In Indonesia and Africa, the Asia-Africa conference holds a special place in history. It was a moment of great national pride, which has defined modern Indonesia to develop our nation state as an independent nation and engaging internationally on our terms.
On April 5, the world began the 1,000-day countdown to the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) deadline. Created in 2000, the MDGs spurred action from governments, international organizations, and civil society.
The national exam was an unfortunate series of events and the troubles are pouring in like Lemony Snicket’s thought-provoking fiction. They keep coming and disturbing everyone, certainly for the test taker students, their parents and teachers alike.
The Malaysian general elections are over. The National Front under the leadership of Najib Tun Razak is again victorious. The People’s Pact, the opposition party led by Anwar Ibrahim, has again lost although its vote aggregate increases from 82 to 89 seats and the National Front now lists a decrease from 140 to 133 seats.
It’s not every day that a world leader whose country frequently makes the news for sectarian violence wins a religious freedom award.
Anti-Muslim riots in Meikhtila, Myanmar on March 20-22 left many buildings destroyed and thousands of Rohingya people displaced. The conflict claimed more than 40 lives, injured hundreds of others and saw houses, mosques and Islamic schools or madrasah burned down.
After a month of recess, the House of Representatives will restart the debate on the draft amendment of Local Autonomy Law No. 32/2004. So far, one of the contentious issues is the status of a province within the national administration and the approach it uses.
Last week Indonesia took a major step in a multi-decade struggle to address unsustainable forest and land use practices and the widespread injustices and conflicts they create. On Thursday, the Constitutional Court, responding to a petition from the National Alliance of Customary Communities (AMAN), declared unconstitutional provisions in the 1999 Forestry Law that denied the rights of customary communities (adat) to their land and forests.
At a national workshop on Indonesia’s moratorium hosted by the United Nations earlier this month, noted Indonesian ecologist Sonya Dewi likened the moratorium to a durian. She spoke of its polarizing effect. People either love it or hate it. While at first glance, it may appear difficult and prickly, when broken apart, it can yield a nutritious and beneficial sustenance.
Recently, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) announced that it was looking to fill almost 300 positions, including hiring several fraud investigators. Despite its admirable performance in combating corruption, when compared to similar agencies in other countries, the anti-corruption agency is underfunded and understaffed.
Only six months after its inception, the Jakarta Health Card (KJS) program came up against yet another hurdle when 16 of the 92 state and private hospitals participating in the healthcare program threatened to pull out of it last week due to losses incurred from covering the medical costs of patients.
Different people take different paths in an effort to attain perfection. While a few people are endowed with extraordinary talent or intelligence to invent or create, most people need not worry about that and simply follow or apply what the inventors or creators have discovered for us.
If every one of our combined 2.5 billion population buys a new mobile phone, it would blow up the order lists of IT manufacturers and operators in the world,” visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in New Delhi on Tuesday. The take-home message? The combined power of China and India can be just as productive as it could be damaging to the world.
Bank Indonesia pushed ahead with its demand for reciprocity in banking license with Singapore by rejecting the Bank DBS plan to acquire almost 67.50 percent of Bank Danamon through a US$7.2 billion deal proposed in April 2012.
Gen. (ret) Thein Sein, who won international praise for leading reforms in Myanmar, received a warm welcome from US President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday. It was a reciprocal visit following Obama’s trip to Yangon last November. The general deserves the credit.
M. Chatib Basri — who was installed on Tuesday as the new finance minister to replace Agus Martowardojo, who is to head Bank Indonesia (Central Bank) — had all along been the front-runner and most qualified candidate to lead the fiscal management all along.
The pretty shores of Lecidere in Dili is where young people hang out with their laptops and gadgets, enjoying free WiFi under a roof shaped like a wave.
For the preceding three decades it was almost unthinkable. For the proceeding decade-and-a-half after, it has become almost a forgotten afterthought if not for documentaries and commentaries in the media.
It is obvious that the “virus” of corruption has penetrated all levels and groups in society. While it is common that the amount of money involved in a corruption case is on a par with the rank or position that one holds — a high-ranking official is associated with a huge amount of embezzled money while a low-ranking one usually has a much smaller amount — the recent discovery of a non-commissioned police officer implicated in corruption involving a huge amount of money is, therefore, extraordinary and, at the same time, suspicious.
The confession by a young woman that she was paid Rp 10 million (US$1,050) to have sex with a flamboyant defendant in a corruption scandal that has rocked a political party, which itself claimed to be corruption-free and based on religious ethics, was a startling relevation for millions of television viewers during a broadcast trial hearing on Friday.
