Editorial: Indonesia Is Facing a Very Important Year

January 3, 2014 Leave a comment

Editorial: Indonesia Is Facing a Very Important Year

By Jakarta Globe on 12:33 pm January 2, 2014.
Now is the time to look forward following a year of important cases.

2013’s highlights include top state officials being brought before the antigraft commission on bribery charges, allegations of Australia wiretapping President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and a weakening of the rupiah that threatened the economy.This year could be even more meaningful. Yudhoyono ends his second five-year term — a unique achievement in the post-Suharto era.

Whoever becomes president will have to contend with a multitude of issues: religious harmony, terrorism, economic growth, trade policies, education and social welfare, among others.

The nation’s youth are likely to have a strong say on who they want as president. About 40 million voters aged 17 to 30 will be participating in this year’s presidential and legislative elections. Of that amount, an estimated 14 million will be handing in their ballots for the first time.

Just ask Alanda Kariza, the 22-year-old founder of the Indonesian Youth Conference. She hopes that a “young, spirited figure” will be elected to represent her generation.

Many voters are clamoring for Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, 52, to run as president on the premise that a government of the people for the people will serve the nation well. But whether Joko will run remains to be seen.

Another major development was the implementation of the Social Security Organizing Body (BPJS) to provide universal health care to all Indonesians. The true effect of this is not yet clear but it is at least a step in the right direction.

Fighting corruption will remain a central issue. The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was successful in nabbing crooked politicians last year, but the next step will be bringing them to trial.

At stake is the reputation of the country, as well as that of the government.

Filed under Macro Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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