Gaines, Reuters Global Editor-at-large, is the former editor of TIME and LIFE magazines and the author of several works of history. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Jim Gaines on 02:50 pm Jun 21, 2014

One Way to Contain a Growing Problem in Jakarta

(JG Graphics/Josep Tri Ronggo Laksono)

Jakarta, like many global cities, suffers from the insurmountable problem of having too many people move to the city without it being in a position to accommodate them in satisfactory homes, provide adequate sanitation and health care facilities, or indeed offer much of a basic infrastructure. Migrant workers find themselves living in overcrowded and environmentally unhealthy conditions — a rich breeding ground for disease and social unhappiness. New homes cannot be created at the rate demanded by migrants coming to the city. What can be done to forestall the build-up and eventual release of this frustration?

A possible, relatively economical, green solution would be to use shipping containers as a means of providing sturdy and robust accommodation for families, itinerants and co-workers. Their length typically ranges from 6 meters to 12 meters, they are 2.4 meters wide and 2.6 meters high, and are easily transportable.

Because of their original purpose for transporting goods by sea they are well suited to severe weather conditions and can withstand force-5 hurricanes.

They can be stacked up to 8 containers high, but typically two or three would be stacked atop of each other with stairs connecting them to road level. The steel containers would have windows to increase natural light and circulation of air. Insulation and internal walls could be added to create lounging and sleeping areas, provide privacy or communal areas for families or sharers. Kitchens could be fitted out with basic utilities, including a bottled gas cooker; both the kitchen’s bathroom’s complexities would increase with container size. Other modifications could include skylights, ventilation and air-conditioning. Solar collectors for local hot water would increase their green credentials.

Changing facilities that incorporate toilets and showers could be located in specifically converted containers, with separate units for male and female users. A plumbing and sewerage network could be created that would ensure residents were less likely to come into contact with raw sewage. Groups of containers could be linked to standalone containerized water treatment system facilities. These systems would be cheap to set up and operate locally, and better able to cope with local conditions and populations.

Containers can also be converted into secure electrical rooms, controlled and maintained by the local electricity supplier and from which power cables can be run to home and business containers for lighting and air-conditioning. By utilizing proper air conditioning and cooling the life of this equipment can be extended — reducing capital equipment and maintenance costs.

In the United Kingdom, government and private builders are unable to provide enough new builds to cater for the demand of 800,000 homes needed for London by 2021. However, the use of shipping containers could make significant inroads on this issue. Urban Space Management Limited’s Container City I is a practical application of linked shipping containers to create live/work spaces and built within 15 days.

Both the government and private sector have favorably received this low-cost and rapidly deployable methodology.

The arrangement of containers is not permanent; they can be moved en masse, intact and fitted out, making relocation easier and with less disruption to communities. When disasters or emergencies strike, the less affluent members of society are disproportionately affected, both in terms of numbers and ensuing problems. Additional containers could be utilized as robust, temporary shelters, reducing the pressure on alternative accommodation facilities. Containers can also be used as a command and control centers in times of emergency, as exemplified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the United States.

Their end-use is broad. In the UK containers have been converted into temporary retail outlets (pop-up shops) that are better suited for individuals unable to commit long term to a traditional bricks and mortar or shopping mall environment. With fewer location restrictions they can be located closer to their customer base. They are more resilient to general wear and tear and not necessarily harmed by graffiti. These pop-up shops could rapidly diversify the variety of trades, products and services on offer.

The pop-up feel could be augmented through bright, catchy paintwork designs, creating a focus of attention and a local landmark, increasing the public’s acceptance and use of these structures.

Containers have also been converted into restaurants with full kitchens and lounge spaces, permanent clinics, classrooms and swimming pools, changing rooms, storage facilities, offices and welfare units. Other uses include playground structures for children to clamber up, over and around, thereby providing greater stimulation and interest.

In Brazil, football fans and tourists for the World Cup are using favelas (shantytowns) in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo and other Brazilian cities alike as places to stay, eschewing expensive beachfront hotels. Although tarnished by reputations of violence, drugs and poverty, favela occupants and visitors alike agree that these places provide an intimate perspective on Brazilian culture. It therefore is only a matter of time before small shipping container guesthouses (posadas) make an appearance.

By the same token, small guesthouses and hotels could be created in the less affluent areas of Jakarta, generating income, promoting local business and creating pride and respect and taking people out of poverty.

Through regulating and overseeing the usage of containers, Jakarta could positively influence the social, economic and health status of its poorest residents and residential areas of greatest need. Visible improvements would be observable within less than four days, the time taken to fit out a complex of six units.

With containers having previously revolutionized the world of freight, Jakarta can take the initiative and dynamically alter the housing environment.

Simon Vadgama is a senior associate at Strategic Asia Creative Labs. Contact him at simon.vadgama@sacreativelabs.com.

By Simon Vadgama on 08:36 pm Jun 17, 2014

Debating the Matter of National Security

Indonesian military officers look at a German tank, 62 ton-MBT Leopard Evolution, during the 2012 Indodefense expo in Jakarta on Nov. 8, 2012. The concept of national security is a highly complex one, which is defined differently at different times in a country’s history, according to Bantarto Bandoro, a senior lecturer at the Indonesian Defense University. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)

The presidential debates are not over yet. The first debate on June 9 saw the pairs overwhelmed by critical issues that are in dire need of real solutions.

The first debate addressed the theme of building democracy, good governance and law certainty. The second debate on Sunday saw a discussion on economic development and social welfare, while a third dialogue scheduled for June 22 will go over internal politics and national resilience. The fourth debate on June 29 and July 9’s final face off will raise the issue of human resource development and science, and technology and food, energy and environment respectively.

Though none of these topics are not specific to national security, they can still be framed within that context.

A draft bill on Indonesia’s national security was introduced by the government in 2006, which as yet, has not been passed by parliament. While a country’s national security is defined principally through domestic issues, a wider concept also relates to external threats, which — according to a statement made by chief of Indonesia’s defense forces on July 20, 2011 — have become widespread.

We would like to know just how deeply each presidential candidate understands the importance of national security and what it entails. The concern may be that the new government taking power may lack the will, if not competence, to handle the security situation effectively. Should it fail on that score, Indonesia risks experiencing domestic turbulence and conflict.

We expect to see the presidential hopefuls air their perspectives on national security when they address the issue of internal politics and national resilience in their third debate. We are also curious to know how they will frame all of the issues addressed in the debate within the scope of national security policies.

The concept of national security is a highly complex one, which is defined differently at different times in a country’s history. Under President Sukarno for example, national security seemed to focus on expelling elements of colonialism and imperialism from the country.

Sukarno was anti-colonial in his personal as well as his policy outlook, and he took the strong position that viewed foreign powers as direct threats to Indonesia’s independence. Thus, national security during his administration mobilized domestic resources towards complete independence from the outside world, even at the expense of economic growth.

In contrast, the New Order regime under General Suharto perceived the major threat as internal. In seeking economic development and political stability, his policy measures aimed at strengthening the country’s foreign relations in order to secure external resources — a prerequisite for resolving internal problems.

In 1975, following Western military boycotts in light of Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor, the concept of national resilience was introduced to express the comprehensiveness of this notion.

The administrations led by Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have tended to perceive national security as equivalent to maintaining territorial integrity.

Habibie also seemed to follow his predecessor’s thinking that political stability and overall national development were key to national security. His major concern may, therefore, have been the release of East Timor from Indonesian control.

The presidency’s salient characteristic after Gus Dur assumed power in 1999 grew from his rash handling of national issues, which not only led to his downfall, but also to a belief that his government did not prioritize national security.

The crucial security issues Gus Dur’s successor, Megawati, faced were the Bali bombing, sectarian conflicts in Maluku and Poso, and Aceh’s increasingly rebellious nature. However, Megawati’s government received praise for a national law on combating terrorism.

After gaining the presidency in 2004, Yudhoyono went much further in addressing the spectrum of challenges to national security. It was during his two terms in office that various documents directly related to the matter were published, reflecting the administration’s attempt to address areas of concern comprehensively.

This brief outline on how national security issues were perceived by Indonesia’s six previous governments shows substantial differences in both the handling of salient issues and also the country’s degrees of alertness toward possible threats to the country.

Whoever the president-elect of Indonesia will be, he will be working in a completely different national setting. The new president’s perspective of national security will be shaped by the issues he encounters during his five years of presidency, suggesting that he will act very differently from his predecessors.

A student recently asked me whether there has been or will be a national debate or an open dialogue between the presidential hopefuls on the subject of national security, to which I replied: “No, not really.”

But if the candidate is smart enough to relate the issues raised during the national debate to national security, then one can assume they have at least given the matter a thought. So far, neither has gone as far as to suggest that the mismanagement of those issues will have serious repercussions on national security.

For now then, one has to wonder how the presidential candidates will frame national security in their political programs.

Perhaps, a priority would be for the next government to initiate fresh and concrete steps toward passing the 2006 national security bill. The next administration, however, must make sure that the draft bill, if passed by parliament, would in no way sacrifice human rights, prevent the growth of democracy and ignore the Indonesian people.

Not only that; the next government should know that a “national security threat list” was absent from the current administration’s policies. If the next government can develop such a list, it would help security forces and the public in general to fully understand the various activities that are a danger to our national security, regardless of the sources and who the acting agents are.

Bantarto Bandoro is a senior lecturer at the Indonesian Defense University and founder of the Institute for Defense and Security Research (IDSR) in Jakarta

By Bantarto Bandoro on 11:01 am Jun 16, 2014

For Both Indonesia and Freeport, It’s About Time to Face the Facts

(JG Graphics/Josep Tri Ronggo Laksono)

Perhaps unbeknown to many, the chief executives of both Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining have been jetting in and out of Jakarta recently to conduct high-level talks with the new coordinating minister for the economy, Chairul Tanjung. While the local media speculates on whether Richard Adkerson, CEO of Freeport, has been lobbying the minister to have its contract renewed beyond 2021, the talks primarily dealt with the resumption of Indonesia’s exports of copper concentrates, which stalled after the new mining regulation came into effect in January.

The new regulation, which requires foreign mining companies to build smelters, is part of the government’s patriotic push to maximize revenues from the mining sector. The nationalistic bend is likely to be picked up by the new government after the July presidential election as both candidates for the country’s top job seem eager to be seen as putting national interests above those of foreign companies.

The biggest foreign stakeholder in Indonesia’s mining sector is without a doubt Freeport Indonesia which is the operator of the world’s largest gold mine and third largest copper mine at Grasberg in the province of Papua. The US company’s 40-odd-year operation has indeed become a polemic among Indonesians, many of whom see the company as a symbol of foreign exploitation of the country’s natural resources, leaving behind an environmental time bomb in its wake.

But to be fair, Freeport also sustains 30,000 odd jobs for Indonesians, is the country’s single biggest taxpayer and spent $39.4 million in 2012 on community development projects for the benefit of the local Papuans. Indeed the company has long pledged 1 percent of its profits on community development in the province. Nonetheless, questions are being asked whether a mere 1 percent is any longer sufficient considering the environmental damage to the land as a result of the company’s mining operation.

The 1977 dynamite attack on Freeport’s facilities by local separatists, along with more recent attacks, clearly indicate that many Papuans see the company’s existence as more injurious than beneficial to them. Resentment towards the company is reportedly rife among the Free Papua Movement supporters who believe that Freeport is enriching the central government of Indonesia at the expense of the Papuans.

This view becomes particularly persuasive when one considers that the thirty-odd million dollars spent on local projects as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility programs are trifles compared to the nearly 4 billion annual net profits booked by the company.

Freeport’s position in the country is further complicated by Jakarta’s desire to quell Papuan separatism with further concessions that may appease the locals. Consequently, the next government may channel more funds to help develop the province, and as such Freeport will be expected to contribute its share.

It might be wise for Freeport to increase its CSR pledge for local development significantly in a bid to strengthen local support for the company. A generous voluntary pledge of its net profits to benefit the Papuans could clearly be a valuable bargaining chip for Freeport when it renegotiates with Jakarta for extension of its operation in 2019.

A strong pro-Indonesian image is definitely needed by the company as the next government will clearly be under public pressure to strike a patriotic pose at the 2019 negotiation, especially in an election year. It is essential that Freeport is seen doing more things that benefit Papua particularly and Indonesia generally before then.

As a company Freeport Indonesia currently pays 25 percent on its income, admittedly a higher rate than most companies pay in the country. Under the current contract, the Indonesian government has 9.36 percent of the company’s shares, a figure that a nationalistic future government may want to increase.

However, the figure of 51 percent of shares for the country that has been proposed is also unrealistic at best. Although its Indonesian operation accounts for 20 percent of its revenues globally, it is difficult to see Freeport cede the majority of its shares to the Indonesian government.

The crunch of the matter is the need for realism for both the government and the mining companies. The relatively new player Newmont, for example, has protested against the new regulation that requires the construction of local smelters by temporarily ceasing its mining operation, putting thousands of local jobs in jeopardy.

As the Indonesian government embraces more public transparency, multinational mining operators must realize that a more nationalistic mining policy is inevitable. The issue has become a crucial point with the Indonesian constituency as a benchmark for the government’s defense of national interests and sovereignty. At the same time, the country still needs foreign expertise and capital to pry out most of its natural resources. Hence, for better or worse, a compromise must be worked out, one that satisfies the Indonesian public and is acceptable to investors.

Johannes Nugroho is a writer and businessman from Surabaya

By Johannes Nugroho on 09:57 pm Jun 15, 2014

To Protect Indonesian Youths, Deglamorize Alcohol

We are undeniably witnessing increased social acceptance of alcohol consumption in Indonesia. Placed in convenience stores next to other beverages and food items, alcoholic drinks are readily available. The main problem is that alcohol is often consumed in excessive quantities, creating numerous social and public health risks, particularly for youths.

Data from the Trade Ministry has showed that from 2007 to 2009 the import of alcoholic drinks increased tenfold. Unfortunately, in the last two years the amount has doubled; the ministry reported a 1,800 percent increase in alcoholic beverage imports in Indonesia from 2007 to 2012.

In Indonesia alcohol abuse is mostly prevalent among young people, a survey by the research and development center of the National Police found last year. Alcohol and drug use in Indonesia, the survey found, is primarily something that involves middle and high school students.

Based on another report from that same year, violent crimes in this country — which included rape and assault — were usually alcohol-related.

As was mentioned in a 2010 publication in the medical journal The Lancet: “In addition to being the most harmful drug overall, alcohol was also shown to have the distinction of being the only drug that is more harmful to other people than to the drug users themselves.” The article names alcohol as the most harmful of 20 drugs investigated; about 40 percent more harmful than heroin or crack cocaine. In Indonesia, the latter two are illegal but alcohol consumption is permitted in most parts of the country.

Targeting youths

According to a 2011 World Health Organization report, 2.5 million people all over the world die each year because of alcohol abuse. But what I see around me is a total lack of awareness about the numerous risks involved in alcohol abuse. It seems that many among our younger generations fail to see the danger of excessive alcohol consumption.

This is also the group that forms the main target of the alcohol industry. These are the consumers that, once hooked, will keep profits high for decades to come. The younger generation also creates new norms and sets new trends. The marketing campaigns of the alcohol industry therefore generally appeal to younger audiences through what is called ‘emotional branding.’ All over the world, leading alcoholic beverage producers have some of the best and most creative campaigns to attract young consumers.

Some will say that this does not matter much for Indonesia as advertisement for alcoholic beverages is heavily restricted. But how about this year’s World Cup? Will Indonesians be exposed to alcohol advertisement through their TV screens?

Some of the world’s most famous beer brands have signed huge sponsorship contracts with the world football association, FIFA. They are so powerful that they forced Brazil to change a law that banned the consumption of alcohol at football matches.

Paul Walsh, the former CEO of alcohol multinational Diageo, has identified Indonesia as a new growth market for whisky. With a rising middle class, a lot of money can be made here. So like big tobacco, alcohol companies may try to influence legislative procedures.

Demographic bonus

Indonesia’s ‘demographic bonus’ is supposed to be one of our nation’s major blessings. According to the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), in 2035 the country’s population will reach 305 million people. Most Indonesians today are young, and this is a strength that we have to protect. We should not allow the demographic bonus be used against us.

To prevent the negative effects from alcohol consumption, the 1945 Constitution offers ample room: the importance of health, faith and fear of God, science and technological expertise, productivity, prosperity, etcetera. The impacts of excessive alcohol consumption can seriously jeopardize the qualities that should enable this country to prosper.

Stepping In

The government has to intervene, as this issue cannot be left to self-regulation by the industry, simply because profits will be at stake. Now, Presidential Regulation No. 74 of 2013 only addresses one part of the problem, which is the supply chain.

When it comes to preventing people from picking up the deadly habit of smoking, I am looking forward to the implementation of the graphic warning regulation, which would be a big step forward in increasing awareness among Indonesians about the harmful effects of smoking.

Other countries, like Australia, have gone as far as replacing all branding information on cigarette packs with graphic information about the harmful effects of smoking.

If cigarette packs can carry graphic warnings on front and back, why not the packaging of alcoholic drinks?

Graphic warnings and plain packaging would help spread the word about the dangers and deglamorize alcohol — a product that is proven to be harmful. To protect future generations, this should be a priority for our next government.

Aunur Rofiq is the chairman of the Indonesian Santri Entrepreneurs Association (HIPSI) .

By Aunur Rofiq on 09:59 pm Jun 12, 2014