While Jakarta’s bike lanes are being considered for removal for endangering cars (bear with us), the biggest talking point this week was the apparent arrogance of road bike cyclists who came out in force defending their wrath against a motorcyclist who flipped the bird to them in a fit of anger for blocking the road. Meanwhile the KPK continues to be antagonistic regarding their controversial test and Rizieq Shihab’s sentencing was anticlimactic.
New Kings of the Road
A photo shared by Twitter user samartemaram depicting a motorcyclist flipping the bird to a bunch of road bike cyclists went viral this week.
The photo has since launched a thousand memes and prompted thousands of other social media users to share their own experiences encountering these bad behaving road bike cyclists who can be frequently spotted travelling in large groups across the capital, disregarding traffic rules, signs and lights, taking up space and not utilizing the newly established dedicated bike lanes. The law currently requires non motorized vehicles to use the left-most lane but it’s practically never enforced.
On its instagram account, GoShow.CC claimed that the viral photo involved members of their group. They said that they were out cycling to celebrate the birthday of a member and had been using the bike lane. They had to switch lanes “to pass the traffic down at Dukuh Atas. This is caused by a bus crossing over to (the) underpass of Dukuh Atas.” Looking at the photo tho, they were way off the bike lane.
The incident attracted a wave of condemnation including from the Bike2Work community who said these cyclists “had gone too far.” The municipal government has also criticized the bikers.
But so far, police said no action have been taken. They argued that even though the law is there, the dedicated bike lanes are still in their trial period.
The incident also came a week after police planned on installing a dedicated lane for road bikes on the Kampung Melayu-Tanah Abang elevated road, which oddly enough remains off limits to motorcycles and non-road bike bicycles.
While some say that this shows how privileged these road bike users are, the transportation agency defended the plan saying road bikes are more suited to the “characteristics of the road” than regular bikes.
Police recently said that once Jakarta’s dedicated lanes are fully operational, bikers will be penalized if they veer off to the regular lanes. The maximum penalty is 15 days detention or a Rp100K fine. That’s just lunch money, really.
KPK is Reaching the Point of No Return
The Corruption Eradication Commission is set to dismiss 51 of its employees after they failed the controversial “Tes Wawasan Kebangsaan” or Nationalism Comprehension Test. In total, 75 employees failed the test, and the KPK said 24 still have a shot at undergoing more training and retake the test.
Meanwhile, the 51, the KPK said, have scored so badly and “impossible to be retrained.”
The test is controversial because it contained highly irrelevant and inappropriate agree or disagree questions. Participants were required to express how they feel about topics like LGBT and Chinese Indonesians.
The test is also controversial because among those who failed are some of the KPK’s best and most senior investigators and members of the KPK workers’ union who have been critical towards their superiors.
KPK leaders are turning a blind eye on the controversial nature of the questions as well as the lack of transparency on how they are formulated and graded. KPK deputy chairman Nurul Ghufron said the five commissioners “don’t know and don’t want to know” what these questions are but argued that they don’t want to compromise the independence of the test.
President Jokowi has said that he doesn’t want to see the test become a reason for the KPK to dismiss employees although he stopped short from criticizing the test altogether.
The National Civil Service Agency (BKN) denied that they are defying the president's order. The agency promised all of their rights will be protected before they are formally dismissed on Nov 1.
KPK employees are not going down quietly. The hundreds of employees who have passed the test are calling for the test to be reviewed and for their friends to stay at the KPK. They also said they will boycott their swearing in ceremony slated for June 1.
Rizieq Shihab Found Guilty
Firebrand cleric Rizieq Shihab has been found guilty and sentenced to eight months in prison for knowingly violating health protocols in holding his daughter’s wedding ceremony which generated large amount of crowd in Jakarta, last November.
The cleric was also found guilty of evoking another crowd related to his sermon for the prophet Muhammad’s birthday in Bogor and prevented officials who tried to disband the event.
Prosecutors earlier sought two years in prison but the court dismissed the prosecution’s arguments that Rizieq had actively encouraged his followers to disobey health protocols. The judges also considered the fact that Shihab was open throughout the proceeding, is the breadwinner for his family and a religious teacher as mitigating circumstances.
Both sides can still lodge an appeal, although with just several months to go into his sentence, we don’t see why Rizieq would want to appeal. But then again, you never know.
We have to say that the whole thing was a bit anticlimactic, considering that Shihab went to great lengths to evade police and contact tracers. Several of his bodyguards were even killed in a police shootout. All that for eight months jail?
Meanwhile lawmakers are noting that unlike Rizieq, police are not going after other health protocol violators. The judges also noted the same thing and mentioned it in their ruling.
And there have been a number of similar infractions recently. This week, East Kalimantan Vice Governor staged an indoor wedding for his daughter involving 2000 guests. The province's spokesperson claimed the indoor wedding observed strict health protocol which included no handshaking, no buffets with guests divided into 4 shifts.
Meanwhile, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa has apologized for the birthday party which she claimed was attended by 49 people, with health protocols, staged without her knowledge nor consent despite being held at her official residence.
Quick Reads
A green streak of light was seen entering the Merapi crater in Jogjakarta from the sky. While many were expecting things ranging from regular meteor to the stuff of science fiction and superheroes, the head of the geological tech research agency said there was no discernible impact measured in any detector, meaning that whatever it was may not have actually entered or crashed into the volcano. We think there’s some X-Files shenanigans going on.
52 Year Old Band Member Becomes a Commissioner at Telkom
Popular rock musician Abdee Negara of Slank was named an independent member of Telkom Indonesia’s board of commissioners, which is now headed by recently replaced Research and Technology Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro. Many questioned his relevance and competency despite being heavily involved in the development of the country’s music and creative industry, because he’s been a staunch supporter and campaigner for the President.
New Driver’s License Types for Motorcycles
Your ordinary C driver-license will only be good to ride sub 250cc bikes. For 250-500cc you will now need to obtain a CI license. For 500cc you will need a CII license. Although the new regulation is officially in effect, police said it will be implemented gradually.
The new police regulation states, To obtain a CI license you must have a valid C license for more than a year. To obtain a CII license, you must have a CI license for more than a year which doesn't exist until now.
Question Mark for Hajj Pilgrimage
Saudi Arabia hasn’t budged from its requirement that hajj and umrah pilgrims be vaccinated with WHO-approved vaccines pre-departure. Sinovac, which is the primary vaccine used in Indonesia, is not one of them. The Indonesian government is still trying to work out a solution.
All remaining Giant supermarkets in the country will be shut down by July after Hero Supermarket, which operates Giant locally, decided to resurface the Hero brand as well as expand its more profitable divisions; IKEA and Guardian. Five Giant outlets will be converted into IKEA while some others will be turned into Hero Supermarkets while adding 100 more outlets of Guardian pharmacies.