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

How the Thais must envy Indonesia!

Indonesia’s transition to a democratic state must go down as one of the greatest achievements made by any country in recent years. Because unlike the overthrow of despotic regimes in countries like South Africa and in the communist nations of Eastern Europe, no one really expected Indonesia to pull it off. 

But there lies the rap – Indonesia basically became a democratic nation by accident rather than because its people hold the values of democracy so close to heart (or at least any more than the Thais do, for instance). 

 What caused this accident was the Asian financial crisis, of course, and it came along at exactly the right time to end the despotic rule of Javanese patriarch Suharto. Any later and one of his kids - or perhaps a well-trusted crony – would have been at the helm and you can be sure they would have been a hell of a lot less willing to give up their presidential power than Suharto was. 

 I bet the Thais are now looking on in envy. Poor blighters.

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