Planting another time bomb

Endy Bayuni is right on. SBY and his team made a terrible mistake.

Insult to women

The folks in DPR again think that women are weak and stupid. So they need to be protected and given special treatment all the time. This one is on the draft law regarding political party. It says, party can be formed only if it has at least 30% female membership in its central organization.

Filipino failure

You know what's most pathetic thing in politics? It's a failed coup d'etat.

Catfight

For god's sakes, grow up! Fighting over some old songs like that? What are you, play group kids? Like there's nothing more important to compete on?

Get a life.

Malaysians and Indonesians over Rasa Sayange, Reog and what's next, that is.

New paper

New paper accepted.

Xiaolin Ren (U Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Arianto A. Patunru (U Indonesia)
John B. Braden (U Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

Language Related Differences in Environmental Benefits Estimation:
Evidence from a Mail Survey

Contemporary Economic Policy, forthcoming Vol 26(1): 13-31

Abstract:

In contingent valuation studies, failing to accommodate populations with limited language skills might yield biased estimates. In the United States, there are many residents primarily fluent in Spanish. This study uses conditional logit models applied to data from a bilingual (English and Spanish) conjoint choice mail survey to evaluate the effects of language proficiency on estimates of the economic benefits of contaminated site cleanup. Results indicate that language does have significant effects on welfare estimates. The results suggest that mail surveys addressing environmental issues that may affect a linguistically diverse population should be designed at the outset with multiple languages in mind. (JEL Q51, J19)

Pak Anwar strikes again as always

Many of you might take this Anwar Nasution's remark by surprise:

[When asked by journalists if he has an intention to become the next BI governor] No way, I've got no intention like that. Look, my position is higher than BI governor, not to mention ministers. Burhanuddin Abdullah is no competition to me. I'm a professor, not a magic doctor who bribes. So don't you speculate...

But these guys are so used to his sarcasm.

Analisis Politik Kompas Sukardi Rinakit is no analysis

This "political analysis" in Kompas is terrible.

Here goes:

We have to admit that what the mainstream movement (sic!) wants now is to apply a social-democrat political system and social-market economic system [it would have been wonderful if the author spent time explaining what he meant by these two phrases and hence made this analysis more like an analysis, but no]. When a group of 50 activists [what makes activists special, anyway?] with different background [again, he could have explained his sampling; of course he didn't], only 4 agreed with pro-market approach, 2 with syariah, and majority 44 wanted social-market system...

He need an introduction to statistics, really.

And here's equally ridiculous:

Frankly, I can't answer every time I am asked why an agrarian country like Indonesia has to import 3.7 million tons of rice, 1.6 million tons of sugar ...

It's like asking why somebody like him who can write a book still buys a book.

Young vs old: another useless discourse

I am reading this.

It's amazing how self-proclaimed youth leaders think it is now their time to run the country. And it's equally amazing how the old guys think they are better than the young ones. Names, old names, new names are all over the media. But ideas are lacking.

People, just prove yourself. We don't care if you're old or young.

Funniest joke ever

Here (Make sure to buy the print issue also. It has a great picture -- with Amien Rais, Akbar Tanjung, and many others in it. Hurry! -- It might become the most important historical picture someday!)

According to Rizal Ramli, there are 3 things responsible for Indonesia's lagging behind Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, and China in terms of GDP per capita. They are: 1) feudal government, 2) neocolonialism, and 3) weak and ineffective government.

Ehm, if my memory serves well, Rizal Ramli was part of the government, no?