In Indonesia, there are many parties, but they are all pro-business and for the elites, and all their candidates, including Jokowi, are pre-selected, and pre-approved, by the regime. So no matter how people vote here, it changes nothing.
Andre VltchekYou give Europeans once again 'all benefits that they can eat', you make them work shorter hours, and you give more money, and they'd be back in a self-congratulatory, self-righteous mode; damned be the rest of the world.
Andre VltchekIn order for the second scenario to win, the world would have to return where the struggle for independence and against Western colonialism and imperialism was lost or abandoned more than 50 years ago. Let's face it: the world was never really completely de-colonized. It would be total hypocrisy to claim otherwise.
Andre VltchekNow, the situation is much worse in Indonesia than 10 years ago. It is because then, there was still some hope. The progressive Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid, was alive and so was Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Mr Wahid, a former President of Indonesia, was a closet Socialist. He was deposed by a judicial coup constructed by the Indonesian elites and military, but many Indonesians still believed that he would manage to make a comeback.
Andre VltchekFirst of all, Indonesian people have to be educated and to know what they want and what their country is all about. The interests of the people have to be put first! The entire society has to work day and night in order to improve the lives of the majority. Basically, we need the opposite of what is Indonesia right now, which is: the majority-serving business interests of the local gangsters and their foreign handlers.
Andre Vltchek