Titus Jonathan's Stories

The current presidential race actually much interesting compared to the 2004 election. The General Election Commission (KPU) is more creative by organizing 5 rounds of presidential/vice presidential televised debates, the event that gives the candidates chance to act their best performances in front of public. Like the Indonesian Idol – a singing contest among the teenagers across the country whom the winner is picked by the voters through sms (short message service), the presidential/vice presidential candidates polish their images for the best endeavor in order to be voted by the audiences. Unfortunately, the attractive race nowadays has been tainted by several sentiments using religious symbols which supposedly out from practical politics. Firstly, after all three candidates announced their readiness for the race, the deputy secretary general of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) Zulkieflimansyah said that popularity of JK-Wiranto duet has been increasing due to their wives wearing ...

(published in The Jakarta Post on 23 June 2009. Click here ) The rare show is now coming to our home. Let's finish our work earlier and come home soon, sit down in front of the TV and enjoy it as within two coming weeks we will be entertained by a much-awaited show ahead of the presidential election that is scheduled on July 8. The show, titled "Presidential debate" is considered as a historic event for Indonesia since it will present all of the presidential/vice presidential candidates by face to face, and aired by several TV stations as a live event. People, regardless of their status and profession, enthusiastically watched the first debate on June 18 that presented Megawati Soekarnoputri, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla. Although the event is quite interesting, we didn't see the real debate as expected since the three candidates tended to be bold and underline the rival's view, no challenges toward the description that was presented by each. The nuan...

(published in The Jakarta Post on 11 June 2009. Click here ) Peace. This is the only word brought by President Barack Obama in his tour of the Middle East recently. As we already know, the word "peace" for the Middle East is easy to say but the hardest thing to grab. And always, the word "peace" would have got a skeptical reaction across the world, not because people hate the word, but it is the President of United States who said "peace" and brings it to their land. People in the war zone of the Middle East (particularly relative to the Israel-Palestine conflict) seem not-so-anxious to have peace, because when it comes, it suddenly takes wing and flies somewhere else. All the peace accords have been so fragile and easily broken by the fighting parties, though their leaders are smiling, shaking hands and kissing cheeks with each other at the same table when talking about peace. But still, it has been the word people dare to dream of. What did Obama try to...