Establishing Ketuanan Melayu with an Indonesian heritage?
When Unspun was growing up in Malaysia he was told that the kris was an intrinsic part of the Malay identity.The kris was such a big deal that some years ago when the son of a former Malaysian prime minister and UMNO big shot wanted to establish Malay supremacy over the other Malaysian races he waved it around more vigorously than a koteka would be rattled in a tribal dance.
Stop waving an Indonesian heritage around Hishamuddin. It’s embarrassing.
Unspun was awed. But now Unspun feels cheated.
According to UNESCO the kris isn’t even Malaysian, let alone Malay. And not only that. Even the batik and the wayang is Indonesian. So what’ Malaysia got left to wave with? Malaysia, Truly Indonesia.
Batik, kris and wayang get UNESCO world heritage status
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 02/06/2010 1:02 PM | Headlines
UNESCO on Friday awarded Indonesia four certificates, three stating that it recognized three intangible cultural heritages and one stating its recognition of the country’s efforts to preserve its culture.
The three intangible cultural heritages were batik, a method of decorating fabric with a special dyeing techniques producing specific patterns, wayang, a traditional shadow puppet play, and kris, a traditional ceremonial dagger.
The certificates were symbolically handed by Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, to Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik and Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono.
After the awards were given, Agung said, the country should preserve the heritage to prevent the recognition from being withdrawn.
“Batik can be preserved by always wearing it. What will be hard is preserving wayang and kris,” he said.
Agung added he had issued a letter requesting that offices and hotels display the three objects.
Tresna Dermawan Kunaefi, Indonesia’s Ambassador to UNESCO, said the recognition as intangible cultural heritage was not based on the objects’ physical aspects, but the stories and ideas behind them.
via Batik, kris and wayang get UNESCO world heritage status | The Jakarta Post.
Strange but true: SBY edges out Abhisit for Communicator of the Year title
Any communicator who have had the chance to see both Indonesia’s Susilo Bambang Yudhono and Thailand’s Abhisit Vejjajiva speak in public would probably have put their money on Abhisit winning any Communicator of the Year Award.
Apart from his good looks, the Thai Premier is suave and articulate with a English public school accent. In contrast, SBY comes across as stilted, confusing and sometimes downright clumsy.Some of his harsher critics have been known to use the word bovine.
Yet the Public Affairs professionals seem to have thought differently and they voted SBY over Abhisit. “Through his election victories, and his work both domestically and internationallyC, SBY has shown himself to be a formidable communicator and a highly effective modern politician,” Mark O’Brien, the vice president of Public Affairs Asia said about SBY’s victory.
That statement is so general that it could mean anything. Unspun is absolutely curious whether Public Affairs Asia would care to elaborate on what they mean by “his work both domestically and internationally.” While the mystery still stands, however, one thing is certain: Hans Vriens, the former head of APCO in Jakarta (which is still functioning in spite of more-or less closing down) and who now heads his own consultancy is certainly not in a bad position to be for a public affairs consultant to be where Indonesia is concerned.
Unspun also wonders what others who are not steeped in the arcane arts of the PA professionals might think so here’s a small survey to see if perceptions line up:
Yudhoyono scoops Asia political communicator award
Edhie Yudhoyono (R) Accepts PublicAffairsAsia award
Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) has topped the list in the The Gold Standard Award in Political Communications.
The president saw off eight other nominees to secure award, which forms part of the PublicAffairsAsia Gold Standard Awards programme.
The president’s son, Edhie Yudhoyono, collected the award at a gala reception for senior PA professionals organised by PublicAffairsAsia at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Hong Kong on February 4.
Yudhoyono was nominated by Hans Vriens, the founding managing director of Vriens & Partners, the Singapore based PA firm which is linked with Jakarta-based Kiroyan Partners.
Yudhoyono saw off Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was nominated by Sebastian Beaumont, the managing director of the Marque Consulting Group, a specialist public affairs and consulting firm in Thailand.
The third finalist was Ryan Gawn, a British charity campaigner who mounted a highly effective programme to mobilise British government support for Save the Children’s work in Afghanistan.
Yudhoyono topped the contest after securing a historic second term victory in last year’s presidential election.
Commenting on the award, PublicAffairsAsia’s vice president, Mark O’Brien, said: “This award allows professional political communicators and lobbying professionals to identify achievement by the politicians and campaigners with whom they work.
“Through his election victories, and his work both domestically and internationally, SBY has shown himself to be a formidable communicator and a highly effective modern politician.”
Unspun on the Toyota recall crisis
The Toyota recall incident is turning into an unmitigated crisis of disaster-like proportions for the company. In between pretending to listen to speakers at a conference today Unspun’s alter ego managed to communicate with a Reuters reporter who wanted to know his opinions about how Toyota seems to be handling the incident. Never short of opinions, he shot his mouth off and resulted in this story as well as the (extract) of the one below:
The problems have raised questions about the handling of the crisis by Toyota executives, led by president and founding family member Akio Toyoda.
“In moments of a business crisis, people want to see a company take full responsibility, be empathic to the victims and their families and be in control by outlining the problem and how they intend to solve it. They also expect the CEO doing all this,” said Ong Hock Chuan, technical adviser of Jakarta-based PR consultancy Maverick who specialises in crisis management.
“Toyota seems to have failed in all counts. It’s admission of the problem has been half hearted and almost reluctant, it has failed to apologise unequivocally to victims and their families, and its failed to articulate and communicate what it intends to do to regain control of the situation.”
Toyota will have a further opportunity to address the issue at its third-quarter results, due on Thursday. Honda, the first Japanese automaker to post third-quarter earnings, raised its full-year operating profit forecast to 320 billion yen, a third above consensus forecasts.
Students of Crisis Management may also want to read about how Toyota missed the early warning signals of an impending crisis here. Crises are man-made, which means they have early warning signs that something big is going to happen. When companies ignore these warning signals or unable to process them they get into a crisis-like situation.
Laughing heads over new PR entry
Several PR heads are known to be laughing their heads off at news of an international PR firm making a debut in Indonesia.
The firm has been in partnership with a local firm for many years but ditched them and is now starting an office of its own. But why the mirth? It is apparently over the choice of leadership.
One head was heard to have asked “Don’t these people do any due diligence?” another muttered something about “business hours deficit syndrome”. It’s all probably sour grapes on their part but there is a rumor that the heads have gotten together a pool to bet on how the relationship will last before it implodes.
Zero Rupiah note for the oknum in Indonesia?
Came across an interesting story in The Economist about how an NGO called 5th Pillar is distributing Zero Rupee cupons in India as part of the fight against corruption and bribery. It is of no commercial value but comes in valuable when officials ask you for a bribe.
That’s when you pay them the Zero Rupee note. Crooked officials apaprently have been so ashamed or stunned by being given these notes that they repent their ways.
Unspun wonders if a Zero Rupiah note would work in Indonesia?
Panting over panties on Valentine’s day
It’s a Friday afterall so time for some silly stories to get us all in a good mood for the weekend.
This story below is from The Daily Chilli, The Star’s scandal sheet online. You wonder what students in Malaysia get up to for a good time. Is it the repressed atmosphere in the campuses that makes students want to remove as many strictures on themselves as possible?
And whence the origin of the slang word “commando” to denote women who choose to go, er al fresco beneath their skirts?
Worth noting in the story below too is the stance of the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department that holds forth that Valentines Day is not for Muslims. Not for thou is romance on the Infidel saint’s day.
Panty-less warning for Valentine’s day
By Edward Rajendra
Love birds are in danger of being trapped by the snoop squads of the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department JAIS this Valentine’s Day, but girls who go ‘commando’ panty-less may just get away with it.
While female students in institutes of higher learning in Selangor are being encouraged by word of mouth or via the grapevine, electronic or otherwise, about not wearing panties on that day to express their love for their boyfriends, the JAIS officers are all worked up over these deviant acts.
Jais director Datuk Mohamed Khusrin Munawi said he was disgusted by the promotion of such immoral activities.”Muslims must understand that Valentine’s Day is not for them. We will not allow Muslim students to be taken in by such celebrations that deviate from the teachings of Islam.”
At this moment, we are unable to determine the source of the ‘no-panties movement’, but those encouraging such a culture are irresponsible,” he added.
Would you want to stay in the US if you’re a Muslim?
The US Embassy in Jakarta has, since its early days of cooperation with Pesta Blogger in 2007, plunged into social media with a zeal that only Americans can have.
Its Facebook page, for instance, has nearly 24,500 fans and its latest initiative is to use its Facebook fan base together with its ties with Kompas TV to collaborate with Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry to bring what is possibly the first direct streaming forums of its kind in diplomacy.
Facebook diplomacy: live streaming discussion on what its like to be a Muslim in the US tonight
At 5pm today the live streaming will feature American Zeenat Rahman, an Interfaith Youth Core member and Indonesian student Anggita Paramesti from Gadjah Mada University in a live chat on the potentially controversial topic Ever wondered what life is like in America if you’re Muslim?
Participants must register (here) and then they can take part in the conversation and voice their ideas on how people of different faiths can live together in harmony.
UGM's Anggita Paramesti will be providing the Indonesian point of view
Hmmm…who knows, they might even broach the subject of whether non-Muslims can use the word Allah, in which case the Malaysian Government should be tuning in.
An active and mixed year so far for Lippo group
This year is but young but it’s shaping up to be quite an exciting year of mixed fortunes for the Globe Media Group and its owners.
So far there has been layoffs across the board among the newspapers owned by the group that includes Jakarta Globe, Globe Asia, Investor daily, Suara Pembaruan and Campus Asia. Then there is the what some would describe as the dramatic departure of the Jakarta Globe news editor. That comes close to the decision of an expat editor not to renew his/her contract with the Jakarta Globe. There was also a bit of a flap over Jamsostek payments when journos in one of the discovered that the papers discovered that the finance department had been remiss in the promptness of their payments.
But then there has been good news for the group as well. Even in the midst of cutbacks the group managed to dig deep and foudn the money to acquire society magazine The Peak from Singapore Press Holdings and their Indonesian partners. Unspun’s sources say that Jim Reed (very nice chap he is) will continue to be heading the mag’s editorial.
There was also some flap in the local papers based on a Washington Times story that James Riady had been granted entry into the US. That story spawned others in Fox News, Washington Post and Sydney Morning Herald but none of them seemed to make a dent on the Riady charm in continuously finding new investors and creditors.
On Tuesday The jakarta Globe reported that PT Matahari Putra Prima, the controlling shareholder of PT Matahari Department Store, for instance, had entered into a Rp 7.2 trillion strategic alliance with Luxembourg-based international private equity firm CVC Capital Partners to take over its shares in MDS; and today Seputar Indonesia reported that First Media has secured a loan facility of US$32 million from Falcon Private Bank Singapore.
Sexy underwear for the dead
Was recently in the historic town of Malacca in Malaysia and strolling through its old quarter when we chanced on one of several shops that sold offering for the dearly departed. The Chinese believe that when people die they go to a Second Life-like parallel universe where they would still enjoy the materialistic things that their relatives offer to them.
Imagination and a mercenary streak has ensured that the makers of these items, which are burnt as offerings to the dead, have kept up with the times. Hence you have paper cans of beer, paper Mercedes cars (complete with chauffeur), paper handphones and most mod cons you can think of, including the houseboys and pembantus.
Unspun was, however, still struck by the novelty of it all when he and Loved One came across this shop near Malacca’s famous Cheng Hoon Teng Temple and its shopfront display of sexy underwear for the dead. Doesn’t this make you wonder what kind of a relative would buy such merchandise for their dearly departed (and what sort of character she must have been when alive. Granted could be a He at which case…kinky!)?
Check out the sexy underwear for the dead. Also notice the faux cans of Carlsberg nearby. Do the dead get sloshed before they bonk?
The lovely wooden houses of Bangka
Was in Bangka over the weekend and couldn’t help but appreciate the textures and washed out colors of the wooden houses as you get out of Pangkal Pinang.
Here’s one of them:
Between Sungai Liat and Parai beach resort
The rest, as well as other shots of Bangka I’ve uploaded on Unspunpics
Here are other photos from Bangka:
Bangka Pissnaken?
The obligatory sunset shot. This of the Parai Resort: great picturesque location but absolutely norak decor and architecture
Parai Beach, Bangka
We went to a farm in Sungai Liat and saw these piggy wiggys that somehow reminded me of my office. Bangka is also famouse for its roast pork and you can buy some just outside the airport where a group of vendors are clustered, or, if you have the connections, make a phone call and have it delivered by air to Jakarta
