An American In Jakarta (Indonesia Intelligencer Oct 24 - 30)
Active cases percentage dips below global average
Hello Coconauts!
Enjoy your long weekend with a short but informative one from us at the Indonesia Intelligencer team. While Jakarta hosted the Trump envoy this week, France is dominating the minds of many. Still, the pandemic rages on but there are some silver linings.
Stay safe and we’ll see you next Friday!
COVID-19
The latest
Ahead of this week’s holiday authorities announced Indonesia’s COVID-19 case count has surpassed 400,000. Jakarta remains the epicenter with more than a quarter of all cases. Authorities have pleaded with the country to adhere to social distancing guidelines and continue to wear masks when taking a break with family.
Silver linings
Still, there is some good news, says task force spokesman Wiku Adisasmito. The percentage of active cases is trending downwards and is now below the global average. Around 15 percent of the 400,000 cases remain active putting Indonesia below the 24.23 percent global average.
Education worries
It’s hard enough to study, let alone in the middle of a pandemic, online and with families feeling the economic stress more than ever. One student in West Jakarta shows us just how hard. Aditya, a junior high school student in West Jakarta, has been unable to access his classes for months with little money going around to support the shift to online education via devices. The government has been made aware of Aditya’s story and say they’ll step in but it’s a predicament far bigger than just one boy.
Further reading:
Covid-19’s toll on Indonesia’s healthcare system (The Strategist)
Indonesia’s national health scheme, Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN), is nevertheless an impressive program both in ambition and reach. Initiated in 2013 by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s government, the JKN aims to provide affordable, comprehensive health and dental care to over 221 million Indonesians. With around 96 million low-income earners accessing treatment at no cost, the JKN has transformed Indonesian healthcare from a luxury expense to a widely accessible service.
Primary healthcare is provided through thousands of small community health centres known as Puskesmas, from which patients can be referred to hospitals for secondary and tertiary treatment. However, the standard of healthcare varies, and some regional areas lack services provided in urban centres.
Business and the economy
Bounce back
The rupiah, along with South Korea’s won, is expected to be the biggest winners when foreign investment flows stabilize following next week’s US election, according to a Bloomberg study. Investment flows have shied away from emerging markets in recent years and particularly following the start of the pandemic. But with a decisive US election win set to return some normalcy to the global economy, inflows are tipped to begin again in earnest. For Indonesia, this could mean a boost to GDP.
Sharia solution?
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin continues his spruiking of Sharia finance as the silver bullet in the country’s economic woes. During a Jakarta Post webinar on the sector, he said: “I think it’s appropriate to call the sharia economy the new wave for Indonesia’s economy.” The VP also suggested embracing the sector in Indonesia — which reports a literacy rate of less than 10 percent as of last year — could also boost welfare safety nets.
Gojek and Telkomsel
Telkomsel’s flirtation with buying into mega-app Gojek could end up with a price tag of $150 million, sources told Bloomberg. While representatives from Gojek have declined to comment on the rumours, the buy-in is expected to be via convertible bonds. It’s a perfect marriage for the two icons of Indonesian business with Gojek looking for cash and Telkomsel hoping to expand its digital businesses.
Further reading:
How Indonesia is pushing medtech and insurtech as key pillars of AI blueprint to improve health care (SCMP)
Indonesia’s private health care insurance market remains small and is ripe for further development, with a penetration rate of less than 2 per cent.
One example of a company seeking to address health care is Alodokter, founded by Suci Arumsari and Nathaniel Faibis, which raised US$33 million in a Sequis Life-led Series C funding in late 2019. With over 20 million monthly active users, Alodokter is an end-to-end digital solution for telemedicine, medical administration, and health insurance services.
Across the archipelago
No place for spy planes
An explosive Reuters report released just days before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Indonesia revealed the US had previously approached Indonesia to strike a deal in which US spy planes could refuel in Indonesian territory. The request was reportedly quickly shot-down by Indonesian representatives and came at a time when the country’s diplomats were hoping to broker a deal with manufacturers for a potential COVID-19 vaccine — a deal eventually made with China. “China is smart. It always uses the soft power approach, the economic approach, the development approach,” an unnamed government official told Reuters.
US pledge
It’s not a point Pompeo wanted to hear during his whirlwind trip to Jakarta. He pledged the US’ support for infrastructure development and encouraged Indonesia to stand up against China in the South China Sea. “We also welcome the example Indonesia set with decisive action to safeguard its maritime sovereignty around the Natuna Islands. I’m looking forward to cooperating together in new ways to ensure maritime security and protect some of the world’s busiest trade routes,” he said.
Job creation in class
Anti-demonstrations are coming to Jakarta classrooms if Governor Anies Baswedan gets his way. Schools and teachers will be required to teach a ‘jobs creation law’ class to the capital’s youth, following the involvement of young people and teenagers in protests in recent months. Classes are expected to focus on Pancasila, the country’s founding ideology, and other “character developing” concepts. It comes after educators and lawmakers met in the aftermath of demonstrations earlier this month.
Taking on France
The government is under pressure by Islamic groups to condemn France for comments made earlier this month by President Emmanuel Macron. Macron alleged Islam to be “in crisis” across the globe, including in France where two recent gruesome murders have been attributed to Islamic-motivated terrorism. While the more mainstream and powerful Islamic groups in Indonesia have cautioned off rash responses, groups like PA 212 and the FPI have called for the boycott of French products and demonstrations at the French embassy.
Further reading:
Indonesia hedging on the US and the Quad (The Strategist)
In fact, Indonesia’s defence white paper specifically notes that the ‘Arab Spring, political and security upheaval in Egypt, [and] civil wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria’ are examples of major powers waging proxy wars. Not surprisingly, several high-ranking military officers I spoke to said they are hoping President Donald Trump will beat Joe Biden in the 3 November presidential election because that would mean the US would continue to act favourably towards the Indonesian military. A Biden victory might jeopardise that, putting the spotlight back on the question of human rights, especially human rights in the provinces of Papua and West Papua, which remains a touchy issue for Indonesia.