Indonesia | Economics

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Between Tsunami and Katrina


My newsfeed pointed me to this news on New Orleans a year after Katrina. So I wondered: What did BBC write about Aceh one year on? A quick search on the BBC site, and I found this news. See the difference in tone? And all this, despite the Americans' advantage of not having to broker a peace deal in the region while dealing with reconstruction.

Though to be fair, we did get lots of help, including from the Americans. But most of all, intense public scrutiny (from within and without) was key to the progress in Aceh reconstruction – in part due to internationally-brokered peace accord in Aceh.

Update (8/25): The Economist on Katrina's and Tsunami's first anniversary.

posted by Arya Gaduh at 6:40 am

6 Comments:

  • Arya,

    I was looking at http://nalarekonomi.blogspot.com/ and saw Abdulrahman Wahid under the section of "Liberal Indonesia".

    I am not quite sure the definition of "Liberal Indonesia". In the world of politic Liberal is often connotated to something negative and has been used successfully by politician to discredit others. In some dictionary, it meant "Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogma".

    Mr. Wahid is holding a true principle of Islam --non violence and posses highest tolerance toward non Moslem. In that sense he is a true progressive Moslem Indonesian and he's certainly not an extremist nor a liberal.

    You can check a copy of his recent writing to WSJ on http://smak1-1985.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_smak1-1985_archive.html under the title of "True Islam vs. Wrong Islam".

    By Blogger SMAK1-1985, at 8/24/2006 09:42:00 pm  

  • smak1-1985,
    This post gives my definition of (political) liberalism for my "Indonesian liberals" list.

    By Blogger Arya Gaduh, at 8/24/2006 10:25:00 pm  

  • Your interpretation is a bit peculiar and unconventional I shall say. :-) Nonetheless it's your site and you have right to say what you want :-).

    By Blogger SMAK1-1985, at 8/24/2006 10:41:00 pm  

  • smak1-1985,
    Peculiar? Not according to this Wikipedia entry.

    By Blogger Arya Gaduh, at 8/25/2006 12:06:00 am  

  • I have not heard anyone calling Mr. Wahid a liberal politician or moslem. Let's not give Abu Bakar Bashir or FPI a new idea to distort his reputation.

    Similar to Liberal Theologian, I still think that term carries more negative weight than good one. May be we should ask him how he likes to be called? 8)

    By Blogger SMAK1-1985, at 8/25/2006 09:51:00 pm  

  • smak1-1985:
    This comment thread is OOT. See my reply here.

    By Blogger Arya Gaduh, at 8/25/2006 10:20:00 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home