Freedom of Speech in Indonesia

Treespotter wrote:

Indonesia has one of the most liberal press law in the world (which not without problems in itself, but we’ll get there later). We’re no longer live in opaque Soehartoesque police state and people are free to write whatever they want. For any of you with any experience whatsoever of the press life 20 years ago, then you’d know that life is a whole world of difference these days where freedom of opinion is concerned.

Agree with him. Compared to Malaysia and Singapore, the Indonesian government is more relaxed in giving its press, be it mainstream press of citizenship journalism (e.g. bloggers), more freedom to express their views and opinions. The Pesta Blogger 2007 event, which is supported by the Indonesian government with its declaration of Indonesia's National Blogger Day, is a great example.

The onus is now with us to ensure that we make use of this "freedom" responsibly.

Singapore DUCKtours

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

Singapore DUCKtours is a combined city and harbour tour in Singapore, using a refurbished ex-military amphibious vehicle they call as "duck" which can travel on both land and water. The one-hour tour comprises of 40 minutes water tour around Singapore's Marina Bay area and 20 minutes land tour around Singapore's civic district. The water tour in the Marina Bay area will show you places around the Singapore Flyer, Benjamin Sheares bridge, the floating platform, Esplanade and the Merlion, while the land tour in the civic district area will show you places around City Hall and the Padang.

The tour departs from Suntec City on an hourly basis between 10am to 7pm, subject to weather conditions. The price is $33 for adult and $17 for child, quite expensive since it's catered more for tourists. To purchase the tickets, we can approach the ticketing counter, which is located at the Suntec City Mall, near the Convention Centre area. We can use major credit cards for payment.

We will board the duck on an open area just next to the ticketing counter. There is a tour guide who accompanies all the guests throughout the journey and give running commentaries with regards to all the tourist attractions along the way. The best photo stop would be the Merlion, where the duck boat will have a brief stop to allow all guests to take pictures of the Merlion from both sides of the boat.

Note: More pictures can be found here.

J.Co Donuts & Coffee Opens in Singapore

J.Co Donuts & Coffee, a leading doughnut retailer chain in Indonesia, has opened its outlet in Singapore. Very popular among Indonesians, it's very common to see long queues in almost all J.Co outlets in Indonesia. This very first outlet in Singapore -- which I hope will not be the only one -- is situated on the basement floor of Raffles City shopping centre, which is located just above the City Hall MRT station.

I and my family was walking around the shopping mall yesterday (8/4) when we saw the new outlet, which was still closed at that time. We were very pleasantly surprised since we have never seen a J.Co outlet outside Indonesia. According to jeng Epha who visited the outlet earlier today, the outlet has just opened today (Saturday, 9 February 2008). I believe this should be a very good and pleasant news for Indonesians in Singapore, since this means that we don't have to go back to Jakarta or go to Batam to get J.Co donuts.

According to Devi while responding to Bonnie's question, J.Co has also opened two new outlets in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Specifically, those two outlets are located in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur at Bukit Bintang and Sunway Pyramid near Sunway Lagoon. So I believe this would be a great news for Indonesians currently living in Malaysia, especially Kuala Lumpur, as well. :)

Happy Lunar New Year

For those of you who celebrate Chinese New Year all around the world: Xīnnián kuàilè, Gōngxǐ fācái. Happy new year, and wishing everyone of you a very happy and prosperous new year ahead.

RSI Interview at MediaCorp

Original article and pictures can be found here.

It was just a normal and usual day in the office couple of weeks ago when I received an e-mail from Renatha, one of my fellow moderators of the Indo-Sing mailing list, asked me to join a forum interview by Radio Singapore International (RSI), the Indonesian section, with topics related to Indonesians living in Singapore.

He said that Handoko, another of our fellow Indo-Sing moderator, was supposed to join but he couldn't make it, so he asked me to cover for him. Other people who were invited to join the forum were Sigit, an Indo-Sing mailing list user, Hany and Ellen, Indo-Sing mailing list users and IndoSing-Mums mailing list moderators, and another one which was not yet decided.

Earlier, Renatha asked Andre, Dedhi, dan Ikhsan, three of some active Indo-Sing mailing list users, to also join the forum, but they were not able to make it. Therefore, we decided to invite Judhi, one of the moderators for the IMAS mailing list, to also join the forum, and fortunately he's able to join. So there would be representatives from three Indonesian communities in Singapore, namely Indo-Sing, IndoSing-Mums and IMAS.

Efika Rosemarie (Fika) is the RSI's presenter who interviewed us. She said that it was supposed to be Rane's show, but now Rane is being posted in Indonesia for six months, as RSI's correspondent in Indonesia. We had a pre-interview meeting on 29 January 2007, located at Hany's residence in Braddell, Toa Payoh, for Fika to brief us on what the programme is all about, and how we were going to conduct the forum discussion.

During the briefing, we were also brainstorming on what topics we would be discussing on the interview forum. There were three topics being discussed during the interview, and each topic was being discussed in a 30-minute duration. Fika suggested "working in Singapore" and "mailing lists for Indonesian communities in Singapore" as the two topics that we would be discussing, and for the third discussion, the topic would be "how long we would continue to stay in Singapore and whether we would be back to Indonesia later". Quite interesting topics to discuss. :)

Unfortunately, Ellen's daughter was admitted to hospital, so Ellen was not able to join both the pre-interview meeting and the interview itself. So there were five of us: myself, Renatha, Sigit, Hany and Judhi attended the forum interview.

The interview itself was conducted on 31 January 2007 at MediaCorp's Caldecott Broadcast Centre on Andrew Road. This is not my first experience in attending interview by RSI, I have been there before to attend an interview session with Rane. However, this is my first experience of a forum interview session with my friends, discussing about familiar topics that we all know very well. It was really, really, really fun!!! :)

Furthermore, Fika allowed us to take pictures prior, after and even *during* the interview session, and being narcisst photographers, Judhi, Hany and myself took our pictures during the whole event. :) :)

Similar to my interviews last time, it was not a live programme. It's recorded and I will update again on the exact time when the programme will be aired so that all of you can hear us on the radio. :) Unfortunately, being an international radio in Singapore, the programme cannot be heard in Singapore using the normal radio, since it's being broadcasted through the short-wave (SW) frequency which can only be received outside Singapore. Listeners in Indonesia can also hear RSI programme through some local radio stations which list can be found here. For those in Singapore, you can still hear it via the Internet, either via streaming or podcast. I'll update you again when they become available.

Update on 4 February 2007, 6:15pm: Fika has updated us that the FORUM talk show will be broadcasted by RSI Indonesia every Monday night at 9:35pm Singapore time (or 8:35pm Western Indonesian Time), starting from 18 February 2008 until 14 April 2008.

There are three topics to be discussed and each topic will be divided into three time slots. Thus, the whole interview will be broadcasted in a span of 9 weeks. The broadcast can be listened through RSI Indonesia's live streaming as well as its podcast, which will be available during and after the broadcast.

Related links:

• RSI Interview at MediaCorp
• RSI Pre-Interview Briefing and Meeting
• Suatu Malam di RSI
• Rekaman di RSI
• FORUM bersama para anggota komunitas Indonesia di Singapura

Mount Faber

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

Mount Faber, one of tourist attractions in Singapore, is not really a mountain. It is just a hill, about 106 metres in height, located just north of the Harbourfront area. The highest point is called Faber Point, and from there, we can have a panoramic view of the surrounding areas, including the Harbourfront area and the buildings at Singapore's central business district area. There's a small Merlion statue in Faber Point, and on the lower level, there are some stone carvings depicting some of Singapore's history.

Just further down from Faber Point, there's a building called The Jewel Box, houses some fine dining restaurants and some souvenir shops. From there, we can also catch a cable car to Harbourfront and Sentosa. Apart from that, there's nothing much to see and do there other than enjoying the greenery of the secondary rainforest around Mount Faber.

The best way to reach Mount Faber is by taxi. There is a bus service from SBS Transit called Parks 409, which runs from Harbourfront bus interchange to Mount Faber on Saturday, Sunday and public holiday. The bus fare is $1, payable using cash or EZ-Link card. If we drive a car there, finding a parking lot might be difficult, especially during evening peak hours. However, The Jewel Box provides valet service for those who need it.

At the moment, the National Parks Board is building a bridge to connect Mount Faber Park and Telok Blangah Hill Park, with a further connection up to Kent Ridge Park, connecting all the three parks. This means that visitors can jog or walk from one park to another without having to exit the park and/or take other methods of transportation. When I visited Mount Faber recently, I saw that the bridge is still under construction, and might be fully operational in the next couple of months.

Dolphin Lagoon in Sentosa

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

 

Sentosa, a small island located south of Singapore, is one of the country’s most visited tourist destinations. With only S$2 entrance fee per person (excluding transport), going to Sentosa is now much more affordable compared to several years ago when the entrance fee was still a hefty S$6 per person. There are many ways to enter Sentosa, and the most convenient and cheapest method is to take the Sentosa Express monorail from VivoCity shopping mall, with a transport fee of a mere S$1. Alternatively, you can also take the Sentosa bus from Harbourfront bus interchange with the same fee. Taking the cable car from Harbourfront tower or Mount Faber to enter Sentosa is also possible, with a much higher fee. Once we enter Sentosa, all the transportation methods within Sentosa (bus, monorail, tram) are free.

There are many attractions inside Sentosa, each with its own entrance fee, which is on top of the S$2 entrance fee into the island. One of the attractions which tourists usually visit is Dolphin Lagoon, which is located near to the Palawan beach in Sentosa. The entrance fee is quite steep, S$19.90 for adult and S$12.70 for child, however the fee includes the entrance tickets for both Dolphin Lagoon and Underwater World. To reach Dolphin Lagoon, we can take the Sentosa Express monorail to the Beach station, and from there, we can take the Palawan beach tram which will bring us right into Dolphin Lagoon’s doorstep. Alternatively, we can also take the red or yellow line bus within Sentosa.

There are dolphin show sessions where we can watch all the pink dolphins in action, four times daily at 11am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm and 5:30pm. It’s advisable that we manage the time properly and be at the Dolphin Lagoon gate at least 30-45 minutes before the show time. This is to ensure that we get the best seats for the show. Take note that the waiting time for buses and trams in Sentosa is quite long, especially during peak holiday period where Sentosa can get very crowded and it seems that the available buses and trams are outnumbered by the visitors.

After each session, there’s a meet and greet session where we can touch the dolphins and have your photos taken with them. For this, we would need to pay additional $15 fee per photo session, and each session is valid for up to two persons. We will have to go to one of the two corners of the lagoon compound and queue there to have our pictures being taken while touching the dolphins. We can then collect the photo at the souvenir shop near the exit of the lagoon complex. If we have another friend with a camera there, we can also ask the friend to take our pictures with the dolphin, so we can also have our own version of the photo.

Do not forget that the admission fee for Dolphin Lagoon includes the admission to Underwater World, which will be valid on the same day. So we might want to manage our time properly so we can visit both attractions on the same day. Underwater World opens until 9pm daily while the last show session is at 5:30pm daily, so if we reach Sentosa in the afternoon, we might want to watch the Dolphin Lagoon show first before heading to the Underwater World, which is located on the other side of the island.

Writing for ABN's Asia Travel Blog

At last, I'm now contributing to Asia Blogging Network (ABN). Specifically, I'll be writing on ABN's Asia Travel Blog, and on that blog, I will write more information about travelling in Singapore, the country where I live currently.

Yes, I had expressed my interests in contributing to ABN since the day it was launched, but I was afraid that I might not have the time, and especially, the "passion", to write on ABN. Therefore, I decided not to apply to become one of ABN's contributors. However, Budi offered me to write on ABN's Asia Travel Blog and asked me to write anything about travelling in Singapore, and it's really an offer I couldn't reject. I like travelling a lot, and I often write about my travel experience in my blogs. I was thinking, I might as well share the experience by contributing to ABN, to reach a much greater readers' base.

My article about Dolphin Lagoon is my first contribution to Asia Travel Blog. I'm looking forward to contributing more to ABN and hope to see you guys there. :)

Canonian vs Nikonian

Picture courtesy of Andri Setiawan.

This picture shows four photographers (the guy on the far right side is not counted), one of them is an amateur (that's me!) and the other three are professional photographers, all using Canon digital cameras. The photo is taken by another photographer, who was using a Nikon digital camera.

Since I consider myself as an amateur photographer, I am satisfied of using a pocket camera to serve my photography needs. Yes, I wanted to have a so-called "more professional camera" like the Canon EOS which that guy with the white T-shirt is using, especially after I tried to use his camera the other day. But hearing that the camera body itself (without the lens) would already cost almost $2k, I backed off. :) :)

Well, if Pangeran Panda is dreaming of someone giving him a $99k lens for his birthday (which is still months away), can I also dream of someone giving me a $2k Canon EOS camera for my birthday (which is even further months away)? That is only a fraction of Panda's $99k wishlist. :P :P

Hmmm... *dreaming...*

...

...

...

OK, back to reality. :P  Which one is actually better? Canon or Nikon? :)

Season's Greetings

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Adha to all my Muslim friends, Selamat Hari Ibu for all Indonesian mothers (including my mother and my wife), Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends, and Happy New Year to everyone! :)

Picture courtesy of 123greetings.com.

It's Getting Hotter There in Malaysia

The political situation in Malaysia is getting hotter recently. It was started with a demolition of an ancient Hindu temple by the Malaysian government late October, causing rage among Indian Malaysian community in Malaysia. Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), whom activists were being detained by the police when protesting against the demolition of the temple, staged mass rallies throughout last month and early this month, shocking the government and the nation. The rallies were highlighting the minority Indian Malaysians' complaints of discrimination by the ruling government, and almost all of the rallies ended with hundreds being arrested.

The claims of mistreatment against the Indian community were being denounced by Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who said that those claims were stirred up to create racial conflicts. It seems that the Malaysian government was trying all-out to curb the situation by performing mass crackdown on those who supported the rallies. They even charged 26 ethnic Indians with attempted murder of a policeman during one of the protests, with their bail being rejected. What's more, some of them were even accused of having links with terrorist groups.

And recently, seems that the crackdown has widen and is affecting not only the Indian Malaysians group, but also other groups such as lawyers and human rights leaders who were also staging street protests against the government on some other issues. Even Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition figure and former deputy premier who was being sacked during Mahathir's era, was also detained at Kuala Lumpur International Airport after returning from a trip to Turkey. This leads to the United States government to call on Malaysia to allow freedom of expression and assembly. They have repeatedly raised with Malaysian authorities their belief that citizens in any country should be allowed to peacefully asemble and express their views. But of course, Abdullah's stand is that public safety and security should take precedence above public freedom.

Seems that the issue is now getting more serious. Let's just hope that this issue does not cause the Malaysian government to forget that they still have some other important issues to take care, including the flood issue which has caused the death toll to rise and thousands to be evacuated.

The above picture is courtesy of ChannelNewsAsia.

Quicklink: Walk Around The Singapore F1 Track

Walk Around The Singapore Formula 1 Track - Part 1 and Part 2. Created by an avid F1 fan who came to Singapore and took pictures of almost every corner of the track. Link is provided by Tomorrow.SG.

Sitex 2007 Is Now On

One of the biggest IT and digital exhibitions in Singapore, SITEX 2007, is now happening at the Hall 5 and Hall 6 of Singapore Expo, now until 2 December 2007. The event is organised by the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) and managed by Singex Exhibitions. It is an annual exhibition event which has been held since 1988.

The organiser promised that this year's SITEX will not only be bigger, but it will also feature new themed segments such as New Technology, Smart Home, IT & New Media Education, Automobile Electronics, and IT for Kids. They also have partnered with Cash Converters and Clean Solutions for a recycling initiative where consumers can can trade in unwanted electronic gadgets or items at the Cash Converters booth for cash, or dispose of them using recycling bins situated near the entrances. This is a good time for you to dispose all your spoiled or unwanted electronic items.

Currently I don't have any IT or electronic items to buy, so I'm not too sure whether I'm going to pay a visit to the event. Well, actually my wife has been asking for a new laptop but I'm not too sure whether it's now a good time to buy... we'll see. :) :)

Amazing Race Asia 2 Has Started

I have just watched the premiere of The Amazing Race Asia 2 on AXN Asia just now. It is the second season of The Amazing Race Asia series, one of my favourite shows, after its first season last year. This season, the race started in Singapore, specifically near the Raffles Landing Site where I and my kids just visited last week, and their first destination was the Merlion statue at Mount Faber. Believe me, I didn't know that there's another Merlion statue in Mount Faber, until I watched the show. I thought Merlion statues in Singapore can only be found in Merlion Park and Sentosa. :)

Similar to last season, there are ten teams competing for one hunder thousand dollar. There is one contestant from Singapore, Adrian, who is hearing-impaired, making him the first hearing-impaired contestant in the Amazing Race history. There's one team representing Indonesia, actress Kinaryosih and her partner Brett, and they can reach the pit stop at the fourth place in the first leg of the race. Not bad. :)

So, from next week onwards, I will have to mark this important time of the week: Thursday at 9pm (Singapore time), for me to watch The Amazing Race Asia 2. Oh, and don't forget also that every Wednesday at 11pm (Singapore time), Channel 5 is also showing the latest season of the Amazing Race.

Pictures courtesy of AXN Asia website.

This is what a good camera (with a good lens) can do...

The above picture is taken by our dear Pangeran Panda, using his camera (with the so-called special lens), during our Indo-Sing Moderators dinner event last night.

Believe me, he didn't need to climb to the ceiling to take the picture. The camera was just positioned less than one meter away above the table.

Amazing, eh? :)

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri

Similar to last year, both Singapore and Indonesia governments have decided the same date for this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri, which is on Saturday, 13 October 2007.

In Singapore, the Mufti of Singapore has announced that based on astronomical calculation, the moon was not visible on the horizon yesterday evening as it set almost at the same time with the sun. Thus, today (Friday, 12 October 2007) marks the 30th day of the Muslim's holy month of Ramadhan and the 1st day of Syawal (Hari Raya Aidil Fitri) falls on Saturday, 13 October 2007.

In Indonesia, the Ministry of Religion Affairs also have decided that this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri falls on Saturday, 13 October 2007. According to Cecep Nurwendayat, an Indonesian astronomy expert, the moon (hilal) was not possible to be seen yesterday because the sunshine was still strong when the moon set.

Similar to last year, Muhammadiyah, one of the largest Islamic organisations in Indonesia, have decided that Hari Raya Idul Fitri falls one day earlier than the government's decision, which is today (Friday, 12 October 2007). This is due to the different methods used in determining the end of the month of Ramadan. Therefore, it's quite common to see some of Indonesian muslims who celebrate Hari Raya Idul Fitri today instead of tomorrow, and alhamdulillah, these differences are widely accepted by the Indonesian people and never cause any problems, let alone frictions, among Muslims in Indonesia.

I would like to wish all Muslims all over the world, a Happy Eid ul-Fitr celebration. Eid Mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri, mohon maaf lahir dan batin.

More Cars on Singapore Roads

Picture taken from Traffic Camera section of One Motoring website.

Those who drive or often take taxis in Singapore will notice that nowadays, there are more cars on Singapore roads compared to two or three years ago. Last year, I would only take less than 15 minutes to reach my home in around Upper Bukit Timah area, from my office in around Science Park area, during evening peak hours. Now, every evening I would need at least 30 minutes, due to congestion along the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE). Last time, the expressway was usually congested only if there's an accident, but nowadays, built-up traffic during evening peak time period is now an every day matter.

And now, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will install more Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries all over Singapore, to control the traffic flow. I don't understand why they chose to do this instead of limiting the number of cars on the roads. They can actually do so by reducing the number of quota available for Certification of Entitlement (COE) bidding. Past two years were actually a good time for LTA to review and reduce the quota since there were many cars being scrapped/de-registered. But instead, they chose to use that reason as an excuse to increase the quota, and as a result, COE plunged to a very low rate in the past couple of years. At the end, more people are buying cars, resulting in more crowded Singapore roads.

They should actually reduce the quota much earlier, say one or two years ago, to control the number of cars, instead of installing more ERP gantries now to control the traffic flow. It's not fair to the road users, especially to those who purchased their cars when the COE was on a much higher level (2004 and earlier). They paid higher COE premium at that time, expecting that they will enjoy smooth flow of traffic due to the limited number of cars on the roads. However, they ended up having to share more crowded roads with newer car owners who paid lesser COE premiums, and now they will also have to share the burden to pay for additional ERP charges.

OK, I admit that my opinion might be subjective since I bought my car in 2003, while the COE rate was above $30k. But don't you agree with me that the government should limit the number of cars in the first place, rather than letting people to buy more cars and perform "damage control" by charging them to use the roads?

Missed That Round of Open Submission

Aaaargh. I missed this year's round of Merdeka's open submission. I intended to register this blog as well as my Minda Indra blog for the open submission, but then I was very busy on that particular day both in the office and at home so I forgot to make the submission. More over, I forgot to mark this date on my scheduler. Guess I will have to wait for the next round of open submission, don't know when...

Why this round of submission is only opened for one day? :(

Al-Jazeera Seeking to Broadcast in Singapore

On one of the mailing lists I subscribe, Rani quoted an article from Reuters saying that the leading Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera said that it has been in talks with the Singapore government since early this year, hoping to get the go-ahead to broadcast in Singapore by year-end.

According to Nigel Parsons, the managing director of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English channel, Singapore was cautious about allowing it to broadcast in Singapore because of criticism of the channel in the United States. Al-Jazeera, which attracted millions of viewers after it aired exclusive footage from Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11 attacks, has been accused by the US (who else?) of biased reporting on Iraq and "supporting" terrorism.

Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) said that it was still assessing Al-Jazeera, saying that "as with all foreign channels, the authorities will need to make assessments based on criteria such as public expectations and interest, as well as the ability to meet local programme standards."

I also read on the Straits Times newspaper yesterday, that if Al-Jazeera gets the go-ahead, most likely it will be aired under SingTel's MiO Pay-TV package.

Will be very interesting to see how the Singapore government will follow-up on this matter, as we have known, Singapore is quite strict in enforcing their controls over the media. And considering that Singapore is a close ally of the United States, I foresee that Al-Jazeera will be having difficulties in getting the broadcast rights.

As what Mr. Parsons has pointed out, "We understand that we have to be patient".

Singapore F1 Race on 28 September 2008

(Picture courtesy of Wikipedia)

At last, the date for the inaugural F1 race in Singapore has been set. It will be held on 28 September 2008 and will be after the race in Belgium, and before the race in Shanghai, China. Subject to final safety clearances, the Singapore race will be the first F1 race to be held at night. The race will be held on a 5.2-km street circuit around the Marina Bay/Esplanade area.

Tickets will start to go on sale in December 2007. Although the ticket prices have not been fixed yet, Singapore Grand Prix, the organiser of the Singapore race, has released the estimated ticket price to start from S$50 for the trial races, and S$100 for the actual races.

Well, I believe Formula One fans can start marking the date in the calendar, although now it might still be too early to book the hotels. I'm not too sure whether you can just book a hotel within the Marina Bay area and watch the race without having to buy tickets. :)

Complete race list for 2008 F1 season:

1. March 16, Melbourne, Australia
2. March 23, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3. April 6, Bahrain
4. April 27, Barcelona, Spain
5. May 11, Istanbul, Turkey
6. May 25, Monaco
7. June 8, Montreal, Canada
8. June 22, Magny Cours, France
9. July 6, Silverstone, England
10. July 20, Hockenheim, Germany
11. August 3, Budapest, Hungary
12. August 24, Valencia, Spain
13. September 7, Monza, Italy
14. September 14, Spa, Belgium
15. September 28, Singapore
16. October 12, Shanghai, China
17. October 19, Fuji Speedway, Japan
18. November 2, Sao Paulo, Brazil