Title	Chinese big business in Indonesia: the state of capital Volume 17 of Routledge contemporary Southeast Asia series
Author	Christian Chua
Edition	illustrated
Publisher	Routledge, 2008
ISBN	0415450748, 9780415450744
Length	176 pages

The disintegration of Indonesia’s New Order regime in 1998 and the fall of Soeharto put an end to the crude forms of centralised authoritarianism and economic protectionism that allowed large Chinese conglomerates to dominate Indonesia’s private sector. Contrary to all expectations most of the major capitalist groups, though damaged considerably by the Asian Crisis, managed to cope with ensuing monumental political and economic changes and now thrive again albeit within a new democratic environment. In this book Christian Chua assesses the state of the capital before, during, and after the financial and political crisis of 1997/98 and analyses the changing relationships between business and the state in Indonesia. Using a distinct perspective that combines cultural and structural approaches on Chinese big business with exclusive material derived from interviews with some of Indonesia’s major business leaders Chua identifies the strategies employed by tycoons to adapt their corporations tothe post-authoritarian regime and provides a unique insight into how the state-business relationships in Indonesia have evolved since the crisis. Chinese Big Business in Indonesia is the first major analysis on capital in Indonesia after the fall of Soeharto and will be of interest to graduate students and scholars of political economy, political sociology, economics and business administration.

Jakarta Post | Prodita Sabarini , Jakarta | City | 10 November 2009

Busy Jakartans try to squeeze in time between work and school for the 11th Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest) as free movie screenings are held during office hours.

Risma Huli Butar Butar said she chose to take a day off from work Wednesday so she could attend the screening of Cin(T)a: God is a director, a 2009 Indonesian movie recounting the love story of two people with different religious and ethnic backgrounds.

“I could only pick one day of the week for my day off and I chose today so that I could go to JiFFest,” Risma said at the Blitz Megaplex in Grand Indonesia shopping mall, where the festival is being held.

Risma said she missed yesterday’s screenings because of work. She said because the time of the screenings and her work collided, she missed Letters to the President, a film about Iranians sending letters to their president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

She compensated for the loss by spending Wednesday at JiFFest. “I’m going to watch three films today,” she said.

However, not all festival enthusiasts had flexible schedules. Verena Streitferdt said she could not watch the short films because they were on during working hours.

“I like to watch short films and I want to watch them but I can’t,” she said.

She said in general, the JiFFest was great “because it’s the only time we can watch films other than Hollywood movies”.

“But I can’t [see the movies] because of work. And that’s sad,” she said.

She said there should be more short films shown in the evenings and on weekends. She also suggested the festival run longer than the current nine days.

JiFFest, which runs from Dec. 4 to 12, is screening films from Indonesia and around the world. International short films are screened at 4 p.m. Feature length free screenings start at 12.30 p.m.

Last year’s JiFFest was cut short to only five days as the global financial crisis affected the festival’s funding.

Design student Rasyid Hamid said he too felt the films that interested him were screened at inconvenient times.

“I had classes yesterday, so I couldn’t watch the films that I’m interested in,” he said.
Rasyid said since he had free time, he came to Blitz Megaplex to watch a short Chinese animated film.

“Some of my friends canceled because of fears of violence during the antigraft rally. But I thought the rally would not cause much disturbance, so I decided to come,” he said.

Thousands of people rallied at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to commemorate the UN’s International Anti-Corruption Day.

World Records | By Paavan S – Targetseo.com – SEO India | 10 December 2009

Thousands of twinkling paper lanterns looked like extra stars in the night sky as they floated high above Jakarta on Saturday night, as a group of Indonesians attempted to break a new world record.

The 10,000 lanterns were launched by thousands of locals who had gathered on Carnaval Beach in the Indonesian capital in an attempt to get themselves into the Guinness Book of World records.

Representatives from Guinness World Records were on hand to witness the picturesque sight of the paper structures, a candle lighting up the inside of each one, float gently into the clear night sky.

The exact number of the white paper lanterns that flew above Carnaval Beach was to be determined later today after Guinness World Records officials figured out how many each of the 7,000 participants launched. However, it was apparent that the previous mark of 3,682 set in Colombia last January had been shattered.

Officials have already presented the participants with certificates stating that a world record was set for flying the most sky lanterns simultaneously, Guinness adjudicator Lucia Sinigagliesi said.
With the night unusually clear and still for the early weeks of Indonesia’s rainy season, the crowd cheered as each of the fragile, glowing paper balloons took to the sky.

The flying lantern is a Chinese tradition. It is essentially a paper bag with a block of paraffin with a wick suspended by wire across the opening. The lantern lifts when the wick is lit, warming the air inside like a hot air balloon.

Freedom Faithnet Global said it organized the lantern release as a symbol of hope and prayer as part of annual celebrations. This year’s celebrations have an environmental focus.

The world record for the most sky lanterns ever flown simultaneously, was broken in Indonesia at the weekend, with more than ten-thousand paper lanterns sent up into the night sky Please see exclusive Youtube video.