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 [...]