Archive for
June 23rd, 2009
Stories
Indonesia: Disappointing Election Debate
Last Thursday June 18, 2009 some millions of Indonesian TV viewers fixed their eyes on their TV set for the nation's first ever presidential election debate. It was the only moment so far where the three Indonesian chief of state hopefuls — Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), Megawati Sokarnoputri (Mega), and Jusuf Kalla (JK) are reunited all in one forum.
The citizens applauded the idea of the political show which was aired by several TV stations, but many booed the program's execution.
Online, bloggers are in unison saying that the debate was a full blown disappointment. Some believe that it was a key moment for the three candidates and their running mates, but unfortunately the candidates weren't seen to carry themselves well enough or to send out the proper messages that could increase their odds to become the president of the world's largest Muslim populated country.
Herman Saksono wrote an opinion about the debate in Politikana, an online community for politically-savvy Indonesians, saying that:
Walaupun saya berniat mereview konten debat capres tadi malam, tapi dengan segala maaf saya bener-benar tidak tahu berkata apa untuk Mega. Argumentasinya yang sama sekali tidak jelas, memunculkan keraguan apakah Ibu yang satu ini memiliki visi untuk negara ini.
SBY dan JK muncul sebagai pemenang malam itu, walaupun penampilan mereka tidak spektakuler. SBY menunjukkan kapabilitasnya sebagai seorang pemimpin yang melihat permasalahan secara makro, tetapi kurang mengeri permasalahan pada skala mikro. JK justru sebaliknya, ia seperti tidak paham konsep-konsep bernegara, tetapi juara ketika membahas isu-isu yang dekat dengan keseharian kita.
Keduanya memang seperti kombinasi yang ideal dan saling melengkapi. Tapi kita semua tahu kombinasi SBY-JK tidak akan bisa jalan mulus.
Eventhough I have no intention to review the content of the debate, but with all due respect I have no clue what to say about Mega. Her arguments are unclear, making us wondering whether the lady actually has a vision for this county.
SBY and JK were the winners of the night, despite their less than spectacular performances. SBY showed his capacities as a leader that oversee problems in macroscopic way, but he failed to show comprehension to solve the micro issues. JK on the other hand, knows so little about governance concepts, but he aced when it comes to the people's daily issues.
They're both are an ideal combination that compliments one another. But we all know that SBY-JK combination will not be smooth.
RJ Sulistyo wrote a post on Kompasiana, stating his disappointment about the highly anticipated debate.
Awalnya sangat ditunggu, tapi akhirnya mengecewakan. inilah komentar singkat tentang debat calon presiden putaran pertama tadi malam. Normatif, miskin gagasan segar, seragam dan tidak ada saling serang. Menjemukan.
[…]
Agar debat berlangsung menarik pertama-tama semua pihak harus punya gagasan yang berbeda. Tidak akan terjadi debat jika idenya sama dan seragam. Jika gagasannya sudah berbeda ketiganya harus saling serang. Ini penting untuk menguji sebuah gagasan apakah didasarkan pada argumen atau fakta yang menunjang atau tidak. Jika dilakuan ini bisa menguji kecerdasan dan juga mental calon presiden kita.
Ketika masalah alusista dan lumpur lapindo diangkat, Mega dan JK tidak menggunakan isue ini untuk menyerang SBY. JK kita maklum saja, posisinya sebagai wakil presiden dalam pemerintahan SBY tidak akan membuat dirinya mampu secara frontal menyerang gagasan SBY. Mega sesungguhnya punya peluang besar untuk menjatuhkan SBY. Peluang ini tidak dimanfaatkan secara optimal. Maka debat menjadi tidak seru, sekaligus tidak bermutu.
[…]
Kita maklum debat ini adalah tradisi baru. Para calon agaknya masih ragu-ragu untuk saling serang secara berhadap-hadapan dalam forum terbuka. Selama ini mereka sebenarnya sudah saling serang secara sengit tetapi tidak secara berhadap-hadapan. Pada posisi ini saya menilai semua calon telah menjadi pecundang tadi malam. Di depan orangnya bersikap manis-manis, tetapi diluar saling serang dengan pedas.
(The debate was) highly anticipated, but the result was disappointing. here are some short comment about the presidential candidates' first round of debate. Normative, lacking fresh ideas, monotonous and they didn't attack one another. Boring.
[…]
To have an interesting debate, first of all they need to have different perspectives. There won't be any debate if they all have the same perspective. When their visions are different, then they should start criticizing each other. This is crucial to see if the idea is based on (a good) argument or strong facts or not. This way we can test the intelligence and mentality of our future president.
On Indonesia's main weapon defense system (Alutsista) and Lapindo Mud flow (writer's note: read here for more info), Mega and JK didn't use these two issues to criticize SBY. If JK remained silent, we understood why, his position as Vice President in SBY's administration enables him to frontally criticize SBY's ideas. Mega had a huge opportunity to bring down SBY. The opportunity was not used well. That's why the debate was not at all exciting or even good in terms of quality.
[…]
We understand that the debate is a new tradition. The candidates are still hesitating to criticize frontally in front of an open forum. All these times they've been criticizing one another harshly but never face to face. In this position, I think everybody was a loser last night. In front of the person (they criticized), they're behaving nicely, but out there they criticize each other sharply.
Seno on his Life is too short to drink bad coffee blog said:
Saya berpikir debat capres putaran pertama akan berlangsung sengit karena dalam kampanye mereka selalu saling sindir, dan membuat suasana politik makin memanas. Ternyata tidak, Megawatiyang dalam pidato kampanye selalu menjadi oposisi, kali ini selalu mengiyakan apa yang dikatakan SBY dan JK.
[…]
Saya seperti mencari ketiak ular. Tidak ada perbedaan prinsip dan visi misi serta perbedaan cara mengatasi masalah-masalah yang dipertanyakan oleh moderator.
I though that the first round presidential debate will be very sharp because during their campaigns [id], they're mocking each other, heating up the political arena. But in fact no, Megawati [id] in her campaign speeches always placed herself as the opposition, this time agreed to things that was said by SBY and JK.
[…]
I feel like I was searching the armpit of a snake. There were no principle differences, objectives, or alternative problem solving answers to questions asked by the moderator.
Teenlit author Sitta Karina Rachmidiharja express her opinion through twitter, saying:
The first presidential candidates' last night was not “hot”…
Despite the poor review of the program, as Sitta Karina said, it was a good start for Indonesia, one of the world's youngest democratic countries.
Bahrain: Newspaper Suspended For A Day
On Monday, 22 June, Bahrain's oldest newspaper in circulation Akhbar Al Khaleej was suspended for the day after printing an article [Ar] critical of certain Iranian leaders and making reference to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's alleged Jewish origins. The move would seem to have been made to avoid provoking unrest amongst the Shi'a majority in Bahrain.
Yagoob was not pleased:
This comes as another blow to freedom of speech in Bahrain, after seeing a wide spread of web censorship with the aim of ‘a clean web’ which conveniently blocked everything from opposition websites, pornography, gambling, anti Islamic websites, web proxies and Google Translate, it seems that the ever enlongating arm of censorship has hit the mainstream media!
The strangest and most shocking thing about this ban is that it is Akhbar Al-Khaleej, a newspaper which is predominately pro-government. […] So what has this clawless kitten of a newspaper done to ruffle a few feathers in government?? Only time will tell but for now this is a very sad day in Bahrain history and its attempt in becoming a democratic country…
Mahmood also disagreed with the decision:
Not that I love Akhbar Al-Khaleej, nothing could be more remote from the truth, but my feeling for this decrepit paper, its publisher or some of its so called journalists is completely immaterial, but it should not have been banned under whatever reason given or withheld by whatever organ of government dictating this latest ban on freedom of speech. […] My sources tell me that the paper was banned due to a rather cutting article by the infamous Shura Council MP Ms. Sameera Rajab who is no stranger to controversy. She is loathed by a great swathe of people in Bahrain due to her background and rather critical writings especially about the Shi’a and their beliefs. It is also no secret that she detests the regime in Iran and has been very sympathetic to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussain.
Regardless, banning a paper because of a column is a slap in the face of the freedom of information that the Ministry has been at pains to promote – rather paradoxically, especially that it has made it their professional hobby to block websites.
However, not all bloggers were unhappy with the suspension; Green Oasis was pleased:
Update: For Yagoob's perspective on how the suspension was lifted, see here.
Jordan: MPs Drafting a Law which requires Website Passwords
A new electronic sites law is being reviewed and drafted by the Jordanian Parliament which requires website administrators to provide their site's passwords to the government's Printing and Publication Directorate. In case the admins refuse, says the draft, the sites will be closed down by the concerned authorities. Blogger Osama Romoh reacts to the news in this post [Ar].
Exasperated with the news, Romoh sarcastically writes:
Using logic, he argues:
Turning to readers and commentators, Romoh notes:
دائرة المطبوعات والنشر قادرة على معرفة معلوماته الشخصية؟
The blogger adds:
Romoh then appeals to the MPs to guard his country's reputation in the eyes of the international community and spare Jordan further embarrassment:
China: More corpses found in Shishou hotel; disputes continue.
Shishou, Hubei.
The death of a chef triggered a mass protest that finally brought over ten thousand armed police into the town for crackdown. The dead’s families along with thousands of people resisted the police and protected the corpse, because they know once the body was taken away, the death would be identified as a suicide and the truth will be lost forever.
Rumor said that the chef, named Tu Yuangao (涂远高），was killed because he threatened to expose the drug dealings in the hotel after he failed to get his pay. Now, as more injectors were found inside the burned hotel, Shishou people’s suspicion grows. It seems to confirm the rumor that Yong Long hotel has long been used as a den for drug dealers protected by local officials.
当地还有人士称，事发酒店有公安人员入股。坊间流传最多的是，永隆酒店分别是由三个部门的副职负责人入股，其中有公安局，工商局，还有电力局的负责人。但记者未能证实该消息的真伪。
The update was reported by a domestic newspaper, which is the first time that Chinese public media gave so complete a coverage, though it still mentioned nothing about the crackdown.
The reporter also said:
21日晚上11时许，本报记者在出事酒店背面的沙堆上发现一些使用过的注射器以及其包装纸。这些注射器的外形与通常医院做皮试的注射器无异。
22日，记者再次探访酒店时，这些注射器依然未做清理。此时，一些围观的群众也对此进行议论，有几个小孩正拿着手机拍摄，一名家住附近的中年女子认为，“这些都是酒店内部吸毒品所用的工具。”
在场的几名市民都对此表示同感，在他们看来，附近没有医院，不可能是医院把这些注射器丢弃在这里，
On 21, I have found some used injectors and wrappers on the dunes at the back of the hotel. They were the same as those seen in hospital.
On 22, when I revisited the hotel the injectors remained there. People standing by were talking about it, and some kids were filming with their cell phones. A woman said, ‘these are all devices for drug abuse.’
Several people around agreed. In their view, there is no hospital around the hotel so it can’t be medical waste.
Moreover, on 22 June, it was said that people were stunned to find 6 more (3 by some source) corpses in the sewage within the hotel, only with bones left. Hearing the news, a few thousands of people gathered again outside the hotel after tens of thousand people were dispelled last night by armed police.
The updates first appeared on twitter:
ChangshaNotes: RT @yuzhiquan: 石首新情况：隆酒店周围又围上了四五千人。永隆酒店又发现三具尸体！（消息来源以为当地的网友，前2天提供了不少实时信息，可信度还不错）现在只能半信半疑。 #石首#shishou#
It soon turned into two versions:
First, someone saw two corpses in the sewage, and they were later dragged out.
Second, a skeleton was seen inside the hotel.
It was publicly denied by local TV station. The government asked people not to be instigated by a small group of agitators, but revealed no details about the latest development and has given no explanation.
On 21, more than ten thousand armed police have reached the corpse and dispelled the crowd. The corpse was taken away for autopsy and the result will be revealed in 20 days. The dead’s families were asked to go talking with the local officials for an agreement of cremation as soon as possible. It was said that some of his families have agreed.
Another disputable issue is the dead’s last words written on a payment note.
The ‘testament’, which was a crucial evidence for the police to identify the death as suicide, states:
亲爱的爸爸妈妈：儿子在这里对你们说声不孝了，我也不知道我是怎么了好像有个阴影一直缠着我不放，可能这是我的命吧，我存的那点钱您们拿出用，就当是我对 您二老的一点小小补偿吧，儿子欠您们养育之恩再能来世再报了。还有哥，我们只能来世做兄弟了，爸爸妈妈就交给你们了，请原谅弟弟这样不辞而别。希望你好好 把事业做大。好了就这样吧。不孝儿子。。叩头。
I am not a good son. I don’t know why there is always a shadow with me. Perhaps that’s my fate. My little savings will be for your use, as a kind of compensation. I can only pay back your love and kindness in my afterlife. And my dear brother, let’s be brothers again in our afterlife. Please take care of our parents. Please forgive my untold departure. Hope your business will go well. All right, that’s what I want to say. Your bad son… Kowtow.
But the testament was doubted to be faked. Blogger Chai Jing（十年砍柴）questioned that a man who has not even finished grade school has no way to write such a testament.
短短两百来字的遗书，不但字迹流利顺畅，且行文层次分明，逻辑谨严。有如一 件衙门公文，起承转合皆有。一个准文盲，快要自杀前还如此从容写出这样高水准的遗书？
But some of his families agreed that it was indeed his handwriting, though they suggested he might be forced to write down the note.
The battle and resistance has gone far beyond the Shishou town. The Chinese internet has been put in blackout. On Fnafou, the ‘Chinese twitter', if you search for Shishou there returns no result. But the authority cannot take control of everything. The official website of Shishou government has been hacked soon after the crackdown, and the hackers even put up a bulletin board on the webpage that everyone can leave a comment there. The page has been screenshot.
According to the latest update, the twon has been quite again. But how long will it last is yet unknown.
United Kingdom: Court decides against a blogger's rights to anonymity
A new legal precedent has been set for UK bloggers.
Last week, in the England and Wales High Court, Mr Justice Eady ruled that a police officer who previously wrote about his working life on his NightJack blog, did not have the right to remain anonymous.
The claimant - now known to be Detective Constable Richard Horton - had unsuccessfully attempted to get an injunction against The Times newspaper (UK) to stop it naming him. Following the court's ruling Horton has now been issued with a written warning by his police force, the Lancashire Constabulary.
A victory for freedom of expression (The Times')… or a severe restriction for freedom of expression (anonymous bloggers)? Popular opinion is divided, though a blog search would indicate that blogger opinion veers towards the latter.
NightJack, the judge said, did not “qualify as information in respect of which the Claimant has a reasonable expectation of privacy – essentially because blogging is a public activity”. Eady, who is well-known in the UK for his privacy-protecting rulings, stated:
“Furthermore, even if I were wrong about this, I consider that any such right of privacy on the Claimant's part would be likely to be outweighed at trial by a countervailing public interest in revealing that a particular police officer has been making these communications.”
And the implication for bloggers? “Those who wish to hold forth to the public by this means often take steps to disguise their authorship, but it is in my judgment a significantly further step to argue, if others are able to deduce their identity, that they should be restrained by law from revealing it.”
It's hard to find anyone in the UK (or international) blogosphere overwhelmingly in support of The Times' ruling; and The Times' own stories about their battle received severe criticism from commenters, even if, as Malcolm Coles suggests, some of the negative comments are a little tricky to find…
Three things to bear in mind for background:
- NightJack had had undergone the scrutiny of a judging panel in order to win the prestigious Orwell Prize for blogging. The prize's director, Jean Seaton, argues why she believes Eady's ruling to be wrong, here, on the Guardian Organ Grinder blog.
- Horton, who ended his postings after being shortlisted for the award, donated his prize to the Police Dependants' Trust.
- One of The Times' main arguments for outing him was its claims that ‘he was also using the blog to disclose detailed information about cases he had investigated, which could be traced back to real-life prosecutions.'
The bloggers and commenters have reacted with force, many personally attacking Patrick Foster, the journalist at the centre of what Eady called the ‘deduction and detective' process. I've previously rounded up a good mix of links on the Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog and my own blog which tell the story, but here are a selection of the best blog posts, which draw out interesting nuances. Opinions include:
- Those with experience of being ‘outed'. Eg. The Girl with a One Track Mind - once Abby Lee, now known by her real name, Zoe Margolis.
- Those who defend their right to anonymity as a blogging police officer. Eg. PC Bloggs.
- Others who work in the public sector and write about their life and work. Eg. Tom Reynolds, an ambulance driver with a book deal.
- Those who think NightJack was a little naive in his attempt to remain anonymous: Eg. Letter from a Tory
- Those who think The Times, in some respects, had a fair point on the right to name. Eg. Martin Cloake and FleetStreetBlues.
- Those who make comparisons between anonymous bloggers and anonymous journalistic sources. Eg. Sara McConnell and Justin McKeating.
- Those with other criticisms against The Times' approach to the case. Eg. Hopi Sen, once an anonymous blogger.
This is just a summary of a complicated debate. Perhaps the court's decision has surprised onlookers so much because it happened in the UK. We're not living in a repressive autocracy with threatening media laws. While we have stringent libel laws, our freedom of expression extends far more widely than it does for many societies. Perhaps more than it does for most nations in the world - not least because the English language is understood by so many. Yet an award-winning blogger, whose voice, it could be argued, aided the democratic process (see Seaton's article), was not able to stay nameless.
To what extent it affects UK bloggers' future privacy and right to anonymity remains to be seen. I shall report back. In the meantime, all those who are blogging anonymously might do well to take a look at Global Voices Advocacy's guidelines … then they might stand a chance of keeping it that way. Perhaps taking up jiu-jitsu in a Lancashire town, and then writing about it, was a reckless decision on Horton's part.
Please do add any other good links below.
Armenia: Opposition detainees released
Photo: former foreign minister Alexander Arzumanian (left) with former president and extra-parliamentary opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrossian (right), Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia
Following a general amnesty agreed upon by the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on 19 June, several senior opposition figures on trial and in detention for over a year since the 1 March post-election unrest in the country were finally pardoned and released. Many observers believe the trials were politically motivated.
Although The Armenian Observer [EN/AM] reports that the politically polarized blogosphere in the country was divided on the matter, opposition bloggers were naturally elated albeit with some concerns. Unzipped, perhaps the most thought-provoking if unashamedly pro-opposition of local blogs, says that the amnesty does not go far enough.
Unfortunately, it is not clear how (if at all) this amnesty will apply to those opposition activists/supporters who are on the run and in hiding now. Also, it became clear from the terms of declared amnesty that it will not apply to some political prisoners.
It is always welcome to see numbers of those detained on a politically motivated charges reduced. However, I will only truly welcome this news if Armenian authorities free all of them.
[…] Having even one political prisoner is shameful for Armenia, deplorable and should not be tolerated.
Nazarian also comments on how long the men were in detention and posts a video.
I can't believe how the political prisoners have aged. I hope the others are freed soon. The most immoral thing a government can do is jail innocent people. It simply undermines the whole notion of justice as we understand it.
Tzitzernak2, however, is elated by the news, but still confused. The pro-opposition blog also implies that the move was made only to appease the Council of Europe.
Sirunyan, Hakobyan, Malkhasyan and Arzumanyan are OUT!
Mikaelyan has been kept, he was given eight years, and therefore was not eligible….It is still not clear what the exact criteria for the Amnesty were, and who else is eligible, but at this point confusion and lack of clarity are nothing new…
[…]
I still dont know what will happen to Ashot Manukyan, Jhangiryan, and others…
But, as we all knew, PACE is satisfied…
Meanwhile, on my Frontline Club blog, I describe stumbling upon a gathering where four of those detained were met by hundreds of supporters in a Yerevan park.
When you see things like that in Armenia it usually means something political is happening — and it was. Earlier in the day a Yerevan court had found four senior opposition figures guilty of organizing the 1 March 2008 post-election disturbances which left 10 people dead.
The Council of Europe and others, however, consider the case against the four men, including two MPs and a former foreign minister, to be politically motivated. After a year of international pressure an amnesty was announced last week and the still convicted men walked free. The former president and extra-parliamentary opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrossian was there to greet them. […]
The accidental encounter also provided an opportunity to stream 20 seconds of live video from mobile of the first and former president, now extra-parliamentary opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrossian, standing by his former foreign minister released earlier the same day.
Links for Tue, 2009-06
“As hundreds of thousands protesters fill the streets of Tehran and other provincial centers, one can’t help think that we’ve seen this all before,” writes Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog, comparing the events in Iran to “the ‘colored revolutions' in Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, (the failed attempts in) Moldova and Belarus.”
OpenDemocracy.net posts Olga Bakutkina's text on the economic problems in Saratov.
A post on “some of the most important Albanian female solo singer artists of the last century” - at The Balkan Crew.
Bahraini blogger Cradle of Humanity was angry about a recruitment advertisement at a college which stated that native speakers of English would be given preference, so she wrote to complain: “I don’t know if my email would mean anything, but I hope they get the message that, despite English being my second language, I can articulate how I feel about their advertisement.”
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