FINALLY!! An internet connection in the hotel! I am amazed. So, knowing that you are all chomping at the bit to know what we've been up to, I'm sacrificing a nice cold shower and sleep time in my room to update the blog!!! Yee Haw!!
So, I'll start backwards and start posting some days from last week.
Wednesday - December 15
So, I'll start backwards and start posting some days from last week.
Wednesday - December 15
We had a breakfast meeting at the hotel on Wednesday, December 15, with Bara Hasibuan, a member of the Partai Amanat Nasional (PAN) political party. He was educated in the US, as with many of the people we have met. Interestingly enough, Bara is not a Muslim and belongs to a political party which considers themselves to be moderate Islam (more to come on this later...today we met with another member of PAN and I asked him about how this affects the party interactions and overall agenda when non-Muslims are active in the party structure).
Then...as we went on to our next meeting and after quite bit of whining, it was obvious to our hosts that it wasn’t going to stop until we - at least - drove past the elementary school that President Obama attended while in Jakarta. We were originally just going to drive by, but after evening more whining, we managed to stop the transport van, check out a plaque and statute dedicated to Obama, and got a chance to peak in on the children ending their school day with some sort of game.
Then...we were scheduled to meet with the Vice Chairman of the Regional Representative Council (referred to as DPD). The DPD is comparable to the US Senate; however, they essentially have no power and do not enact laws. Simply, they serve as the link between the community/people and the government. Unfortunately, the Senator we were to meet with was running late as he was speaking on the floor. We couldn’t wait because of our next appointment. However, we did briefly enter into the Senate Chamber (very cool...that's my *official* assessment).
NOTE: Time in Jakarta. Traffic in Jakarta is horrible. They refer to a traffic jam as macet (pronounced ma-chet). It could take literally hours to go a very, very short distance. Their infrastructure is in desperate need of improvement and organization. Anyway, we kept looking at the clock in an effort to assist our hosts in honoring the times of our meetings. At one point in the transport van, someone looked at the clock and said “we’re late” and the response was, “no, as long as we make it within a half hour of when we said we’d be there, it’s okay.” That’s how everything is in Jakarta - time is highly affected by traffic which is consistently TERRIBLE.
Another NOTE: We have not had anytime to experience the villages or areas where *middle* class people live in Jakarta due to our busy schedule. The lack of seeing the true Jakarta gave me false sense that the prices in the area were extremely high, and I was having difficulty understanding how people could survive. I was then reminded that we are experiencing and interacting with the elite class in Indonesia.
After we left the Senate, we headed over to meet with the Partai Deomkrasi Indonesia Perjungan (PDI-P) political party (also referred to as the Indonesian Deomcratic Party of Struggle). We were greeted by and had dialogue with Puan Maharani, Member of Parliament and daughter of former Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri. At this lunch time meeting, we also met with several other high-ranking officials from PDI-P including the oldest member of parliament, Sudarto. Sudarto is 75 years old and has been to the United States to train and interact with national law enforcement agencies.
Then...as we went on to our next meeting and after quite bit of whining, it was obvious to our hosts that it wasn’t going to stop until we - at least - drove past the elementary school that President Obama attended while in Jakarta. We were originally just going to drive by, but after evening more whining, we managed to stop the transport van, check out a plaque and statute dedicated to Obama, and got a chance to peak in on the children ending their school day with some sort of game.
Then...we were scheduled to meet with the Vice Chairman of the Regional Representative Council (referred to as DPD). The DPD is comparable to the US Senate; however, they essentially have no power and do not enact laws. Simply, they serve as the link between the community/people and the government. Unfortunately, the Senator we were to meet with was running late as he was speaking on the floor. We couldn’t wait because of our next appointment. However, we did briefly enter into the Senate Chamber (very cool...that's my *official* assessment).
NOTE: Time in Jakarta. Traffic in Jakarta is horrible. They refer to a traffic jam as macet (pronounced ma-chet). It could take literally hours to go a very, very short distance. Their infrastructure is in desperate need of improvement and organization. Anyway, we kept looking at the clock in an effort to assist our hosts in honoring the times of our meetings. At one point in the transport van, someone looked at the clock and said “we’re late” and the response was, “no, as long as we make it within a half hour of when we said we’d be there, it’s okay.” That’s how everything is in Jakarta - time is highly affected by traffic which is consistently TERRIBLE.
Another NOTE: We have not had anytime to experience the villages or areas where *middle* class people live in Jakarta due to our busy schedule. The lack of seeing the true Jakarta gave me false sense that the prices in the area were extremely high, and I was having difficulty understanding how people could survive. I was then reminded that we are experiencing and interacting with the elite class in Indonesia.
After we left the Senate, we headed over to meet with the Partai Deomkrasi Indonesia Perjungan (PDI-P) political party (also referred to as the Indonesian Deomcratic Party of Struggle). We were greeted by and had dialogue with Puan Maharani, Member of Parliament and daughter of former Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri. At this lunch time meeting, we also met with several other high-ranking officials from PDI-P including the oldest member of parliament, Sudarto. Sudarto is 75 years old and has been to the United States to train and interact with national law enforcement agencies.
Of all the political parties we visited (and trust me, it’s been a lot), PDI-P was the first party to provide information about their party platform. Later on in the week, we learned that the three top political parties, which are the Democratic, PDI-P and Golkar, all run on the exact same platform. In Indonesia, many of the politicians are current and former artists, entertainers and other well-known people. If you thought the US political powers were a popularity contest, well then, you don’t know nothin’ ;)
Ah...interesting information: The PDI-P represents itself as the party of tolerance. For example, even though there are a small number of Christians in Indonesia, and the majority of them that are active in politics are members of the PDI-P. Some PDI-P members feel that their party represents tolerance (it's a bit more complicated than that, but this is a blog - not Wikipedia, or Zackipedia - which we've been consulting now for 10 days and he's pretty accurate :))
There's more to write for this day, but I'm outta here...everyone else is sleeping except for Zack and I - and we're both hunched over our laptops in the lobby typing away...and it's 11:15...we meet again at 8:30...
Sending you exhausted cheers!
Kimberly
Washington State
PS...I tried to upload pictures...but no luck...sorry Charlies :(
nice share
ReplyDeleteWhat is the significance of the Partai Amanat Nasional (PAN) political party in Indonesia, and what was discussed during Kimberly's meeting with Bara Hasibuan? Regard Telkom University
ReplyDelete