2019 Presidential Race Takes Shape | Muslim Cyber Army Exposed | Cleaning up the World's Dirtiest River | Indonesia Intelligencer (Feb 24 - March 2)
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Politics
2019 presidential race taking shape
Surprising exactly no one, the ruling PDI-P party officially announced last Friday that President Joko Widodo would once again be their candidate in the 2019 presidential election.
In terms of poll numbers, most recent surveys show Jokowi far above any other potential candidates, including Prabowo Subianto, the former general and Gerindra chairperson who Jokowi defeated in 2014 and who is widely expected to challenge the incumbent again next year. Recent polling by the Populi Center survey group shows Jokowi’s electability rating staying steady, at just over 50% since August, whereas Prabowo’s numbers have dropped significantly over the same time period.
With it looking less and less likely that Prabowo will be able to mount a credible threat to Jokowi’s reelection, much of the talk this week focused on the president’s potential VPs (including the outlandish but not impossible scenario of Prabowo becoming Jokowi’s second-in-command). Of course, a lot can still happen between now and 2019…
Jokowi continues to consider UU MD3
After announcing last week that he had not yet signed off on the UU MD3 bill that recently passed in the House of Representatives (DPR), the president this week took meetings with legal experts, including former Constitutional Court judge Mohammad Mahfud M.D., to get their input on the controversial law, which activists warn would criminalize criticism of the DPR and hamper criminal investigations into House members.
Although Indonesian presidents do not have veto powers over bills already passed by the DPR, some have urged him to release a Presidential Decree (Perppu) to mute certain aspects of the bill, though that would almost certainly come at great cost to his political capital with coalition parties that backed the law’s passage.
Muslim Cyber Army exposed Continuing its crackdown on online hoaxes, police arrested a number of individuals in cities across the country this week for their alleged involvement in the Muslim Cyber Army, a loosely knit online organization involved in the creation and dissemination of fake news stories about topics such as the reemergence of the long banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), the kidnapping of Islamic scholars, and defamatory content aimed at the president and his government. Many of their stories went massively viral, with some leading to real world violence and terrorism against innocent targets.
Recommended reads
Shrugging Indonesia’s inferiority complex (The Interpreter)
…. [President Joko Widodo] has recently shown a renewed interest in foreign affairs, this month stating that he wants Indonesia to become a net aid donor rather than a net aid recipient. This is part of Jokowi’s broader desire to see Indonesia stop feeling “inferior,” actively showcase its economic strengths, and boldly participate in international summits and conferences, such as the G20. As part of this strategy, Jokowi has also urged his diplomats to seek out partnerships and enhance their efforts at economic diplomacy.
The Rise of Islamist Groups in Malaysia and Indonesia (Council on Foreign Relations): An expert brief covering the similarities and differences in how Islamists are reshaping the political landscapes in Indonesia and its neighbor, along with policy recommendations:
The two governments can take several steps to prevent Islamist groups from undermining secular, democratic norms. Jokowi should reject the temptation to woo hard-liners in ways that sacrifice secularism. Moreover, the governments, which have generally warm ties, should increase cooperation with each other, as well as with the United States, the Philippines, and Singapore, to track militants linked to the Islamic State.
Business
The time is nigh to $ell high: The rupiah’s exchange rate exceeded IDR13,800 against the US dollar on March 1, the highest it has been since 2016. Analysts say the rupiah’s recent weakening has been caused mainly by the US’ increasing economic optimism, while Indonesia’s central bank (BI) believes that the local currency will continue to be volatile until the US Federal Reserve raises its reference rate toward the end of March.
Indonesia seeks stability with new BI governor nominee: President Joko Widodo nominated BI Deputy Governor Perry Warjoyo to succeed long-serving Governor Agus Martowardojo. Warjoyo is the sole nominee for the post thus far, and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani believes he will be able to maintain stability while adopting a pragmatic approach on boosting growth.
IMF Chief Lagarde visits Indonesia: Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), met with President Joko Widodo in Jakarta this week to discuss Indonesia’s economic developments and outlook. During her visit, Lagarde urged Indonesia to create more inclusive models for economic growth, such as by better utilizing technology and improving the quality of human resources, to tackle disparity issues in the country.
Kalbe Farma’s new bio “weapon”: Kalbe Farma, Indonesia’s largest pharmaceutical company, opened its first biomedicine factory in Jakarta. The company spent $35 million on the 11,000-square-meter high-tech facility as it aims to produce higher-margin prescription drugs to stave off increasing competition in the domestic pharmaceutical market.
Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal probe docks in Bali: At the request of US authorities, Indonesian police are questioning the crew of the luxury yacht Equanimity in Bali, which was impounded off the coast of the holiday island as it’s believed to be among the assets bought using money laundered from the multi-billion 1MDB Malaysian state fund corruption scandal.
Other News and Notable Features
Terrorism & reconciliation
On Wednesday, the government held a first-ever meeting between former militants and their victims, but a pair of victim’s rights groups shunned the event, souring what was hoped to be a key step towards reconciliation.
Terrorist survivors were also likely unhappy to hear that the government is mulling a plan to allow Abu Bakar Bashir, the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist group, to leave jail for good and be placed in home detention due to his deteriorating health.
Recommended read - This terror victim helms Indonesia’s deradicalization efforts (Ozy): Indonesians continue to be innovators in deradicalization and counterterrorism techniques, and yet government support for survivors is virtually nonexistent, leaving grassroots organizations and NGOs to lead the charge.
Drinking from the world’s most polluted river? The government announced ambitious plans to clean up the Citarum River, once declared the most polluted on earth by the World Bank, with Jokowi saying that the river’s waters should be drinkable within seven years.
Recommended reads
Indonesia's ticking environmental time bomb (Al-Jazeera): Landslides have become Indonesia’s most common natural disaster, killing more people in a year than earthquakes, floods or tsunamis. Every rain shower could cause another disaster, destroying lives, property and livelihoods.
Animal rights activists launched a campaign to stop the practice last year, persuading provincial governor Ahmad Heryawan to issue a letter reminding local officials that cruelty to animals is forbidden under Indonesian law, but leaving enforcement to mayors and regents.
Typically in Indonesia, instructions from on high do not necessarily trickle down to rural backwaters. Some arenas close to Bandung, the provincial capital, have shut down. Further afield, others continue to host weekly fights but keep a low profile, trying to avoid the media glare.
Lost bones, a mass grave and war wrecks plundered off Indonesia (The Guardian)
For more than six decades, the wrecks of Allied warships, sunk in a crushing 1942 battle against the Japanese, lay undisturbed on the seabed not too many miles from Usman’s work place.
Dutch, British, Australian and American warships all went down in a naval campaign that led to the Japanese takeover of the then-Dutch East Indies.
But in recent years, in what has been called the world’s biggest grave robbery, dozens of warships sunk in the waters of Southeast Asia have been plundered en masse.
This Week’s Top Coconuts Jakarta News
Demonstrators both for and against come out for first session of Ahok’s judicial review
Makin’ it rain: Money mysteriously tossed down near Jakarta billboard in apparent publicity stunt