As Fanatic Friday Looms, Will Jakarta Shut Down?

A former student smsed me the other day, asking to borrow a text-book I’d once used to teach her and her friends, in my long-ago working days. Funny how time slips away – she’s married with kids now!

Ever-obliging, I agreed to meet her at Slipi, equidistant between her office and my home.

Yesterday morning was SO hot and sunny! But I applied a self-denying ordinance, which forced me to restrict my pre-noon sun-bathing in my front yard to a mere hour or so…

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…. but heck, some folks’ll start calling me a red-neck if I over-do it!

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We duly met, and naturally enjoyed a chat, brief, because work awaited her return.

However, it proved enlightening. It seems there’s a series of meetings throughout her quite prominent building tomorrow, all with the common agenda – to close on Friday or not.

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The reason?

Of course, the expected inundation of Jakarta’s city centre by a horde of rabid jihadists…. No Guarantee Jakarta March Peaceful, Yet Police Disarmed? …many, if not most, of whom subscribe to the insane idea that anyone who ‘blasphemes’ deserves to die.

Managements are sympathetic but would prefer to make it a half-day rather than a whole day off.

That’s bosses for ya!

I remember in the past how school class-rooms here would be rendered almost empty during times of unrest -even on election days.

Anxious parents would keep the kids safe at home. I suspect the same situation will recur tomorrow.  

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• On Friday, with that Islamist rabble out and about, and the cops on duty apparently to be left unarmed, I don’t blame any shop or office workers for being hesitant about venturing forth themselves. 
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• Semanggi Junction, Jakarta
• And of course even if they do leave home, their commuting journeys will be made wretched with thousands of malignant marchers clogging the roads, emanating blood-thirsty vines in all directions, as they have done before…

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….their short little ‘Long March’ may not stray beyond the central area around Monas Park, but the knock-on effect on traffic will extend for miles further.

And all because the IslamoNazis element are unwilling to wait for the police to investigate a trivial ‘offence’ which should not be an offence at all.

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• What’s hard to understand is why Indonesia’s President Jokowi was said to be considering inviting the FPI to discussions on the issue at the Palace.

https://www.merdeka.com/peristiwa/bahas-ahok-jokowi-diusulkan-undang-fpi-ke-istana.html

He shouldn’t give the white-shirt thug gangs house-room.

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At least President Jokowi has not emulated his predecessor, SBY.

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SBY

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• It was SBY who called for a worldwide ‘blasphemy law’ to crush free speech on a global basis. SBY to ask the world to ban blasphemy | The Jakarta Post—-

One must, Isuppose, be thankful for small mercies!