Menantikan Sang Pemenang; Rousseff Unggul Tipis dalam "Polling" [Awaiting the Winner; Rousseff Narrowly Ahead in the "Polls"]

Abstract

A clipping of two pieces from the daily Kompas, Wednesday, 22 October 2014, the day after the inauguration of President Joko Widodo. The opinion article "Menantikan Sang Pemenang" (Awaiting the Winner) by Sri Palupi, a researcher at the Institute for Ecosoc Rights, responds to the struggle for the leadership seats of the DPR and MPR between the Koalisi Merah Putih (Red-and-White Coalition) and the Koalisi Indonesia Hebat (Great Indonesia Coalition) by asserting that true victory in politics lies in realizing the common good, not in holding office. She criticizes artificial measures of success such as GDP and growth, highlights inequality, the exploitation of natural resources, and agrarian conflicts, and then introduces the economics of happiness and Bhutan's concept of Gross National Happiness, the UN resolution of 19 July 2011, and the UN SDSN survey that ranked the Indonesian people as less happy; in her view, it was precisely this unhappiness that drove the people to vote for Jokowi. Below it is the international news item "Rousseff Unggul Tipis dalam Polling" (Rousseff Narrowly Ahead in the Polls) (Reuters/AFP) on the Datafolha and MDA opinion polls ahead of the second round of Brazil's presidential election between Dilma Rousseff and Aecio Neves.