From My Point of View

This year, Indonesia will face two election: the general election for legislative body's members --from local councillor in district level, to provincial and state parliaments-- and the presidential election. The first one will takes place next April 9th, whilst the second one on July 5th. Unlike the previous election in 2004, the general mood this time is a little different. In 2004, everyone anticipated the coming election with excitement. Five years ago, we experienced our first ever direct presidential election. Before, our head of state always picked by a handfull members of the People's Representative Assembly, a sort of Indonesian version of the US Congress. In 2004, we were also eager to end our political landscape's turmoil. We had a very fragmented coalition back then. At first, after the 1999 election, we had Central Axis Coalition, consists of Golkar and a few Islamic parties as the ruling coalition. That coalition collapse halfway, resulting an impeachment of t...

Lin Che Wei, Jakarta If everything goes well, in 2050 Indonesia will be the tenth largest economy in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The top 10 largest economies will consist of five of the old G7 economic powers -- the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany and France -- while the other five will consist of newly emerging economies, namely China, India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia. The emerging five will be cumulatively bigger than the old five (61 percent compared to 39 percent). This means that the emerging market countries will be playing a much bigger role than the developed economic powers in 2050. This forecast is, however, based on certain crucial assumptions regarding macroeconomic, human resource and political conditions. If, and only if, these assumptions turn out to be valid will this forecast be realized. Thus, the road to prosperity will most assuredly not be just a walk in the park. It is bound to be bumpy and hazardous. Four out of the five e...