Hi folks, it’s two years to the next general election in Indonesia so expect a lot of political maneuvering from now on. While several parties and groups have been testing the waters with all the signs and posters hinting towards their preferred candidates, the real battle starts with coalitions being formed among the major parties trying to meet or exceed the presidential election threshold of 20% of the votes from the last election.
Up top, the President has made his own moves by rearranging his cabinet yet again for the last two years of his second administration, this time primarily to welcome a new coalition partner into the fold while conveniently removing a Minister under siege.
Meanwhile, you should keep your mask on even when you’re outdoors because even though Covid is slowly rising again, pollution has taken hold across several major cities especially the entirety of Greater Jakarta, which has returned to the top of the list of cities with the worst air quality for several days now. That’s not fog you see over the skyscrapers, that’s all dirty, stinking, smog.
Reshuffling the Cabinet
President Joko Widodo made another cabinet reshuffle this week, his third during his second term as president. We got two new ministers as well as three vice ministers.
Jokowi sacked the old trade minister Muhammad Lutfi who might have gone out of the President’s favor over his failure to control the price of cooking oil and oversaw the subsequent palm oil ban which was so ineffective it was scrapped in less than a month.
Lutfi also had one of his director generals named as a corruption suspect in connection with a palm oil export case.
Replacing Lutfi was Zulkifli Hasan, the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and more famously the guy who was scolded by Harrison Ford for the lethargic response to deforestation during an episode on the documentary series “Years of Living Dangerously”. He was the forestry minister at the time.
After his newest appointment, Zulkifli immediately got to work by visiting a traditional market in Jakarta. Zulkifli appeared to be so out of touch with what is happening, telling the media that he was shocked to see that prices for some commodities were not what he remembered.
One of his partymen tried to defend him by admitting that it might be his first time in years visiting a market.
Zulkifli pledged to address the matter.
Jokowi also sacked Sofyan Djalil from his post as land reform minister and replaced him with former military chief Hadi Tjahjanto.
We couldn’t find anything wrong with Sofyan but some analysts suspect that Jokowi was simply rewarding Hadi who has been loyal to the president during his time as armed forces commander.
Another speculated that it has to do with the new capital since Hadi’s military background could come in handy to resolve things like land disputes. In fact, Hadi admitted that land disputes and the new capital are two major issues the president wants him to pay close attention to.
Jokowi also appointed Raja Juli Antoni as Hadi’s vice minister. The guy is one of the big guns at the Indonesian Solidarity Party, you know the party that wants to see the Constitution amended so Jokowi can run for a third term.
Jokowi also reassigned John Wempi Wetipo, formerly public works vice minister, as the new vice minister for home affairs. Meanwhile, Star Crescent Party (PBB) secretary general Afriansyah Noor has been named vice minister for manpower. Both positions are previously vacant.
Keep That Mask On
We hope that you have been wearing your masks regularly the whole of last week and quite possible weeks to come even though mask wearing is optional outdoors and well, not exactly enforced in enclosed spaces.
The first reason is that Covid-19 cases are rising again and have remained well over a thousand infections daily since June 14. The overwhelming majority of these new cases came from Jakarta while neighboring West Java and Banten a distant second and third respectively.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin did warn the week before that this would happen because of the more transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 subvariant of the Omicron. In Indonesia, the subvariant was first detected in Bali among participants and officials of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction staged late last month.
The Ministry said the subvariant is no cause for alarm since symptoms appear to be far less severe than the OG Omicron. Still, Minister BGS predicted that the number of daily cases could still rise and peak at around 20,000 per day in July. You know what to do if you don’t want to be part of that statistic.
Another reason is that the air quality in the Greater Jakarta area has severely deteriorated . The capital has made its way to the top of the list of cities with the worst air quality in the world several times over the past week according to IQ Air with a top of 196 on Monday, 20th June.
The Meteorology agency, BMKG, said winds from the east and northeast have been pushing all that car exhaust and industrial smog into Jakarta. Industrial and residential rubbish burning also contribute to the deteriorating air quality, not to mention the fact that the city is surrounded by coal-fired power plants.
We are also seeing high humidity which keeps the pollution closer to the surface and prevents it from traveling high into the atmosphere. In the last two years, when almost everyone stayed at home, the air quality during the same period was equally bad, so going back to work normally is not the significant contributor people may think it is as other factors are always in play. Basically Jakarta is doomed to be forever polluted due to its geography unless some drastic measures are taken.
Whenever Jakarta has even half decent air quality, it’s usually due to the southerly winds pushing the smog north towards the sea, but fat chance of that happening in the middle of the year.
All that pollution is bad for your health and can lead to various respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The last thing you want is to be infected with Covid-19 and exposed to unhealthy air at the same time.
Taxing All the Digital Stuff. Again
Buying music online, e-books, and PUBG skins will get even more expensive if the government has their way to impose import tax to digital goods and services on top of the VAT already charged since the middle of 2020.
Right now, the only thing stopping them is a WTO moratorium on such customs duties which dates back to 1998 and expires in 2024. More and more countries have supported an end to the moratorium, especially after the pandemic which led to more people buying digital goods online.
Indonesia’s finance minister has been talking about this since last year arguing that ending the moratorium would make digital goods produced by Indonesian creators and companies more attractive to the local market.
Besides, we could use the money to kickstart an economy ravaged by the pandemic. One year since Indonesia began to charge VAT on imported digital products in July 2020, the taxmen have collected an additional Rp2.25 trillion in taxes and who knows how much more the government stands to make once the moratorium ends.
On the other hand, countries such as the United States, the UK, as well as the European Union are opposed to ending the restriction saying that the resulting rise in prices will curb digital spending, slowing down the post pandemic economic recovery already being hampered by significant inflation rates affecting the global economy.
While it is true that it’s primarily companies from North America and Europe that are going to be affected, such as Google, Apple, Disney, Spotify, Netflix, Meta, Gameloft, Steam, and the like, these companies provide global platforms for local app and game companies, developers, musicians, filmmakers, and other individuals to offer their digital products worldwide in ways that traditional physical trade can’t.
Quick Reads
Bekasi Bridge Limbo
The Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail project caused a lot of frustrations and anger amongst the people who are dependent on the Antilope bridge in Bekasi after a girder rendered the traffic bridge inaccessible to vehicles taller than 1.7m. If you’re walking or riding a motorcycle you can still pass the bridge, but just be ready to do the limbo.
The operator of the still under-construction railway, KCIC, claimed that locals are aware that the bridge would be affected and a replacement bridge is being constructed and will be operational in August. For now, the KCIC said the bridge will be manned 24/7 to keep vehicles taller than 1.7m out.
Three RI1 Candidates from NasDem Party
The National Democrat Party has put forward three names as their potential presidential candidate. Interestingly none are from its own party. Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo is from PDIP, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan is an independent who will ally himself with anyone, while the other is Armed Forces Commander General Andhika Perkasa who will enter retirement age in December and automatically relinquish his post at the top of the military chain.
NasDem holds 9% of the electoral votes at the parliament which means it will have to form a coalition to reach the 20% threshold to nominate a candidate in 2024
Iko Uwais Accused of Assault
The martial artist and Hollywood actor is used to beating up people in movies but an interior designer has filed a police report against the actor for punching him at the actor’s own home. Apparently Iko had hired the designer to work on his house and a payment dispute led to a physical altercation and two police reports with differing accounts of the incident. Both sides claimed the other started the fight. Regardless of the situation, it should have been obvious that you really shouldn’t pick a fight with a silat master especially if you’re not a martial artist master yourself.