Archive for February 6th, 2010

A Week in Jakarta

Posted by robin in Financial Articles Saturday February 6, 2010 1:59 am

To prevail against an unwanted oppressor…who ranks higher in a nation’s self-esteem?

 

Washington…Churchill…Gandhi…Bolivar…Sudirman.

 

Sudirman?

 

Indonesia.

 

Soft-spoken teacher turned soldier General Sudirman fought Dutch and British forces after Sukarno first plucked up the courage to proclaim Indonesian independence in 1945. Elected Commander-in-chief of the army the same year at the age of 29, he was Indonesia’s first general. 

 

His legacy was burnished when he drove back occupying forces at the battle of Ambarawa. Subsequent years of guerrilla warfare, sapped Dutch resolve and eventually paved the way to independence in 1950.

 

The colonialists were only part of Sudirman’s concerns. He suffered tuberculosis from his appointment to his death at 35. Much of the time he was carried in a chair.

 

His legacy prevails.  Jakarta’s Jalan Jenderal Sudirman (General Sudirman street) is the main highway through Jakarta’s business district - a choking, unruly confusion dividing steel and glass towers. Mopeds mass at the traffic lights.

 

What would Sudirman’s conservative Islamic principles make of Jakarta today? A mix for 21st century development and subsistence living. They say the Indonesians live “in between”, crammed cheek by jowl in low rise lots. Some not even that. A vacant lot on Jalan Genderal Sudirman reveals, behind a wall, a carpet of trash within lobbing distance of the street. Beyond it lush and exotic leaf, a couple of tiny canvas tents with a young pregnant woman milling about them…her home?   

 

The Intercontinental MidPlaza is also on the street that bears his name and is one of many sumptuous hotels in Jakarta. Its cuisine caters for every cultural preference and its pampering extends to 10 choices of pillow. Outside, its perimeter is bounded by walls, barbed wire and guards. Incoming taxis are searched inside and out. The rich it seems do not sleep easy in their beds, regardless of their choice of head rest.

 

For the visitor, the perceived threat is not readily detectable walking the street. Though walking the street is not advised, neither by my expat guide nor frequently as a practical choice. Pavements are intermittent and tend to force the pedestrian into involuntary jaywalking.

 

The language, Bahasia Indonesia is a pretty basic they tell me. There are no tenses. Eg I go there tomorrow (future), I go there yesterday (past).  

 

My purpose here is research. To dig into the Indonesian life market on behalf of Axco, a specialist publisher. It’s entertaining work.

 

Expat life is different and looks more attractive from a distance. Their feet hardly seem to touch the ground at all. They flit from apartment to office tower, to hotel bar, to golf club courtesy of a driver on beck and call 24/7. Meanwhile, their local staff rise early to commute from a distant ‘burb.  

 

Metropolitan Jakarta is Indonesia’s capital and lies a little south of the equator. Its liberal lifestyle has seen some call it Bangkok without the neon. The city is home to some 24m souls. Java, a slim cigar of an island running East to West, is about the size of England and houses more than one and a half times its number. Of the country’s 240m odd souls more than half live on Java…the most populous island on earth.  

 

Few hands hold most of the wealth: much of it among the minority Chinese. Industrious and family oriented they have attracted success and resentment in equal measure. Dubbed by one the Jews of Asia, one life assurance company attributes more than 80% of customers come from this group.   

There seems little guise in their brand of corruption. One businessman relates a tax refund of $750,000 from the government revenue service. It arrived with a suggestion of a $50,000 “goodwill” payment. In writing.

 

Indonesia is a bad advertisement for kings. Such is the deference to Westerners, some can get deluded into thinking he is one. Pretty soon it has him acting accordingly….detached, demanding and spoilt.

 

Not only is he king…he’s George Clooney too. No longer a weary middle-aged has-been with high blood pressure and a receding hairline, he’s a babe magnet. And there are an abundance of babes in what must be Islam’s most tolerant city. Some succumb to the temptation and lose their heads. ”Yellow fever” has killed many a marriage.

 

Some expats get permanently attached, sometimes with partners young enough to be their progeny. Indonesian girls in the market for a “bulay boyfriend” are pragmatic. They are in it for the money. Financial support for their wider family is the asking price.

 

And make no mistake the Indonesian girls can be beautiful: petite, delicate features with porcelain skin, beautiful smiles and a graceful deportment. The Mandarin Oriental appears to breed them such is their abundance from the first greeting at the door with bowed head and hands clasped together in a gesture of prayer. In how many bars does the waitress get on their knees to pour your Chardonnay?

 

Indonesia say the stats is more than 85% Muslim. Calls to prayer can be heard blaring over loudspeakers five times a day from very early in the morning to late at night. But this is no theocracy. Politics and religion do not mix they tell me. Assertions of liberal tolerance can be found in the raised eyebrows and knowing glances of seasoned expats. If Saudi sits at one end of Muslim conduct, Jakarta likely occupies the other. “It is a party town!” asserts Felix, a Western educated Indonesian and Wednesday and Friday are big nights. Often people come into work with a hangover he asserts. Echoes of home.

 

Felix has dark skin which makes him racially inferior in the eyes of Indonesians says my companion. An intelligent and ambitious 20-something with a good job and fluent English from a US education, he fights this prejudice every day. Similar attitudes can be found in parts of Latin America I recall.

 

Not that all Indonesia is so tolerant. Rules can be more restrictive in the farther reaches. The province of Aceh, on the northern tip of neighbouring Sumatra, has imposed Islamic law. It is strict. A couple of dominoes players were sentenced to a public caning in front of the local mosque for betting 1,000 rupiah a game (about $1).

 

Happily, they escaped punishment by running away.

 

23-30 January 2010