things i will miss...

In just a few hours from now, I'm going to have my first exam paper this semester. The feeling? Maybe since it's already my fourth year, I didn't feel anything about exams, they are just the regular things which come and go every end of semester, and I'm trying my best as always. Thank God for the wonderful 4 years which I spent on campus. They will be unforgettable years for me.. Many tears, many blessings, many unexpected events, many things which have changed me. I'm reflecting on myself 4 years back and compare it with my current self, some things stay the same, many more are transformed (I use the word "transformed" here since the "4-years-ago-me" would not ever imagine "that-me" becomes like the "current-me"). Yeah, and I'm going to miss many things:

1. the fellowship which has brought me to come into faith with Jesus, which has introduced me to how beautiful His grace is... all of the encouragement, prayers and sharing that we have altogether
2. the thump-thump-feeling of knowing the result of assignments and mid-term test, and the jaw-dropping moment when knowing that your result was below the class' average! that was A DISASTER hahahaha. I remember my first mid-term test in NUS, I got only 5 out of 15 and the average was 9 or something.. All my prides were torn apart and throughout these years, I'm learning to lean more and more on Him and giving my best..
   
3. all the excitements and joy of having finish exams and going back home, meeting family and old friends!
   
4. a-rush-of-blood-to-the-head when you know that the deadline is just several hours away and you kept staring at the monitor not knowing what to type or what to do and no one was even available to help you!
   
5. all the chit-chats with friends over lunch or dinner in the campus' canteen, this was our escape from the hectic lectures and tutorials, spending one hour or so over the table hahahaha.
   
6. reading weeks! it was one of a few time in the semester where all of us went on becoming hermits inside the library! lolz

anyway moving on to the next topic hehe

Final Year Project Presentation
And last but not least, last week I went for a "tour" to some of my friends' FYP presentations. I was there to offer them my support and prayer. So here they are:

Ardi's


Stephanie's


Hartanto's


Yunika's


Me

I believe that all of us have done our best, and let God do the rest now..
All the best for the exams everyone!

a lil' update

Yeah thank God finally I've done my FYP presentation yesterday, with my last three exams in NUS. Graduation is a happy-and-sad moment for me... But thank God for all of these four years. I just received a call from my mom today when I was mugging in the library. My dad, mom, and my younger brother and sister will be coming to Singapore for my Commencement Ceremony! Sadly my younger brother who's studying in Japan couldn't come since his holiday will only start in August. But that's okay since he's also planning to fly home in August, so I can still catch him up back in Jakarta. That's not the happiest thing which I would like to share.

For the past 3 years since the first time I became a born-again Christian, I've been praying for my dad. My relationship with him was very bad since I was still in junior high until one time I stopped talking to him, at all.... I found he was really selfish and unreasonable as a father. However, as time went by and as I came to my faith in Jesus, I was reminded that he is after all a father who has brought me into this current state. And yes, I prayed for God to help me to restore my relation with my dad.. And yes, miraculously, maybe after 3 years, I started to talk to him and forgive him, and also asked for his forgiveness... And one more thing, I also prayed that he will come into faith in Jesus, I prayed for a chance for me to share Gospel with him, I prayed so that I can be a living witness to him and to my own family. It is tough, it is not easy, but in the last 3 years I have seen that God is really working!

Several years back, my aunt brought my dad to come to her church service. From that point onwards, my dad started to show his interest in hearing preachings in radio and TV. Although he rarely, very rarely go to church again after that. My mom has a habit of listening to a Christian radio station in Jakarta every night before going to bed. She likes to listen to various sermons and praise and worship songs. Inevitably, my dad also listened to those sermons which my mom listened to. And the seeds that God has planted grew over time...

In that phone call, my mom said, "your dad has actually believed in Jesus, but he is just too lazy to go for catechism.." I was surprised to hear that he has actually believed in... I felt on my knee, thank God for the wonderful works that He has done, it is always amazing to see how God works.. although I haven't had a chance to share the Gospel personally to my dad, but God has already started working through the sermons in the radio, in TV, and through the faithfulness of my mom... and the first thing which I will do when I reach Jakarta is to hug him! to talk to him and share how happy I was to hear the news, and to share God's everlasting and wonderful grace...

paganization of the west and the global challenge to Christian truth

It was a true privilege to have Dr. Peter R. Jones who visited Singapore on his way to the World Reformed Fellowship Meetings in Jakarta. Dr. Peter R. Jones is Scholar at Large for World Reformed Fellowship (WRF). He is also an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in America. Dr. Jones also serves as Director of Christian Witness to a Pagan Planet (CWIPP), now truthXchange. He brought forward the topic of “Paganization in the West and the Global Challenge to Christian Truth.” I would like to share some of the points that he brought forward during the seminar.

The Rise of Paganism in the West

"Easter thought, Western mysticism. I really dig the whole Hindu pantheon. And I just pull from all kinds of different things.” – Meg Ryan

There has been a rise in religious paganism in the last century, or with a term also coined by Dr. Jones, a “pagan revival” in the west. What are the other evidences? Aravind Adiga, Indian journalist and author, observed the trend of re-arrival of paganism in the west, in which mystics and psychic has more and more becoming parts of life. As he wrote in the article titled “Mystical Mischief in New York” (Time, 16 July 2008):

"I am coming back to New York after five years, and it seems that psychics are taking over the city. From their center in the East Village, where there are more places to have your palm read than to check your e-mail, they have radiated all over New York, which teems with "Eastern" medicinal and future-telling establishments of every kind, ranging from the dubious (reiki, scented-candle therapy, acupuncture) to the bogus (palmistry, psychic reading.) Greenwich Village always had its share of mind readers, but there are many more these days, and they seem to have moved closer to the mainstream of life in the city. What was crazy 10 years ago is now respectable, even among the best-educated New Yorkers. I find that an old friend of mine in the city, once a strident atheist and rationalist, is getting absorbed in Jewish mysticism; he tells me approvingly that his wife has rejected "Western" medicine and now goes to a medicine man in Chinatown for roots and crystals."

The Bible itself, in 1 Timothy 4: 1-6, also gives a very vivid testimony about this recent tendency, on how men will one day abandon their faith and follow the path of demons. The passage shows how the biblical thought itself is at the very antithesis of all of these thoughts:

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.”

So, alongside with this “pagan revival”, what is happening right now?

1. Redefinition of God. While it’s not trying to undermine the faith in God, it challenges the faith in the Bible.
2. Demise of Secular Humanism. Many predict that the world is now moving in the direction of secular humanism, or in other words, they world will become more and more secular. However, if we observed, the 21^st century is the most “religious” century in all time, in contrary to Sigmund Freud’s statement who predicted the demise of religion in this century. Postmodernism, the rampant movement and world view in this current century, doesn’t only critique Christianity, but also secular humanism through its deconstructionist view. Postmodern critique has undermined the assumption of secular humanism, as it’s only a presupposing truth, while not the truth in itself.
3. Collapse of Christianity. This happened not because the west has become fundamentally secular, it is not the free-thinkers who will “win”, but the “religionist”. Secular humanism has prepared the fertile ground for spiritual and mythical religion. Secular humanism fails simply because people can’t live without any form of religion. There are many questions which only religion can answer. Now for the Christian generation living in this age, there are two main problems for the rising Christian generation:
   

• The problem of Christian uniqueness. All the Christian truths are being questioned or judged as “foolish.” Many Christian freshmen in the United States lost their faith after a year or so in the campus. There is a powerful ideological pressure on campus, a multi-cultural reality, nothing is unique. Therefore, it is important for this generation to know why the Bible says what it says by understanding the Biblical Worldview.
• The problem of homosexuality. Does it fit with the notion of the image of God or just expression of sexuality which can be easily tolerated? If we looked deeply into it, the idea of all religion is one (or are all true) is related with the idea of homosexuality (INTERFAITH == INTERSEX)

to be continued...

indonesian parliamentary election 2009

I should be doing my assignments now but I stuck and can't do much bout it for the time being, still waiting for inspirations!! :P. So I'll just share something about interesting experience during my task as one of the member of KPPSLN (Kelompok Penyelenggara Pemungutan Suara Luar Negeri, or Organizing Group of the Overseas Election). On Thursday, 9 April 2009, Indonesians casted their votes for their representatives at the parliament. In Indonesia, they received four ballot papers, one for DPR (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, or People's Representative Council), one for DPRD I (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Tingkat I, or Provincial Regional People's Representative Council), one for DPRD II (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Tingkat II, or Regencial/Municipal Regional People's Representative Council), and one for DPD (Dewan Perwakilan Daerah, or Regional Representatives Council). However, overseas Indonesians only need to vote once, for DPR (we voted for Election Region Jakarta II).

Our team from left to right: Fachrian, Yogie, Citra, Fariz, me, Bertram, and Steve

Our team from TPS 19 (TPS stands for Tempat Pemungutan Suara, or Voting Station): Fachrian, Bertram, Steve, Citra, Yogie, me, and Fariz, had already gathered in KBRI Singapura (Indonesian Embassy in Singapore) at 7am to prepare our voting station and receive voters. We expected most of the voters will arrive at the first 2 to 3 hours from the start of the general election. The General Election in Singapore itself was officially started at 8am and the number of registered voters in Singapore is about 90000, so since there were 35 voting stations, 1 station should accomodate around 2500 voters. Only around 10 percent of the voters turned up to cast their vote directly in the embassy while the rest is either sending their votes via post or didn't vote at all... I strongly believe that all of the good Indonesian citizens should cast their vote as part of their responsibilities to their country. However, they should know well which political party they choose so that they also vote responsibly. Just as Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s" (Mark 12:17), in which Caesar in our current situation refers to the government.

the ballot papers

showing the ballot paper to the voter to make sure that it is valid before they use it (no scratches, no holes, no marks whatsoever) and explaining the valid way of casting votes

with the girls from Singapore Management University

general situation during the election day

The Result

So, the election was officially closed at 15.00. All the unused ballot papers need to be crossed out. There are around 2200 unused papers, and all of them must be crossed out! After that, we opened the electoral box and count all the votes. Since there were only 289 voters came to our voting station on that day, the counting itself took only less than two hours. Still, there were two empty ballot papers and several other invalid votes... Partai Demokrat (Democratic Party) received around 50% of the votes in our station, followed by Partai Demokrasi Indonesia - Perjuangan (Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle) and Partai Golongan Karya (Party of the Functional Groups) in the second and third place respectively. This trend also occured in other voting stations as well and Partai Demokrat came as the "almost" absolute winner in the election in Singapore.

me and Steve crossing out unused ballot papers

verifying the ballot papers and counting the votes

recapitulating the result

and here is the winner in our voting station

Thank God that the election went smoothly, the queue didn't go too long (it reached Tanglin area during the last general election in 2004!), and I really pray for the best, so that with this parliamentary election and the upcoming presidential election, Indonesia will be able to move into a better and better condition. God bless Indonesia!

optimize application for ibm cell processor

That goes the title of my final year project. Finally today, I submitted everything, three copies of my final report plus a CD containing the source code! It was a long two semesters project, yet it's interesting because I had a chance to explore a new processor architecture which was released in 2005. It is called the IBM Cell Broadband Engine Architecture (IBM Cell BE, or Cell processor for short), which was jointly developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. The development process itself was started in March 2001 and upon its release, the Cell processor is used to power up Sony PlayStation 3 machine.

This processor is developed for multimedia and game applications as well as other numerically intensive workloads. It provides support both for highly parallel codes, which have high computation and memory requirements, and for scalar codes, for which fast response time and a full-featured programming environment. The Cell BE architecture provides both flexibility and high performance by utilizing a 64-bit multithreaded Power Processor Element (PPE) with two levels of globally coherent cache and eight Synergistic Processor Elements (SPEs), each consisting of a processor designed for streaming workloads, a local memory, and a globally coherent DMA engine.

an example of the rendering of a high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) tone-mapped image

So, this project itself attempted to optimize a non-trivial but interesting application, which is OpenEXR, a high dynamic-range (HDR) image library, on the Cell platform. The library is optimized to use all the available resources of the Cell processor. In order to achieve this some optimization methods (such as function inlining, branch predication, and loop unrolling) and vectorization with SIMD instructions are done as well as parallelization of execution with multiple Synergistic Processor Elements (SPEs) in order to fully utilize the SPEs in the IBM Cell BE. This project has managed to successfully achieved speedup factor of 1.94 and 1.26 respectively for pixel data writing and reading process and if the time for data initialization is assumed to be negligible, the speedup factor achieved for both processes are 3.25 and 1.88 respectively.

the result of my FYP is captured in this one graph, hehe

So basically that's for the technical thingy. I felt that in the past two months, I've done much more than what I've done from September last year to February this year hahaha. All things that I've done in the last semester seem to be a waste since most of them didn't really go into my final deliverable. However, there are many interesting experience that I get from this FYP. Here's a list of things which I did for the first time (in my life!) during this fyp period: fell asleep in the lab till the following morning, drank four cups of coffee in one day, spent most of my day in the lab, and didn't talk (chatting doesn't count :P) to anyone for one day. On average, I spent 12 hours a day in front of the computer and sleep for only 5 hours a day, hahaha what a life. Here are some photos that remind me of all the time I spent doing this FYP...

the entrance to my lab..


see all the rubbish accumulated in front of my lab

my workstation in the lab


back to my room


delicious nastar from my mom which accompanied me for a week :P


I'm a coffee addict!


first draft..


got a playstation 3 machine, and installed linux in it haha


final submission!

So, I still have to prepare for the presentation in front of two examiners, it will be on 20 April. Some assignments are waiting to be "touched" :P, and finally exams, will be my last 3 exams in NUS, gotta enjoy hahaha..

the Indonesian's democracy as a role model in South-East Asia

Another interesting article on the argument of Indonesian's democracy as a role-model of democracy in South-East Asia, assuming that this South-East Asia region comprises of countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, and East Timor. Thanks to Kendrick who sent me the link to this article.

From one point of view, as an Indonesian myself, I was very happy to have a chance to choose those representing me in the legislative bodies and my future President. However there are still questions bugging me. Looking at the current political condition in Indonesia. Will this kind of democracy, with a big number of political parties competing for seats every time, will bring political stability and improvements to Indonesia's economic condition? Corruption is still rampant, which is still one and unsolvable problem for Indonesia. To some extent, Yudhoyono's government has done a good job in fighting corruptions and this effort has been taken seriously as well. Democracy alone can't feed people, it must be followed by improvements!

Economic growth has been stagnating in the level of 5 to 6% during the last 3 years and projected to decrease to the rate of 4 to 5% in the year to come. However this growth of 5% which was first achieved in the year 2005 was significant considering the slow economic growth experienced in the year of 1998-2004 as the impact of the financial crisis. The proportion of people lives under the poverty line has been reduced to 15.4% in the year 2008. Inflation rate jumped to 11% from 6% in the year 2007. But it's all just macroeconomics numbers (further statistics could be found here). In December last year when I went to Padang (this was the first time I went back to Indonesia after 1 year I spent overseas), I could feel that prices were different, it was just for me all too expensive!

However, looking at the big picture, Indonesia has managed well to get through the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998 and to some extend the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. And yes, I am totally agree with Mrs. Clinton statement during her visit to Indonesia last year: “Indonesia has experienced a great transformation in the last 10 years,” and further she added, “If you want to know if Islam, democracy, modernity and women’s rights can coexist, go to Indonesia.”

Hoping and praying for the best for Indonesia, especially in this coming general election. Indonesia still needs a strong leader!

The Indonesian surprise

Apr 2nd 2009
From The Economist print edition

The world’s biggest Muslim country has changed from authoritarian basket-case to regional role model

THE Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s helped bring regime change in both the country where it started, Thailand, and the one where the devastation it wrought was most profound, Indonesia. At the time Thailand’s prospects for political stability seemed infinitely brighter. A cohesive nation whose army seemed to have withdrawn from politics, it adopted a new constitution, drafted in an impeccably consultative process. Indonesia, however, woke up in 1998 from the 32-year Suharto dictatorship with a dreadful hangover—blood on the streets of Jakarta, separatist conflicts on the periphery and a chaotic explosion of repressed political activity, some of it tinged with Islamist extremism.

Yet as Indonesia prepares for its third national parliamentary elections since then, to be held on April 9th, it has a fair claim to be South-East Asia’s only fully functioning democracy. Unfettered by Thailand’s draconian lèse-majesté laws, or the fierce interpretations of what constitutes defamation in Singapore and Malaysia, the press is vibrant and free. Unlike Thailand’s army, which returned to politics with a coup in 2006, Indonesia’s has stayed back in the barracks. And unlike the Philippines, where elections dominated by guns, goons and gold lead to dozens of murders, Indonesia has enjoyed a largely peaceful campaign. Indonesia’s corruption rates probably still top regional charts, but the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made strides in attacking it.

Moreover, pluralist politics and a decentralisation of power have helped bring Islamist politics into the mainstream. Jemaah Islamiah, the local al-Qaeda franchisee, responsible for the bombing in Bali in 2002 and other attacks, has been marginalised: its most dangerous fanatics are in jail or hiding in the jungles of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. No attacks on foreign targets in Indonesia have been recorded since 2005. The above-ground Islamist parties have had to become less vehement to gain power. About two-fifths of local elections have been won by coalitions forged between Islamist and secular parties. In the two other huge Asian Muslim-majority nations—Pakistan and Bangladesh—extremism gained ground in the early years of this century in part because of the suppression of political competition.

Of course Indonesia is not a paragon of Jeffersonian democracy. The parties contesting the election (see article) are doing so largely on the basis of their leaders’ charisma, and the quality of the packed lunches and other handouts they provide at their rallies. And those leaders are mostly people who thrived under Suharto, too, testifying not just to the elite’s tenacious staying power, but also to the lack of any accountability for the abuses of the Suharto years. One is the former army chief, Wiranto, who was indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal for his role in the violence that surrounded Indonesia’s withdrawal from Timor-Leste in 1999. Another, Prabowo Subianto, is the divorced husband of one of Suharto’s daughters, and a former special-forces commander whose human-rights record is such that he cannot get a visa to America.

In the short term, however, the biggest difficulty facing Indonesian democracy is the election itself. Despite the experience of the previous votes in 1999 and 2004 it was always going to face huge difficulties: a voting system of Byzantine complexity; constantly evolving rules; the logistics of organising polls in an archipelago of 17,000 islands and 240m people; and the apparent ineptitude of the election commission. A new one was added, however, with the exposure of the apparent rigging of a recent election for a provincial governorship, in East Java, in favour of Mr Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party.

The scale of the errors uncovered—over a quarter of the names on the voters’ list were fictitious or repeated—seems too large for it to be simply an instance of incompetence. But instead of helping the investigation, the police in Jakarta intervened to downgrade it and sideline the local police chief responsible. Since then errors have been detected in voters’ lists elsewhere. This makes it even more likely that many losing candidates in the election will challenge the results. Indonesia’s love affair with democracy could enter a rocky patch.

Pricking the pretext of “Asian values”

It should, however, be no more than that. The manipulation was uncovered, publicised and is being exploited by opposition candidates: the system worked. As governments elsewhere in the region retreat into repression, Indonesia can still be proud of its young but vibrant pluralism. Although Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew did most of the talking about the “Asian values” that justify authoritarianism, Suharto was their role model and proof. Indonesia is now an altogether different sort of model. Like India it has shown that democracy can work in huge, diverse and poor countries. And like Brazil, Taiwan and South Korea, it has shown it does not need generations to strike roots.

on the nature of God and sins

I am writing this in a response to an entry in my friend's blog which can be found here

This is the citation from my friend's writing which I would like to address:

"My point is this language allows wars, killings and the use of force to defend the dignity of the religion if threatened. God (not capitalized because it loses my respect) in both text is described as vengeful and destructive. Holy Bible describes god’s anger when he swept out the whole mankind except Noah. This is not justifiable for whatever grave sins human has committed (it is said that god is forgiveful BIG JOKE). Another example is Sodom and Gomorrah incineration (can be found in Quran text as well). I find this god’s character, if not followed, interpreted extensively by both religions. No wonder, it incites so much vengeful character in both congregations."

First of all, it is about the nature of God. The bible, as Christians accept today, consists of two major parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. I have seen that many people tends to see that the "God" presented in the Old Testament and the "God" of the New Testament to be "two different gods", the basis of this is that, as mentioned in my friend's blog, someone could see the nature of God in the Old Testament to be vengeful, cruel, and so on and so forth. However, in the New Testament, it seems that we can see "a more plausible nature of God in term of His love towards humanities." Is this really the case? Are there really "two gods" in the bible? Of course the answer is no. There's only one true God and from the perspective of the completeness of the bible and of course with an assumption that God exists (note: the discussion the existence of God will be set aside first for now), I would like to present my argument from Christian's point of view.


How could we “reconcile” these two somewhat “contradicting” nature of God? The Bible should not and must not be interpreted parts by parts, rather as a whole. So, what is the whole Bible all about? The whole Bible only tells us one thing, from the beginning in the book of Genesis to the end in the book of Revelation, on the great redemptive plan that God has on humanities and the restoration of the Kingdom of God. The New Testament itself is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, the completion of God's great redemptive plan which is manifested through Jesus Christ that came down to earth, became human in order to bear all of our sins and iniquities.


We could start from the Old Testament first. In the Old Testament, the first covenant from God was given to Abraham (Genesis 22:17-18):

"I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

This is the God's covenant to Abraham so that his descendants will be blessed (one of them is mentioned here is take possession of the cities of their enemies). God also made similar covenant with Isaac, and then Jacob which from him the 12 tribes of Israel were born.


In Exodus 19: 4-6, God’s purpose for Israel is mentioned:

“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Israel was chosen to be God’s treasured possession, kingdom of priests, and holy nation. God’s purpose in bringing Israel out of Egypt is that they would worship Him and become a holy nation for Him. Through them, His blessing should reach all the nations of the world. God also wanted to show through them to the other nations (which at that time still worship other gods such as Baal) that He is the one and only God, and no other gods beside Him. God helped Israel in their conquest of Canaan. This is also to fulfill God’s covenant to Abraham: “Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies.”


However, despite that all the greatness that God has shown to the people of Israel, the people of Israel kept turning away from Him and adore other gods. Israel has failed to fulfill the God’s given role: they failed to spread the Word of God to other nations, they failed to stay holy but rather they turned away to other gods.


God’s covenant with Abraham is then fulfilled through Jesus Christ, which is the “offspring [on which through Him] all nations on earth will be blessed." Thus, the final fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan was written inside the New Testament. I will now turn into answering the question on the problem of sins and then conclude the discussion on the nature of God:


Secondly, it is about the question, is it justifiable for God to, for example, swept the whole human kind in the story of Noah's flood? Perhaps we could start the discussion by defining “sin”. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God (Westminster Shorter Catechism). God is holy and His divine holiness sets Him apart from us, it covers all aspects of His transcendent greatness and moral perfection, and is characteristic of all His attributes, pointing to the “Godness” of God at every point. Therefore, the core is that God’s purity cannot tolerate any form of sin. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23). One example on how God could not tolerate sin is shown in Numbers 15:32: “they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day” and the God ordered for that man to be put to death. Even to the chosen people of Israel, God could not tolerate sins. This shows how grave sin is in the eyes of God.


In the case of Noah, God has given the mankind the time of 120 years to repent, but none turned back to God and “that the every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 5: 6). Only Noah and his family found to be righteous in His eyes and thus God flooded the earth and saved only Noah’s family. In order to answer the question on whether it is justifiable or not for God to do this, we need to understand the nature of sin itself which is totally intolerable for God which is holy.


These two points show the justice and love of God. God’s justice is shown by His intolerance against sins. God’s love is shown through His Son Jesus Christ which

“being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2: 6-7).

God’s intolerance against sins, all of His anger, was cast upon Jesus on the cross. Jesus bore all the consequences of our sins so “that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Quoting Heidelberg Catechism,

“God is indeed merciful, but also just; therefore his justice requires, that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul, [and the only mediator is] Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

However, there's still one last question which perhaps remains. Could we understand God fully and thoroughly? Unfortunately for our own state, the answer is no. Why? If we could really understand God (in term of one-hundred-percent-certainty), what kind of God is that? Won't it be just a god that we created thus we can understand it very easily? But our mind is so much limited and could not (and will not in our current state) grasp God's fully. Adding to it, it's also because of all our logic and our mind has been polluted by sins, as Apostle Paul put it in Romans 3:23: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God".


Of course this short text would not be able to answer all of your questions, but it will be good if we have the heart to listen and learn from others. I am also learning and seeking for the truth, I am open for discussions and I would like to further hear other’s view on this matter as well :)

so have Indonesians really grown tired of nationalism?

Thanks to Kristia who sent me the link to this interesting article. The link to the original article can be found here.

Have Indonesians Grown Tired of Nationalism?

2009-03-28 00:00

Former military commander Prabowo Subianto has been a household name in Indonesia for several decades now, but at present he is among the most talked about aspiring politicians in the country as Indonesians prepare for the next general elections in early April. The former son-in-law of President Suharto and the former head of the Komando Pasukan Khusus (Kopassus ,Special Operations Command) now leads the Gerindra party that was set up last year and which has announced its presence on the landscape of Indonesian politics in no uncertain terms. With Prabowo entry into the democratic race, yet another former military strongman (including the present President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono), has entered the space of civilian politics.

According to Jakarta-based analyst Shafie Anwar, Gerindra may well be one of the richest political parties in Indonesia today, if its media presence is to be used as the yardstick for its success thus far, Gerindra has certainly made an impact. Gerindra's electoral ads featuring its leader Prabowo were being screened as early as mid-2008, months before any of the other parties even began cranking up their election campaign machinery. From the outset, Prabowo had made his priorities and agenda clear: the call to unite the country under the banner of Pan-Indonesian nationalism and to restore a sense of pride to a country that is still suffering under the burden of the economic crisis from ten years ago.

"Perhaps the most damaging allegation of all lies in the fact that during the closing years of Suharto's rule Prabowo was the head of Kopassus..."

Gerindra's image and message is intimately linked to the personality of Prabowo himself, and it would not be far-fetched to claim that he is the party and the party is him. Officially the party and its leader present themselves as secular, populist and nationalist, but local analysts who have studied Prabowo's political career point to the fact that he was once closely linked to the more conservative hardliners of the Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (DDII) and Pelajar Islam Indonesia (PII) that were known for their rather communitarian stance. Many analysts have also expressed their concern about the brand of nationalism that Prabowo is promoting through his party Gerindra, for fear that it is more akin to the race-based ethno-nationalism that was prevalent among the right-wing groups and parties of Indonesia during Suharto's New Order (Orde Baru) regime.

One of the brickbats that has been thrown at Prabowo is his alleged anti-Chinese stand and his role in the anti-Chinese riots that took place in Jakarta in May 1998, during the last stages of the fall of former President Suharto. That Prabowo is dubbed as being anti-Chinese is interesting, considering that many of his own relatives are married to Indonesians of Chinese origin.

Perhaps the most damaging allegation of all lies in the fact that during the closing years of Suharto's rule Prabowo was the head of Kopassus; a crack military unit that gained fame as well as notoriety for many of its actions, including the counter-insurgency operations in places like East Timor and Aceh. In East Timor for instance, Kopassus has been cited as one of the elite military units that was responsible for most of the human rights abuses meted out there during the mid to late-1970s. As head of Kopassus, Prabowo was seen as being one of those directly responsible for the attacks on the Chinese community that took place in mid-1998, at a time when many local Indonesian analysts claimed that a diversion was sought to save the tottering regime of Suharto from its final collapse.

With the Indonesian rupiah dropping in value on a daily basis then, and with the flight of capital (both foreign and local) from the country, blame for the economic crisis was placed on the Chinese business community who were made the scapegoats for the country's economic collapse, and who were dubbed as outsiders, foreigners, and traitors. Between April and June 1998, riots broke out in Chinese areas such as Glodok in downtown Jakarta, where scores of Chinese businesses and homes were torched by angry mobs. It was claimed then (and now) that these riots were never spontaneous, but rather organised forays into the Chinese neighbourhoods that were intended to divert attention from the breakdown of the economy. Among the military and security units blamed for these attacks was Kopassus, with Prabowo as its leader.

Prabowo and the leadership of Gerindra however have presented themselves today as a nationalist party that caters to needs of all Indonesians, particularly from the lower peasant and industrial worker classes. Included in this rank of the poor and marginalised are poor Chinese citizens too, they insist. But for analyst ShafieAnwar this amounts to Probowo trying to re-write his history. Whichever way the political rhetoric turns however, it is undeniable that Prabowo Subianto as the former head of Kopassus is still forced to carry the burden of stigma from the past, and that the Indonesian electorate will not forget his role both as the head of Kopassus (seen as the unit most closely aligned to Suharto and the Praetorian guard of the old regime) as well as his alleged involvement in the anti-Chinese violence of 1998.

Despite the initial strong showing of Gerindra in the mainstream media, the party is now falling behind the bigger parties like the Partai Demokrat (PD), Partai Demokrasi Indonesia- Perjuangan (PDI-P) and Golongan Karya (GOLKAR) in the run-up to the elections. Gerindra's media campaign was undoubtedly one of the best organised and slick in recent Indonesian history, but as the date for the elections looms closer, Indonesian voters seem to be opting for the bigger parties of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Jusuf Kalla. Have Indonesians passed that crucial threshhold where the language of ethno-nationalism and communitarianism have grown outdated and irrelevant? The answer to that question will come on 9th April itself when Indonesians will go to cast their votes by the millions. What is certain for now however is that even in the face of a dire economic crisis that may last for a couple of more years, the rhetoric of ethno-nationalism and communal pride seems to be losing its appeal, particularly to the younger generation of post-reformasi Indonesian voters. (By FARISH A. NOOR/ MySinchew)

beginilah wajah para caleg...

soo bagaimana para caleg kita berkampanye? mari kita saksikan:



yak yang pertama ini ternyata sudah mendapat restu dari OBAMA!



hmmm, ada mirip-miripnya pak sama kungfu panda?



coba perhatiin caleg nomer 2 ternyata sudah...



rekor caleg termuda!



kalo yg tadi sama obama, skrg malah dapet restunya dari Beckham, keren2 caleg kita, networknya luas sekaleee



wah ibu narsis, eh ternyata namanya juga kekekeke



another one yg ternyata *kenalannya* david beckham



wuidih bapak emang bener2 kreatip, jadi superman loh!



ajigile pak, gelarnya banyak sekaleee, berapa lama tuh ngumpulinnya, bagi dong rahasianya!



wah pak, ati2 sebelum bertinju dicek dulu tekanan darahnya



waduh mbakyu, photobox dulu sblm dipasang di poster kampanye, eh ada friendsternya lagi, add ahhh

final year project's presentation

Monday 20, APR 2009
Afternoon Parallel Sessions, 2pm to 5pm

Session Name/Venue: Computer Architecture - 1, SR5 (COM1/2-01)
S/N: 33
Proj. ID: H062190
Title: Optimize Application for IBM Cell Processor
Supervisor: tulika
Co-Supervisor: -
Student: Johannes Ardiant Harlie
Time Slot for Presentation: 4.15 - 5.00pm
Evaluator 1: thiagu
Evaluator 2: wongwf