HEADLINE

The Government is going to move flights from Husein Sastranegara Airport in Bandung to “West Java International Airport (BIJB) Kertajati” in Majalengka in October. It is interesting to analyze the impact of this relocation on the local economy, particularly in Bandung and Majalengka, and by extension, in West Java Province. As is widely reported, Husein Sastranegara Airport will soon stop serving scheduled commercial flights. Bandung residents have relied on the airport that began its commercial flights in 1973. It is suspected that the Government is shutting it down because it wants to optimize the sadly-underutilized Kertajati Airport. 

The wounding, heated polemic over the Omnibus Law on Job Creation (UU Cipta Kerja) is still painfully fresh in our memory, because it was rejected by various elements of society. There were massive demonstrations by workers and students in various regions of Indonesia to protest the passage of this law, with some rising to violence. All was attributed to the understanding that if the Job Creation Law were to be passed, it would exert an adverse impact on workers/laborers. Nevertheless, the House of Representatives (DPR) did go on to pass the law, on October 5, 2020. 

Pseudonymous hacker Bjorka is back in the spotlight. The self-proclaimed “hacktivist” has rattled Indonesia’s cybersecurity establishment by regularly flaunting on his blog snippets of the millions of the personal data files he has managed to steal, by successfully breaching into government databases.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) released shocking information: 5.3 million tons of nickel ore has been illegally exported to China. KPK detected this smuggling practice not based on Indonesian Customs and Excise Directorate General (DJBC) or Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data but the Chinese customs agency. According to KPK, the nickel ore smuggling took place in Chinese ports and was often carried out by falsifying export documents using export code HS 2604 or HS0 2604 for processed nickel or pig iron nickel or the equivalent. This was intended to mislead the customs officers so the goods could be cleared. 

In recent years, Indonesian StateOwned Companies (SOEs) have been in the spotlight, and not in a good way. A torrent of corruption scandals, bankruptcies, financial statement manipulation, outstanding debts and delayed vendor payments have plagued the firms, in spite of years of Government of Indonesia support and boosting. 

June 14, 2023. More than 77 years after Indonesia gained its Independence, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte finally issued an official statement recognizing Indonesia’s independence “completely and unconditionally.” Next, he said he would “discuss with my Indonesian counterpart about how to reach a joint realization of that Independence Day.” This statement did not come out of thin air. The Dutch government was sued 21 years ago, on March 20, 2002 to be exact. So, it can be said that the Dutch government has been dragging its feet, making the statement seem half-hearted. 

It has been almost four years since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo revealed the grand plan to relocate Indonesia’s administrative capital from Jakarta to a greenfield site in East Kalimantan Province, on the island of Borneo in the Sepaku District of Penajam Paser Utara Regency, to be exact. That decision has stirred up controversy ever since, riven by debate between supporters and detractors over its benefits and drawbacks. In the meantime, the plan keeps lurching forward, like a car with failed brakes. 

The issuance of Government Regulation (PP) 26/2023 on the management of marine sedimentation products has sparked lively public debate, both mainstream and on social media. One of the controversies concerns article 9.2(d) which states that sea sand can be exported, provided that domestic needs have been met and regulatory requirements satisfied.

At a plenary meeting of the UNESCO Executive Board on May 10-24, 2023, President Sukarno’s 1960 “To Build the World Anew” speech, delivered at the United Nations General Assembly, was declared a Memory of the World (MoW). In that 122-minute oration, Sukarno offered Pancasila to the world as an alternative ideology.

Poverty reduction has always become not only the main target of various programs to improve people’s welfare, but also a political and economic issue, at the national and international levels. On the one hand, the Indonesian government is obliged to raise the welfare of the people, as mandated by the 1945 Constitution, but on the other, there are political interests to render poor people as mere “objects” of economic development, with the politicians as the policy makers. 

Indonesia has earned the unenviable reputation as a country with the one of the highest levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world, the lion’s share of which come from the energy sector – one still dominated by fossil fuels, particularly coal.