Jokowi goes to the movies | Pagan poetry | Facebook fallout | Indonesia Intelligencer (Mar 31 - April 6)
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Business
Trade war fallout shelter: Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Indonesia’s economy should be sheltered from the fallout of the U.S. and China’s ongoing trade dispute thanks to its huge domestic market. She said Indonesia’s economy is set to remain stable as it doesn’t rely too much on exports and that consumption accounts for more than half of the country’s GDP.
DPR green lights Perry Warjiyo: Indonesia’s House of Parliament (DPR) gave full parliamentary approval for Perry Warjiyo to succeed Agus Martowardojo as Bank Indonesia governor when the latter’s term ends in May. Warjiyo, currently a deputy governor, has a doctorate in monetary and international economics from Iowa State University.
New bank loan rules: Bank Indonesia is trying to get banks to lend more by giving them greater flexibility in managing liquidity and credit. The new rules are deemed necessary to boost credit growth, which has remained well below double-digit rates the last few years, up to BI’s target of 10-12% this year.
E-commerce customs not free: All goods shipped to Indonesia via e-commerce services are now subject to customs tax, according to a new government regulation. Previously, goods valued less than US$100 shipped to Indonesia from e-commerce services were exempt from customs.
Bioskop boom
President Joko Widodo seeks to shine the spotlight on Indonesia’s movie and creative industries to lower the nation’s reliance on natural resources. The creative industries sector accounted for 7.4 percent of Indonesia’s GDP (US$73 billion) in 2017, and Widodo is looking to raise it to 9 percent by 2020.
The government’s move to allow foreign investment in films and movie distribution has seen ticket sales soar from 15 million in 2015 to 42.7 million in 2017.
‘Studying abroad’ at home: President Joko Widodo has instructed the government to open up the university sector to 100 percent foreign investment, allowing overseas institutions to open up campuses in the country. Currently, Indonesia only allows foreign institutions to operate in the country with local partners.
Recommended reading
How BP got it right in Indonesia (Asia Times) British energy giant launches US$8 billion Tangguh gas project expansion as other multinationals come under nationalistic, regulatory and even insurgent fire
Jokowinomics vs reality: a look at PLN (New Mandala): A look at how the state electrical utility’s under-performance under Jokowi’s administration, despite the president’s big infrastructure push.
These results are clearly undershooting expectations. They also raise questions about whether PLN is capable of carrying out the kind of massive infrastructure development it has been tasked with. But PLN’s performance also captures certain characteristics about the way Indonesia has been executing its “new developmentalism” that can help explain why planning, financing and building basic infrastructure is such a seemingly intractable challenge in the country.
Indonesia goes hi-tech in hunt for tax assets after amnesty (Reuters): The enormous success of the tax amnesty program is taxing the tax office to its limit, leading it to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into new technology.
You have not arrived: Why Google Maps is a lost cause for Indonesian drivers (SCMP): Inaccurate maps, patchy internet and digital illiteracy conspire to make ride-sharing company drivers reluctant to rely on digital navigation – a rare bit of bad news for an otherwise booming industry
Politics
Prabowo’s waiting game
Signs that Gerindra Chairman Prabowo Subianto should not be considered the presumptive challenger to Jokowi in the 2019 presidential election continued to mount this week, with the former general telling the media that he would not be officially declaring his candidacy at his party’s national coordination meeting next week (despite most senior Gerindra officials saying that he would for the last few weeks).
Despite the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) previously stating that it would likely support his candidacy, Prabowo indicated that a formal coalition had not yet been established and one was needed before his campaign could move forward.
His comments were in line with those of his brother and advisor Hashim, who last week said that factors including the party’s performance in June’s regional elections and Prabowo’s health still needed to be considered.
Pagan poetry
Sukmawati Soekarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia’s first president and founding father Soekarno, set off a firestorm of criticism after publicly reading a poem last week containing lines comparing elements of Indonesian and Islamic culture that many of the country’s Muslims found offensive. She was quickly reported to the police by several parties for insulting Islam in violation of the country’s blasphemy law.
After initially defending her poem on artistic grounds, Sukmawati issued a tearful public apology on Wednesday. While some prominent Muslim organizations such as the hardliner-led National Movement to Safeguard Ulema’s Fatwa (GNPF Ulama) and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) considered the apology sufficient to end the issue, others such as Persaudaran 212 (made up of alumni of the anti-Ahok protests) said they would organize a massive protest today (Friday).
Ahok’s Bittersweet Victory: After several legal defeats, former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama won full custody of his children at the conclusion of his divorce trial with Veronica Tan.
Recommended reads
US-Indonesia defence ties at a turning point (Asia & The Pacific Policy Forum)
The Pentagon is committed to cultivating and enhancing bilateral defence cooperation in line with US national security interests. Central to this mission is countering China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific. Labelling China a “strategic competitor” means the US views China as a national security concern, with great power competition unavoidable between Washington and Beijing.
This geopolitical rivalry is anticipated to play out vigorously in the Indo-Pacific, which includes Southeast Asia – Indonesia being at the heart of it as the largest country.
Jakarta’s urban poor have found a new way to fight City Hall – and win (The Guardian)
Urban poor leaders realised it was the middle class they needed on their side. Organised under the banners of the JRMK (Urban Poor Linkage) and the UPC (Urban Poor Consortium), they reached out to Jakarta’s architects, artists, scholars, lawyers, students and journalists of diverse backgrounds – creating a network of volunteers and organisations.
Together they set out to “eviction-proof” the kampung.
Indonesia criminal code overhaul a step backwards for drug policy (Al Jazeera)
Sweeping criminal sanctions proposed in Indonesian parliament could worsen the country's drug problem.
“Indonesia should focus on getting its food policy right” (East Asia Forum)
The need is clear for an alternative food policy approach – one that recognises the natural role that food imports play in ensuring food security and affordability. President Jokowi is well placed to bring the public with him in shifting to a more rational food policy.
“Will Indonesia ‘survive’ beyond 2030?” (Global Indonesian Voices)
Similar ‘doom predictions’ about Indonesia were also developed by ‘Indonesianists’ when the country was going through a transition from authoritarianism to democracy in the 1998-1999 period. The economic, political and social crisis at that time was viewed as having the potential to lead Indonesia to a ‘Balkanization’. There was a prediction that Indonesia would fall apart like states in the Balkan Peninsula in the 1990s.
Other News & Notable Features
Fire on the water: After initially denying responsibility, state oil company Pertamina admitted on Wednesday that an oil spill off Borneo island that led to several deaths was caused due to one of their underseas pipes rupturing. Five fishermen were killed in a fire sparked by workers who were trying to clear the spill by burning it off the water’s surface.
Facebook’s big data problem
The social media giant revealed that Indonesia was the country with the third largest number users who had that personal information misappropriated by Cambridge Analytica , with Facebook self-reporting that 1,096,666 Indonesians had their data mined by the data analysis firm at the center of the huge international political scandal.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Rudiantara said that Facebook could face severe legal consequences were it proven that the company had violated the country’s data privacy laws, including massive fines, jail time for company officials and even the threat of having the social network banned entirely from the Indonesian internet. But after a meeting with Facebook Indonesia representatives on Friday morning, he seemed satisfied with the company’s promise to do an internal audit and close access to user data from third-party apps.
Recommended reads
A Young Doctor Learns How Hard It Is To Give Health Care To Everyone (NPR): A look at the challenges Indonesia faces in implementing its ambitious universal health care program as seen through the eyes of one doctor sent to the island of Sumba.
Many of Adella's patients don't know about, or haven't bothered with, the lengthy BPJS enrollment. Some don't even have the necessary government ID cards. Traditional healers still command attention, health care isn't addressed until it's an emergency and, finally, many simply cannot afford the monthly fees even though they're only about $2 to $6.
"Before I came to Sumba, I only knew in theory that a lot of people in Indonesia can't afford health care," Adella said. "In Sumba, I see it firsthand."
LGBTQ Indonesians are Seeking Asylum In Canada as Crack Downs Continue (Vice) One Indonesian couple has already been granted asylum on the grounds that they would face persecution back home. Now this man is trying to to become Canada's latest Indonesian refugee.
What’s made Indonesian students forget the China taboo? (SCMP): Not that long ago, having a Chinese book was strictly prohibited in Indonesia. But now the country’s young people are attending Chinese universities by the thousands
Indonesians Fight to Keep Mystical Religion of Java Alive (Voice of America)
52 years later, native faiths are poised to make a comeback. They include Javanese kejawen, which combines elements of Java’s Hindu-Buddhist past, folk Islam, Sufi mysticism, and animism. An aim of kejawen practice is discovering batin, the hidden or inner self, through meditation and ritual. The stronghold of kejawen today is Yogyakarta, an ancient sultanate on the southern Javanese coast that has had fierce practitioners even through the decades of suppression.
“What you might call ‘pure kejawen’ has certainly decreased,” said Suwardi Endraswara, a professor at the State University of Yogyakarta. “But kejawen rituals persist, especially in Yogyakarta…because kejawen is ‘endemic’ here: to the forest, the trees, the rivers.”
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38 current and former members of N. Sumatra Legislative Council named corruption suspects by KPK
Facebook working with third-party fact-checker Tirto to combat fake news leading up to elections
WATCH: Islamic university choir in Indonesia sings gorgeous song at church’s Easter service
21 believed to have been killed by tainted alcohol in Greater Jakarta in just the past 5 days
Government plans to make special ID cards specifically for followers of indigenous faiths