According to the NEA, the PSI (Pollution Status Index) hit a good 150 at 9pm, 07.10.2006
The following pics were taken around 5 – 6 pm on the same day, when the PSI was around 86 – 98. I just can’t imagine what 150 is like, when this was less that 100.
Personally speaking, it is my considered opinion that the current Indonesian gover-min has shown itself completely incompetent in governance. Either way, I have always considered Indonesia’s claims of sovereignty over its current territory shaky at best, since historically the original Dutch East Indies was simply an administrative region as a colony of the Netherlands, and not as one monolithic country. (Otherwise, Polynesia would cover all the way north to Hawaii, south to New Zealand, and east to Easter Island.)
I wouldn’t feel sorry at all if Indonesia breaks down into five or six smaller states (e.g. Riau, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes and Guinea) if the end result was a state of better governance. The abuse and neglect of Jakarta over the current Indonesian terrorities have reached such an utterly unbearable and unacceptable level that they have certainly lost their right and mandate to rule. There’s no reason why the rest of the region should tolerate the existence of this pathetic rogue state and continue to suffer in silence annually this nonsense. This is almost as bad as Iran and North Korea having possession of The Bomb.
Alas, it is almost unlikely that even in dissolution we will see a better future ahead for them. In Indonesia’s case, perhaps it would have been better had the European colonialists stayed on as their Overlords. It is almost entirely possible that the Europeans will be far more enlightened in their rule than Indonesia’s current lea-duhship.
A permit from the MHA for a public protest outside the Indonesian embassy, anybody?
Just joking… it is unlikely that they will grant one, after Baby Lee says rioting is a no-no recently.
Boat Quay |
Marina Square |
UOB Towers (See the dimmed Sun) |
Benjamin Sheares Bridge |
Marina Bay |
* Click to Enlarge