Once Upon a Weblog

Resurrection

2010-10-09T00:47:00.007+11:00

By way of resurrecting the blog after nearly 2 years' hibernation, I want to relate a little story. There may be no point in it, as it is not my intention to make one.

Anyhow, weary after work one wintry day I sat on a steel green bench in front a crowded cafe called Sakeena. It was a beautiful day, a little sunny, though nobody seemed to notice. I looked at the the shy sun with eyes closed. If it stared back at me, I never knew how it looked. My temples did feel warm.

This bloke came over and asked me, quite politely: hi howzit going? Can I share the sun?

With an affirmative nod, I replied. Sure.

About a minute later he snapped out a butt from his pocket and began puffing. Now, I didn't quite like this. As a matter of fact, I had wanted to be able to eventually say "I'm finished with smoking", I tried to avoid exposure to the nail's coffin. Quitting smoking as some of you may know, is real easy. No big deal, in my case, I've tried several times ;p)

Finally I threw him another nod. Must go now, mate. It's all yours now.

Excuse me?

I pointed upwards and said" "The sun."

Tempus Fugit & Mea Culpa

2008-04-30T03:44:00.010+10:00

It's been quite a while since I last dropped a line in this Blogger blog!

Just 5 minutes ago I clicked on the link, only to learn its css reference no longer worked. O, tempus fugit; and maxima mea culpa!

Since I started this weekly journal in the Indonesian, called Akal & Kehendak, I have grown more inclined to cogitate there. (Hey, why not paying it a visit? Just a click away, anyway.)

I'll update my Once Upon A Weblog every once in a while--it's a promise.

Worse Than Robbery

2008-03-13T17:03:00.005+11:00

This news from AFP in the Jakarta Post got my attention. Short enough for a full quote:

Sisters in Japan hide millions in boxes: official

(AFP) — Japanese authorities on Tuesday arrested two sisters for allegedly hiding some 58 million dollars in cardboard boxes to evade tax on their inheritance, an official said. It was the largest sum of inheritance money ever concealed from authorities in Japan, said the official from the National Tax Agency, which arrested the women in cooperation with police in the western city of Osaka.

Hatsue Shimizu, 64, and Yoshiko Ishii, 55, inherited money after their father, who was in the real estate and financial business, died three years ago."They concealed most of the money in cash" in a shed attached to Shimizu's house, the Osaka tax official said. "We have confiscated 50 cardboard boxes" packed with cash, he said.
The sisters, who hold South Korean nationality, allegedly failed to declare 5.9 billion yen (58 million dollars) out of a total of 7.5 billion yen they inherited from their father.

Once a friend of mine, a Jap’s working for the MOF, told me about the horrible inheritance tax in his country. No inkling to it anywhere in the news, of course; the reporter's lense might have been geared toward justifying the process of culpritization of the innocent. Or perhaps s/he'd been simply unaware of it.

My sympathies go to the sisters.

Some things our eyes can’t see, but sometimes we are compelled to see them clearly. This is the direction most governments are going to: paternalism, governmentalism or statism (or whatever name attached to it) that rips off citizens of their own property further and further.

Brutally honest writers have likened taxation as robbery--a legalized one. Close enough, but nay: it’s even far worse! Unlike robbery, taxing can turn an evil into an angel, a good man criminal.

Post-Soeharto Indonesia

2008-01-31T20:27:00.001+11:00

Time through the ink of history—and the hands of historians--will testify whether RI’s ex-president Soeharto will escape through his demise as a villain, or be immortalized as a hero, or a bit of both.

This can wait; meanwhile, the timely question seems to gravitate over the post-Soeharto situation at home. Yes, post-Soeharto Indonesia, what is it like?

It's rather easy to answer. The fact is, we have lived it for almost 10 years now! It started one late afternoon on May 21, when he resigned as a president, saying his own words that “I have decided to quit”, back in 1998. Following the statement, he had practically ostracized himself from the political ground. Yet, his resignation did not, by any means, mean a weakening of his strong grips, not even when he is no longer around us, let alone over what went immediately after that fateful day, on to what is happening today and what will unfurl beyond.

The extensive and intensive media coverage around his illness and demise was clearly not his own design. Clearly it suggests that Soeharto still remained very dear to many—most conspicuously among the powers that be, within the media bigwicks, and the most gullible public. Whatever successes our former president has done over his three decades of power, and whatever failures for that matter, cannot have been appropriately attributed solely to his own finesse and flaws.

Speaking strictly, it would be impossible to dissect post-Soeharto situation in the country and classify it under separate rubrics such as political, economic, legal compartments, et cetera. It would in fact involve a grave fallacy, simply because they are closely interlinked. For the sake of convenience, this posting only offers random notes based on his legacies and some unfinished business

Dubious Ascent to Power

Was Soeharto, through the 11 March 1966 instruction, really mandated by President Soekarno to take control of the chaotic situation? The fact speaks for itself. The whereabout of the original document has remained shrouded in mystery. Part of our energy will have to be geared towards solving this seeming perennial problem. One would be tempted to question as to what had kept him from spilling the beans. Had he been truly mandated by Soekarno, and had he had genuine concern over the young nation, he would have given the issue his best thoughts, since it is far more than just about his personal dignity.

Criminal Records

Pending investigation on alleged abuses criminal charges against Soeharto; five major cases here include the arrest of some 10,000 political activists in Buru island between 1969-1979; mysterious shootings of about 5,000 people (aka. Petrus cases in Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan) in 1981-1985, July 27 of 1997 incident involving supporters of PDI-P; the Tanjung Priok case (killing 24 people and injuring hundreds of others in 1984 and the case of Military Operation Areas (DOM) in Aceh and Papua from 1970s-1990s) cases of kidnapping and abuses.

Militaristic Overzeal

The loud message coming out from his stretched two and thirty years in power is that of strong militaristic domination. His personal ‘success’ has been Indonesia’s systemic failure as a nation. Most generals or mayor generals today seem to nurture a false calling that they should run this country. Participation of many military officers in practical politics today is indicative—some are even running governmental offices while still retaining their military positions. This phenomenon will remain a serious challenge to civil citizens.

Possibly inseparable from his military background, Soeharto’s leadership has been one notoriously reliant on authoritarianism, personal charisma, likes and dislikes, violence and fear-instillation. His own downfall is a lesson that there is no such thing as real true friend in politics; only perennial interest exists. Some politicians may learn the lesson the wrong way; they will be tempted to loot the country as long as they wear the red and white badge of power.

Corruption and Legal Impotence

Moreover, countless cases of mega corruption have been charged and alleged against Soeharto, his family members and aides. After ten years the state of the matter has not altered much, and as long as we remain sane, we still have very little reason indeed to believe that they will be . A particular setback in the case of Soeharto against the Time Magazine, where the latter has been made the culprit, is tell-tale enough as to how issues have evolved in this area.

Progress and setback in legal enforcement will reflect itself in the manner the current authorities treat the legal cases implicating him. Supremacy of the law itself is being put under its acid test.

Performance of Post-Soeharto Governments

The fact that four presidents succeeding Soeharto, namely BJ. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri, and SBY have displayed mediocrity, if not worse performance than that of Soeharto, could generate its own detriments. The lack of freedom of the distant past could be mistaken as stability; and stability and government favoritism could be misguidedly recalled as a sign of prosperity. Despite the fact that Indonesia’s rice independence only occurred for 2-3 years only throughout the stretched Soeharto regime, some people refuse to believe in the myth; they want to believe that life under Soeharto’s New Order was better.

Passion for Debt

A great passion for debts that started since the early days of the Republic has grown into a critical issue. Indonesia has resorted practically to all kinds of ways imaginable to borrow and inflate its own money. Persistent fiscal deficits and the mounting figures of governmental debts speak for themselves. Deferring repayments and creating new debts are a deadly combination that will strangulate its citizens to death.

Decentralization

Advocates of decentralization must have amazingly believed in the costly assumption that governments are a benevolent factor to the citizens. The naïve assumption has been challenged by the many reports that suggested it to be otherwise, such as those on rampant regional corruptions; local investment barriers; the fact that more than 70% of regional budgets are being spent for governmental expenditures; and the likes. The big bang decentralization will remain a pain in the neck for a long time, particularly regarding fiscal burdens, demarcation of authority problem, setting of minimum service standards, etc.

This security checking must stop

2007-12-26T16:41:00.000+11:00

“We are the people (that our parents warn us about).” -- A bumper sticker.

HERE'S ADVICE for companies in need of creating better and more friendly environment. Stop security checking by the gateway. Stop harboring suspicion. Instead, let’s start nurturing trust.

Sound too naïve? To most building managers, it certainly does. But just get anywhere on Jakarta’s main roads—say Jalan Soedirman. Pick any office building and try to enter it. Chances are the security officers will have to halt and check you out, even if you have worked there for years. For you may be one of those bad guys.

The belief that men ought to suspect others has resurfaced after the 9/11; indeed, Bush’s political propaganda warring terrorism has been met with frenzy repercussions. As for Indonesia, national tragedies in Bali and Poso may well have been our unfortunate versions that helped heighten the disquieting atmosphere. No good site-managers exist who do not have robotic security checking implemented. World’s urbanites are teaching children that we are all potential crooks, and we should fear ourselves more.

As implied, such disbelief in humanity is hardly new. Some thinkers of the past did “specialize” themselves in focusing on the dark side of human soul. Never before is every single one pf us being regarded as a fox to our fellowmen than it is in our age.

Is such a philosophical maxim absolutely true? No longer must we believe that each of us being is also capable of being good. Otherwise, why chose and amplified the dark side? Why made suspicion a principle?

It is time to challenge the trend. Crimes committed by individuals do happen once in a while but they are actually petty and few, especially when compared to the devastation caused by, say, wars. Besides, this conspicuous security control is not always suitable for all kinds of businesses, for all kinds of office buildings. Certain businesses may need extra security. Security aspect has been included early on in every recruitment process. Employees are advised to wear tags partly for this reason. Reception desks registering guests are designed partly with such precaution.

Moreover, most security checking only becomes a routine done half-heartedly.
Unnecessarily it steals away our precious minutes. The long queue of vehicles entailing the process is, really, the last thing we need after the grueling traffic jams.

Therefore, this mostly useless practice must stop. Apart from yielding greater efficiency, this means putting more trust in fellowmen and respect to workers, differed as they are according to the role they play within the division of labor.

Convincing building managers on the benefits of this trusting business is no easy matter. They may think this proposal stupid. Yet, we all know that working environment used to be more friendly, more human. We know of the time when human beings were better more appreciated.

In the end, we are all workers. It's time, really, to re-appreciate ourselves.
(12/8)

The flawed premise of sustainability

2007-12-17T18:23:00.000+11:00

Just what exactly is sustainable development?

One of the most popular definitions comes from the Brundtland Report of the World Commission on the Environment and Development (1987 -- named after chairman Gro Harlem Brundtland, then Prime Minister of Norway), where it is defined as: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

This definition does indeed seem virtuous. Could it be one of the noblest ends to strive for?

It must first be recognized that the definition is too vague to be operative. Human needs are a subjective concept which can neither be compared nor aggregated. If we consider different points in time, human beings at different income levels in different cultural contexts or national backgrounds, no sound economics can be used to deal with it.

In A Poverty of Reason (2003) Wilfred Beckerman even argues that the concept of sustainable development is based on two major, yet flawed, propositions: that economic growth will soon come up against environmental constraints -- from climate change, to limits on resource availability; and, that it represents the moral high ground. To the Oxford economist, the first proposition is vastly exaggerated. His major argument says that the fears that we will run out of resources conflict with all empirical evidence from the past.

Furthermore, it is a fact that the deceased and the unborn do not exist. The deceased may still have power to bind the living. For example, a dead person's will can still bequeath a living offspring some right or responsibility enforceable to affect actions of the living. Yet, the case is different with the unborn.

If A says to B, "This 100 hectare block of land belongs to C." B may ask in amazement, "That's cool! And who is this lucky C?" Imagine if to that B replies, "Well, actually, C does not exist". Thus, the unborn cannot possibly possess any right. Nor can they have any basis to confer one to the living. Adds Beckerman, "No moral credit can be earned by redistributing from the poor to the rich."

None of the above paraphrasing from his thesis implies we have no obligations to future generations. Rather it strongly warns us that the environmental striving underpinned by development sustainability is a vain struggle for an invalid end, both economically and morally.

One of the first things any serious environmental forum owes to itself is to address such critical insight openly and satisfactorily, even if there is but one Beckerman out there. The forum can embrace or reject it, but must not neglect it.

Environmentalism has not come without perils, predominantly related to economic retrogress or arrested development that otherwise could improve the lives of the living. Far-fetched attempts to reach out for future generations hit their most ironical nadir when confronted with the fact that a majority of the living today still persist in abject poverty. Such enterprise turns preposterous when most solutions being offered lead nowhere further than to greater bureaucracy, favoritism and protectionism.

There may be little doubt that under the sustainable-development drive, the only thing sustainable will be bureaucracies. Bureaucratic talks about global climate change are on the verge of becoming dear yet empty rhetoric, so long as they fail to deal properly with an important source of our global disquiet.

This brings us to the arrangement of property rights.

A common myth globally shared is that the total or near-disappearances of forests and biodiversity have been dismally attributed to the "capitalists" who, in their shortsighted greed for profit, loot the natural resources. (From this escalates the belief that interference from political institutions is a necessity: They must step in, either to seize ownership or regulate the use of natural resources and development as a whole.)

Yet would we be foolish enough, if we were entrepreneurs ourselves, to slay our own geese that laid the golden eggs? Very unlikely. Given our realities, it follows that something has been grossly amiss with the way we have arranged the ownership of our "geese".

Any private entrepreneur owning a forest would instinctively know the trees in it. Each time a tree is cut down and sold, he would know what it means. It means a decline in the capital value of his asset, hence the need for rebalancing and reinvesting. Every geese farmer would know how many eggs her geese lay each day. Rather than being culprits, private enterprises are the ones we can turn to, to address long and short term environmental views.

To the rest of us non-farmers/entrepreneurs, the perspective can offer totally different solutions. For instance, rather than having to sway the masses to reduce paper use, encouraging them to use more and more of it -- in fact means saving forests.

As long as the "natural" economic incentive remains unhampered, entrepreneurs will produce more paper by growing more trees. The perspective acknowledges that trees "grow" on money as money does on trees.

On the contrary, in a system with fuzzy land titling and property rights, problems over natural abundance such as illegal logging, deforestation, pollution, and other "curses" will certainly occur. As soon as impersonal political entities claim rigid ownership over natural resources, public officials will be incentivized to serve as ad hoc managers. This is also where public-private partnership sets itself in motion, when colluding to extract natural resources is made possible for short-term gain.

If Mother Nature has lain precarious and endangered due to the property-rights system we have, in this sense it is purely man-made. Then the ultimate question for the living is: are we going to pursue the very end by employing the same means? []

Note: Originally titled Sustainability vis a vis Property Rights, this posting is published in the Jakarta Post today (Dec. 17) under the current title. Its earlier version, in Indonesian, is available here. Please see also my prev. post below.

Taking the world in entirely the wrong direction

2007-12-14T14:17:00.000+11:00

Last weekend I wrote and sent an article to a prominent newspaper where I voiced my skeptical view on the Bali Climate conference. I’m still waiting for a response. If it is published, I’ll link to it here. If it doesn’t, well, I’ll will post it.

Meanwhile, today I found an open letter to Secretary General of the United Nations Ban-Ki Moon, charging that he is leading the world to a wrong direction.

Sosialisme Kapitalisme GM dalam Sepatu Tua Rendra

2007-11-14T18:29:00.000+11:00

This post in Bahasa moved here.

Sekali Lagi, Menjadi Lebih Baik

2007-11-01T18:38:00.000+11:00

This post in Bahasa has been moved here.

Could global justice save Indonesians?

2007-09-28T04:46:00.000+10:00

The year hasn’t ended yet. If it had, I would nominate Rocky Gerung’s MA and Keadilan Global as the best essay of the year. Its substance I think will ring on in our minds for the longest time.

Before I came across to it last week, I’d been thinking of touching the very issue. But I’m just glad I didn’t, for I wouldn’t have come up with a piece half as good. He really did raise a few issues and scintillating arguments. Which explains my nomination. This, in spite of some misgivings and reservations.

Now, from a completely different angle, this posting wants to extend the matter at hand, and inquire if the energy Rocky called as global justice can save us all.

Global justice as an utopia seeming fine, many must think it an important one. But like every fiction, it has to be asked early on: Is there such a thing? Can there be such a thing as global justice? And what does it take so that we can get any closer to it?

I surmise we can only get some clues to it by returning to square one, and by this I mean we must return to the basic inquiries to the very nature of the state and the true causes of our impoverishment.

The real case at home itself, in fact, has been about man against the state, because MA belongs to the Indonesian state. And the state is run but by to a handful of individuals. And these individuals are backed up with the military and the police. And all this is obvious.

To me, it would be a mistake to isolate the issue as if it purely concerned one particular institution alone, which is the court, plus some people flocking around the institution. Moreover, the solution being approached, I fear, has been conceived without our thinking about the essential nature of the state. It has been conceived, instead, with an certain, firmly fixated notion about the state and its organs. It's the kind of Rosseauan or Hobbessian approach, which only overrules the fact that man can live without the state. Indeed, most of us are alike; for instance, at least, in the belief that no private court should be allowed to operate at all.

Yet, can it for a moment occur to us that, contrary to what we want to believe about it, the state is the greatest enemy to the people? If so, is there an easy way to make everyone realize that the state is the greatest enemy to our freedom?

I hold that only by such awakening would we Indonesians stop craving blindly for protection and care from the constitutional terror manufacturer and legal owner of coercion!

Besides, to quote Garett, didn't once upon a time we citizens take care of the state? Why in the end it's the other way around?

It is imperative to be reminiscent that without tackling our rudimentary problems, neither one state national nor ones global, can render us salvation.

On Goods: Rival and Non-Rival, Excludable and Non-Excludable

2007-09-10T13:35:00.000+10:00

It was especially interesting to read a noted economist’s article highlighting the essence of globalization being not because the world is flat or that distance is dead et cetera, but rather due to the growing ease of rival goods being altered into non-rival good and vice versa by the midas touch of technology.

It boils down to the importance of knowledge—or simply, business ideas. Though perhaps there’s nothing really new here, I don’t disagree that it helps enrich our knowledge on the creation and appreciation of values.

Among my first impressions: in order to tap the potential, profits need to be contrasted as stuff that can moneyed and that which cannot, i.e. profits reaped by originators/implementers of ideas, and benefits for the society at large.

The Demise of Our Social Awareness

2007-08-31T19:06:00.000+10:00

By any moral standard, corporate social awareness used to be a noble thing to endorse, until a bunch of politicians messed with it and turned it into a fungible concept labeled as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through a self-styled process of legislation.

As this newspaper reported (The Jakarta Post, July 25), Indonesia is the only nation in the world to have legislated CSR, through the promulgation of its new law on limited liability companies (UU Perseroan Terbatas, 2007). Article 74 of this law explicitly obligates companies dealing with natural resources to adhere to certain social and environmental responsibilities. What this entails is not yet clear -- the law itself does not bother to define it.

The law has been passed despite all the charges, levies, taxes and other requirements that businesses have had to bear. All registered companies already have to comply with central and regional regulations, ranging from operational permits to safety standards, from taxes to revenue sharing clauses, environmental considerations, et cetera.

The arguments of representatives of the business community have been dismissed by legislators as either inadequate or irrelevant. In the meantime, it is becoming clear that some key state players are on their way to mull over the best ways to exploit it as a financing source for "something bigger than poverty reduction".

One cannot help but wonder why this tragedy happened and where it will lead us. Several parliamentarians believed the business community had paid no heed to existing requirements. Rather than overhaul existing laws or empower relevant agencies, they decided to create this law that obligates charity. Still, in the eyes of many their ultimate end seems good and moral. The law will lead to more disadvantaged people being helped and more social issues being solved. However, as this article will contend, in many ways the opposite seems true.

First of all, it is hard to argue against any ethical proposition in the absence of a positive ethical system. This article tries to evaluate the logical assumptions behind the legislation and analyze some logical consequences from an economic point of view. The writer believes that even an ethical proposition should be based on sound logic.

Now, by altering social charity from being a voluntary act of grace to an act coerced by the state, politicians have paved the way for all of us to live under a regime of compulsory charity. By enforcing charity in a way far from being charitable, they will kill charitable desires completely. If the state already "arranges" it, there will be no point giving more.

Passing legislation for generous projects of justice aimed at poverty reduction means legally exalting the poor or the deserving poor as a privileged class. The poor will thus be equipped with an enforceable claim to the fruits of labor of other classes.

Justice is a difficult word to define, but most of us believe that Indonesia should be a just state. It follows from this that if achieving justice is used to justify favoring a certain group, it should be done in a way that imparts no injustice to others. We cannot establish social justice by resorting to social injustice. Also, helping a poor person by using someone's means against his or her will cannot be called generosity. As an extreme example, it is like affluent people being penalized and enslaved while the poor are put on a pedestal.

From the onset, the whole issue brings to light a dearth of understanding on how the economy works and the nature of business and entrepreneurship within it. As such, it is worth emphasizing here that if we truly want to alleviate poverty, the only sustainable way to do so is through production. If the nation wants to alleviate poverty, the first thing it must do is increase production, not reduce it. This simple law has been discovered through hundreds of years of economic evolution as a science. It is so apodictic a law that no man on this planet can ever alter it.

Moreover, it is precisely businesspeople who personify the real engine for economic growth. They are the only truly economically productive agent within the economic system. No doubt some of them are extremely successful, but that should be seen as their reward and should not spur anyone's envy. Some successful businesspeople are often parodied as the "king" or "queen", such as in "King of Burger", "Ratu Dangdut" and "Raja Voucher".

Laugh as we may at this, we should not let its essence slip. Contrary to popular belief, and unlike real kings of the past who won territories by force and imperialism, the ingredient for success in business is service excellence.

Every business only survives by serving its customers. In a real world that knows no free lunch, businesses must remain profitable if they want to stay in the market. And the market is more than ready to kick out every business entity that is not up to the test.

Thus, when put into application, the law will certainly increase the level of compliance (read: cost) that local businesses have to cope with before they can even start thinking about head-to-head competition. That the law only affects those in the mining sector at the moment will only slightly slow down the process. Eventually, this approach and treatment will only discourage people from producing while draining our savings to subsidize the formation of the favored caste.

Unless something is done to rectify this absurdity, we can envision a country whose citizens have to contend with costly products produced by companies with high overheads. We can only start to imagine the fate of a nation whose entrepreneurs, deprived of competitiveness, lose out on the global stage.

There will be a major and lasting decline, not in terms of poverty, but in terms of our living standard.

(First published under the title of State's firm hand could crush spirit of charity in the Jakarta Post, August 30, 2007.)

Pilkada Blues

2007-08-02T19:04:00.001+10:00

Many Jakartans viewing voting as a prospective wind of change must be readying themselves for the coming August 8 gubernatorial election, or Pilkada Jakarta.

One can from observation alone have some idea on the financial resources that have been drawn down to stage the extravagance—still counting. The almost sudden displays of banners and posters on major and minor roads, and the media coverage far outliving the legally affixed curfew for the purpose, could not have been more indicative.

And no one will know the total Rupiah spent to garner sympathies, affect popularity, and buy votes. Some commentators remarked, almost as excuses, it should best be seen as a form of wealth distribution that would not have reached the poor otherwise. If this reasoning was sound, then Jakartans should hold elections two or three times a year.

Some people would be intrigued to think the inevitability of such spending; some may question the necessity; candidates and proponents may believe they must put it under their closets as to how they will take back after such capital inlays—for there never is free lunch.

By virtue political parties are not economically productive. They will grow more and more into economic institutions chasing real economic profits. Some of their cadres next join the Government, another agency as economically unproductive.

Each recurring election is a period of pain thrusted upon us, forcing us to reflect on our paralyses. It dawns on us, if for the first time again, how institutions supposedly to serve the nation care only for the economic interests of their own groups; or how most hopeful leaders must rid of their first signs of leadership qualities if they are to succeed.

The combination of the current system and present circumstance allows but one conclusion: whoever wins this Pilkada will make no difference. For the song will be sung—the same old and only one.

And Jakartans, of course, will get the leader they deserve.

The Unseen Role of the Property Sector

2007-06-29T19:53:00.000+10:00

Big cities such as Jakarta tend to have more buildings and space to let than there are prospective business tenants. New buildings are being erected, and yet more will be built.

I remember asking a senior corporate banker, a few years ago now, why new malls, high rise buildings and fancy apartments continued being built despite the bearish economy. This man, now one of the vice-presidents with the country's largest bank, answered: it must have been due to double counting, or miscalculating of some sort.

I believe it is more than just some kind of entrepreneurial error. It is quite the contrary.

Though not immediately perceivable, the answer lies closely related with monetary-policy expansionism. By this I mean that, rather than only serving as one of the consequences, the property sector is also an important part of the mechanism. Why is such the case?

Property is a business sector whose characteristics are apt for that very purpose, an area where state of the art technologies, latest architectural frenzies, and ego-boosting personal expressions can collaborate with as most outrageous extravagance as one can dare imagine.

In terms of resource requirements, the sector is intensive. Building a decent apartment, for instance, is usually time-consuming; no building tall enough can be erected within months.

What’s more, there is no fixed valuation standard for pricing buildings, especially when a few elements hinging upon subjective tastes can shield the originators away from accounting or auditing scrutiny. Not to mention that the eventual products are durables. They are legally certified, liquid, and collateralizable.

If actual sales turn out to be poor, it will only be known in some distant future. And since most high rises are built to fail anyway, who really cares?

Why Privatization in Indonesia Has Been Resisted

2007-06-26T17:44:00.000+10:00

In trying to come up with an answer, many have maintained the view that since state owned enterprises are cash cows to political parties, partisans do tend to prefer status quo to unknown future ownership.

But isn’t it true that the people at large also have the same tendency to reject privatization, out of personal preferences rather than political propaganda. If it is so, this aspect is not addressed by such an answer.

A better view may be that privatization cannot work well in an environment with weak protection of property rights and low regards of legal contracts such as under a corrupt judiciary system. Privatization is no mere simple transfer of property rights from the hands of the state into the private. It cannot be achieved just by changing the composition of ownership of individual economic institutions. There is supposed to be a coherent thinking explaining a country’s economic orientation, stated clearly or otherwise, and the extent to which it relates with the market economy. There must be consistent justification of what the nation wants to achieve. Without consistency, it would be perceived as shifting one precarious circumstance to another situation as risky.

Rothbard in Indonesian

2007-06-21T19:07:00.001+10:00

I have, yes, been away from the blogosphere for quite a while, but am back now with this piece of exciting news:

I just finished translating and editing what will be the first book on Austrian economics ‘officially’ published in the country. It is a book in which Murray Rothbard will speak Indonesian, and where I will take the honor of briefly introducing to the Indonesian readership some of the first things about the Austrian school: its history, prominent figures, and important features. This first Rothbard’s book in Indonesian is on monetary issues. It will be made available within 2 months by PT. Granit of Yayasan Obor Indonesia.

The book is titled: Apa yang Dilakukan Pemerintah Terhadap Uang Kita?. Further info will be duely provided.

Reform Institute & Reform Review

2007-05-22T02:58:00.000+10:00

Kalau tidak ada halangan, Dr Yudi Latif dkk akan meluncurkan penerbitan jurnal Reform Review, besok malam, 22 Mei 2007. Tujuannya menggodok gagasan untuk menyegarkan cita-cita moral bernegara dan berbangsa, melalui Reform Institute yang digagasnya.

Dalam fitur di sebuah surat kabar dituliskan pandangan Yudi Latif bahwa Indonesia lahir sebagai sebuah nation-state, bukan state-nation, berkat kekuatan ide dan rasa persatuan sebagai bentuk perlawanan terhadap kolonialisme dan atas dasar civic nationalism. Sayangnya, menurut Yudi, setelah kemerdekaan Indonesia dicapai, bangsa ini kehilangan pijakannya hingga menuju kepada kegagalan negara.

“Setelah kepentingan bersama menghadapi kolonial berlalu, kita kehilangan kepentingan moral baru yang mempersatukan masyarakat. Kita tidak menemukan kesamaan tematik, agenda, atau blok historis bersama. Kepemimpinan moral dan intelektual sekarang ini hancur. Para politisi kemudian kembali bermain di level rendah, yaitu politik atau ekonomi. Orang saling rebut ekses atau saling menyudutkan antargolongan atau agama….”

“Itu terjadi akibat tidak ada lagi intelektual organik yang bisa mengartikulasikan kesadaran kolektif. Partai politik (parpol) tidak memunculkan kepemimpinan yang bisa menyuarakan sesuatu yang lebih besar dari kepentingan dirinya sendiri...” Dst.

Selamat kepada Reform Institute!

Batas-Batas Nasehat Ekonomi (Bag. 2 - Tamat)

2007-05-19T22:41:00.000+10:00

Mengantarkan pernyataan obyektif menjadi pernyataan normatif, dalam konteks apapun, penuh dengan rintangan filosofis. Posting yang tadinya mau cepat ini tidak bisa mengajak pembaca melalui jalan pintas Nasehat Ekonomi dari yang ”is” menuju yang “ought”. “Peta” mutakhir jalan tersebut dapat ditemukan dalam tulisan Kirzner (2006), Anatomy of Economic Advice (Parts I, II & III). Kirzner memaparkan latar belakang kelahiran ilmu ekonomi sebagai sains; penemuan ”hukum-hukum” ekonomi oleh ekonom klasik; operasi kaidah ekonomi di pasar bebas; “tabiat” pasar bebas; peran kewiraswastaan, dan beberapa kriteria nasehat ekonomi yang baik/buruk.

Penting digarisbawahi, kesimpulan-kesimpulan yang ditarik Kirzner adalah hasil pencarian selama ratusan tahun yang dilakukan para ekonom klasik hingga modern menurut tradisi pemikiran mazhab Austria—mulai dari Carl Menger, Böhm Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, hingga Israel Kirzner sendiri. Bagi masyarakat Indonesia, yang di tahun 1950-an baru memiliki satu ekonom saja, dan di mana tradisi ekonomi harus diadopsi dari luar terutama dari garis Keynesian dan Friedmanite dengan kiblat Anglo-Saxon-nya terutama Inggris dan Amerika, sudah sewajarnya semua ini”dikritisir”. Konsep ”pasar bebas”, misalnya, tidak sepatutnya hilir-mudik dalam kabin pikiran tanpa dilirik sama sekali, sebab kita semua adalah penumpang dalam gerbong besar kereta yang melaju dalam pasar itu sendiri menuju... apapun itu yang dituju, sebagai seorang individu atau sebuah bangsa.

Kaidah dan Fenomena Ekonomi

Sebagai disiplin paling bungsu, ekonomi tumbuh jadi cabang ilmu pengetahuan di abad 18, saat para ekonom klasik mulai sadar akan adanya pertalian hubungan sebab-akibat yang sistematik dalam fenomena ekonomi. Berdasarkan hal tersebutlah disiplin yang dulu bernama ”political economy” berhasil dibangun abad 18 dan awal abad 19.

Diterimanya ilmu ini berimplikasi revolusioner terhadap kebijakan publik. Sejak saat itu, tidak lagi para pengambil keputusan dapat mengobok-obok perekonomian sekehendak hati, demi ”kebaikan” masyarakat dalam definisi mereka. Sejak saat itu, disadari adanya ”hukum-hukum” ekonomi yang harus dihormati dan dipertimbangkan kecuali jika mereka ingin menuai prahara dan petaka di kemudian hari. Setiap kebijakan ekonomi disadari membawa konsekuensi tertentu, apalagi jika ekonom yang membantu perumusan kebijakan pemerintah bahwa pemerintah bukanlah agen ekonomi yang produktif; bahkan pemerintah tidak memiliki sumber penghasilan selain dengan jalan memajaki, tetapi memiliki kekuasaan ”legal” untuk memaksakan segala kebijakannya. Maka, sebelum tarif dikenakan, sebelum monopoli diberikan kepada individu atau kelompok tertentu, sebelum harga dikontrol, pengambil kebijakan publik harus menanyakan apakah semua konsekuensi yang mungkin terjadi sudah dipertimbangkan masak-masak.

Tapi bagaimana “hukum-hukum” tersebut tercipta? Apa landasannya? Melalui intuisi keteraturan sebab-akibat dalam fenomena ekonomi—seperti dalam fenomena ilmu alam--dapat diamati dan diakui. Tapi ”fenomena” ekonomi adalah hasil pilihan/keputusan/tindakan miliaran individu bebas. Bukankah mustahil semua individu ini mematuhi keteraturan hukum-hukum tersebut, sebab bukankah mereka bebas melakukan pilihan masing-masing? Keberatan-keberatan fundamental seperti itu dialami para teoris dan filosofer selama dua abad terakhir.

Landasan epistemologi ilmu tersebut dan ciri-cirinya dipertanyakan dan hampir tidak ada pemikiran ekonomi yang mau atau mampu menjawab hal-hal fundamental tersebut secara memuaskan. Satu, jika bukan satu-satunya, aliran pemikiran ekonomi yang secara konsisten menaruh perhatian dan memberi tilikan mendalam terhadap kerangka filosofis tersebut adalah mazhab pemikiran Austria, terutama lewat pemikiran eksponen abad duapuluh seperti Mises dan Hayek. Tentu, kontribusi-kontribusi mazhab-mazhab sebelumnya dalam konstruk teoritis mereka tidak patut dinafikan.

Epistemologi ilmu ekonomi dalam pemahaman Austrian berangkat dari aksioma dasar tentang manusia sebagai individu yang bertindak untuk suatu tujuan (end) yang dipilihnya, yang untuk itu manusia harus dapat menentukan dan menggunakan cara (means) yang juga harus dipilihnya, sebab cara sebagai sumber daya tidak selalu tersedia secara given, dan waktu yang juga sumber daya manusia terbatas sifatnya. Uraian lengkap tentang hal ini disampaikan Mises dalam adikaryanya, Human Action. Singkatnya, ilmu ini ternyata berawal dan berakhir dari preferensi dan penilaian manusia.

Dalam kerangka ini, fokus perhatian terletak pada cara sistematik manusia dalam memodifikasi ekspektasi dan pengetahuannya sesuai dengan pengalaman ekonomi dan perubahannya. Berubahnya pengalaman ekonomi memengaruhi aturan main dalam menentukan tujuan dan pilihan. Pengalaman ekonomi mengajarkan individu-individu ini melalui ketepatan dan kesalahan dalam penilaian; dan memungkinkan mereka menangkap peluang baru di masa depan atas sesuatu yang belum ada atau belum pernah terpikirkan sebelumnya. Teori ekonomi dalam kerangka analitik ini mampu memberi manusia pemahaman tentang bagaimana perubahan-perubahan eksogen dalam keterbatasan sumber daya, pengetahuan teknis, dan preferensi individu mengubah fenomena pasar secara sistematis, dan juga menentukan jalannya proses produksi dan pola alokasi sumber daya.

“Hukum” Persediaan dan Permintaan

Kirzner memberi ilustrasi tentang salah satu hukum dasar yang membuat “keteraturan” dalam perekonomian pasar: kaidah persedian dan permintaan, dan pengaruhnya terhadap harga. Pemahaman dasar terhadap perilaku harga di pasar mengidentifikasikan sifat dan arah dari kekuatan-kekuatan yang beroperasi di pasar bagi setiap produk dan sumber daya. Dalam pemahaman ini pasar barang/jasa sebagai selalu dimodifikasi secara sistematis oleh pengalaman pasar. Di setiap waktu komoditas barang/jasa yang tersedia di pasar dapat terlalu banyak atau terlalu sedikit, dan ketidakseimbangan ini selalu menuju titik ekuilibrium. Kaidah dasar ini memfokuskan pada keberadaan kekuatan-kekuatan spontan yang cenderung “memperbaiki” ketidakseimbangan pasar.

Pasar bebas, lebih daripada sekadar tempat, adalah proses sosial pertukaran barang dan jasa secara sukarela. Sedangkan ekuilibrium pasar hanyalah konstruksi imajiner ketika persediaan dan permintaan barang/jasa berada dalam kondisi yang “pas”, di mana tidak ada kecenderungan untuk berubah. Dalam pemahaman ini, kaidah supply-demand tidak berarti bahwa setiap pasar selalu berada dalam keseimbangan. Juga hal tersebut tidak berarti pasar dapat mencapai ekuilibrium secepat kilat. Yang boleh diartikan di sini adalah bahwa pasar selalu bergerak menuju ekuilibrium. Tapi, karena variabel-variabel eksogen selalu berubah, maka titik keseimbangan yang dituju pasar juga selalu berubah. Setiap kali terjadi kelebihan ”pasokan” komoditas/jasa, hal ini akan memberi tekanan yang cenderung menurunkan harga barang/jasa tersebut , dan hal ini selanjutnya mencegah produsen untuk terus memproduksi; sebaliknya, “kelangkaan” barang/jasa akan cenderung mengarah pada kenaikan harganya. Salah satu elemen yang tidak terlalu terlihat tetapi sangat kuat di pasar adalah daya-tanggap para pengusaha. Cepat atau lambat seorang pembeli pasti akan tahu apakah barang yang dibelinya terlalu mahal atau tidak. Penjual dapat menemukan pembeli yang bersedia membeli dengan harga yang lebih tinggi. Kekuatan pasokan dan permintaan beroperasi untuk memperbaiki keputusan-keputusan yang “keliru”.

Ciri Kebijakan Ekonomi yang Baik/Buruk

Dari uraian yang cukup panjang dan berliku di atas dapat disimpulkan bahwa nasehat atau kebijakan ekonomi yang baik adalah yang dapat meningkatkan bekerjanya pasar bebas, misalnya dalam proses pencarian agen-agen ekonomi di pasar bebas; dalam mengurangi ”kesalahan-kesalahan”; dalam merangsang tumbuhnya kewiraswastaan; dalam memfasilitasi inovasi produksi; atau dalam memastikan bahwa pertukaran sukarela dapat dilakukan dengan lebih menguntungkan semua pihak.

Kirzner mengutip Mises menambahkan tiga kriteria kebijakan ekonomi yang buruk sebagai berikut: 1) Kebijakan ekonomi yang dari awal telah diketahui akan gagal: Kebijakan yang dapat ditunjukkan oleh disiplin ekonomi akan menghasilkan akibat yang tidak diinginkan oleh pembuat kebijakan itu sendiri. Salah satu contoh klasik Mises adalah kebijakan untuk mengontrol harga jual tempat tinggal. Analisis ekonomi menunjukkan bahwa kebijakan ini justru akan menghasilkan kelangkaan/kekurangan perumahan.

2) Kebijakan yang tidak sustainable: Kebijakan yang secara inheren mustahil dapat dilaksanakan. Bagi Mises, contohnya adalah kebijakan moneter untuk mengatasi inflasi. Dalam perekonomian pasar yang tidak terkendala, tidak ada siklus boom and bust. Boom and bust, yang oleh sebagian besar orang dianggap penyebab inflasi, hanya terjadi dalam sistem perekonomian yang mendistorsi pasar. Inflasi dalam pengertian kenaikan harga barang secara umum hanyalah satu akibat dari kebijakan moneter pemerintah, bukan akibat pasar. Sejauh pemerintah terus mencetak uang baru dan substitusi uang semacam itu, maka selama itu pula inflasi mustahil diatasi.

3) Kebijakan yang mencederai kedaulatan konsumen: Kebijakan yang menstruktur alokasi sumber daya masyarakat adalah bertentangan dengan dinamika preferensi konsumen. Kebijakan pajak yang membuat konsumen kesulitan membeli barang/jasa, dan yang mengarahkan konsumen ke arah barang/jasa menurut keyakinan legislator termasuk nasehat atau kebijakan yang “buruk” karena mencederai kedaulatan konsumen.

Epilog: Fungsi dan Peran Ekonom

Rothbard dalam Power dan Market menyimpulkan, fungsi ekonom di pasar bebas sangat berbeda dari fungsinya di pasar yang terkendala. Di pasar bebas yang tidak terkendala, ekonom dapat menjelaskan tata dan cara kerja perekonomian. Selain itu, sedikit saja yang dapat ia lakukan. Jika argumentasi bahwa pasar yang bebas adalah oksimoron belaka, atau bahwa di dunia ini nyaris tidak ada lagi pasar yang bebas murni, dipercaya sebagai kebenaran, kiranya hal ini tidak mengurangi kesahihan argumen-argumen

Disiplin ekonomi mampu memperlihatkan akibat-akibat kebijakan yang sulit atau mustahil tertangkap oleh benak awam pengambil kebijakan. Menunjukkan ketidaktahuan konsumen, atau masyarakat, tentang apa-apa yang belum diketahuinya tidak melanggar, melainkan justru meningkatkan, kedaulatan konsumen. Sejauh pemisahan argumen filosofis dan moral ilmu ekonomi ini dipahami dengan baik, disiplin ini dapat dipakai secara werfrei, untuk menginformasikan masyarakat tentang apa yang belum diketahuinya (Rothbard, ibid). Terutama jika ketidaktahuan dapat berdampak serius, seorang ekonom dapat menganggapnya suatu kewajiban moral untuk menyampaikan telaah ilmiahnya kepada masyarakat. Posisi semacam ini dapat ditempuh ekonom dengan penuh semangat, tanpa kehilangan konsistensinya dengan obyektifitas temuan-temuan ilmiahnya yang ”dingin”.

Sebab, berbeda dari dugaan banyak orang, ekonom tidak dapat memprediksi masa depan. Manfaat jasa ekonom bagi pengusaha hanya sedikit saja. Pengusaha justru biasanya memiliki kemampuan forecasting yang lebih superior daripada ekonom. Seandainya ekonom bisa memprediksi, tentu ia akan memilih menjadi pengusaha saja atau bekerja di pasar saham, di mana akurasi akan mendapat ”pahala” berupa keuntungan materil yang besar. Dalam masyarakat bebas, peran murni yang dapat dijalankan seorang ekonom adalah sebagai soko guru masyarakat.

Ketika pasar secara sengaja dikendala oleh unsur-unsur non-pasar atas dasar pemahaman keliru bahwa nilai dan preferensi dapat diobjektifkan dan dapat diagregatkan (mis. secara nasional), maka ”kontribusi” ilmu ekonomi merajalela dan nasehat-nasehat ekonomi pun melimpah ruah, hingga ke titik kontradiktif yang saling meniadakan. Nasehat ekonomi tidak dapat mengklaim diri sebagai kebaikan hanya karena hal tersebut diyakini akan meningkatkan kekayaan agregat, menaikkan kesejahteraan ekonomi secara agregat, atau mengefisienkan alokasi sumber-sumber daya.

(***)

Batas-Batas Nasehat Ekonomi

2007-05-15T04:14:00.000+10:00

Beberapa waktu lalu warga di kampung kami mengadakan rapat. Tujuannya, mencari solusi terbaik agar anak-anak bisa bermain (mis. main sepeda) dengan lebih leluasa dan aman. Soalnya, rumah kami terletak di jalan buntu dan mulut jalan buntu kami berhadapan langsung dengan jalan raya yang ramai. Beberapa tetangga usul, agar jalan kami diaspal; biayanya akan ditanggung secara urunan. Ada juga gagasan untuk memasang polisi tidur, persisnya di sebelah kanan jalan raya, kurang-lebih 5 meter dari mulut jalan ke rumah kami.

Tentang aspal, kebanyakan dari kami yang hadir setuju—termasuk saya. Tapi ada juga yang tidak. Setelah ditanyakan kepada satu keluarga yang tidak setuju, kami kemudian paham bahwa sebenarnya mereka tidak keberatan. Mereka cuma tidak dapat berjanji bisa ikut urunan minggu depan, ketika rencana warga ini akan diwujudkan.

Tentang polisi tidur, nah ini cukup menarik. Ternyata konstelasi :p) warga terbagi menjadi dua kubu antara mereka yang setuju dan yang tidak. Saya termasuk kelompok kedua; tapi perlu saya tambahkan, posisi ini tidak berarti saya tidak memahami warga yang menginginkan polisi tidur.

Seminggu kemudian, jalan buntu di depan rumah kami pun beraspal. Tanpa bantuan pemerintah (!), walau saya yakin hampir semua orang di lingkungan kami belum pernah baca The Cartel of Good Intention-nya Easterly. Tapi polisi tidur tidak dipasang. Selain karena tidak ada kesepakatan, ternyata bikin jalanan beraspal tidak murah, bo.

*
Walau sederhana, kasus nyata di atas rasanya mengandung banyak isu multidisipliner; di dalamnya ada dimensi politik, hukum, psikologi, etika, matematika, ekonomi, dll. Yang mau saya angkat sebagai fokus tulisan ini adalah yang terakhir: isu ekonomi, terutama yang ada hubungannya dengan penilaian individu. Posting ini masih menyerempet fokus dalam dua posting saya terdahulu, yaitu tentang preferensi dan sifat bebas-nilai ilmu ekonomi. Keterserempetan ini adalah modal yang cukup memotivasi:p)

Dalam posting tentang preferensi, kesimpulan yang saya tarik adalah: sebelum orang dapat menjatuhkan pilihan tertentu, perlu ada preferensi terlebih dahulu. Jika ditelusuri terus ke belakang, dapat dikatakan bahwa preferensi mengharuskan adanya ”pengetahuan”, setidak-tidaknya terhadap dua aspek yang berbeda dari sebuah objek atau lebih. Lalu, pengetahuan itu sendiri kita peroleh dari pengalaman, pendidikan, pemikiran deduktif/induktif, indoktrinasi, dll.

Sayangnya--dan juga untungnya, ”pengetahuan” yang dibutuhkan tidak selalu tersedia. Kenyataan ini gampang diterima, sebab tidak ada manusia yang tahu segala hal. Dalam kondisi demikian, preferensi dipastikan tidak dapat terbentuk. Tambahan pula, karena ”pengetahuan” dapat berubah bersama waktu, maka demikian pula preferensi. Jadi dapat disimpulkan bahwa prefensi, dalam pemikiran ekonomi, sifatnya spesifik; dia mengacu pada pilihan-pilihan pada suatu titik waktu tertentu.

Saat orang tidak punya preferensi atau tidak berhasil ”mengerahkannya”, maka di saat itu ia tidak bisa mengambil satu pilihan tertentu. Ia akan netral, indifferent, atau semata-mata bingung. Pilihan yang mana yang akhirnya diambil, jika diambil, akan menghasilkan tingkat kepuasan—atau tingkat kekecewaan--yang sama. Jika orang tersebut lempar koin atau minta nasehat orang lain untuk menetapkan pilihannya, itu sah-sah saja. Tapi mengapa dan bagaimana orang menentukan kandungan pilihannya atau mengatasi dilemanya bukan urusan ekonom. Yang menjadi ”data” bagi ekonom adalah pilihan yang diambil orang tersebut, sebagaimana didemonstrasikan melalui pilihan yang akhirnya diambil olehnya.

Tingkat kepuasan (kekecewaan) ini subyektif dan tergantung pada skedul nilai seseorang. Skedul nilai tidak lain adalah skedul preferensi itu sendiri, fitur kompleks manusiawi yang menyatu dengan pusat semesta keberadaan seseorang, apapun itu namanya. Dalam contoh di RT kami, dalam skedul nilai saya pribadi, jalan beraspal saya tempatkan dalam urutan yang lebih tinggi daripada polisi tidur, tetapi saya tidak bisa menguantifikasi seberapa kali lebih besar nilai aspal dibandingkan dengan nilai polisi tidur. Saya juga tidak punya dasar untuk melakukan aproksimasi berapa nilai moneter kompensasi yang pas agar saya nrimo jalanan tanpa aspal (kalaupun ada yang mau membayar). Dari sini dapat disimpulkan satu ciri skedul nilai, tingkat kepuasan dalam sistem skedul nilai seseorang tidak bisa dikalkulasikan secara kardinal, dan tidak selalu bersifat numerikal, ataupun diubah secara obyektif menjadi numerikal, mis. dalam satuan moneter.

Pada titik ini, dalam perkembangan pemikiran ekonomi terdapat perbedaan mendasar seputar teori nilai/utilitas. Pandangan populer menerima subyektivitas tetapi menolak ketidak-bisaan-dalam-mengkuantifikasikannya. Dalam pandangan ini, semuanya (harus) dapat diukur; paling tidak diagregatkan. Milton Friedman, misalnya, pernah bilang bahwa salah satu tugas sains adalah untuk mengukur. Beberapa buku teks memperkenalkan istilah util untuk mengukur utilitas atau manfaat sebuah benda/jasa. Tapi gerangan apakah benda ini, hingga sekarang masih dicari.

Jika pemahaman saya terhadap ekonomi ini tepat, maka teori utilitas dan nilai yang subyektif ini sungguh amat penting sekali; mungkin yang terpenting setelah ilmu ini berhasil menyarikan hukum ekonomi terhadap suplai dan demand.

Anyways, sementara si-util hingga kini masih harus ditemukan, aplikasi ekonomi terus merambah ke mana-mana. Hampir tidak ada aspek kehidupan yang luput. Ilmu ekonomi sudah terlanjur dianggap, secara sembrono dan keliru saya kira, sebagai Ratu atau Dewa (atau Kerispatih atau Gigi) ilmu sosial. Dugaan saya, ini akibat tameng identitas atau pemodelan matematis, yang jika semakin rumit, akan dianggap semakin canggih. Tapi yang saya percaya, perambahan ekonomi ke semua bidang adalah hal wajar, sebab ekonomi pada hakikatnya adalah ilmu kajian tentang pilihan-pilihan manusia, yang berangkat dari satu aksioma universal bahwa manusia adalah makhluk yang bertindak secara sadar atas suatu pilihan tujuan.

Tapi, sebetulnya sejauh apa ilmu ini bisa memberi tilikan ataupun masukan yang memengaruhi pilihan atau preferensi manusia? Teori ekonomi apa yang bisa dipakai untuk mengobyektifkan keadaan bahwa warga di RT kami sebaiknya (tidak) memasang polisi tidur di dekat kompleks kami? Argumen ekonomis-ilmiah apa yang dapat disampaikan ekonom kepada seorang anak tetangga yang tidak suka makan mangga untuk mengubah preferensinya?

Jawabannya, cukup mengejutkan: hampir tidak ada. Sebab serupa dengan semua ilmu pengetahuan lain yang obyektif, pengetahuan ekonomi paling banter bertugas untuk mendeskripsikan hal-hal obyektif dan hubungan-hubungan serta konsekuensi-konsekuensi logis, terutama yang ”tidak terlihat” secara seketika atau dalam jangka pendek, dari atau terhadap satu dan lain hal. Ketika seorang ekonom mencoba menarik kesimpulan obyektif untuk sesuatu yang subyektif melalui argumen ekonomi, baik dengan bantuan ”modeling” ataupun metode ”saintistik”, maka hampir dapat dipastikan ia akan melakukannya secara tidak sah. Jika nalar ekonominya membuat sang ekonom bersikap pro terhadap polisi tidur dan menurutnya orang lain seharusnya juga demikian, ia tidak dapat mengubah yang ”is” menjadi ”ought”.

Subyektivitas nilai dan obyektivitas disiplin ekonomi adalah dua perkara berbeda. Barangkali, dengan keterbatasan disiplin ekonomi, hal pertama yang harus disampaikan seorang ekonom ketika terjadi benturan dua hal berbeda tersebut adalah menyampaikan apa yang tidak dapat dilakukannya. Jika ia melakukannya, ia berpeluang tergelincir ke dalam upaya moralizing secara implisit; maksudnya, ia mungkin tanpa disadarinya akan lebih menggunakan argumen moral daripada argumen ekonomi.

Pada titik ini, jika anda merasakan apa yang saya rasakan, ilmu ekonomi terasa ”dingin” sekali. Tidak dapatkah ilmu ekonomi memberi kita dasar pemikiran untuk menyampaikan suatu nasehat tentang hal-hal baik yang berterima secara umum dan obyektif? Bukankah pengetahuan dan pemahaman ekonomi menjadi bernilai tidak bagi ilmu itu sendiri, melainkan atas manfaatnya dalam membantu manusia menjawab kebutuhan-kebutuhan praktis?

Ekonomi tidak harus sedingin itu? OK. Di bagian selanjutnya saya akan coba bahas hal ini.

(Bersambung)

Krisis Ekonom

2007-04-18T18:09:00.000+10:00

Artikel di Business News (ed. 7497) yang berjudul Krisis Ilmu Ekonomi dan Munculnya Paradigma Baru Ekonomi memuat agak terlalu banyak kesalahan fundamental untuk dikoreksi.

Di paragraf pertama, artikel ini mengidentikkan teori neo-klasik dengan liberalisme atau bahkan ultra-liberalisme. Dikatakan bahwa konsep ekonom neo-klasik adalah bahwa masyarakat harus membiarkan kebebasan sebesar-besarnya bagi manusia untuk melakukan kegiatan ekonomi atau dalam istilah umum disebut laissez-faire.

Bagaimana mungkin ekonom neo-klasik disebut sebagai pendukung atau advocate dari laissez faire yang pada hakekatnya tidak menemukan legitimasi bagi institusi non-pasar untuk ikut campur tangan di pasar, apalagi untuk mengendalikan perekonomian?

Untuk memahami perbedaan yang subtil ini orang perlu melongok lebih jauh ke lembaran sejarah abad ke-19 di Eropa, untuk mengetahui bagaimana terjadinya pembajakan istilah liberalisme di abad tersebut, sehingga konsep tersebut di jaman itu kini diasosiasikan penuh dengan konotasi negatif seperti yang dipahami oleh sebagian besar dari kita dewasa ini. Posting saya sebelumnya (Cek Kosong Demokrasi; khususnya di sub-bagian Milton Friedman) menyinggung hal ini.

Sebagai simpulan bagi yang mau instan, anggap saja ada Liberalisme 1 dan Liberalisme 2. Yang satu sangat positif; senafas dengan semangat perekonomian pasar yang laissez faire; yang kedua sangat negatif, yang sarat dengan intervensionisme dan statisme.

Liberalisme 1 kini harus disebut sebagai Liberalisme klasik. Sementara Liberalisme 2 adalah sebagaimana umumnya dipahami sekarang; Liberalisme. Di sini terlihat, para eksponen laissez faire dan perekonomian pasar bahkan harus kehilangan definisi kuncinya, karena sudah terbajak lewat propaganda.

Selain itu, paragraf terakhir dalam artikel di atas menyimpulkan bahwa ekonomi itu tidak bebas nilai.

Perlu ditandaskan bahwa ekonomi adalah disiplin yang wertfrei, bebas-nilai. Bukan berarti disiplin ini akan membawa ke nihilisme, melainkan bahwa ilmu ekonomi adalah disiplin positif (bukan normatif) yang mencoba menemukan hubungan sebab akibat yang sebenar-benarnya di dunia.

Seperti juga ilmu kedokteran yang bersifat bebas-nilai, orang perlu mempelajari virus AIDS atau kloning secara netral untuk memahaminya. Tetapi aplikasi ilmu ekonomi atau ilmu kedokteranlah yang memang sering melibatkan semacam penghakiman nilai.

On Preferences

2007-04-09T01:28:00.000+10:00

Suppose we start this posting with four suppositions.

Secondly, suppose we are either totally indifferent about, or have equal preference to, two distinct things.

Thirdly, suppose these things are anything, from tangible to abstract objects.

And, lastly, suppose someone presents to us two arguments, spoken or written, not necessarily in opposition to one another. Both arguments are equally reasonable, well more or less so.

Then, which one will get the better of us? If we must choose, how to do it? How to let go of the other option equally preferrable?

*
This afternoon I took my daughter to a kid’s shop in Bintaro Plaza. We had agreed not to buy anything today; she had agreed to wait until my next payday. After a few minutes, I asked her which one particular toy she’d prefer if I’d had the money. In the end she faced a dilemma over two Bionicle toys. She could not decide on her choice. If only today had been my payday, she would’ve returned home with one particular Bionicle. By then, I’d have known her choice, but only from the end of her thinking process; her demonstrated, or revealed, preference.
*
Perhaps such is the thing with tastes, one would say. Tastes have a lot to do with what we feel--or think--about them. There is no accounting to tastes, you’d probably add. Thus, tastes, or preferences, have to do with opinions, which do not necessarily belong to the agent in question.
*
Don't our schedules of preferences depend on some kind of pre-existing, if vague, opinions about things? Inversely, don't our opinions about things rest on our pre-existing preferences, say, on sheer attraction or something emotionally evoking. As long as we cannot decide which "toy" to take, we will have at least two competitive yet unresolved opinions.

Kebebasan dan Cek Kosong Demokrasi

2007-03-29T19:02:00.000+10:00

"Hari gini bicara kebebasan?
Jaman sekarang ga ada lagi yang ngomongin itu.
Yang penting: makan, minum, tidur. Titik."

Dari sekian pemikir serius di negeri ini, B. Herry-Priyono termasuk yang paling sering mencuri perhatian. Artikel-artikelnya tentang politik, ekonomi, etika serta isu-isu sosial, cukup tersebar di sejumlah media cetak dan elektronik nasional. Sayang jika pandangannya yang telah dibangunnya dan disampaikannya hanya ditanggapi dengan kebisuan.

Diam dapat berarti pengiyaan, tetapi keheningan kadang juga memekakkan, terutama ketika kebenaran masih harus disimpulkan.

Posting yang berkepanjangan ini mencoba mencermati beberapa potong pemikiran Priyono, sambil melengkapinya dengan ide-ide terkait dari perspektif yang berbeda. Empat artikelnya yang saya anggap terpenting di sini adalah: Neoliberalisme dan Sifat Elusif Kebebasan, Sesudah Dekonstruksi Negara, Demokrasi dan Kapitalisme, dan Jalan Ketiga Sebagai Utopia.

Intinya, keempat tulisannya tersebut antara lain merefleksikan kegamangannya terhadap kondisi kehidupan pascamodern dan konstruksi ideologis saat ini, dalam kaitannya dengan penyelenggaraan Republik, yang ditudingnya telah berasal dari nafsu serakah kapitalisme dan karut-marut neoliberalisme.

Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk: menyandingkan pandangannya tentang kekuasaan kapitalis dan fragmen sejarah yang kelak menelurkan gagasan neoliberalisme; menepis tudingan keterkaitan pemikiran mazhab Austria dalam kekisruhan tersebut; mengungkapkan bahwa sebagian besar kegalauan Priyono—dan kegamangan kita—tidak an sich berasal dari kapitalisme atau neoliberalisme; dan, yang terpenting, mennyingkap karakter laten demokrasi yang berpotensi meniadakan dirinya sendiri, dan yang selama ini meletakkan kebebasan dalam pasungan.

Mengingat sulit sekali menjadi obyektif ataupun agnostik dalam menggeluti sejarah dan pergolakan gagasan, kritik dan komentar diharapkan.

Ekonomi pasar adalah sistem sosial pembagian kerja di bawah kepemilikan pribadi, di mana alat-alat produksi berada di tangan individu atau swasta. Dalam sistem ini, pasar beroperasi tanpa keharusan atau paksaan.

Tidak seperti dibayangkan sebagian orang, dalam sistem ini bukan pengusaha atau pemilik modal yang menentukan produksi. Konsumen yang menentukan apa yang diperlukan, dalam jumlah berapa, dan dalam kualitas seperti apa. Kapitalis, pengusaha, dan pemilik lahan hanya bisa mempertahankan dan meningkatkan kekayaan dengan memenuhi perintah konsumen.

Seperti kita ketahui, tidak jarang istilah tertentu dipakai untuk menyebut para pengusaha yang sukses. Misalnya: Raja Donat; Raja Voucher; Ratu Dangdut; dan sebagainya. Sebutan-sebutan semacam ini entah dipakai sebagai pembelaan ataupun penghinaan terhadap kapitalisme secara umum. Namun perlu dituntaskan di sini bahwa, alih-alih menaklukkan suatu wilayah untuk ”memerintah” dan lalu melucuti kekayaan para hamba sahaya, seorang ”raja” kapitalis justru harus menghamba kepada konsumennya. Ia harus dapat menciptakan produk atau memberi layanan semurah atau sebaik mungkin. Jika tidak, akan segera muncul ”raja” lain.

Jika sejarah ekonomi dan peradaban abad pertengahan dapat diandalkan, maka hal itu menunjukkan daya ungkit kapitalisme yang berhasil menurunkan jurang perbedaan antara si kaya dan si miskin. Di samping itu, kita bisa mendapatkan gambaran tentang siapa kiranya yang paling berkepentingan untuk membenci ekonomi pasar: para elit penguasa dan kaum feodal bangsawan dan raja-raja yang konon memperoleh kekuasaan dari Tuhan.

Dalam ekonomi pasar, siapa yang tidak mampu memuaskan keinginan pelanggan, akan ditinggalkan. Supremasi bukan pada pengusaha atau kapitalis; konsumenlah raja yang sesungguhnya. Siapa yang memiliki visi dan kemauan ekstra (yang merupakan bagian kapital) yang lebih besar daripada sekadar menjadi pekerja, dipersilakan memasuki dunia kewiraswastaan. Apabila ia mampu mengantisipasi pasar dengan baik, ia akan diganjar dengan keuntungan dan kekayaan. Jika tidak, ia akan ditendang tanpa ampun. Dinamika kapitalisme sanggup membuat orang yang kaya hari ini menjadi miskin esok hari, serta membuat si miskin hari ini menjadi kaya esok hari.

Dari sudut pandang ini, peristiwa-peristiwa besar yang terjadi pada abad ke-17 dan ke-18 di Eropa, tidaklah semata-mata didasari pada sisi gelap manusia, yang dikatakan Priyono dalam artikel pertamanya sebagai ”kecenderungan rakus manusia yang tampak sebagai faktor konstan dan sulit ditepis dari kehidupan bersama”. Sifat tamak sudah ada sejak keturunan pertama moyang manusia. Di jaman itu juga terjadi penghargaan terhadap dan pengejawantahan kebebasan manusia sebagai individu, dan dalam skala yang belum pernah terjadi sebelumnya dalam sejarah kemanusiaan. Kita belum lupa, ini abad terjadinya lompatan berupa Revolusi Industri yang membawa kemakmuran luar biasa di Eropa.

Dalam kaitannya dengan ilmu ekonomi, pemikiran yang mengarah kepada kapitalisme laissez faire banyak ditemukan dalam tulisan-tulisan Cantillon dan Bastiat. Filsuf moral Adam Smith tidak memberikan hal baru bagi disiplin ekonomi; apa yang baru darinya justru adalah kekeliruan yang merugikan perkembangan ilmu ekonomi itu sendiri. Darinya dan dari Ricardo, Karl Marx kelak mendapatkan ruang untuk menggagas doktrin-doktrin kelas dan ekonominya sendiri.

”Kapitalisme” sendiri, sebagai sinonim dari ekonomi pasar, adalah istilah ciptaan Karl Marx untuk mengejek sistem ekonomi pasar. Kapitalisme memang seputar kebebasan individu dalam mencapai kekayaan berdasarkan faktor-faktor produksi, termasuk modal (kapital). Namun, mungkin di luar pemahaman Marx, dalam kapitalisme para pengusaha adalah juga para konsumen; para pekerja adalah juga para konsumen itu sendiri. Marx sendiri yang membenci kaum feodal adalah juga seorang keturunan feodal; sementara komradnya, Engels, juga pengusaha.

Pada titik ini ada baiknya kita singgung kontras kapitalisme dengan sosialisme. Sosialisme adalah sebagai sistem ekonomi sosial di mana hak milik dan distribusi kekayaan berada pada kontrol sosial. Pandangan terhadap hak milik dan distribusi ini telah muncul jauh sebelum formalisasi Marxisme di abad 19.

Kritik terpahit terhadap sosialisme yang harus diterima oleh para pemikir rejim komunis menjelang keruntuhan, atau tepatnya ”kepingsanan”, sistem ini adalah bahwa dia tidak mampu melakukan kalkulasi rasional (Mises, 1944). Sebab ketika kepemilikan pribadi ditiadakan, dan faktor-faktor produksi dikuasai oleh perencana sentral (baca: negara), maka tidak ada mekanisme harga. Harga, sinyal ”sederhana” bagi produsen-konsumen, terkait rumit dengan seluruh komoditas barang dan jasa dalam pasar yang tidak terkendala.

Pasar yang tidak bebas adalah pasar yang terkendala. Sebagian orang berpendapat, pasar yang tidak bebas adalah terminologi yang kontradiktif. Dalam anggapan mereka, kinerja pasar selalu butuh Vitalpolitik, atau tindakan politik untuk mendasari pasar dengan nilai-nilai moral dan kultural, sekaligus untuk mencegah kolonisasi prinsip ekonomi pasar atas bidang-bidang moral dan kultural. Menurut Priyono, tujuan Vitalpolitik adalah ”menciptakan sederetan kondisi bagi kinerja pasar secara adil.” Siapa penentu keadilan dan moralitas di sini? Negara yang omnipoten. Dampak pemahaman seperti ini pernah diwujudkan di Uni Sovyet, Jerman Timur dan (masih berlangsung di) Korea Utara.

Di negara-negara sosialis tersebut di atas, tidak ada pasar bebas. Faktor-faktor produksi dikuasai negara untuk menciptakan keadilan dan kesetaraan bagi masyarakat. Yang tercipta adalah pasar-pasaran, atau pasar yang terkendala oleh unsur ekstra-pasar. Akibatnya, harga, elemen penanda untuk kalkulasi untung-rugi dan utilitas, menjadi terdistorsi secara serius. Hasilnya, malapetaka yang jauh lebih besar daripada yang bisa kita bayangkan dari kursi kerja kita.

Sebaliknya, kapitalisme tidak berpretensi menjaga keadilan atau kesetaraan; sebab landasan filosofis dan ekonomisnya menyadari bahwa keseimbangan alam tidak mengenal hal itu. No man is equal. Justru perbedaan yang memungkinkan manusia menemukan sistem divisi pekerjaan—prinsip kerjasama yang memungkinkan peningkatan produktivitas, menciptakan kemakmuran, dan memungkinkan peradaban.

Tanpa mempersoalkan bagaimana sikap kita masing-masing terhadap pengejaran kekayaan, kita dapat mendiskusikan caranya.

Bagaimana kekayaan dicapai? Untuk skala yang masif, pertanyaannya menjadi: bagaimana sebuah bangsa dapat mencapai kemakmuran?

Menurut filsuf Jerman Oppenheimer, hanya ada ada dua cara. Cara pertama, dengan merampas harta atau kepemilikan orang lain secara paksa melalui agresi atau koersi. Ia menyebut cara ini cara politik. Cara kedua, dengan mengakumulasi modal dan tabungan untuk yang kemudian diinvestasikan dengan sebaik-baiknya dan memetik hasilnya. Cara ini, katanya, cara ekonomi.

Hukum ekonomi mengajarkan bahwa kekayaan hanya bisa didapat atau ditingkatkan dalam tiga cara saja, dan tidak ada cara lain. Pertama, dengan mengenali kelangkaan sumber daya alam dan memilikinya sebelum orang lain mendahului. Kedua, dengan menghasilkan barang atas bantuan tenaga dan sumber daya yang ada. Ketiga, dengan melakukan pertukaran atau transfer kontraktual dengan pihak lain yang memiliki atau menghasilkan barang yang kita inginkan. (Hoppe, 2003?)

Jika tindakan pertama mengubah sumber daya alamiah menjadi aset yang memberi pemasukan pendapatan, maka tindakan kedua adalah proses produksi itu sendiri yang bertujuan mengubah meningkatkan nilai suatu aset atau barang. Tindakan ketiga adalah pertukaran aset dari satu tangan ke tangan lain; di mana satu pihak akan menukar barang miliknya jika nilainya dianggap lebih rendah dengan aset pihak lain yang dalam anggapan subyektifnya bernilai lebih tinggi. Hukum ekonomi ini, yang tak lekang oleh jaman, inheren dalam efisiensi perekonomian pasar.

Selanjutnya, seperti disinggung Priyono, istilah neoliberalisme dipakai pertama kali dalam konteks Jerman pasca perang dunia kedua. Dan pengalaman Jerman selepas kekalahan Nazi pada perang dunia II tidak hanya mengajarkan tentang muasal istilah tersebut. Hal menarik dan amat penting dari eksperimentasi ‘ekonomi pasar-sosial’ (soziale Marktwirtschaft) di Jerman waktu itu adalah bagaimana laissez faire diterapkan dengan konsep Non-Planning State yang diterapkan Ludwig Erhard, ekonom liberal yang menjabat sebagai kepala kantor urusan ekonomi di Bizone, yang kemudian menjadi menteri perekonomian dan pada saat kemudian menjadi Kanselir Republik Federasi Jerman (1963-1966) (Thamrin, 2007).

(Pada titik ini perlu ditegaskan bahwa jika ada kaitan gerakan tersebut dengan mazhab Austria, maka hal itu adalah pengaruh luas pemikiran ekonom terbesarnya saat itu, yaitu Ludwig von Mises, di benua Eropa. Mises adalah guru Hayek, yang kedekatannya dengan Friedman di Chicago disinyalir dalam tulisan Priyono. Karya-karya awal Hayek adalah suara Mises yang dibawanya ke Inggris, ketika ia disarankan oleh Mises untuk mengajar di sana. Bahwa tradisi Anglo-Amerika hampir tidak mengenal figur besar ini adalah sebuah kecelakaan besar sejarah yang merugikan perkembangan disiplin ekonomi itu sendiri.)

Telaah yang jujur terhadap apa yang sebenarnya belum terlalu lama terjadi pada bangsa ini memperlihatkan kepada kita dua hal: efisiensi pasar bebas di paruh pertama, dan inefisiensi ekonomi pasar sosial di paruh kedua—saat konsep sosial ”mulai mengambil perkembangannya sendiri” (ibid).

Di awal rekonstruksi pasca PD II setelah kejatuhan Nazi dan Hitler, Jerman Barat menerapkan sistem laissez faire, meski jauh dari sempurna. Hasilnya luar biasa: ekonomi tumbuh pesat; inflasi berhasil ditekan hingga mendekati nol persen, dan demikian pula penurunan angka pengangguran. Pencapaian sosio-ekonomis ini berkontras dengan penindasan dan kemiskinan yang terjadi di Jerman Timur. Influks ratusan ribu penduduk yang melarikan diri dari Jerman Timur ke negara tetangganya telah tercatat dalam tinta merah sejarah. Sebaliknya, dari Jerman Barat ke Jerman Timur, hal semacam ini tidak terjadi. Pergeseran sistem laissez faire ke sosialisme dengan intervensi negara yang meluas bahkan semakin menyeluruh terjadi di paruh kedua, salah satunya penyebab pentingnya adalah akibat proses realpolitik menjelang dan setelah unifikasi Jerman Barat dan Jerman Timur. Dari kontras tersebut, kemajuan pesat yang dialami Jerman Barat sering disebut sebagai keajaiban perekonomian Jerman (Wirtschaftswunder).

Cuma manusia yang berakal budi. Dengan akal budinya ia berhasil memahami hukum ekonomi yang mengatakan bahwa kekayaan tidak turun lewat mukjizat, melainkan lewat kebijakan ekonomi yang benar. Dan inheren dalam kapitalisme adalah kaidah dasar ilmu ekonomi tersebut. Dalam pemahaman para pemikir jaman itu, kapitalisme mengandaikan Liberalisme--kebebasan individu, kebebasan berproduksi, kebebasan membeli, kebebasan berekonomi. Perlunya kebebasan adalah konsep yang diturunkan sebagai kesimpulan, bukan pra-asumsi. Dia bukan prejudice, melainkan post-judice (Rothbard, 1985).

Pada titik ini, pertanyaan adalah: jika perekonomian pasar bebas memang begitu adanya, mengapa kok konotasinya negatif? Mengapa kapitalisme dipersamakan dengan ”korporatisme” atau ”kapitalis KKN”? Mengapa yang terbayang di benak kita begitu mendengar kata ”kapitalis” adalah para konglomerat atau pengusaha kaya, sambil merokok cerutu dan berperut buncit pula, yang sibuk melobi sana-sini? Jawaban terhadap pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini kita tunda dulu hingga di bagian akhir.

Libertarianisme a la Milton Friedman

Libertarianisme dapat diringkas sebagai pandangan hidup optimistis yang didasari pada keyakinan yang dalam terhadap supremasi, otonomi dan kedaulatan individu manusia dalam interaksi kehidupan. Tidak sulit melihat kaitan antara gagasan libertarian dengan liberalisme dan perekonomian pasar.

Libertarianisme adalah anathema statisme (intervensi negara dalam ekonomi). Maka jika Milton Friedman disebut sebagai libertarian, hal ini terpaksa harus dicurigai, terlebih jika mengingat kedekatannya dengan kekuasaan. Friedman adalah penasehat Richard Nixon dan bahkan dapat dikatakan bahwa dia adalah jurubicara apologist bagi kebijakan sang presiden.

Untuk memahami Friedmanisme perlu penelusuran hingga ke akar sejarahnya. Dan akar tersebut adalah apa yang disebut sebagai ”Chicago School of Economics” di tahun 1920- dan 30-an. Friedman mengomandani generasi kedua dari Chicago School versi modern. Generasi pertamanya, yang dipimpin oleh Henry C. Simon, bersifat kekiri-kirian dan institusionalis; terutama jika dilihat dari kacamata (kriteria) pasar bebas sejati. Singkatnya, agenda utama Simon adalah: menghilangkan kompetisi di pasar secara ekstrim; menerapkan pajak secara egaliter; serta menggagas kebijakan proto-Keynesian atas nama stabilisasi tingkat harga lewat ekspansi fiskal dan moneter di masa resesi (Rothbard, 1971). Friedman memang memperlunak program intervensif pendahulunya, tetapi pada dasarnya ia penerus Simon. Bagi pasar bebas, Friedman adalah pembela yang ”seolah-olah”. Yang paling buruk, ia membawa metodologi Chicago kepada varian ekstrim positivisme. (ibid)

Paradigma ekonomi pengikut aliran Chicago yang institusional-interventif ini mengekor tradisi ilmu ekonomi Inggris, di mana mikroekonomi dipisahkan dari makroekonomi. Dalam pandangan mereka, ada dua dunia ekonomi yang masing-masing terpisah dan mandiri. Di satu sisi ada ekonomi mikro--dunia di mana harga ditentukan oleh suplai dan demand, yang menurut ekonom Chicago sebaiknya diserahkan saja tanpa kendala kepada pasar. Di sisi lain mereka mengatakan, ada makroekonomi, yang berfokus pada semesta agregat, seperti misalnya anggaran pemerintah dan kebijakan moneter, yang tidak boleh diserahkan kepada pasar bebas.

Jadi senafas dengan para Keynesian, pengikut Friedman menyerahkan kontrol absolut terhadap area makro kepada pemerintah pusat agar perekonomian dapat dimanipulasi untuk kepentingan sosial, sementara dunia mikro dibiarkan bebas. Singkatnya, Friedmanites dan Keynesian sama-sama menyerahkan urusan makro kepada statisme, sebab, menurut mereka, inilah kerangka yang diperlukan agar kebebasan di tingkat makro dapat berjalan sesuai dengan prinsip pasar bebas.

Dalam kenyataannya, ranah makro dan mikro adalah satu kesatuan yang terpadu, sebagaimana ditunjukkan oleh para ekonom mazhab Austria. Menyerahkan wilayah makro kepada Pemerintah sambil menyerahkan wilayah mikro kepada pasar bebas adalah hal mustahil. Dan dalam hal ini dunia dirugikan karena pencapaian besar Ludwig von Mises, pendiri Austrian School modern, yang bahkan di tahun 1912 telah mengintegrasikan keduanya dalam teori ekonominya, The Theory of Money and Credit, yang baru diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Inggris pada 1934.

Demokrasi

Catatan kritis tentang demokrasi di bawah ini penulis kembangkan dari pemikiran Murray Rothbard (1926-1995)-- seorang ekonom, sejarawan, teoris, pemikir dan pembangun ”sistem” libertarian terbesar dan sangat berpengaruh.

Sebagai sistem pengambilan keputusan berdasarkan suara terbanyak, di mana setiap pihak di dalamnya memiliki satu suara, demokrasi dalam konteks negara dilakukan lewat pemilu untuk memutuskan kebijakan pemerintah, atau memilih pemimpin yang kelak akan menjadi penentu kebijakan lewat representasi partai (seperti di Indonesia).

Sebagai sebuah sistem, dia sarat dengan kontradiksi. Misalkan saja di suatu negara yang demokratis mayoritas penduduknya menghendaki kepemimpinan satu partai atau seorang diktator, apakah hal ini dimungkinkan? Ini dilematis. Jika jawabannya ya, maka terhitung efektifnya kepemimpinan sang diktator, demokrasi berhenti. Dalam contoh ini, sistem demokrasi hanya menjadi transisi ke pemerintahan yang non-demokratis. Sebaliknya, jika jawabannya negatif, maka proses elektif berlangsung tanpa ajektiva demokratis. Proses pemilu dapat berlanjut, tetapi sistemnya tidak memungkinkan supremasi mayoritas untuk mengekspresikan kehendak berdasarkan suara terbanyak, sebab demokrasi tidak ada lagi.

Dengan demikian keberlangsungan demokrasi menyaratkan dua hal: 1) suara mayoritas terhadap pemimpin atau kebijakan, 2) dan pemilu secara berkala. Jika mayoritas penduduk memutuskan tidak bersedia ikut pemilu, demokrasi sesungguhnya tidak bisa dipertahankan. Berapa persentase golput sebelum demokrasi boleh dinyatakan batal, tidak terdapat dalam manual apapun.

Dilema demokrasi tadi bukan cuma berlaku berlaku jika mayoritas menginginkan diktator, melainkan juga jika masyarakat menginginkan terbentuknya masyarakat bebas (laissez faire). Satu-satunya bentuk pemilihan suara yang penting dalam masyarakat tersebut adalah dalam bentuk stakeholding, yang nilai suaranya tidak seragam melainkan proporsional terhadap saham yang dimiliki dalam aset perusahaan. Suara individu dalam hal ini terikat pada ukuran kepemilikannya pada sebuah aset bersama. Dalam masyarakat yang benar-benar bebas, apa yang harus divotingkan? Di sini, demokrasi paling banter hanya dapat menjadi rute menuju masyakat bebas. Dengan kata lain, demi keberlangsungannya, demokrasi cenderung akan ”bermusuhan” dengan konsep pemerintahan yang terbatas atau kedaulatan individu.

Demokrasi juga tidak bisa hidup dalam rejim sosialisme, di mana faktor-faktor produksi berada dalam genggaman negara. Partai yang berkuasa, sebagai pemilik faktor-faktor produksi tersebut, akan bebas menentukan berapa banyak dana yang harus dialokasikan untuk kepentingan propraganda partai-partai oposisi. Partai penguasa juga memiliki kekuasaan ekonomi terhadap semua individu, baik pemimpin maupun anggota partai-partai oposisi. Jadi, opisisi tidak akan dapat menjadi fungsional di bawah sosialisme.

Dari kerangka pemikiran di atas dapat disimpulkan bahwa demokrasi tidak kompatibel baik dengan masyarakat bebas (kapitalisme) maupun sosialisme. Kecenderungan peradaban manusia adalah kapitalisme atau sosialisme. Demokrasi, pada esensinya, bersifat tidak stabil dan transisional. Penerapannya cenderung akan membawa pemerintah ke pada kutub sosialisme ataupun kapitalisme.

Tetapi mengapa demokrasi berkonotasi positif dan bertahan sebagai mekanisme ideal? Jawabannya tersirat di bagian berikut.

Hubungan Kapitalisme-Demokrasi-Sosialisme

Untuk memahami popularitas demokrasi, kiranya kita perlu menengok sedikit ke sejarah pembentukan sebuah negara yang sekarang menjadi adikuasa tunggal.

Sejak awal perjuangan hingga terbentuknya Amerika, kebebasan individu merupakan nilai tertinggi dan terdepan. Namun, selama beberapa dekade terakhir dalam kehidupan politis di negeri ini, gagasan tentang kebebasan menempati kursi belakang, sementara yang menempati kursi pengendara/pengendali dalam perjalanan negara adalah gagasan tentang demokrasi. (Machan, 2004)

Kebebasan manusia meliputi keinginan setiap individu untuk dapat mengelola kehidupannya sendiri—pendek kata, menjadi individu yang berdaulat. Demokrasi hanyalah sebuah metode untuk mencapai keputusan bersama.

Di dalam cita-cita masyarakat yang adil, kebebasan adalah keutamaan. Sistem perundangan kemudian diarahkan dan dibuat untuk menjamin kebebasan semua orang, juga agar hak-hak individu terhadap kehidupan, kebahagiaan, dan kebebasannya, terlindung dari berbagai macam ancaman pelanggaran oleh pihak eksternal.

Demokrasi hanyalah produk samping kebebasan. Cita-cita kebanyakan individu adalah untuk dapat hidup bebas menata dan mengelola hidupnya sendiri. Jika lalu muncul masalah terkait kepentingan bersama, atau kepentingan publik, semua orang berhak berpartisipasi.

Kebebasan atau kemerdekaan adalah sebuah virtue, suatu keutamaan moral dan kebajikan. Oleh karena itu ruang lingkup pemerintah dalam ranah kebijakan publiknya perlu dibatasi secara ketat. Untuk apa? Agar manusia yang bebas tidak ditindas oleh orang lain, bahkan oleh sekelompok mayoritas yang ingin menindasnya. Bagi orang yang bebas mengatur hidupnya sendiri, tidak ada yang berhak mengendalikan orang tersebut kecuali atas persetujuan darinya.

Begitulah makna sejati Deklarasi Kemerdekaan AS, yang menyatakan bahwa pemerintah memperoleh mandatnya untuk berkuasa atas persetujuan rakyat (Hanke, 2007). Dalam masyarakat yang berkeadilan tidak seorangpun kehilangan otoritas dalam mengatur dirinya sendiri, kecuali jika ia secara sukarela memutuskan demikian atas kemauan atau pilihannya sendiri.

Sekarang dapatlah kita singgung tentang peran pemerintah. Kita tidak pernah benar-benar membatasi pemerintah sebatas pada tujuan-tujuan yang adil tersebut. Sebaliknya, pemerintah selalu melampaui batas-batas tersebut. Di jaman kita hidup sekarang, peran pemerintah bukan semakin mengecil, melainkan terus tumbuh menggurita.

Demokrasi tidak mempermasalahkan bagaimana watak ataupun konsekuensi kebijakan rejim pemenang pemilu. Pemerintah yang terpilih secara demokratis dapat memilih apakah ia akan menjalankan politik laissez faire atau, sebaliknya, intervensi. Sistem demokrasi dalam kaitan ini ini tidak berbeda dari sistem otoritarian diktator. Demokrasi menyediakan cek kosong.

Maka, nyaris tanpa disadari, kebebasan telah mengalami proses penciutan yang luar biasa—hanya untuk digantikan dengan ”gula-gula” murahan, yaitu agar setiap orang mendapat hak partisipatif dalam perhelatan akbar 4-5 tahunan sekali. Demokrasi, secara diam-diam, bertransformasi menjadi nilai utama sementara kebebasan individu tersisihkan kecuali sebatas coblos-coblosan.

Karena sifat-sifat demokrasi di atas, maka cakupan pemerintah tidak lagi terbatas, baik dalam prinsip maupun praksisnya. Segala macam tetek-bengek masalah kemudian dapat menjadi isu publik asalkan ada indikasi demokrasi dalam pengambilan keputusannya. Pada akhirnya, ini dapat menjadi ancaman serius bagi demokrasi itu sendiri. Ketika demokrasi diberhalakan dan cita-cita kebebasan terpasung, maka demokrasi akan menghancurkan dirinya sendiri.

Contoh kasus seperti ini pernah terjadi Republik Weimar. Di sana, pemilu yang relatif demokratis berhasil memilih Hitler dan akhirnya membantai demokrasi dan kebebasan sekaligus—bahkan melampaui batas-batas teritorinya. Jika kita bertanya-tanya mengapa sebagian besar dari berpandangan seperti tercermin dalam kutipan di awal tulisan ini. Mengapa ini terjadi? Kebanyakan institusi pendidikan, tempat kita belajar berpikir, cenderung tidak lagi memerdulikan kebebasan. Sebab yang diajarkan dan ditekankan kepada kita hanyalah versi terbatasnya: demokrasi (Machan, ibid). Hal semacam ini pula yang dijejalkan kepada si buyung atau si upik.

Epilog

Ketika kita sandingkan kapitalisme ataupun sosialisme dengan demokrasi, segera terlihat ketegangan di antara mereka. Demokrasi tidak berharmoni baik dengan sistem perekonomian pasar bebas, yang dibangun di atas landasan kebebasan individu, maupun dengan sistem sosialisme, di mana keputusan yang memengaruhi hajat orang banyak diserahkan kepada penguasa sentral.

Evolusi demokrasi telah dan terus berlangsung dengan mengorbankan kebebasan itu sendiri. Inilah sumber kegalauan dan kegamanan Priyono, juga bagi kita. Kebebasan barangkali tidak se-elusif yang kita duga; hanya saja, dia terpasung dan tersisihkan oleh demokrasi.

Demokrasi, sebagai sistem yang tidak stabil, tidak memberi janji apa pun terhadap seberapa jauh dan seberapa besar pemerintah perlu berperan. Demokrasi memberi cek kosong kepada pemerintah.

Spesial: Undangan Untuk Merampok ATM

2007-02-22T14:39:00.000+11:00

H ari ini saya mendapat link tentang perusahaan yang menjual produk berupa kartu ATM yang bisa dipakai untuk mengambil uang dari berbagai macam ATM bank.

Dengan kata lain, orang-orang di balik perusahaan ini, yang beralamat http://www.way4rich.cjb.net/, dengan penuh kesengajaan, kesadaran, perencanaan dan persiapan, melalui produk yang mereka tawarkan, mengajak para pengunjung situs mereka untuk merampok uang para penabung di berbagai ATM.

Www.way4rich.cjb.net telah mengiklankan dan menawarkan diri sebagai dalang terhadap berbagai potensi kriminalitas di masa depan.

Beginikah caranya mencari kekayaan? Beginikah hasil jerih payah pendidikan bertahun-tahun—mengajak/memfasilitasi orang lain untuk menjarah sesuatu yang bukan haknya?

Imbauan saya: semoga orang-orang di balik bisnis ini segera menyadari kekeliruan mereka. Semoga mereka ”merasakan” betapa seriusnya sebenarnya suasi kejahatan ini dilihat melalui perspektif kemanusiaan, hukum, moralitas, dan etika. Dari sudut pandang ekonomi, potensi keuntungan yang mereka pertaruhkan tidak berarti jika dibandingkan dengan sesuatu yang non-uang yang mereka tawarkan sekaligus pertaruhkan, baik kepada orang lain maupun kepada diri mereka sendiri.

Harapan saya, semoga link di atas segera dimatikan dan perusahaan virtual tersebut mematikan eksistensinya.

Still label your kid “Smart”?

2007-02-19T17:29:00.000+11:00

I have believed that my daughter is a “genius.” Until this very day, I actually have kept telling her she is a super smart girl. Let me give some examples: she started reading fluently just a few days after her 4th birthday (I myself started it at 6.5). One day she asked me a question: “If nobody has met God, how could I know that my teachers teach me what God means?”

Today I found an interesting blog post from Marginal Revolution. As an expression of appreciation to it, below is my quote:

"...a growing body of research-and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system-strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of "smart" does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it."

“ It turns out you should praise them for their effort, not their intelligence. If you praise kids for their intelligence, they tend to avoid tasks they fear they will fail at. ...”

My daughter is 7; well, I hope it’s not too late.

On Free Will

2007-02-12T16:09:00.000+11:00

Enda Nasution’s recent article on free will has been a good chance to (re-) think about the unique phenomenon. After reading it, its comments, and the referred-to article in the New York Times, I felt the need to attempt to emphasize its validity. The articles and most comments that followed, if not undermining the validity of free will, reflect varying degrees of our dubiousness or confusions about it.

On the face of stuff like it, what do we posses to understand with? Two distinct sets of tools: scientific and religious reasonings. I will concern myself only with the first here; while it must intrigue to engage the issue using the second set, I will reserve it for further discussions, whose chances I am sure are great to come by. I’d like to point out that even in the scientific realm, there are huge problems, which directly and not directly relate with free will--the subject of our discussion today.

Firstly, there are huge problems buried deep in oblivion due to our daily chores regarding the mantle of science, or to be more accurate, the spectacles of science. One of the major problems relates the difference between scientism and science. Most of the time, we mistake the two. Science is, after all, scientia; correct knowledge. What we think of “science” mostly replicates what people hold on natural sciences. Most social scientists use the methodology of physical or natural sciences to try to understand social phenomena. This is not only lamentable, but seriously erroneous. Furthermore, the fact that most scientists use this does not mean it is correct; nor the only way to look at science.

There is another form of science, another way of looking at things, which perhaps can bring us closer to truth. We may disagree with this; but if we dismiss it entirely, aren’t we crediting too much to the “science” that most of us see it?

Take, for instance, praxeology—or the science of human actions. It has been believed by a few proponents to be a better approach to studying beings with will, and which derives its axioms based on logical deductivism.

It is introspective to know that natural forces, trees, animals do not have will. Only we, human beings, have will. That we make choices, cannot be disproved. The fact that some cannot make choices due to external factors, it is of different nature. All of our choices have consequences; and the fact that some consequences may affect, necessitate or proscribe our next round or capacity of choice making, even to the point of debilitating it, does not contradict or totally nullify our freedom to choose.

Such examples as those one’s inability to quit smoking only reflects one’s preference over certain choices. Even Einstein’s words that Enda quoted in his post is not about will per se; it’s about power. The fact that I cannot fly from home to office does not invalidate my free will. Of course, I cannot will what I cannot do. We cannot confuse will with power, precisely because we are free to choose to the limits determined by our condition as humans.

Like everything else mundane that we know of the world, we have our certain definite and definable nature.

Of Flood, Economy and State

2007-02-08T17:07:00.000+11:00

My sympathies to the flood victims are nothing to be posted here.

I just want to contend here, despite the seemingly counter-logical statement, that the disastrous floods in Jakarta and surroundings have had only little to do with the natural downpours, but our inability to cope with them. What could be said about this recurring man-made disaster?

It has but shown the failure of the state. The floods that still inundate the capital city Jakarta and elsewhere in many other parts of the country have seen the central and local governments at the mercy of their generous, self-providing people, while most of these people, in fact, themselves are at the mercy of nature. While the people should stop to rethink of their relationship with nature—especially with water as our focal point of crisis in future , the government should long ago have stopped thinking that they know what’s best for the people; that they self-claim themselves as the main “development agent.”

And one of Kompas’ recent editorials was entitled: Banjir Mengganggu Ekonomi, or Floods Disturb the Economy. Something rather amiss—or somewhat inapt, here, which perhaps not many people took notice. Corollary to it is a thought that views economy as of ultimate importance. Such a view is derived from the long believed notion that most people falsely cling to that compares a nation’s economy as that of something organic, likened to the lives of plants, trees, or animals. This is a serious fallacy. Plants, trees, animals live neither with neither will nor plan, unlike us human beings. Talking about a nation’s economy is talking about actions and activities of millions or billions of its people who have both will and plans for the sake of embetterment of personal states or well being. If the wellbeing of most persons in a city is being seriously disturbed, a talk about the region’s economy would be, I'd say, insensitively foolish...

Our Ado about CGI (Part 2 - Finished)

2007-01-31T18:07:00.000+11:00

In his article on CGI in Kompas, economist Iman Sugema says that a group of economists has convinced the government that CGI was still needed; and that even today a lot of people still believe that we must seek advise from westerners--a legacy, he alleges, that has been passed on to us since the days of colonialization and which reflects the impotence of the educated to get out from the trap.

Ironically, though, the next thing suggested is for Indonesia to look for domestic sources of financing. While this may answer the question on how the country can borrow better, it already assumes that the poor country does need to borrow, like fish needs water before it can live.

Behind the suggestion lurks a fallacy that such debt is harmless because "we owe it to ourselves." Iman’s suggestion contains two fundamental errors. While most of the arguments here rest on Robert Murphy’s (see footnotes), they add up to my arguments in the previous posting.

First, it ignores the fact that not all Indonesians are equal. Most Indonesians are non-taxpayers. Any debt incurred by the government can only be paid back through taxing its subjects. By taxing us. With the notoriously low taxpaying rate this country is, only a “handful” of tax-paying citizens will suffer on net while more people get away Scotch free.

(Here, I am not implying the government should tax more or should tax more people. I almost go along with Tata Mustasya when he, quoting Adam Smith, reminds that the government ought to practice easy taxing—except that I have to add here that his good reminder will probably just evaporate into air, since virtually nobody reads Smith anymore, the paradigm of our age having been such as to maintain the disastrous doctrines summoned once by Lord Keynes while most economists today preoccupy themselves in molding them so as to meet postmo needs.)

Second, it reflects too common a failure in seeing the perils of debt. Deficit spending is no mere accounting exercise. When our government buys, it eats up resources. And these resources might have been devoted to other purposes, e.g. to the production of capital goods.

It makes a difference if the government, with tax revenue of say Rp 500 trillion, decides to spend Rp 500 trillion versus Rp 1,000 trillion. If the government decides on the later case, it will reduce the amount of gross investment, and, in effect, production in future decades will be lower than otherwise.

Should we overlook the fact that foreign individuals and governments are financing our wastefulness by buying RI bonds? Does domestic borrowing mean “we owe it to ourselves?” Apparently, not so.

At least Binny Buchori is being more careful in her article saying that if Indonesia needs to borrow, it has to advance with some conditions: all debt will have to comply with international conditions on aid effectiveness--namely that the disbursed funds should be for the need of Indonesia, not to procure goods or services from crediting countries, and that it takes the form of untied loans. Well, I say, her idea on struggling for debt reduction is worth trying.

The most pertinent question the Indonesian people must address is: do we need to borrow? Why, what should we borrow for? To date, no clear explanations have ever been given as to why our government has repeatedly borrowed. We do not know what items within the state budget have required repeated borrowing. Thus investigation and scrutiny are in order.

As far as we are concerned, we must demand ourselves to stop thinking in aggregates. We must be clear with this fundamental issue before our government can, if ever, walk down the borrowing path again.

Sources:

Binny Buchori, Setelah CGI Berlalu, Kompas 31 Jan. 07,
http://www.kompas.co.id/kompas-cetak/0701/31/opini/3277750.htm

Iman Sugema, Agenda Pasca-CGI, Kompas 30 Jan. 07
http://www.kompas.co.id/kompas-cetak/0701/30/opini/3275732.htm

Robert Murphy, Government Debt Has No Upside, Jan 16, 06,
http://www.mises.org/story/2006

Tata Mustasya, Ilusi Tentang Pemerintah, Kompas 29 Jan.07, http://www.kompas.co.id/kompas-cetak/0701/29/opini/3263582.htm

Our Ado about CGI

2007-01-28T06:03:00.000+11:00

As soon as the media released the news about the government's decision to discontinue the Consultative Group on Indonesia forum, the next days’ edition of the same media harbored comments from anybody who is somebody in the political and economic realms on the very issue. High time that the government made that decision. Politically it should count as a plus. It’s a brave move, an official release from the ministry of finance went on to say. In this post I’d like to use the momentum to share a bit on the unseen, as well as to *celebrate* my own comeback to the blogosphere. ;p)

At first blush, the decision to kiss the CGI goodbye would seem a bravado all right, except a nullifying remark from the minister herself that Indonesia would still resort to its three biggest lenders—which right away enjoy automatic leverage in terms of bargaining position.

Today is already the tragic tomorrow when effects of the policies committed in the near and distant pasts by the “know-all” government and its mighty lenders materialized in … complications. New policies, meanwhile, are in the pipelines, not to mention the ones being contrived as most Indonesians are still in the slumber land.

Back to the drawing board; with both the government and its lenders equally perplexed at the scantily meager results after the so much money has been thrown away, the decision then serves as a sort of point zero, from which the government and its lenders refresh stamina from near fatigue and past failures that can thus be ushered to the dustbin of history, reserved for antiquarians.

New officials come while old ones go. By nature, none of them can outlive the life of an institution called a state. For which mortals can go in debt forever and get away with it forever? Only a state, which can mortgage its land through borrowings to be paid through the nose by its citizens (even unborn ones).

Any discerning economist and citizen would notice there’s been no shift nor alteration whatsoever in our government’s paradigm and attitude in the decision. The heart of the problem has been the disastrous lack of understanding of what fiat money is and the misguided attitude toward deficit.

Practically every macroeconomics textbooks in the world says it is okay to have budget deficits. There is nothing wrong with them per se. In actual fact: even a single, one-time budget deficit that gets perpetuated is a disaster whose consequences are as necessarily certain as chickens would come out of chicken eggs.

And even if our government decided on a balanced budget starting today to infinity, the burdens from past deficits would haunt us for the rest of our lives :((

Nothing

2006-11-15T05:31:00.000+11:00

had nothing to post about, so I let it overcome me, and as far as I remember, this is my second impasse in my blogging pastime.

This time, though, I conditioned myself that I think up of some plausible reason as I went about blogging about Nothing. (Hey, don't be downhearted! Think of a future reputation: A blogger who posted about Nothing--twice!.)

My reasons are as follows:

First, I must confess I'm pretty good at doing Nothing. Second, I believe other bloggers, too, must have a lot of Nothings to post about, or come to a point with nothing to say. Besides, I imagine that at this very moment someone at the other end precisely at the point of wanting to read about Nothing. Something of a double coincidence of irony, nevertheless—I hope you bloghopper, whoever you are, wouldn’t mind.

Since Pluto was nothing of a planet, some people might have been disturbed. Well, I have. If I ended up trying to talk about Nothing, empirically, it might have been attributable to the failed planet.

To those who believe in empiricism, Nothing is more serious than it appears. The foundation of science is based on empiricism. It may be shocking to realize that at the heart of its very doctrine spreads an abyss of Nothing: nihilism; duh, “shocking” may be too harsh a word. But in any case, according to empiricism, scientific theories are not valid that can be falsified. All theories that are, are but temporary so until they are falsified. I think this is the point of immense oddity. If the purpose of science is to bring human kind to Knowledge, why have we chosen ourselves to (be led to) believe in the system that does not allow us to believe? We are only permitted to postpone falsification, at best. Such philosophers as Karl Popper let us two choices only: utter denial, or perennial Postponement. There is no arrival.

Nothing whatsoever! Thus most of us are people roaming about this Earth with a pair of double lensed glasses--one red and full of Falsification, the other reddish imbued with Postponement. We are disadvantaged—but we have been greatly biased by our own device. No matter what we see in this way, the living or the inanimate must be of reddish complexion. It is impossible for them to be otherwise. Why doesn’t it occur that we might as well take them off and see with Nothing filtering our eyes?

Esei Tentang Korupsi (4 - Tamat)

2006-11-07T18:38:00.000+11:00

Fokus dan Strategi Penanggulangan

Sebagaimana telah cukup diketahui oleh banyak pihak, pendekatan penanggulangan korupsi di Indonesia dewasa ini dilakukan melalui upaya-upaya preventif dan kuratif--melalui dua ujung tombak kembar bernama Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) dan pengadilan Tindak Pidana Korupsi (Tipikor). Keterbukaan dan pengurangan insentif terhadap niat berkorupsi termasuk dalam jenis pertama, sedangkan proses pembuktian dan upaya peradilan atas tuduhan korupsi termasuk jenis kedua.

Sosialiasi keburukan korupsi juga merupakan tindakan preventif berupa pendidikan dan suasi moral bagi masyarakat. Yang perlu ditekankan di sini adalah pentingnya pemahaman yang tidak monokrom terhadap korupsi. Karena, selain multi-warna, efek korupsi secara ekonomi dan sosial efek berbeda dari, misalnya, efek kemacetan lalu lintas yang cenderung gamblang dan kasat mata akibat aneka pelanggaran dalam berkendara. Pelumpuhan dan kelumpuhan akibat korupsi, ibarat kanker yang tampaknya jinak, padahal ganas.

Strategi preventif KPK dilakukan antara lain dengan mewajibkan pejabat negara dan pegawai negeri untuk melaporkan kekayaannya, dan memberikan pernyataan di bawah sumpah (statutory declaration). Secara kuratif, KPK diperkuat dengan pengadilan Tipikor mengadakan investigasi dan pembuktian atas tuduhan korupsi serta penjatuhan sanksi.

Aswicahyono (ibid) telah membahas dua langkah menarik untuk menanggulangi korupsi. Pertama, gaji pegawai negeri sipil perlu dinaikkan sehingga biaya korupsi meningkat. Kedua, yang dianggapnya lebih ”mendekati kebenaran”, adalah meningkatkan probabilitas tertangkapnya sang pelaku. Cost of corruption atau biaya korupsi tergantung probabilitas tertangkap/dipecat. Bila probabilitasnya=0, maka biaya pun nol, dan korupsi akan terjadi berapa pun gaji PNS.

Apakah jika probabilitas tertangkap sama dengan nol maka semua orang otomatis akan melakukan korupsi? Mungkinkah orang tidak korupsi meskipun probabilitasnya rendah atau nol?

Kedua pendekatan solusi ini penting; namun, Aswicahyono meletakkan keduanya secara berhadapan dalam hubungan yang kompetitif, dan hal ini perlu dikoreksi. Alasannya, kedua solusi tersebut tidak bersifat mengecualikan satu sama lain (mutually distributive); keduanya dapat diterima sebagai solusi yang saling melengkapi (mutually complementary). Perlu senantiasa diingat, baik sendiri maupun secara bersama-sama, kedua pendekatan solusi korupsi masih belum memadai.

Jika kita percaya bahwa ada sebagian orang tetap tidak akan mengorupsi sekalipun probabilitas tertangkapnya adalah nol, kita dapat meyakini adanya faktor/motivasi lain selain faktor/motivasi ekonomi.

*

Perbedaan utama antara KBB dan KBP, dalam skala yang masif, terletak pada unsur P—yaitu, pemerintah. Posisi superior pemerintah dengan segala kekuasaannya memungkinkannya untuk mengubah aturan permainan. Pemerintah dapat memonopoli jasa-jasa tertentu dan dalam pemberian kontrak-kontrak proyek; namun, lebih penting dari itu, pemerintah juga mengontrol institusi-institusi pengatur aktivitas pasar. Dengan kata lain, sesungguhnya praktik korupsi paling destruktif dan paling buruk justru dapat terjadi ketika oknum pemerintah terlibat di dalamnya.

Praktik korupsi yang harus mendapat sorotan utama di Indonesia adalah jenis KBP, di mana yang dominan dalam hubungan KBP ini justru pemerintah. Oleh karena itu, usaha memerangi praktik korupsi sangat tergantung pada reformasi tubuh pemerintahan. Secara konkret, yang mendesak diperlukan di Indonesia adalah reformasi pegawai negeri sipil (PNS).

Sulit dipungkiri, kontrol atau intervensi pemerintah terhadap perekonomian selama ini justru telah menghasilkan korupsi yang masif. Oleh karena itu, campur tangan-pemerintah yang lebih besar lagi, meskipun atas nama penanganan korupsi sekalipun, adalah hal yang perlu dihindari. Sifat korupsi melekat pada kekuasaan, sebagaimana tercermin dalam sebuah ungkapan klise: ”Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Oleh karena itu, jika suatu pemerintah benar-benar serius hendak menanggulangi korupsi, maka hal pertama yang harus dilakukan adalah mereformasi dirinya sendiri. Kwik Kian Gie secara khusus mengatakan, sebaiknya dimulai dari para pejabat tinggi. Menurut hemat saya, memulainya dengan cara menaikkan martabat PNS melalui perbaikan sistem PNS akan jauh lebih mudah; karena menunjuk hidung koruptor dan membawanya ke pengadilan hanyalah satu cara. Pemerintah justru harus memperkecil intervensinya dengan cara merampingkan badan. Dalam satu kata, solusi sederhana ini berbunyi: simplify!(*)

SUMBER:
• Ari Perdana, ”Mungkinkah Korupsi Optimal?”, Kompas, 19 Oktober 2006.
• Aswin Aswicahyono, ”Ekonomi Korupsi”, Kompas, 12 Desember 2004.
• Francois Melese. “The Problem of Corruption,” dalam The Free Market Journal, Juni 2002, Volume 20, no. 6.
• Garry Goodpaster, “Reflections on Corruption” 2001.
• Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy, 1983.
• Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Revised Edition, 1963.
• Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy and State, 1985.
• Pemberantasan Korupsi, Ed. II, Kwik Kian Gie, 2003.
• Salahuddin Wahid, ”Ramadhan, Dirindukan Kadang Disia-Siakan”, Kompas 19 Oktober, 2006
• Taufiequrachman Ruki, ”Jurus Alternatif Menangkal Korupsi,” Koran Tempo, 28 Pebruari 2006

Esei Tentang Korupsi (3)

2006-11-06T18:34:00.000+11:00

Dua Macam Korupsi

Dalam interaksi ekonomi di negara manapun, perlu dibedakan dua macam praktik korupsi: praktik yang dilakukan sesama pelaku bisnis (korupsi antara satu pelaku bisnis dengan pelaku lain atau KBB), dan praktik yang melibatkan pengusaha dengan pemerintah (korupsi antara bisnis dan pemerintah atau KBP). Dikotomi yang tampaknya sederhana ini ternyata amat vital bagi pemilihan fokus dan strategi suatu bangsa dalam perjuangan menanggulangi korupsi.

KBB, dalam bentuknya yang paling ringan, dapat berupa praktik-praktik suap untuk memperlicin jalan atau proses bisnis. Adalah perkara biasa jika pengusaha menyediakan sejumlah fasilitas kepada pengusaha calon mitranya. Motif ekonominya jelas: untuk menekan biaya formal yang dianggap lebih besar untuk suatu tujuan ekonomi. Pertimbangannya pun lugas: semua biaya KBB diharapkan terbayar melalui manfaat yang diterima perusahaan kelak. Praktik korupsi dalam pengertian ini dipandang sebagai ”pelumas roda usaha.”

Sedangkan dalam wujud terburuknya, praktik KBB menghasilkan keuntungan pribadi bagi pelakunya tanpa kehadiran padanan keuntungan bagi perusahaan. Di sini pelaku tersebut ibarat seekor ”tikus” yang menggerogoti keuntungan perusahaan. Dalam hal ini, pelaku korupsi dan perusahaan tempatnya bekerja dianggap sebagai pihak-pihak yang berbeda. Jika perusahaan tersebut dimiliki publik, maka yang menderita kerugian adalah pemegang saham. Namun demikian, dalam konteks perusahaan sudah terdapat mekanisme internal untuk mengawasi dan mengatasi perkara semacam itu, sehingga dapat dikatakan KBB relatif tidak terlalu mengkhawatirkan bagi, dan dapat diabaikan oleh, masyarakat.

Sebaliknya, praktik KBP menghasilkan keuntungan pribadi bagi pebisnis dan pejabat yang terlibat sambil di saat yang sama menimbulkan kerugian bagi perusahaan pesaing serta masyarakat luas. Aswicahyono (Kompas, 12/12/03) menunjukkan dengan baik betapa kerugian yang ditimbulkan KBP bukanlah sekadar redistribusi transfer; selain merugikan negara dalam hal pajak, KBP juga menimbulkan biaya ekstra (mis. untuk pengawasan korupsi), pemburuan keuntungan melalui rente (melobi pemerintah agar membuat kebijakan yang menguntungkan pihak tertentu), misalokasi sumber daya, inefisiensi ekonomi, hingga penurunan produktivitas nasional.

(Bersambung: Fokus & Strategi Penanggulangan)

Esei Tentang Korupsi (2)

2006-11-06T18:32:00.000+11:00

Miskonsepsi Seputar Korupsi

Kekeliruan no. 1: Dari sudut manapun korupsi adalah buruk.

Kata ”buruk” di sini dapat diartikan sebagai ”merugikan,” sehingga kalimat tersebut dapat dinyatakan sebagai ”Dari sudut manapun korupsi itu merugikan.” Kiranya dapat dipahami dari telaah di atas, mengapa korupsi terus saja dilakukan oleh umat manusia manapun, di manapun dalam era manapun. Dari benua Amerika hingga Afrika, sejak jaman Bizantium hingga posmo, korupsi adalah tindakan yang normal, manusiawi, dan bukan penyimpangan. Korupsi tidak dapat dihindari dalam sistem politik dan ekonomi apapun yang dianut suatu bangsa. Absennya praktik korupsi justru merupakan anomali yang mungkin tidak ada tempatnya di dunia ini (Goodpaster, 2001).

Sistem legal formal di hampir semua negara memang dengan tegas menyatakan tindakan korupsi sebagai tindak pidana yang dapat dikenakan sanksi. Namun, mustahil bagi kita untuk memungkiri fakta bahwa bagi sebagian individu, korupsi adalah cara memeroleh nafkah; cara bertahan hidup; bahkan cara meningkatkan kualitas hidup. Korupsi jelas tidak dapat selalu dianggap buruk. Bagi individu koruptor dan keluarganya, korupsi jelas bermanfaat.

Kekeliruan no. 2: Korupsi dapat menjadi optimal.

Dapatkah korupsi menjadi optimal? Apakah korupsi di Indonesia sudah optimal? Penggunaan kata-kata semacam ”optimal, optimasi, optimistik” yang berkonotasi positif, untuk memerikan tingkat korupsi, terasa provokatif dan tidak tepat. Sama tidak lazimnya bagi kita untuk mengatakan, misalnya: Berapa tingkat aborsi yang optimal? Berapa jumlah optimal korban kecelakaan di jalan tol, atau berapa tingkat pencurian optimal di suatu terminal bis? Yang sering dipakai orang: ”Berapa tingkat optimal keuntungan ekspor? Bagaimana mengoptimalkan program wajib belajar? Atau hal-hal positif lainnya.

Selain itu, eksistensi suatu bangsa tidaklah untuk menjadi bangsa korup, karena memang bukan demikian tujuan berbangsa—demikian pula tujuan bangsa Indonesia, seperti dalam pembukaan UUD 45.

Kekeliruan no. 3: Pemberantasan korupsi justru merugikan.

Kekeliruan ini dapat dianggap sebagai variasi kekeliruan sebelumnya, tetapi di sini diperlakukan terpisah. Memang, selalu ada pihak yang menyatakan bahwa biaya pemberantasan korupsi dapat menjadi lebih besar dari keuntungan potensial yang bisa diraih. Selalu ada yang menyayangkan bahwa upaya pemberantasan korupsi dapat menghambat pertumbuhan. Namun pandangan semacam ini naif dan picik. Dari sudut pandang ilmu ekonomi, pandangan tersebut hanya dapat diterima melalui penyederhanaan yang ketat dan pemahaman yang sempit.

Mengapa? Karena kebijakan nasional bukanlah untuk jangka pendek semata, melainkan, bahkan yang lebih penting, untuk jangka panjang. Kebijakan nasional yang baik merangkul kepentingan sebanyak mungkin--jika bukan semua--golongan, bukan cuma segolongan saja. Upaya menyejahterakan bangsa perlu berjalan terus; itu alasannya mengapa, misalnya, tingkat polusi harus ditekan meskipun secara ekonomi dianggap tidak menguntungkan, paling tidak dalam jangka pendek.

Kemaslahatan dalam upaya penurunan tingkat korupsi adalah hal dapat diterima dengan mudah secara naluriah. Pada dasarnya kondisi menguntungkan yang akan dicapai tersebut berlaku universal bagi setiap individu. Dari sisi legal, etis dan moral, korupsi harus dijauhi karena melanggar hukum, melukai rasa keadilan serta kemanusiaan. Dari sudut pandang ekonomi, kebijakan yang anti korupsi cenderung memberi hasil dalam jangka menengah-panjang, sementara pihak-pihak tertentu memiliki kepentingan praktis jangka pendek.

Kekeliruan no. 4: Korupsi adalah semacam mekanisme seleksi.

Korupsi oleh sebagian orang diyakini dapat menjadi mekanisme seleksi terhadap pengusaha mana yang efisien dan yang tidak. Klaim ini selain kurang akurat juga menyesatkan. Alih-alih berfungsi sebagai mekanisme seleksi efisiensi pengusaha, praktik korupsi justru merupakan salah satu faktor yang paling bertanggungjawab terhadap inefisiensi. Mekanisme seleksi sebenarnya adalah harga. Harga di pasar berfungsi sebagai sinyal pemberi ”pengetahuan” kepada para pelaku pasar, tidak saja kepada pengusaha (enterpreneur) dalam memproduksi, melainkan juga kepada konsumen dalam mengonsumsi. Fungsi harga sebagai sinyal merupakan salah satu kontribusi terpenting pemikiran Friederich Hayek yang menjadikannya peraih Nobel di bidang ekonomi (1974).

Kekeliruan no. 5: Korupsi dapat diberantas atau dibasmi secara tuntas.

Untuk menjawabnya, pertanyaan ini perlu diubah menjadi: mengapa di sebagian tempat di muka bumi ini praktik korupsi berhasil ditekan, dan bagaimana hal tersebut dapat dilakukan dan bagaimana cara mereplikanya? Berdasarkan pemahaman praksiologis terhadap korupsi sebagaimana di atas jelas bahwa pemberantasan korupsi dalam arti peniadaan total hingga ke akarnya (atau membawanya ke titik nol) adalah misi yang mustahil, ibarat menegakkan benang basah. Yang mungkin dilakukan hanyalah mengurangi penjalarannya. Pandangan tentang korupsi semacam ini realistis, tidak pesimistis, dan bukan argumen apologis untuk mendukung praktik-praktik korup.

(Bersambung: Dua Macam Korupsi)

Esei Tentang Korupsi (1)

2006-11-05T18:23:00.000+11:00

Posting berikut serta lanjutannya berisi esei singkat saya tentang korupsi dari sudut pandang praksiologi—disiplin ilmiah tentang tindakan manusia di mana salah satu cabang utamanya adalah ekonomi. Tujuannya adalah: 1) memberi pemahaman yang lebih utuh terhadap korupsi; 2) membahas sejumlah miskonsepsi atau kesalahan berpikir seputar korupsi; 3) membedakan dua jenis korupsi dan mengungkapkan jenis mana yang sangat berbahaya; dan, 4) apa strategi dan solusi mendasar untuk memeranginya. Sumber dan rujukan diberikan di bagian akhir.

Manusia adalah makhluk yang bertindak. Tindakannya disengaja serta bertujuan. Sebelum dikerjakan, tindakan diniatkan. Sebelum diniatkan, terlebih dahulu harus ada semacam ketidaknyamanan (uneasiness) dalam diri manusia, atau keinginan untuk mengubah keadaan. Niat juga muncul berkat adanya gambaran tentang keadaan yang (dianggap) lebih baik. Selanjutnya, niat diterjemahkan menjadi tindakan, sejauh adanya asa bahwa tindakan yang diniatkan akan berdaya, atau berjaya.

Maka seorang Otong disebut bertindak, tatkala ia menggunakan cara untuk mencapai tujuan sesuai penilaian subyektifnya. Dalam istilah ekonomi, prasyarat terjadinya tindakan direduksi menjadi: adanya keinginan (want), cara/metode (means), dan hasil/tujuan (end). Tindakan mestilah rasional, disengaja dan beralasan. Lawannya bukan perilaku irasional, melainkan respon reaktif tak terkendali—misalnya refleks otot motorik atau gerakan tak-sadar, yang tidak tergolong dalam kategori tindakan. Demikian pemahaman praksiologis terhadap tindakan manusia (Mises, 1963; Rothbard 1985).

Korupsi sebagai Tindakan

Karena semua tindakan dilakukan dengan tujuan, maka korupsi bukan pengecualian. Tindak korupsi adalah tindakan rasional, disengaja dan bertujuan. Praktiknya berbentuk pertukaran (exchange), karena semua tindakan dalam pemahaman praksiologis selalu berupa pertukaran.

Dalam segala manifestasinya berupa korupsi, kolusi dan nepotisme (KKN), praktik korupsi tidak mungkin terjadi secara autistik melainkan hanya dalam interaksi dengan pihak lain. Setiap praktik korupsi melibatkan hubungan transaksional, dan hubungan ini dapat bersifat setara (simetris) maupun tidak setara (a-simetris). Yang pasti, selalu ada pihak yang menderita kerugian. Dalam praktiknya, selalu ada pihak yang “berkuasa” atau memiliki ”kekuasaan” untuk memutuskan bagi orang atau pihak lain.

Dalam praktik korupsi yang dilakukan pebisnis, si pengusaha bertindak atas nama perusahaan atau para pemegang saham. Ketika dilakukan pejabat, oknum tersebut bertindak atas nama pemerintah dan, seharusnya, bagi kepentingan publik. Agar korupsi ”sukses”, prosesnya harus berlangsung tanpa terpantau secara utuh atau sempurna oleh pihak ketiga.

Terlepas dari ada atau tidaknya unsur paksaan, korupsi adalah satu pilihan metode bagi pelaku ekonomi dalam mencapai tujuannya. Mengingkari hal ini adalah mengingkari kodrat manusia sebagai individu, makhluk sosial serta makhluk ekonomi. Korupsi adalah tindakan manusiawi, karena koruptor juga manusia.

Deskripsi realistis di atas bukanlah bentuk pembelaan terhadap korupsi dan koruptor. Korupsi adalah momok yang harus diperangi. Sebagai tindakan, korupsi harus dihindari karena merugikan. Bahaya dan dampak merugikan korupsi sudah sering dibahas; namun:

1) masih banyak di antara kita yang tidak atau belum menyadarinya, atau tidak tergugah olehnya;

2) tulisan ini secara tidak langsung juga ingin menyoroti hal tersebut, yaitu dengan memberi acuan pada beberapa tulisan penulis lain.

(Bersambung: Miskonsepsi Seputar Korupsi)

Socialism, Capitalism and Islamism

2006-11-01T20:14:00.000+11:00

Some thinkers have viewed and likened Socialism in the beginning of the last century to Islamism in the dawn of the century we are currently in. According to their view, Islamism—as an economic system, that is—is destined to fall down.

Indeed, there seems to be a stark resemblance with the emergences of socialism and Islamism in their respective epoch. But as history notes, both the view and the analogy are weak, inapt, and invalid.

In between these two isms, there has stood Capitalism. While it is true that Islamism as a socio-economic system long predated the two, its so-called modern Islamic financial system emerged only recently--arguably with the experiments in Pakistan and Iran.

The core of the Islamic views on banking and financing in its modern state, however, is as good as old, dating to the era of the jihbizs (individual bankers) and the Prophet (pbuh).

The case was different with Socialim. One needs only to go back to the very fundamental factor that explains why this economic system, such as the one practiced in the former USSR, North Korea, and Mao's China, has failed : the absence of market as well as the necessary prerequisitary market mechanism (eg. for calculation of prices and profits), as a result of grave errors of denying private property, and more importantly—human beings as individuals.

The major difference lies in the fact that Capitalism and Islamism do not conflict with each other. This may sound a bit surprising or counter-intuititive to one not familiar with either of the isms under question. It may sound rather too loud an assertion; but it really does not, because not only can they live side by side, they have been so; especially today with more and more sharia compliant products entering the capital market.

Revisitation to the basic tenets of the former and a comparative look at the religiously-sanctioned Islamic teachings on social exchanges (muamalah) will not only be refreshing and interesting, but also crucially important.

However, that said, there is one other thing in common. Both Capitalism and Islamism have been seriously and regrettably mistaken and misunderstood. I cannot venture that one same power has been attacking these two great isms. But the damages it has caused seem akin.

I beg your pardon

2006-10-23T13:08:00.000+10:00

Humbly beseeching you for your pardon for the troubles and wrongs I may have inflicted on you, I am wishing you a Happy Eid Mubarak 1 Syawal 1427 H. Thank you; thank you!

One Day in the Life of a Blogger

2006-10-19T15:55:00.000+10:00

One day in the life of a blogger — 515 words in one sentence ;)

I was leafing through pages of the new decrees and regulations recently signed by Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono (read: Indonesia’s first democratically elected president) on bio-fuel when, in the mid of our growingly laissez-faire office hours these days, as the great Lebaran celebration and ensuing holidays are but a matter of days, I received a phone call from a new insurance company whose name I had never head of, nor the name of the officer (this insurance agent) who had wished to speak to me, and to whom I had a bit of pity because at that instant I already knew my answer to his offer, which would have been a rejection since after the insurance policies for our family car and our daughter, I virtually could not afford any other type of insurance protection for anyone or anything else in our household; at any rate, this morning, perhaps out of the benevolence or positive fasting-month atmosphere in my heart approaching the closing days of the holy month of Ramadan when all Moslems are actually supposed to outshine themselves in terms of their spiritual performances in other months, I was not prepared to say no to anyone, especially to someone, as I learned later, who had just joined a new growing insurance office fortnightly; so I let him the intrusion, confirming that I was the Mr. X whom he was looking for, and that I was honestly always interested in the idea of insuring (although no insurance companies so far have won my respect through how they undertake the idea of insuring people or their property) but could not afford it and assured him that even if he had this gift of the gab he would not be able to make me buy another insurance service anyway, and offered him a choice of hanging up or talking on without the possibility of prospecting me as his new client, to which, to my surprise, this young man (younger than me, by ten years I’m tempted to suppose) opted the latter and shot the breeze for some time about his own life on and on and so it was only when the conversation took a swerve, I managed to ask him how he had come with the phone number to reach me, to which, he answered he basically got it from the market, and to which, I suggested that he talked to his bosses or office to allow him to disclose sources of information contact, because especially in the very business that hinges on the trust of clients, they cannot afford to win customers without first and foremost being able to instill trust; I never knew how he had gotten to contact me in the first place; rather than thinking that I was serious about the trust, that man might have thought I was being irrelevant. (By the way, the palm oil aside, prospect for Indonesia’s biofuel--through jatropha, cassava, beans, etc—looks to me, despite the media cacophony, very grim; I fear I am being more serious this time...)

On 2006 Nobel Laureate in Economics

2006-10-12T11:11:00.000+10:00

The recent selection of the Noble Laureate in economics either suggests how very poorly we have tried to embrace (and missed!) the most fundamental concepts of economics in the last five decades--i.e. what money is not, and what inflation is; or how very strongly we have clung to the mythical idea over the roles that governments and central banks do; or a combination of both. I go along with Frank Shostak, who said that Edmund Phelps did not actually really explain stagflation except that, rather, together with his colleague, another laureate Milton Friedman, has only introduced more confusion than clarity regarding the explanation of the phenomenon of stagflation. To accept their theorem would basically mean to believe that manna from heaven, or money created in thin air, could in itself serve as an agent of growth. It may remind one of Rothbard’s hypothetical example of a 20 percent gift in the form of money gratis from Archangel Gabriel, in the disastrous attempt to make the people more well-off.

If the modern Austrian theory of business cycle and the underlying concept of inflation are correct, then in the period prior to and during the 1970s stagflation, or any period overshadowed by stagflation, the money supply must have increased at level that more or less correspond to the average inflation score. This remains to be proven. Once proven, the relationship must be understood as causal rather than correlational.

Frank Shostak couldn’t have made himself more lucid. However, he could have been more enlightening by resorting to some historical datay—i.e. proving how much more money was in actual “circulation” during that period in question. Many would be curious to review what happened after the stagflation, perhaps to see how an economy picks up or muddles through afterward.

A Tribute to Mises

2006-09-29T14:34:00.000+10:00

Today is the 125th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig von Mises, a hero not only to a few but also to humanity. This is my simple tribute to him.

Best Wishes and Greetings of Peace

2006-09-22T12:01:00.000+10:00

Best wishes and greetings in peace and of peace to Muslims all over the world upon the approaching holy month of self restraint. May we live to deserve the grace of the month and to celebrate a glorious victory that ensues. May this not be a mere poor interlude in which to exhibit piety. May it dawn on us we only deceive ourselves by fooling other people and the Almighty. May we all be refined souls for the sake of our own sanity if not humanity--more gentle and loving persons for our family if not for everyone in the world or this country.

Marhaban, ya Ramadhan!

New Look, New Outlook

2006-09-11T01:34:00.000+10:00

I've given my blogs a new look for the first time ~~ever~~ again. More tweaking's already looming on the horizon, but that can wait because at the moment I'm set to be tweaking and hacking the outlook of my own person--for the betterment of myself, of course, and the few whose souls and lives are closely intertwined with mine.

WWWest

2006-09-09T17:12:00.000+10:00

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do."

(Samuel P. Huntington)

Something Good This Way Comes: Jakarta Traffic Light Countdown Timers

2006-09-06T17:51:00.000+10:00

I, for one, do care how many seconds lapse before traffic lights change colors. Of course, everyone does; it concerns other things that matter, small or big alike, to us. This post recommends that Pemda Jakarta to install more such gadgets at the city’s busiest crossroads.

I do not find installing a countdown timer in a heavily loaded crossroad a silly idea. On the contrary, I find it brilliant. A countdown traffic light timer, in itself, is a brilliant concept, just like the conventional traffic light, not only from the production viewpoint but also from its utility and functionality.

I have liked it ever since I saw one at Slipi crossroads, a while ago now. That gadget was not the only one in town (though perhaps the first one in the country). Some weeks ago I found another one near Warung Buncit. I remember feeling also happy, almost gratified, when I saw it.

Countdown timers count as one of the very few good things about Jakarta’s terrible traffic. Quite possibly, they are among the very few best things one can find amid the city’s awful traffic. That is why, their installation counts as one of the very few good policies.

Let me count down several more whys I like ‘em countdown timers:

Lastly: they show that there’s one common thing, one certainty about what will happen ahead. This in itself is amazing. Every time a conventional traffic light switches colors, it signifies, controls and even commands that the road-user’s right is about to reverse into responsibility and, vice versa, some responsibility into right.

Through the LCD displays, we are allowed the luxury of knowing with certainty the precise seconds when the reversal is bound to happen. Some degree of certainty and order is a necessary condition, an everlasting element that partly makes peaceful living possible--even among an ignorant majority or a society of criminals.

Secondly: related to my last point above, they are good for the road-users’ psychology (to some people, at least). They help instill positive attitude to them due to their capability of precise assurance.

First of all: they are a reliable and impartial reminder of timing and time itself. No matter who one is, he or she is given the same amount of time to wait or pass down the road. When it comes to driving or riding, good timing is crucial. Sometimes it can differentiate between a living road-user from a dead one.

Motorists, pedestrians and drivers are subjected to the relationship between distance and time. They rely heavily on spatial and temporal reckoning in order to make sense of the changing permanence, of the constantly changing horizon. Down the roads or thoroughfares, they are supposed to be always cautious about this two-dimensional relationship between distance and time. The gadget partly enhances amd restores the sense of time.

Some people, though, must find such gadgets silly. In fact, I have come across some fellow bloggers who detested them. (Forgive my not mentioning names here, as it is never my purpose to inflame or defame.)

If traffic countdown timers are silly, what isn’t then? But at least there is something to be learned here: Even about man-made trivias we can be so different--isn’t that stunning?

Above all, I hope to see more such good things.

Intellectual Prostitution

2006-09-04T14:25:00.000+10:00

With his/her article in today’s Kompas, “Paradoks Politik dan "Frustrasi Intelektual," a Boni Hargens took the words out of my mouth. Below is my summary:

"Frustration has swung Indonesian intellectuals to two negative extremes: "apathy" towards the political processes, and; opportunism to have affairs with power."

The latter is the more detrimental, which means that intellectual opportunism takes a proactive stance to take part in manufacturing bad politics. This new pathology in today’s Indonesia is ravaging the nation and country. No longer are the same standards referred to in assessing situations. No longer are humanity and morality defined according to universal parameters. Rather, they are measured according to group interests or partial political benefits.

So, whatever means Indonesia is now interpreted according to such ways of thinking. The presence of such intellectuals, far from bringing enlightement, only brings about aggravation.”

My posts related to this topic:
- Social Sciences, Power and Our Last Agent of Change
- Our Zero-Deficit Moveable Feast

Indonesia’s Debt Sustainability

2006-09-02T13:15:00.000+10:00

(Formerly titled: Our Zero-Deficit Moveable Feast)

Wealth—personal or national—is created through accumulation of savings earned from production, not consumption. Adam Smith, an ethics professor, in The Inquiries to the Wealth of Nations, underlined the roles of inter-state trade as nothing but an extension of production.

The global economic landscape is never a level playing field. To western countries, the notion has become a paradigm. Emerging economies try to refute it; developing countries don’t get it, or simply forget.

Of course, we're living the world that has increasingly ushered everyone to a fatal illusion mistaking spending as investing that the state of well being can be reached through consuming. We end up being lulled to living with myths or fallacies that regard effects as causes and relational possibilities as causal certainties.

Economics, meanwhile, always provides numbers that can be turned to for solace and comfort: indicators of the number of sacks of cement sold; the number of cars and motorcycles bought; the number of investment potentials, et cetera and so forth. It can always present figures to support any decision any government makes.

***

It’s been years since Adam Schwartz wrote analytical accounts on Indonesia’s politics and economy. The book, titled beautifully as A Nation in Waiting, rings like a poem, suggesting some rays of hope that things will get better with the coming years in the country. No one ever asked what exactly he wanted to intimate with the title.

But, it should not be too hard to tell.

Since the era of our first president, Indonesian governments have developed the deadly habit of borrowing. While most of them may not stand against borrowing per se, it’s been growingly hard to deny that borrowing has been so detrimental it has only benefited a handful of leaders while putting the country into debt overhangs.

To sum up Indonesia’s economic history is accounts of wasted opportunities. The country has been making great mess with resources that belong to its future generation. Put more aptly, it’s been creating a sinful mess to the advantages of foreign sources through exploitations of resources that belong to the future generation.

Had the past foreign borrowings been useful, today’s government would not need them anymore. The lesson can’t be put more clearly; yet is not the one we want to learn; the governments, instead, have chosen to believe that there must be another way of borrowing.

And so the past five years have gone particularly more precarious. Through issuing bonds, the last two governments have had and maintained a new found way of borrowing spree, this time from domestic sources. In less than a decade, our domestic debts have soared to outsize the amount of its foreign debts.

***

What on earth have all the borrowings, foreign and domestic, been for? To cover the budget deficit, some would say, and indeed they can present economic theories supporting that budget deficit is not necessarily a bad thing in itself. But which part of the deficit has exactly the government been wanting to finance? Until we probe into what exactly the purposes of our borrowing, we will not know when not to have a budget deficit. Actually, the latest fourth amendment of its constitution did pave the way towards zero debts; but it has been implemented like a moveable feast, not a resolute intent.

Indonesia’s budget plan for 2007 indicates that the government is about to set to borrow to pay for the cost of past borrowing. In what’s like a tell tale of self-delusion, its accounting strangely puts debt servicing as a source of financing. The fact remains that the severity of our debts is such that even if Indonesia decided to stop borrowing new loans this year, the remaining outstanding will still haunt Indonesian citizens until 30 to 35 years from now.

Restructuring is futile when new debts are joyously committed. Some NGOs, meanwhile, have existed to advocate the government to opt for offshore debt haircuts. Worthy endeavors; but success will only come from within not without. They have taken a diametric and punitive stance against the government. Their approach has been built mostly on some sort of governmental culpability that has understandably led to defensiveness. Some of our leaders may have been development criminals, but we must also admit one thing: we have not been able to govern ourselves with any other style than the one that has come with such a long period of habituation.

Moreover, the country has been musing on setting up a debt management office, to be financed yet through another series of new debts. Maybe it is important; maybe it is better to have one than none. What is definitely important to realize from the beginning and remember throughout our existence is that this country must not create an agency to institute borrowing.

High time that the issue were confronted beyond mere rhetoric. When is the time to really face the music? When is enough enough? Answers to all these have long been overdue--generations ago. The decision to borrow has become too dangerous to be left to the discretion of an incumbent government, the ruling one or the next to come. Efforts to start putting an end to this must come from a national rather than a cabinet’s consensus.

It must come from a strong national will. Will shall attend knowledge.

Now that Pluto is no longer a planet...

2006-09-01T03:02:00.000+10:00

When leading astronomers declared last week in Prague that Pluto was no longer a planet, my first reaction was that of being emotionally stirred. It hit me like a loss, though I was sure I wasn't alone. The knowledge held for so long finally got refuted. Still, with this reminder of the relative validity of scientific theories, that theories are not truths in themselves, I felt thankful. The declaration was stunning but also comforting.

My hope is that such an approach could be used to prove or disprove about the moonlanding, so that the important question that has been with humanity for ages can be settled with satisfactorily: Did man really land on the moon? Do not American and Russian scientists owe it to themselves as much as to other peoples to make such a declaration?

A Letter to the President

2006-08-29T04:28:00.000+10:00

I have today sent a letter via email to SBY. My main intent is for the president to prioritize on efforts to put a stop to the mud disaster in Sidoarjo, which has drowned four villages to date and the figure is still counting.

The Penultimate Rut

2006-08-27T19:01:00.000+10:00

"Between the cup you empty and the same cup refilled," wrote Fernando Pessoa, "who knows whether your fortune won’t interpose the abyss?"

I am of the same mind with this Portuguese writer. Yet, if I can plan my life at all so as to live as planned, I wish to spend my old age in a quiet. Notions of living such by a seaside or mountain I have somehow set aside of late, for reasons that need no mention.

By or on top of a hill is probably better, where I'll be able to write my next books--or at least some posts for a new blog titled: Once Upon a Hill; wait… Once Upon a Hill®, there.) Our daughter, well, by then she will have had a life of her own; anytime she wishes to see her mother, she can drop by, or we can go visit her once in a while when the harvesting season is done.

Call it a back-to-nature craving. To one who is no good planner such as I am, it is more a dream, the kind I want to have when awake. A simple wish that really isn't, especially when viewed from the circumstances I am in right now. It is no less authentic, though not unique, since many must so aspire, too. In my case, the chance for success is slightly leveraged because my wife is a meticulous planner.

The urge to realize the pastoral fantasy becomes stronger and stronger every day with the amount of air pollution one inhales and the accompanying noise, particularly when I find myself stuck in the traffic jam on the way to work. Like most Jakartans I have to spend almost 2 hours to work and more or less the same amount for homecoming. I must admit it does not look like a very blessed living, but that's what we Jakartans must tolerate, not excluding those who walk to work.

No matter who we are, ladies or gentlemen, fancy car owners or borrowed-car drivers, motorists or pedestrians, recalcitrant bus drivers or most-dedicated police officers; and no matter our status: married or single, pious or secular, rich or poor, everyone living in our part of the world will be as trapped in this rut most mornings and afternoons as canned sardines except that we are not yet dead.

True, Jakarta is still the best to make money in the country, but it is the only best among the worst, and non-Jakartans deciding on job offers in this city must seriously take this traffic factor into account. Here is a place where being good drivers and experienced pedestrians does not count, because they get outnumbered by the ignorant. The capital city, which will elect its new governor next year, has been a great model of a city of failure. And believe me, this is only a fact. I never mean this post as an insult or self pity; it simply is a factual situation--or a case where only bad karma is being put at work.

I have been beating around the bush, and I suspect your suspicion about it has developed.

Actually, this post is neither about romantic poetry, old age luxuries, driving skills, nor solutions to indictable Jakarta's traffic jams; it's, rather, about corruption (henceforth: "It"), something elusive many have wanted to write about but could not for fear of only stating the obvious.

All that I dare say at this juncture is that the horrifying traffic condition of Jakarta can be used to remind everybody of one great empiric tale-tell of the social cost that many of us knowingly or otherwise imposed upon ourselves. Traffic jams are inundating everyone regardless of the fact that some of us are good users of thoroughfares. Moral suasions or ethical solutions have been used and repeated, without efficacy and many among us keep wondering why.

Now comes the main thrust: things are no different with It in this country. My hipothesis is as follows: to know about the state of It in any country, one only needs to feel one's general welfare in rush hours. The infrastructure and suprastructure of a country's traffic order and the behavior of its people on thoroughfares very much typify those in other spectrums in life.

The nature of It, however, is more covert, subtle, and chronic if compared to that of traffic congestion. As a Jakartan myself, with utter conviction I can so testify. The effect has been here to stay. Few among us, no doubt, have tried to live day by day avoiding all types of It. But to the people at large, cases perhaps need to be discovered and pinpointed that illustrate how devastating the effect of It is to everybody. (For this, economic modelling won't suffice; ethical and religious perspectives not enough. It must logically be of multi perspectives, kept simple but moving.)

The penultimate rut in which It eventually chastises everyone is far worse and more paralyzing than Jakarta's congestion, but it is not as visible or revealing.

I hope that justifies my meandering.

A 1-Post Summary of Draft State Budget 2007 & Financial Notes

2006-08-25T12:28:00.000+10:00

0. Background:

i) Year 2007 is third implementation year of 2004-2009 Mid Term Dev. Plan, whose preparation was based on vision and missions of President in attempt to realize targets of United Indonesia cabinet;
ii) Draft state budget 2007 has been based on stipulations of State Finance Law as guide to setting of Government Work Plan for 2007, Macroeconomic Frameworks, and Major Fiscal Policies for 2007;
iii) Major fiscal politics have been already pre-agreed to during preliminary discussions between GOI and DPR (23 May-21 June 2006).

1. Macroeconomic assumptions:
(i) growth, 6.3% (cf. 6.2% in APBN 2006 or 5,8% projected for 2006;
(ii) inflation, 6.5% (cf. 8% projected for 2006);
(iii) exchange rate of Rp 9.300/US$;
(iv) average 3-mo SBI rate, 8.5%;
(v) averageICP, US$65 per barrel; and
(vi) average lifting 1 million barrel/day.

2. Broad Strategy for 2007:
- First, to continue fiscal consolidation measures through control of budget deficit, up to 0.9 % GDP (1.2% in 2006), to balance rooms for triggering growth and employment creation;
- Second, to formulate financing strategy so as to reduce as much as possible debt burden and risk

3. Strategic moves to achieve desired deficit:
- First, improving tax and non-tax revenues: à policy renewal, tax and custom administration reform; also that of non-tax;
- Second, improving efficiency and effectiveness of state expenditure by sharpening allocations for central govt's priorities. This in turns calls for:
(a) improvement of income of govt officials and retired officers;
(b) servicing of debt interest;
(c) improvement of service quality in governmental operation and maintenance of state assets;
(d) Government's investment in infrastructure;
(e) Subsidizing for stablizing prices of goods and services;
(f) Improvement of budget allocation for education as mandated by Constitution 1945;
(g) Sustainability of direct subsidies to people in sectors of education and health; and
(h) development of biofuel and biodiesel as fuel alternatives.

- Third, improving efficiency and effectiveness of state expenditure by sharpening allocations for regional priorities. This in turns calls for:
(a) improvement in revenue-sharing calculation and accelleration of its distribution to regions;
(b) improving basic data needed for DAU calculation, which for 2007 has been allocated to amount to 26 % of net domestic revenue;
(c) increasing DAK allocation for regions with under-average financial capacity in provision of basic facilities and infrastructure in sectors of:
(i) education --> 9 years compulsory education;
(ii) health;
(iii) infrastructure: --> road, clean water and irrigation;
(iv) marine and fishery;
(v) agriculture;
(vi) governmental infrastructure; and
(vii) environment.

4. Revenue and underlying assumptions
State revenues plus grants are expected to reach Rp713.4 trillion (20.2% of GDP), or an increase by 14.1% from target of APBN 2006.Revenues amount to Rp 505,9 t (from taxes) and Rp 204.9 t (non-taxes). Tax ratio is estimated to reach 14.3 % of GDP, or higher than that in 2006 (13.7%).
Underlying assumptions:
- Better macroeconomic condition;
- Pipelined reforms in realms of tax, customs and duties, i.e through:
(a) modernization of functions of service provision and advocacy; (b) modernization of supervision function;
(c) modernization of supporting functions; and
(d) administrative and procedurial improvement in customs and duties.

5. Lower Non-Tax Revenue and Underlying Factors
Non-Tax Revenue (Rp204,9 t) is lower than that in revised budget of 2006 (Rp224,5 t) due to:
(a) less income from oil/gas, forestry, and fishery; and
(b) lower SOE dividends.

6. Expenditure
Expenditure totals to Rp746,5 t (21.1% of GDP), or an increase by 15.3 % of APBN-2006 projected ceiling.

Central govt's spending of Rp 496 t, or 16% higher than that allocated in 2006 state budget, is to cover:
(a) Personnel, Rp 98.5 t;
(b) Goods and Services, Rp 72.5 t;
(c) Capital expenditure, Rp 66.0 t;
(d) Interest Payment, Rp 85.1;
(e) Subsidies, Rp109.7;
(f) Social aids Rp 49.0 t, and;
(g) Other Current Expenditures, Rp 15.1 t.

7. Reasons behind higher central government's spending
(a) planned improvement of welfare of civil servants, retiring officers, and military and police officers through increases of basic-salary and structural and functional supports, daily food allowance (for police and military);
(b) more spending on goods to support governmental function and to improve public service;
(c) increase of subsidies to stabilize prices of goods and services, and;
(d) increase of sosial aids related to disasters.

8. Regional Expenditure
Regional govt's spending of Rp 250.5 t, or 13.8% higher than that allocated in 2006 state budget, is to cover:
(i) Balancing funds (BF) of Rp 243.9 t, including special autonomy funds (Rp 4.0t) and adjustment thereof (Rp 2.7t), totalling Rp 6.7 t.
BF consists of shared revenue (R/S) of Rp 65,8 t and DAU (Rp 163.7 t), and DAK (Rp14.4 t).

9. Budget Deficit and Financing
Deficit is planned at Rp 33.1t or 0.9% of GDP.
Domestic financing targets at Rp 51.3 t or 1.5% of GDP; net foreign financing is planned to reach a minus of Rp18.2 t (0.5% of GDP).

Portion of domestic financing are expected from:
- Domestic banking; Rp. 16.1 t
- Ex-moratorium funds (related to reconstruction and rehabilitation of NAD and Nias; (amount N/A)
- Privatization yields; Rp 2 t;
- Sales of banking assets under PT. PPA; Rp 1 t;
- Issuance of SUN, Rp 34,2 t.
(Minus discounting factors, such as govt's investment and infrastructure support)

Net foreign financing, - Rp 18.2 t. (It's negative)
- New loans, Rp 35.9 t (of which Rp 14.4 t of program type; Rp 21.4 project type)
- Debt service, - Rp 54.1 t.

(*)

500 Almost Famous Quotes

2006-08-11T18:13:00.000+10:00

Updated 8/19: Please be informed that the content of this post has been moved to Visitor's Corner on the left column. The contribution I received to date has been mind-blowing :p)

Pancasila. In 10 Languages.

2006-08-10T18:37:00.000+10:00

I've got nothing better to post than this one, based on a forwarded message that entered my inbox from some genius--could've been You. It's about the beautiful yet long marginalized or misunderstood Five Principles of Indonesia. I just translated the introductory sentence--and the English version. Enjoy!

"To commemorate Indonesia's Independence on the 17th of August, 2006 in this era of regional autonomy, it is therefore deemed necessary, when necessities arise, that we pronounce out loud Pancasila in the vernacular in which it is commemorated; hence the following versions".

Pancasila (Indonesian)
1. Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa
2. Kemanusiaan Yang Adil Dan Beradab
3. Persatuan Indonesia
4. Kerakyatan Yang Dipimpin Oleh Hikmat Kebijaksanaan Dalam Permusyawaratan/Perwakilan
5. Keadilan Sosial Bagi Seluruh Rakyat Indonesia

The Five Principles (English)
1. Belief in the one and only God
2. Just and civilized humanity
3. The unity of Indonesia
4. Democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst representatives
5. Social justice for the whole of the people of Indonesia

Pancasila (Jawa)
siji: Gusti Alllah ora ono kancane
loro: Dadi wong kudu sing adil lan ojo kejem-kejem
telu: Indonesia bersatu kabeh
papat: karo tonggo-tonggo nek ono masalah diomongno bareng-bareng opo o
limo: mangan ra mangan sing penting kumpul

Pancasila (Sunda)
Hiji: Gusti Allah eta sorangan sareng ageng pisan
Dua: ka sorangan teh sikapna kudu sami, ulah ngabeda-beda keun..
Tilu: Indonesia kuduna mah jadi hiji
Opat: Ra'yat Indonesia sae na pang mutuskeun sagala teh disepakatkeun heula. Kedah bager lan bijaksana
Lima: Ceunah teh sikap sosialna kudu adil hiji sareng batur.

Pancasila (Batak Toba)
Sada: Dang adong na pajago-jagohon di jolo ni Debata
Dua : Maradat tu sude jolma
Tolu : Punguan ni halak Indonesia
Opat : Marbadai ... marbadai, dungi mardame
Lima : Godang pe habis saotik pe sukkup

Poncosilo (Jawa kromo)
Kaping setunggal: Gusti ingkang Maha satunggal
Kaping kalih: Tiang ingkang Adil lan beradab
Kaping tiga: Persetunggalan Indonesia
Kaping sekawan: Kerakyatan ingkang dipimpin kaliyan hikmat lan kewicaksonoan dateng permusyawaratan kang diwakilkan.
Kaping gangsal:Adil kang sosial kangge sakabehe tiang Indonesia

Pancasila (Palembang)
Sute: Tuhan ne sute tu'la
Due: jelme harus khapat same rate
Tige: jelme Indones iane bersatu padu
Empat: jeleme Indonesiane diketuci ngai hikmah dimane ngedapatkan jawaban dadi gegale masalah
Leme: kesameratean hidup ne jelmekangok Indonesia...

Pancasila (Ambon)
1. Torang samua tawu cuma ada Tuang Allah yaitu Tete manu...
2. Orang ambon samu harus tau adat
3. Acang deng obet harus bisa bakubae
4. Paitua deng maitua harus bae-bae di rumah rakyat
5. Samu harus bisa jaga diri karna ambon lapar makan orang....... ...

Pancasila (Manado)
1. Cuma boleh ba satu Tuhan
2. Selalu adil kong ja pake ontak
3. Torang samua satu, Bangsa Indonesia
4. Tu rakyat musti slalu bakumpul kong bicara bae-2 spy slalu ada kaputusan gagah yg semua trima deng nang hati.
5. voor seluruh ra kyat Indonesia, nyanda ada tu jabaku kase beda-2 perlakuan.

Pancasilo (Padang)
Ciek: Bintang Basagi Limo
Duo: Rantai pangikek kudo
Tigo: pohon baringin gadang ta'mpek kito bacinto
Ampek: kapalo banteng bataduk duo
Limo: padi jo kapeh pambaluik nan luko..

Qana

2006-08-03T02:32:00.000+10:00

1/

To whom words are mightier than swords
Be warned, for woes may thee betide

After our pride, land, offsprings and lives
what more of us can be deprived?

Virtuousness and compliance
are being ridiculed by this persecution

Avarice rules the world, conscience eclipsed
by Darwinian aggression

Peace is a piece of cake offered at a gunpoint
Truth always the one from a certain viewpoint

To whom words are mightier than swords
be wary, for words may be merely as shorter
than swords as our untimely departure

2/

To whom swords are mightier than words
be assured: woes will thee betide

Virtuousness and compliance
do not expire with persecution

While avarice feeds on itself
aggression only breeds violence

The Peace offered at a gunpoint
and the Truth in between ruins
are but sources of self-inflicted pain

Swords return to sheaths where they belong
and get eaten away by time before too long
the blast of words, as soon as they explode
is a flame time can neither put out nor corrode

july 31 - aug. 2, 2006
by tjipoetat quill
http://www.poemhunter.com/tjipoetat-quill/poet-162360/

On Debts and Local Currency Borrowing

2006-07-26T14:14:00.000+10:00

Note: The following has been based on my experimental posting titled "WIP: On Foreign Debts."

"Avoid debts so that you can live with independence," said Bung Hatta, a thinker, also Indonesia's first VP reknown for his thrift; and "Shun yourself from sins so you can stare at death with more ease," said Buya Hamka, another great Indonesian, thinker and autodidact scholar.

The two statements summed up two golden rules of thumb many families in the world subscribe to in the olden days, including Indonesians. One secular, the other religious. However, along with banking "innovations", with its interest based derivative transactability, and the ensuing sophistication of business practices, the values were fast marginalized. After the demise of King Henry VIII of Great Britain, the ruling by Queen Elizabeth reinstated the use of interest rate. I surmised this served as one of the most important milestones marking the proliferation of banking in Europe, or Great Britain at least.

Today, with no single institution existing to dissuade lending or borrowing with interest, it should only be considered normal that some banks lend shamelessly or citizens borrow equally so. Some banking representatives may call us to say that we have been the select few to deserve more loans. Sometimes they sell their products as if they were doing us a big favor.

***

They say, the people of a nation get the leaders that they deserve. Is there some truth in this adage! Now Indonesia ranks as the country with the biggest debts, domestic and foreign types alike. Most of these debts, being long-term, shall outlive most of the decision makers that committed to these sums. By the time you and I cease to breathe for good, our children will … well, I guess we know the consequence. I need not say it lest this post becomes superfluous, which would be a great pity because I never mean it to be a damning indictment of what has continued to happen, but rather a call for more meaningful and responsible living...

***

Discussions on local-currency lending and borrowing have been far few and between. This topic has only started to circulate in the last decade, mostly from supply-side viewpoints, at the initiatives of the lending institutions. On the one hand, the lack of interest in the subject may have been caused by the prevailing notion of inefficiency; that it would be an additional work without bringing additional profits to lenders. On the other, it may show the imbalances of lender-borrower position in this playing field. However, lending and borrowing cadences, when they concern governments, cannot and should not mean just business!

Since it is unlikely for developing countries to liberate themselves from debts--at least in the near future, governments of developing countries need to unite and consider collective efforts to commit to reduction of foreign debt dependency. Call this a political move, if you like. The decision to borrow is no less political than economic.

Also important for them is effort to promote or necessitate that multinational development banks and international lenders to only lend in respective local currencies.

Economically, this practice may be an effective internal hedging mechanism, especially in a bigger scale. It can help "insulate" developing countries from unnecessary currency mismatches. Politically, local currency borrowing can allow them to exercise the sovereignty of each local currency. Moreover, because rating does matter; international development banks, at the assumption that they are more credible to the eyes of international market than governments of developing countries, can sponsor the practice, i.e. through bond issuances.

No easy stuff to do, but not impossible.

We, the Tyrants

2006-07-24T15:06:00.000+10:00

FOR some months I had developed the habit of lunching at a kiosk selling tasty bakmi pangsit (noodles with crackers), behind the building where I work. The small unassuming kiosk was run by a middle-aged family with a boy of about 3 then. As for this boy, I never got the chance to know his name, because I would call him by the name his parents used: Tole; a typical Javanese nickname a parent uses to call a beloved son.

I have lost counts of the times I ate there before coming back to my office on the seventh floor, but I remember one particular day and the very moment when, as I was waiting for the father to wait on me, I heard a boy crying upstairs, where they also lived. It was Tole's and his cries turned louder and louder. The thumps and snaps were heard several times from below.

"Ampun, bune; ampun bune…" In his pledges of contrition, he cried out Mama, I'm sorry; mama, forgive me. The beating yet continued. Seconds later the boy managed to find an escape and slipped downstairs, where I was sitting nervously. When our eyes briefly met, he reached out his hands to me for salvation. But his mother, a large woman whose weight must have doubled mine, though I'd found her to be a nice person to talk to all this time, reacted more quickly than I did. She took her brat upstairs again. The sound of the beating and cries that continued left a cut in my heart.

Such was not the first time for me to be a witness of violence or violent parents. Back to my own childhood, in our neighborhood I would witness a fair share of more or less similar treatment to children. Not from my own parents, luckily. Elements relating to violence suffered or witnessed during childhood are the most difficult things to unlearn as adults-and the most dangerous too.

To come back to Tole, then I decided to talk to his aunty, who also worked there at the food stall. I said that treatment must not continue. Since that farewell on that fateful day, I am their regular no more. I still try to throw a peep at Tole everytime I pass his parents' kiosk.

*

Today is the National Children's Day. The National Commission for Child Protection just reported that this year the number of child abuse cases rose by 48 per cent, with at least 71,000 minors suffering nationawide. Either it suggests that a better reporting system has been in place; or that there have been more abuses reported under the same reporting system, the fact remains that child abuses are rampant.

The common attitude remains that that corporal punishment is effective to instill discipline left children vulnerable. Maybe it lasts because it has served as a cultural justification with which parents can still call theirs "Tole" or "Upik" or "Nduk" despite the regular beatings they give their children.

Indonesian children remain equally abused at homes, schools and everywhere. Our culture still allows us adults to tyrannize.

Extreme Agression

2006-07-01T18:52:00.000+10:00

WHILST it is wrong and even sinful to allow an evil thing to occur without us lifting a finger against it, especially when it occurs before our very eyes, at the time of our lives, the least thing we can do is to condemn in our hearts.

One of the uses of language is to condemn, and man indeed is the only animal that does it. The Israeli agression in Palestine as well as Lebanon is a situation worthy of damnation. I am joining my government in condemning the Israel, and whoever behind the state terrorist, for what they have done to the Palestinians and the Lebanese.

Foreign Ministry Press Release No. 45/PR/VI/2006:
(My Translation)

The Government of Indonesia Strongly Condemns the Israeli Military Agressions in Gaza

The Government of Indonesia strongly condemns the agressions by Israeli military in Gaza, Palestine, and the detainment of a number of Palestinian cabinet members and Parliament on the 29th of June 2006.

The uses of excessive military power, collective punishment and destruction of civil facilities by Israel have caused their wide ranges of impacts upon humanity, and are outrageous noncompliances to the international law. The Government of Indonesia demands that the agressions and acts of violence be stopped and that the Palestinian leaders be released free.

Meanwhile, the two parties, Palestine and Israel, are urged to revert to dialogs and negotiations for the settlement of the Palestina-Israel problems. International communities, especially the members of the Quatets, must make every new endeavor towards re-arrangements of the peaceful process that has since stopped.

The Government of Indonesia appeals to the Palestinian leaders and people to stand united because separation will only weaken their power and drawback the Palestinian struggle.

Jakarta, 30 June 2006

My Favorite Footballers: It's Just a Game, After All

2006-06-29T15:13:00.000+10:00

In alphabetical order, a list of footbal players I admire, who with their skills, polity and elegance remind me that soccer is, after all, just a game.
+ Buffon + Cafu + Deco + Gerrald + J. Cole + Klose + Riquelme + Robinho + Ronaldino + Zidane.

Why We Should Not Encourage 'Em Street Children

2006-06-27T15:16:00.000+10:00

Somewhat related to a not-so-recent post on the Peril of Sedekah, today I received an email message forwarded from a so called Sahabat Anak persuading us not to chip in money to underage street beggars, because only scanty of our donation will improve welfare. Instead, we are advised to give them nutritious food or drinks. The title translates: We throw away Rp 1.5 billion every day. I have found the appeal convincing and would like to subscribe to this view.

QUOTE:

Kita membuang Rp 1,5 milyar receh setiap hari

Sadarkah Anda, bahwa kita, penduduk Jakarta, setiap harinya membuang uang receh hingga mencapai 10 digit setiap harinya, ke jalanan. Mari kita berhitung. Jumlah anak jalanan di Jabodetabek saat ini berdasarkan data terakhir dari Komisi Nasional Perlindungan Anak (Komnas PA) mencapai angka 75.000. Pendapatan mereka seharinya bisa mencapai Rp 20.000 - Rp 30.000. Bila kita ambil Rp 20.000 dikalikan 75.000 anak, berarti kita membuang uang receh (cepek, gopek, seceng) sebesar 1.500.000.000 alias 1,5 milyar per hari!

Kita membuat mereka betah di jalan. Perhitungan matematis di atas menimbulkan satu pertanyaan ironik yang besar. Bisa jadi kitalah yang membuat anak-anak itu betah berada di jalan. Dengan mengamen, mengemis, menyapukan kemoceng di atas dashboard mobil, atau menyodorkan amplop sumbangan - satu anak jalanan usia SD bisa memiliki penghasilan yang beda tipis dengan lulusan diploma. Begitu mudah bagi mereka. Tanpa perlu capek-capek sekolah, susah-susah melamar kerja, toh hasilnya hampir sama: jajan, main dingdong, dan setoran.

Tanpa maksud menggurui, Sahabat Anak sepakat dengan salah satu program UNICEF, yakni berhenti memberi uang kepada anak-anak jalanan. Dari sekian penelitian yang dilakukan sejumlah LSM, uang yang diperoleh anak-anak marjinal ini, sebagian besar tidak mendukung peningkatan kesejahteraan mereka. Jajan, ada di peringkat pertama; main dingdong atau permainan elektronik lainnya, menjadi pilihan kedua; terakhir, setoran ke orang tua atau inang/senior sebagai pelindung mereka di jalanan. Jadi, bocah-bocah berpenampilan kumuh ini pun tetap miskin, tetap terancam putus sekolah, dan tetap berkeliaran di jalan.

Siapkan biskuit, permen, susu kotak. Setelah memahami penjelasan di atas, keputusan dikembalikan kepada Anda semua. Mari, menjadi sahabat anak yang tidak memanjakan, tapi melakukan tindakan serta bantuan yang langsung bisa mereka nikmati. Sebagai pengganti uang receh, berikan mereka nutrisi bergizi atau barang layak pakai. Mulai sekarang, sediakan dalam tas atau mobil Anda: biskuit, permen, buah, susu kotak/botol, atau barang-barang bermanfaat lainnya - yang langsung bisa diberikan saat tangan-tangan kecil itu menengadah di dekat Anda.

UNQUOTE

(Source: Sahabat Anak)

Our Genuine Interest in the Land on which People Still Live in Huts

2006-06-27T13:22:00.000+10:00

As I'm writing this post in response to a post by a much celebrated fellow blogger Sarapan Ekonomi, Indonesia's biggest newspaper Kompas daily reported today that two US citizens had been, allegedly for immigration permit reason, caught by the Papuan police as the Americans were attending the IV Session of Dewan Adat Papua (or the Papua Indigenous Customary Council) on Monday (26/6). They are Brian Joseph Keane (44, holder of passport no. 102742621) and Casey Kellar Box (21, passport no 302203122), as "observers" from Land is Life, an NGO reportedly as advocating on the indigenous peoples. The former is the NGO's Executive Director. According to information from its Cambridge, MA-based website, this NGO is steered by, not steering, Viktor Kaisiepo of the Papua Indigenous Customary Council in West Papua.

Back to Sarapan Ekonomi's post, which he extended from an article in the Washington Post, he wondered why Papuans still live in huts and ventured several reasons. Like him, I hold that part of the the conspicuous backwardness of the region has much to do with the way the Orba government managed the country, not only this region, in the past. The Orba power is not totally gone, far from it; it is even strengthening anew and reconfiguring its power. We, however, should not forget that much of the future of Papuans will greatly rest with its local people, with its local leaders to be more more realistic, thanks to our big bag decentralization that gave it a special autonomy. Indonesia as well as its Papua is learning the hard way of how to benefit from this point of no return.

One blog post and its ensuing comments would not suffice to address the Papuan problem. But if we are really asking this question, and if we are really wanting to have a clue of some answers, we need to refrain ourselves from not being so selfish as to impose our "modern" judgement. The fact we live in cozy houses, travel by cars and read and write blogs does NOT mean we are better off or any happier than the people who live in the jungles. The fact that, as reported from a slanting angle by the Washington Post, some Papuan families moan over their unfulfilled wishes does not necessarily mean all Papuans aspire so. The way of the world, especially as displayed in this century, has made me believe that the Papuan problems are already complicated without American presence in this land endowed with oil and copper and gold and gems...

Papuans unite! Central and local govenments, stop wasting time and resources! Americans, stay away or just go home!

Evolution Theory, Courtesy and Poetry

2006-06-27T01:07:00.000+10:00

Three articles in Kompas today caught my attention. One is on the need to reveal the hidden facts behinds the theory of evolution. This is closely related to my current preoccupation with the Charles Darwin's theory (see this post). Another is on a recent survey suggesting that Asians, including Jakartans, being among the world's least courteous peoples. Not long ago I released my free PDF e-Book on etiquettes (mind you: in Bahasa!). As a local website recorded, this e-book made itself the fouth most popular downloads in Jakarta for weeks. The other is on writing poetry as an act of celebrating simplicities in life (I'll post on this in my other blog, which is still enjoying its newest look).

To Link and Delink

2006-06-22T12:48:00.000+10:00

As I've been taking advantage of Bloglines services in viewing my favorite blogs (thanks to this post from someone named Enda), I have decided to remove all links to all the blogs under the "Blogs Frequented" category on the left side column. I'll link as the need arises in individual posts. This just best suits my blogging purposes. So, no linking, no surveiling , no backtracking! I'm going the opposite direction from what's been preached on by internet marketing gurus. *Sigh*

Transcripts of Presidential Speech at the Dokuritsu Zyubi Tyoosakai 1945

2006-06-20T18:13:00.000+10:00

Transkrip Pidato BK di Sidang Dokuritsu Zyunbi Tyoosakai, 1 Juni 1945
Sidang Dokuritsu Zyunbi Tyoosakai, 1 Juni 1945 – Ir. Sukarno

[Source to be confirmed]

Cobalah pikirkan hal ini dengan memperbandingkannya dengan manusia. Manusia pun demikian, saudara-saudara! Ibaratnya, kemerdekaan saya bandingkan dengan perkawinan. Ada yang berani kawin, lekas berani kawin, ada yang takut kawin. Ada yang berkata: Ah saya belum berani kawin, tunggu dulu gajih F.500. Kalau saya sudah mempunyai rumah gedung, sudah ada permadani, sudah ada lampu listrik, sudah mempunyai tempat tidur yang mentul-mentul, sudah mempunyai sendok-garpu perak satu kaset, sudah mempunyai ini dan itu, bahkan sudah mempunyai kinder-uitzet, barulah saya berani kawin. Ada orang lain yang berkata: saya sudah berani kawin kalau saya sudah mempunyai meja satu, kursi empat, yaitu "meja-makan", lantas satu zitje, lantas satu tempat tidur. Ada orang yang lebih berani lagi dari itu, yaitu saudara-saudara Marhaen! Kalau dia sudah mempunyai gubug saja dengan tikar, dengan satu periuk: dia kawin. Marhaen dengan satu tikar, satu gubug: kawin. Sang klerk dengan satu meja, empat kursi, satu zitje, satu tempat-tidur: kawin. Sang Ndoro yang mempunyai rumah gedung, elektrische kookplaat, tempat tidur, uang bertimbun-timbun: kawin. Belum tentu mana yang lebih gelukkig, belum tentu mana yang lebih bahagia, sang Ndoro dengan tempat tidurnya yang mentul-mentul, atau Sarinem dan Samiun yang hanya mempunyai satu tikar dan satu periuk, saudara-saudara!

Click for more (in PDF).

Humanism Revisited, Ultimate Questions Answered

2006-06-19T16:32:00.000+10:00

Remember his name: Harun Yahya. This week I have watched ten videos from this writer, whom I can only consider an extremely important thinker in our age. From him I have learned to unlearn more about Materialism, Atheism, Darwinism, as well as their seeming defensibility, and about Terrorism, than what has entered my mind through formal education. I have also learned today that far from refuting deism, and despite what's commonly believed, science has only brought man closer to the Creator.

Today I have downloaded at least ten ebooks from his website and decided to subscribe to his newsletter. In this post I would particularly quote a handful of shocking paragraphs from one of his websites: Global Free Masonry:

QUOTE:

"Humanism" is considered a positive idea by the majority of people. It brings to mind notions such as love of humanity, peace and brotherhood. But, the philosophical meaning of humanism is much more significant: humanism is a way of thinking that posits the concept of humanity as its focus and only goal. In other words, it calls human beings to turn away from God their Creator, and concern themselves with their own existence and identity. A common dictionary defines humanism as: "a system of thought that is based on the values, characteristics, and behavior that are believed to be best in human beings, rather than on any supernatural authority."33

Today, humanism has become another name for atheism. One example of this is the enthusiasm for Darwin typical in the American magazine, The Humanist.

The clearest definition of humanism, however, has been put forward by those who espoused it. One of the most prominent modern spokesmen for humanism is Corliss Lamont. In his book The Philosophy of Humanism, the author writes:

[In sum] humanism believes that nature ... constitutes the sum total of reality, that matter-energy and not mind is the foundation stuff of the universe and that supernatural entities simply do not exist. This nonreality of the supernatural means, on the human level, that men do not possess supernatural and immortal souls; and, on the level of the universe as a whole, that our cosmos does not possess a supernatural and eternal God.34

As we can see, humanism is almost identical to atheism, and this fact is freely admitted by humanists. There were two important manifestos published by humanists in the last century. The first was published in 1933, and was signed by some important individuals of that time. Forty years later, in 1973, a second humanist manifesto was published which confirmed the first, but contained some additions relative to some developments that had occurred in the meantime. Thousands of thinkers, scientists, writers and members of the media signed the second manifesto, which is supported by the still very active American Humanist Association.

When we examine the manifestos, we find one basic foundation in each of them: the atheist dogma that the universe and human beings were not created but exist independently, that human beings are not responsible to any other authority besides themselves, and that belief in God has retarded the development of individuals and societies. For example, the first six articles of the first Humanist Manifesto are as follows:

First: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

Second: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as the result of a continuous process.

Third: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

Fourth: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.

Fifth: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values...

Sixth: We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought."35

In the above articles, we see the expression of a common philosophy that manifests itself under such names as materialism, Darwinism, atheism and agnosticism. In the first article, the materialist dogma of the eternal existence of the universe is put forward. The second article states, as the theory of evolution does, that human beings were not created. The third article denies the existence of the human soul claiming that human beings are composed of matter. The fourth article proposes a "cultural evolution" and denies the existence of a divinely ordained human nature (a special human nature given in creation). The fifth article rejects God's sovereignty over the universe and humanity, and the sixth states that it is time to reject "theism," that is belief in God.

UNQUOTE.

This way to read the full article.

[To top of post]

To Escape From It All (aka "Libur Telah Tiba")

2006-06-14T19:02:00.000+10:00

Talk about the things that matter--or will, very soon. Here's a number of places you may want to go to with your family for the coming school holiday. I skimmed at it very quickly this morning and already I detected some budget-friendly activities. I found it useful; hope you, too. Note that details may differ. BTW: all credits must go to whoever has written this good list.

Karavan VilaApel Gardena.
Liburan bersama keluarga di alam pegunungan sekaligus bermalam di karavan.
Tersedia aneka fasilitas untuk orang dewasa juga anak-anak.
Harga sewa per malam Rp. 200 ribu. Untuk hari libur/raya Rp 250.000.
Alamat:
VilaApel Gardena Cipanas, Puncak.
Telp. (0263) 511 901-3, 519 856
Fax. (0263) 511 953.

Caldera Ed Venture Program (CEVP).
Di sini anak bisa bermain outbound. Biaya Rp 100.000 per anak untuk paket 1 hari.
Customer service:
Kaki Lintas Katulistiwa, Gd.NaribaPlazaUnit D-13,
JI. Mampang Prapatan Raya No. 39, Jaksel.
Telp. (021) 7919 6633. Fax. (021) 7919 6644.
Email: Calderaedventure@excite.com

Kolam Sahabat Laut.
Anak bisa memegang ikan hiu.
Harga tiket masuk Rp. 12.000 untuk Senin-Jumat dan Rp. 17.000 untuk Sabtu-Minggu dan hari libur.
Alamat:
Kolam Sahabat Laut, Sea World Indonesia,
TamanImpian Jaya Ancol, Jl. Lodan Timur No. 7 Jakarta 14430.
Telp. (021) 641 0080 ext.105 Fax. (021) 641 0079.

Museum Bahari.
Anak bisa melihat miniatur kapal tradisional Indonesia yang membawa harum nama Bangsa Indonesia, Phinisi Nusantara.
Buka dari Selasa-Minggu, tarif masuk Rp. 2.000 untuk umum.
Alamat:
Museum Bahari,
Jl. Pasar Ikan No. 1 JakartaUtara (Daerah Sunda Kelapa).
Telp. (021) 6693406. Fax. (021) 669 0518,
Email: marimus@indosat.net.id

Aquatic Fantasy.
Arena permainan air khusus anak dengan puluhan jenis permainan.
Mereka bisa memanjat, melompat, perang-perangan dalam air, berpetualang, bahkan betegur sapa dengan dewa laut Neptunus.
Tarif masuk Rp 10.000.
Alamat:
Jl. Raya Muchtar, Sawangan, Depok. Komplek Perumahan Telaga Golf.
Telp. (021) 766 0390, 765 3854. Fax. (021) 766 0490.

TamanNasional Gunung Halimun.
Anak bisa bertualang masuk-keluar hutan, melihat langsung satwa liar, dan bermain di air terjun.
Tersedia juga arena kemping dan tempat menginap.
Tiket masuk sekitar Rp. 3.000 untuk anak-anak.
Alamat:
JI. Raya Cipanas, Kabandungan. PO Box2Parung Kuda, Sukabumi.
Telp. (0266) 621 256. Fax. (0266) 621 257.

Bayt AI-quran.
Ini adalah museum, sekaligus tempat menimba ilmu mengenai agama Islam, khususnya Al-quran.
Tarif masuk Rp. 500 - Rp 1.000.
Alamat:
Jl. Raya TMII, Jakarta(Komplek TMII).
Telp. (021) 841 6467/68 Fax. (021) 8416466

TamanNasional Gunung Pantjar.
Selain piknik, anak bisa melakukan kegiatan menjaga kesehatan dan pemulihan kekuatan fisik seperti terapi akupunktur, air panas mineral.
Alamat:
TamanNasional Gunung Pantjar, Bogor.
Telp. (021) 917 3208

TamanBuah Mekarsari.
Anak bisa belajar jadi patani, malah bisa menuai, memakan, serta membawa pulang hasilnya.
Biaya Rp. 100.000 per anak.
Alamat:
Jl. Raya Cileungsi-Jonggol Km.3, Cileungsi, Bogor16820.
Telp.(021) 8231811-13 Fax. (021) 823 1475.
Email: tbm@mekarsari.com atau fruitina@rad.net.id.
Website: www.fruitina.com

Kebun Wisata Pasirmukti.
Anak bisa merasakan bagaimana indahnya hidup di alam pedesaan yang sesungguhnya.
Biaya paket anak tani Rp. 250.000 untuk 2 hari 1 malam.
Alamat:
Jl. Raya Tajur Pasirmukti KM 4, Citeureup, Bogor.
Telp.(021) 876 3564-65.

Safari Trek.
Masih dalam kawasan Taman Safari Indonesia, Cisarua, Bogor, anak bisa merasakan dirinya menjadi pendaki gunung dan penjelajah alam bebas.
Mereka pun bisa bertemu dan saling menyapa langsung dengan gajah pekerja.
Biaya Rp. 15.000 per orang.
Alamat:
TamanSafari Indonesia, Cisarua, Bogor-Jabar.
Telp (0251) 253 222.

Monumen Kapal Selam.
Di sini anak bisa melihat dan praktek langsung sebagai pengemudi kapal selam perang.
Tiket masuk Rp 2.500.
Alamat:
Jl. Pemuda 29, Surabaya
Telp. (031) 549 0410

Speedy Karting.
Sekolah gokart khusus anak dan tempat anak bermain olahraga gokart.Sewa gokart Rp. 45.000,
sekolah gokart Rp. 1,5 juta.
Alamat:
Tempat Hanggar Teras Pancoran,
JI. Gatot Subroto Kav. 72, Jaksel.
Telp. (021) 79184674.

PS * : Sekarang udah ada yang baru di Pondok Indah, setelah Pondok Indah Mal. Track-nya lebih bagus tapi program sekolah untuk anak belum tahu sudah ada apa belum.

Kampoeng Maen.
Ini adalah kampungnya anak untuk bermain.
Biaya Rp. 35.000.
Costumer Service:
Jl. Mampang Prapatan Raya No. 39 Jaksel
Telp. (021)79196633, Fax: (021) 7919 6644.

Pusat Primata Schmutzer.
Di kawasan ini anak bisa melihat secara langsung kenekaragaman hewan primata, termasuk gorila.
Tarif masuk mulai Rp. 2000.
Alamat:
TamanMargasatwa Ragunan,
JI. Harsono RM No. 1, Ragunan, Jakarta12550.
Telp. (021) 780 6975, 789 0615. Fax. (021) 780 5280

Observatorium Bosscha.
Tempat wisata ilmiah di mana anak bisa melihat bintang dan rasi/gugusan bintang.
Tarif mulai Rp. 5.000.
Alamat:
Observatorium Bosscha, Departemen Astronomi ITB, Lembang,
Bandung40391
Telp. (022) 278 6001
Email: bosscha-itb@bdg.centrin.net.id.
Website: www.bosscha.itb.ac.id

Cyber Spot.
Tempat rekreasi dan edukasi keluarga.
Alamat Jakarta:
Jl. Mega Kuningan Lt. 5 No. 1, JakartaSelatan.
Telp. (021) 579 59367

Alamat Bandung:
BandungSupermal Lt. 2, Jl. Gatot Subroto, Bandung.
Alamat Surabaya:
Jl. Pemuda 90-94, Surabaya.

MUSEUM
1. Museum sejarah Jakarta, Jl. Taman Fatahillah No. 1, Jakarta Barat
2. Museum Joang '45, Jl. Menteng Raya no. 31, Jakarta Pusat
3. Museum Wayang, Jl. Pintu Besar Utara No. 27, Jakarta Barat
4. Museum Seni Rupa dan Keramik, Jl. Pos Kota No. 2, Jakarta Barat
5. Museum Tekstil, Jl.KSTubun No. 4, JakartaBarat , Telepon & Faks : (021)5606613.
Cat: Museum ini menarik karena memberikan kursus membatik pada semua kalangan baik anak maupun dewasa. Batikannya tidak serius-serius amat kok, paling cuma membuat sapu tangan dari batik, bisa jadi tambahan ilmu yang menarik buat anak-anak. Tapi kursus ini dibagi antara :
Tingkat Dasar: teori, praktik: Molani, nglowongi, nerusi, mbironi & nglorod
Tingkat Lanjutan: teori dan praktik: ngiseni, nemboki, pencelupan, nglorod
Pokoknya biayanya Rp 150.000 untuk tingkat dasar dan another Rp 150.000 untuk lanjutan. Konfirmasi bisa ke Mis'ari (5606613/08129950644)

6. Museum Bahari, Jl. Pasar Ikan No. 1, JakartaUtara.
Cat: Disekitar museum ini ada berbagai toko cindera mata yang unik, seperti penjualan kerang atau peralatan nelayan. Tidak jauh dari tempat itu ada> restauran/ kafe galangan, yang dibuat dari bekas galangan kapal kuno. Anak-anak juga dapat diajak melihat kapal-kapal layar besar merapat, menarik sekali!

7. Museum TamanPrasasti, Jl. Tanah Abang I, Jakarta pusat
8. Gedung M.H. Thamrin, Jl. Kenari II/15, JakartaPusat
9. Museum Sumpah Pemuda, Jl. Kramat Raya No. 106, JakartaPusat
10.MuseumKebangkitan Nasional, Jl. Abdurachman Saleh No. 26, JakartaPusat
11. Museum Nasional, Jl. Merdeka Barat No. 12, Jakarta Pusat
12. Monumen Nasional, Jl. Silang Monas, JakartaPusat
13. Museum Perumusan Naskah Proklamasi, Jl. Imam Bonjol No. 1, JakartaPusat
14.MuseumABRI "Satriamandala", Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto No. 14, JakartaSelatan
15. Museum Waspada Purbawisesa, Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto No. 16, JakartaSelatan
16. Museum Ahmad Yani "Sasmitaloka", Jl. Lembang No. 58, JakartaPusat
17. Monumen Pancasila Sakti, Jl. Raya Pondok Gede Lubang Buaya, JakartaTimur
18.MuseumTNI AU "Dirgantara Mandala", Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto No. 27, JakartaSelatan
19.MuseumTNI AL "Loka Jala Srana", Cilangkap, Jakarta Timur
20. Museum POLRI, Jl. Trunojoyo No. 1, JakartaSelatan
21. MuseumKeprajuritan Indonesia, TamanMini Indonesia Indah
22.MuseumPerangko Indonesia, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
23. MuseumIndonesia, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
24. MuseumAsmat, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
25.MuseumFauna Indonesia, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
26. Museum Olah Raga, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
27. Museum Purnabhakti Pertiwi, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
28. Museum Minyak dan Gas Bumi, "Graha Widya Patra" Taman Mini Indonesia Indah
29.MuseumTelekomunikasi, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
30.MuseumIstana Kepresidenan "Puri Bhakti Renatama", Jl. Veteran No. 16, JakartaPusat
31. Museum Manggala Wanabhakti, Jl. Jend. Gatot Subroto, JakartaSelatan
32. Museum Adam Malik, Jl. Diponegoro No. 29, Jakarta Pusat
33.MuseumSerangga, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
34.MuseumPusaka, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
35.MuseumTransportasi, TamanMini IndonesiaIndah
36. Bentara Budaya Jakarta, Jl. Palmerah Selatan No. 17, JakartaBarat
37. Tosan Aji Jl. Kwitang, JakartaPusat
38. PraMuseumOnrust, Kepulauan Seribu, JakartaUtara

Menurut leaflet tentang permuseuman biaya masuk/tiket untuk dewasa rata-rata hanya Rp 1000, sedang untuk anak-anak Rp 200 (bagaimana bisa membiayai maintenance museum yah?).

LOKASI OUTBOND / AGRIWISATA

Kebun Wisata Pasir Mukti.
Lokasi sekitar 45 menit dari Jakarta, bentuknya agriwisata dimana kita bisa memetik buah, belajar menanam macam-macam, memancing, main Lumpur, memetik buah, api unggun, poco-poco dan menginap di guesthouse/ cottage.
Biaya Rp 250.000/ person untuk menginap, termasuk breakfast, lunch dan dinner.
Reservation:
Jl. Raya Tajur Pasirmukti Km. 4, Citeureup Bogor.
Ph: (021) 8763564-65, 7398808 Fax (021)8763566

Citarik One Stop Adventure.
Lokasi di citarik, Lokasi Adventure milik pasangan Lody Korua dan Amalia yunita yang pencinta alam ini memiliki berbagai kegiatan seru dan menarik, diantaranya: adventure rafting trip, terus ada cottage yang seru-seru (misalnya dibuat dari tenda atau kayu-kayu/tradisional cottage, pokoknya seperti camping deh), terus ada BBQ, family trecking trip, paintball, adventure offroad trip terus ada lokasi outdoor experiential education untuk anak-anak yang aman dan seru.
Pokoknya lokasi ini seru banget terutama untuk anak-anak cowok yang sudah SD ke atas!!!!
Biaya: antara Rp44.000 s/d Rp 350.000, tergantung kegiatan yang dipilih.
Reservation:
PT Lintas Jeram Nusantara, Graha macula, Ground Floor,
Jl. K.H. Abdullah Syafi'ie No. 5 (d/h: Jl. Lapangan Roos Raya) Jakarta 12840.
Ph. (021) 8355885, 9259230, 0811103397, Fax: (021) 8314834

Tanah Tingal.
Tempat rekreasi keluarga, anak dan agrowisata dengan fasilitas kolam renang, restauran (menunya pasundan euy, bisa dipesan dan jadi kegiatan andalan di sini soalnya katanya enak pisan) pondok seni, taman bermain dengan permainan tradisional, kebun pembibitan, peternakan, jalur sepeda, tempat berkemah, pondok menginap serta rumah pohon untuk anak 5 - 15 thn dengan paket sesuai permintaan.
Reservation:
Jl. Merpati Raya no. 32 B, Desa Sawah Baru, Jombang,
Ciputat 15400, Tanggerang.
Ph. 7433131

Agro Wisata Tanaman Obat.
Terletak di desa Karyasari, Leuwlliang, Bogor, di sini ada 420 jenis tanaman obat, disana bisa sambil wisata boga, makan makanan sunda! Biaya Rp 75.000,- plus pemandu penjelasan keliling kebun.
Jl. Raya Karacak-Cianten KM 10, Desa Karyasari, Leuwiliang, Bogor,
telp. (0251) 42872438

Program Pulang Kampung desa Cinangneng.
Letak 1 km dari kampus IPB, Dermaga Jl. Babakan Kemang RT1, RW2, Cihideung, Kec. Ciampea, Bogor.
Untuk weekend sama keluarga bisa nyewa 1 vila untuk 2 orang Rp 300.000,
Atau satu bungalow dengan dua kamar, @ Rp 275.000,- termasuk makan 3 kali, sama tour de desa.

Tapi yang seru kalau group, min. 20 orang @ Rp 215.000,-
Itu termasuk makan 3 kali plus snack 2 kali plus tour de desa, belajar bercocok tanam, belajar main gamelan dan tari sunda, belajar membuat permainan anak desa, memandikan kerbau, main di sungai, malam: ronda desa sambil di jamu di rumah penduduk, api unggun dan makan jagung bakar...seru enggak tuuuuuuh!!!!!

Sekolah Layar Nasional.
Kontak person: Tjatjang Hidayat, Jl. Lodan Timur Marine.
Taman Impian Jaya Ancol Jkt. Ph. 9220340, fax: 3150285.
Konon tempat ini menyediakan beberapa kegiatan air yang menarik
LIBURAN BERKUALITAS (BERLIBUR SAMBIL BELAJAR!)

Doctor Rabbit Science & adventures Preschool.
Kadang kalau liburan tempat ini menyediakan camping untuk anak-anak dimana anak bisa bermain di alam terbuka sambil bereksperimen science sederhana.
Jl. Taman Sari I No. 77, Karang Tengah Lebak Bulus, Jaksel
Ph: 7508371-7694786

My Playground.
Jl. Margasatwa No. 16, Pondok Labu, Jakarta Belajar art ngelukis dan clay) untuk ngisi waktu libur

Klub Dino.
Ruko Bona Indah A1-A2, Jl. Karang Tengah Lebak Bulus, Jakarta Selatan.
Biasanya tiap libur, klub ini buat paket-paket liburan untuk belajar ngebatik, potery, ngelukis dan kegiatan-kegiatan art lain!
Belajar renang, tennis dan taekwondo. Peekaboo.
Apartemen Taman Rasuna, Kuningan Tower 7 Lower Ground.
Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, Jakarta

Tempat Keramik Widjayanto.
Jl. Curug Agung No. 1, Tanah Baru (Dekat Depok Mulya III).
Ph. 7737685/86.
Di sini juga ada restoran dengan makanan buatan si mbok yang sedap banget, dan anak-anak juga belajar bikin keramik, sementara si ibu-ibu bisa window shopping!!!

(Semoga penuilis tulisan yang berisi daftar cukup lengkap ini dapat mengontak saya agar dapat saya cantumkan sumber tulisan ini. Maaf telah memosting di sini tanpa ijin terlebih dahulu.)

06/19/06 UPDATE BY TQ:

Situ Gintung Outbond!

Jangan lewatkan tempat ini. Salah satu kebanggaan Ciputat: "Pulau" Situ Gintung, Ciputat. Baru direnovasi dan dikembangkan: Sarana ideal keluarga untuk berenang dan bersenang, camping ground, artificial cliff/rock climbing, mancing di danau, dll.
Masuk dari Jl. Kertamukti Ciputat, tidak jauh dari UIN Ciputat alamat lengkap menyusul.

(Most possibly the main source of this article is a Mr.Afri of the Klub Mawar miling list. If so, all credits go to him.)

[To top of post]

Social Sciences, Power and Our Last Agent of Change

2006-06-12T03:35:00.000+10:00

I've been wishful thinking and mistaken. Recently I realized it with both disappointment and relief. But the unfolding World Cup matches have cheered me up over the ambivalence. A moment ago the Dutch just beat the Serbia-Montenegro team, 1-0. I can't imagine what would have been with us it there hadn't been the 1998 world cup in June, less than a month after the bloody May riot leading to Soeharto's downfall. I still hold it that one of the no less major factors that did help call down the tumultuous situation and saved many lives is that football--or soccer. But I've just been meandering.

I need to revise my opinion on the role the Indonesian middle class can play in solving Indonesia's problems. Earlier I said that the only hope for betterment would come from them. When thinking of it I was more hoping against hopes. Well, the situation with Indonesia has been bleaker than I thought.

Most middle-class families and businesspeople simply don't know what to do. Most of them tend to favor the status quo. To be terribly blunt, the situation that-has-been has helped them accumulate, maintain and enjoy the status. Rather than saying let's fix it while there is time, the adage is if it ain't broken, why fix it? I know; moments sometimes repeat themselves when I see myself in Them. When these moments flicker, I feel ashamed, gloomy and sorry.

In their new book Social Sciences and Power in Indonesia published by Equinox in January 2006, Vedi R. Hadiz and Daniel Dhakidae have well succeeded in portraying how in the last 50 years social sciences in Indonesia have passed out, its scientists hijacked by the power-that-be as well as, more menacingly, by external power that comes along with borderless businesses.

To have read it is to be made reflective on what I've mostly blogged about in the past two years. Personally, this book has given me confirmation, revealing the roots of the problems and why most of us have dwelled and will still dwell on for a long time in the rut. Why doesn't this book conclude? Because it cannot. Damages of larger dimension are yet to be done and there is no stopping it today. Maybe tomorrow; which is why this book is must-read by, highly pertinent and very important to all social scientists and the general public to get overarching pictures of our own follies and the "grand" narratives.

In his Kompas review Herry B. Priyono tried to conclude, aptly too, that Indonesia's social scientists need to take a distance from power, whose performance has resulted in patterns of problems. Thinking beyond the confine of what this book explores, I have qualms if we are allowed or can afford to appeal so. I tend to believe the state of the affair is not uniquely Indonesian, a young country despite its status as the fourth largest. If I pursued further that the scientist-bureaucrat symbiosis was natural amidst human resource scarcity, I think I would be inacurate. This didn't happen in Indonesia's neighbors (e.g. South Korea, Malaysia), at least in terms of scale.

If we can agree how the ghosts of the New Order has lingered with such might after nearly a decade, so can we have mental pictures as to what kind of apparition international business players (i.e. with mightier capital, know-how and pragmatic philosophy), will be in Indonesia once the discourse of neo-liberalism has perfectly entered the "second institutional realm" (as put by one of the writers, Alexander Irwan, Ch. 2).

By the same token, it will be unlikely to wish for those clutching power to say oh, oh, look what we have done and let's try to untangle the mess. It would ask for their political demise. This line of thoughts only leaves us with the last agent of change: the people.

Yes, rakyat, the people at large. Why, who is rakyat? Doesn't the middle class also belong as the "people"? Isn't it too much to expect from them? Wouldn't it be another wishful thinking? How? I too asked these questions. But, if you think about it, you will agree that they're the last agent of change; our last hopes. To me the seeming impossibility only means that it is going to be an uphill battle, not an overnight endeavor.

[To top of post]

Uneconomics of The World's Soccer Championship Prediction

2006-06-10T03:33:00.000+10:00

Someone forwarded me a soccer world cup prediction made by a group of 'economists' soothsaying that the Italians will beat the Brazillians at the final next month. Their analysis is elaborate, the presentation beautiful. Time itself would oscilate whether to treat them as oracles or simply ridiculous wiseguys. Seeing from how the financial world makes decisions, however, it may no doubt affect some people, such as how betters bet in the betting games; more or less. At some rate the prediction will prove self-fulfilling or -defeating, and at either case we're bound to attach a definite conclusion to it.

The case in point shows how powerful economics has been in most aspects of living. If our old Earth continues to be raped at this very moment, the strongest justifications have been, first of all, thanks to our mistaking the notion of or manipulating this youngest science. Economics at its best may be able to show us what the Italians need to do to thrive over the Samba team. But it cannot be used meaningfully to predict terresterial human actions, especially when the two teams as well as the other 30 are competing against one another for one same economic goods. Too many variables unknown; too many intangibles. Still wonder why the World Cup is always a promise of surprises?

Update August 2006: Please see my own comment below.

New Ebook for Young Indonesians

2006-06-05T19:34:00.000+10:00

Ready for download, Menjadi Lebih Baik, my new ebook joyfully presented to young Indonesians--upon whom rests the hope for a better Indonesia (yeah, don't trust anyone over 40!). Written in Indonesian, it is about basic must-know etiquettes; mostly based on my musings and personal gaffes. Still draft, but already readable. Free. Please see Download below...

Updated at 21:38PM: ... or click here. (If it doesn't work. Right click on it instead, and Save Target As.) Let me know what you think of it.

Of Forgiving and Forgetting

2006-06-02T10:54:00.000+10:00

Our history, as some writers have put it, is the struggle against forgetting. And in spite of our fondness to whatever extraordinary, the fabric of history is spun daily out of the ordinary. If some days seem to outstand the rest, they are so because the of the days preceding have made them so.

Time has ushered Indonesia these days to a point where its people--to be precise a bunch of people with power thrust upon, or looted into their hands--will have to decide what kind of memories they want to come down with their history; if not for the future generation then for the shape of their sake, the rest of Indonesians being led by the nose to the verge of a most important milestone in its nearly eight decades of existence (taking the first "national" movement in 1928 into account, that is).

This is about what Indonesians should do with Suharto, their former, second, longest serving, and richest president. The pertinent question around this Smiling General: should we forgive him? Having ruled Indonesia for over 30 years, he is old and sickly now; his teams of doctors have said he suffers an incurable permanent brain damage.

Should we forgive him?

I'd say, to ask so is to be tendentious and inappropriate. In fact, it would be cruel of us because it would assume an established legal verdict over his culpability. Forgive him for what? Some sort of culpability is necessary if we are to forgive. What and how has he wronged? On what trial was he charged? Which judge declared of his malevolence? We cannot forgive one who did nothing wrong. If we still do, we can't mean what we do.

The Indonesian law dictates on the presumption of innocence. Until proven otherwise Indonesians, therefore, should assume he is innocent. Yet the act of proving itself is compulsory.

Behind the guise of the on and off efforts of taking this powerful man as the subject of our legal inquiry, the real concern is our own future.

Why, because we are writing our own history. Now. For our history to be useful, it needs to be able to give us a sense of departure towards a better future, rather than to bring us back to the drawing board and start anew each time a new year promises each of us another birthday.

Eighty years may be short for a nation, but to individuals in most countries it has exceeded their average life expectancy.

How are we to view the score? 80 years can be a long period of learning and unlearning. It can also mean a short blink of 1 year repeated 80 times. Are we to go back to the drawing board?

Therefore, we must prove it; that he is innocent. Not only are big hearted Indonesians prepared to forgive. We are even ready to apologize.

Beyond Condolence

2006-05-29T14:38:00.000+10:00

At this moment whilst the many dead bodies are not yet burried, when the injured are literally waiting in the rain for medical care, when cries are being wept, condolences and sympathies are only good for politicians and bureacrats. They woud hardly save a soul or make the wounded feel any better or wiser. Nearly 5,000 lives ended and many homes destroyed sicne my last post! I wanted to express this sorrow of course, but what the Yogyakartans need more is real help. NOT WORDS.

At this moment I'm ashamed of and would like to curse myself--for thinking this way, and for not being able to reach out let alone help out. No one can be really prepared for such ever-clandestine disasters; still first-aid emergency measures could have been better. A better system needs to be in place. NOT ONE, EVER, RELYING ON CHARITY.

Long Weekend At...

2006-05-23T16:26:00.000+10:00

See how a local government advertises half-page of its outrageous stupidity, blatant folly, and unethical vision in Kompas today.

The Government of Kabupaten Sleman.
Jl. Pasaramnya, Beran, Tridadi, Seleman, Yogyakarta
http://www.sleman.go.id.

Witness the minute to minute eruption of Mount Merapi, a rare natural event in the world...
LONG WEEKEND AT...MERAPI

blah, blah, blah...

Merapi Slope, 25-28 May 2006

Information contact: 0274-898350/868405 ext. 1150.
This public service commercial for "Kaliurang and Tourism Recovery" is from the Government of Kabupaten Sleman.

To Will Oneself Free

2006-05-20T11:14:00.000+10:00

"To will oneself free is to effect the transition from nature to morality by establishing a genuine freedom on the original upsurge of our existence."

"Bertindak bebas adalah bertindak etis, penuh petimbangan dan kepedulian, bukan didorong oleh impuls sesaat."

Simone de Beauvoir quoted in Mengungkap Selubung Kekerasan: Telaah Filsafat Manusia by E. Kristi Poerwandari, 2004.

Waiting for the Night Train

2006-05-17T12:35:00.000+10:00

Note: This updates the previous, now deleted, post: Investment: Barking the Wrong Tree

Anybody who is somebody or nobody in the economic realm--ministers, authorities, economists, journalists, laypersons, etc-consciously or not, is preoccupied with growth. As we often hear, "In order to create jobs to such and such percent, we need to increase growth to such and such percent." Another variant from economists: "To contribute to growth by such and such percent, we need to increase electricity (or whatever variable) to such and such percent. This is based on our econometric modelling, which was based on empirical evidence."

Kita terlanjur harus percaya pada pertumbuhan, one would say in Indonesian. Inundated by waves of economic gospel, we have been converted to believe in growth. In today's international intercourse, we join the mainstream, albeit awkwardly and relatively safely to date.

So, in Growth we trust. We think we know well what triggers it: fiscal stimuli, consumption, and investment. In the case of Indonesia, they are fully aware that relying on fiscal stimulus is not possible "thanks" to the mounting debts to service. Dependence on consumption is unsustainable; 95% of the population barely has disposable income or the marginal propensity to consume.

Thus the belief solidifies that Indonesia has to resort to investment: specifically, foreign investment. Let's call it investment of the first degree. Through it we will get the real sector moving. This is the light at the end of our tunnel, our "only" hope. Foreign investment is a night train (and we've hoped for an express one) with bright headlight heading toward us through our dark ages.

For the express train to come unhampered conducive environment is needed. And for this conducive environment, infrastructure is needed; market sentiment, too, must be maintained.

Yet all this conducive environment, infrastructure, maintenance of sentiments, is, strictly speaking, investment in itself, which needs to be satisfied through provision of some other conducive environment, infrastructure and maintenance. Shall we not call it investment of the lesser degree?

It is the nature of capital that it is enamored to profit-excepting the rare acts of philanthropy, a concept borrowed from the spiritual world. Capital, or money--to put it bluntly, has no nationality; nor have the slightest interest in nationalism. Profit making, literally or metaphorically, is essentially the basic purpose of human economic activities: to derive or create values based on existing production factors.

Profit in the business and economic sense can be derived through profit-generating projects. The drive toward profit making, in its pure intention, has nothing to do with a country development. But in the search for profit, business entities inevitably encounter and deal with governments.

Governments are no business entities. Their conceptual and existential purposes are beyond that of the latter. It is a fatal naiveté to believe that such express night trains want to take us anywhere we want.

Who, by the way, will take care of non-income generating projects, such as public roads, hospitals, bridges? Who will fix the portholes roads in front of our houses? Government? Should be. But a cash-strapped government like Indonesia's? Only with difficulty! Where would it get the fund? Investment by the first degree? Only if it is promised profitability. Debts (the first or lesser degree)? Here we go again, to the fiscally paralyzing factor.

Amid Indonesia's yearning for investment, some key questions are left unaddressed--not even adequately asked: What if investment doesn't help? What if the express night train of the first degree only passes us by? Worse, what if it turns out to be one that will crush us? What will we have left to explain? What will be our sources of hope?

Future of a Nation

2006-05-11T15:31:00.000+10:00

The future of any nation greatly depends on its energy resource--energy as well as the shrewdness of its utilization being a truest indicator of a nation's wealth. The way a nation treats (its need for) energy determines its own life and how other nations will relate to it. This may be a sorry fact, but that's the way how the cowboyish world is being run, when peace is placed between two smoking guns.

Whether or not a nation's name remains written on or will be swept away from the International Map must connect with it. Nuclear energy, like globalization itself, has been here to stay, and so it would take a very naïve leader to ignore its importance. What Iraq has beneath its soil is energy that can power the entire world for hundreds of year, but what has happened to it?

So I feel sorry for the Jakarta Post's article today which instead of focusing on substance chose to impart its biased opinions. It is still a world of perceptions we live in, of course, but why not let readers shape their own? Would be more enlightening for the readers to hear what Ahmadinejad had to say about the US and the West, rather than to be concocted with sentiments as to how they should view this president, and their own.

PDB dan Pertumbuhan Ekonomi (2 - Tamat)

2006-04-05T02:36:00.000+10:00

Bagian pertama dari tulisan ini menjelaskan apa sebenarnya yang secara populer dikenal sebagai PDB dan pertumbuhan ekonomi. Dijelaskan, apa saja konsep dasar dan prinsip utama yang penting untuk memahami statistik-statistik nasional tersebut, dan mengapa pemerintah memerlukannya. Menurut penulis, asumsi dan prinsip dasar yang dipakai dalam perhitungan pertumbuhan ekonomi sangat problematis sehingga perhitungannya rawan terhadap berbagai macam distorsi yang tidak sepatutnya diabaikan.

Seperti dijelaskan dalam buku teks IMF, Financial Programming, perbaikan peningkatan kualitas barang juga tidak dapat direfleksikan dengan baik dalam akunting nasional. Contoh klasiknya adalah komputer, yang harganya cenderung turun meskipun kualitasnya membaik. Dalam hal ini, kontribusi teknologi dalam peningkatan kualitas barang/jasa, yang sebenarnya meningkatkan utilitas dan dengan demikian meningkatkan standar hidup manusia, tidak dapat diukur dalam PDB. Di sisi lain, banyak produk barang/jasa produksi berkualitas rendah, sehingga masyarakat harus membeli lagi dan lagi walaupun tingkat kepuasan mereka tidak meningkat. Sementara PDB diyakini sebagai ukuran standar hidup, tindakan ekonomi semacam ini akan meningkatkan PDB tanpa ada kontribusinya terhadap peningkatan kepuasan atau standar hidup.

Salah satu alasan mengapa pendapatan nasional disebut bruto adalah karena PDB ikut menghitung aktivitas yang tidak menghasilkan perubahan fisikal secara netto. Upaya pembangunan kembali rumah penduduk Aceh yang dilantak tsunami, misalnya, akan terhitung dalam PDB dan menyiratkan peningkatan standar hidup rakyat, meskipun apa yang dilakukan sebagian penduduk Aceh adalah merestorasi apa yang musnah. Dari contoh ini terlihat bahwa perhitungan PDB cenderung bias dalam menilai terlalu tinggi (overestimate) standar hidup.

Perdagangan lintas-batas antarperusahaan juga berpotensi distorsif. Sebuah perusahaan Indonesia dapat menyiasati pajak dengan jalan melakukan kegiatan usaha lewat Singapura; perusahaan tersebut dapat mendirikan kantor di Singapura untuk membeli produknya sendiri dengan murah dan menjualnya kembali untuk keuntungan yang tinggi dan pajak yang lebih rendah melalui Singapura. Kegiatan tersebut akan meningkatkan PDB Singapura.

PDB tidak dapat menjelaskan berapa besar sumber daya alam yang harus diekstrasi atau terdegradasi untuk membiayai pembangunan. Yang dianggap penting dalam persamaan PDB adalah berapa besar pengeluaran tanpa memerdulikan asal pembiayaan, apakah itu dari penggadaian sumber daya alam atau sumber lainnya. Dari sini cukup tersirat bahwa tingkat pertumbuhan diukur tanpa pertimbangan sama sekali terhadap kesinambungannya. Suatu negara dapat saja mencapai PDB yang tinggi melalui eksploitasi besar-besaran sumber daya alamnya. Contoh kontemporernya adalah negara penghasil minyak yang kini menjadi importer minyak.

Sekalipun diandaikan bahwa PDB dapat mengukur hasil produksi nasional secara akurat, satu pertanyaan terpenting adalah: bagaimana halnya dengan distribusi “keuntungan” yang datang bersama pertumbuhan ekonomi? Dalam konteks ini, mungkin ada gunanya membandingkan sebuah negara dengan sebuah perusahaan. Meskipun tampaknya serupa, karakteristik keduanya sangat berbeda. Bagi perusahaan, yang terpenting adalah biaya produksi dan hasil penjualan; segenap kegiatan usahanya diarahkan untuk mencapai satu tujuan: keuntungan, dan distribusi keuntungan merupakan hal yang gamblang berdasarkan kontribusi atau kepemilikan modal. Bagi sebuah negara, tujuan utamanya adalah menciptakan kesejahteraan rakyatnya secara adil; sayangnya, kesejahteraan tersebut biasanya tidak dipandang sebagai profit, baik secara ekonomi maupun secara akunting.

Apabila PDB yang ternyata sarat distorsi ini tidak dapat menangkap kontribusi teknologi dalam meningkatkan kepuasan pengguna barang/jasa, tidak dapat memperhitungkan kesinambungan pertumbuhan, dan tidak dapat menyiratkan bagaimana pendapatan didistribusikan, maka sulit meyakini bahwa instrumen tersebut dapat dipakai untuk mengukur standar hidup atau kesejahteraan masyarakat. Singkat kata, pertumbuhan ekonomi yang diukur dari perubahan nilai PDB riil adalah angka kasar yang jika dipahami secara harfiah dapat menyesatkan, khususnya oleh mereka yang tidak mampu (mau) membedakan penyebab pertumbuhan dan segala konsekuensinya.

Sementara PDB berikut pertumbuhan ekonomi berfungsi sebagai alat ukur yang secara serius sudah terkendala sejak tahap gagasannya, popularitas pemakaiannya justru semakin lama semakin meningkat. Mengutip seorang ekonom Brazil, Anthony Mueller, perekonomian nasional tidak dapat diibaratkan sebagai sebuah labu besar yang ditanam pemerintah yang akan tumbuh matang dan yang ukurannya dapat dipastikan di setiap kwartal bulanan, atau diperbandingkan dari satu musim ke musim berikutnya. Namun, pemahaman simplistik demikianlah yang umumnya beredar, yang dilandasi oleh kekeliruan berpikir mengenai produksi, distribusi, dan penetapan kebijakan ekonomi.

Penutup

Sebagai penutup, tulisan ini ingin mengingatkan bahwa Indonesia tidak memerlukan contoh lain dari negara lain. Jika ada hikmah yang dapat dipetik dari sejarah pembangunan perekonomian kita selama ini, hal tersebut adalah bahwa mengejar pertumbuhan ekonomi dalam pembangunan semata akan semakin menjerumuskan kita ke jurang kemiskinan. Tujuan berbangsa tidak dapat direduksi dalam angka, dan PDB serta pertumbuhan ekonomi, sebagai instrumen tak-sempurna, tidak dapat dijadikan sebagai tujuan.

(***)

PDB dan Pertumbuhan Ekonomi - (1)

2006-04-04T02:39:00.000+10:00

Posting berikut dan posting lanjutannya adalah hasil revisi saya terhadap dua tulisan yang pernah saya kirim ke dan ditolak oleh surat kabar Kompas (alasan penolakan: gaya penulisannya terlalu akademik.) :D

Salah satu statistik yang dianggap sebagai cara terbaik untuk mengetahui kinerja perekonomian nasional adalah Produk Domestik Bruto (PDB) serta statistik turunannya yang bernama pertumbuhan ekonomi. Sehari-hari kedua istilah tersebut dipakai secara luas oleh para ekonom dan pembuat kebijakan dalam paparan mereka mengenai berbagai fenomena perekonomian. Yang sering luput dalam pembahasan mereka, antara lain karena keterbatasan ruang, adalah beberapa pertanyaan mendasar yang sangat penting bagi pemahaman pembaca, seperti: apa sih sebenarnya PDB dan pertumbuhan itu? Apa manfaatnya? Apa pula bahayanya? Sambil mengajak pembaca untuk memahami secara kritis konsep-konsep tersebut, tulisan ini juga mencoba membahas sejumlah kelemahan mendasar di balik perhitungan PDB dan pertumbuhan, dan menjelaskan pada titik mana penggunaan konsep tersebut dapat menjadi sangat berbahaya.

Per definisi, PDB adalah nilai total produksi semua barang dan jasa dalam suatu perekonomian yang dinyatakan dalam satuan uang (misalnya Rupiah). Bagaimana PDB diukur? Caranya, total nilai berbagai macam barang dan jasa diagregasikan. Namun karena berton-ton baja tidak mungkin dijumlahkan begitu saja dengan, misalnya, produksi roti, maka proses agregasi dilakukan berdasarkan nilai uang produksi barang-barang tersebut. Di Indonesia PDB diukur setiap tiga bulanan dan tahunan oleh Biro Pusat Statistik (BPS).

Nilai total pendapatan nasional dalam satuan harga sekarang disebut dengan PDB nominal. Nilainya tentu berubah dari waktu ke waktu, seiring dengan perubahan kuantitas produksi barang/jasa atau dalam harga dasarnya. Jika nilai nominal ini dihitung dalam harga yang tetap atau dipatok, didapatlah nilai PDB riil. Untuk menghitung nilai riil tersebut dipilihlah satu tahun dasar—misalnya tahun 2000. Kemudian, nilai semua barang dan jasa dihitung berdasarkan harga masing-masing yang berlaku pada tahun tersebut. Karena harga barang sudah tetap, PDB riil dianggap hanya berubah sesuai dengan adanya perubahan kuantitas barang/jasa. Perubahan PDB ini mencerminkan perubahan kuantitas output produksi secara riil. Inilah yang sehari-hari disebut dengan pertumbuhan ekonomi. Jadi yang disebut sebagai “pertumbuhan ekonomi” tidak lain mengacu pada peningkatan nilai total barang dan jasa yang diproduksi dalam sebuah perekonomian.

“Manfaat” PDB dan Pertumbuhan

Pemerintah berkepentingan memantau fluktuasi pendapatan nasional, baik dalam jangka pendek maupun panjang. Dalam jangka pendek, PDB dipakai untuk mengukur serta mengantisipasi fluktuasi kegiatan ekonomi. Dalam konteks ini dikenal dua macam pendapatan nasional: yaitu yang aktual atau yang terealisasi; dan yang potensial, atau yang mungkin dicapai jika seluruh potensi produksi dengan segenap faktornya—tanah, tenaga kerja dan kapasitas produktifnya—beroperasi maksimal. Selisih antara output potensial dan aktual, yang dikenal sebagai kesenjangan PDB, dengan demikian dapat dikuantifikasi.

Kesenjangan ini dikatakan positif jika pendapatan potensial lebih besar daripada yang aktual. Keadaan semacam ini sering diasosiasikan sebagai periode resesi. Sebaliknya, kesenjangan disebut negatif jika nilai pendapatan potensial lebih kecil daripada realisasi pendapatan. Kondisi demikian sering disebut sebagai periode economic boom. Kesenjangan negatif dapat terjadi karena produksi aktual diukur dalam tingkat utilisasi faktor produksi secara normal (misalnya: jam kerja normal). Baik kesenjangan negatif maupun yang positif diyakini sama-sama berisiko. Tingkat produksi yang rendah menandakan adanya kemubaziran faktor-faktor produksi dan dapat mengakibatkan penderitaan rakyat (seperti pengangguran, misalnya). Periode economic boom juga mengandung bahaya laten, antara lain berupa tingkat inflasi yang tinggi.
Selain itu ilmu ekonomi mengenal konsep PDB per kapita. Statistik ini mencerminkan pendapatan rata-rata penduduk, yang dihitung dengan cara membagi angka total PDB riil dengan jumlah populasi nasional. PDB per kapita sering dijadikan indikator rata-rata standar hidup. Dengan demikian, pertumbuhan ekonomi dianggap sebagai indikator peningkatan standar hidup. Mengingat hampir semua negara dengan taat menghitung PDB kwartalan dan tahunannya, pembandingan kasar standar-hidup antarnegara pun dimungkinkan.

Dengan adanya PDB pemerintah dianggap dapat mengukur dan memperbandingkan kinerja perekonomian serta melihat seberapa besar dampak, efektivitas dan efisiensi intervensi pemerintah terhadap perekonomian. Seberapa besar pentingnya dan apa justifikasi intervensi pemerintah dalam perekonomian nasional adalah isu yang cukup mendasar, tetapi hal ini bukan topik dalam tulisan ini.
Cukuplah ditekankan di sini bahwa, dalam kaitan antara pertumbuhan ekonomi dan intervensi pemerintah, pertumbuhan ekonomi lebih berfaedah sebagai panduan jangka panjang. Menurut sejumlah ekonom, pertumbuhan ekonomi, dalam tingkat yang moderat sekalipun dipercaya akan berefek besar dalam jangka panjang. Beberapa ekonom bahkan berani menyimpulkan, pertumbuhan rata-rata senilai 2.5% per tahun akan menyebabkan peningkatan 2x lipat PDB dalam waktu 30 tahun; pertumbuhan rata-rata 3% per tahun akan menyebabkan peningkatan serupa dalam 24 tahun; dan 8% selama 10 tahun saja!

Prinsip Utama Perhitungan PDB dan Pertumbuhan

Berdasarkan tinjauan penulis terhadap beberapa buku teks ekonomi, dapatlah dirangkum di sini (meskipun dengan risiko terlalu menyederhanakan), bahwa penjelasan umum mengenai PDB dan sistem akunting pendapatan nasional, biasanya berangkat dengan pengandaian terhadap perhitungan produksi total di suatu negara rekaan di mana outputnya berupa satu atau dua barang saja--misalnya apel dan jeruk. Karena perekonomian nasional dalam dunia nyata melibatkan begitu banyak barang dan jasa yang rumit, penjumlahan agregat semuanya ke dalam konstruk statistik PDB memerlukan sejumlah prinsip utama, di antaranya sebagai berikut:

Prinsip pertama menyangkut harga pasar atas barang/jasa. Untuk menghitung total nilai aneka barang dan jasa secara nasional diperlukan patokan harga pasar nilai. Di negara rekaan yang memproduksi empat apel seharga Rp 500 per biji dan 3 jeruk seharga Rp 400 per biji, maka nilai PDB-nya adalah Rp 3.200.

Prinsip kedua menyangkut perlakuan akunting nasional terhadap barang mentah, barang setengah jadi, dan barang jadi, untuk menghindari perhitungan ganda atas nilai barang/jasa. Pertimbangannya, banyak barang dibuat secara bertahap; kebanyakan barang mentah perlu diproses sebelum menjadi barang setengah jadi oleh satu perusahaan dan kemudian dijual ke perusahan lain untuk proses akhir. Jadi PDB hanya mengukur nilai tambah dari setiap barang final saja. Dari sudut pandang ini, nilai PDB dipahami sebagai total nilai tambah yang diciptakan oleh segenap pelaku ekonomi.

Prinsip ketiga menyangkut proses imputasi, atau proses perkiraan harga barang/jasa yang tidak dijual di pasar atau yang tidak tidak memiliki harga pasar, sebagaimana akan dijabarkan lebih lanjut di bawah.

Selanjutnya, penjelasan PDB biasanya dituntaskan dengan pengakuan santun bahwa PDB bukanlah ukuran sempurna terhadap kegiatan ekonomi dan bahwa ketidaksempurnaan ini akan kian problematik bila statistik tersebut dijadikan pembanding standar hidup antarnegara. Terlepas dari itu, sejumlah buku teks menyatakan secara eksplisit bahwa ketidaksempurnaan dalam pengukurannya mohon dianggap sebagai “sesuatu yang dapat diabaikan.”

***

Syarat utama bagi setiap upaya pengukuran adalah adanya obyek yang dapat diidentifikasi dan diukur dengan suatu standar tetap pengukuran. Awal “ketidaksempurnaan” dalam pengukuran PDB ini, jika tidak dapat dikatakan “kemustahilan,” bermulai seketika dari sini, ketika konstruk statistik ini diandaikan dan secara “berjamaah” diyakini mampu mengukur aneka ragam obyek yang sebagian besar tidak dapat diidentifikasi secara memadai, dengan menggunakan standar ukuran, yang juga selalu berubah, bernama: harga atau harga pasar.
Apa sesungguhnya yang disebut dengan harga itu? Harga, yang dinyatakan dalam ukuran uang, sebenarnya tidak mengukur apa-apa. Kalimat yang menyatakan bahwa “Harga barang anu adalah sekian rupiah,” belum cukup dapat dimaknai tanpa konteks waktunya. Meskipun beberapa komoditi memiliki sensitivitas rendah terhadap harga, makna ekonomis dari harga pada dasarnya selalu relatif. Harga barang/jasa selalu mencerminkan rasio pertukaran dengan barang/jasa lain di pasar pada kurun tertentu. Harga tidak diukur dalam uang; harga merupakan elemen utama (consist in) uang. Yang dianggap sebagai harga saat ini sebenarnya cerminan harga di masa lalu atau harga yang diperkirakan atas nilai suatu barang/jasa di masa depan (Mises: Human Action, ed.4, 1996). Sebuah harga niscaya merupakan fakta historis masa lalu ataupun masa depan. Di dalamnya tidak terdapat elemen lain yang “memungkinkan kita memperbandingkan pengukuran harga barang/jasa dengan dengan pengukuran fenomena fisika atau kimia" (Mueller: 2006).

Dengan demikian angka perhitungan PDB nominal sejak awal akan langsung terdistorsi. Ketika nilai riilnya dihitung, distorsi pun terjadi sekali lagi, sebab prosesnya menggunakan indeks harga yang barang/jasa yang sudah ditentukan terlebih dahulu secara arbitrer (biasanya pada satu tahun saat tingkat inflasinya rendah, agar hasil agregasi PDB akan terhitung tinggi).

Penerapan proses imputasi menimbulkan permasalahan serius. Dalam banyak hal PDB tidak mengukur apa yang seharusnya terukur, dan justru mengukur apa-apa yang tidak seharusnya diukur. Salah satu alasannya adalah karena banyak sekali komoditas barang/jasa yang termasuk dalam imputable; alasan lain adalah karena sejumlah kegiatan bermanfaat dianggap sebagai tidak bernilai ekonomis.
Sekadar contoh: sebagian besar jasa atau kegiatan domestik dalam rumah tangga, seperti memperbaiki rumah, memasak, dan lain-lain yang dilakukan secara mandiri tidak termasuk kegiatan yang bernilai secara ekonomi, paling tidak secara langsung, seperti misalnya kegiatan dalam menanggulangi polusi atau KKB. Sebaliknya, transaksi ekonomi yang terjadi dalam underground economy atau black market, yaitu jenis kegiatan ekonomi yang luput, baik sengaja ataupun tidak, dari jangkauan statistik, tidak tercatat. Di negara-negara berkembang, jumlah pelaku ekonomi begitu besar dan kegiatan ekonomi sektor informal sangat beragam. Kenyataan bahwa PDB tidak menghitung kegiatan transaksi ekonomi yang tidak tercatat atau yang sifatnya non-moneter merupakan satu penyebab terjadinya distorsi atau abnormalitas dalam perhitungan PDB.

(Bersambung)

Musings - Part 3 (Finished)

2006-03-07T15:20:00.000+11:00

The point I have been trying to get across is that if Indonesia is to liberate itself from post-modern collonialism, rekindle the meaningfulness of "Indonesian nationalism", and position itself proudly among other nations, there must be a movement within and amongst the middle class. Ratu Adil will never come; Indonesia's second independence will greatly rely on the middle class: their awareness and sacrifices. I may not know the details of what I am talking about, but my faith in this conditionality is as strong as I do in the natural law of causalities.

Before changes are observable, they first occur in the mind. It is only the middle class who have the capacity and resources to think beyond the boundaries of logistical needs. Some of them may have benefited from education-perhaps abroad. Only the middle class in this country have fairly secured their basic needs, while the majority of Indonesians are poor.

Arguably, the majority of Indonesians are the sweetest people on earth, but unfortunately they are also the most ignorant. By this I have the least intention to insult them. They are too distracted from thinking otherwise than consolidating their lives, trying to go ahead from merely being subsistent. They are confused and like goldfish in a bowl most of them don't even know they are confused. But "thanks" to this quality, we have remained a nation this far. The majority of us are powerless against the economic and legal injustices. Victims of suppression by their own people, they have simply endured. Life has always been hard; they do not know they have been cruelly victimized.

Reliance on the central government or local governments or central/local governmental officials would be too good to be true. It'd be better to think of things that wonderful as bonuses. Strictly speaking, it would be unrealistic to rely on the government, considering how most of their bosses (read: their Excellencies) are handed down authorities through political appointment. In short, they are too busy securing their new found power. Asking them to reform themselves is asking for their political demise.

Reliance on the central government or local governments or central/local governmental officials would be wishful thinking. Thinking this way may have come from an assumption that the government knows what's best for its people. If this assumption has been challenged in most advanced countries, it is yet to be challenged in this country; and the time, my dear fellow Indonesians, is now.

Musings - Part 2

2006-02-16T20:09:00.000+11:00

Given the 'tragic abundance" the country has been throughout its existence and given the recurring national comedies of errors and fatal tragedies, what is the underlying factor that has united Indonesians together? With no particular light at the end of our tunnel, when the powers that be are only interested power in wealth accumulation for their own families, to what extent can this factor last?

I cannot answer them, yet. But I have sensed they are strongly related to what I feel about the country and what I know of nationalism. But what is nationalism? What does Indonesian nationalism mean to us these days? Is it still relevant a thing?

No sooner than I asked myself these questions was I surprised to learn how very little I did know about it. What does nationalism mean to me? I felt it had to do it with my feelings about and attitudes toward my country, government, and fellow Indonesians.

Virtual diggers of the concept of nationalism would benefit enormously as I did from two excellent essays on the issue: Epistemologi Nasionalisme by Sulfikar Amir and Diskursus Nasionalisme by Kurniawan. They are in Bahasa Indonesia; another useful and quite comprehensive account on the issue, in English, I got from Wikipedia.

The first writer Sulfikar writes at a great length of its historical development, citing that nationalism has been one of the most wonderful social discovery at least in the last one hundred years of human history. Kurniawan concurs that the end of the cold war and the globalism and internasionalism in the 1990s to date, with the advancement of communiation and information technology, did not and will not put an end to the importance of nationalism.

Interestingly Sulfikar argues that the spiritual domain within Indonesian nationalism is filled with elements that has clung dearly to and was born out of a dialectic process with colonialism. It is thus not sufficiently satisfactory to claim, he argues, that Indonesia's nationalism has its roots in local cultures since we have no strong historical foundation. What supported Indonesia as a nation as well as a nationalism ideology was the colonialism that had entirely been inspired by modernism, of which the western culture was its major source. If this entails something, it perhaps warrants another essay; at this moment I just wanted to say that my appreciation to the founding fathers has renewed.

While some of us today tend to view nationalism as a finished product, the two great essays would help us understand that nationalism is never final, if at all. Likewise Indonesia's nationalism will perenially develop in search of its form and essence along its dynamic history, which is not always linear. In other words, the questions about nationalism will stay relevant at any time of age. They are only becoming more complex. Nationalism needs to be revisited and reinterpreted from time to time, more so at a time when we are groping in the dark. Likened to a construction, or an imagined construction to borrow Benedict Anderson's term, nationalism is not physical, let alone a finished building. It is more a spirit with which a nation strives to realize what the nation wants to achieve with its existence. Is Indonesia any closer to what it has always wanted to achieve with its Independence?

As Sulfikar aptly puts it, nationalism exists as a relation between the state and the people, but to some nationalist elites it stops being public goods, rather their exclusive priviledge with which they, coupled with their gigantic authorites, dominate the discourse on nationalism. To them nationalism has revolved into an instrument for manufacturing consent in order to legitimize socioeconomic and political interest of political groups.

By doing this they are only jeopardizing it. In this perspective, the pertinence of the hauting questions becomes obvious: what is the underlying factor that has united Indonesians? To what extent can it last? Is it our love for this nation or is it that most of us go about with no choice?

Musings - Part 1

2006-02-09T09:42:00.000+11:00

"If you sat long enough at your empty kitchen table, the whole world eventually would come to you," the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, I believe, once said.

One late evening last week I sat at my desk in front of my computer, not long enough though to bring the whole world, but quite sufficient be engrossed in thoughts of but one country.

Indonesia, in a nutshell, is an archipelagic country of more than 13 thousands islands lying in a strategic location between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Some 220 million people live there speaking one national language and or any other one of over 400 vernaculars and dialects; the fact makes it the world's 4th most populous and linguistically varied in the world. It is also the largest Muslim nation, since about 80% of the population profess Islam. Its independence goes back to 1945, when it won it from the centuries of occupation by different nations. A bit of its historical insight I posted in my old blog.

The country practically posseses everything necessary to develop into a successful nation: copper, tin, gold, forests, minerals, and oil--the black gold. Its wealth, as well as the strategic location, is supposed to be a blessing for Indonesians. However, after 60 years spanning 6 presidents, the state of abundance has been more of a curse. Indonesia remains a land of unfulfilled promises and misplaced compromises, trapped into a fierce race to the bottom.

In the face of the growing complexities and persplexities, Indonesia's condition is such that if one sits long enough and reflect on it and its people, one will be inundated by the questions as follows:

What does it mean to be Indonesian? What does nationalism mean to Indonesians nowadays? Most importantly, what are the driving forces that unite them together and to what extent can they last?

Should these existential issues be left to scholars alone? By no means. They can be left neither to the powers that be nor Kant--only to Indonesians.

As an Indonesian, "damned' am I.

***

At first, I thought I'd better leave this subject to others far more competent. Why, because I am NOT a scholar, journalist, politician, government employe, nor businessperson. I am but a layperson; an employee; a husband; and a father--period. After consulting my conscience, I finally decided to pursue the matters, thinking that I, even if incapable of putting aside personal biases, might be able to contribute as a non-partisan, non-institutional observer without any political or personal interest whatsoever.

So I am "damned," irrespective of whether or not I'll dedicate time to address the problem and hit blogging to record the results. Thus a personal journey to the heart of the matter begins. Along the way, I envisage to meet and exchange thoughts with local heroes or those from faraway lands.

The Perennial Tension

2006-02-04T07:17:00.000+11:00

(A good friend Fatih recently posted an interesting piece on Religious Hatred. This post was inspired by it.)

At first blush it all may seem ironic: many of us may have been raised to find solace and peace of mind from religion, while one biggest problem with the greatest religions stem from their teachingsor, at least, our interpretations of them.

Each God-sent religion claims to possess the ultimate Truth. Particularly of Semitic origin, religions carry with them some kind of missionary spirit. Among the pious as well as the not so devout, there has been some kind of religious contestation. Call it a perennial tension, or an inherent paradox. If its hard to swallow as a fact, we should recognize the recurring phenomenon.

We cannot deny religion frequently fails to solve a great many problems. Worse, the inherent problem between, and amongst, divine religions has contributed to our bloodiest mundane problems. The more we recognize this unhappy potential, the more we can avoid religion induced conflicts from recurring.

It follows from this that we are in a pressing need for better understanding, or acceptance, on what religion is--on what it can do, or has done, for the good or the bad of humanity. We need that sort of comprehension with which we know that while lobsters may cause allergy to some people, we can live with the seeming irony and accept that the crustacean, like ourselves, have been created perfectly with the imperfection.

Of Love and National Geographic Indonesia

2006-01-28T22:04:00.000+11:00

As a student I would frequent the local library for reading National Geographic magazines. Like a few people, I would be fascinated by the breathtaking beauties of their photos. An old copy was particularly special; it was one featuring tancho birds, a type long regarded by the Japanese as a symbol of fidelity. The photos and words were so exceptional I dont know which touched my soul more. But I know that the one of its kind magazine has since reigned in my heart.

On our way home one day my wife said she was deciding to subscribe to NGI, National Geographic Indonesia (it tried Indonesian readership early last year, while Playboy Indonesia will follow its path this year, if only with a mission that is far from educational). Youd probably guess it right: agreeing to itI mean the NGI--was almost too easy. Before we knew it, the first copy was delivered to our home, much to our delight. It was on the Chango, the rather mysterious and mystical tribe living in the rustic areas bordering Hungary and Romania. Then, again before we knew it, weve started collecting the yellow-covered publication.

To my chagrin, I have yet to find the pleasure of reading them. It is not because of the presentation in Indonesian, of which I remarked to my wife that we should wear tolerance. The problem is that every time I lay my fingers on it, it feels like I am being invited to the verge of nausea. It doesn't smell like paper; it stinks like cheap screen-printed plastic stickers.

According to my wife, the smell is quite palpable, though apparently not so strong enough to turn off her reading appetite. Maybe it hasn't. Or perhaps some noses, like mine, will become more sensitive after living for some time away from big cities. If, like they say, the nose knows, NGI should seriously overcome this problem.

***

Then, the February 2006 edition arrived home yesterday. Its title, printed in crimson against the black background photo of a young couple embracing each other, is Cinta, the Indonesian equivalent for that most important word: love. After Fromm's The Art of Loving and Peck's The Road Less Travelled, my instant blink commanded me to like it, which of course I succumbed to. I set my heart to go against my normal reaction (did I use normal already?). So, I finally did read it.

In this headlined article the writer tried to explain how love influences human brain and how science gradually comes to the forefront in explaining empirically how the emotional phenomenon reflects its empirical evidence.Well, in spite of what the article says, what is really there to say? Maybe one day this same science one day will try to what hormone is emitted in the brain when I am disgusted, or maybe it'll try to make photos of human souls.

The article quoted a 10-year research. According to the writer, this scientist has in the last ten years been "memperhatikan cinta dalam arti sesungguhnya, dengan pertolongan mesin MRI" ("observing love in its truest meaning, by using an MRI machine"). How absurd!

The serious problem with all this I guess started when the writer failed to define cinta in the first place. Love being a complex issue covering a wide range of emotions, there are soo... many kinds of it. For one, my love to my wife would not the same as that to my daughter. To me the most disturbing flaw that disturbed my reading is the way the article has confused sex, lust, infatuation, physical attraction, and passion with cinta despite the writers attempts to distinguish them by quoting various studies by anthropologists and psychiatrists.

***

Why do people seem to have a predisposition to like magazines like National Geographic? Well, we can think of some reasons: its superb photos of faraway lands? Great stories of exotic things? Intriguing accounts of otherwise unbeknown experiences?

I hold that the underlying reason has to do with escapism. It is closely linked to our personal concept of (dis)comfort. Most of us are confined to the (dis)comfort of modern living. Partly, it's either because we tend to wish to be elsewhere; or because it's often sufficient just to think that we know about something, a simulacrum instead of experiencing it ourselves. Of course, we can't do all the things we want. And there are certain things that we should not even wish to do.

I wonder whether a reading of the original text, in English, would've led me to this direction. This post is long enough already; for now daily chores are getting the better of all my need for escapism.

An affable fable

2006-01-19T13:01:00.000+11:00

A group of monkeys are monkey-seeing and monkey-doing one fine day, on the branches and twigs of a big tree of life, doing whatever they think they are doing. There are babies and children of them, adolescents, fathers, mothers, and also senior members of the monkeydom. Down below, barely a stone-throw away, is a small and rather opaque pond, a perfect habitat of the fish and other watery creatures that are swimming about, in solitude or congregation. Occassional bubbles of air that the animals breathe out go up and burst on the surface as they emerge. Some members of the fishdom make occassional gasping for fresh air. As it happens, there are always monkeys that never see such fish. A few of them do, but consider it just a matter of course. A number of them are aware of the existence of the fish and other beings in that water and spend a great many hours brooding how these creatures can possibly live there. Still, some insist there is nothing alive down there. And the same string of phenomena also occurs among the fish. There are always fish that have never seen the noisy animals above all their lives. There are some who have, but do think of nothing else except that is just the way it is. Some are aware of the existence of the monkeys outside water and spend many a days wondering how they can survive without water. Then the night falls in regardless what all the animals that we are, think or otherwise. Similar questions we will question as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.

BII, penny wise pound stupid

2006-01-18T15:27:00.000+11:00

Commercial banks exist solely to make profit and do that through making interest and fixed income. They absorb depositors' monies by providing interest and channel the funds to third parties at higher rates, in the hope of gaining some margin counted at future value through the resulting interest differentials.

In attempts to remain competitive, banks must be attractive enough to would-be depositors or lenders by offering as attractive interest rates as possible, and to existing customers by better service delivery or provision of incentives. We also know that most banks try to make additional income by offering services for fixed fees, such as through services of inter-bank transfers, payment settlements, forex buy-sell, cellular vouchers, et cetera.

Still, with the above understanding in mind, I'm afraid that Bank International Indonesia (BII) is making a gross mistake by doing what it is doing nowadays. In fact, I think it is being ridiculously penny wise but pound stupid in its attempt to increase fixed income.

Yesterday I checked my balance at one of its ATMs down the office building and withdrew some cash. Minutes later I read a notice saying that this bank is starting imposing that BII savers must pay Rp 5,000 for transfers to other BII accounts and Rp 2500 for checking the balance at any BII ATM, unless they have balance bigger than Rp 5 million rups (US$ 550)!

Of course, banks are no moral institutions. Appealing that most Indonesian banks are actually indebted to the majority of the people would be like straightening a wet thread. But it is a naked fact that we civilians have been paying the burden of the banking restructuring since the 1998 crisis, and that our grandchildren will also have to chip in for the salvation.

Equally, saying that BII is being evilish is as out of the question; still, the fact remains that it is outrageously ripping the majority of its savers off their money.

When this issue was brought up this morning among colleagues and the office financier, I knew I wasn't the only guy turning mad.

Of Hospitals

2006-01-16T04:26:00.000+11:00

Indonesians have an interesting term for the word "hospital." We call it "rumah sakit," which translates back verbatim into English as a "sick house." It can either mean a "house for the sick" or a "house that it sick," and I can tell you that neither meaning has any association with "hospitality."

Rumah sakit is semantically ambiguous, but we have lived with this term since time immemorial--we tend to not question stuff like this anyway. Subconsciously the term brings to mind a place where patients go for medication. Rumah sakit is a place for us to try to get our well being back (or harbor hope against hope in very unfortunate cases, which aren't rare, regrettably).

Truth is, few places are more dangerous than rumah sakit. So, in a way rumah sakit is really a sick house. Healthy persons who go to hospitals, especially babies or minors whose immune systems have yet to develop, invariably run the risk of being contaminated. Why, because hospitals make a perfect breading ground for germs; they are a most ideal place for contracting communicable diseases. This we often forget or neglect. The points above suggest why hospitals should be located at a certain distance from residential areas and why they must to be properly managed.

So, the Indonesian term contains a warning that we must stay away from this place as much as we can. If we must be there at all, we must get the hell out of it asawpc!

Er, that's short for: As Soon As We Possibly Can ;)

Perempuan, Keperempuanan dan Poligami

2006-01-14T04:42:00.000+11:00

Judul: Membela Perempuan
Penyunting: Ali Hosein Hakeem
Penerbit: Al Huda, Jakarta
Cetakan: I (pertama), Jumadil Akhir 1426H/Juli 2005
Tebal: viii + 310 halaman

Posting ini berisi resensi singkat, tanggapan dan kesan-kesan pertama saya tentang buku tersebut, yang sampai saat saat ini masih saya pinjam dari istri tercinta. Menukik langsung ke rekomendasi pribadi, saya pikir buku ini perlu dibaca oleh pria maupun wanita yang tertarik dengan isu-isu jender, feminisme, isu keperempuanan, atau kaum pria yang tertarik pada, atau yang berniat melakukan..., poligami!

Sebagai paket bunga rampai, buku ini layak mendapat penghargaan yang setinggi-tingginya.

Penghargaan pertama adalah untuk penerjemah, yang telah melakukan tugasnya secara profesional dan baik. Saya tidak ingat lagi kapan pernah membaca buku terjemahan dengan kalimat yang lugas serta lancar sebagus itu, seperti yang telah dilakukan oleh penerjemah buku ini. Saya jadi tertarik siapa dia gerangan sang penerjemah ini. Namanya baru kali ini saya dengar dan terdengar agak aneh: Jembala Gembala, entah nama samaran atau bukan. Saya tidak kenal dirinya, dan belum pernah mendengar namanya. Tapi saya siap meneraktirnya makan siang! Bagi saya, ia telah berhasil menjinakkan teks bahasa asing ke dalam bahasa Indonesia, sehingga menjadi lancar, mudah dan indah.

Penghargaan kedua adalah untuk penyusun dan penerbitnya atas dimensi cakupan bunga rampai yang cukup luas membahas isu-isu di atas. Juga untuk kedalamannya yang lebih dari cukup, serta pembahasan ilmiahnya yang cukup bertanggungjawab. Saya tidak tahu siapa Ali Hoesin Hakeem ini, sang penyunting. Info mengenai dirinya hampir tidak dapat ditelusuri, pun di internet. Ini agak aneh, bahkan cenderung misterius; tidak semua orang dapat menyajikan bacaan serius macam ini.

Di bagian belakang buku ini terdapat tulisan (blurb) yang relevan bagi mereka--termasuk saya-- yang menggugat konsep jender dalam hal spiritualitas manusia (atau ruh). Khusus untuk pertanyaan pribadi ini, saya belum tahu apakah presentasi dan substansinya cukup memuaskan; perlu pembacaan yang saksama. (Arahnya adalah mencari alternatif justifikasi bahwa manusia secara fisik dapat saja berupa lelaki atau perempuan; tetapi semua orang memiliki elemen maskulin dan feminin, dan dalam hal menyangkut ruh (spirit) isu serta konsekuensi perbedaan kelamin/jender tidak relevan.)

Melalui riset kecil melalui internet saya berhasil menemukan resensi buku ini dari harian Republika, yang menjelaskan sedikit banyak tentang cikal-bakal atau latar belakang penulisan artikel-artikel dalam buku ini. (Silakan baca Wacana Perempuan dalam Islam.)

Salah satu bab paling menarik dan istimewa adalah yang mengkaji isu poligami. Menurut saya, ini tulisan paling komprehensif tentang poligami selama ini. Di dalamnya dikaji aspek-aspek historis (pre- dan pasca-Islam), psikologis, sosio-ekonomis lintas-waktu, serta pandangan Islam yang cukup komprehensif terhadap praktik tersebut. Poligami telah ada jauh sebelum Islam; agama ini sukses menghapuskan poliandri dan berhasil "memperhalus" poligami.

Yang agak aneh dan perlu digarisbawahi dalam bab ini justru bagian kesimpulannya. Republika online mengatakan buku ini "mendukung poligami," dan begitu pula kesan pertama saya. Menurut istri saya, tidak demikian halnya. Setelah saya baca ulang, kesan saya adalah sbb: kesimpulan dalam bab ini agak melenceng dari uraian yang panjang lebar dari sang penulis bab tentang fenomena poligami. Pemerian dan penjabaran yang sedemikian bagus, obyektif, dan komprehensif tentang segala hal menyangkut poligami seharusnya tidak dapat direduksi menjadi: "pemihakan yang cukup kuat terhadap praktik poligami."

Yang cuma membaca simpulannya akan terseret ke kesimpulan demikian, sebagaimana halnya peresensi di Republika. (Di bagian ini saya berharap dapat membandingkannya dengan teks asli.) Menurut "pemaknaan" saya, penulis buku ini justru dengan halus ingin mengatakan bahwa memang poligami dapat merupakan pilihan yang lebih baik jika dibandingkan dengan pilihan lain (e.g. pelacuran, perjinahan, dll); dan bahwa di abad modern ini hampir tidak ada lelaki yang mampu memenuhi syarat-syarat, atau layak, untuk berpoligami sebagaimana yang ditetapkan dalam ajaran Islam.

Terakhir, untuk menambah kredibilitas karya semacam ini dan untuk mengakui kontribusi para penulisnya, Al-Huda sebagai penerbit buku seyogyanya memberi info tentang mereka bagi sidang pembaca Indonesia.

Defending the Indefensible

2006-01-13T19:26:00.000+11:00

This post may be overdue, but I posted it anyway because I needed to relieve my angst (as they say in Indonesian, bloggers are humans, too!).

I was anguished by the news reporting that Bank Indonesia's high ranking officers were proposing such a ridiculously large salary package! If the President and Vice President had asked for a salary raise, it would have been understandable.

On the last 13th Jan, the central bank of Indonesia announced its 9-step policy on Indonesia's banking for 2006 onward, containing 4 short-term and 5 medium- and long-term measures. In the short run, the measures aim to provide breathing space to the banking industry so as to continue playing a role in financing the development; in the medium- and long-term, it focuses to strengthen the banking foundation and elaborate on some of the programs contained in the Indonesias Banking Architecture, all of which are as follows:

1. BI is to review its PBI No.7/2/PBI/2005 concerning the Quality Assessment of Commercial Banks Assets, while holding dearly on the principle of prudence.
2. BI is to consider readjusting the minimum reserve ratio if macro stability so allows. The re-adjustment will be reviewed by the 1Q06 with a conviction that when the macroeconomic condition reaches a relatively stable level, banking liquidity can ease down.
3. BI is to keep increasing people's access to sharia banking services by allowing branches of conventional banks that already have sharia banking units, to provide office-channeling sharia transaction services so that banks no longer need to open new branches of their sharia units in many places before they can provide sharia services.
4. BI is to extend banking service network, particularly to the SME sector so as to reach out evenly to regional corners. Moreover, in the near future BI plans to adjust the ratio of weighted assets for certain retail activities, including the financing ratio to micro and small businesses.
5. BI is to strengthen the capital structure for expediting the process of banking consolidation. Referring to the PBI No.7/15/PBI/2005 concerning the minimum core capital requirement of commercial banks, indicatives to the effectiveness in the process of banking consolidation will be reflected in the first quarter of 2006, when action plans of the banks with capital under Rp100 billion are received by the central bank. BI will take necessary measures to ensure that the stipulation on the limits of banking activities be enforced if the PBI No.7/15/PBI/2005 cannot be met.
6. BI is to increase the role of foreign banking in the economy. The intermediary role of foreign banks currently needs to be improved. BI will improve the role of bankers by adopting policy guidelines related to the development of national-banking human resources so as to remain as competitive as that in international banking.
7. BI is to anticipate for the development of future banking. Referring to the trend within the industry that leads toward universal banking, BI is planning to embolden its position and directions in realigning for the relationship between banking and financial markets. Taking into account the possible consequences, the policy to open universal banking in Indonesia will be carried out selectively. BI will relate such operational permits to strict requirements that will reflect the soundness of a given bank in anticipating the risks that may ensue.
8. BI is to strengthen the banking sectors internal management. This gears towards resilience and competitiveness of each individual bank so that each can exist healthily to be profitable within individual peer group. Therefore, focus in the implementation of the conception of best practices that refer to banking efficiency and effectiveness as corporates in the future is by applying the principle of good governance and Basel II.
9. BI is to improve the infrastructure of the banking industry. In 2006, it will particularly strengthen 5 aspects: improvement of the financial sector safety net or JPSK (Jaring Pengaman Sektor Keuangan), establishment of apex institutions for rural banks, banking mediation institution, management of card-based oayment systems, and banking research institution in various regions in Indonesia.

Indonesia's inflation since 1950

(Source: CBS, Indonesian Statistical Year Book, various editions.)

Bank Indonesia exists and is mandated by the law as an autonomous institution to adopt a single ultimate objective of reaching and maintaining the stability of the Rupiah currency. As stipulated in its charter, the stability here embraces two aspects: they are the stability of the Rupiah v-a-v the goods and services, and that v-a-v other currencies.

(Graph: Rupiah in the last 15 years; source: BI)

This stability here has everything to do with inflation, something most people regard as a "natural" phenomenon to adjust to while it is an elephant of a witness of a terribly imperfect, erronuous, manipulative, and manipulated financial arrangement in the world. Thus, like most central banks in the world, Bank Indonesia has existed to defend the indefensible. Its task has been an utter impossibility, something that cannot be attained as long as there is no reform in the global financial order. Until that happens, all central bankers need to be more sensible so as not to ask too much from the people.

About OUAW

2006-01-13T17:39:00.002+11:00

I am Nad, an individualist living in Ciputat, a small hilly town that borders with and used to be part of South of Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, a country where Bali is.

I have lived here since 2001 with my wife and our 7-year young daughter, and a crippled she-dog that had been there long before we built our home and moved in. (With utmost confidence I can say she has accepted this cohabitation).

[Updates: Our beloved doggy died on May 24, 2007 :(
My daughter is nearly 11. We all live in Canberra now.]

I invite comments--they’ll make my day.

(Last updated: 8 October, 2010)

Eid ul-Adha's Eve, 2006

2006-01-13T05:40:00.000+11:00

Here's in loving memories to my uncle who died last night during the course of his pilgrimage with Bibi in Mecca. May you rest in peace in the holy land, Mang Kadir. The good memories of you will never cease for as long as I live. May the bereft family members in Palembang be strengthened in going through the immense loss of a husband most loving , a father most caring, and a gentleman most wise in words and deeds.

2006-01-12T20:16:00.000+11:00

Lej's

So I have a new blog

2006-01-12T19:11:00.000+11:00

Something somehow was telling me that I ought to give myself 5 minutes to post on whatever's on my mind. I thought I wanted to blog a bit about some of the tidbits of this newest blog.

So, if blogs have birthdays, this one was finally born this morning, January 12. At this moment I'm still admiring its gorgeous new look from Karysima. I'm still having a problem, though, with paragraphs, and am not sure if it will ever be solved. Internet Explorer doesn't seem to recognize paragraph breaks in this template environ. Under Opera and Firefox, it has no such problems.

I already spent hours in the past two nights to fix it myself to no avail. Just minutes ago, I gave up, and emailed the hands that created it, at least for confirmation that such problems exist.

Anyway, the picture reminds me of the beginning of Indonesia's reform back in 1997, that eventually brought down Soeharto in 1998. I was with my wife, braving ourselves to get nearer and nearer to the Parliament building--but never got it to the gate. Since the reform, my country has undergone a lot of drastic changes almost overnight: changes of presidents, cabinets, amendments of constitutions, deregulations, and system of governance.

Gosh, five minutes is sure too short..

1/13/06 UPDATE: I finally solved the paragraph problem! Isn't it neat and great looking now? ;)