It’s really all one big happy family . . .

Did you ever wonder why, if Prabowo was such a fundamentalist bully and Jokowi was such a snappily-dressed man of the people, the election was so close?

It’s because at the Indonesian presidential “court,” it’s just one big game of loyalty-swapping.  Can ideology-swapping be far behind?

A little tidbit from Wati:

As the first installment of my sins before the next Eid Mubarak, please be informed that I just received a text message from my friend in Jakarta, who attended a state visit at the presidential offices. SBY, Budiono, Mega, bu Umar Wirahadikusumah etc. were all there, including the Crown Princess.

[okay, a primer for those of you who are not up on your Indonesian “royalty:”

SBY is  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, current President.  He will turn over the presidency to Jokowi in October.

Budiono is the current Vice President.

Mega is of course Diah Permata Megawati Setiawati Sukarnoputri, the 5^th President of Indonesia (serving as Vice President under Abdurrahman Wahid  until his removal in 2001, when she took office until 2004.) She is now chair of the PDIP-the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.

Bu Umar Wirahadikusumah is the widow of the fourth Indonesian Vice President, who served from 1983 to 1988.)

And Puan Maharani, aka the "Crown Princess" among Jakarta wags, is Megawati’s daughter from her marriage to Taufiq Kiemas.  She holds the second highest positin in PDIP after Megawati, her mother. She is seen as “very arrogant and ambitious,” but rather dull-witted.

Got it?]

My friend was very concerned and scared to watch the behavior of the Crown Princess and acting Lady of the House.

The Crown Princess is so SNOBBISH! And she keeps proving her reputation over and over.

She as well as her cold hearted mom ignored guests unless they approached them first. While any host and/ or hostess is supposed to greet and thanks visitor, especially on Lebaran.

Then the CP and mom were  "attacked" (their term) by the conglomerates who wanted to have their photos taken with them . . .

Oh dear . . .poor Jokowi . . . hopefully he is NOT part of it . . .

Lets pray Jokowi will not put her in his cabinet despite the obvious pressure from President # 5.

I have to check but I think my dad was the witness when Puan got married . . . like most of other Soekarno children my father was involved because of his close relation with Soekarno.

This is the political game that's going on now. Jokowi  became the presidential candidate because Megawati’s party--PDIP –chose and supported . Mega’s game plan in the beginning was to have herself and Jokowi as one ticket.

In 2004 the ticket to oppose SBY had been Mega and Prabowo as president and VP.

But SBY won. So Mega split with Prabowo and Prabowo started a new party which is Gerindra.

Indonesia’s second president, Soeharto, belonged to the Golkar party. Prabowo married Titiek Soeharto.  They divorced after Soeharto’s downfall, and became very distant.

But Prabowo used his relation with the Soeharto family during the presidential campaign, and of course this infuriated Mega. On the other hand, both Mega’s and Prabowo’s parties, PDIP and Gerindra, supported Jokowi when he ran for Jakarta Governor, especially since Ahok, the deputy governor, is from Gerindra.

[is your head hurting?  Me, I need 6 aspirin and a nap.]

FYI JKW and Prabowo have not yet met with each other during Lebaran, although both came to see President SBY.

Hatta’s youngest daughter, was once very much a Gerindra activist but she soon quit Gerindra after she found out that she was just being used.

So Prabowo has used the daughters of Soekarno, Hatta  and Soeharto. 

Quite the trifecta of sleaze.

Does not this sound like a soap opera...?

In other news:

I celebrated Lebaran at the Indonesian Embassy in Hanoi with a friend who’s at the Islamic National Bank in Kuala Lumpur. The food, especially the lontong cap go meh, was superb and most of my fellow countrymen were well behaved.  Except for one senior diplomat who argued that Jokowi is very bad for the country and will make Indonesia bankrupt within one year. When I suggested that he give JKW time to prove himself over the next 5 years, and that the worst case scenario is we can impeach him if he is so bad, this diplomat became unfriendly.

Thank God the food was so good . . . or else my shoe was ready to fly over his head. . . .

Who says politics is boring?