A fateful year

Fri, December 30, 2016 / 12:11 pm

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Mass prayers: Hundreds thousands of Muslims gather and chant prayers during a rally stretching from Bank Indonesia to the Monument National in Central Jakarta on Dec. 2. The event was held to demand the jailing of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama for blasphemy.
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No further appeal: A coffin is arranged for Michael Titus Igweh in Jakarta on July 29. The Nigerian was among four drug convicts executed on Nusakambangan prison island.
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Fighting back: Police officers take cover behind a car while engaging in a gun battle with a group of terrorists on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta on Jan. 14.
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Guilty as charged: Jessica Kumala Wongso is consoled by her lawyers after judges found her guilty of murder at the Central Jakarta Court on Oct. 27. Jessica was sentenced to 20 years in prison for poisoning her former friend Wayan Mirna Salihin.
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No way: Pedestrian Alfini, 34, boldly blocks motorcyclists trespassing on a sidewalk on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, on May 2.
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In ruins: People watch the razing of slum dwellings built along the Ciliwung River in Jakarta on Sept. 28. The city administration relocated the residents to low-cost apartments to make way for the river’s development program in an effort to tackle the city’s persistent flooding.
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Transportation clash: Online motorcycle taxi drivers clash with protesters in an incident in Jakarta on March 22. Thousands of conventional taxi drivers took to the streets to protest against the operation of mobile phone-hailing transportation apps.

Even by Indonesian standards, 2016 has been an annus horribilis, as the government used its power to take the lives of drug convicts, tribalism reared its ugly head and resulted in the prosecution of a senior public official of Chinese descent for allegedly insulting the faith adhered to by the majority of the population.

This year we also succumbed to our baser instincts and allowed ourselves to behave as judges in a murder case that happened to involve an Australian educated young woman, who was embroiled in a crime about which we will probably never know the rhyme or reason.

2016 indeed was horrible right up until the very end, with the brutal killing of six people in Pulo Mas, East Jakarta, appearing to be its fi tting end. Good riddance to a bad year.