Good News From Indonesia

Dalam sebuah pertemuan informal dengan beberapa teman dari negara barat di Surabaya beberapa hari lalu, saya ditanya mengenai calon presiden Indonesia 2014 yang paling tepat menurut saya. Well, saya punya calon yang bagus, tapi biarlah menjadi rahasia . Intinya, dia harus tegas, mengerti kebutuhan bangsa dan solusinya, mampu berdiplomasi, tegas pada pendirian, dan tentu saja, mengerti ekonomi dan bagaimana menumbuhkannya dengan baik dan merata.

Teman-teman bule tidak mendebat pilihan saya, tapi bercerita tentang Thailand dan perdana menterinya yang berganti tiap musim durian hehe. Ekonomi Thailand sebenarnya tidak terpengaruh dengan gonta-gantinya PM mereka, karena sistemnya sudah developed dan siapapun yang memimpin, sistem tetap berjalan. Ekonomi akan terganggu bila salah satu elemen dari sistem tersebut terganggu/atau diganggu. Kita masih ingat ketika Bandara Suvarnabhumi diduduki kelompok kuning, dan mengentikan aktivitas penerbangan selama beberapa lama. Lalu kelompok merah “membalas” dengan memblokir jalan-jalan utama di beberapa kota di Bangkok. Nah..itu baru sistemnya terganggu. Dan ekonomi bisa terganggu.

Hal yang hampir sama, dengan tingkat kompleksitas yang lebih serius, terjadi di Belgia. Mungkin kebanyakan orang Indonesia tidak well-informed bahwa Belgia sebenarnya adalah negara yang rawan pecah menjadi dua. Bagian utara “dikuasai” oleh orang-orang yang berbahasa Belanda yang disebut Flanders Area, sementara bagian selatan adalah Walloonia area yang berisi orang-orang berbahasa Prancis, dan akhir-akhir makin banyak saya para petinggi-2 Belgia, para pemimpin masyarakat, politisi, dan analis memperingatkan bahwa pemecahan itu (bukan perpecahan) makin dekat.

Dan tidak disangka, euforia-nya juga terjadi mana-mana di Belgia; paman saya bulan lalu berkunjung ke Belgia, dan mendapati orang-orang yang tengah merayakan Euforia tersebut bersama teman-teman mereka. Namun di sisi lain, sistem negara tersebut hampir-hampir tidak terpengaruh. Pak pos tetap mengirimkan surat2 tepat waktu, tukang sampah masih mengurus sampah-sampah, pegawai-pegawai pemerintah yang lain juga tidak mengubah jadwal kerja maupun etos kerjanya. Menurut paman saya yang sempat bertanya ke salah seorang tukang pos, dia mengatakan bahwa PNS di Belgia sadar, silakan negara terpecah, tapi pelayanan kepada masyarakat tidak boleh terganggu. Dan mungkin itulah sebenarnya tulang punggung kemajuan negara-negara di Eropa Barat.

Lain lagi dengan Jepang. Sehari setelah pemboman di Hiroshima dan Nagasaki, kereta api di kota2 di Jepang, termasuk di kedua kota yang hancur, tetap berjalan dan para petugas KA dan stasiun tetap berseragam lengkap dan rapi.

Apakah Indonesia sudah seperti itu? Saya rasa..belum. Sistem masih bisa diubah-ubah, tergantung pemimpinnya.

Lalu bagaimana? Kalau sudah seperti ini, mungkin kita bisa cari pemimpin yang disukai semua kalangan..

Ada solusi dari teman bule saya. Pilih saja seorang wanita yang cantik, yang senyumnya bisa menyelesaikan masalah. Seperti Yingluck Shinawatra…

Dian Sastro?

image : ?thomaswhite.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

by Akhyari Hananto

Saya tidak tahu apakah di masa lalu, selain Garuda Indonesia, ada maskapai lain yang masuk ke ranah premium. Mungkin tidak, mungkin ya. Saya benar-benar tidak tahu. Dan pengertian premium pun kadang saya tidak terlalu faham apa saja parameternya.

Berbulan lalu, saya mendengar kabar bahwa maskapai yang benar-benar baru akan dibentuk, dan khusus melayani kelas Premium, menjadi pesaing Garuda Indonesia. Namanya mungkin cukup “aneh” di telinga kita, karena sangat ke-Inggris2-an…”Pacific Royale”. “Kabar yang bagus, paling tidak semakin banyak pilihan untuk terbang” pikir saya. Dan sejak hari itu, saya google dan mencari info kesana dan kemari. Barulah beberapa waktu kemudian, websitenya muncul hanya dengan satu halaman statis. Pagi tadi saya buka, halamannya sudah mulai ditambah, meski belum banyak bercerita, kecuali berita bahwa Pacific Royale akan terbang mulai 1 Maret 2012, dan gambar pesawat Airbus A320-200 dengan livery Pacific Royale yang ungu menyala.

Memang, di Asia Tenggara, pasar penumpang pesawat di Indonesia paling besar, pun jumlah maskapainya. Dan dengan makin banyaknya maskapai (dengan manajemen yang baik dan organized), saya yakin, Indonesia makin siap menuju Asean Open Sky 2015. Maskapai-maskapai di Indonesia memang belum menjadi yang terbaik di Asia Tenggara di bidang pengelolaan, masih banyak hal-hal yang perlu diperbaiki. Terutama pelayanan, baik di darat maupun di dalam kabin, kenyamanan, keamanan, dan ketepatan waktu. Hal ini sangat diperlukan agar bisa berkompetisi head-to-head dengan maskapai2 lain di Asia Tenggara yang saat ini bermanajemen sangat baik dan efisien.

Saya membayangkan, nantinya akan ada paling tidak 3 maskapai nasional yang menjadi penghubung Indonesia dengan wilayah2 lain di luar batas-batas negara, yakni Garuda Indonesia, Pacific Royale, dan Space Air (milik Lion), lalu ada feeder seperti Lion, Batavia, Sriwijaya, Mandala, dan 2nd stage feeder , yakni Wings, Merpati, Sky Aviation, SMAC, dan lain lain. Kombinasi ketiga level akan menjadi kekuatan dan aset yang sangat tangguh.

Rasanya, sinergi itu sudah mulai terjalin…

Popularity: 2% [?]

Pacific Royale Airways plans to start commercial operations on March 1 with full-service flights, the president director of the airline said on Wednesday.

Samudra Sukardi said the Jakarta-based airline had invested up to $60 million as it prepares to make its debut.

As much as $40 million has gone to procure 10 aircraft, he said, with another $20 million being spent to buy jet fuel and finance operational activities.

“We will start flying in early March,” Samudra said.

By offering full-service flights, Pacific Royale hopes to be able to challenge the national flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia.

Samudra said he expected the airline would secure a full air operator’s certificate next month, which is required to operate commercial flights.

The carrier is 51 percent owned by Indonesian businesswoman Gunarni Gunawan, with the remaining 49 percent in the hands of an Indian investor, Tarun Trikha.

Regulations require Indonesia-based commercial airlines to be at least 51 percent owned by local investors and to operate at least 10 aircraft, .

Pacific Royale plans to operate five Fokker F-50 turboprops and five Airbus A320-200s. It expects two of the Fokkers and two of the Airbus planes it ordered to arrive between February and April.

The airline has permits to serve 81 routes, 30 percent of them international.

“We have three hubs, Jakarta, Surabaya and Batam,” said Samudra, who in 2002 was in the running to become president director of Garuda Indonesia. “But for international flights we will not fly through Jakarta because it is already too crowded. We will do it from Surabaya and Batam.”

Among the domestic routes it will serve are Jakarta-Surabaya, Surabaya-Banyuwangi and Batam-Natuna.

It has said that it hopes to eventually open routes to India and China.

Rising incomes have helped spur the growth of air travel in Indonesia. The number of domestic air travelers rose to 38.3 million in the first nine months of 2011, while the number of Indonesians flying overseas jumped 15 percent to 8.1 million, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) .

Garuda has said its plans for 2012 include an expansion of its fleet from 88 to 105 aircraft.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Local Wisdom
Oleh: Ahmad Cholis Hamzah*)

Saya sering menjadikan contoh sesuatu yang positif dari Jepang karena saya dulu pernah mengikuti Pertukaran Pemuda ASEAN-Jepang tahun 1982, Pertemuan Pemuda Dunia di Tokyo tahun 1982 dan pernah bekerja di salah satu Bank terkemuka di Jakarta dan memperoleh training Bank tersebut di Bank Jepang di Australia. Beberapa teman Jepang saya pernah menceritakan bahwa Jepang dengan kondisi negaranya yang tidak sebesar Indonesia, penduduknya banyak dan tidak memiliki sumber daya alam seperti halnya Indonesia. Karena itu rumah-rumah di Jepang tidak sebesar rumah-rumah orang Amerika Serikat bahkan rumah-rumah orang kaya Indonesia di berbagai daerah terutama di Jakarta. Sampai-sampai orang barat menyebut rumah-rumah orang Jepang itu sebesar korek api layaknya.

Dalam kondisi geografis dan demografi seperti itu, menimbulkan “Blessing in Disguise”, yaitu filosofi orang Jepang itu yang menggunakan space atau ruang yang kecil menjadi sesuatu yang bermanfaat. Taman-taman di Jepang banyak dipenuhi barisan butiran-butiran pasir dan batu kecil yang melingkar-lingkar yang menggambarkan samudera luas, itu juga didasari filosofi tadi – begitu menurut teman-teman saya dari Jepang itu. Ternyata ajaran menggunakan space yang sempit menjadikan manfaat yang besar atau luas itu juga diterapkan oleh bangsa Jepang dalam mengembangkan kemajuan teknologinya. Jepang kemudian terkenal sebagai bangsa yang membuat mobil yang “kecil” atau compact car yang lebih irit dibandingkan dengan mobil sejenis yang dibuat Amerika dan Eropa, Jepang juga membuat arloji yang tipis dan kecil tapi berteknologi canggih. Negeri ini juga terkenal membuat produk-produk electronic yang kecil seperti camera, lap top, radio walkman dan bahkan membuat bungkusan-bungkusan yang kecil mungil dari kertas. Perlu diketahui juga kemampuan Jepang dalam mengalahkan dominasi Amerika dan Eropa adalah dari kemajuan industry-industri kecilnya yang memiliki network yang mengagumkan.

Kalau kita melihat produk jasa perbankan di negara – negara maju misalnya produk E-banking, itu dibuat berdasarkan karakter bangsa negara-negara itu yang ingin serba cepat dan karena itu mereka tidak ingin antri yang panjang dan menghabiskan waktu. Teknologi di buat berdasarkan Demand masyarakat, tidak hanya berdasarkan income per capita mereka, atau “willingness to buy” mereka tapi juga berdasarkan karakter perilaku masyarakat itu. Dulu sering kita kenal “Appropriate Technology”, atau teknologi yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan masyarakatnya.

Inilah yang disebut sebagai Local Wisdom atau Kearifan Lokal yang ternyata penting untuk pembangunan suatu bangsa. Indonesia , sebenarnya memiliki local wisdom yang banyak mengingat Bumi Pertiwi ini memiliki beragam suku dan bahasa, yang masing-masing suku memiliki Kearifan Lokal sendiri. Sebagai contoh, kita bisa melihat kekayaan motif dan warna batik nasional. Batik di Jogya di dominasi warna coklat, Pekalongan di dominasi warna merah, kuning, biru muda, batik Sidoarjo di dominasi warnna Merah, Hijau dan Kuning yang menyala; demikian pula corak gambar atau motif lukisan yang ada di kain batik-batik itu. Industi makanan pun di setiap daerah dibuat berdasarkan local wisdom itu, masing-masing jajanan atau kue memiliki makna sendiri-sendiri dan khas dari daerah sendiri-sendiri pula.

Persoalannya sekarang, kekayaan khasanah local wisdom atau kearifan lokal yang bermacam-macam itu tidak pernah di senergikan dalam perencanaan pengembangan industri nasional. Produk-produk Indonesia perlu di buat berdasarkan filosofi bangsa sendiri. Sudah saatnya, seluruh komponen bangsa diantaranya lembaga – lembaga penelitian Perguruan Tinggi, Kementrian- Kementrain yang ada, LSM, dan masyarakat luas bekerja bersama-sama melakukan identifikasi apa local wisdom yang ada di berbagai daerah nusantara ini dan lalu kita terapkan dalam pembuatan produk-produk ciptaan bangsa sendiri. Kalau tidak – kapan lagi?

*) Ahmad Cholis Hamzah, MSc, alumni University of London dan Universitas Airlangga Surabaya, dan sekarang dosen di STIE PERBANAS Surabaya.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Mengintegrasikan Konsep “CSR” Sejak Awal Membangun Usaha

Istilah Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) biasanya diasosiasikan dengan perusahaan-perusahaan besar deengan multi million dollar aset. Tapi Titik Winarti punya konsepnya sendiri dalam memaknai konsep Corporate Social Responsibility dalam menjalankan bisnisnya. Konsep inilah yang akhirnya membawa Titik untuk berpidato di depan Sidang Umum PBB dalam International Year of Microcredit di depan ratusan intelektual dan diplomat yang mewakili berbagai negara di tahun 2005.

Dimulai dari keinginan mengisi waktu luang dengan kegiatan yang produktif tanpa harus kehilangan waktu dalam mendidik anak-anaknya, bisnis kerajinan tangan produksi Titik Winarti dengan label “Tiara Handicraft” kini telah menjamah berbagai negara. Titik Winarti pun laris diundang ke berbagai forum untuk berbagi pengalaman tentang bisnisnya yang sejak awal sarat dengan muatan Corporate Social Responsibility didasari dengan keinginan berbagi dan membantu sesama.

Beliau di PBB. (Foto koleksi pribadi)

Awalnya usaha Titik dibangun dengan modal mesin jahit bekas dari mertuanya tanpa karyawan. Dari 8 hanya memiliki 8 karyawan di akhir tahun 1990-an, kini usaha Titik berkembang pesat dengan 43 karyawan. Yang istimewa, dari 43 karyawan tersebut, hanya 5 di antara mereka yang bukan penyandang cacat. “Saya tidak pernah secara sengaja merekrut penyandang cacat,” kata Titik Winarti dalam sebuah perbincangan di kediamannya di kawasan Sidosermo, Surabaya. Sejak awal membangun usaha ini, saya tidak pernah menetapkan kriteria apapun. Tidak harus bisa menjahit, tidak harus berijasah, asal punya kemauan belajar dan mau bekerja keras, saya mau menerima,” kata Titik. Dari situlah, dari memiliki satu pekerja yang penyandang cacat, dengan metode gethok tular akhirnya banyak penyandang cacat yang datang untuk bekerja di Tiara Handicraft. Uniknya, para karyawan ini juga dianggap sebagai bagian dari keluarga Titik Winarti, karena mereka makan dan tidur bersama keluarga Titik.

Karyawan beliau di Surabaya (foto koleksi pribadi)

Usaha Titik yang dilandasi semangat membantu sesama inilah yang membuatnya memenangkan kompetisi UKM yang digelar oleh Universitas Indonesia di tahun 2004. “Ketika memberikan presentasi di depan tim juri di Jakarta, saya mempresentasikan tentang usaha saya yang justru tidak menggunakan prinsip manajemen modern atau teori bisnis apapun.. Sebagai contoh, ada produk yang memerlukan 1 orang tenaga kerja yang normal, tetapi karena dikerjakan oleh penyandang cacat, maka dibutuhkan 2 orang untuk menyelesaikan produk tersebut. Dalam kacamata bisnis, saya dirugikan karena ongkos produksi menjadi lebih besar. Tetapi saya memiliki argumen sederhana bahwa dalam teori manajemen modern, ada satu hal yang terlupakan yaitu konsep “rejeki”. Allah sudah menjanjikan bahwa setiap hambanya memiliki rejekinya sendiri. Dengan menggunakan tenaga kerja dua orang, maka ada dua jalan rejeki yang terbuka sementara dengan satu tenaga kerja, hanya satu pintu rejeki yang dibuka Allah. Alhamdulillah, konsep “nyeleneh” yang berdasar prinsip lillahi ta’ala ini justru membawa saya menjadi wakil Indonesia untuk hadir di sidang PBB di New York tahun 2005,” kata Titik

Tiba di New York, Titik sama sekali tak berpikir bahwa ia harus menyampaikan pidato. “Ketika ditanya konsep pidato saya, saya langsung kaget karena saya tak menyiapkan pidato apapun,” kenang Titik. Akhirnya hanya bermodal Bismillah, Titik menyampaikan pidatonya tanpa konsep. “Mungkin karena penerjemah saya dari UI sangat pandai dalam menyampaikan isi pidato saya jatah waktu 10 menit yang diberikan menjadi molor, bahkan tak sedikit peserta sidang yang menangis ketika saya menyampaikan bahwa penyandang cacat sering tak kebagian tempat di dunia kerja,” kata Titik sambil tertawa. Di akhir pidato, para hadirin pun berdiri memberikan standing-ovation. Istri Sekjen PBB Kofi Anan pun menyampaikan apresiasinya. Ternyata konsep yang sering disebut sebagai Corporate Social Responsibility bisa dimulai sejak awal bisnis didirikan, tidak hanya ketika sukses atau sekedar untuk menggugurkan kewajiban.

Sepulang dari menghadiri sidang PBB, usaha Titik pun makin dikenal. Tahun 2007, dia diundang oleh pemerintah A.S. untuk ke Amerika dan belajar tentang usaha kecil menengah serta kewirausahaan di A.S.Hasilnya, dia membangun jaringan bisnis untuk memasok produk ke pengusaha A.S. yang menjalankan bisnis “batik tambal” di Amerika. Tak lama berselang, ia pun juga berkesempatan mengikuti pameran usaha di Australia dan produknya tak pernah absen di berbagai pameran kerajinan tingkat nasional maupun internasional.

“Bagi saya, pencapaian tertinggi bagi seorang wanita adalah ketika ia bermanfaat bagi keluarganya, terutama bisa menjadi pendamping anak-anaknya tumbuh dewasa,” kata Titik sambil menggendong si bungsu yang masih berusia 4 tahun. Dengan menjalankan bisnis tersebut, kata Titik, ia tak kehilangan waktu sedetik pun untuk mendampingi keempat anaknya tumbuh dewasa. “Dan yang terpenting tak hanya keluarga yang mendapatkan manfaat dari usaha saya, tapi juga para karyawan yang sudah menjadi bagian keluarga saya,” kata Titik menutup perbincangan di suatu pagi di kediaman sekaligus tempat produksinya di kawasan Perumahan Sidosermo Surabaya. Sementara itu, di ruang kerjanya beberapa mahasiswa sudah menunggu giliran untuk “berguru” dari Titik dalam rangka penulisan tugas akhir kuliah tentang kewirausahaan. Ya, Titik Winarti, adalah sumber inspirasi bagi banyak orang. Tak terkecuali saya.

Esti Durahsanti

Popularity: 2% [?]

Indonesia sees airline passengers in the country stood at 66 million in 2011, a 15-percent increase on 2010’s figure, meeting the growth target.

The Transportation Ministry’s director for air transportation, Djoko Murjatmodjo, said that the number of domestic and international travelers totaled 58.84 million and 7.2 million in 2011, respectively.

The data indicates strong economic growth in Indonesia as well as a strong domestic-airline market.

In 2010, the number of domestic travelers was 51.7 million and international travelers 6.6 million.

All i can say is that, it shows the real face of economic growth. Real one. I would also say that (this will create debates) congested roads everywhere in the country is also the real face of the growth.
A friend of mine blasted me for that, saying that it’s very much irrelevant. I replied “it is irrelevant, IF they bought the cars with tree leaves (not money)”.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Kemarin pagi saya terkejut melihat berita di RSS App di Android, sebuah artikel di The Strait Times Singapore dengan judul yang dahsyat, “Indonesia gains entry into ‘trillion-dollar club”, yang isinya adalah bahwa GDP (Gross Domestic Product) Indonesia, sudah melewati angka psikologis yakni US$1 trilyun. Bukan apa-apa, di seluruh dunia sebelum ini hanya ada 15 negara dengan ekonomi di atas $1 trilyun dollar. Mereka adalah: United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, UK, China Spain, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, India, Russia, South Korea, Australia. Indonesia muncul terakhir, sehingga kalau memang benar GDP kita mencapai US$1 trilyun, kita menjadi nomor 16.

Lalu apa setelah ini? Yang pasti… saya sendiri tidak tahu.

Namun saya berikan sedikit gambaran saja. GDP Amerika Serikat  mencapai angka $1 trilyun pada tahun 1970, tentu saja ini hal yang luar biasa, mengingat nilai uang pada waktu itu tentu jauh lebih besar dari sekarang. Sementara China masuk pada tahun 1998; Korea, Russia, India, Mexico pada 2007; Australia pada 2008, dan Indonesia pada 2011. Negara-negara yang lain silakan dilihat di sini.

Bagi Indonesia, ini tentu milestone baru. Angka yang sangat psikologis. Saya tidak bisa menerangkannya dengan kata-kata, namun saya sungguh berbahagia.

Dari ke-16 negara di atas, hanya China dan India yang ekonominya melaju lebih cepat dari Indonesia, sementara yang lain, rata-rata hanya tumbuh 2-4% setahun (mohon dicek kembali). Artinya, ada kemungkinan besar bahwa GDP Indonesia benar-benar akan menjadi 7 besar dunia pada 2030, sesuai dengan prediksi para ekonom dunia. Selain itu, di sekeliling kita, kita melihat (atau paling tidak merasakan) betapa dinamisnya ekonomi kita. Ekspor mencapai rekor tertinggi,  cadangan devisa juga sudah mencapai rekor, penjualan otomotif naik, penetrasi ponsel dan internet naik, investasi juga naik, wisman naik, penumpang udara makin tinggi, dan banyak lagi .

Dan there are still rooms for greater growth, masih banyak hal yang bisa dikembangkan yang akan memicu pertumbuhan lebih tinggi. Saya pribadi yakin, dalam 8-10 ke depan, paling tidak Indonesia sudah menjadi 12 atau 10 besar ekonomi dunia. Dan momen inilah saat berpijaknya.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Indonesia won its second credit rating upgrade in five weeks as Moody’s Investors Service returned the country to investment level for the first time since the Asian financial crisis.

The foreign- and local-currency rating was increased to Baa3 from Ba1, Moody’s said in a statement yesterday. The outlook is stable. The upgrade brings Southeast Asia’s largest economy to the lowest investment grade, the same level as India, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Emerging-market economies from Brazil to Turkey and the Philippines are winning rating upgrades as governments take steps to contain budget deficits and bolster growth, even as Europe’s debt crisis prompted Standard & Poor’s to cut the credit ratings of nine members of the 17-nation euro area on January 13. Yesterday’s decision may aid President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s efforts to spur expansion by boosting investment.

“It’s a positive development for the economy and backs the broader reform agenda rolled out by the government,” said Radhika Rao, an economist at Forecast Pte in Singapore. “This should also benefit rupiah-denominated assets and attract more investments into the country, thereby helping with the longer- term infrastructure-related demands.”

Currency Recovers

The nation’s currency erased losses after the upgrade, gaining 0.2 percent to 9,069 per dollar as of 4:48 p.m. in Jakarta yesterday, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. It was down 1 percent shortly before the announcement.

Bonds extended gains, with the yield on the 4.875 percent dollar notes due 2021 falling six basis points, or 0.06 percentage point, to 3.98 percent, while that on the 5.25 percent securities maturing in 2042 declined seven basis points to 5.32 percent as of 5:42 p.m. in Singapore yesterday, according to prices from Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc.

Fitch Ratings brought Indonesia back to investment grade last month after 14 years of junk ratings. It raised the nation’s long-term foreign and local currency rating to BBB- with a stable outlook on December 15, citing “strong and resilient” growth and declining public-debt ratios.

S&P, which still rates Indonesia one level below investment grade, will probably follow, said David Sumual, an economist at PT Bank Central Asia in Jakarta.

Resilient to Shocks

“Indonesia’s cyclical resilience to large external shocks points to sustainably high trend growth over the medium term,” Moody’s said. “A more favourable assessment of Indonesia’s economic strength is underpinned by gains in investment spending, improved prospects for infrastructure development following key policy reforms, and a well-managed financial system.”

Indonesia, which needed a bailout from the International Monetary Fund during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, avoided following the world’s largest economies and neighbouring countries into a recession during the 2009 global slump.

The country’s local-currency bonds have returned 28 percent in the past year, the best performance among 10 Asian debt markets tracked by HSBC Holdings Plc. Its dollar bonds gained 9 percent in the same period, the second-best among 11 markets in the region.

“This upgrade will confirm how good Indonesia’s investment climate is, which will make foreign direct investment flow stronger,” said Felix Sindhunata, an economist at PT Henan Putihrai in Jakarta. Still, a “rating upgrade will be nothing if the government has no action” to improve infrastructure and stem corruption.

Land Bill Passed

Yudhoyono’s government forecasts a 6.5 percent expansion in 2011, and the president targets the ratio of debt to gross domestic product to drop to 24 percent in 2012 from 25 percent in 2011.

The nation’s parliament approved a land-acquisition bill on December 16 that will allow Yudhoyono’s administration to accelerate road, port and airport projects. The government is also setting up a new financial market regulator that is due to start operating in January 2013, supervising capital markets, insurers, pension funds and other non-bank institutions.

Indonesia may become a safe haven country as Moody’s upgrade helps attract investors to Indonesian stocks, bonds and boost foreign direct investment, Bank Indonesia deputy Governor Hartadi Sarwono said yesterday.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-18/indonesia-wins-second-rating-upgrade-in-month-aiding-investment.html

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Dutch were the last to build a railway in Indonesia and that was before World War Two. Their soldiers marched people off their land at gunpoint. The question of compensation did not arise.

Now, it’s the Chinese that are coming to build a new railway in Indonesia. China Railway Group has been awarded a $4.8 billion contract to build and maintain the new line in southern Sumatra, which before Dutch colonial rule in the Indonesian archipelago was the centre of a Southeast Asian maritime empire that had thriving trade links with China, the Middle Kingdom.

The railway will run from the Tanjung Enim coal mine, the richest deposit in Indonesia, to a new port in the Sunda Strait, where what’s left of the Krakatau volcano still puffs smoke after blowing its top in 1883.

From there, the coal will be shipped to the northern hemisphere to power China’s industrial engine, part of a strategy of building infrastructure for resources that Beijing has employed successfully elsewhere in the world.

The quest is not as simple, or as brutal, as it was under colonial rule. Getting land, licenses and locals onboard requires a hearts-and-minds campaign and illustrates why, despite a return to investment grade, betting money on Southeast Asia’s biggest economy isn’t for the fainthearted.

INVESTMENT GRADE AGAIN

Ratings agencies have been raising Indonesia’s credit rating at a time when they have been downgrading Western economies. On Wednesday, Moody’s Investors Service returned Indonesia to investment grade for the first time since the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98.

Indonesia needed an International Monetary Fund bailout to recover from that crisis, but it avoided tumbling along with the world’s largest economies and neighboring countries into a global recession in 2008-2009.

Now, helped by a global commodities boom, Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing countries in the G20, and could join Brazil, Russia, India and China — the BRIC economies — as the next emerging markets powerhouse. An estimated 35 million of its population of 240 million are now considered middle class.

Fitch Ratings brought Indonesia back to investment grade last month after 14 years of junk ratings, citing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s efforts to kick-start infrastructure.

A long-awaited land acquisition law was passed on December 16, allowing Indonesia to accelerate road, port and airport projects, and could be a major turning point in the country’s efforts to ignite an economic boom.

Investors, hungry to dig into the archipelago’s vast deposits of oil, gas, and minerals, expect the land-acquisition law to spur government infrastructure projects. But it will be no help for private projects such as the Sumatra railway.

President Yudhoyono has pledged to double spending on roads, seaports and airports to $150 billion to help deliver average growth of 6.6 percent over the remainder of his term ending in 2014. Poor infrastructure is the biggest impediment to foreign direct investment and Yudhoyono hopes foreigners will pony up much of the money to improve it.

But Indonesia, which has had a feisty democracy since the fall of long-time autocrat Suharto in 1998, remains a stubbornly difficult country in which to do business, and Yudhoyono may find it easier to raise that kind of money than to spend it.

GREASING THE WHEELS

In a country where property deeds can be as scarce as snow, getting land and local permits is likely to remain the biggest impediment to investment.

A Reuters examination of the railway project in Sumatra shows that investing in projects in the provinces has become much harder than during the Suharto dictatorship, when Indonesia was last rated investment grade. Since then, Indonesia has decentralized much of its power. Now a myriad of local interests must be accommodated, inevitably causing delays.

That has been the case with the Sumatran railway, whose completion looks set to be pushed back at least three years to 2017, an executive at Indonesia’s Rajawali Group, which is the majority owner of the rail project, told Reuters.

Investors in the project have had to pay off gangs, build swimming pools for the government, step around delicate religious sensibilities and try to overcome years of mistrust from locals, such as Sigurung in the village of Tanjung Raja Giham.

Sigurung is a 70-year-old village elder. Like most Indonesians, he uses one name. Sigurung remembers how Dutch soldiers intimidated his grandparents, driving them off their land, halfway between the mine and port to build the old railway to the coal mine back in 1914. They shot some residents before forcibly relocating the rest.

Sigurung is fine with the latest rail project — as long as he gets paid for the land and his sons get jobs. Otherwise, there will be trouble, he vows.

“There will be no railway if you don’t get permission from us. The Chinese can work in this area as long as they’re nice to us. But if you don’t give us work we will become thugs,” he said with a disarming smile.

Indonesia lags its Southeast Asian neighbors in building highways, ports and power plants. The World Bank ranks it 75th on its Logistics Performance Index, well behind peers Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.

HISTORICAL DISTRUST

The 307-km (186 miles) Transpacific Railway runs from the coal mine to a new port near the provincial capital of Bandar Lampung on the Sunda Strait. The line would enable coal firm PT Bukit Asam to triple the output of its vast open-pit mine, under which lies enough coal to fuel China’s current imports for about 15 years.

The project, which took six years just to get off the ground, will likely be delayed because of an issue with its coal license. This may worry stock investors who paid a big premium for shares in Bukit Asam, betting the railway will turn a medium-sized producer into a global heavyweight alongside Indonesia’s Bumi Resources.

Chinese investors face their own host of issues in increasing exposure to the railway. With its banks financing the project, and China Railway building it, Chinese industry is expecting a huge bump in coal imports: as much as half the increased coal output is slated to go to China.

The Chinese have helped fund and build infrastructure projects in resource-rich countries from Myanmar to Zambia. But Indonesia has nursed a deep distrust of communism since a bloody, failed coup in 1965 by a pro-Beijing communist party, and populist resentment over local ethnic Chinese wealth.

“It’s very difficult for foreign investors, particularly from China, to get assets in Indonesia,” said Rudiantara, the chief of the development firm running the railway project, Bukit Asam TransPacific.

But with demand for investment growing, that may have begun to change. Indonesia is seeking $100 billion of private funding to overhaul its creaking transport network. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, on a visit to Jakarta last April, pledged $19 billion of investment credit for Indonesia, including $9 billion of soft and commercial loans for infrastructure development.

China Development Bank will lead the financing of the railway project, with money also coming from the world’s biggest and fourth biggest lenders, ICBC and Bank of China.

PAVING THE WAY

Despite the delays, Rudiantara said the coal railway could become a blueprint for future Chinese investment and private infrastructure projects in Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal.

Scribbling calculations and drawings on a giant whiteboard in the boardroom of his Jakarta office, he showed how the railway’s route will shave hours off coal delivery times and drive a surge in the mine’s output.

But he also acknowledged the challenges. “We call them the three Ls — licenses, land and loans,” Rudiantara said, adding he already had most of the licenses out of dozens needed from local and central government officials.

Indonesian bureaucracy has a reputation among foreign investors for being obstructive and corrupt. Even having local partners has not stopped many from pulling out of Indonesian projects to stem their losses.

“The issue is getting the right local partner,” Rudiantara said. “China feels ‘hey I have money, I have everything, you come to me, I’m not coming to you’ … The relationship really matters when you’re dealing with the Chinese.”

Getting the money was the easy part for Rudiantara, who is teaching his daughter Mandarin and who has a dragon embossed on his business card. At a business lunch with Chinese bank representatives he once got 10 basis points off the cost of a loan by agreeing to go to Beijing and sing karaoke songs in Mandarin, a former colleague said.

LAND ROVING

Getting the land is the last and highest hurdle, Rudiantara said. Few people have land rights documents in an archipelago of 17,000 islands with hundreds of tribes and ethnic groups, and conflicting claims can turn violent.

In one case, the landowner had been travelling for years and couldn’t be reached, and for religious reasons his wife wouldn’t speak to men without the approval of her husband. It took Rudiantara several months to resolve the issue through negotiation with her male relatives. In another, the chief of a Sumatran district sold off a chunk of land that wasn’t his to a rival firm, leading to a drawn-out court battle that Bukit Asam lost.

Once a developer finds a landowner, negotiations over the acquisition price usually begin with only a vague sense of market value.

Rudiantara plans to swoop on the whole route at the same time with his team, to avoid the negotiations driving land price speculation further down the track. Prices of land along the route range from 100,000 rupiah per square meter to one million rupiah ($10 to $100), residents said.

“If there is not fair compensation there will be a riot and nobody will want to give up the land,” said Sigurung’s nephew Bumiputera, his comments incongruous with his sleepy village of ramshackle houses and rutted lanes 200 km (120 miles) from Bandar Lampung.

Rajawali Group has consulted universities on how best to approach local people from an ethno-cultural perspective. Its progress will be closely watched, given that many projects, such as another coal railway by Gulf-based investors MEC Holdings on Borneo island, have been held up for years over land acquisition. Success could spur a project to build another proposed railway on Sumatra to the north, which would take coal to India.

“This is a make-or-break infrastructure project for Indonesia,” Rudiantara said.

SMOKING COAL

At Bukit Asam’s mine operations in Tanjung Enim, huge yellow dump-trucks trundle along giant open pits stretching to the horizon, where wild elephants and tigers roam in the island’s remaining jungles. Coal is stockpiled in mounds, smoking in places because of the tropical heat, before being sorted for grade and sent on conveyor belts to the rail line.

From this smoldering, grim place, Bukit Asam’s former chief executive Sukrisno conducted a charm campaign with gift hampers of rice, sugar and cash for local residents.

Government officials are more costly. Sukrisno says the company refuses to give cash, but instead builds facilities, such as a 29 billion rupiah ($300,000) hospital and tennis courts used for the recent Southeast Asian Games in the provincial capital of Palembang.

“In the past three years we spent 35 billion rupiah ($3.8 million) to build a sports center in Muara Enim (town). Now they are asking for a swimming pool. I say ok, we’ll provide it. They are also asking us to build an education centre,” he said.

Since local governments spend almost nothing on local infrastructure, officials stand to benefit by taking advantage of “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) spending by companies such as Bukit Asam.

“We ask government officials how we can help via CSR in order to smoothen the process,” said Sukrisno. “If CSR only builds facilities, like roads, the local people would not directly feel it, but if we give them packages then they’re very happy.”

Bukit Asam’s mine workers, most of them hired locally, are also part of the campaign. A short drive from the moonscape of the open pits is a different world, where hundreds of whitewashed colonial houses with palm tree gardens provide accommodation for senior staff. Workers have access to a swimming pool, a basketball court, a soccer pitch and a golf course. The housing development has the feel of a university campus during summer break.

To build the railway, Bukit Asam and Rudiantara will have to stretch that kind of love along another 300 km of track.

KNIVES AT THE READY

The rust colored train cars on the existing Dutch-built railway, their bellies full of coal, shunt slowly away from the mine into a region of forest, lazy rivers and agriculture. The proposed new railway will take a shorter and quicker route to carry over twice as much coal, with capacity of 25 million tonnes a year.

The land is fertile. Cocoa and coffee grow in the thick, red, volcanic soil of the highlands, while lush rice paddies carpet the lowlands. Cash crop plantations producing rubber, clove and palm oil crowd the landscape towards the southern tip of the province.

With such abundance, it’s easy to see why not everyone is so keen to give up their land.

“It’s better to forego a watch than a machete,” as one local saying goes. Sigurung’s nephew Bumiputera carries a dagger with him every day.

“We want the company who builds the railway to be open in their approach and give us fair and honest explanations — not sweet promises and then a stab in the back … this will create danger,” Bumiputera said.

Across the archipelago in the past year, disputes over development of resources have turned deadly. In northern Sumatra, a mob burned down the exploration camp of an Australian gold miner. In central Sulawesi province, local residents pushing for better public facilities attacked oil firms with Molotov cocktails, killing two and shutting a field’s oil output for two weeks.

And in eastern Indonesia’s Papua province, copper miner Freeport Indonesia’s operations were paralyzed by a three-month strike that led to blockades, shootings and sabotage, as tribesmen armed with bows and arrows joined irate miners.

“I think there’s real concern from local communities — I don’t think they’re against development, but they want the development to be done in an equitable way,” said Scott Poynton, chief executive of non-governmental organization The Forest Trust. Poynton suggested creating jobs and services, such as hospitals in remote communities, would help.

“There’s a risk that these spats will grow,” he said, after completing an eight-year project to remove guns from Java’s teak forests.

It’s difficult to even get to Sigurung’s village without danger. Gangs of handkerchief-veiled bandits collect “road taxes” at obstacles on the narrow country roads.

A QUESTION OF TRUST

Before Rudiantara can speak to a villager about buying his land, he first has to get permission from the provincial governor, then the district chief, before tracking down the house of the village head and asking him to talk to a member of his clan.

Graft, being endemic in Indonesia, is a problem not only for the buyer, but also for the seller: corruption makes it difficult for residents to trust their leaders.

Residents along the rail route repeatedly told Reuters they suspect government officials and hereditary village chiefs will try to hoodwink them over land acquisition deals.

“We don’t want any village head to become the point person on land talk. That shouldn’t be done,” said Bumiputera. “All of us should know the process and the pricing of any deal. They say they want to eradicate corruption, but here there’s a lot of petty corruption.”

In a sign of the likely disputes to come, Husni Thamrin, a fourth-generation head of several villages on the rail route, said that kind of individual deal-making could create a lot of local resentment, and that firms should go through the chiefs.

Either way, keeping the locals happy, from village communities to senior government mandarins, will be critical to the success of Indonesia’s drive to overhaul its infrastructure.

“Don’t think that just because we’re poor and you’re wealthy, that we’re uneducated and you’re well-educated, you can play with us,” the village elder Sigurung said.

By Janeman Latul and Neil Chatterjee

TANJUNG RAJA GIHAM, Indonesia (Reuters)

(Additional reporting by Mas Alina Arifin, Fathiya Dahrul and Dwi Prasetyo Budi Santosa; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

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Oleh: Ahmad Cholis Hamzah, MSc

Pada tahun-tahun 1950an sebelum masa Konfrontasi Indonesia- Malaysia, hubungan rakyat di kedua negeri serumpun ini sangat erat; banyak orang Indonesia menikmati lagu-lagu dari Malaysia misalnya yang di dendangkan Cek Ramli almarhum. Film hitam putih dari Malaysia juga diminiati di Indonesia. Sebaliknya juga banyak orang Malaysia juga mengagumi lagu dan film dari Indonesia, termasuk karya para pujangga masa lalu. Film hitam putih dari kedua negeri ini hampir tidak ada bedanya karena bahasa Melayu yang di percakapkan di film itu sama dengan bahasa Indonesia.

Masa Konfrontasi tahun 1960an memang sempat memisahkan rakyat kedua negara, namun bisa dipulihkan lagi setelah Indonesia mengalami coup d’état Partai Komunis Indonesia.

Dewasa ini diakui dari segi informasi memang sudah tidak ada sekatan lagi, orang-orang Malaysia bisa melihat TV-TV Indonesia, lagu-lagu Indonesia baik yang popular maupun dangdut juga digemari di Malaysia. Sampai-sampai ada protes dari sebagian orang Malaysia sendiri di KL terhadap stasiun-stasiun radio yang mendedangkan terus menerus lagu-lagu Indonesia yang menjadikan para pendengar radio itu seperti berada di Jakarta.

Akan tetapi bagi sebagian orang Indonesia ada persepsi yang beranggapan bahwa tetangga kita Malaysia terlalu “Ke – Inggris-Ingrisan” (atau memiliki British’ mindset), lebih tahu London, atau Piccadilly Circus, atau English Garden, atau Fish and Chip. Tentu hal itu tidak benar. Dulu Dr. Mahathir mengeluarkan policy “Look East Policy” yang mengharapkan rakyat Malaysia lebih melihat timur seperti Jepang dan Korea dari pada selalu melihat barat (dalam hal ini Inggris). Orang Indonesia tidak lagi merasa melihat Malaysia seperti jamannya Cek Ramli dulu. Tentangga serumpun ini seperti tetangga lain; yang dibacanya dari media adalah soal Tenaga Kerja Indonesia yang disiksa majikan, atau diminta membayar uang pelicin bagi polisi yang menangkapnya. Atau soal teroris dari Malaysia yang mencari tempat operasi di Indonesia.

Yang perlu dipahami bahwa Indonesia ini dalam sejarahnya adalah negara yang mengalami penjajahan asing ratusan tahun (di jajah Belanda 350 tahun, Inggris 5 tahun, Portugis 5 tahun dan Jepang 3,5 tahun). Perasaan nasionalisme sangat tinggi, setiap kali mendengar kata “Asing” maka akan menjadi perdebatan yang serius. Misalnya ekonomi Indonesia di kuasai Asing, budaya Indonesia ter-kontaminasi Asing, demonstrasi yang dibiayai Asing dsb. Karena itu ketika ada berita soal lagu rasa sayang2e di anggap milik Malaysia, maka itu menjadi berita besar.

Bagi sebagian orang Malaysia, Indonesia dianggap sebagai sebagai negara yang demokrasinya belebihan, berita tentang perkelahian antar desa, antar etnis dan agama. Tenaga Kerja yang berkerja di Malaysia yang selalu buat masalah kriminal. Indonesia seakan bukan tetangga serumpun lagi – tapi tentangga Asing yang terlalu sensitive dalam banyak hal.

Tidak banyak yang tahu kalau banyak Tenaga Kerja Indonesia yang ikut menyumbangkan tenaganya membangun Kuala Lumpur, membangun Petronas Twin Tower, tidak banyak yang tahu bahwa banyak pengusaha Indonesia yang berbisnis di Malaysia, sedikit yang tahu kalau banyak dosen Indonesia yang mengajar di berbagai perguruan tinggi di Malaysia, atau olahragawan Indonesia yang melatih di Malaysia dsb.

Sebaliknya, tidak banyak yang tahu juga di Indonesia kalau beberapa Bank di Indonesia di beli Bank Malaysia, kebun-kebun Kelapa Sawit di Sumatra dan Kalimantan banyak yang dikelola pengusaha Malaysia, para pengusaha Malaysia banyak membeli produk –produk di Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Medan dan kota-kota lainnya.

Nampaknya, masing-masing pihak harus mengerti dan memahami sensitivitas dan karakter kedua negara serumpun ini. Harus ada upaya yang lebih baik untuk mendekatkan kedua masyarakatnya. Tidak boleh ada yang merasa lebih tinggi dari yang lain. Semua pihak juga harus memahami bahwa “We actually have the same DNA” tapi “We have different historical background”.

Kalau tidak dipahami hal itu, maka walaupun Malaysia itu negara serumpun terdekat dengan Indonesia, tapi sepertinya jauh…!

Alumni University of London dan Universitas Airlangga Surabaya, sekarang dosen di STIE PERBANAS Surabaya.

Popularity: 2% [?]