MISCELLANY

Indonesia the largest Muslim nation serves as a model democracy not only to Asia but to the world

Even as the controversies sur­rounding the presidential elections in Iran and Afghanistan where in chaos, Susilo I Bambang Yudhoyono was sworn in for a second five-year term as president of Indonesia's democratic experiment in October 2009, but lends an air of optimism for the future of participatory governments in the Islamic world.

Some of the silent features are:
* It involved 176 million voters in nearly half a million polling stations, making it the largest Muslim country on the path to becoming the third larg­est democracy in the world.

* The president, popularly known as SBY, overcame challenges from Megawati Sukarnoputri, a former president and daughter of independence hero Sukarno, and outgoing Vice-President Jusuf Kalla.

* In the largely peaceful growth of Indonesia's nascent democracy. With a multi-cultural pop­ulation of 235 million —85 per cent of them Muslim—Indonesia's democratic transformation began in the aftermath of the 1998 Asian economic crisis.

* With over 500 direct local elections being held since 2005—leading to the World Bank recognising Indonesia as "the election capital of the world"

* The new constitution set voting age at 17 years, thus giving the large section of the country's youth a political voice; lay the ground rules for direct election to the top political offices in the country.

* More importantly, the parliamen­tary election in April exposed the myth of religion overriding other consider­ations during elections in the Muslim world. All Islamic parties combined, which won nearly 40 per cent of the vote in 2004, managed just over 20 percent this time.

* Another progressive example is in the realm of women's empowerment. Apart from having had a woman presi­dent between 1999 and 2004, a record 102 of the 550 seats for the House of Representatives, translating into 18 per cent, was won by women in the recent parliamentary election—the previous best being 65 women members during the 1987-1992 period.

* It is true that all these do not make democracy in the world's largest archipelagic state—with only 6000 of about 17,000 islands inhabited— per­fect.

Google is documenting Iraq's national museum and will post photographs of its ancient treasures on the Internet early next year, Google chief Eric Schmidt announced on November 25.

The museum was ransacked in the chaotic aftermath of Saddam Hussein's ouster in April 2003, and only reopened to visitors early this year. Schmidt, who toured the museum with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill said, it was important for the world to see Iraq's rich heritage and contribution to world culture.

"The history of the beginning of — literally — civilization is made right here and is preserved here in this museum," Schmidt said at a ceremony attended by Iraqi officials.

"I can think of no better use of our time and our resources than to make the images and ideas from your civilization, from the very beginnings of time, available to billions of people worldwide," he said.
Schmidt said Google has taken some 14,000 photographs of the museum and its artifacts, and the images will be available online in early 2010.

The antiquities in the museum's vast storage vaults and artifacts from other sites across the country will also be photographed as they become available and then put on the internet, he said.

The museum was among many institutions, including universities, hospitals, libraries and art galleries, that were looted or set ablaze across Iraq in the days and weeks that followed Saddam's ouster.

The Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has urged the Islamic nations to comply by the Convention of Children's rights. While speaking at the International Conference on the Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in the OIC Member States held on November 23-25 here, Ihsanoglu emphatically mentioned that the adoption of the CRC by the UN General Assembly in 1989 implies that the OIC member States commit to the CRC stipulations and turn them into concrete action by articulating proper laws and policy programs. He also emphasized that this commitment entails examination of the commitment to the CRC at the meetings scheduled to take place as part of the ongoing conference in order to pinpoint and exchange views on the hurdles that hinder adequate implementation and discuss the ways and means of surmounting existing obstacles.

The Secretary General noted that the Muslim world had nearly 600 million children which, in percentage terms, would amount to over 40 per cent of Muslims, and almost a quarter of the world's children. He pointed out that in spite of efforts made by the OIC Member States in providing care and protection for children, approximately 4.5 million children aged 5 or less die every year due to diseases and malnutrition.

He commended the efforts by Egypt for the establishment of a Specialized Organization for the Development of Women in the OIC Member States. He also indicated that the Group of Intergovernmental Legal Experts working on the draft statute of the projected organization as proposed by Egypt has adopted the draft, which will now move forward to be eventually submitted to the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers at its forthcoming.