Although we started the week with some aggressive chess moves, the end of the week gave us a reminder that terrorism and violent religious conflicts remain a reality in this so called diverse nation under the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika banner. While it brought up some terrifying memories, at least there were no immediate casualties aside from the suspected pair of bombers thanks to a quick thinking of a security guard. Let’s get on with this week’s updates, shall we?
A Chesstacular Spectacle
The highly anticipated chess match between WGM Irene Sukandar and Dadang Subur a.k.a Dewa Kipas took place on Monday. Dewa Kipas shot to international infamy following his controversial match with Levy Rozman, a.k.a @GothamChess in which he was accused (with evidence) of cheating. The friendly match, hosted by former magician and headliner Deddy Corbuzier, ended after only three games with Dadang resigning after an hour and 20 minutes. He elected to forfeit the fourth and last game. Post game analysis showed that he kept making mistakes and unable to keep up with the Grand Master’s moves, notching less than 40% accuracy.
The match made international headlines and recognized as the being the most watched livestreamed chess match ever, pulling 1.25 million viewers at its peak, more than 10x the typical high profile match. It was even acknowledged by the International Chess Federation.
Boosting Alms
The National Alms Agency (Baznas) plans to auto-deduct 2.5% of Muslim civil servants' monthly salaries as well as employees of participating state-owned enterprises and private sector for Islamic alms or zakat.
Baznas chief Noor Achmad claimed that President Jokowi supported the plan and will soon issue a presidential decree. The stamp of approval, he said, was made when he met the President to present the plan on Feb 24. The palace has not made any comment on the matter, although the Veep tweeted on Feb 5 that he wanted to see innovation from the Alms Agency on how to increase the amount of payer.
The Baznas chief explained that only those with a yearly salary equal to 85 grams of gold will face the auto-deduction. That translates to around Rp 7 million a month. If he has his way, the plan could be implemented as early as this Ramadan.
Noor also said that this auto-zakat will likely not be managed by the agency but left to each institution's discretion as long as it is in line with Islamic law regarding zakat's usage. This naturally got many people nervous. If they can siphon aid during a friggin pandemic, they can siphon anything, amirite?
Gamified Vax Scheme
Our relatively slow vaccination rate is forcing the government to get creative. One solution, which appears to be taken right out of a multi-level marketing handbook, is being formulated. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Friday that he will soon issue a policy allowing people under 60 to get the jab if they bring along two elderly people with them because “it’s hard to get older people (vaccinated).”
The government is trying to vaccinate at least 500,000 people a day between March and April and 1 million a day afterwards. On the same day they managed to achieve that target for the first time by giving the first doses to almost 580,000 people and over 207,000 receiving their second doses. Although those numbers crashed to 64,188 and 12,645 respectively, today, March 28.
But there seems to be a huge stumbling block up ahead. Several countries are facing vaccine shortages at home and are imposing or will start imposing an export ban. India, which produces AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccines, is facing a shortage of raw materials after the US imposes a temporary ban on the export of bags, filters and other critical items that vaccine manufacturers in other countries need.
This is affecting shipments to Indonesia, the Indonesian Health Minister said. If we stick to the plan of inoculating 500,000 a day, our national stock will be gone by mid-April.
Goodnight to Vaksin Nusantara?
Speaking of vaccines, the hospital which oversaw the phase 1 trial for the controversial Vaksin Nusantara has asked not to be involved in future development of the “vaccine” due to lack of clearance from the Food and Drug Agency (BPOM).
The BPOM earlier discovered that Vaksin Nusantara developers had not conducted any pre-clinical trial and there were issues with how they select patients for their phase 1 trial.
Semarang’s Dr Kariadi General Hospital said they want developers of the vaccine to address some of the issues highlighted by the BPOM. But the hospital’s spokesman said they are “having trouble communicating with (Vaksin Nusantara) researchers and we don’t know where they are.”
Bye-bye Mudik. Again.
For the second year in a row, the government has banned people from doing mudik, the annual homecoming tradition during the Islamic holiday Eid al Fitr. Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Muhadjir Effendy said last time people went to their hometown to celebrate Eid, the number of daily COVID-19 infections rose between 68-93%. The ban will be in place between May 6-17, while the Eid holiday is set for May 12-16.
It is not clear how they plan on discouraging people from travelling this year. Last year, people still found their way home despite a similar ban which lasted way longer.
To be fair, some people back then had no choice but to go home because of the so-called Large Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) was in full swing and our President said that mudik and pulang kampung (literally homecoming) are two different things. So off they went from the cities bringing the virus with them.
This year’s mudik ban came just 10 days after Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said there won’t be one. The flip-flop is causing confusion and could even hurt the economy, economists warned.
Bills, bills, bills
A wave of cheers was heard around the internet when the proposed Elimination of Sexual Violence bill was included among priority legislations to be discussed in the parliament this year. The 2021 national legislation priority program consists of 21 bills proposed by the DPR, 10 by the government, and two by the DPD. Some controversial, others welcomed, and others still, unexpected.
The ESV bill (RUU PKS) has been a contentious one with conservative groups actively campaigning against its approval as they claimed that it contains an acceptance of non-marital sex, same sex couples, and support for sex education for minors. The bill had been in limbo since 2016. In the meantime, violence against girls and women had gone up from 348,000 cases in 2017 to over 430,000 in 2019.
The bill was included in last year’s program but dropped because the DPR claimed it was too difficult to discuss. They instead approved and passed the violently opposed Omnibus Law, a.k.a Work Creation Law, in just two days in October. Typically these things take a minimum of two weeks to a month. Priorities, eh? That gives no guarantee that RUU PKS will be discussed this year despite being part of the priority list.
The Personal Data Protection bill is another important one that made it into this year’s priority list after taking so long to be formulated. However, as with the contentious UU ITE which originally was meant to regulate online commerce but somehow became the go to law for thin skinned lowlifes, we’re extremely wary of how the parliament will handle this one because they don’t seem to understand the digital space. The ITE law itself was meant to be revised but the DPR decided against making further revisions despite a call from the President.
Bombing in Makassar
Just before 10.30 in the morning today an explosion rocked the city of Makassar after a pair of suspected suicide bombers detonated themselves at one of the gates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in the center of the city. While reports are still being gathered, the latest from today found that there were 20 injured victims including the security guard who stopped the bombers from entering the premises. The victims are being treated across several hospitals in the city.. The explosion happened in between Sunday mass sessions in observance of Palm Sunday ahead of Easter.
Experts say that there may have been several motives behind the attack including a retaliation against the arrest of dozens of suspected terrorists over the past several months, an anti-Christian conviction, and a deliberate attack ahead of Ramadan.
Until Next Week
This has been quite the wrap up for the week, so we’re going to skip the quick reads this time. Let us know if you have any feedback for the Nuiceletter, send us a DM on Twitter @nuicemedia or email us at nuicemedia@gmail.com. Share this with your friends and let them know they can sign up to receive our updates every Sunday night in their email inboxes. See you next month!