Jungle school helps rescued orangutans return to wild

(MENAFN - AFP) Ignoring the shrieks of his rowdy, wrestling classmates, baby orangutan Otan practises swinging alone at his "jungle school" on Borneo island, switching hands and hanging upside down as he builds confidence high above the forest floor.

The three-year-old is learning to fend for himself since being found wandering a palm oil plantation, alone and suffering smoke inhalation, at the height of fires last year that razed huge swathes of rainforest in Indonesia's part of Borneo.

Otan and the other orphans must build nests, find food and avoid predators -- especially man -- to prove they're ready to "graduate" and return to the wild, but life in the real world has never been more perilous for these primates.

Last month, for the first time in history, Bornean orangutans were declared critically endangered "- one step away from total extinction.

Experts warn these majestic tree dwellers -- who could once cross Borneo without ever touching the ground -- could vanish entirely from the island within 50 years as the ancient rainforest they've inhabited for centuries is felled and burned at alarming speed.

"It's heartbreaking," said Ayu Budi, a veterinarian who heads the orangutan health clinic at the International Animal Rescue centre in West Kalimantan province.

"When you see them, it's really sad. They're supposed to be with their mothers in the wild, living happily, but they're here."

- Situation 'desperate' -

The 101 orangutans under Budi's care "- including the 16 playful infants "- are the lucky ones, rescued near death and nurtured back to health with baby bottles in a tranche of protected forest outside the city of Ketapang.

But hundreds of thousands of their kin have died in the past four decades across Borneo, slaughtered by hunters, burned in land-clearing fires or starved to death by habitat loss.

Rampant logging and the rapid expansion of commercial-scale paper and palm oil operations across the island has reduced the species's habitat by at least 55 percent in two decades, says environmental group WWF, driving them into ever-closer contact with humans.

The result has been wild orangutan populations in freefall. In the mid 1970s, nearly 300,000 of these great apes roamed Borneo. Today, just a third of that number remain.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature -- which changed the species's threat level to critical -- estimates a mere 47,000 will be left in the wild by 2025.

Those working at the coalface are under no illusions that efforts to arrest this decline have not succeeded, said Chris Wiggs, a conservation adviser at IAR's forest outpost in Ketapang.

"I think people on the grund working in Borneo have known for a long time that the orangutan situation was pretty desperate," he told AFP, as a wheelbarrow of baby orangutans passed on its way to the nursery.

- Fear of fire -

The number of great apes at the centre has grown nearly tenfold since 2009 as ever-increasing amounts of forest is cleared by industry.

Two of the school's newest pupils are Vijay and Moli who were found without their mothers near burned land.

They are the victims of fire, an annual scourge that's evolved into a major threat to the future of the species.

Every dry season across Indonesian Borneo -- an island shared with Malaysia and Brunei -- fires are illegally lit by land owners to quickly and cheaply clear forest for new plantations.

The fires often get out of hand, tearing through forest and smouldering relentlessly on Borneo's compact, carbon-rich peatlands.

Last year's blazes were among the worst on record.

Fanned by a prolonged dry season, fires tore through 2.6 million hectares (10,000 square miles) of Indonesian forest, laying waste to prime orangutan habitat.

The smoke turned skies yellow in Indonesian Borneo and blanketed neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia, forcing schools to shut and causing thousands to fall ill.

Conservationists fear a repeat disaster of that scale would ring the death knell for the Bornean orangutan.

''I think we're all pretty scared... whether the species can take another hit like that,'' Wiggs said.

- 'Restore, rehabilitate' -

Under international pressure, Jakarta has promised action.

This month an Indonesian company linked to the 2015 fires was slapped with a 80 million fine "- a record for slash and burn activities, a spokesman for the environment minister said.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo in April proposed a halt on granting new land for palm oil plantations, urging producers of the edible oil to use better seeds to increase their yields.

''We need to restore and rehabilitate our peatlands, and fix past mistakes,'' Sustyo Iriono, the head of the government's conservation agency in West Kalimantan, told AFP.

Budi and her colleagues remain optimistic, teaching orangutans like Jack "- a mischievous, attention-seeking seven-year-old -- to forage by hiding peanuts and honey inside plastic balls high in the treetops.

But she frets her young charge will never get the chance to prove his independence in the wild, as Borneo's lowland forests shrink ever smaller.

"I think they still have a chance, but if the forest is gone, it will be difficult,"

Source: Jungle school helps rescued orangutans return to wild

78 Controlling Held During April-July in S. Jakarta

Reported by Suparni | Translated by Rizky Mawardi | Tuesday August 30, 2016 05:34 PM | Reads 30

(Foto : Suparni / Beritajakarta.com)

South Jakarta Administration held 78 controlling during period of April-July. All controlling are related with Bylaw No. 8/2007 about Public Order.

" The controlling was completed based on Bylaw No. 8/2007"

"The controlling was completed based on Bylaw No. 8/2007," said Tri Kurniadi, South Jakarta Mayor, Tuesday (8/30).

According to him, controlling material conducted by Satpol PP are including the green lane, public transport, park, public area, water channel, river and pond, environment and business area.

"It started from PKL, illegal building, and poultry," he added.

Meanwhile, South Jakarta Satpol PP Head, Ujang Hermawan, admitted the most controlled was street vendor and PMKS.

"We controlled many street vendors," he admitted.

Source: 78 Controlling Held During April-July in S. Jakarta

Palm prices could climb on tight supply; output rebound looms: Golden Agri

Crude palm oil prices could jump later this year on firm demand and tight supplies, although output is set to gradually rise as the impact of an El Nino weather event fades, a senior official from Golden Agri-Resources said.

Dryness linked to last year's El Nino, the strongest in 20 years, has lowered yields in top growers Indonesia and Malaysia, and is forecast to cut output at Golden Agri, the world's second-largest palm oil planter, by 15-20 percent this year.

However, better weather in 2016 indicates yields will be higher next year, Golden Agri's chief financial officer, Rafael B. Concepcion Jr., told Reuters on Monday.

The Singapore-listed firm's crude palm oil (CPO) production is expected to bounce back to 2015 levels of about 2.4 million tonnes in 2017 and climb about 10 percent in 2018, he said.

"We are seeing a big improvement in weather from last year ... this year rainfall has more or less normalized," Concepcion said by telephone from Jakarta.< /p>

"We expect the health of trees to be back to normal."

Global inventories in 2016 will, however, bear the brunt of the El Nino, Concepcion added, which, together with demand due to higher biodiesel mandates, could underpin CPO prices.

"It is not just Malaysia and Indonesia, the points of origin, but also in markets that heavily consume palm oil, so India, China and parts of Europe, they are all tight in terms of inventory position," Concepcion said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, global palm oil production is estimated to drop to 59.40 million tonnes in 2015/16 from 61.64 million tonnes a year ago.

Crude palm oil prices are expected to remain at the current range of about $600-$700 a tonne for the rest of 2016, although $750 is also possible, Concepcion said, as buyers restock and Indonesia mops up more palm oil for blending into biodiesel.

Benchmark futures hit a 10-week high at 2,668 ringgit ($661.2) a tonne earlier this month.

BIODIESEL TARGETS

Indonesia is pushing greater biodiesel usage to reduce its oil import bill, cut greenhouse gas emissions and create more demand for the tropical oil. It requires a minimum 20 percent of bio content in diesel fuel in 2016, versus 15 percent last year.

Golden Agri has already built a biodiesel plant with an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes in South Kalimantan on the Borneo island. It will finish building another unit with similar volumes next year in Jakarta, the CFO said.

The company is also looking to boost it palm oil output by re-planting and using higher-yielding seeds.

    With re-planting, it expects its current estates to produce 20-30 percent more oil. The company, which says it has not done any new planting on its estates since November 2014, targets to re-plant on 10,000 hectares every year, he said.

Golden Agri had a total planted area of 483,100 hectares, including smallholders, at the end of June.

"We are using not only new types of seeds but introducing different forms of mechanization that will improve efficiency."

(1 = 4.035 ringgit)

(Reporting by Aradhana Arvindan and Naveen Thukral; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: Palm prices could climb on tight supply; output rebound looms: Golden Agri

Singapore confirms 41 cases of locally-transmitted Zika virus

By Reuters

Published: 06:14 EST, 28 August 2016 | Updated: 06:14 EST, 28 August 2016

By Marius Zaharia and A. Ananthalakshmi

SINGAPORE, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Singapore authorities have confirmed 41 cases of locally-transmitted Zika virus, which in Brazil has been linked to a rare birth defect, and said more cases were expected to be identified.

Those infected include 36 foreign construction workers employed at a site near Aljunied in the southeast of the island, the health ministry and the National Environment Agency (NEA) said in a joint statement on Sunday.

On Saturday, authorities had confirmed Singapore's first case of a local transmission of the virus, to a 47-year-old Malaysian woman, also from the Aljunied area.

"MOH (the ministry of health) cannot rule out further community transmission in Singapore since some of those tested positive also live or work in other parts of Singapore," the statement said. "We expect to identify more positive cases."

The authorities said they have tested 124 people, primarily construction workers. Sev enty-eight tested negative and five cases were pending. Thirty-four patients have fully recovered. It was not immediately clear where the foreign workers were from, but Singapore hosts a large contingent of workers from the Asian sub-continent.

"All the cases are residents or workers in the Aljunied Crescent/Sims Drive area. They are not known to have travelled to Zika-affected areas recently, and are thus likely to have been infected in Singapore. This confirms that local transmission of Zika virus infection has taken place," the statement said.

Dozens of NEA staff cleaned drains and sprayed insecticide in the mainly residential area early on Sunday, and volunteers and contractors handed out leaflets and insect repellent. The NEA workers had accessed more than 1,800 premises of a total of 6,000 in the area to check for mosquito breeding.

Local residents welcomed the clean-up.

"I'm very scared of mosquitoes because they always seem to bite me, they never bite my husband," Janice, 31, who gave only her first name, told Reuters. "This concerns me because maybe in a couple of years I want to have another (child)."

Zika was detected in Brazil last year and has since spread across the Americas. The virus poses a risk to pregnant women because it can cause severe birth defects. It has been linked to more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly in Brazil.

REGIONAL RISK

The Singapore government said there were "ongoing local transmission" cases in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Other countries in the region to have detected the Zika virus since 2013 include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives and the Philippines, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Malaysia said on Sunday it stepped up surveillance at main transit points with Singapore.

Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said leaflets on Zika prevention were being handed out and paramedics were at entry points to handle visitors with p otential symptoms.

As of this month, Malaysia said it has screened more than 2 million visitors at air, sea and land entrances, and found no Zika infections.

In Thailand, where close to 100 cases of Zika have been recorded across 10 provinces this year, the Department of Disease Control (DDC) was screening all athletes returning from the Olympic Games in Brazil, but was not otherwise changing its prevention measures.

"Every country in this region has Zika transmission cases," said Prasert Thongcharoen, an adviser to the DDC. "Thailand has, however, managed to contain the problem through early detection."

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir said the country was "following developments". Oskar Pribadi, a health ministry official, said there have been no recent Zika cases.

Vietnam has to date reported three cases of locally-transmitted Zika infection.

The current strain of Zika that is sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbea n originated in Asia, where people could have built up greater immunity.

U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems.

The WHO has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults. (Reporting by Marius Zaharia and Aradhana Aravindan in SINGAPORE and A. Ananthalakshmi in KUALA LUMPUR, with additional reporting by Amy Lefevre in BANGKOK, Agustinus Beo Da Costa in JAKARTA, My Pham in HANOI and Julie Steenhuysen in CHICAGO; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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Source: Singapore confirms 41 cases of locally-transmitted Zika virus

Over 16,000 Motorists Received Warnings During Jakarta Traffic Rationing Trial

"We have issued warnings to 16,086 motorists between July 27 and Aug. 26 for violating the policy," Jakarta Police traffic enforcement subunit head Adj. Sr. Comr. Budiyanto said in a statement on Saturday (27/08).

The traffic rationing scheme will be implemented on Aug. 30, when motorists failing to abide by the rules will be liable for fines.

Transgressors could face fines of Rp 500,000 ($37) or up to two months in prison, as stipulated by the 2009 Law on Traffic and Land Transportation.

Source: Over 16,000 Motorists Received Warnings During Jakarta Traffic Rationing Trial

The Natunas: Why Is Indonesia Developing A South China Sea Flashpoint?

An Indonesian Navy rigid-hull inflatable boat (far left) confronts a Chinese Coast Guard vessel near Natuna Island.

Image Credit: KKP

We need to look beyond the headlines for a realistic assessment of what Jakarta wants and what it might get.

Indonesia's resource-rich Natuna Islands, located in the South China Sea northwest of Borneo, tend to be subject to periodic hype from the international media. That's due to a couple of reasons. For one, though Indonesia is not officially a claimant in the South China Sea disputes, China's nine-dash line overlaps with the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the Natunas (See: "Indonesia's South China Sea Policy: A Delicate Equilibrium").

Moreover, with Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo taking a tougher line on defending Indonesia's sovereignty and a number of recent run-ins between Indonesian and Chinese vessels near the Natunas this year, the issue has been dominating the headlines (See: "China's Maritime Confrontation with Indonesia is Not New"). Indeed, Jokowi himself made news in July when he made his first visit to Natuna aboard a warship in a far-from-subtle display of Indonesia's sovereignty over the area.

But even apart from the China angle that is often hyped up, Indonesia's commitment to developing the rich resources in the Natunas also makes sense for economic reasons.  Focusing on just the energy aspect of this alone (fisheries, too, is a priority) Indonesian government has said that there are seven oil and gas exploitation fields and ten exploration fields there. To get a sense of the potential here, consider the fact that the East Natuna block on its own is said to have over 46 trillion cubic feet of gas, making it Asia's largest gas reserve.

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For these mix of reasons, we have seen a flood of commentary about how the Indonesian government would like to "expedite" the development of resources in the Natunas over the next few years. During Jokowi's cabinet meeting in the Natunas in July – his first ever visit there – he said he would like to push development in the area "so that they enter production stage sooner." The Indonesian government has also pledged to take other steps to accelerate resource development in the Natunas, which include drafting a special regulation which would offer incentives to investors.

With regard to the East Natuna block in particular, the government has asked a consortium comprising the state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, U.S.-based ExxonMobil, and Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production (PTT EP) to consider wells to produce oil even as they continue to study the potential for gas in the area (government estimates suggest that oil production can start after three years of development). The government hopes a contract can be inked for oil and gas cooperation by the end of the year and that we could see resource production begin as early as 2019, even though some in the private sector have previously said this timeline might be too optimistic. Some have said there might be hopes for operation to start before 2030.

Pertamina, for its part, has indicated its support for this government effort. "The government needs to have activities around the borders and one of Pertamina's strategies is to support this," the upstream director of the company Syamsu Alam told reporters in an interview back in April.

This week, we saw another one of these related headlines. On August 25, local media outlets quoted a Pertamina official as saying that it expects to sign a production-sharing contract (PSC) for the East Natuna gas block in Indonesia with Exxon Mobil and Thailand's PTEEP in September. Meidawati, the senior vice president for upstream strategic planning and operation evaluation, said terms and conditions are being finalized before the imminent inking of the agreement.

These companies have already been part of a consortium, and they had inked a principles of agreement with the Indonesian government for a new PSC to develop the bloc which was extended for 30 months last December. ExxonMobil said that the extension was based on the need to further assess prospects for commercializing the resources.

The signing of the PSC is a key step to take before development occurs. To risk stating the obvious, one needs to work out who owns what before moving towards potential production.

However, as promising as this development is, as with others like it, it needs to be kept in perspective. Exploration for resources in the Natunas has been an ongoing development, and though it has captured more international media attention over the past few years, it is in fact far from a new trend. One also needs to be cautious when assessing just how lucrative certain opportunities. In the case of the East Natuna block, for example, though the potential is certainly there, due to the high level of carbon dioxide present, it will require advanced technologies – and hence tens of billions in investment – to actually start making headway towards producing gas from there, assuming that the production numbers actually bear out.

And even if Indonesia does manage to begin tapping these massive reserves, it would need to then figure out the best way to channel that. One idea is a pipeline constructed from East Natuna to Batam and Kalimantan (though that too is far more challenging to actually carry out than it seems).

So, while we ought not to dismiss the value of the Natunas to Indonesia or its potential, we should also be cautious about reading too much into the sporadic headlines regarding these "resource-rich" areas.

Source: The Natunas: Why Is Indonesia Developing A South China Sea Flashpoint?

OJK: Only 35% Population has Access to Financial Services

Call center officer serve the public complaints in Financial Services Authority (OJK), Jakarta, July 12, 2016. Tempo/Tony Hartawan

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Financial Services Authority (OJK) Board of Commissioners' chairman Muliaman D. Hadad said only 35 percent of Indonesians have access to financial services. This low rate of inclusion is caused by several factors.

To address this problem, the OJK and the Jakarta Provincial Government are working together to run programs by the Regional Financial Access Acceleration Team (TPAKD) for the Jakarta area.

The team was formed with the aim to improve the financial literacy of Indonesian, especially Jakarta residents. Hadad said the team formation is also aimed at bringing the public closer to lending facilities.

"Bringing people closer to money will make the people more prosperous," hadad said in Jakarta, Thursday, August 25. 

Hadad said fast-tracking the availability of financial access is also instructed by President Joko Widodo.

"The governor (Basuki Tjahaja Purnama) said Jakarta will have an infrastructure that will serve more non-cash transactions. This is how we can increase market penetration and introduce technology," Hadad said.

LARISSA HUDA

Source: OJK: Only 35% Population has Access to Financial Services

Olympic Medalists Receive Heroes' Welcome, and Billions in Bonuses

"Each of you [pointing to Tontowi and Liliyana] will get Rp 5 billion [$380,000], tax-free," Imam said.

He aid the Sports Ministry will create a funding platform to support talented athletes and help them win more medals in international meets.

"The Sports Ministry always struggles to get funding, but we make sure we appreciate every athlete," he said.

Gold medalist Liliyana said she was touched by the public reception of her and Tontowi.

"I thank the fans, the badminton federation PBSI, my club Djarum and my family who always supports me," she said.

Pension Fund for Olympic Medalists

There was also good news for past Olympic medalists. Many former athletes, even those who had won Olympic medals, end up living in abject poverty after retirement. So this year, the sports minister announced a lifetime pension fund for Indonesian athletes who have won medals at the Olympics.

The pension fund has been available since March this year and offers Rp 20 million per month each for athletes who won gold at the Olympics, Rp 15 million for silver medalists and Rp 10 million for bronze medalists.

Previous Olympic medalists who qualify for the pension include legendary badminton players Susi Susanti and Alan Budikusuma, who won gold in the men's and women's singles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

"President Jokowi told me we need to take good care of our athletes, especially these Olympic medalists," Imam said.

Responding to the ministry's claim that it often lacks the funds to pay for its own programs, House of Representatives Speaker Ade Komarudin said the Sports Ministry should set up a state-owned enterprise for sports or an athletes' development foundation so they can offer bonuses for high-performance athletes.

"The ministry should create its own budget for that," Ade said.

The Olympic athletes will join a victory parade on Wednesday from the Sports Ministry's offices to the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta, where they will attend a state reception with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

Source: Olympic Medalists Receive Heroes' Welcome, and Billions in Bonuses

Jakarta Archdiocese brings Year of Mercy to hungry kids

Jakarta: 

The Archdiocese of Jakarta has celebrated the Year of Mercy, announced last year by Pope Francis, with a special meal for poor children.

Around 100 children, mostly Muslims, were invited to the Aug. 20 event at the archdiocese's hall.

"We wanted to share with those in need regardless of their religious background," said Sovia Tjua, who organized the event.

"In this Year of Mercy we should not only think of ourselves, indeed, we should abandon our selfishness and share with those in need."

The Year of Mercy began on Dec. 8 on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and will conclude on Nov. 20 on the Feast of Christ the King.

In a speech, the archdiocese's vicar-general, Father Samuel Pangestu encouraged Catholics to practice social welfare. "This is a form of divine mercy, which can free people from the shackles of sin," he said.

"Sharing with others is a common thing among Catholics," he told ucanews.com. "But it should not be done because we ar e so great but because we believe in God and it is the fruit of our mature faith."

As well as feeding the poor, the archdiocese has encouraged local Catholics to make pilgrimages to at least nine parish churches including Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral Church as well as nearby retreat houses.

Anastasia Ellin Subandi from St. James Parish in Kelapa Gading, North Utara, said she had visited more than nine parish churches. "I go on pilgrimages when I have time," she said. "I usually go with a group from my neighborhood."

She said that focusing on her faith has allowed her to let go of difficult emotions. "In the past, it was difficult for me to forgive others," she added. "But now I can feel at peace."

Rayendra Yudhika, 22, from St. John Bosco Parish in Sunter, North Jakarta, has visited four parish churches so far. "I started the pilgrimages in February," he said. "The pilgrimages help me grow in faith."

Yudhika said he is also using the Year of Mer cy as a chance to partake in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. "I hadn't made a confession for two years," he said. "But the Year of Mercy is a great moment to take this sacrament."

Source: UCAN

Watch the Year of Mercy event held at the archdiocese's hall in this ucanews.com video.

Source: Jakarta Archdiocese brings Year of Mercy to hungry kids

Hundreds of App-Based Transportation Drivers Protest in Jakarta

Hundreds of drivers of online-based ride-hailing services participated in a rally in front of the legislative complex in Senayan, South Jakarta, on Monday (22/08). (Photo courtesy of Wikipedia/Davidelit)

Jakarta. Hundreds of drivers of online-based ride-hailing services participated in a rally in front of the legislative complex in Senayan, South Jakarta, on Monday (22/08), to demand the cancelation of a regulation on app-based transportation, which will come into effect on Oct. 1.

The protesters, comprised of drivers from Uber, Grabcar and Go-Car, said Transportation Ministry Regulation No 32/2016 will disadvantage them because it is too difficult to comply with the requirements.

The regulation requires drivers to join a licensed transportation company or cooperative to legally operate as app-based transport services. The drivers will also have to obtain special driving licenses, while their vehicles must pass roadworthiness tests, similar to those for other forms of public transportation.

The protesters marched from Gelora Bung Karno Stadium to the nearby legislative complex on Jalan Gatot Subroto.

App-based transportation drivers previously planned to stage the rally in front of the State Palace and the offices of the Ministry of Transportation, but the Jakarta Police refused to issue them with permits.

Jakarta Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Suntana said 614 officers were deployed to maintain law and order during the rally. There were no reports of acts of violence or any major incidents.

Show More  
Source: Hundreds of App-Based Transportation Drivers Protest in Jakarta

Bali police killing: Australian woman and British man named as suspects

Australian woman Sara Connor (centre) is escorted by Indonesian police. She has been arrested over the alleged murder of a police officer in Bali. Photograph: Putra Sinulingga/AAP

An Australian woman and a British man have been named as suspects in the murder of an Indonesian policeman on the resort island of Bali.

"We named them suspects based on the evidence we have acquired. Even if they do not confess, it doesn't matter," said Denpasar police chief Hadi Purnomo, according to the Jakarta Post.

Sara Connor, from Byron Bay in New South Wales, and her British boyfriend, David James Taylor, a DJ, were arrested on Friday over the murder of traffic officer Wayan Sudarsa three days earlier.

Sudarsa's bruised body was found with wounds to the head and neck early on Wednesday on Kuta beach, a popular tourist spot in the south of the island. A broken bottle was discovered nearby.

David Taylor. Photograph: HKV/Barcroft Images

The naming of Connor and Taylor as suspects is a formal step in the Indonesian legal system, and means detectives believe they have enough evidence to consider filing charges and keep the pair detained.

"Her status is now as a suspect. They presume it was murder," said Connor's lawyer, Erwin Siregar, in Denpasar. "The maximum sentence for that is 15 years." She could also face lesser charges related to the murder.

Authorities launched a hunt for Connor and Taylor after Connor's debit card and driving licence were allegedly found at the crime scene.

Siregar said the pair had drunk beer before going to the beach about 11pm, where there was kissing. No drugs were involved, he added.

The officer said Connor had complained of being tired and police postponed the interrogation.

Taylor's lawyer, Haposan Sihombing, was quoted by Fairfax Media saying his client had not admitted to committing the murder. He said Connor and Taylor had been on the beach separately to look for Connor's lost bag when Taylor noticed a man lying in the sand and tried to help.

Indonesian policemen carry the coffin of Wayan Sudarsa at his funeral. Photograph: Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP/Getty Images

"According to [Taylor's] version, when his hand was near the man's face, suddenly his fingers were bitten," Haposan said, adding that Taylor then left.

When the pair went back to their accommodation, Connor told Taylor that she had been attacked by a "bad cop" who "pushed her down to the sand and lay on top of her", the lawyer said.

"She screamed for help [and] several people pulled the bad officer off her – that's how she managed to escape. She managed to get away because there were people who helped her after she screamed," Haposan added.

Connor's lawyer did not confirm details of this account. However, police found blood where the pair were staying. Authorities want to find the clothes Connor and Taylor were wearing on the morning the officer died, and also want to speak to a taxi driver.

The accused pair have returned to the beach with police to describe what happened on the night the officer died. They have also been subjected to forensic examinations, and Connor has been to hospital for an examination of leg wounds she said she suffered on the night of the death.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are providing assistance to a British national who was arrested in Bali, Indonesia and we remain in contact with the local authorities."

On Sunday Connor's family issued a statementsaying the 45-year-old is a good mother who loves her two sons aged nine and 11.

"The accusations laid against her are totally out of character for this beautiful person. Her love for her boys is the biggest love in her life. She is very passionate about life and exudes enthusiasm wherever she goes," Connor's family said.

Bali, a pocket of Hinduism in Muslim-majority Indonesia, is a popular tourist destination known for its tropical climate and palm-fringed beaches.

Agence France-Presse and Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

Source: Bali police killing: Australian woman and British man named as suspects

Gov`t Mulls Granting Special Citizenship for Arcandra

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Minister of Justice and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly said the government is considering granting special citizenship to Arcandra Tahar.

This step is possible under Article 20 of the Law on Indonesian Citizenship, the minister said.

"It depends on the approaches. We can use Article 20," said Yasonna in Jakarta on Saturday (20/8).

As previously reported, the citizenship status of Arcandra came into the spotlight after he was appointed Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Arcandra was later proved to have a US passport. With that fact, his status as an Indonesian citizen is automatically revoked because the law in Indonesia does not adhere dual citizenship.

President Joko Widodo then honorably dismissed Arcandra.

ISTMAN M.P.

Source: Gov`t Mulls Granting Special Citizenship for Arcandra

Growth in number of businesses slowing down in last decade

Indonesia today has 26.7 million registered businesses across all sectors excluding agriculture, a 17.6 percent increase from 22.7 million entities in 2006, a preliminary report of the 2016 economic census shows.

However, growth in the number of registered business entities has slowed down considerably over the past decades.

According to data from past economic censuses, there were 9.3 million businesses entities in 1986, which then climbed by 7.1 million to 16.4 million in 1996. The number grew by 6.3 million to 22.7 million units in 2006. Growth of four million over the last decade is 59.7 percent lower than the average growth.

"There were an additional four million business entities in the past ten years […] The closer one gets to eastern Indonesia, the higher the business unit growth," Central Statistics Agency (BPS) head Suryamin said in Jakarta on Friday.

He explained that Maluku and Papua recorded the highest growth rate at 51.7 percent in the last ten years, to half a million business units. However Java still dominated, with 16.2 million business units, an 11.9 percent increase from 14.5 million units counted in 2006.

BPS has produced economic census reports since 1986 to gain a better understanding of the country's economic landscape. The reports provide people with data on the number of business units as well as their types, productivity, manpower, revenue and costs. (ags)

Source: Growth in number of businesses slowing down in last decade

2 Indonesians make rare, daring escape from Filipino captors

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Threatened with beheadings, two Indonesian sailors made a daring escape from Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines after almost two months of captivity. One was rescued by villagers who found him entangled in fishnets and the other picked up by Philippine troops on a village road, officials said Thursday.

Their flights were a rare bright spot in a long and bloody military campaign to root out the militants who have gained notoriety with ransom kidnappings and beheadings. Indonesia's senior security minister Wiranto welcomed the escapes as gifts for the country's 71st Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday.

Ismail and Mohammad Safyan were among seven tugboat crewmen who were abducted near Philippine waters in June, part of the Abu Sayyaf's kidnapping spree that captured some two dozen Indonesian sailors, Westerners and other Asians.

Ten of the hostages were freed earlier this year reportedly after ransoms were paid, but others remained in the hands of the militants who beheaded two Canadians in April and June.

On Wednesday, the two Indonesians escaped together on Jolo Island, an Abu Sayyaf jungle stronghold, but fled in separate direction as their captors chased them, said Maj. Filemon Tan, a regional military spokesman.

"They said they were fired upon when they escaped but were not hit," Tan said.

Safyan, a sailor, was found by villagers floating and trapped in fishnets. Troops looking for other Indonesians saw Ismail, the chief officer of the tugboat Charles, on a nearby road, Tan said. He identified himself as a kidnap victim.

Photos released by the Philippine military showed the two men appearing in good health and being debriefed by army officials.

It is not uncommon for hostages to try to escape, but very few succeed because they are unfamiliar with terrain and don't speak the local language.

"Hopefully the progress will be better in coming days since the Philippine government has seriously threatened the kidnappers through military and psychological pressures," Wiranto, who uses a single name, told reporters at the state palace in Jakarta.

He called for prayers for the other hostages to gain freedom soon.

The Philippines says it has stepped up a military offensive against the militants after the beheadings of the two Canadians.

Sixteen other foreign hostages — nine Indonesians, five Malaysians, one Norwegian, and a Dutchman — are still held by the Muslim extremist group in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's south, where Muslim separatist rebellion has raged for decades. At least five Filipinos are also being held.

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines agreed in May to carry out coordinated patrols following a series of kidnappings and piracy attacks that have undermined commerce in the Celebes Sea, where their sea borders overlap.

____

Associated Press writer Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

Source: 2 Indonesians make rare, daring escape from Filipino captors

Indonesia, Malaysia say missing tanker taken by own crew

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A fuel tanker that disappeared from a Malaysian port was taken by its own crew in a dispute with their employer, Indonesian and Malaysian officials said Wednesday.

Maritime authorities from both countries have been searching for the Indonesian-flagged MT Vier Harmoni after it dropped out of contact on Tuesday evening.

There were suspicions the tanker had been hijacked. For years, gangs of armed thieves have targeted small tankers operating off Southeast Asian coasts, looking for marine diesel and oil to steal and then sell. And militants in the southern Philippines have staged ransom kidnappings in the regional waters in recent months.

Indonesia's western naval command said in a statement that it has information the captain of the vessel twice informed his employer he was taking the ship back to the Indonesian island of Batam because of an "internal management problem."

It said there was no indication of any violence and it is coordinating with Malaysia to locate the ship.

Vier Abdul Jamal, chief executive of the ship's owner Vierlines Asia Group, said the tanker has 10 Indonesian crew and is currently chartered by another company for two years.

The charterer lost contact with the Vier Harmoni on Tuesday evening and its tracking device has not been active since, Adbul Jamal said.

He said it would be illegal for the captain to remove the ship without clearance, notwithstanding any dispute.

The Malaysian maritime agency said the tanker was carrying 900,000 litres of diesel and left from a port in Malaysia's southern Johor state.

Ahmad Puzi Kahar, the agency's chief, said it has concluded there was a dispute between the crew and the operator of the vessel. He said the agency has spoken to the captain of the vessel.

The 53-meter (175 foot) Vier Harmoni was built in 2014.

___

Ng reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta contributed to this report.

Source: Indonesia, Malaysia say missing tanker taken by own crew

E-commerce to drive new revenue growth for Indonesia

Communic Indonesia 2016 reveals this year's conference agenda

Jakarta, Indonesia, 16 August 2016: Driving e-money, cybersecurity and overcoming barriers for cross-border trade are among the topics to be discussed by more than 20 industry experts – including Amazon, Juniper Networks, Twitter and Bitcoin Indonesia representatives – during Indonesia's first major ICT event.

Indonesia presents much opportunity for e-commerce among other emerging Asian economies, with current projections putting the nation's e-market at $130 billion by 2020, third behind China and India.

Other confirmed speakers and panellists for the e-commerce track include delegates from the Indonesia E-Commerce Association, GFK Asia and the Asia Venture Group, who will explore the challenges and opportunities faced by the industry.

"We are very excited about the sheer number of speakers and exhibitors confirmed for the first Communic Indonesia 2016 event," said Natasha Godbold, Communic Indonesia's Show Project Manager. "With 500 C-Level attendees expected to make the trip from all over the globe to listen to key notes and panel discussions, we are confident this is the start of bigger things to come for the region."

E-commerce is one of three main areas which the conference will cover, with Broadband, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Satellite Communications also featuring high on the agenda.

Satis – a satellite communications channels provider for streaming data, voice, video and broadband Internet access – will sponsor the SatCom track on Day 2, as well as taking part in a track sponsor presentation at 2pm. Two senior representatives Overseas Business Advisor Dmitry A. Tsurikov and CEO First Deputy Dmitry V. Belokurov will speak on behalf of Satis to discuss Harnessing Commercial Efficiency with VSAT and SCPC in Telecoms Servicing. Satis will also exhibit at the show alongside Teltonika – a Lithuanian designer, producer and installer of mobile and wireless telecommunication devices (M2M) – and Infinet Wireless, the global leader in fixed broadband wireless connectivity.

"Communic Indonesia provides the region with a platform for topical discussions with other companies and experts in the industry and we're really looking forward to taking part and exhibiting our best-in-class solutions and products to the market," said Dmitry Okorokov, Chief Executive Officer at InfiNet Wireless.

The ICT Summit is co-located with Broadcast Indonesia – an International Digital Multimedia and Entertainment Technology Exhibition & Conference – providing a platform for top industry leaders to network in one of South-East Asia's most up and coming markets.

To register to attend the show as either an exhibitor or a visitor, or for more information on the show itself, please visit http://www.communicindonesia.com/.

To view the Communic Indonesia 2016 preview video, please visit http://www.telecomstalk.com/?p=5925.

The Communic Indonesia 2017 event has also been confirmed and will be held on 25-27 October 2017.

– ENDS –

If you would like to connect with us on social media, please visit the below links.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/communicindonesia/?fref=ts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7001307 Twitter: @CommunicIndo

For further information, please contact Jayne Garfitt or Michelle Mahoney at Proactive International PR on +44 1636 812152. Or send an email to [email protected] or [email protected].

Source: RealWire

This story was originally published by Daily Mail Times (http://www.dailymailtimes.com) and is the sole property of Daily Mail Times. If you are reading this article on another website, that means this article was illegally copied and re-published to this website in violation of U.S. and International copyright law. You can view the original version of this story at http://www.dailymailtimes.com/e-commerce-to-drive-new-revenue-growth-for-indonesia/93401/

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Source: E-commerce to drive new revenue growth for Indonesia

See the State-of-the-Art Pattern of the Rumah Miring in Jakarta

What people usually look for in a contemporary residence is its extraordinary features that will surely captivate the owner's heart. Homeowners believe that their house also mirror their lifestyle and their character as well. In fact many homeowners of today may never deny their desires of having a unique and comfortable house in one. From the house building design down to the different spaces in the interior, the owner made sure that their own house will highlight the words "unique" and "stunning." Now, we will witness how the designer responded to the demands of the owner and see how this house design stands out from the others.

We will take a look at the house named Rumah Miring as the designer called it. This is a small house situated on 26ft x65.6 ft lot in Pondok Indah District. This is part of a gated community, and this building is located on the edge of a small river with indigenous village settlement rights across the river. Well Pondok Indah is spotted in South Jakarta and since 1980s it is being a symbolic status. It is because some of the most successful parliament member in Jakarta as well as some celebrities who come from the other regions feel like it is a must to have a house in this area. The public spaces are situated in the first level of the house such as the pantry, study area and a swimming pool. While the private rooms such as the master bedroom, wardrobe and master bathroom is found in the second level. Let's take a look at how the designer created the amazing areas of the house through the images below:

Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Designer: Budi Pradono Architects

Style: Contemporary

Number of Levels: Two-Storey

Unique feature: This house exposes its extraordinary features as the architects observe the environment and react with the proposal.

Similar House: Surprising Zinc Cladded Leaning House in South Korea

Take a look at how the unique slanted structure of the house building stands out in the area. Its amazing glass materials made this house spectacular and extraordinary.

Neat and clean features of the interiors may also observed in the first level of the house where the swimming pool and pantry is located.

From this angle, the slanted structure of the house exposes its surprising design that will draw the attention of the homeowner to spend quality time in this area.

See how the lines and patterns are well displayed in this area from its ceiling to the floors as it explains the modern architecture is.

The cool water in the swimming pool near the pantry may surely provide a very warm and comfortable feeling to the owner and its guests.

The wooden floors complements with the stainless ceiling as it feature the simple but modern concept and style of the interior.

At the second level of the house, you will have the opportunity to see the different houses in the neighborhood.

See how the glass materials in the walls of these house building highlighted transparency and its stylish details.

Read Also: Gorgeous Blackbird House in Aspen Clad in Metal and Vertical Boards

At the upper level of the house, the homeowner may still comfortably experience the flawless texture of the floor and the amazing design of its walls and windows.

Who will not claim that this bedroom offers a very cozy and spacious area to relax and rest after a whole day work in the city?

From this angle, you will certainly see that the classy look of the area complements with the environment-friendly exteriors.

Exclusive shapes of the latest fixtures and accessories in the bathroom underline its modern ideas.

Different plants are carefully placed in the interior of the house to allow the green and clean concept and ideas.

Outstanding scheme of the house building that certainly state it's distinct and state-of-the-art model.

Here is the Sketch Plan of the house.

As we have witness the different spaces in the house, we can certainly define how the private areas are placed in the middle that may compare to sandwich between the more public areas. Well I personally like the design of the whole building that relies on the steel structure as a representative of a modern house which depends on fabrication. The square framework that is slanted as a symbol of instability, a deconstruction of an established situation around. We may obviously say that the Budi Pradono was successfully implemented the requests of the homeowner. Certainly this house design may provide you enough ideas and inspiration to apply in your home in the future.

Source: See the State-of-the-Art Pattern of the Rumah Miring in Jakarta

Infusing Indonesia Independence Day with spirit of revolution of mind

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Every year on August 17, since 1945, Indonesians across the country commemorate the anniversary of Independence Day with festivities and celebrations.

Preparations for the occasion begin well in advance with decorations hung throughout the capital Jakarta where the Presidential Palace and government office buildings are draped in red and white.

In addition, groups of people arrange for community service activities in which residential areas are cleaned up, and neighborhood communities coordinate special activities for the children.

The 71st anniversary of the Independence Day this year should not just remain a routine one, but should usher in a psychological revolution to build this nation.

The Independence Day celebrations are of great significance to the people as is the history of Indonesia, and therefore, it is time to connect the idea of independence with the spirit of a psychological revolution.

Independence Day is not only comm emorated on land but also on sea and in air to show that the land, sea and air of the nation no longer belong to the colonial masters but belong to Indonesia and its citizens.

A unique thing about the celebration of this day in Indonesia is that all ceremonies are conducted simultaneously in all regions, from schools to official government offices, including the ceremony presided over by the president and attended by different groups, officials, army veterans and members of the public.

The Indonesian nation won freedom from occupation, and it is time for its people to be infused with the spirit of a revolution of the mind and undertake hard work to ensure the nations progress.

The mayor of Pariaman in West Sumatra, Genius Umar, has stated that the leaders and the general public do say the right words but there is no realization of the significance of what they say.

"Therefore, the Independence Day this time is an opportunity to usher a psychological revolutio n to do something for the sake of honoring the nations fallen heroes who fought on the battlefield for the independence of this country," Umar remarked in Pariaman, West Sumatra.

According to him, the responsibility of unleashing such a revolution rested not just with the leaders of the country and those in the regions, but with the youth, students and community leaders as well.

President Joko Widodos idea of a revolution of the mind is seen as an effective means for Indonesia to overtake other countries that have progressed, such as Singapore and Malaysia.

The revolution of the mind, which does not necessarily mean advancing the cause of education in Indonesia but also strengthening the national character, will help deal with the problem of inadequate human resources, a weakness that has been responsible for Indonesia lagging far behind other countries.

Such a revolution means a transformation in the thought process so that it supports a more accountable and less corrupt style of governance.

It will also help to develop people in such a way that they lead a pious life, have a sense of humanity, practice the tradition of deliberation and consensus and fight to realize social justice.

In addition, mental revolution is intended to build the character of Indonesian people who are healthy, smart and can contribute productively.

In the realm of education, such a revolution would mean teachers would be the pillars of the state, something that can be achieved by improving their welfare and offering them the widest possible opportunities to improve the quality of education.

Indonesia has been ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world and the revolution of the mind is expected to bring about a change in the mindset of the people, especially the countrys leaders.

The people believe that the President Joko Widodos government could lead the country to a better future.

In the light of this, all ministri es and government institutions are agencies that should be more concerned with working in such a way that the mental revolution can be achieved.

Such a policy focuses on changing the mindset of the Indonesian people so that they have great manners and strong principles based on the values of the state philosophy of Pancasila.

Pancasila is the philosophical basis of Indonesias life and society that consists of "Five Moral Principles": Belief in the one and only God, Just and civilized humanity, the unity of Indonesia.

Democracy guided by the inner wisdom in the unanimity arising out of deliberations amongst representatives, and Social justice for all of the people of Indonesia.

Pancasila embraces humanitarian principles that have become the true and core identity of Indonesia.

Jokowis mental revolution policy is an answer to Indonesias need for a breakthrough in its human and social development, especially weeding out corruption since the New Order era.< /p>

The implementation of the mental revolution policy is highlighted in the education sector.

President Jokowi believes that minds can be effectively changed only if strategies to achieve this goal are in place right from the start of primary education.

In Jokowis opinion, Indonesias primary schools students should be educated about the importance of character development, manners and etiquette.(T.O001/INE/KR-BSR/B003)

Source: Infusing Indonesia Independence Day with spirit of revolution of mind

Indonesia deploys firing squads to fight drugs

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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Sixteen years ago, Zulfiqar Ali left his native Pakistan for Indonesia in search of a new life. Last month, that life was on the verge of ending in front of a firing squad.

Ali has been on Indonesia's death row since 2005, after he was convicted of heroin trafficking. A government-ordered inquiry later found that he was probably innocent. Still, in July, he was one of 14 convicts, most of them foreigners, who were taken to the prison island of Nusakambangan off Java's southern coast to be put to death.

Minutes before they were to be executed, on July 29, Ali and nine other convicts were given a reprieve, for reasons the government has yet to explain. But four were shot dead as scheduled, including a Nigerian who supporters say was framed. And Ali, like the rest who were spared, remains condemned.

More than a year after Indonesia drew international censure by putting to death 12 foreigners convicted of drug crimes, the country has resumed a war on narcotics by way of executions — and has again put a spotlight on its profoundly flawed justice system.

Critics in Indonesia and abroad say those flaws go so deep that the country should not employ the death penalty at all. Researchers have found that many condemned convicts were tortured by the police into confessing, did not receive access to lawyers or were otherwise denied fair trials.

The resumption of executions means "that the government has ignored that there is something seriously wrong with our judiciary and law enforcers," said Robertus Robet, a lecturer and researcher at the State University of Jakarta's sociology department. He characterized the government as "trigger-happy."

"When you execute someone, you execute the possibility of finding out the truth," he said.

Amnesty International has denounced "the manifestly flawed administration of justice in Indonesia that resulted in flagrant human rights violations." Similar concerns have been raised by the United Nations and the European Union, which sent a delegation to try to persuade Indonesia to spare inmates who were condemned to die last year.

Indonesia has long had the death penalty, but its use was sporadic in the years before President Joko Widodo took office in October 2014. Declaring drug abuse a "national emergency," Joko denied clemency appeals from 64 death row inmates who had been convicted of drug crimes, most of them foreigners, and the government set a goal of executing all of them by the end of 2015.

That did not happen, but five drug convicts were put to death in January of that year, and eight more in April. (An Indonesian was also executed for murder in January.) Among the convicts executed in April, seven of whom were foreigners, were Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 34, Australians who were arrested in 2005 trying to smuggle heroin out of Bali, the resort island.

The men admitted their guilt, but their lawyers said the judge in the case was corrupt, having offered a lesser sentence in exchange for a bribe. Indonesia rejected appeals by the Australian government to spare them, and Australia withdrew its ambassador in protest.

Also executed in April was Rodrigo Gularte, 42, a Brazilian convicted of drug smuggling who had repeatedly been given a diagnosis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Indonesian law forbids the execution of mentally ill convicts.

Dave McRae, a senior research fellow at the Asia Institute at the University of Melbourne in Australia who has researched the use of capital punishment in Indonesia, said the deficiencies in the justice system here could be found in most countries that still used the death penalty.

"A lot of the objections to Indonesia's use of the death penalty — inconsistent and arbitrary sentencing and application of the death penalty, allegations of corruption and wrongful convictions, questions over access to lawyers and interpreters and adequacy of representation — are questions that are raised all over the world," he said.

Such concerns have been raised about the cases against some of the convicts spared last month — and some who were executed, including the Nigerian, Humphrey Jefferson Ejike Eleweke.

Eleweke was arrested in 2003 after police found heroin at a restaurant he ran in Jakarta, the capital; he said an employee had planted it. His lawyers say the police beat him until he confessed.

They also say that by law, an eleventh-hour appeal for clemency issued to Joko should have automatically halted his execution. Last week, legal activists filed a complaint with a judicial watchdog against Indonesia's attorney general, saying that Eleweke's execution and those of two others should have been stopped because of those appeals, according to local news reports.

"We cannot have the death penalty here because of the judicial system — it's problematic, it's dysfunctional," said Ricky Gunawan, director of the Community Legal Aid Institute, a nongovernmental organization that represented Eleweke.

Another allegation of corruption emerged just before the executions last month, when one of the men put to death, an Indonesian named Freddy Budiman, was quoted as saying he had paid senior law enforcement officials more than $40 million to let his drug smuggling operation continue before he was arrested.

That accusation was included in a report released by a rights activist, Haris Azhar, who had interviewed Budiman in prison; shortly thereafter, the police, the military and Indonesia's anti-narcotics board, all of which were implicated in the report, filed a criminal defamation complaint against Azhar. On Thursday, Joko ordered those agencies to investigate the corruption allegations.

The case of Ali, the Pakistani who was spared execution, has also raised concerns.

Ali, who immigrated to Indonesia in 2000, was accused of drug dealing in 2004 by a friend, Gurdip Singh, who had been caught with heroin; Singh later said the police had pressured him and offered a reduced sentence to name accomplices. Ali's lawyers say their client was arrested without a warrant at his home, where no drugs were found, and signed a confession after being beaten so badly in custody that he needed two operations.

Though Ali retracted his confession and Singh withdrew his accusation, both men were sentenced to death in 2005. But the severity of Ali's beating drew attention to the case, and the government ordered an unusual inquiry, which concluded that he was likely to be innocent.

The government never acted on those findings, and Ali and Singh were among those who nearly faced a firing squad.

"He was never involved in drugs," Ali's wife, Siti Rohani, who lives in West Java province with their three children, said in an interview.

A spokesman for Joko, Johan Budi, denied that the judicial system was dysfunctional, saying the executions had followed legal procedures.

Ali, along with Singh and several of the other convicts who were given reprieves, is still in prison on Nusakambangan Island, where Indonesia conducts executions. Siti said she and her husband's family in Pakistan were in a torturous state of limbo.

"We're just confused because there is no certainty about my husband's fate," she said.

M. Rum, a spokesman for the attorney general's office, declined to explain why Ali and the other convicts had been given reprieves, saying only that it was "for judicial and nonjudicial reasons." But he said the executions would eventually be carried out.

Source: Indonesia deploys firing squads to fight drugs

Indonesia’s Gotta Catch All the Communists

JAKARTA, Indonesia — What do Pokémon Go and half a million dead communists have in common? They're both things that, within the space of a few days, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu described as tools of shadowy forces bent on doing the country harm.

On July 18, Ryamizard, a conservative former general, warned the public that the hit game was likely being used by foreign intelligence services to harvest information on vital sites in Southeast Asia's largest country.

Three days later, it was the dead reds. Following the conclusion of an activist-initiated "people's tribunal" in The Hague that found the Indonesian government "responsible for genocide" in the 1965-1966 killing of at least 400,000 people suspected of being associated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), Ryamizard again fronted the press.

The tribunal's findings were "lies," he said. "If we listen to them, we will break apart," he warned. "This is the work of the PKI."

In reality, neither of these things is true. Pokémon Go might be annoying to some — and it did suffer from a gaping initial privacy hole — but it's still just a game. And the PKI, for its part, was wiped from the Earth; those killings half a century ago effectively eradicated the left from Indonesia's political map, along with many ethnic Chinese. The slaughter, in turn, paved the way for the rise of the late dictator Suharto, whose kleptocracy lasted until 1998 on a base of steady anti-communist propaganda. Even today, both Marxist teachings and the PKI are banned under Indonesian law.

But Ryamizard's comments are part of a worrying wave of often xenophobic paranoia under the presidency of Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, who was elected in 2014. Despite campaigning on promises of deepening democratic reforms — and pledging to resolve past rights abuses like the 1965-1966 killings — the former Jakarta governor's rule has been marked by a series of panics over threats that are either grossly exaggerated or straight-up fictional.

Some have come from Jokowi himself. The president has been a strong advocate of the idea (based on questionable evidence) that the country faces a "drug emergency." Under Jokowi's direction, the country has executed 18 drug convicts since last year, including four last month. The vast majority of those killed have been foreigners.

Of more concern have been two intertwined scare campaigns being run by reactionaries both inside and outside Jokowi's administration — often in ways that embarrass and undermine the president.

One is the red scare. Since mid-2015, police, soldiers, and vigilantes have broken up dozens of events, from film screenings to meetings of massacre survivors, which have been labeled "communist." Meanwhile, Islamists and nationalist groups have held rallies of thousands of people vowing to "crush" communism in cities and towns, and the media have carried grave warnings by prominent Indonesians of a looming red takeover.

At the same time, there has been a rising panic about so-called proxy wars being waged by unnamed foreign enemies against Indonesia. Armed forces chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, appointed by Jokowi last year, has frequently raised the specter of these enemies spreading immorality and drugs in order to create chaos and steal Indonesia's wealth. In February, amid a nationwide campaign of hate speech against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Indonesians, which was sparked by a backlash against a support group at the University of Indonesia, Ryamizard labeled the fight for LGBT rights as a threat with the potential to do more harm than nuclear weapons.

The defense minister was a driving force in the creation last year of Bela Negara (meaning "Defend the Nation"), an organization that claims 1.8 million members and aims to instill nationalism through paramilitary-style training, including reportedly teaching civilians how to use weapons. Paramilitary groups have been popular in Indonesia since before the Suharto era and played a key role in both the 1965-1966 massacres and violence across the country in the years surrounding Suharto's fall.

The nationalist tide has left Jokowi's administration in a policy muddle. Jokowi has pledged to address the troubled legacy of the 50-year-old massacres and in April organized the country's first symposium featuring both survivors and the military. But no matter what happens, a state apology for the killings is off the cards, presidential spokesman Johan Budi told Foreign Policy.

Budi pointed out that Jokowi has already instructed overzealous authorities to rein in raids against events deemed "communist." This has indeed happened. But the president has done nothing to muzzle senior figures invoking the red menace or talking of proxy wars.

"The president can't ignore reports from the community … that there are some people trying to bring the communist party back in Indonesia," Budi said. "The president has to respond."

Jokowi's attempt at the middle road is pleasing no one. Despite the fact that he has given Cold Warriors open slather in his administration, opponents frequently seek to label him as a red in disguise. In June, a collection of former Suharto-era generals organized their own symposium to counter the government's reconciliation effort. The crowd included members of Islamist street thug groups such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), an organization formed by generals in 1998 to fight pro-democracy protesters in the streets. Also in attendance were uniformed members of Bela Negara.

Jokowi's support for even limited reconciliation over the mass killings means "he's pretty much part of efforts to bring communism back," Ahmad Shobri Lubis, the head of the FPI, told FP. "It's a twisted, crazy step. It goes against common sense that the government would ask for forgiveness from criminals. It's madness."

But not everyone in Indonesia has bought into the hype. Social media has frequently pilloried the more hysterical announcements, and reactions from some of the establishment — including military types — have ranged from eye rolling to alarm.

In Indonesia's muddled party system, opinions similarly vary, including within Jokowi's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who championed Ryamizard's appointment and has a reputation for brittle nationalism, heads the party.

Others take a different view. The paranoid upsurge is "all bullshit," T.B. Hasanuddin, a former general and a senior PDI-P politician, told FP.

Behind it all is a collection of former generals who are being driven by two factors, Hasanuddin said. One is fear that a reckoning over the bloody legacy of the 1965-1966 killings — in which the military and traditional elite are deeply implicated — could unleash chaos. The other is a more concerted attempt to use vague bogeymen to fight the country's democratization, he said. For some, these fever dreams are simply a cynical ploy. For others, they are indisputable fact, born of indoctrination during Suharto's 31-year New Order regime.

"There are those from the military who, in the way they analyze things, always need there to be threats. If there are no threats, then they need to make them up," Hasanuddin said. "Now it's communism."

Why is all this happening under Jokowi? Less than two years ago, the former furniture salesman was hailed as a new hope in a political system dominated by old faces with ties to the New Order. Liberals flocked to Jokowi's campaign, seeing him as a democratic bulwark against his main rival, Prabowo Subianto, a former general (and former son-in-law of Suharto) implicated in serious human rights abuses.

But Jokowi has long sought to accommodate the old guard. Even during the transitional period between his election and taking office, Jokowi began an embrace of hard-liners close to Megawati, who retains undisputed control of the PDI-P.

"He's just weak," said Ian Wilson, an Indonesia expert at Australia's Murdoch University. "He's been outmaneuvered by seasoned players, seasoned brokers, and the kind of warlords of elite politics, including someone like Megawati, [who is] an ultranationalist and a militarist."

Observers of Indonesia have hoped of late that Jokowi might finally be finding his feet. But even if he is increasingly calling the shots, the result is still a doubling down on his embrace of the old dinosaurs. In a late July reshuffle, the president sidelined Luhut Panjaitan, a relatively liberal former soldier, as the chief security minister and replaced him with Wiranto — who, like many Indonesians, only goes by one name — a former general indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal for crimes against humanity in East Timor.

Wiranto, a man accused of having command responsibility for militia violence in 1999 that is believed to have killed well over 1,000 civilians, is now in charge of handling the government's response to past abuses. This includes the 1965-1966 killings and his own alleged crimes.

Few rights advocates now expect much from Jokowi's administration.

Photo credit: AGOES RUDIANTO/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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Source: Indonesia's Gotta Catch All the Communists

Jakarta to team up with land agency to eliminate graft

Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama says he plans to rid the Jakarta administration of corrupt employees who are involved in illegal practices in land acquisition, in cooperation with the National Agrarian Agency (BPN).

"I want to discuss the issue of land acquisition and the relevant regulations. We hope that the acquisition process for land for public facilities will not be burdened with excessive taxes and legal costs," Ahok said at City Hall on Friday.

The governor previously slammed his "naughty" subordinates who offered the administration's uncertified land and assets to private individuals, as happened recently in West Cengkareng, West Jakarta.

A plot of land worth Rp 668 billion (US$50.98 million) that actually belonged to the Jakarta Maritime, Agriculture and Food Security Agency was sold to the Jakarta Housing and Buildings Agency by Toety Noezlar Soekarno, a resident of Bandung, West Java. Toety has even sued the administration because of a payment shortfall.

The situation arose because of maladministration at the BPN. Ahok suspects that corruption among his subordinates and officials in the BPN lay at the root of the case.

Meanwhile, he also accused his subordinates of paying too much to notaries, who recorded the acquisition of land purchased for the administration's projects in the expectation that they would get kickbacks from the notaries. (bbn)

Source: Jakarta to team up with land agency to eliminate graft

Habibie Festival Brings Science, Technology to Jakarta’s Youth

"We also want to promote STEAM education [science, technology, engineering, arts and Math] to future generations. They are the ones who will build the future of this country and they are the ones who will lead us."

Ruli Harahap, a public relations coordinator with Berkarya!Indonesia, said the festival hopes to educate young Indonesians about opportunities in STEAM and breaking barriers in accessing technology. He said their mission is to get young people to use technology beyond daily consumption.

"We want [young people] not only using [technology] to consume media, to consume content, but to also create content of their own," he said.

The festival offers STEAM activities for all ages. Friday's events will be catered towards high school students, where they will use makerspaces with technology such as CNC machines for coding and 3D printers.

While Saturday will be geared towards university students,and will connect them with professionals from the festival's partners such as Korean tech company Samsung and Indonesia's biggest telecommunication company Telkomsel.

"We have several universities in Indonesia with great STEM programs but not a lot of them have the technology or the facilities needed to compete on a more regional or international level," Harahap said. "So the movement is trying to bridge people who have technology and people who need it."

Sunday's activities will be targeted towards families and will give kids a chance for some hands on science.

Yovita Yunarti, a representative from festival partner Da Vinci Learning, said they are offering activities that introduce science in easily digestible ways for kids, such as games and magic shows.

"The kids are so excited, this place is full," she said. "Science opens their minds. It's around all them; every time the kids open their eyes they see science. They're so excited to learn."

Ruli hopes giving young people better access to technology can have a lasting positive impact on Indonesia's future.

"STEAM is the most basic building blocks of how you build a better society," he said. "We're taking a grassroots approach and getting people to innovate from the bottom up so eventually everybody will be more productive, more creative. We want the people of this country to stop just being consumers and start thinking about how they can create with the tools available."

Source: Habibie Festival Brings Science, Technology to Jakarta's Youth

Honda CBR250RR debuts at 2016 Indonesia Auto Show (68 Photos)

The Honda CBR250RR which debuted a few days ago has made its auto show debut at the 2016 GIIAS in Jakarta today. The 250 cc compact sportsbike will be positioned above the single-cylinder CBR300R.

The CBR250R is a mildly watered down version of the Lightweight Super Sports concept which was unveiled at last year's Tokyo Motor Show. The super aggressive fully faired motorcycle locks horns with the Yamaha R3, KTM RC 390, Kawasaki Ninja 300, and so on.

The styling is characterised by a razor sharp beak with narrow headlamps and eyebrow like LED daytime running lights. Expressive fairing panels, sporty fuel tank, clip-on handlebars, a superbike-like tailpiece with split seats, LED taillight, LED blinkers, fully digital instrument console, and twin-canister exhaust system make the latest quarter litre Honda a very sporty motorcycle.

Honda CBR250RR is powered by a 249 cc twin-cylinder liquid-cooled 8-valve engine which is mated to a 6-speed gearbox. The motor boasts of ride-by-wire technology. Power and torque figures are still under wraps. We will know about them at the time of launch.

New CBR250RR is suspended by means of an inverted telescopic front fork and a monoshock with aluminium swing arm. The 17-inch alloy wheels come short with 110/70 front and 140/70 rear road winner rubbers.

The Honda CBR250RR will be made in Indonesia for global consumption like its rival Yamaha R3. We expect the motorcycle to go on sale in the archipelago later this year.

Source: Honda CBR250RR debuts at 2016 Indonesia Auto Show (68 Photos)

Indonesia urged to take stern action on illegal bird trade

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A wildlife trade monitoring group has called on Indonesia to take strong action against traders of endangered birds who are driving several species toward extinction.

Traffic, a U.K.-based group, said Thursday that its latest survey recorded nearly 23,000 birds in five markets in three cities in eastern and central Java.

It said 28 of the 241 species identified were fully protected under Indonesian law. They include seven Black-winged Mynas, a critically endangered species found only in Java and Bali.

Serene Chng, a program director for the group, said the scale of the illegal trade is "staggering."

"Almost all of the birds were native to Indonesia, 15 percent of them found nowhere else on Earth," she said. "The outlook for some of Indonesia's bird populations is very bleak."

The research was carried out in Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Malang. The capital Jakarta is already known as a hotspot for the illegal bird trade with three markets including one in the east of the city that is country's biggest.

Elizabeth John, a spokeswoman for Traffic, said the number of birds was based on an actual count of visible birds in each shop at the markets conducted over three days.

Under Indonesia's conservation laws, trade in protected wildlife carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and fines of 100 million rupiah ($7,700).

Traffic said a similar survey in Jakarta in 2014 documented about 19,000 birds for sale over a three-day period.

Indonesia, the world largest archipelago with 17,000 islands, is home to more than 130 threatened bird species.

___

Online:

http://www.traffic.org

Source: Indonesia urged to take stern action on illegal bird trade

Asia must invest more in disaster risk reduction: Red Cross

JAKARTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From typhoons and earthquakes to floods, Asian nations must step up investment in disaster risk reduction before it is "too late for too many" in a region regularly battered by disasters, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said.

Asia-Pacific is the world's most disaster-prone region according to the United Nations, accounting for over half of the world's 344 disasters last year, with more than 16,000 deaths and 59 million people affected in the region alone.

The region has made improvements in tackling disasters but Asia can do more by boosting its investment in risk reduction, said Elhadj As Sy, IFRC Secretary General.

"If you compare with what you used to have five years ago, 10 years ago, the countries are getting better equipped and better prepared," Sy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview during a recent visit to Jakarta.

"Is it enough? Probably not," he added.

Citing successes in the Philippines, which is battered by typhoons every year, Sy said investing in disaster risk reduction was key to minimizing the number of casualties.

Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in 2013, killed more than 6,300 people and uprooted over four million, but last year's typhoon season had only a minor impact in the country.

"Invest in disaster reduction, invest in preparedness ... We know it is harder for people to invest in something they do not see and where they do not measure the consequences.

"But if we wait until they see and measure the consequences, it is too late for too many," Sy said.

International aid for disasters stood at $28 billion from 2004 to 2013, but most of this was aimed at emergency response and rehabilitation, rather than prevention, according to the 2015 U.N. Asia-Pacific Disaster Report.

Asia-Pacific is particularly vulnerable to disasters partly due to a rapidly growing population and a large number of urban poor who tend to live in hazard-prone areas such as slums and riverbanks.

Currently, over 700 million people in the region live in areas deemed at "extreme" or "high" disaster risk, and the number could reach one billion by 2030, according to the latest U.N. data, in March.

"It is not enough just to respond when the shock arrives. What is most important is how can we work together in the spirit of risk reduction," the head of IFRC said.

(Reporting by Beh Lih Yi, Editing by Jo Griffin; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)

Source: Asia must invest more in disaster risk reduction: Red Cross

Rich Chigga: “I Wasn’t Trying To Offend Anyone”

In February, a 16-year-old Indonesian kid named Brian Imanuel released a music video called "Dat $tick." Maybe you've seen it. Imanuel's dressed like dad, wearing a pink polo and a Reebok fanny pack, while rapping over a minimal, typical, drill-style beat. The video went viral, accruing around 2 million views on YouTube, and Imanuel went on to sign to CXSHXNLY, an Asian-focused music collective that also reps Korean American rapper Dumbfoundead and Korean viral sensation Keith Ape. In July, a media platform affiliated with CXSHXNLY, 88rising, released a video in which American rappers including 21 Savage and Ghostface Killah reacted, largely positively, to "Dat $tick." "It's different," Ghostface Killah said. "It ain't the same shit you seen, everybody all tryna get blinged out. He's just him."

I found out about Imanuel when a close friend of mine shared "Dat $tick" with me over Facebook, but his internet presence goes all the way back to 2012, when he started out on Twitter at just 12 years old. Imanuel was homeschooled, and used the platform to tell jokes. A photoshopped picture of himself wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the N-word while standing next to President Obama made the rounds. In 2013 he began posting on Vine, and listening to hip-hop via American friends he'd made online. Shortly after, Imanuel began posting videos on YouTube. The earliest and strangest on his channel is called "Suicide Hotline," a dark short film in which he plays a married man wanting to commit suicide. The rest are awkwardly hilarious parodies of facets of American pop culture: there's a popular 31-second tutorial on how to microwave bread. In it, Imanuel stares into the camera for too long. It's funny.

It wasn't until 2015 that Imanuel began releasing satirical music on YouTube under the name Rich Chigga, starting with "Living the Dream," then following up with "Dat $tick" seven months later. And as Rich Chigga, he's received as much criticism as praise. People on Twitter and around the internet have called him out for his racially insensitive name, and his use of the N-word. Others accused him of cultural appropriation.

When I spoke to Imanuel over Skype in July, I asked if he's regretted some of the decisions he's been called out for. It was 11 p.m. in Jakarta, and he was over at the house of a friend, who appeared in the "Dat $tick" video. ("The fat one!" the friend said.) Imanuel told me he does regret choosing the name Rich Chigga. If he had the chance to redo "Dat $tick," he'd leave the N-word in, he said, but he won't use it in the future because he's "not trying to offend anyone."

Imanuel is now part of a small group of hyper-visible Asian creators, but doesn't want his race to be a significant factor in the interpretation of his art. Below is our conversation about his interest in American comedy, his strategy for making a satirical rap song popular, and what he wants to do in the future. Plus a new song, "Who That Be," which debuted Tuesday.

How did you develop your sense of humor?

I just really liked American comedy. Because Indonesian comedy like, the TV shows we have here are fucking ridiculous. It's literally a stage with a bunch of these comedians and there's a big audience and they would make a pun and they would laugh. When I found out about American culture and American humor, I was like, "Oh shit, this was so fucking good." That's what really made me want to start. It's just so clever. [My comedy] is super satirical. Indonesian people don't get satire, that's the thing. There's no thought in our humor. Every time I would post shit on Instagram, like I posted this picture of me wearing pink mascara and people are like, "Brian what are you doing? Are you gay?" Shit like that.

You've called your artist name "corny" and said you regret picking it. Why haven't you changed it?

[The name] just started from me making my first song. I was talking to my friend about it back then like, "Damn. What should I name it?" And my friend was like, "Let's pick the most controversial shit ever." I didn't really know what I was doing and I definitely did not know people were gonna pop off like this. Now I'm kind of stuck with this. I might change it in the future, I don't know. I hope I can do it. But as for now, I'm definitely not going to let it be the only thing that defines me. It actually kinda motivates me to do better so when people listen to my music they're like, "Oh shit, this is actually not bad." I'm not going to make my music based around this ignorant ass name.

What would you change it to?

I don't know, something that doesn't have to do with race. Something that's like, catchy. Like Kanye West. Or Kodak Black. [Laughs.]

You were criticized for using the N-word in "Dat $tick," then said you're just going to stop using it. What was your thinking behind that decision?

It was honestly a pretty hard decision, when I actually put the N-word in my song. I was like, "Should I fucking do this?" It's a big thing and a lot of people would probably get offended by this. But then, when I started building up the courage to do it, I was like: Fuck it. Let's fucking go hard or go home. And I wanted to do it in every fucking song and shit. But then I feel like after the song was released, having that statement with that song, I feel like that's enough. I just don't really want to offend more people and I don't want to have to explain myself every time, I guess.

What's your belief, then, on usage of the N-word?

I'm all about context. I wouldn't say it around African American people if I don't know them. I would definitely try to avoid saying it at all times, but at the same time it's like, this is something Tyler, the Creator also said — he feels like it's just a word and if you take the power out of it, it doesn't mean anything. I wasn't sure I was gonna completely change people's minds about the word with that song but, you know, I wasn't completely sure if it was going to work out. I just wanted to participate I guess. My plan was like, when people listen to the song maybe they're gonna be like, "Oh wait, he said the fucking N-word," but then they're like, "Oh shit, whatever, it's a good song." That was my plan. For me, the use of the N-word, I personally avoid saying it. But yeah, my intention was not to try to be edgy or like to stand out or whatever. I wasn't trying to offend anyone.

Would you take that word out now, if you could?

I feel like I would leave it in. I would just not say it any more in my songs.

What about "Dat $tick" do you think is so appealing?

It's just: "Who's this fucking kid?" And then they start listening to it and they're like, "Oh, it's actually like not bad. It's actually like kinda good." When I was making it, I didn't really think I was appropriating culture. I mean, as for the name, [that criticism] is understandable, I get that. But in general, as for the music and the videos, I feel like I'm just being myself. I'm kinda new to this so it's also a learning process. I'm still figuring things out.

Did you get angry tweets?

Definitely. I don't really respond to them because I used to be the kid that got into so many internet arguments, back when I was like 13. But that shit's super tiring so now I always avoid them. So if I see those tweets I just close Twitter for a while. They would say shit like, "Rich Chigga, are you fucking kidding me, what kinda name is that?" But I kinda know what they're saying. I can't really please everyone.

Then, people you're affiliated with showed your video to a bunch of rappers, and they praised you. Was that validating to see?

Yeah. I was surprised with how welcoming and how positive they were. I love Flatbush Zombies. 21 Savage looked like he wasn't that into it, but I still love him. In the video, there are new rappers but there are also old school, legendary rappers, Cam'ron and Ghostface. I would expect them to be like, "This is what rap has turned into?" But they're actually super cool about it.

My plan was like, when people listen to the song maybe they're gonna be like, 'Oh wait, he said the fucking N-word,' but then they're like, 'Oh shit, whatever, it's a good song.'

On "Dat $tick" you mention corruption, drug abuse, and community disenfranchisement. Were you hoping to convey a particular message about things happening in Indonesia?

The message that I was trying to get across was basically that a bunch of weird, crazy shit happens in Indonesia too, that people don't really know about. That's what I was trying to say: shit happens here too. And maybe it's different shit but it's a thing that exists. That's definitely not what I'm trying to do with all of my music, but I think that song is good enough to get my point across. Cause some crazy shit happens in Indonesia. Like the schools in Indonesia, the high schools, there's this thing called Tawuran. It's basically all the different schools are rival gangs for some reason. And they'd ride in the street and have a fight with sharp weapons. Because we don't have guns here, but they use sharp weapons and shit. They kinda do it for no reason. So the kids are following it and on the news you'd see elementary kids doing that shit too. It happens in kinda the ghetto parts in Indonesia. But in Jakarta the ghetto area or slum area is one with the big city — you'll see high rise buildings next to a slum.

Are you trying to promote some activism?

Honestly, I'm not a big activism or politic guy. I wouldn't say I'm super educated in that stuff, and I feel like I shouldn't speak on things that I don't understand too much. I'm just doing what I can. And it's kinda dangerous to do that here because you don't know what's gonna happen. The government might fuck with you.

What's your new song "Who That Be" about?

There's a line where I say: I don't smoke weed or take Xans. Which, I don't do drugs. In hop-hop there's the turn-up songs, where people don't really care what the rappers talk about, they just care about the beat. I'm still going to do that sometimes but, you know, in different times I'm going to do different stuff, like maybe something deep.

You've said that you avoid talking about your race and that you don't want it affecting your music. Why is that?

I'm really about seeing people and art for what they are. Like seeing people as humans and seeing art. I really don't think [my race] should matter. Like I don't think it should be a thing that needs to be asked, like, "Oh shit, are you an Asian rapper?" You know, I'm Asian, but this is part of the reason why I regret having Rich Chigga. It's not like I'm anti-Asian, it's not like I hate my own race. People can see it, you know? I'm Asian. So let me do what I want to do.

Some Asian American artists, like Dumbfoundead and Awkwafina, write songs that are rooted in their immigrant experience and their identities as Asian artists. Is that something you'd ever explore?

I like what Dumbfoundead and Awkwafina are doing, but I think I'm just trying to do something different. I don't really see that many Asian people that kinda just do their thing. I feel like I shouldn't have to do the same thing as them.

Do you identify as an Asian rapper?

I feel like I'm representing Asians, in a way. You can't really avoid it. I am an Asian rapper even though I wouldn't place myself in that category. Cause 88rising is literally a platform that's putting a bunch of Asian stuff into like, one place. I'm kinda doing the same thing but I'm more subtle with it, I guess.

What are you trying to do, then?

Recently, I've been really influenced by Tyler, the Creator. I really like what he's doing, when he mixes his music and his musical career with comedy. I really would like to do that in the future.

Source: Rich Chigga: "I Wasn't Trying To Offend Anyone"