“The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy,” says Carl von Clausewitz. The popular quote by the Prussian soldier and military theorist perfectly delineates a series of international and domestic affairs in the past week.

 Above all important events worldwide, the United Nations resolution on Thursday that upgrades the Palestinians’ status to a nonmember observer state in the world body was obviously the most surprising one. In an extraordinary lineup of international support, more than two-thirds of the UN’s 193 member states approved the resolution — it passed 138-9, with 41 abstentions.

The vote grants the Palestinians the same status at the UN as the Vatican, and they will keep their seat next to the Holy See in the assembly chamber.

The Palestinians turned to the General Assembly after the United States had announced it would veto their bid last fall for full UN membership until there is a peace deal with Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas made clear that this remains the Palestinians’ ultimate goal.

The vote, therefore, gives Abbas an overwhelming international endorsement for his key position: Establishment
of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. With Netanyahu opposed to a pullback to the 1967 lines, this should strengthen Abbas’ hand if peace talks resume.

Another surprise in the past week came from the soccer field. The Indonesian team failed to advance to the AFF Cup semifinals after it lost to host and defending champion Malaysia 2-0 in the last match of the tournament’s Group B on Saturday evening.

The Red and Whites earlier secured a boost in their participation this year after defeating 10-man Singapore 1-0 on Wednesday. Previously, the Indonesian team played a 2-2 draw against lowly Laos in the opening match of the Group B on Sunday last week.

 Another team from Group B that wins a ticket to the semifinals was Singapore after it defeated Laos 4-3 in a parallel match also on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, Thailand and the Philippines in Group A advanced to the semifinals of the biennial tournament.

The government’s decision to drop a plan to hold the “No-Premium Day” scheduled for this Sunday was another surprise. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said the program was canceled due to the potential for social unrest and its small impact on the national drive to lower consumption of subsidized fuels. The campaign was earlier expected to save as many as 15,000 kiloliters of subsidized fuel, worth Rp 75 billion (US$7.81 million).

The government initially assigned funds for 40 million kiloliters of subsidized fuel this year, less than the actual 41.7 million kiloliters consumed in 2011. In September, House Commission VII on energy approved the government’s bid to increase this year’s quota for subsidized fuels by around 4 million kiloliters to a total of 44 million kiloliters.

Fuel subsidies have always been a politically sensitive subject in Indonesia, whose subsidized fuel prices are the lowest in Southeast Asia. A government proposal to raise fuel prices from Rp 4,500 per liter to Rp 6,000 per liter in April was turned down by lawmakers following a series of violent protests throughout the country.

As a result of the rejected price hike, government spending on energy subsidies is expected to soar to more than Rp 300 trillion by the end of this year, significantly higher than the Rp 225 trillion allocated in the 2012 state budget.

On domestic political affairs, the latest survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) offered a surprising result — putting former vice president Jusuf Kalla and outgoing Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD as the most popular candidates for the 2014 presidential election, but leaving Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairperson and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri and Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto, who both have topped previous surveys, in the middle and near the bottom of the list respectively.

The figure’s overall quality (from top to bottom) of the LSI survey are: 1. Mahfud MD, 2. Jusuf Kalla, 3. Dahlan Iskan, 4. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, 5. Hidayat Nurwahid, 6. Agus Martowardojo, 7. Megawati Soekarnoputri, 8. Djoko Suyanto, 9. Gita Wirjawan, 10. Chairul Tanjung, 11. Endriartono Sutarto, 12. Hatta Rajasa, 13. Surya Paloh, 14. Pramono Edhie Wibowo, 15. Sukarwo, 16. Prabowo Subianto, 17. Puan Maharani, 18. Ani Yudhoyono.

On labor issues, the government — apparently bowing to pressure from businesspeople — has decided to allow labor-intensive firms including textile, garment and shoe manufacturers, to seek a delay in raising the minimum wages for their workers.

Under the mechanism provided by the government, an employer who feels burdened by the new minimum wages, can file complaints with the respective provincial administrations who will audit his firm’s financial performances, the result of which will determine whether a suspension is granted or not. Small and medium enterprises, meanwhile, are exempted from the new minimum wage policies.

Security threat, meanwhile, remains a problem in the country’s easternmost province of Papua. Three policemen, including Pirime sub-precinct police chief Second Insp. Rofli Takubesi, were shot dead early Tuesday by a group of unidentified assailants in outlying Lanny Jaya regency. The two other fatalities were identified as Brig. Jefri Rumkorem and First Brig. Daniel Makuker, while a third officer — Brig. Muhammad Gosali — managed to save himself.

— Imanuddin Razak

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