Election Day is getting closer and closer. Starting this year the election will be very different from before. Legislative candidates must personally know their voters and voters have to know their preferred candidates. Candidate’s rank in the list does not play important role anymore. The more votes a candidate gets, the higher the chance of him/her to get into the House of Representatives.
It is true that this election method is somehow giving the people/voters the chance to choose their representative. Old system gave the parties to chose which candidates can go to House of Representatives. The rank of candidates affects the chance of each candidate. People vote for the parties not the candidate. This method has produced some complications. People representatives, ideally, have to have broad knowledge and have skill in creating public policies. In reality, some rich guys that can pay more money to the party but have no idea about public policy can be in the first rank and if the party got enough votes, he/she can sit in the House of Representative. This condition has made some regional House of Representative could not work effectively and the government has to waste money on them.
New method really gives a hard test to the candidate. Not just knowledge wise but also money wise. Parties, especially small ones and even the big ones, can not give 100% support to somebody who run for a position in the House of Representative. The candidate has to have enough money to sell him/her self to the public. Creating campaign posters, paying campaign managers and many other things are costly. The new method does need huge amount of money and deep pocket of a candidate. The new method also still has weaknesses. One of them is that many of the candidates do not personally know their voters. It is often that candidate based in Jakarta has voting area in the regions far from his/her home. The “real” connection between people and their representatives is not “there”.
Because it is costly, when candidates elected and won the seats in the House of Representatives, the worst thing can happen. Corruption can grow easily. It is just like business. When you invest on something, you need to gain profit and your investment paid back as soon as possible. When a candidate spent, say 1 million Rupiah for the election (it is more likely minimum 5000 million Rupiah than 1 million Rupiah per candidate), then he or she has to get 1 million Rupiah plus profit during his/her duty period. The salary and all the bonuses for 5 years duty period, I am sure, will not be that much. It is time when House of Representative play dirty role. If government wants to pass a regulation or budget, it needs to be agreed by House of Representative. The House can play hard in order to be bribed.
There are many options, I believe, to play dirty in the House of Representative. This condition creates high social cost and nurture the bribery and corruption habit. And if the representatives are only focusing on speeding up the payback period, they will not be able to focus on their responsibility. The victim will always be the people.
I think smart people in the government have to invent an innovative way to do election. Innovative enough so that in the end elected representatives do not have to worry about their financial investment. Their investment in making better condition for the people is far more valuable than money.
5 February 2009
3 February 2009
Hydro Glossary - Under Development
I believe that to understand a subject, one also has to speak the language. This means, when somebody wants to understand hydroelectric/hydropower, he or she has to know general important terms of hydroelectric. Because of that, my personal project now is putting all the important (at least from my point of view) terms in one big list. For that I rely on the Internet.
I was looking for a website or websites that contains important hydropower or hydroelectric glossary of terms. I did find an interesting one from Canada. It has approximately 200 hydro related terms and they are covering general terms from many different aspects of hydro power (e.g. civil structure, mechanical electrical, hydrology etc.). This website (http://www.hydro.mb.ca) provides easy to understand definitions of each term so that a novice in hydroelectricity can understand the terms relatively easy.
However, I need more than those provided by the Canadians. I searched the Internet and found a web page of IEC. It is called Electropedia. It does not discuss exclusively hydroelectric but there are some general terms (i.e. generation, distribution) that are closely related to hydroelectric. I believe that when it comes from IEC, the definitions are acceptable by all experts. In search for a complete hydroelectric glossary of terms, I use some definitions from Electropedia.
Beside those two websites, I use the help of Wikipedia. Most of the time, Wiki can provide me exact definition of any term typed. However, there are times that I have to conclude or take a part of the explanation in order to define one specific term.
The list is still growing and I plan to add pictures of related definitions. When I am done with it, I am going to upload it to the Internet. Hope it's useful.
I was looking for a website or websites that contains important hydropower or hydroelectric glossary of terms. I did find an interesting one from Canada. It has approximately 200 hydro related terms and they are covering general terms from many different aspects of hydro power (e.g. civil structure, mechanical electrical, hydrology etc.). This website (http://www.hydro.mb.ca) provides easy to understand definitions of each term so that a novice in hydroelectricity can understand the terms relatively easy.
However, I need more than those provided by the Canadians. I searched the Internet and found a web page of IEC. It is called Electropedia. It does not discuss exclusively hydroelectric but there are some general terms (i.e. generation, distribution) that are closely related to hydroelectric. I believe that when it comes from IEC, the definitions are acceptable by all experts. In search for a complete hydroelectric glossary of terms, I use some definitions from Electropedia.
Beside those two websites, I use the help of Wikipedia. Most of the time, Wiki can provide me exact definition of any term typed. However, there are times that I have to conclude or take a part of the explanation in order to define one specific term.
The list is still growing and I plan to add pictures of related definitions. When I am done with it, I am going to upload it to the Internet. Hope it's useful.
16 January 2009
Communicating Policy
This year is election year for Indonesia. Candidates for president have declare them selves and start making promises. Those promises is binding and will be the candidate's policy when he/she become a president.
Yesterday, 15/01/08, I discussed with my PA about activity plan until mid 2009. One of the activities is a joint program in one of the ASEAN countries with famous international bank that usually gives away loans. The discussion for the joint program has been initiated last year and so far emails from our side are just like lost in the sea. There is no reply from that "BIG" institution. I asked my PA whether we can do the program with other institution. His answer is no. That international bank has made a mark on that program in that particular country, therefore no other institution is dare to go for the same program in the same country. It is like a strategy to prevent somebody from doing something. But since the bank does not make any sign of movement, nothing happen so far. What a waste of time...
The second story is about Germany. One party promised their voters and people of Germany that if that particular party won election there will be a massive renewable promotion. That party won but until that policy came to the world there is no renewable investment in Germany. Total silent. What a waste of time....
Then I remember the fuel scarcity just recently in Indonesia. Government gave signal of fuel price cut but did not make its mind on when it will be effective. Many gas station owners refused to stock fuel because they are afraid of losing money due to higher buying cost. The effect was massive...and the weather just make it worst.
I learned something from those three stories. It is important to communicate policy carefully. Prepare contingency plans so that the worst is not happening. In the case of the bank, one high rank person said that it is the way the bank do the things. They will just take a looooooonnnnng time to answer and decide. Not very efficient at all. In the second case, that ruling party should have a side policy that can cover investments before the new promotion program launched. As in the third case, I just do not know what should the government do. Many time, good advices are just ignored by the government. Government is very reactive and not really do the plans with solid baseline. Maybe the advisors to the president are just not smr**t enough to see and analyse the whole big thing and predict or analyse the possible impacts. What a pity...
For the president candidates, be careful with your promise. Make sure that you already have clear realistic plan/s including the contingency plans. Make sure that you know and understand the possible impacts. Make sure that you have strong backup (brain ware). And the last thing is communicate your programs wisely and carefully. Be aware of your weaknesses...
Anyway...have a nice week end..
The second story is about Germany. One party promised their voters and people of Germany that if that particular party won election there will be a massive renewable promotion. That party won but until that policy came to the world there is no renewable investment in Germany. Total silent. What a waste of time....
Then I remember the fuel scarcity just recently in Indonesia. Government gave signal of fuel price cut but did not make its mind on when it will be effective. Many gas station owners refused to stock fuel because they are afraid of losing money due to higher buying cost. The effect was massive...and the weather just make it worst.
I learned something from those three stories. It is important to communicate policy carefully. Prepare contingency plans so that the worst is not happening. In the case of the bank, one high rank person said that it is the way the bank do the things. They will just take a looooooonnnnng time to answer and decide. Not very efficient at all. In the second case, that ruling party should have a side policy that can cover investments before the new promotion program launched. As in the third case, I just do not know what should the government do. Many time, good advices are just ignored by the government. Government is very reactive and not really do the plans with solid baseline. Maybe the advisors to the president are just not smr**t enough to see and analyse the whole big thing and predict or analyse the possible impacts. What a pity...
For the president candidates, be careful with your promise. Make sure that you already have clear realistic plan/s including the contingency plans. Make sure that you know and understand the possible impacts. Make sure that you have strong backup (brain ware). And the last thing is communicate your programs wisely and carefully. Be aware of your weaknesses...
Anyway...have a nice week end..
12 January 2009
Energy Price = Energy Scarcity
Happy new year...
Classical Economic Theory says that if there is little supply then the price of the good will go up. This is the law of supply and demand. How true this law in Indonesia?
Classical Economic Theory says that if there is little supply then the price of the good will go up. This is the law of supply and demand. How true this law in Indonesia?
In the recent months, oil price is dropping from more than 100US$ for each barrel to approximately 40US$ for each barrel. This price drop has influenced energy pricing policy in Indonesia. Gasoline price was cut from IDR 6000 per liter (premium) to IDR 5500 and finally to IDR 5000. When the gasoline price was still in the IDR 4500 per liter level, crude oil price was in the level of 70-90US$ per barrel. Because of that, oil and gas pressure group is always trying to convince the government to again cut the gasoline price. The group calculated that normal premium class gasoline can be lower than IDR 4000 per liter. This discussion is so far only in the discussion level, but the issue has been affecting anyone.
One political party, the ruling party, use gasoline price cut as campaign material. They put the campaign in the television. This campaign indirectly affected the decision making of businessmen especially those in oil and gas business (gas station business). The campaign has created an impression that the current government will suddenly cut gasoline price again without enough notification. This condition has made those businessmen hesitated to stock gasoline and provide supply to his area. They are afraid that the stock that was bought using old price will be sold using new lower price. This condition has created gasoline shortages in many areas in Indonesia.
There are some arguments that the shortage is due to delayed transport. As you might know, transportation using small sea vessel is a bit dangerous now. There are reports of sinking boats or ferry boats in many places in Indonesia. This is due to the weather. Shortage is becoming more severe in outer islands because those area are depending so much on sea transportation. Pertamina said that there is no problem with the supply. Pertamina's refinery is fine and therefore there is no worry for fuel shortage. But as you might already see, things happen differently. There is still fuel shortage.
Anyway, since the energy price in Indonesia is regulated by the government, above mentioned economic law does not apply here in Indonesia. It is worth to note that politic has very much to do with the shortage and the weather just make it worst. Therefore the government should not make people confuse and political party should not use such sensitive issue for campaign material.
One other thing that I have learned from this fuel shortage is that businessmen do not have patriotism. They are just thinking of money money and money...in the last price increase those people have gained many profits because they stocked gasoline using old lower price and sell it with higher price. This is now the time for them to be patriotic. Rich class and middle class in Indonesia are just unreliable...
One political party, the ruling party, use gasoline price cut as campaign material. They put the campaign in the television. This campaign indirectly affected the decision making of businessmen especially those in oil and gas business (gas station business). The campaign has created an impression that the current government will suddenly cut gasoline price again without enough notification. This condition has made those businessmen hesitated to stock gasoline and provide supply to his area. They are afraid that the stock that was bought using old price will be sold using new lower price. This condition has created gasoline shortages in many areas in Indonesia.
There are some arguments that the shortage is due to delayed transport. As you might know, transportation using small sea vessel is a bit dangerous now. There are reports of sinking boats or ferry boats in many places in Indonesia. This is due to the weather. Shortage is becoming more severe in outer islands because those area are depending so much on sea transportation. Pertamina said that there is no problem with the supply. Pertamina's refinery is fine and therefore there is no worry for fuel shortage. But as you might already see, things happen differently. There is still fuel shortage.
Anyway, since the energy price in Indonesia is regulated by the government, above mentioned economic law does not apply here in Indonesia. It is worth to note that politic has very much to do with the shortage and the weather just make it worst. Therefore the government should not make people confuse and political party should not use such sensitive issue for campaign material.
One other thing that I have learned from this fuel shortage is that businessmen do not have patriotism. They are just thinking of money money and money...in the last price increase those people have gained many profits because they stocked gasoline using old lower price and sell it with higher price. This is now the time for them to be patriotic. Rich class and middle class in Indonesia are just unreliable...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
