OPINION

The current land conflict brewing on Rempang Island reflects the intricate battle between the human rights of the people, the ambitions of private businesses and the dilemma of the Government’s interest. As a nation founded on the principles of social justice for all Indonesian people, we must reflect: Have we fulfilled this promise? 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be attending the seminal ASEAN summit, to be held in Jakarta this year, together with other heads of big powers, like the US, China and India. A score of meetings have been organized by the organization’s Secretariat for the event, one of which is of Japan’s key engagement platform via an ASEAN-Japan conference.

Next week, in Magetan Regency of East Java, there will be simultaneous village elections, where e-voting will be implemented. So advanced. 

It is still intriguing to follow the developments of the legal cases that former US President Donald Trump must now face. As we learn from news reports, his current indictment, issued by Fulton County Court and filed by Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis, together with 18 other defendants, is his fourth, carrying 41 counts. The most prominent among these is his call for help to Georgia State Secretary Brad Raffensperger, seeking to get the 11,780 votes necessary to enable him to win the state of Georgia in the 2020 Presidential Election, thus violating the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, concerning a conspiracy to alter voting results, while inciting insurrection against the Government. 

Poor air quality in urban areas is detrimental to human health, yet it has been pervasive for so many years. In the past week, this issue has massively hit the headlines. 

Article 22E (1) of the 1945 Constitution mandates the implementation of direct, public, free, secret, honest and fair elections once every five years. Constitutional Court (MK) Decision 48/PUU-XVI/2018 defines honest and fair elections as elections that are free from all forms of manipulation of regulations that benefit certain groups, manipulation of voters through campaigns, and vote rigging.

Megawati Sorkarnoputri’s recent statement that she once asked Jokowi to abolish the anti-graft agency KPK has caused an uproar. While Megawati was correct in saying KPK has become less effective over the years, the solution is not dismantling the agency but rather strengthening it. 

Sugarcane milling season is already halfway completed. Since the end of April, farmers have started harvesting the cane and processing it at the sugar refineries. This season is the culmination of months of hard work, from planting the cane to waiting until it is are fully mature.

I tried to listen very carefully different reports on television and newspapers, as the one on CNN with Errin Burnett OutFront, and several others, and heard gleefully but not surprisingly that former President Donald Trump is very unlikely to be able to participate in 2024 Presidential Election, the reason being obvious: among the different legal cases he faces, one regards his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election to make him the winner and stay in power; this has been decided by a Judge in a session on January 2, 2024. 

In July 2023, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, reminded leaders and the world community about the record July temperature – the hottest in history. Not far behind, recently the people of the city of Jakarta were reminded by various reports that referred to the research results of an organization producing airborne monitoring technology products about the high level of air pollution in the city of Jakarta. This organization even named the city of Jakarta as the city with the highest pollution level in the world. 

The Indonesian Government and state-owned PT Pupuk Indonesia are working on changing the fertilizer subsidy scheme to cash transfers that will be directly made to the farmers’ bank accounts or digital wallets. This plan is President Joko Widodo’s response to the March 15, 2023, meeting demanding a single price of fertilizers in the market. What happens now is that identical products can be sold at different prices, both subsidized and non-subsidized. The significant price disparity has become one of the sources of moral hazard.