How’s everyone’s first week of Ramadan, all good? Feels like things kind of slowed down a little doesn’t it? Not a lot of commotion unlike pretty much every week this year so far. Could do with a bit of a break, honestly, and speaking of break, mudik is back on but only if you hurry up. Just be sure to have a good internet connection if you claim to be “working from home”. Also, the Nusantara “vaccine” reared its ugly head again. As we said previously, this thing wouldn’t die anytime soon, just like the dream of building a local Silicon Valley. Read on!
Mudik is On After All
Head of the National Traffic Police Corps, Insp. Gen. Istiono made headlines this week after seemingly encouraging people to perform mudik (the annual Idul Fitri homecoming exodus) despite the government trying to do the exact friggin opposite. A travel ban is in place between May 6 and 17 and General Istiono said IN A WRITTEN STATEMENT that “before May 6, go ahead. We will ‘perlancar’ (make your ride smoother).” For a spoken statement that’s pretty bold, for a written statement that’s insanely bold.
It wasn’t long until he would regret saying that and changed his tune, especially after his statement received widespread condemnation. He later said that even though it is allowed, people are advised not to. He even warned that under a regulation issued by Covid 19 Task Force people performing mudik before or after May 6 will face a 5 day quarantine.
Except the quarantine is not for people travelling before May 6 but those who secured a special permission to travel for specific reasons.
Yes, you need a special permission to travel out of the city after May 6 except if you are in Jakarta, Makassar, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Solo, Surabaya and Medan and you’re travelling within your own urban agglomeration.
You’ll still need to take those tests if you have them special permits. However, if you’re using a GeNose test and you’re fasting, make sure you take the test in the morning or after iftar. Researchers behind the testing machine said six hours of fasting could tamper with results due to an increase in one’s gastric acid. Well… we had people who swore that results are also unreliable even when they’re not fasting.
Vaksin Nusantara Returns
We have highlighted in our special report that the so-called “Vaksin Nusantara” is not really a vaccine, not really from the motherland and its research not really up to standards.
We have also reported that the Food and Drug Agency (BPOM) refused to give the greenlight for the treatment to go to phase 2 clinical trial. In fact, the BPOM is asking people behind Vaksin Nusantara to redo not just their phase 1 clinical trial but all the way to their preclinical trial.
Which is why jaws were dropped, heads were turned, and faces were palmed when 40 members of parliament announced that they were getting the “vaccine”. Politician/businessman Aburizal Bakrie, former TNI chief Gatot Nurmantyo, several former ministers, and celebrities also said they got the Vaksin Nusantara jab.
The “vaccination” was done at Gatot Subroto Army Hospital, once headed by the initiator of Vaksin Nusantara, former health minister, his cloudestness, Terawan Agus Putranto.
The thing is, some of these people already got the jab using Sinovac. For members of parliament, they were vaccinated all the way back in February along with members of the families.
It looks like these politicians are trying to put pressure on the BPOM to give their stamp of approval and show the public that they should get behind this “Vaksin Nusantara” even when several institutions who were initially involved in the project decided to bail.
Not wanting MPs to keep pressuring the BPOM, 100 public figures wrote an open letter in support of the BPOM. The BPOM also got the support of the Indonesian Doctors Association, epidemiologists, academics as well as the Covid-19 Task Force.
The BPOM is adamant that the people behind Vaksin Nusantara redo their trials, particularly given the fact that 20 out of 28 people had mild to moderate side effects, including fever, migraines, rash to increased cholesterol level, something which the people behind the treatment acknowledged.
Silicon Valley, Meet Algorithm Hill
In 2015 tech entrepreneur Satya Witoelar welcomed everyone to Slipicon Valley. The name being a wordplay on California’s Silicon Valley, referring to the area in West Jakarta which apparently is home to many of Indonesia’s startups.
Slipicon Valley aside, every few years you hear about efforts to emulate or imitate Silicon Valley and often it starts with some claim about providing a high tech center for technology companies or startups and end up being just a flash in the pan or little more than some office space. Sinar Mas had a plan for Serpong, Banten, ITB plans to build one in Jatinangor West Java, the government wanted one back in 2015, industrial area developer Jababeka boasted about building one in 2019, and so on. We’re just tired of hearing one after another, honestly.
And yet, the dream just wouldn’t die. This past week, firebrand PDIP politician Budiman Sudjatmiko made the audacious claim that his company, PT Kiniku Bintang Raya, is working on creating such an area in an 888 hectare land in Sukabumi, West Java, which the company already has rights to. The project, dubbed Algorithm Hill, or Bukit Algoritma, will involve state construction company PT Amarta Karya and is projected to cost Rp18 trillion or more than US$1.2 billion for the first three years in which they will build the necessary infrastructure to turn the land into a high tech research and development center.
He also claimed that the project will be funded entirely privately through investors from different parts of the world without involving taxpayer’s money. To give some scale, $1.2 billion is just a tad higher than what SpaceX raised in its latest funding round, which comes after $1.9 billion it raised in August 2020. Throughout 2020, though, Indian mobile company Reliance Jio raised $20 billion with $5.7 billion raised just from Facebook and $4.6 billion from Google. Can you imagine what you can do with a billion dollars, let alone 20 billion? Even Dr. Evil initially only asked for One. Million. Dollars. Only to be laughed at by his fellow evil co-conspirators.
Budiman unfortunately hasn’t revealed who his investors are or whether the full amount has been raised but he said that the project has drawn a wide interest from various investors. So, raising One. Billion. Dollars. from private investors is really not that big of a deal. The entire 2021 budget for Indonesia’s tourism is apparently Rp14 trillion, Rp4 trillion less than the budget for Bukit Algoritma.
Quick Reads
We’d love to use a coding reference here but we’re not programmers so we have no idea what a valid Goto statement would look like. Anyway, if the above statement is true, then new company could be worth $18 billion (with a bee) when they finally merge. Else it’ll just be business as usual with Shopee looking to increase their dominance in the Indonesian market.
A city ordinance in Serang, Banten, threatens restaurants and cafes with three months imprisonment or Rp50 million fine if they open and serve customers during the day in the middle of Ramadan. Serang Mayor Syafrudin, said those who don’t fast “could show some respect to the Muslims who do by eating at home”, showing an utter lack of understanding of what Ramadan is all about and proudly parading a sense of entitlement from a demographic majority. The Religious Affairs Ministry calls this a violation of human rights.
Two scammers from East Java were arrested for creating 14 fake US government websites and collecting $60 million meant to assist American residents affected by the pandemic. They distributed the links to the websites via SMS to 20 million American mobile numbers and managed to snare personal data of 30,000 Americans hoping to collect government aid. The scam apparently had been running since May 2020.
Although the FBI came to oversee the case, the two suspects, identified by their initials “SFR” and “MZMSBP” (we kid you not) were arrested by Indonesian police and will be charged with the ITE law. They could face 9 years in prison if convicted.
The Corruption Eradication Commission lost a literal truckload of evidence when a truck in Kotabaru, South Kalimantan, containing evidence to 2016-2017 bribery cases involving the Tax Directorate, went missing just before the investigators arrived to inspect the truck. The Commission is requesting public information regarding the missing truck and its contents.
Cikampek Toll Road Renamed After Arab Sheikh
The 36km Jakarta – Cikampek toll road which is infamous for being wavy has been renamed the Mohamed bin Zayed toll road after the Emirati Crown Prince, to mark the 45 year relationship between United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. Last October, the UAE city of Abu Dhabi renamed Al Ma’arid Street in the city’s embassy area to President Joko Widodo Street. That’s so sweet.