ATTENTION: Indonesia is about to change for the better, but until it does, this is, sadly, representative of the state of Indonesia now. ================================================= 13-YEAR-OLD SON OF MULTI-MILLIONAIRE ROCK MUSICIAN KILLS 7 WHILE DRIVING PARENTS CAR AT HIGH SPEED, HEAVILY INTOXICATED, AT 1:45 AM ================================================= The perpetrators father is also a recently-terminated campaign manager for controversial presidental candidate Prabowo Subianto. He made and broadcast the Nazi-themed video for Prabowos campaign that infringed intellectual property rights of British group Queen and was splashed across the pages of TIME magazine under the headline: THIS INDONESIAN NAZI VIDEO IS ONE OF THE WORST PIECES OF POLITICAL CAMPAIGNING EVER ================================================= NOW HERE IS THE BREAKING NEWS - 17 JULY 2014 ================================================= KID GOES FREE, NO CHARGES. PARENTS WHO ALLOWED HIM TO DRIVE AND FAILED TO SUPERVISE HIM ALSO ARE FREE, WITH NO CHARGES, FINES, OR LEGAL LIABILITY ================================================= It is now ten months since a little boy named Dul, the 13-year-old son of Indonesian rock musician Ahmad Dhani, committed multiple manslaughter by reckless driving at high speed under the influence of intoxicants, and without a license (he is far too young to obtain one). Yesterday the juvenile court in Jakarta ruled that Dul was at fault for the 7 deaths, multiple injuries to other victims, and tremendous material damages resulting from the traffic accident he caused. Yet no criminal charges were made, and the decision granted general absolution of any potential criminal charges related to the crash. Dul was at fault but nobody is to be held responsible or penalized under criminal codes for the deaths, injuries and damages caused. Meanwhile, seven innocent people died in gruesome circumstances (see attached media images). Dul, who was 13 at the time of the accident that he caused last September, was driving one of the many cars his parents own, with his fathers knowledge, at approximately 1:45 a.m. on a freeway on the outskirts of Jakarta. He was travelling at very high speed and was under the influence of intoxicants, lost control of the car and struck a number of other vehicles at full speed, before hitting a freeway median barrier and coming to a stop. Dul suffered a broken leg and other minor injuries which have long since healed. Oddly enough, in the days, weeks, and months following this horrific mass-manslaughter, media coverage shifted its tone from shock and horror, to constructed compassion and concern, not for the victims, but for the perpetrator, little Dul. In Duls household, it was accepted, or encouraged, for the 13-year-old to drive his parents automobiles freely at any time of day or night, to visit nightclubs, to use legal and illegal intoxicants, and evidently no parental care and supervision was exercised that could have prevented this tragedy from occurring. Based on extensive forensic evidence, witness testimony, photographs, videos, and Duls confessions, the juvenile court yesterday ruled that the teen boy was personally responsible for the tragedy, had caused it himself, and is at fault. However, their decision stipulated that Dul not be charged with any criminal offenses, and neglected to address, in any way, the glaring culpability of the childs parents. The boy was remanded into the custody of exactly those same errant parents; an undereducated and overfunded aging rock star and his young wife with bleached, blood-red-dyed hair, whohabitually sports dark aviator sunglasses, which she has declined to remove in public, even while facing juvenile authorities, police, and courts. In recent months, while Duls father, Ahmad Dhani was serving as campaign manager for controversial presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, the case took a foggy turn. Prabowo, the son-in-law of Indonesias long-ruling military dictator Soeharto, was an army general and commander-in-chief of the countrys special forces. He was dismissed ignominiously from the armed forces in 1998 for exceeding his authority and acting without orders when he commandeered kidnappings and disappearances (murders) of civilians without process or trial. He also dispatched special forces and paramilitary civilian groups under his command to carry out extra-legal attacks associated with thousands of brutal murders, rapes, mutilations, and massive property destruction in the same year. As if that wasnt more than enough, he is also held culpable for an attempted military coup in late-1998, when he mobilised special forces still under his command in an attempt to bring down the newly inaugurated president (Habibie) and his government. Prabowo himslef entered the presidential palace in full combat dress, brandishing a service revolver, while the special forces mustered under his personal command besieged the complex in battle formation. Although under extreme duress, interim president Habibie, and the recently ousted military dictator Soeharto, both parried Prabowos ostentatious challenge, deflecting his demands and ultimatums without discussion or debate. Habibie, in his memoirs relates that when Prabowo marched into his quarters in the palace and voiced his demands, with the special forces lined up outside, he expected he would be assasinated. The exchange is described in detail in all its intensity, and absurdity. Shortly thereafter, Prabowo fled Indonesia illegally and in secret, on a private yacht, abandoning his wife (the ousted dictators daughter) and children. He took pre-arranged refuge in Jordan, assuming the role of supreme military adviser to the countrys newly-enstated king. Back to Dul and his bad dad, Ahmad Dhani, the aging rock star turned campaign manager for a scandal-besmirched ex-general. To recap, were looking at the 13-year-old cosseted kid of a presumably deranged aging Indonesian rock musician who has, for no reason that anyone can fathom, become a campaign manager for a tainted ex-general with bottomless pockets vying for the presidency. During the time Duls father was campaigning for Prabowos presidential bid, Duls case progressed at a snails pace in the corridors of juvenile justice, partially due to the failure of the perpetrator, Dul, to appear at hearings and investigations, despite multiple summons, and without formal reasons for his non-compliance. Meanwhile, most of the influential popular and serious media, proferred interpretations of this family drama that succeeded in placating the public, or boring them into complacency in relation to this spoiled teenager turned manslaughterer. It should be noted here that the vast majority of mainstream media in Indonesia then and now, are owned or controlled by Prabowo Subianto and his supporters. In the papers, on TV, and in social media, Dul was made to look, somewhat convincingly, like a sweet puffy-cheeked little kid, with ostensibly loving parents. He was cast as a victim of the crash, one of the injured, and the youngest of the victims. Poor little thing. It worked. Poor Dul, parents holding his hand for the cameras in hospital as he slept. Meanwhile, Ahmad Dhani, the dad, flabbergasted the public by making excruciatingly-engineered televised visits to the families of the manslaughter victims who died gruesomely as a result of the patent negligence and arrogance of his son and himself. Although no reliable information is available, most reasonable people assume that significant financial compensation, and perhaps threats as an alternative to accepting the compensation packages, were made to the victims bereaved loved ones. They may have felt some joy and certainly the awe that simple people are bound to feel in the glare of a rock stars footlights. One can only wonder if there were any offers you cannot refuse tendered to ensure their compliance. At any rate, what happened yesterday, while all eyes were, and are, anxiously on the contested and scandal-ridden processes of Indonesias presidental election, was a kid copped a clean record and walked. The court found him guilty of negligently causing the horrific deadly accident, charged him with nothing, and sentenced him to life . . . with his parents. This all gives one pause for thought. Particularly at a time when the recently audaciously free interpretations and application of law in Indonesia have been beyond capricious. Perhaps it took total decay and decadence, and completely wanton disregard for the rule of law, to motivate the hundreds of millions of sane and sensible Indonesian citizens to say, ENOUGH ALREADY. I suspect thats not far from the truth of the dynamic that has led to the election of Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the leader for the common man, from the milieu of common men, women and children. Hes a fan of metal and hard rock and local punk bands, but Jokowi is no Ahmad Dhani, nor has he ever by any account been a fan of Ahmad Dhanis bands past or present. The hegemony of guns, thugs, generals and con-men that has had an iron grip on Indonesia for the past 49 years, has painted its own caricature, and the absurdity of that caricature is whats made the common people it conned for so long, or intimidated for longer, scratch their heads and say, Hold on just a second there. This is NOT ok. The votes show it, with Jokowi by all realiable predictions, holding more or less a 6% edge over the forces of evil. And that 6% is a calculation that comes BEFORE all of the cases of election malfeasance, threats, bribes, fraud, falsification of poll returns, and so forth, have been dutifully unravelled and combed out straight and smooth. Anyway, this is about a gruesome traffic massacre. And a 13-year-old kid with more money than sense, and less parenting than a lizard gets when it hatches somewhere on a metro-tropical luxury Jakarta terrace. Lizard baby. Lizard land. But thats changing . . . if we can weather the fury of the departing demons. Think video-nasties. The demons dont die easy, and when they do it aint pretty. Were battening down the hatches here in Indonesia, stocked up for survival, with diesel, petrol, food, water, generators, but no guns. The newly elected president having drawn number TWO as his place on the presidential election ballot of only two candidates, adopted the hand-signal of two fingers in a V as his leitmotif. It means . . . victory . . . and it means . . . (InshaAllah) . . . peace. ================================================= Now here come the horrific pictures, please do not be offended. Its important to know that this incident is not trivial, by any means. It is as horrific as the worst daily bombings that you find in your New York Times or Guardian newspapers at breakfast and tsk tsk tsk at. No, its worse. Its far worse. And if youve pondered the place where this acre of macerated vehicles and trauma-ravaged corpses lay in agonies that no living human can countenance . . . then youll understand the Indonesia thats over and done, and can be swept into the sands of several thousand years during which this network of idiosyncratic and remarkably beautiful and rich islands has thrived, flourished, and woven together its infinitely diverse ideas, arts, cultures, insights and wisdoms into a loose but fine whole.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 20:29:17 +0000
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