There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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Patung Pangeran Diponegoro, Menteng

Possibly Indonesia’s best-known hero is Prince Diponegoro, a Javanese prince from the Royal Kraton of Yogyakarta, and resistance fighter against Dutch colonialism.

Despite causing heavy losses on the Dutch side, the Prince’s rebellion ultimately failed, however, and he was eventually exiled to Makassar, South Sulawesi, where he died in 1855.

Jakarta has constructed two statues in his honor.

The first and better known statue is at Freedom Square, while a smaller statue (shown below) was put up in the plush diplomatic area of Menteng, on a street named after him and only as recently as December 2005.


Patung Pangeran Diponegoro, Menteng

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