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

10 more amazing Wikileaks on Indonesia!

If Wikleaks cables be the food of love, then read on. 

A new batch of cables have been uploaded by Wikileaks, and whilst most of them are a bit too tepid for my demanding palate, there are thankfully some really “tasty” morsels to sample as well – including some marked “TOP SECRET” (which really get the juices flowing!) 

So without any further ado, here they are: 

1) James Riady finances the travel of NU participants to Israel as an “inducement” for them to participate in a “hush-hush” Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) delegation. Why? https://bit.ly/ndJAvj 

2) The US Embassy seems impressed by polygamy, quoting a high ranking member of NU who says that “polygamous institutions actually fulfill women's desires and reproductive rights”. https://bit.ly/oS2YwR Could it be that the US sees polygamy as a way of bringing down the US’s high divorce rate? 

3) PERTAMINA MUST NOT BE USED "AS AN ATM MACHINE" No, no, no! This cannot be true!!!! “*** allowed *******’s wife to partner with *********** and an unnamed intermediary to extract US$1 from each barrel of oil that Indonesia imports.” WTF!!!!!!! https://bit.ly/rfXwIy 

4) FBI investigating Munir’s murder! “Ambassador Pascoe confirmed the FBI had indeed extracted information from the cell phones and informed Suciwati (Munir’s wife) the information would be turned over to the Indonesian police in the next few days”. On top of that, the US Embassy obtains info that “meetings had been held with *** officials and others at which the assassinations of Munir and other human rights activists were planned”. https://bit.ly/n5Lmjj 

 5) Bali’s fears of the "ISLAMIZATION" OF INDONESIA https://bit.ly/qXNRya 

6) the carrot and stick approach to fighting terrorism – simply offer heaps load of cash to individuals who “take out” terrorists. But this must be done secretly of course: “the funding of a rewards program should remain discreet and out of the public eye…” https://bit.ly/nVTzZb 

7) CALL HIM NOTORIOUS!!!! – " what better palliative for a country hamstrung they claim by an overly deliberate president than this former ******** who demonstrated that he would never let a trivial thing like human rights stand in the way of a good crackdown.” Hahaha! I think you know who he is!!! https://bit.ly/mP9lLW 

8) THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1965-66) Yes, there was a counter-coup! https://bit.ly/p4a0O8 

9) Behind every successful man there is a woman. Includes details of “charm offensives”! Juicy! https://bit.ly/pf82vc 
 
10) I’ve left my favorite till last cos it’s so hilarious: Coming to your screen soon – it’s KEYSTONE COPS AND SHOOT EM UP IN JAVA. Nice tongue in cheek write-up of what could have been a deadly incident. Having said that the account provided makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What do you think? https://bit.ly/nm2c8X

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