: Super User; Social Issues; 01 June 2012; Hits: 1951

A place for Drug Addicts to Get Well

“I JUST want to be well”. Twenty-five-year-old David (not his real name), sat with me on the large verandah of a Christian drug rehabilitation centre near Sentul City, Bogor, and described his life.

: Super User; Social Issues; 17 May 2012; Hits: 1146

Minority Religions Under Threat

IN A speech before thousands of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) faithful gathered at the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta in July last year to celebrate the organisation’s 85th anniversary, NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj reiterated an important message.

: Super User; Social Issues; 22 March 2012; Hits: 999

Behind the Carnage on the Roads

LAST month, 14 people were killed and 57 injured when the driver of a bus travelling from the hill resort town of Garut to Jakarta lost control of his vehicle during a rainstorm in the Cisarua area and collided head on with another bus travelling in the opposite direction.

: Super User; Social Issues; 16 February 2012; Hits: 1358

Demographic Changes Could be a Boon – or Bane

WILL Indonesia benefit from its impending demographic dividend? Or will the country descend into chaos as millions of workers fail to find jobs?

: Super User; Social Issues; 12 January 2012; Hits: 1108

Jamu: the good, the bad and the ugly

“I JUST mixed up all the ingredients at random. I don’t know if they have any side effects at all or what they were.” This chilling admission to the police last November by the operator of an illegal jamu factory in Bogor says it all.

Key Political Risks

The inability of the government led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to bridge the deep divisions between her populist government and its royalist opponents in the military and bureaucracy remains a major concern.

Prime Minister Yingluck has selected a competent economic team, but it is difficult for these technocrats to deliver on the new government's campaign promises without triggering inflation or hurting business.

The government has also been unable to resolve the ongoing insurgency involving ethnic Malay Muslim rebels in the south.

WATCH OUT FOR:

Attempts by the government to amend the constitution. The proposed rewrite is aimed removing legal measures initiated by the royalist generals who overthrew former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the current prime minister's elder brother, in 2006.
Ballooning government debt as officials seek to finance government programmes aimed at subsidising rice prices in order to retain the support of farmers.
The relationship between Prime Minister Yingluck and senior generals. Coups have been a common means of regime change in Thai history, and any attempt by the government to purge royalist elements in the top brass could trigger yet another. Thailand