Rich man, Poor man

Just read and thought I might as well share, hmmm....what will I do with so much money?

150 richest Indonesians representing 12% of the GDP.

clipped from www.thejakartaglobe.com Globe Asia’s 150 Richest Indonesians Total Net-Worth a Cool $61.5 Billion Indonesia’s 150 richest people did very well last year. Their total net-worth rose 22 percent to 61.5 billion, which represents 12 percent of Indonesia’s gross domestic product. In this year’s Globe Asia’s 150 richest Indonesians issue, those who did the best were the tycoons who were able to unlock the values of their assets. Tycoons such as Peter Sondakh of the Rajawali group increased their net-worths by selling significant stakes in their companies. Sondakh sold his 20 percent stake in Semen Gresik and his stake in cigarette maker Bentoel for a combined total of nearly $700 million. Others such as Aburizal Bakrie and Chairul Tanjung increased their net-worths by acquiring stakes in other companies or listing parts of their companies.

Twitter and Metro Polda

Being a new Twitter user (although I've know about it when it was first launch), this is one follow that I will recommend for all road users in Jakarta @TMCPoldaMetro. The tweets are from Traffic Management Centre Direktorat Lalu Lintas Polda Metro Jaya Phone: 5276001/4 Fax: 5275090 email: tmc@lantas.metro.polri.go.id

For this, thumbs up and a very positive step by the Police Traffic Management Center keeping the public informed of the latest traffic situation in Jakarta which is anything but jammed 'macet' at most time. The tweets come from all over Jakarta, be it, an accident, smooth traffic flow, breakdowns, bumper to bumper and the list goes on.

What strike me most happened just yesterday evening when there were some kind of public disorder in Slipi/Tomang area where some of the football fans were at their nuisance best on the streets and I was kept abreast with the latest news and happening following this tweet.

For once, kudos to the traffic cops.

Not a walk in the park no more to be an Indonesian Cabinet Minister

Every other Indonesian TV channels, print titles, online news portal, blogs are at it...and it has been a flurry of news and activities, especially in Puri Cikeas where President elect SBY will picked his 2009 to 2014 cabinet ministers for an interview.

What strikes me most is how President elect SBY go about his business in selecting and scrutinize the "would be" ministers. What is interesting is that it does not just stop at the 30 minutes interview, those selected would have to undergo an extensive health check by a team of about 30 specialist doctors topped up with a 500+ Q&A session on the individual's state-of-mind. An appropriate "fit and proper" test for such a demanding job.

Over and above this, those selected to be in the cabinet will have to sign a performance and integrity contract which covers their first 100 days, 1 year and 5 year job performances. It also covers area of morality and corruption. This effectively allows SBY to sack under performing Ministers without hassle from any political pressure or lobbying and intervention. This goes to show how serious SBY is to reform Indonesia and to "MENGABDI untuk rakyak" as promised in his campaign trial. Over the next 5 years, I would see Indonesia surpassed Malaysia in most areas of good governance, corruption index, democracy, upholding of the law, human rights, economy and living standards.

I can't help but try to reflect on how this is being done in Malaysia, which obviously is very much different that lean towards secrecy and total news black-out. The fact there is relatively free speech and press freedom in Indonesia speaks volume for itself as the people are well-informed and knows what they are in for when they decided to vote directly for their head of state. To me, this is a much better deal than what Malaysia has to offer. Having said this, it is in my hope that Malaysian leaders will take note and start reforming and start serving the rakyat.

A little "Feng Shui" goes a long way

Well, at least business has been kind to me since mid of last year. And in view of the cosmic direction in the year of the Ox, this fish tank with 8 gold fish (yang) and 1 black (yin) for balance (enhancing wealth) were placed in the auspice direction of the office to welcome good luck. Believe it or not!

Pesta Blogger 2008 Indonesia, I wuz there!

I finally made it to the venue, BPPT Jl. Thamrin at about 11.20am where the event was held. Of course I was late after my mobile phone alarm rang earlier in the morning and I guess the snoozing bit was better.

Getting in was easy enough after finding Mbak Pasha with whom Unspun left my invitation ticket. I must admit that I can feel a sense of camaraderie among the bloggers as I walked by. With my eagle eyes scanning the auditorium, it was easy enough for me to spot Unspun. I moved over next to him seated behind YB Jeff Ooi and the other 4 invited foreign bloggers.

My first encounter with YB Jeff Ooi was indeed a pleasant one. Being Penangites, we clicked immediately. We chatted a bit despite Jeff being busy with his LG hand-phone text messaging.

In the course of our conversation, I managed to give him my 2 rupiah worth of opinion about the development projects that falls in the heritage zone of Penang. I opined that it is imperative that the heritage status must be protected at all cost and I am sure all Penangites like me will support the PR government to protect it. “The inflow of development funds will be good for the island but not at the expense of the status, do not be penny wise and pound foolish” I said.

The key difference between Indonesia and Malaysia about blogging is that the Indonesian government fully engaged and encouraged bloggers where not 1 but 3 Ministers were there to address them. This goes to show how far and matured the Indonesian have come in the democratic process and freedom of “responsible” speech in just 10 years after the new order regime. While in Malaysia, we still have Ministers who are the exact opposite and still in the slumber mode (…just like me this morning perhaps… ☺)

For this, Indonesia 1, Malaysia 0

Anyway, I did not stay very long and disappeared by about 2ish.

Pesta Blogger 2008

It's already 9.57am on Pesta Blogger day in Jakarta and yet I am still at home. As usual, wait until the very last minute to check at pestablogger blog for information and found out that the event is on until 5.30pm with lots of talk, interaction etc.

Better move my butt and go over to BPPT now, as I just finished smsing with Pak Ong since I am oh his invite list.

Looking forward to meet up with YB Jeff Ooi too.

Old 1,200 square meter house selling for US15 million

It’s amazing, the house where the newly elect US President used to stay as a kid while in Indonesia was offered by several buyers for about US15 million, 5 times above the market price.

It was reported 6 months prior to the US election, there were several foreigners who are interested to buy the property on the condition that Barrack Obama wins the US presidential election. Amongst them are representatives for businessman in the US and Holland with the US Embassy in Indonesia joining in the bid 1 month before the US election was held as highlighted in Kompas.

However it was so unfortunate that the owner, Bapak Tata Aboe Bakar Soerono passed away just before the US election at the age of 78.

Till now, there wasn’t any news whether or not the deal was sealed or otherwise.