Manado Mayhem! Jakarta Post Flouts Its Own ‘Bold’ Motto?
If ever I feel in need of a wry smile, I check out the Jakarta Post website and look at its motto.
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Always Bold. Always Independent
It is so untrue.
I could refer yet again to their ‘pluralist’ editors, who thunder away on all sorts of issues yet have never uttered a word to condemn the Nazi-style book-burning…
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Germany, 1930s
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…which their parent company, Gramedia, undertook at the behest of the most intolerant Islamist fanatics in Indonesia.
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Grovelling Gramedia’s Book–Burning Bonanza – Appeasing Fanatics - =======
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But today I noticed their dramatic report on the scenes of massive disorder in Manado, where hundreds of righteously angry citizens turned out to protest at the visit to their province of the Deputy Speaker of Indonesia’s House of Representatives.
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In the face of the teargas, the protesters fought back throwing stones at police officers, several of whom were injured.
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Facing strong resistance, the police deployed a water cannon to disperse the crowd. Protesters managed to break through the entrance gate of the governor’s office compound before hundreds of police pushed them back.
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Right!
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A powerful display of strong emotions on a subject clearly of great significance. So all readers here and overseas are curious as to exactly what the issue may be, that has provoked such an outbreak of public anger.
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Naturally, the bold JP tells all, very clearly?
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Uh, NOT!
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The protesters said they rejected Fahri’s visit because of controversial remarks he is reported to have made that could heighten sectarian tensions in the country.
WHAT ‘controversial remarks?’
HOW could Fahri’s mysterious words have provoked ‘sectarian tensions?’
Useful information, surely, which any newspaper worthy of the name might think readers ought to know, so they can understand the story that made this JP headline?
Angry mob protests deputy House speaker’s visit to Manado
Tough! The JP doesn’t divulge the Deputy Speaker’s ‘remarks.’
The JP doesn’t even mention which party he belongs to!
WHY?
We’ve covered Fahri before.
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A leading member of the fanatical Islamist PKS party has urged the Indonesian Government to take in the hordes of Rohingya swarming the seas around the archipelago.
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Fahri Hamzah, Deputy Secretary General of the Prosperous Justice Party, is quoted appealing to President Jokowi to create a special regulation on the issue. “Their suffering is evident. Do we, as a nation that believes in humanity, have the heart to see them suffer?” http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/pks-calls-immediate-response-growing-rohingya-refugee-crisis/
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Noble sentiments, but his invocation of humanity as a guiding principle hardly sits well with the shameful record of his party leader, Anis Matta, whose humanitarian instincts were made manifest when he wrote that infamous ode of adulation after 9/11, singing the praises of mass-murderer Osama Bin Laden..
Holy Bludger-Boats! Bin Laden Fan’s Party Calls for ‘Humanity?’
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JazPen is discussing. 
rossrightangle 
JazPen 19:07 on May 14, 2017 Permalink |
My God,
Ross you may be pessimistic about the future here, same as I am, but you are not giving up without a fight.
All thats happened in Indonesia recently is the fault of people who never stood up to the fanatics and Gramedia is guilty as anybody after what they did, burning those books.
I may be wrong but wasnt Fahri Hamzah the one who wanted to open the doors of the parliament to the anti-Ahok mobs.
Yes, I just went to the link at the end of your post there and he was.
It used to be so nice living here but now we really have to watch the news every day and see what the bad people are planning, Although I read that Reuters exclusive and it sounds like they will go after the Chinese minority before they come for us!
No consolation in my opinion.
Keep fighting the rearguard action,
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