Indonesia's new hobby

Indonesia's new hobby

The country has a new hobby -- increasing its provinces. A province begets "children" and "grandchildren", along with districts and municipalities.

The result is complicated. It not only confuses pupils on answering such questions as how many provinces Indonesia has, but it also has more serious consequences. Indonesia suddenly needs many governors, district heads and mayors.

For sure, this has an impact on state funds. Why did the country suddenly have this strange hobby? The answers are many. One of them is that reform has encouraged many people to feel that they are capable of becoming governors, district heads and mayors.

This hobby might disturb the general election in 2004.

It is high time we stop it. From the point-of-view of the general election, it has two bad sides. On the one hand, it might give advantages to a certain party, and on the other hand, it has the potential to hamper the election.

Indonesia is indeed a vast nation, currently being "dwarfed" and "deflated" by this hobby.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta