Jawa Timur

After reporting in to Kuching, I had to come back to Putrajaya as a holiday was planned by my mom for us to go to Surabaya, Indonesia. This was at the invitation of my mom’s uncle, Tok Din who himself was invited by a wealthy Indonesian hotel owner whom we now call Pak Haji. How all this came to be is subject to quite some confusing stories involving Pak Haji’s grandson, Singapore, and Tok Din himself. Regardless it was quite an interesting 10 days worthy of a novel in itself not least because of Pak Haji’s new young wife, family conspiracies and a sprinkle of alleged black magic.

Anyway, an interesting thing that I would like to share about Indonesia is the photo below of a road construction project. No doubt Indonesia is a rich country with poor people due mostly to corrupt politicians but as it stands today, Indonesia is perhaps the most ‘mature’ democracy in South East Asia (according to international indices) and this is reflected by the signboard below:

It basically says that the project was funded by money from taxes paid by the people. In Malaysia, an equivalent would say something like “Satu lagi projek kerajaan Barisan Nasional”