Year-end Special Edition

Indonesia made more progress in its democratic journey this year with direct elections of regents, mayors and governors all over the country. Some 200 local elections have been conducted, and they proceeded peacefully -- quite an achievement for a country that has never directly elected its local leaders before.

Interestingly, the institution that had successfully organized the elections, the General Election Commission (KPU), has since been rocked by a corruption scandal.

No less a personage than its chairman, Nazarrudin Sjamsuddin, was found guilty of corruption and sent to prison for seven years. Another KPU member that has also found his way to jail because of corruption is noted activist Mulyana W. Kusuma.

For many, the jailing of Nazarrudin and Mulyana is seen as proving the government's seriousness in fighting corruption.

A number of big fish, who were untouchable under Soeharto's administration, were also sent to jail because of corruption. They include Soeharto's half brother, Probosutedjo, Aceh governor (now suspended) Abdullah Puteh and former chief of the State Logistics Agency, Rahardi Ramelan.

More good news worth mentioning here has been the police's success in finding and eventually killing one of the most wanted terrorists in the region, Azahari bin Husin. The police, however, are still seeking Azahari's Malaysian accomplice, Noordin M. Top.

These achievements in the democracy arena, and the fight against corruption and terrorism were, however, somewhat overshadowed by various calamities, both natural and man-made. Among these were the reemergence of polio in Indonesia a decade after it had been declared free of the disease.

Then, the country saw dozens of people die from hunger in East Nusa Tenggara province and most recently in Papua. Not to mention the deaths from bird flu, which has spread to most of Asia and even to eastern Europe.

On the economic front, the situation was worse than in the previous year, with most indicators performing badly, including slower than expected economic growth, a weakening rupiah against the U.S. dollar, and, worst of all, spiraling inflation.

Apparently unsatisfied with the performance of his economics ministers, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reshuffled the Cabinet's economic team.

We share the hopes of the nation that with the new economics team, Indonesia's economic prospects will improve next year, and eventually more jobless people will find employment.

Year-end schedule: Monday Dec. 26 : National and City Scene
Tuesday Dec. 27 : Business and Sporting Scene
Wednesday Dec. 28 : World Scene
Thursday Dec. 29 : Arts, Entertainment and Cultural Scene
Friday Dec. 30 : Outlook 2006
Saturday Dec. 31 : Outlook 2006