KKK - Bon Voyage

Former President Soeharto of Indonesia died on 27 January 2008. The former leader of the world's largest Muslim and Southeast Asian nation was 86. News reports on his legacy are divided as is the opinion of many Indonesians and others in the region. The clossest Western parallel is perhaps General Augusto Pinnochet.

Like Pinnochet, Soeharto has blood on his hands. Under his rule more than half a million people were "Purged" and unlike Pinnochet, Soeharto allowed corruption to become part of the culture. As I remember Dad telling me when he first took me to Bali - "Every Singaporean and Malaysian pays a tribute of S$10 for their first journey." The Soeharto family linned their pockets quite shamelessly - ok to be fair, Indonesia still ranked better than Nigeria in Transparency International's rankings and Nigerians looked to Indonesia as a positive example of what they could do if it were not for truely awful government.

What is Soeharto's legacy? Is he a muderous bastard? Or was he Indonesia's saviour? I'm inclined to follow Vinod's view of the man being "Necessary for his times." Yes, he did allot of bad things but he did allot of good too. Comming from SouthEast Asia, Soeharto was a necessary force for the region. I remember one of my shaper differences with Toni was on Soeharto. For Toni it was very clear, Soeharto was a mass murderer and a conquerer of nations. For me, he was all of that but he was also the man who kept ASEAN stable for so many years.

When it comes to talk of the Asian boom the names that come to mind are Mahatire of Malaysia and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. Both men have achieved many things. But in the world of geopolitics - size matters and Indonesia is by and far and away the biggest boy in this part of the world. I don't think Mahatire or LKY could not have done what they had, had it not been for Soeharto's efforts in keeping Indonesia stable and growing. Let's face it - Malaysia and Singapore only kept Indonesia at bay during the "Konfrantasi" period because the British did the fighting.

Under Soeharto, Indonesia did boom and the boom in Indonesia was good for Singapore. Yes, there are lots of poor people in Indonesia, many of them work as maids and other domestic workers in Singapore. But Indonesia is also exceedingly wealthy - and the very wealthy in Indonesia keep the Singapore economy ticking over quite nicely. I remember Dad used to need to run to Jakarta to do jobs with "Real Money" - unlike Singapore the clients in Jarkata actually had money to spend. Now that I'm in the work foce - its clear to me that industries like healthcare in Singapore would have a problem if it were not for wealthy Indonesians.

The 1997 crash was Soeharto's undoing. The man who had managed to make the economy one of the world's fastest growing seemed incompetent to lead it in the face of a crisis. Suddenly it was as if everything he had created turned out to be a rather crappy illusion. It was as if the only thing propping up the system was "hot money."

Then again, I believe Soeharto was brought down by the people he created - university students - sign of a large middle class - a group of people whom would never have existed without him and the boom that he created. As any social scientist will tell you - political revolution always belongs to the Middle Class! History has shown that the rich are never really too bothered by political going ons, while the poor are too destitute to care who is in power. And so the call for political change is left to the Middle Class to make and boy did the Indonesian Middle Class make it in 1997.

Soeharto was a sad figure at the end. I often compare him with LKY, which is in many ways an unfair comparison. Sure, Singapore is so slick and clean in comparison but its easy to run Singapore a small little island when compared with the enormous archipeligo that is Indonesia. By keeping Indonesia together and by creating a thriving middle class - Soeharto helped create the Asian Economic Miracle of the early 1990s. Malaysian and Singaporean governments could concentrate on their domestic fronts instead of worrying about Indonesia's territorial ambitions - Malaysian and Singaporean businesses had a good market in Indonesia's Middle Class.

In the end, I think his greatest mistake was hanging onto power for too long and not reigning in his family. I know I sound like a smug annoying Singaporean but when I watched his resignation speech in the safety of 22 Dead St in London, I appreciated the genious of LKY in passing on the torch to Goh Chok Tong, a successor he developed. Soeharto stayed in power too long - he was forced to preside over the collapse of the economy he built and more worryingly he had to hand over the reigns of power to BJ Habibie, man whom was never qualified for high office and more importantly, a man Soeharto believed was incapable of taking over.

Soeharto did many bad things in his 32 years of power. Today, the gap between the super rich and dirt poor remains quite obscene. Corruption remains quite endemic and millitant Islamic groups remain strong. These are the negative parts of his legacy.

However, Indonesia and Southeast Asia are slowly but surely maturing into prosperous and somewhat free and prosperous societies. Indonesia remains a major market for businessmen within the region and as the country works towards rooting out corruption, it looks like Indonesia's prospects are brightening and this pull Southeast Asia into a mature and prosperous age. General Soeharto certainly deserves credit for that too. Ironically, he is also partially responsible to ensuring that no Indonesian leader after him will have the dictatorial powers that he once held and that has to be a good thing too.

It will probably take a few more generations for Indonesia to unwind the bad things that Soeharto did. But it is starting to enjoy the benefits of Soeharto as it works towards retoring the economy to pre-1997 levels. When you look at it this way - Soeharto was a man necessary for his era. It's now up to Indonesians and other members of ASEAN to decide what type of leadership they want for next few years.

A Moment of Hope

The year 2008 has not been a terribly good year for the financial markets. Nearly everyday you turn on the TV and you hear about how stock markets around the world are collapsing and economies are going down the tube.

But there was a piece of good news today in the Middle Eastern Newspapers. Palestinans who had been impressioned in the Gazza strip finally broke through the fenses and flooded into Egypt where they managed to buy supplies and got the essentials that they needed to survive.

The people of the Gazza strip made one fatal error. They actually believed that the world was seriously interested in having "Democracy," and promptly behaved as voters in other parts of the world do - they voted for a group that had a record of honest governance and got rid of a lot that had a track record of corruption and thievery. Unfortunately, the Western World didn't like the honest people because they had big hairy beards, prayed regularly and reffused to aknowledge the existence of a group of people who believed in "Civilised Torture."

And there you have it. Palestine was placed under siege because it's peolpe voted in a group of people with a record for being honest but had beards and didn't believe that the Palestinians were supposed to lie in the shit hole and allow the other people with beards to kick the crap out of them for sport.

The rest of the world actually realised there was something wrong with this. But the Americans felt that the only way to treat the beardy people the Palestians liked was to kick the shit out of the Palesinians by imposing a siege on them. As far as the Americans were concerned, the world was a nasty place that didn't understand that the beardy people with skull caps had suffered so much in their history, it was essential for them to kick the shit out of the Palestinans just for the fun of it. Even when the Saudi's thought they could get a compromise, the Americans felt they were being mean to the people with beards and skull caps and promptly made sure the Saudi efforts collapsed.

And there you have it. The Beardy people the Palestinians liked took control of the Gaza strip and the Americans were appauld. The Palestians were supposed to lie down and let the other beardy people kick the shit out of them and enjoy it - the fact that they had the gall to fight back was a sign of - well the Palestinians not knowing their place and so they had to let the other beardy people kick the crap out of them some more.

But today, for a few moments of sanity.......the people of Gaza broke free and people around them allowed them to do it. There's hope in life after all.

A week of slow, steady activities for the sake of achieving nothing

Week is coming to an end and I've managed to do quite a bit but I'm still not quite sure about what I've managed to achieve utterly nothing. Does not help that I'm currently ridding out a minor cash flow issue but it helps that I've actually been doing work in the last few days.

Walked off one account yesterday. It was a case of understanding that your personality is about to be your biggest weaknesses in your relationship with partners and clients and for relatively little money. So, best to quit while you are infront and remain friends with all parties.

On a more possitive note, I picked up a surprise last minuite client. They called me and I didn't think they'd except my terms but they did and now I'm figuring out how to create something somewhat legible for their client's product.

I guess everything balances out. I've had a relatively good start to the year bar the odd cash flow crunch here and there. People close to me seem to have had a good start too. Bijay, the Naan maker for example is now working as a Sous Chef at a hotel. Zen, the world's chubbiest hooker has now found an extra source as an - "Art Model," and even got herself interviewed on Channel NewsAsia. - If they can do it, I think I make something better for myself this year.

Note of the Week

I've just come back from Damin's farewell function. Damien, is the French Manager for the Billiard Room in the Raffles Hotel and over the last few months we had become good friends as I became a fan of his team and the excellent buffet dinner that they served. As part of his farewell, I took him to have Chinese mutton soup (he was impressed by the freshness of the meat) and momos. In return, I ended up at his function, which was organised by his staff. Like all good Frenchmen, he made sure that there was plenty of champagne to keep the spirits lifted.

Anyway, the week has been fairly unspectacular. My recently started hi-fi trading business has just started life and hopefully it will be able to grow into a source of passive income for me. I'm touching base with people and hopping to be able to grow my life. Was on the phone to my mother who had to remind me that I'm going to be 35 and I have nothing set aside for the day I'm turned into an invalid.

Well, ok, I guess one of the beautiful things about being a writer is the fact that I can still write into my old age. But writing actually pays very badly, so the trick is to make sure that the consultancy business gives me enough of a cash cushin to build some passive income that will last me into my twilight years.

Life is quite tough for most of us these days. I think most of us are still trying to get over the national idea of the "Iron Rice Bowl." Its becomming more and more common for jobs to be short term. Everyone is either an intern or on a 2-year project if they are on anything at all. Singapore also seems to retire people quite early. And this is in a climate of low unemployment.

Looks pretty grim? Well, I suppose it is if you are bread to believe in the idea of secure employment. In this day and age that we live in, you need to become multi-talented and have all sorts of things you can do to generate a few pennies here and there.

Ironically, Singapore, a work market that's often cruel to the elderly, is run by a genious of an old Man. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is rightfully respected for having dragged Singapore into becoming a modern, developed nation, with a world class infrastructure. He has however, not been given enough credit for reinventing old age.

He's kept active and even if his body has become frail with age, his mind is exceedingly sharp. He's invented jobs for himself (First Senior Minister, now Minister Mentor) that would give him plenty of power but prevent him from doing too much damage to the country with advancing years. He checks his own email, continues to write his own speeches and gets plenty of foreign travel. Of course, he's not exactly a nice and cuddly person. By his own admission, he does not seem to have much time for his grandchildren.

Compare that with his contemporaries. Rajaratnam died pretty forgotten by the general public, while Goh Keng Swee is pretty close to senile. Across the causeway, Mahatire needs to slam his successor to get a bit of attention and in Indonesia, Suharto needs to hit the odd coma here and there. Margaret Thatcher in the UK is now consigned to the dutsbins of history and Ronald Regan died not realising he was once President of the USA. So when you think about it, Old Man Lee in Singapore is onto something here.

Now, that's something to think about.