… Free your mind…
           --@RieF's blog--

integrity-tolerance-progress  

Due ot the rise of fuel prices, government plans to raise the incentives for DPR (House of Representatives) members. Each one of them will receive Rp. 10 million (about US$ 1,000). The incentive will be given in November, in an amount of Rp. 50 million (accumulated 5 months).
Hopefully with this much money… they will:

1. Go to the specialist doctors for Hearing (dokter THT, in Indonesian), to have their hearing checked… because recently they have been half-deaf for not hearing the screaming of middle-low class economy citizens due to the increase of fuel prices.

2. Travel back to their hometown, to which they claim to represent, and see how a 70 year old widow needs to queue for 4 hours to receive the Rp. 300.000 fuel subsidy (government transfer payment). Or how a becak driver with 4 kids didn’t receive the funds to help him struggle for the next 3 months.

3. OR you know… they can always go abroad again… and buy themselves some nice suits, pants, shoes… :P

So… to the honorable members of DPR…
“Congratulations on the raise guys… keep up the tremendous work!”

Right now, Indonesian banks are competing so hard to bring in fresh funds from customers. Why is that? That’s because Iedul Fitri is coming, Christmas follows, and new year’s just around the corner. At these times, the demand for cash will increase. To cope with this predicted increase in cash demands, banks offer a high deposit interest rate so people would bring in cash for them.
However tempting these offers may be, customers should still be considerate in choosing which bank they should save their money in. The Bank of Indonesia (BI) through the Savings Guarantor Council (Lembaga Penjaminan Simpanan) aims to protect customers fund. So if the a bank for some reasons become unhealthy and is forced to shutdown, customers savings will be refund. However there is a limit to how much the council will refund. The council will refund deposits with interest rate of 11.50% (1 month period), 11.55 % (3 month period), 11.60% (6 month period), 11.75% (12 month period), and 12.05% (24 month period).
Right now a lot of banks are already offering interest rates exceeding the limits that BI is willing to guarantee the safekeeping. Now for example, if a bank can promise you an interest rate of 14% for your deposit, from where will they cover the extra %-age if the bank should collapse? Good question to ask their customer service agents ;)
Right now deposits seems to be a reasonable method of investing your money safely, as long as it is planned well, and that customers examine the banks performance well. It reminds me of the time back in 1995/1996 just before the monetary crisis, where interest rates were high. This high deposit interest rate drives credit interest rates to be higher (credit interest rates is usually 8% above the deposits interest rates). Debitors then couldn’t pay their bank loans; causing a significant increase in the banks non-performing loans (NPLs), which eventually forced a lot of banks to shutdown.
Spend your money wisely… but save your money wisely also.

Now this I think is pretty ridiculous.
I read in detik.com today, that Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam - HMI (Islamic Student Association) has issued a somation to Abdullah Gymnastiar (Aa Gym) for his involvement in the government-funded advertisement on the increased prices of fuel. In the ad, Aa Gym motivated the Indonesian people to accept this increase, and work harder to cope with this situation.
However, HMI sees this as “blasphemy”, because Aa Gym used Islamic jargons to promote community acceptance for this government policy.
HMI claims that it is the only organization that still use ISLAM as their foundation; and have always used it in their movements towards public interest. HMI sees this increased prices of BBM as a burden to the Indonesian people, and that this policy should be fought against. This rise of fuel prices, is (according to HMI) caused by American interest to global capitalism; and not due to the world’s increase in oil prices.
They demand that Aa Gym apologizes to the public about this issue, broadcasted in all TV stations, and 10 national newspapers. If not, they will file a case on Aa Gym for blasphemy on Islam.
In my opinion, I think HMI should “get real”. Promoting an unpopular government policy, and accusing Aa Gym for blasphemy are just two different things. If you look at the ad, I don’t see a speck of blasphemy (sure, maybe I’m not looking deep enough). What Aa Gym is trying to do, is to try to change public reaction (or over-reaction) from extreme refusal (massive strike, vandalism, crime) to a more positive reaction like determination and hardwork. I’m sure that the reason why he accepted to participate in this policy campaign is not solely for government interest, but also to to help citizen to focus on the solution, and not on the problem itself.
As for fuel prices, I admit I may not know much about global capitalism, but I know that increase in fuel prices can not be avoided. Indonesia was previously the 3rd cheapest-fuel-selling-country in the world. Budgets and Government spending is too much on subsidizing for fuel.
As for blasphemy… come on man… I think a LOT of Islamic individuals or even organizations performs a worse form of blasphemy (vandalizing public property). Aa Gym is a da’i (preacher); he doesn’t need to use Islamic jargons; wherever he walks, whatever he says, he already (more or less) represents Islam. But see it this way… has he ever used Islam as a mean to promote/provoke violence, or public non-cooperation? As far as I know… they guy only speaks of peace and progress. And hell yea, I second that!

It sure has been a while since I spent Ramadhan back here in Indonesia. For the past 3 years, I have spent Ramadhan elsewhere. In December 2002, I remember I was in HongKong, praying Ied with some of the moslems there. In November 2003, I was at Schlumberger Eng-1 school in Houston, where I prayed with my Qatar friend, Ibrahim (how are you buddy??!). At those places, there were no other ceremonies after the prayer. We all went straight back to the hotel, or back to class.
However, Iedul Fitri 2004 was the most miserable… I was in Bombay at that time. I was sent out to the rig 2 days before Ied. I went with my all-time Egyptian best friend Mohamed Soliman. After staying up the night before (working!), we woke up on Ied morning. We just said “Happy Ied, man..” to each other and there were no prayers nothing. :P
I really miss Ramadhan atmosphere here in Indonesia: people apologizing to each other (since even before Ramadhan started), the noise people make at Sahur (morning meal at 3 a.m), eating together with friends or family at iftar (fasting break at 6 p.m). You see banners greeting Indonesian Moslems to have a pleasant Ramadhan. TV shows are filled with Ramadhan-themed soaps. And on Iedul Fitri, mass prayer in all cities all over the nation, lontong opor, people apologizing to each other for all mistakes they might’ve done for the past year.
Unfortunately, Ramadhan is also welcomed by the rise of fuel prices, which will trigger the rise of everything else (food, public transport, etc). The poor are suffering even more, due to the ridiculous prices (not balanced by increased income). Hopefully, we could all be patient, and at the same time work harder, while the government try to fix the country’s economy. And hopefully this Ramadhan will make it easier for us to live our daily lives.

Happy fasting! ;)
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