Hi folks,
Despite the best efforts of the government and the Presidential Palace, students across the country will be staging rallies today protesting a number of issues, but primarily the potential violation of the constitutional term limit after multiple political parties and prominent politicians couldn’t stop talking about it since February.
Also, it’s unquestionable that President Jokowi has absolute trust in our dear Lord Luhut after he named the former Army general as the head of a new government council. It is his 14th formal appointment during Jokowi’s administration. Frankly he’s effectively our Prime Minister given his involvement and influence in just about everything the government does.
The Man for Every Occasion
President Jokowi has formed a National Council for Water Resources which will be led by Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
The Council, which will be run by government ministers, regional heads, and field experts, will oversee the planning, management, and distribution of water resources for various purposes across the country, including but not limited to rivers, river beds, flood plains, and freshwater springs.
The Lord Minister, having held 14 formal roles since joining the Jokowi administration, is currently responsible for a number of concurrent roles, including being the Deputy Head of the Covid-19 Management and Economic Recovery Committee, the Coordinator for the Java+Bali PPKM Management for Covid-19, chief of the Jakarta-Bandung Fast Train Committee, the head of the Proudly Indonesian Made Movement, as well as the head of the Maritime Policy Action Plan, not to mention his formal role in the cabinet as Coordinating Minister as well as being one of three Ministers responsible in leading the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
During President Jokowi’s first term, he was the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Security before being appointed as the President’s first Chief of Staff later that same year. In 2016 when Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Arcandra Tahar had to resign for being a dual American-Indonesian citizen, Luhut held the post until former train chief Ignasius Jonan was appointed to the role.
In 2018 Luhut became the head of the organizing committee when the IMF-World Bank conference was held in the country. He was later appointed as the head of the National Team for the Increased Use of Domestically Produced Goods, a role which led him to head the Proudly Indonesian Made Movement.
When the Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi had to step away due to Covid-19 in 2020, guess who became the caretaker Minister? He did the same when Ocean and Fisheries Minister Edhy Prabowo was forced to resign after being charged and later convicted in the lobster seed scandal.
Luhut is also currently the Head of the Steering Board for the Relief of National Priority Lakes.
Either the Lord Minister has mastered the Kage Bunshin No Jutsu or he has possession of Professor Dumbledore’s Time Turner because there’s no way a person has that level of time and task management skills.
Students are Going on the Streets Again
University students across the country will be taking to the streets again today en masse following smaller rallies over the last few weeks. The students are protesting the President’s lack of assertiveness in rejecting the idea of a third Presidential term or extension of his current term.
Following months of innuendo and suggestions from multiple political parties, politicians, and government ministers, it wasn’t until Sunday night, on the eve of the mass rallies, that the President definitively stated that the general election will take place as scheduled on 14 February 2024 and instructed the government and election agencies to ensure that it happens without delay.
“I think it’s clear that everyone knows that the general election will take place on 14 February 2024,” the President said on his official YouTube channel on Sunday.
To dissuade further speculations, the President said that the members of the General Elections Commision will be formally appointed on Tuesday 12 April. He also called for the necessary legal requirements to be swiftly completed and the Rp110 billion budget allocated.
Ahead of the protests, social media was rife with hashtags and calls to remove the president, something that the nationwide University Student Executive Body have denied had anything to do with them.
According to their release, their goal is to ensure the 2024 elections take place as scheduled without any presidential term extensions. Among their several other demands are commitment to investigate the cooking oil scarcity and price rise, a review the problematic laws on the establishment of the New Capital City, along with the environmental, social, and ecological impact as well as from disaster management and mitigation aspects, and a call to parliament members to serve the people instead of the political parties.
Several days prior, the national coordinator of the Executive Body said that his Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp accounts were hijacked to send messages saying that the national rallies have been canceled. The messages claimed that the cancellation is due to Ramadan and the Covid-19 situation is not being fully under control.
Quick Reads
Convicted Rapist Sentenced to Death
Herry Wirawan’s life sentence has been changed to death after the prosecution appealed against the February verdict by the State Court. The Bandung High Court agreed with the prosecution’s appeal and sentenced the convicted rapist to death, in line with the original demand. Wirawan was found guilty of raping 13 of his former students who went to school at his pesantren in West Java. A public testimony by one of his victims last year brought the cases to light after he had managed to keep them quiet for some time.
Semarang’s Agents of SHIELD
The Semarang municipal government was caught using the logo of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD without permission earlier this week for their urban planning program and deleted all social media posts referring to the program’s launch soon after. The Mayor and the urban planning office even claimed that it was okay because they’re not using it for commercial purposes. Obviously not understanding how intellectual property rights works.
It looks like they’ve decided to drop the logo and run a design competition for a new one where the winner will get a portion of the 5 million IDR prize money.
Bandung’s New Bus Corridor Halted
Bandung’s five corridor Trans Metro Pasundan service launched its third corridor covering the Baleendah-BEC route last week. However, it has already been suspended until further notice due to harassment and protests by premans and angkot drivers fighting for traditional territorial claims. The bus routes are part of a national program by the Transport Ministry to ensure that major cities have properly organized and reliable public transportation services. Trans Metro Pasundan was inaugurated in December last year but has faced several obstacles from traditional transport providers and local thugs.