Edwin Fajerial, Surabaya – A book discussion on Tan Malaka that was due to be held at the C-20 Library on Number 20 Jl. Cipto in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya was eventually canceled because it failed to obtain permission from local police.

Water reads: Natural Disasters. Sack reads: Budget.

The Election Supervisory Committee is to summon officials from 10 ministries over allegations of the misuse of social aid funds to assist victims of natural disasters that it believes have been siphoned off for election campaigning.

Price list reads: Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) 100 million rupiah, House of Representatives (DPR) 200 million, Regent 300 million, Governor 500 million, President 1 billion

The political parties (parpol) are drooling at the mouth at the prospect of siphoning off billions of rupiah for their electoral campaigns after a controversial decision by the government to allocate 1.5 trillion rupiah (US$123 million) towards election witness fees (dana saksi) for the April 9 legislative elections.

Text reads: Presidential Candidate (Golkar’s Aburizal Bakrie), Politician, Legislative Candidate, Politics (President Yudhoyono)

According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency a total of 5,650 or an average of 514 people per year lost their lives due to disasters such as flooding and landslides from 2003 to 2013.

1st Man: He’s coming here to inspect the situation yeah?

2nd Man: No fool, he’s off to a party meeting

Kid: There’s an awful smell of image building in the air Dad...

Man: Is Pertamina or the people loosing money... and who’s profiting?

With many senior government officials vying with each other to be nominated by the major political parties as presidential candidates (Capres) and more than 90% of lawmakers running as legislative candidates (Caleg) in the April general elections, the political elite have all but abandoned the pretence of trying to run the country.

Man: Peace on earth!