SPEAKING 2

PERTEMUAN TERAKIH

What if democracy is just an illusion?

Karl Marx argued that in any society, those in charge have the power to propagandise their
worldview [GALLO/GETTY]
New Haven, CT - Karl Marx never visited the United States, but he nevertheless understood the
country, because he understood capitalism. As you know, there's no American ideology that's
mightier than capitalism. Equality, justice and the rule of law are nice and all, but money talks.
In their 1846 book The German Ideology, Marx and co-author Frederick Engels took a look at
human history and made a plain but controversial observation. In any given historical period, the
ideas that people generally think are the best and most important ideas are usually the ideas of
the people in charge. If you have a lot of money and own a lot of property, then you have the
power to propagandise your worldview and you have incentive to avoid appearing as if you're
propagandising your worldview. Or, as Marx and Engels would put it: The ruling ideas of every

epoch are the ideas of the ruling class.

The ideas of the one per cent become the dominant ideas because the one per cent convinces the
99 per cent that its ideas are the only rational and universally valid ideas. Consider free-market
capitalism. The idea says that growth provides prosperity to all, that government governs best
when it governs least, so there's no need to discuss the redistribution of wealth. That's
neoliberalism and that idea has been the only acceptable economic policy since the Clinton era.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was its greatest champion. After the collapse
of the housing market, he said he was dead wrong. Even so, the idea remains dominant. Why?
Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but the ruling class happens to make a lot of money
from a free market.
Americans tend to look askance at Marx and I don't blame them. He was, after all, the father of
socialism, as well as the guy associated with Josef Stalin, who was, you know, a homicidal
totalitarian dictator. But as philosopher John Gray has noted, Marx got a lot wrong about
Marxism but he got a lot right about capitalism. He understood that ideas don't exist in bubbles they have a concrete material context and have a human cost.
The late Steve Jobs, for instance, was a man of ideas. He was widely considered a visionary and
a prophet of technology, and Jobs took great pains to encourage that way of thinking. After his
death, however, Mike Daisey, the acclaimed playwright and monologuist, revealed something
about Jobs that should have been plain to see - Jobs' prophecies came at the expense of poor
Listening Post - Super PACs: A new media weapon

Chinese sweatshop workers who make iPads and other Apple products for middle-class
Americans to buy at affordable prices. The Great Man theory of history is more like intellectual
cover (or what Marx called the illusions of the ruling class), for the exploitation of labour.
It's hard to imagine a better illustration of Marx's theory of the ruling class than Citizens United,
the 2010 case brought before the US Supreme Court in which the majority decided that political
action committees (or PACs) cannot be subject to campaign finance laws. PACs do not formally
represent candidates and instead, express their own political views. So the money they spend is
more like free speech. Therefore, political money is speech protected by the US Constitution's
First Amendment.
In theory, this is an egalitarian ruling. Any citizen can spend any amount of money to promote or
attack any issue they want. But we don't live in an egalitarian society. As Gore Vidal has said,
America is a very good place to live if you have money and property. Not so much if you don't.
Now we have 364 so-called super PACs dominating the national political dialogue as candidates
compete for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. These organisations can raise and
spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they don't explicitly endorse or challenge a
specific candidate. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, they have raised more than
$130m in 2012 and spent almost $75m on attack advertisements carried over broadcast, cable
and radio. Of that total amount, 25 per cent comes from just five people.

What these ads say is less important than their results, one of which is the curious political
phenomenon of the zombie candidate. Without a billionaire casino tycoon who keeps obligingly
writing checks to a super PAC, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would have quit a long
time ago. Then there are candidates like Mitt Romney who need not be especially good at being
candidates. Romney is preternaturally unable to ignite the party's base, yet he continues winning
primaries because his backer, a super PAC called Restore Our Future, has spent $37m in two and
a half months, more than any sum spent on any candidate in any election ever.
Some super PACs don't even support candidates, but instead attack incumbents. The Campaign
for Primary Accountability is spending millions to oust representatives who'd otherwise be safe.
Political activity, moreover, isn't restricted to super PACs. Americans for Prosperity, officially a
"non-profit advocacy group", has supported Tea Party candidates and has launched propaganda
campaigns in Wisconsin that touted Governor Scott Walker's austerity measures and newly
passed anti-union laws. Americans for Prosperity is funded by libertarians Charles and David
Koch, brothers whose combined worth is estimated to be about $50bn. Instead of targeting
politicians vying for public office, the Kochs are taking aim at ordinary middle-class workers
who might otherwise have reason to believe in the American Dream.
Columnist EJ Dionne of the Washington Post summed it up when he wrote:
Oh, yes, it works nicely for the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country, especially
if they want to shroud their efforts to influence politics behind shell corporations. It just
doesn't happen to work if you think we are a democracy and not a plutocracy.
And perhaps there's the real problem. If you believe the US is a democracy, if you believe in the
rule of the many and not the rule of the few, then the Citizens United ruling could not be more
troubling. But what if this is not a democracy? What if this, as Dionne suggests, is an oligarchy
of billionaire capitalists? More horrible to ponder, what if democracy is yet more intellectual
cover, another one of those illusions, for the exploitation of American workers?
Then the theory of the ruling class fits perfectly. Citizens United and the United States were
made for each other.

PERTEMUAN PERTAMA

Indonesia: Universal Health Care Program

Implemented
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To link to this article, copy this persistent link:

http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp3_l205403816_text
(Jan 06, 2014) Indonesia's government has said it is implementing a universal health care
program, beginning on January 1, 2014. (Nadya Natahadibrata, Indonesia's government has said
it is implementing a universal health care program, beginning on January 1, 2014. (Nadya
Natahadibrata, Govt Set to Launch "Milestone" Program, THE JAKARTA POST (Dec. 31,
2013).) The program has taken about a decade to develop, following the adoption of the
underlying legal basis for it, the 2004 Law on the National Social Security System; chapter II,
section 6, covers health insurance. (Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 40 of 2004 Concerning
the National Social Security System, NATLEX (unofficial translation); Undang-Undang Nomor
40 Tahun 2004 Tentang Sistem Jaminan Sosial Nasional, House of Representatives website.) In
addition to health insurance, Indonesia's social security system covers several programs,
including pensions for the retired and benefits available to those suffering occupational injuries.
(Hasbullah Thabrany, Birth of Indonesia's "Medicare": Fasten Your Seatbelts, THE JAKARTA
POST (Jan. 2, 2014).)
In a December 30, 2013, statement, Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
described the new program as "a milestone in the country's history" and added that "it will
change the welfare of Indonesians. This will create more equitable development, especially for
those who are less fortunate." (Natahadibrata, supra.) The new health program will eventually
cover all citizens and foreigners residing in the country for more than six months. (Thabrany,
supra.) It will be implemented through the Social Security Providers (BPJS) Law (Law No. 24,
2011 [in Indonesian], House of Representatives website), together with twelve regulations and
five presidential decrees. (Natahadibrata, supra.)
Features of the Program
The government will fully cover health costs for those unable to pay for a minimal level of care.
Those so covered will be able to obtain medical attention anywhere in the country. Among
Indonesians, it is estimated that more than 86 million, out of a total population of about 251
million, will be eligible for assistance with the insurance premium payments. (Id.; U.S. Census
Bureau, Midyear Population and Density - Custom Region Indonesia, INTERNATIONAL
DATABASE (2013).) Those able to pay for insurance will have fees on a sliding scale, based on
whether they are fully employed and the level of coverage they choose. For those working in the
private sector, the fee will be 5% of monthly income; as of 2015, employers will have to cover
4% and employees will pay the last 1%. Natahadibrata, supra.) The state-owned insurance
company Askes has been designated as the agency to run the program. It will become BPJS
Kesehatan (Social Security Provider Health), integrating four existing programs into one
unified system. (Thabrany, supra.) The goal is to include 140 million people in the program by
the end of January 2014, with the entire country to be covered by 2019. According to Fahmi Idris
of Askes, the online system for registering individuals is in place and more than 111 million were
already signed up by December 10, 2013. (Natahadibrata, supra.)
Criticisms of the Plan

Some critics have questioned whether the program is fully ready for implementation. The
opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle suggested that the government's plan to
conduct a new survey to determine how many Indonesians qualify for assistance with health
insurance demonstrates a lack of readiness. The Party has also pointed out that different
government departments have different estimates of the number of poor people in the country,
ranging from 40 million to 70 million. (Id.)
Zainal Abidin of the Indonesian Doctors Association also argued that there has been insufficient
preparation, with a lack of information for health workers and the public. He stated on December
30 that "[m]ost health workers still don't know how the program will work, what types of
services we should provide and if the premium is enough to pay for a particular service. We
can only run the program while learning about it and evaluating it." (Id.) Furthermore, an
editorial by the Chair of the Center for Health Economics and Policy Studies at the University of
Indonesia stated that the amount the government will contribute to subsidize insurance costs for
low-income Indonesians is inadequate. (Thabrany, supra.)
Additional concerns have been raised about the general quality and availability of health care in
Indonesia, with questions on a number of issues, including the number of specialists practicing in
the country. (Id.) Minister of Health Nafsiah Mboi has said a major concern "is the quality of our
healthcare services. So far, we have been preparing rigorously to improve the quality of care.
For healthcare facilities, our vision is a very strong primary care network combined with a good
quality referral system."
PERTEMUAN KE 1

Children of Dolly face

dark, uncertain future
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, May 31 2004, 8:55 AM
ID Nugroho, Surabaya
It was a Tuesday afternoon and the sun was beating down, but that did not stop 11-year-old
Slamet (not his real name) from playing soccer with three of his friends in the parking lot of an
old movie theater on Jl. Jarak in Surabaya. He enthusiastically kicked the ball and shouted
""Gooallll!!!"" as he ran around laughing.
Eight-year-old Yani (not her real name) chose to play dolls with her friend Wiwin (also not her
real name) in front of a store on Jl. Putat Jaya Gang Lebar.
The two girls took a break from their dolls to try and put some powder on their faces. They
seemed to be enjoying themselves as they sipped melon juice from plastic bags.

Slamet, Yani and their friends are portraits of children living in the well-known Dolly
prostitution complex in Surabaya. Located on Jl. Kupang in Putat Jaya subdistrict, Sawahan
district, Dolly, which is called the biggest prostitution complex in Southeast Asia, has
approximately 60 guest-houses and stores.
Inside the guest-houses are small rooms and thousands of prostitutes. There are no actual records
on the number of prostitutes, but some say it reaches 1,500.
Dolly is filled with loud music and alcohol every night. It is also where about 3,000 children live,
grow up and make friends.
What is sadder, according to the Indonesian Vision Forum Foundation, is that many of the
children in the complex suffer from malnutrition, as they mostly eat junk food, snacks and soft
drinks.
Another concern, according to Johny R.M. Sirait, chairman of the foundation, is that there is no
distance between the children and the prostitutes.
This lack of distance, Johny said, means the children ""grow up faster and are more mature""
than other children their age.
""In a play group that we formed, there was a clear difference. The children who grew up in the
(Dolly) complex were more expressive, even using dirty words that they had heard,"" he said.
And not surprisingly, some of the children have tried to have sex with the prostitutes, said Johny.
Suchbahani, the principal of state elementary school SDN Putat Jaya 1, which is located close to
the prostitution complex, expressed similar concerns.
""There was this one child who lived in the complex. He liked to draw dirty pictures and then
show them to his friends, who then reported it to their teachers,"" Suchbahani said.
This, he said, was the result of what the children saw all around them in Dolly.
""One child even admitted that he saw a woman having sexual intercourse with a man,"" he said.
Ironically, he said, their parents, who are supposed to keep them from such situations, think that
this is normal and object when their children are expelled from school for this kind of behavior.
The 18-year-old Wawan (not his real name) is a perfect example. His mother is a pimp in the
complex. Instead of trying to raise her son in a different kind of environment, Wawan's mother
only told him not to have sex with the prostitutes in Dolly. ""If you want to do it, do it outside
(the complex),"" he said his mother told him.

Wawan may be luckier than 19-year-old Nunung, who does not know who his father is. ""Ever
since he was a child, he has been taken care of by a local resident,"" said a teacher who asked not
to be named.
Sadly, most of the children develop drinking problems and drop out of school because of their
surroundings.
Their lack of education makes them vulnerable to sexual exploitation and contracting sexually
transmitted diseases, as they do not understand the dangers.
One can only imagine how tough these children's lives are -- as hot as the heat of the afternoon
sun that beat down on Slamet and his friends as they played soccer.

PERTEMUAN KE 3

KPI bans TV show over insult

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Thu, June 26 2014, 9:02 PM
National News

Only 13.44% cigarette brands bear pictorial warnings: BPOM

Say no to drugs

Former drug addicts ask presidential candidates for support

The Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has officially imposed sanctions on TransTV,
ordering the company to temporarily halt its comedy show, Yuk Keep Smile (YKS), starting on
June 28. The sanctions were a response to a June 20 YKS episode that contained several scenes
deemed insulting to the legendary Betawi comedian, the late Benyamin Sueb.
In the show, a hypnotist attempted to hypnotize Cesar, one of comedians in the YKS, while
saying that after he was hypnotized, the latter would understand dog languages and become as
funny as Benyamin Sueb.
We have conducted a plenary meeting regarding the imposition of sanctions on the YKS. In the
meeting, we decided to impose a temporary-halt sanction on the YKS as it was determined to
have committed a serious broadcasting violation by humiliating the late Benyamin Sueb,
Agatha Lily, one of the KPI commissioners, said in Jakarta on Thursday, as quoted by
kompas.com.
TransTV program director Ferizqo Irwan and several staff members of the YKS production team
attended the meeting.

The decision was communicated after we received a clarification from TransTV at 3 pm on

Wednesday. It was decided that YKS would be temporarily halted starting on June 28, Agatha
said.
She said YKS had violated the Public Broadcasting Guidelines and Program Standards (P3SPS),
especially Article 24, Paragraph 1 regarding harsh and abusive words.
The sanction was imposed based on the public interest, said Agatha. She added that it was not
the first time YKS had broken the rules and been sanctioned by the KPI.
Previous violations occurred in January, February and March of this year and we imposed a
sanction in form of a duration-reduction, said Agatha.
She said the commission empathized with Benyamins family and deeply understood their
objections to the show.
Overall, we also empathize with Betawi communities. Hopefully, this is a lesson for TransTV,
said Agatha. (fss/ebf)
PERTEMUAN KE 4
Parenting

Parenting (or child rearing) is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional,
social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the
aspects of raising a child aside from the biological relationship.[1]
The most common partaker in parenting is the biological parent(s) of the child in question,
although others may be an older sibling, a grandparent, a legal guardian, aunt, uncle or other
family member or a family friend.[2] Governments and society take a role as well. In many cases,
orphaned or abandoned children receive parental care from non-parent blood relations. Others
may be adopted, raised in foster care, or placed in an orphanage. Parenting skills vary, and a
parent with good parenting skills may be referred to as a good parent.[3] Views on the
characteristics that make one a good parent vary from culture to culture.

Factors that affect parenting decisions

A returning Air Force sergeant meets his son for the first time

Social class, wealth, culture and income have a very strong impact on what methods of child
rearing are used by parents.[4] Cultural values play a major role in how a parent raises their child.
However, as times change, cultural practices and social norms and traditions evolve as well,
therefore parenting is always evolving.
In psychology, the parental investment theory suggests that basic differences between males and
females in parental investment have great adaptive significance and lead to gender differences in
mating propensities and preferences.[5]
A family's social class plays a large role in the opportunities and resources that will be made
available for a child. Working-class children often grow up at a disadvantage with the schooling,
communities, and parental attention made available to them compared to middle-class or upperclass. Also, lower working-class families do not get the kind of networking that the middle and
upper classes do through helpful family members, friends, and community individuals and
groups as well as various professionals or experts.[6]