Rabu, 27 Oktober 2010

Middle Class and Socio-Political Dynamics in Indonesia

Middle class is a phenomenon both in developed and developing countries. The influence of this social entity is not only economical as consumer of any products, but also social and political. Even though it is relatively small in number, middle class cannot be neglected as socio-political driver in many countries, including in Indonesia as a democratizing country. In the case of Indonesia, I argue that middle class has vital role during reform process in 1998 and still has significant role in socio-political dynamics after regime changes.


By definition, middle class is the layer of people who socially situated intermediate between higher and lower class who has average condition of income, education, status and taste (Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 2006). More economical, The Economist (2009, cited in Abjorensen 2010) made a definition of middle class as “having a reasonable amount of discretionary income, so that they do not live from hand to mouth as the poor do, and defined it as beginner at the point where people have roughly a third of their income left for discretionary spending after paying for basic food and shelter”.

Kamis, 07 Oktober 2010

Eid al-Fitr Festival 2010 di Canberra

Thursday, 07 October 2010 08:16 Jalan-Jalan.


Hidayatullah.com--Awal musim semi lalu, saat suhu udara Canberra mulai hangat dan bunga Sakura di berbagai sudut kota bermekaran, diselenggarakan festival Eid al-Fitr. Acara ini adalah sebentuk silaturahmi kaum muslim terhadap warga ibukota Australia. Memang, di negara seperti Australia, salah satu cara terfavorit untuk memperkenalkan keberadaan sebuah komunitas adalah dengan mengadakan festival. Selain untuk mendapatkan pengakuan, festival juga ditujukan untuk mempersatukan berbagai kelompok agar bisa membaur dan akhirnya diterima oleh lingkungan yang lebih luas.

Jumat, 01 Oktober 2010

The Impact of Globalization on Political Institution in Indonesia

Introduction


Globalization process in the last three decades changes configuration of the world’s economy, social, culture and politics in unprecedented way in our history. The process toward borderless world challenges every nation state in the globe in the effort to get something from the ongoing process that can make better off or worst off. The continuing of changing process of the world needs adjustment in nation state institution. In the more competitive situation, the failure in respond to globalization could lead to disastrous condition for nation state, as proofed by the fall of Berlin Wall, and the collapsed of Sovyet Union and former Yugoslavia.

Institutional adjustment is needed in respond to this process, to maintain the competition to reach efficiency and effectiveness of the government. Moreover, the pressure of changes toward more globalize government because of effects of globalize economy, should be supported by political institution adjustment. This essay will elaborate adjustment on political institutional in Indonesia in respond to many impacts of globalization process. Since analyzing globalization impacts on political structure is a complex effort, it needs deep understanding and familiarity of the country object. Indeed, focusing in one country (Indonesia within and post-Soeharto era) that in the process of democratizing is an effort to get comprehensive analyses.

Deciding Public Interest

In many democratic countries, the issues of public interest are becoming more relevance related to the debate on agreement and disagreement that has political, economic and social implication. The debate is commonly happened in parliament as the ultimate decision maker on policy related to public interest and unavoidably transmitted through mass media to become public concern. To make a policy decision-making, politician and government official should do a concept elaboration and judgment in terms of public interest however in some cases they indicated involve their individual or sectional interest into the debate.


It is important to clearly distinguish between public interest and individual/sectional interest in relation to privatization of state own enterprises, clean air or water, public broadcast, taxation policy, public infrastructure, and other recent issues. Academically, Mulgan (2000, pp. 3-4) explained that public interest has similar concept with “the common good” or “the public benefit”, while the public in this context refers to inclusively all members of a community constraint by territorial boundaries and constitution or common system of government. Indeed, conceptually the public interest must cover all members of political community without exception.