I recommend those idiots a little experience in Scandinavia or Germany. Up to 74% top level tax rate. Just to get rid of such inequality.

Such a nice country.
Great potentials.
Almost all natural resources au masse.
Labour force to no end.
And that is in vain because people are so STUPID.

Being an Indonesian who loves mall, I’ll comment on your essay point by point.

1. On the introduction – I always have fond memories of studying in Melbourne, Australia, and spent my childhood holidays in Singapore. I love modern, clean, safe, and organized cities. In Jakarta or Bandung, I’ve tried hard to find places that could be said as modern, clean, safe, and organized. There’s nothing like mall. Jakarta is a truly unequal city, but it’s never the fault of people who run the malls and who visit it.

2. Christmas is not a religious issue everywhere – not in Australia, Japan, Singapore. Plus, you must have realized that many children who visited the Santa booth were Chinese Christians. I know that some Muslim parents would advise their children to stay away (and it’s more true in Indonesia), but really I am sure that kids who talked to Santa have some Christian background.

3. It’s same Friday nights elsewhere in Asia and in downtown Australia and NZ, with teens talking in dozen of different language.

4. I disagree with the fried meat point. Food courts have diverse food – Sundanese, Padang, Chinese Indonesian (peranakan), Chinese, Japanese, Arabian, European…and they are not just fried meat. You get stir-fried and steamed veggies. Plus of course, chicken, fish, and lamb, although there’s no pork. If there’s McD or KFC, it’s just like other food courts around the world. Burger and fries can bang to 40 thousands if you to a really preppy mall, but you can get less than that.

5. I am an elite. But really, you can sit on the food court and buy nothing and no one will bother you for hours.

6. I believe security post applies um, suspect profiling.

7. Many social commentators get the ‘skin whitening’ stuff wrong. Skin whitening is popular in Indonesia not because Indonesians want to be white. Indonesians like them because they want to be Asians – like the Japanese, Korean, or Thais do.

Luckily I have light skin so I don’t need to buy them.

8. The corporates build mall for profit. I need it for public space. I wish I could go to parks, attending open air concert, and touring Jakarta’s downtown on my two feet, but as a Chinese middle class (in short, an elite) I don’t feel like it.