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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Golf in Jakarta

So another major sporting event comes to town.

After the thrills and spills of A1 grand prix racing, golfers from across the globe have converged on Jakarta to take part in the Jakarta HSBC Indonesia Open from March 2-5 at the Emeralda Golf Club.

After a week off in which most of the top European players participated in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in California, the European Tour resumes this week in southeast Asia at the second annual Enjoy Jakarta HSBC Indonesia Open. The event is co-sanctioned by the European and Asian tours.

The purse this week totals $1 million, with the winner pocketing $1 million. The runner-up will get $110,842, with the third-place finisher receiving $62,446.

That’s all very well. But I don’t think ordinary Indonesians will give a damn. Cos if there’s one sport that highlights social inequalities, it’s golf.

But that’s not to say golf is unpopular here – there are a lot of rich people in this crazy city of the destitute.

So popular in fact that the greater Jakarta area has 43 golf courses!!!

So it is possible for the Jakarta authorities to provide wide-open green spaces for recreation – but with the little proviso that they are used exclusively by the rich of course.

Ordinary Indonesians are far less fortunate of course: about the only place for recreation for them is Ragunan Zoo (many ordinary Indonesians used to visit the park at Monas until it was decided best to keep them out by constructing a Rp10 billion fence around it. And although Ancol is another option, it’s relatively expensive).

The huge number of golf courses highlights of course the absurdities of running a city purely on a profit basis, with no regard paid whatsoever to what would benefit the people in general.

Personally, I’d take half of the golf courses in Jakarta and turn them into free parks accessible to anyone. And the rich would still be happy with over 20 golf courses still to choose from.

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