Public Relations as I think it should be
OK, let's get this out of the way: Unspun believes that voilence in retaliation for words is almost always not justified. Having said that, I cannot help but to think that Ade Armando and the society that has elevated him into a public icon of sorts has brought the violence upon themselves. Armando is of... Continue Reading →
A BMW jumped the curb and ploughed into Apotik Senopati at about 4am today. The driver was apparently a 19-year old student. A video post by @TMCPoldaMetro showed what looked like the driver showed a young man wearing a black cap whose breath, said police, smelled of alcohol. This was the second car to... Continue Reading →
Alexis almost certainly has prostitution as one of its services and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan is right to close it down if morality is his kind of thing. But shutting it down based on press reports rather than on hard evidence is worrying, as it sets a bad precedence of executive action based on suspicion.... Continue Reading →
If you are a foreigner married to an Indonesian or vice versa, this would be a forum you'd want to attend. The reason is that until two weeks ago you'd have a pre-nuptial agreement if you want to have a normal life in Indonesia that allows you to buy and sell properties. Article 29 of the 1974 Marriage... Continue Reading →
I'll never forget how wistful my Malaysian cardiologist was when he found out that I was from Indonesia and that we now have Jokowi as the President. "He seems a good guy, isn't he?" he said of Jokowi as I lay prone and half naked on the examination table. "Yes he is," I said. "Ah,... Continue Reading →
From Nusa Tenggera Timor, from Rayhanzhampiet.com, comes this uplifting tale of two courageous policeman who had the temerity to stop the Governor's convoy because the outrider cars were illegally using sirens. What's impressive is that when the Governor complained to their boss, NTT Chief of Police Brigjen Ricky Sitohang about their behaviour, Sihotang backed them up and told... Continue Reading →
Unspun's reminded of the Gandhi witticism: "Those who engage in mudslinging often lose ground" in the unfolding case between Twitterati Benny Handoko (@benhan) and Golkar politician Misbahkun (@misbakhun). For the current development of the case see here. As things stand, Benny is now under detention for allegedly slandering Misbahkun over the Bank Century case, after... Continue Reading →
It always amazes Unspun how everyone in Indonesia, especially the politicians, excel at barking up the wrong tree whenever something big happens and they are suggesting ways to avoid future such incidents. The Sleman Prison Attack (brow) is one such incident. As with the past the politicians are zeroing on the amorphous concept called the... Continue Reading →
The law is bound to be an ass when its highest judges exhibit asinine behaviour. Here we have Jimly Asshiddiqie, the former head of Indonesia's Constitutional Court ,an institution that is supposed to exercise wisdom in the upholding and protection of Indonesia's most important document, its Constitution, saying: "It's part of our culture to treat women inappropriately,"? Jimly's... Continue Reading →
This is a typical case of what Mitroff and Silvers discuss in their book Dirty Rotten Strategies: How We Trick Ourselves and Others into Solving the Wrong Problems Precisely. Unspun has a more precise tag for this kind of thinking which is in my tag: shot-for brains. The root causes of the persecution of the Shiites... Continue Reading →
Here are two different but fascinating stories. It takes place in different countries and different times, but they both tell the story about how you can fool (and intimidate) all the people some of the time but not all the people all the time. The first is set in the US in the 1950s, when... Continue Reading →
Before any of us cast the first subsequent stones, deservedly, at the parliamentarians, it is perhaps wise for us to ask what role we in Indonesian society play in condoning and encouraging such ostentatious and shameless displays of (often ill gotten) wealth. Do we, as a society, shun them or at least avoid them at... Continue Reading →
Unspun 