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Threatening to boycott the Beijing Olympics may sound like a good (if not desperate) proposition to pressure China to prevail over Myanmar. We all agree that if anyone can push the Myanmar junta to stop persecuting the monks and students, it will be China. Beijing has propped up the country economically for years while the junta has defied one international condemnation or embargo after another for its appalling human rights record.
We’ve seen it all before, in Asia, Africa and in Latin America. Military generals (sometimes colonels or even mayors) take over the government in the name of stability. Some of these coups were justifiable, most were not. Historically speaking, there has never been any military officer in any of these continents who took power by force and then successfully paved the way for democracy (though I stand corrected if anyone can point to one.) It has never been part of their military training to build a nation on the principles of freedom, rules of law, respect for human rights and democracy. They haven’t a clue about how to build democracy, let alone how to start one, and most likely, they have no interest in doing so.
Political Islam is a fact of life in countries with large Muslim populations. Indonesia and Turkey, two such countries, have had to deal with this issue for decades. Indonesia's own experience tells us that suppressing or banning political Islam is not the answer. General Suharto tried this when he ruled Indonesia for three decades until 1998, and political Islam simply went underground, making detection of its activities -- some of which were violent -- even more difficult.
During the East Timor war of independence in the 1990s, The Jakarta Post and a few other Indonesian newspapers were accused by the Indonesian military of siding with the rebels (the word traitor was frequently used). The East Timor rebels, on the other hand, accused us of being part of the Indonesian propaganda machinery.
A new favorite American pass time is to ask “how much do you like me?” or “how much do you hate me?” And later the question develops into “do you like me enough to do what I say?” or “do you hate me enough to want to kill me?” And then, lo and behold, the question becomes “either you are with me, or you are against me.”
The world has waited far too long for America to provide the necessary leadership to stop global warming. The situation has deteriorated and earth has gotten warmer (with all of its ecological consequences), while America keeps arguing that big developing countries like China and India should contribute more to the efforts to arrest global warming. We have waited long enough to know that neither side will back down, and that the debate in the coming years will still be confined to “I’ll do my part if you do yours” instead of discussing the actions that need to be taken.
The 2007 series of Indonesian Idol will soon begin just as American Idol, which has a large following here, enters its final episodes. Indonesians have long dismissed the value of this reality show as an effective way of spotting talent. None of the previous four (or is it five) winners, like past winners of rival AFI Indonesia (copied from Mexico’s La Academia), have been able to cash in on their victory, and few survive the grueling show biz challenges in order to become second-rate TV actors.
Take a stroll down any of the fully air-conditioned shopping malls in Jakarta and you will see girls wearing Muslim headscarves walking side by side with their peers in tight pants and tank tops, revealing legs, navel, and cleavage.
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