The G-20 summit has just ended. There’s a clear scene now that G-20 is replacing the limited role of G-7, or G-8, secondly, it’s almost inevitable that Asian powers (plus Brazil) are set to replace the West power in global economic issues. Economist and investors have put the spotlight on two rising power from different [...]

First, congratulation to Indonesia! And thanks to UNESCO for making this possible for the world to acknowledge a world’s heritage from Indonesia. Long before the day of October 2, 2009 many people have actually known that Batik belongs and is part of Indonesian culture. And, this certification just made it even clearer. Not to mention the [...]

It appears that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono understands what is the real crisis facing our planet. With the continuing popular obsession with global economic woes, most of the leaders attending last week’s G20 summit in Pittsburgh came prepared with more of the same, worn-out rhetoric about the need to fortify the world’s financial systems. Buoyed up [...]

Why we are where we are now? Malaysian and Indonesian history is so intertwined and our future is so closely linked that we are either hang together or hang separately. Weren’t we both part of the glorious kingdom of Sriwijaya in Sumatra and the Majapahit kingdom in Java? Wasn’t the founder of the Malacca Sultanate, Pramesyara, a [...]

I know you must be thinking that the vehicle escorting the military commander above is Humvee (or Hummer), a US-made military vehicle. Well, you are very wrong, dudes. The so-called jeep is named Bhirawa, a multi-purpose vehicle developed by Pupuk Kaltim, a huge company in East Kalimantan. Yes, it’s made by our Indonesian fellas. Congrats!

When Suharto, Indonesia’s long-serving dictator, fell in 1998 the very integrity of the country seemed in doubt. It faced economic collapse, political chaos and fissile separatist insurgencies in Aceh, Papua and East Timor. In contrast, present-day Indonesia seems almost a miracle. As our special report in this issue describes, it is a stable, largely peaceful [...]

(Above: Indonesian President listens to a question from a Harvard University student in the audience following a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, September 29, 2009.) Prior to this scene, he delivered an-hour-long speech on “THE AFTERSHOCK ECONOMY: IMPERATIVE AND OPPORTUNITY” with regards to Indonesia’s resilience during [...]

There are some verses in the holy book of Quran which mentioned that good people, will always get tested with hunger, fears, disasters. You can’t call yourself a true believer until you pass all the tests. In other verses, God says that He will never ever overburden us, no test will be given beyond our capacity [...]

(Above: Railway over Bukit Tinggi, Sumatra.) Work on a $1.28 billion railway project in South Sumatra involving state-owned coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, Indonesia’s Transpacific Group and Chinese partner may finally start in October 2009. If it proceeds, the project will mark the first time a private investor will own a controlling stake in a [...]

India successfully launched its first spacecraft. Did they really need to? There was a Microfinance Summit in Bali last year, attended by many hi-rank people from 65 countries, including noble-prize winner Mohamed Yunus, and Indonesian President, and of course me, hehe… Well, I am not gonna talk about the summit though, I’d only like to emphasize [...]