Pondok Pesantren Alkhoirot

I am not an economist, nor am I a South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) analyst. I hardly write on India-Pakistan-Bangladesh political events unless there’s an Indonesian newspaper requests me to do so.

That’s why when CNN reported last night that Nobel peace prize winner for this year is a person named Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi, the inventor of microcredit loan and founder of Brameen Bank which jointly announced as a co-winner, I am so amazed, surprised and happy for various reasons.

First, as far as I can tell, it’s for the first time that Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to a non-political personality. Nobel Peace usually has more political connotation with, well, a bit American flavour. So, to see an economist as the winner is in itself surprising and an encouraging sign.

Second, Muhammad Yunus is a banker, a very rich man, who thinks a lot about the poor and try hard to find a way to eradicate poverty. He thinks, he gets a brilliant idea to solve poverty and implement it. For example, the microcredit system will allow a poor person to take a loan as small as USD 25 to build a (very) small business. It’s a huge success for both the creditor and the debtors. In another word, it successfully has created many jobs among the poors in Bangladesh and now being implemented around the world.

Third, what poverty eradication to do with peace? The Nobel Peace committee rightly said that when poverty doesn’t exist, peace will prevail. I couldn’t agree more with that.

Fourth, Muhammad Yunus is not only thinking about the poor and find the big way to help them without distracting their dignity, but also BEHAVING like ones: wearing a simple clothes the poors used to wear; assembling with them with ease without any attitude that might offend them; and talking to them without any sign of uncomfortability. I saw him in CNN how he’s enjoying making jokes and having fun with the downtrodden villagers in a Bangladesh remote area, the less fortunate people who he holds very dear. Something that our middle class society, who often behaves like Hollywood celebrities should be ashamed of.

I wrote somewhere that when we live in a country like Indonesia, where corruption is prevalent and poverty becomes a natural consequence of a country mismanagement, someone, or group of individuals with more skill and qualification should stand up with all his capability and skill to contribute, because in this situation the government is certainly not the one we can hope to make amend. Muhammad Yunus is certainly up to the task.

What contribution we can make? Live simple and humble, I think, is the first step in the right direction. If we earn U$D 1000/month, for example, spend less than that. If we can save USD 50/month for educating one poor kid, that would be great. On top of it all, even if you dont contribute financially to the poor, living humble and simple and avoid showing off your wealth in front of them, I believe, is a sort of indirect contribution as far as social harmony is concerned.

Just a thought, though. Nevertheless, at least, I do what I’m saying.

For more details on his profiles see here.

PS: Comments are welcome in any of the following languages: English, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Jawa & Madura.
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Blog: short of weblog is a web page containing structured data that is updated on a regular basis. RSS: An RSS feed is a regularly updated XML document that contains metadata about a web source and the content in it. Courtesy: blogs.MIT.edu

Original Post

People in developing countries are facing many challenges the most basic of which are corruption, injustices and poverty; widening gap between the rich and the poor; the deficit of trust between the ruler and the subject. In Indonesia, with life is getting harder on grass root level, many start murmurming about and romanticizing the “good old days” when Suharto’s tyrannical rule was prevalent.

In other words, for those downtrodden people who are facing difficulties to get their daily basic need, a meal a day for them and their kids, tyrannical system is relatively better as far as it can fulfill their basic needs than the so-called democratic system with its full-fledged idealistic yet unapplicative values. Former autocratic ruler of Indonesia, President Suharto, once said, “What the people need is good economy. As far they can afford to buy their daily needs, they will keep quiet.”

This may explain a bit why military Coup d’état in Thailand went so smooth and peaceful and to some extend it even enjoyed a sort of support from Thai people. The new Thai military ruler knows exactly the psyche of the people as it did Suharto in his heyday. And that’s precisely the rationale of Thai government to international community. In his letter to Indian media, Thailand Ambassador to India explains thus:

“The political change was undertaken by the `Council for Democratic Reform under Constitution Monarchy’ without any violence or resistance. The Council was compelled to undertake the mission for various reasons incurred by the previous government, namely, the lack of political confidence in Thailand and impasse of political differences; drastic increase in disunity among Thai people; signs of rampant corruption, malfeasance and widespread nepotism, inability to proceed with the reform process as intended by the Constitution; interference in national independent agencies, crippling their ability to function properly and to effectively solve the nation’s problems; deterioration of social justice. For these reasons, the political change turned out to be a peaceful and bloodless one, resulting in our daily lives returning to normalcy the very next day [...]“

Do we like to see the same solution take place in Indonesia? Do we want a strong government with strong commitment to better our economy yet with limited freedom of movement like it had been during Suharto’s era? Or do we still want the current democratic system with relative freedom we enjoy?

For me the choice is crystal clear: democracy is thus far the best choice; corrupt and mismanaged governance notwithstanding. No intention to belittle the current government effort to eradicate corruption and other malpractices. I heard from “my eyes” in many parts of the country that some progress on anti-corruption efforts have been taken very seriously. Nothing is perfect, though. Blockhole is still everywhere. But we have to appreciate it. Do remember that we move into full-fledged democracy only a couple of years after many decades of tyrannical rule.

Having said that if the effort are not beefed up and poverty and unemployment is growing quickly, the provocateur forces will emerge from many corners, left or right, to divide this country for their own ends. And when this happen, the military has no choice but to take the action similar to its compatriot in Thailand. Bloodlessly or bloodily will not make any difference for a force that has been trained to see blood without blinking.

PS: Comments are welcome in any of the following languages: English, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Jawa & Madura.
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Blog: short of weblog is a web page containing structured data that is updated on a regular basis. RSS: An RSS feed is a regularly updated XML document that contains metadata about a web source and the content in it. Courtesy: blogs.MIT.edu

Original Post

After the successful space traveling, Anousheh Ansari is associated with more than one attribute: the first woman space traveler; the first Muslim; the first Iranian origin and the first space blogger. She’s been actively updating her blog from space during her one and half week stay at the unique trip and thousands of readers were waiting for it everyday, nay every hour.

For you who have yet to be familiar with her name, here’s an intro from Wikipedia:

Anousheh Ansari (Persian: انوشه انصاری) is the Iranian-American co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, Inc. Her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, Inc. (TTI). The Ansari family is also the title sponsor of the Ansari X PRIZE. On 18 September 2006, she became the world’s first female space tourist[1], and the first female Muslim[2] and first Iranian in space [...]

She’s certainly become the inspiration of all women around the world. But more than that, as an American citizen of Iranian origin, she’s also a symbol of people unity. Political interests of both nation might tear them apart, but who can divide the shared values, dreams and inspiration of humanity?

For the successful touch down today, I wish her a good luck. May she could come back to the space, as she so wishes, along with other women of all races and nationality, to show the politicians that from the space earth looks so beautiful and peaceful and more importantly undivided. I believe someday that scenery is not only a mirrage.

PS: Comments are welcome in any of the following languages: English, Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Jawa & Madura.
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Blog: short of weblog is a web page containing structured data that is updated on a regular basis. RSS: An RSS feed is a regularly updated XML document that contains metadata about a web source and the content in it. Courtesy: blogs.MIT.edu

Original Post