When I read that the Indonesian Environment minister didn't even show up for that important meeting, my confidence that we will not have a Haze problem this year just soared. It shows the Jokowi government is confident of preventing a repeat of last year. To them this is a domestic matter with the unfortunate consequence of being carried to the neighboring countries. For reasons of sovereignty and face the Indonesians want to have their pride that they could deal with this multi-year problem on their own successfully.
The Indonesians must be so happy to be absent and the Singapore side have misread the signal. On a lighter note, at least from the Economist reckoning, Singapore has a more serious problem with cronyism than Indonesia. LOL!
I am not sure why you are laughing at the Economist ranking Singapore above Indonesia in cronyism. Are you confusing this with corruption ? Not the same thing. The government plays a dominant role in business here. Even a cursory look shows that this is dominated by the old boy network (Desmond Quek). The economist isn't saying cronyism is a bad thing. It depends on the results. But fundamentally it is a bad thing in the long run. This is a way the rich get richer. Happening in Singapore faster than in any other democracy. By the way the cronies in Indonesia are also cronies in Singapore. That is why Indonesia is so dismissive of our claim to the high moral ground. In Singapore money talks just as much, even though the talk is in whispers.
ReplyDeleteI was laughing at a comment left for me but not at the Economist. Notice the Economist for all their reputation of rigor did not even define cronyism in their story? Therefore you can be right and wrong as well depending on what you want to do with the info. To me they are deviously promoting their ideology and agenda. On the latter they can only use words and there is nothing wrong with that. I submit their methods are not honest or befitting their sterling reputation. Anyway over time I expect their ideology to crash on the rocks. So just wait and see.
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