Ponari & His Magic Healing Stone
Feb 26th, 2009, in News, by Lairedion
The magical faith healing stone of young boy Ponari is big business for a small village in East Java.
East Javanese village is earning big bucks with its boy wonder
Even Ponari must go to school. He hasn’t been there for three weeks and this Monday is the time. The school director takes him there personally on his “moped”, and a platoon of riot police officers run alongside the 9 year old prodigy to protect him. It is not easy to get the boy away from his village. Thousands of people crowd between the houses and when they see Ponari they even press harder. But people have to wait because Ponari must go to school.
A month ago Ponari was hit by lightning, according to his story. When he regained consciousness there was a stone on top of his head. He threw it away but the stone came back so he took it home. There he discovered the healing effects of the stone: a neighbour healed of fever after he had touched it, the village head got rid of a bad pain in his arm and the local police officer, a pious Muslim, swears he has seen with his own eyes how Ponari healed a boy who had not spoken a single word for five years.
The news about the miraculous healings spread quickly and people started to flood to the small village of Balongsari, a few hours drive from Surabaya. First dozens, then hundreds, and now there are thousands. They bring cups, bottles and buckets of water in which the boy wonder plunges his stone. This allegedly turns the water into a powerful panacea. Ponari is carried around by his father. He looks tired.
A party tent protects him against the sun. There are barriers of bamboo put down to control the crowd. This has already led to accidents: four people have been trampled to death and an unknown number got injured. And also the healing doesn’t work that well. A child of three died after his parents had given him wonder water instead of taking him to a doctor. The media are interviewing more and more people who have been drinking the miracle water but didn’t notice anything. Hamzah (53) says that his eyes are just as bad as before. Such information may not deter visitors. They keep on flooding to the village.
Yet there is growing criticism of the Balongsari circus. Especially Muslim organizations condemn what is happening there. It is superstition and therefore sinful but also dangerous. Child welfare agencies demand closure of this ‘practice’ of Ponari in order to protect the boy against exploitation. Even his father says now enough is enough. He has already tried a few times to get Ponari to school but was always stopped by the crowd and his own neighbours which keep the family more or less as hostages. They want Ponari to continue because they earn big money: they sell food, they rent out parking spaces, sleeping places and sell water in which Ponari has immersed his stone. This poor peasant village is making a daily turnover of one billion rupiah (70,000 euros).
As long as the faithful continue to throng there’s no way back. Ponari says nothing. After school he is back on his father’s shoulders and he immerses his stone in water until he cannot hold it anymore….
This post is a translation of an article which appeared in Dutch daily “Volkskrant” on 24 February 2009 (link: http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/article1154300.ece/Indonesisch_dorp_teert_op_wonderkind).
249 Comments on “Ponari & His Magic Healing Stone”
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Burung Koel says:
Thanks BK..Still confused tho..chicken and egg ..is it the people, culture or genetics in those countries who do reasonably well (and vise versa) or just blind luck the right guy in the right place when things were at their most formative stage (Singapore for instance?)
If anyone had the answer to that, they should immediately be made President of the World Bank.
I like to think of the ‘success’ of nation states like Tolstoy’s remark about families. All happy families are happy in the same way, and all unhappy families are unhappy in different ways.
So I guess it’s not what went on in the past that’s important, but where to go to from here.
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Mr Tic Tac Toe says:
Tn. Oigal, Yth:
I think the secret behind the success of singapore are these:
1. A visionary named Raffles
2. A huge shift in traderoutes (hint: Suez Canal)
3. A fascist to manage the growth ( you know who) -
fullmoonflower says:
Pakde Achmad…
How are you? Long not to see… 🙂Miss you old ukulele…
tinkle..tinkle..tinkle..tingSuryo..
Nobody can delete Pakde Achmad.. He is safe, not like you… 😛 -
Suryo Perkoso says:
They did. But then I was deleted too.
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Oigal says:
TTT,
Thats why i have always argued in my circle of friends, that we need huge crisis, real crisis, to test our survivability.
Spoken with innocence of a cricle of friends who would never really had to feel the effects of such a crisis…how millions dead this time (not be able to afford the next black berry doesn’t count)?
Your debt analysis is so flawed it is not even wrong but nevermind its a nice little strawman to be used..although any objective observer can name 1/2 dozen Asian countries who started from a far worse postion than Indonesia.
Foreigners..still on that hobby horse as well… I am still interested in the defination of Pri-bumi…
we were not obligated to pay those debts back in the 50s and 60s, Soekarno wouldnt be disillusioned with democracy, and we would be able to educate our people,
Still we are stuck in a rut now…perhaps time to look out the windshield and forget about the rear vision mirrorAre seriosuly suggesting the the poor funding of education in Indonesia is due to the above…?? Come on, stop making excuses for the evil ones.. you make it too easy for them/
The RI dollar reserves of 2008 was only about US$ 50 Billions.
Why???? Think transfer pricing..think mud
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Oh TTT..on the foreigners thingy you are so fixated on, interestingly enough where I am and the time comes to throw the colonial foreigners out (which is a very real possibility unless some very real changes occur in peoples lives) then won’t me or mine that will be effected but the foreigners from a neighbouring island and differing religious group..
Such tricky words hey..foreigner and colonial.. easy to apply much closer to home than you think.. You might find there is a distinct difference in perspective depending on where you are.
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@ Suryo
perhaps because they thought you talked something offensive…
so please be careful with your sharp tongue then…-peace-
🙂 -
My sweet, with that bunch of bin scrappers and rombang-rombeng, as if I should care?
One has to have prinsip if not wirang.
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or perhaps you’ve written something out of topic…
bisa jadi…
🙂
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Oh yes, shall I post it here (with pictures) for all to see?
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Tn. Oigal, Yth:
Spoken with innocence of a cricle of friends who would never really had to feel the effects of such a crisis…how millions dead this time (not be able to afford the next black berry doesn’t count)?
Dont assume too much.
The fact that im in my 20s and only a highschool graduate should give you a hint of how the last crisis affect me personally. I am a survivor from mistakes of our fathers and grandfathers. So i know what is required to survive. AND NO, im more of HTC guy. 🙂
To be a bit cliche: it is the audacity of hope that i was trying to cling to, not the hopelessness of genetical faults that you were trying to instill.
Foreigners..still on that hobby horse as well… I am still interested in the defination of Pri-bumi…
Oh, i forgot about it.
Dude, firstly, you are the one who bring up the xenophobic topic and anti foreigner thing, when i pointed out that your rhetoric was no different than that dutch indies’ snouck guy.
And then you tried to throw a red herring about how i dont care about aceh people 20 years ago.
Perhaps i shouldve answered that first:
No sir, im just anti you. And you dont know me that well to say that i do nothing about aceh.On pribumi:
Pribumi, was the term used by the dutch to define an underclass to segregate dutch indies populations, along with totok, japon, indo, and cina.Pribumi was the lowest of them all.
It supposed to be used not like how malaysians use it. It is supposed to be used like the african american call their brothers with the N word.
Not as a reminder that we were “tuan” in our land, but reminder that we were slaves in our birthplace, and we thrive to change that.
Are seriosuly suggesting the the poor funding of education in Indonesia is due to the above…?? /
To suggest that it was only becoz of the debts is gravely deficient. But to say that it didnt affect at all, is totally wrong.
We lost a whole generation becoz of that, and that lost generation end up as the most corrupt. We call them angkatan 66.
The same thing is also happening now, in MY generation, if we, indonesians, dont do anything about it.
To continuously complain about it will definitely corrupt our soul, but to totally forget about it will doom us again to make the same mistakes.
Thats why i wont even contemplate to ask for compensation from the dutch or such, as i also dont normally talk about the sins of our fathers especially in KMB.
But if you keep arguing by assuming what i think, you will meet fierce opposition.
My argument was, this is all still continuation of old story. One mistakes after another. The mistakes in KMB lead to inflations, lead to pro-communist stance, lead to soeharto, lead to corruption, lead to poor educations. I acknowledge that.
Again, if you keep bringing your genetic theory and the 60 years thing, i will give you the HISTORICAL environment theory as counter argument.
Come on, stop making excuses for the evil ones.. you make it too easy for them
To say that we dont do anything towards our “evil ones”, is completely wrong. And it is a completely different topic.
We are slowly decimating them, almost everyday we see news about how fierce we fight them.
Even the soeharto’s kids. If you look closely, they are being defeated by that open-society-guy in their own company.
As for the mud king, dude, we’re working on it.
Why???? Think transfer pricing..think mud
Please explain, so my horizons widened. im guessing this has something to do with singapore?
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Mike Oxblack says:
We are slowly decimating them, almost everyday we see news about how fierce we fight them.
I don’t know about decimating them but I’m heartened that battle has finally been enjoined. Indonesia, like so many countries, has had all secular, nationalist, class conscious tendencies erased by American foreign policy since WWII and its economic colonialist imperative. Look to Latin America’s current attempts to kick against the pricks of a de facto undemocratic world government of IMF, World Bank (un) free market profiteers and take inspiration. I’m still waiting for any genuine working people’s movement to take root here though, so totally has any notion of class awareness been smashed by both Suharto’s Americanism (superimposed on an already Hindu-esque caste system). The Indonesian Labour Party. Say it!!
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No sir, im just anti you.
That’s good I am please to hear it..I could say I am sorry I have offended you but that would not be true, I despise lazy thinking and even lazier misqouting those who you disagree.
I am disappointed albeit not surprised that you show little ability to move away from the tried an true cliche’ of old..(For instance to move from the “pri-bumi” strawman of old to what does it mean today and what should it mean perhaps). It is ashame that you could not move beyond what I am to what I am saying but as I said before, thats your problem not mine.
Bit rich to accuse me of a red herring when we are talking about today and you continually refer to battles that a long past and whilst worthy of real research (rather than the slush that is taught) I had hoped that we may drag the conversation into something like the present. Still never mind, I don’t really think there is much point in continuing but I will leave you with a little last thoughts perhaps:
Firstly, perhaps you are anti-me primarly because it is a foreigner (?)who dares to challenge or dispute or have an opinion on Indonesia..With that bad luck! I maintain I have earnt the right by familiy and contribution to Indonesia as much as some and more than most. I would dispute that I am less than foreigner than a large majority of travellers to the provinces from within Indonesia, who come to pillage, plunder and leave nothign behind. So if you find my opinions personally distasteful ..TSWC
have fun..get your kids immunised no matter what the health minister says.. and do try and get beyond the “who is saying” and more on “what is said” You obviously have a issue with robust discussion by people you believe are not entitled to a view, therefore I suggest any number of other expat blogs with nice pictures of waterfalls and beaches describing the warm wonderful holidays they have here..IM tends not to suit those with a thin skin.
regards
Oigal
P.S
hopelessness of genetical faults that you were trying to instill.
I suggest you work on your reading comprehension.. this is third time you have raise this and any reasonable person would agree than was never what I said or implied
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ET says:
@ Mr Tic Tac Toe
re. Indonesia’s foreign debt what are your sources? It’s an interesting topic about which I would like to have unbiased information, especially about its origins.
@ fullmoonflower
ooo ic…. so, you are in Bali….
Of course I am. Tell me where else could a bule dhogol feast his eyes on tanned bodies carrying colourful offerings to mysterious temples or frolicking playfully in rivers and ponds amidst lush tropical rainforest whilst taking care of personal hygiene.
Only in Bali. Mula keto.
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Tn. Mike Oxblack, Yth:
We’re not sure yet about embracing latin socialism (…or Mob-ism). In fact we’re not too sure about the whole concept of socialism. Perhaps we should wait and see whether the current United Socialist States Of A will be successful with their style of socialism or not. 🙂
Tn. Oigal, Yth:
Im not too sure if it was schopenhauer or some other debate guru that said this: If the basic idea of the question itself is questionable(in modern term: unfalsifiable), attack the question!Since you never present your proof on genetic markers that rules leadership and/or distribution of the markers in total populations of indonesia, i considered your so-called “question” falls into the unfalsifiable category, whichever answer I pick, it cannot be proven or disproven.
By repeating the “question” again, even though there is no way to correctly answer it, made me realize that you only want to float the possibility of linking genetics to the failure of indonesia without having to explicitly support it, let alone to prove it.
…and of course, i never hesitate to reply logical fallacies with logical fallacies.
So forgive me if my reading comprehension is so bad, perhaps its genetic? or cultural? 🙂
But im sure your ability to construct a “scientific question” (with strong emphasize to the word “question”) will make australian education system proud. 🙂Tn. ET, Yth:
My sources are surely biased.
Thats why i was hoping somebody else has better data.It came to my knowledge back then in junior high, when i read a book written by some guy named george mc tahin (or something), back then it was like US$ 1 billion or something. Another person who talked about it was Sjahrir(the fat one) in tv interviews. The most recent, i think it was revrisond baswir in his seminars, his claim was like US$ 4.8 billions.
Then in 2000s I happened to be able to glance at KMB transcripts, konstituante transcripts, hatta’s speeches and the colonial records, by having a good connection with some historians and a navy colonel. But the relationships went sour, while i have complete distrust to my own memory. You can perhaps get indonesian version of its history in “Arsip Nasional”.
If you google it, with awareness that too many disinformations there, you will find the number ranging from 1 to 6 billions. And while youre at it, you can also google historical value of Dollars.
Good luck, sir. I sincerely hope that you can prove me wrong.
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We’re not sure yet about embracing latin socialism (…or Mob-ism). In fact we’re not too sure about the whole concept of socialism. Perhaps we should wait and see whether the current United Socialist States Of A will be successful with their style of socialism or not.
Of course you don’t. This is a highly propagandized country and all class consciousness has been ruthlessly expunged from national discourse, just as in America itself. Keep reading ya corporate media mate. Indonesia, and indeed America can only dream of a democratic election in which working people propel someone from their own ranks (such as Lula in Brazil, Morales or Chavez, the supposed terrorist) into power. This election will be no different. Stick to ya “free” markets mate, it’s working superbly.
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Tn. Mike Oxblack, Yth:
First of all, im an admirer of lula, but not so much with chaves.The thing that, we are… I am, worried about, is the rising fundamentalism at the grassroots. The unintended consequences is instead of becoming like brazil, we are becoming like iran.
We have good people too in media bussiness, and i heard they are working hard to copy eastern europe model. But then, their backgrounds are questionable, im not too sure they have no ties with soeharto, even though they are currently got hit back from soeharto’s kids.
This election is eeriely critical(it gives me goosebumps), while the socialists havent give us best candidates yet, we need a realist not just a dreamer. So between the fundies and the bourgeoisie, we are forced to support the latter.
Maybe you’re right, this election will be no different.
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A genuine movement of working people (Indonesian Labour Party?) would be nice to see but the spectrum seems to be very narrow here and the election seems to be once again pretty much issue free. Labour unions are, of course, usually brutally smashed here by goon squads (remember Marsinah?) People protesting appalling working conditions in factories have the frighteners put on them.
The neo feudal capitalist paradigm has pretty much encircled the world now, reversing strides that were made by working people up to the late 70’s. Latin America’s current refusal to buckle and obey orders from Pennsylvania Avenue is to be applauded. Obviously those refusing to toe the White House line (such as Chavez) are branded terrorists by a self interested media. In fact the US backed a coup in Venezuela four years back but the poor descended from the barrios and demanded their elected president back. As I say, this seems like real democracy to me. Indonesia’s labour idealism pretty much died with Suharto, a man propelled to power by the CIA. Where’s the spirit of Sutan Sjarih? I’m not a real pinko commie though, just a pretty normal European social democrat in the grand tradition. The spectrum of political debate has shifted way, way over to the right over the last 3 decades though.
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Mr Tic Tac Toe
Thanks for your reply on the matter of indonesia’s foreign debt.
If you google it, with awareness that too many disinformations there, you will find the number ranging from 1 to 6 billions. And while youre at it, you can also google historical value of Dollars.
Actually my question wasn’t about the height of the debt but rather its origins. You stated that Indonesia has been obliged to pay a.o. for Holland’s participation in the Napoleonic wars. Pardon my ignorance but this seems quite outlandish to me. I do understand that in certain cases like a divorce people will try anything to have the opposite party pay the common debts, but in the case of nations I cannot imagine what the proceedings are to reach such a verdict. What if Indonesia would have simply said “Tidak“? What sanctions could have been imposed? And who would decide upon these sanctions, let alone carry them out? The situation becomes even more absurd as Indonesia was the winning party in the conflict with the Dutch and had the support of the USA who put pressure on the Dutch to stop their ‘politionele acties’. So why did they have to pay for it?
Confusing…
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@ ET…
a bule dhogol
xixixi…
I am sorry if I’ve offended you…
Didn’t meant to be offensive… 🙂yes, I remember PN said that long time ago…
anyway, talking a lot with my people in Yogya Community has made me back to basic… be a real lovely yogya lady again 🙂
-peace-
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Cukurungan says:
Confusing…
Why confuse, we have money to pay billion dollar of few obese white people who work along Jendral Sudirman Street but we have no money to feed thousand of our own kid who suffering from lack-nutritious
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Kang Cuk…
we have money to pay billion dollar of few obese white people who work along Jendral Sudirman Street but we have no money to feed thousand of our own kid who suffering from lack-nutritious
dalam euy
🙁
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Cukurungan Says:
March 29th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Confusing…Why confuse, we have money to pay billion dollar of few obese white people who work along Jendral Sudirman Street but we have no money to feed thousand of our own kid who suffering from lack-nutritious
You want to look closer to home to find the reason for that…….
So, we want to kick out all those fat whities eh? and go back to doing what?
Indonesians are their own worst enemy in preventing the country from going forward, don’t look back and blame the Dutch etc, ask why we are not properly exploiting what we have.
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Aluang Anak Bayang says:
Attention all Brown brothers,
Beware of white solidarity.
It happened in Indonesia. When we almost defeated the Dutch, the British came to their rescue.
It happened in IM. When Mike Oxblack was cornered, Mbak Oigal and schmerly [sic] came to his rescue.
I saw a report today about white conspiracy against Asians. China discovered an anti malaria drug which helped wipe out malaria on Moheli island within a year what bule scientists could not achieve over a century. The WHO (obviously run by bules) took no notice of it because they are Asian scientists.
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Why confuse, we have money to pay billion dollar of few obese white people who work along Jendral Sudirman Street but we have no money to feed thousand of our own kid who suffering from lack-nutritious
Obviously, like the Australian Aborigines, your religious belief was not strong enough.
/sarcasm
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Tn. ET, Yth:
You stated that Indonesia has been obliged to pay a.o. for Holland’s participation in the Napoleonic wars. Pardon my ignorance but this seems quite outlandish to me.
Understandable. The situation was indeed a bit more complex than that. I just simplified it to counter some other outlandish and ignorant argument. With the risk of longwindedness, this is my version:
With the rise of liberalism, with multatuli’s and van deventer’s ideas, the people of netherland felt obligated to pay “honor debt” to native dutch indies(from now on i will call it Hindia). They had 3 basic programs to do that: irrigation, education, transmigration.
However, the netherland didnt have lots of money back then, they still have debts from napoleonic wars. As we all know, at the time of napoleonic wars, Hindia was under british, so the netherland was actually broke, coz the colonial production during the war went to the brits.
The idea was, to transfer the napoleonic debts to somewhere else. Coincidentally, the sugar price was on the rise.
Using the liberals’ ideas, the Hindia government then starting to build Hindia using new debts. Irrigations to support sugar farms, education to support the sugar factories, transmigration to provide workforce in underdeveloped areas. The profit went to netherland, and the plan became exceedingly profitable.
So Netherland was using the production of Hindia to pay their debts, while Hindia government heavily indebted for the construction projects.
The Netherland was actually thankful becoz of that, they even built Waterloo(!) Park (guess which park 🙂 ) in batavia to show their gratitude for hindia’s sugar industry’s support on paying napoleonic debts.
Those sugar debts, sir, we continued to pay until the year 2000.
(To understand how dependant was netherland economy to Hindia’s production, you can research about historical sugar prices and the effect on Netherland.)
What if Indonesia would have simply said “Tidak“? What sanctions could have been imposed? And who would decide upon these sanctions, let alone carry them out? The situation becomes even more absurd as Indonesia was the winning party in the conflict with the Dutch and had the support of the USA who put pressure on the Dutch to stop their ‘politionele acties’. So why did they have to pay for it?
This is another complex matter, i call it “Sins of Our Fathers” problem. This is my simplified version:
Between 1945 to 1950s, Indonesia wasnt really exist.
CMIIW, the only nation who recognized indonesia was egypt(which we payback later by supporting nationalization of suez canal, which also to strategically bankrupted singapore in the 50s).
So we were desperate to get recognitions from other nations. Hatta speeches mentioned about 2 stages of revolutions, the first one was National Revolution,
which translated: to get recognition from the USofA, Netherland, Belgium and Australia, we had to be willing to take previous Hindia Gov responsibilities, including its debts.In simple terms: we bought our nation, without it indonesia wouldnt exist.That was the result of KMB.
Soekarno didnt want to pay it, so the negotiator cabinet fell.
Between 50 to 59, one of the reason why RI couldnt consolidate was becoz of this matter, along with the secularism matter.
The Nationalist wanted a secular constitution, and wanted to pay, in fact they paid whenever they were in charge, with total around 2 billions.The Islamist didnt want to pay, and they want islamic constitution.
Soekarno was just figurehead at the time, didnt want to pay, but also want a secular constitution.
So in 59, soekarno dissolved the democracy. Used communism as reason to reject islamic constitution, and stopped paying hindia’s debts.
But we all know soekarno wasnt good at economy, and hatta was disillusioned becoz his idea of 2 stage Revolution was rejected. So the economy went autopilot, while “somehow” indonesia was slowly isolated from world trade.
Just like any dictator: when the economy went down, he went to war.
Then in 66 came soeharto. Right after hes “somehow” in power, he renegotiated the Hindia’s debt. Coz without paying it, USofA, WB, and IMF wouldnt give him money to feed the people. And along the way he also sold riau, aceh, and papua to USofA to get more debts.
Soeharto used the same strategy as the old Hindia, 1 debt to pay another debt. Thinking he only needs to cover the interests.
I think that covered all. The conclusion is, we now know what will happen to those who say: “Tidak”, resistence is futile.
Now this question is burning inside my head, Who were the bankers that lent money to the netherland at the first place? 🙂
Tn. Suryo Perkoso, Yth:
Indonesians are their own worst enemy in preventing the country from going forward,
I agree with that.
don’t look back
I do not agree with that. Without looking back, we never learn.
and blame the Dutch etc,
I agree with that. Dont blame, but always remember.
ask why we are not properly exploiting what we have.
Because we are easily duped,
either by other nations, or by our own corruptors.
And by forgetting, we are doomed to do the same mistakes again, and again. -
USofA, Netherland, Belgium and Australia
I told you so.
The relation between the British and the Dutch wasn’t all rosy in the nusantara. Dutch had been sinking British cargo ships, however, when we were able to overpower the Dutch, Britian came to the rescue. Lest we forget.
Looking through history, you can see the same pattern happening in China, India and the ME. White solidarity bear its ugly heads.
The same can be said of the religious whitey zealots in IM. There is a high chance that mbak Oigal will come to their rescue if either Barry Prima or Dawud Farquhar (the 2 mualaffed bules) are cornered.
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Haven’t felt particularly cornered I must say. All I’ve heard is third rates racist, ad hominem attacks from ABB. Another nationalist dupe it seems.
I saw a report today about white conspiracy against Asians.
Did you see that on the internet? You’ve got to get beyond these 6th form conspiracy theories ABB. There’s no conspiracy, that’s just the way global institutions work and always have worked. If you’d engage more in a serious political discourse rather than race based sniping you may realise that many “whiteys’ are also living in dreadful circumstances in this world. As an Indonesian though (yes, irony) all sense of class consciousness has been erased by hollow religious and nationalist posturing. If you really want to address the huge and immoral gap between the northern and southern hemispheres in this world ‘solidarity’ is indeed the key, it’s most certainly one that will have to transcend race though.
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But im sure your ability to construct a “scientific question” (with strong emphasize to the word “question”) will make australian education system proud.
Nasty Nasty TTT, but thats ok, you keep looking for a way to avoid the issues and hold dear to your insular little theories.
Whilst on compensation, I am sure the East Timorese look forward to their compensation following the years of plunder and the scorched earth policy after the referendum. It would be the penulitmate gesture by the Indonesian Government.
You seem fixated on misquoting me but thats ok, your inability to address any issues outside of your rote victimhood is satifising enough.
But keep telling yourself its all someones elses fault and one day you will wake up and everything will be fixed.
Meanwhile I will remain the big nasty foreigner who shows no respect (in your eyes anyway) and I am off to burn the national flag, carry out a sweep, throw rocks..oh wait….sorry thats not me .. I forgot polite and respect is only a one way street for some.
Comment on “Ponari & His Magic Healing Stone”.
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Tn. ET, Yth:
On normal days, towards my fellow indonesians, i never use colonial arguments. It will only make us even more lazy and loud.
I only use it when some foreigners were starting to be annoying. 🙂
You are spot on about the “easy life” thing. So even if we are still in some sort of crisis, if its convenient enough, we dont do anything about it, besides yelling at the news.
Thats why i have always argued in my circle of friends, that we need huge crisis, real crisis, to test our survivability. Just like the debt ridden ottoman empire in the past.
Those who keep complaining will surely die first. At least we can stop using past excuses and move forward.
Now, on colonial thing,
Perhaps my data is wrong, but by putting this here, we will see if anybody has better data. Please correct me if im wrong.
As the result of KMB around 1950, Indonesia inherited debts from Dutch Indies Govt, which inherited them from VOC. As i stated before, its around US$ 4 Billions, which is comparable to more than 2000s US$100Billions relative to gdp growth. The RI dollar reserves of 2008 was only about US$ 50 Billions.
The total colonial debts along with interests was fully paid around the end of the millenium.
Now, nothing seems to be wrong with that. After 60 years, that shouldnt be much problem, etc etc…
The thing is, if we look closely on the colonial records, we can see what were the debts for. It was mostly for war against local people. Aceh War, Batak War, Java War…. you name it.
Another use was to build dutch indies infrastructure in accordance to the spirit of liberalism of early 20th century, with van deventer’s “politik etis” or multatuli’s “Honor Debt”,
…but then the result was so profitable, it paid netherland’s previous debts on napoleonic wars, without much benefit to our people beside several elites.
Now, perhaps im just odd, but i can clearly see the injustice there. Those europeans were having wars far away from here, but we still have to pay the consequences until the end of millenium! And not only that, we also pay the aggressor to kill our ancestors!
dont you think its a bit outrageous ?
After the WW2, the netherland started fresh, and even get money from marshall plan to modernize their country. But Indonesia started from negative 4 billion dollars, and had to struggle with hunger and inflations for the next 15 years just to pay half of it.
Maybe, just maybe, if we were not obligated to pay those debts back in the 50s and 60s, Soekarno wouldnt be disillusioned with democracy, and we would be able to educate our people, so indonesia wouldnt fall to communism or to corrupt leader like soeharto, and not falling to more and more debts just to pay our food.
I can agree that this cannot be used to justify any kind of xenophobic behaviors. But this makes it at least understandable: to us the fear is real, even if present foreigners mean well.
I mean, how could something as noble as “politik etis” can be turned into a cunning way to pay their debts of the 1800s?
Now, if somebody from australia or malaysia look down to indonesia by saying: “its been 60 years, bla bla bla….”
Maybe I should reply: “Dude, you guys benefited the marshal plans for the brits, we still had to pay napoleonic wars”
And no, its not old argument if we still pay the consequences until now. But it is tiresome though.
So the real age of indonesia is actually only around 10 years.