It’s been quite a mixed week with news of yet more dumb foreigners in Bali catching the attention of immigration authorities, Indians fleeing to Indonesia to avoid Covid-19 (huh?), Indonesian illiteracy on full display, before ending the week on a somber note. We start with the submarine.
Missing Submarine Found Perished
On Sunday evening Commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto announced during a press conference that rescuers have found the wreckage of KRI Nanggala 402. The submarine was located 838 meters below surface, broken in three parts. ACM Hadi subsequently declared all 53 hands lost in the incident.
The wreckage was identified by KRI Rigel’s Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) but they needed the ROV from Singapore’s MV Swift Rescue to reach the required depth and produce clearer images. The findings confirmed that the vessel was split into three parts and they’ve also recovered several items including escape suits that indicated that the crew had attempted to abandon ship.
Since Wednesday, rescuers have been trying to find the Indonesian Navy submarine Nanggala-402 which was last spotted 23 nautical miles (42km) off the northern coast of Bali. The submarine was participating in a military exercise when it submerged at 3am as it prepared to launch a torpedo at a periscope depth of 13m. The submarine’s periscope was still visible until 3.46am when participants of the drill lost sight of the submarine entirely.
Drill instructors tried to contact the submarine repeatedly to no avail. Even at 5.15am when the submarine was supposed to resurface, Nanggala-402’s whereabouts was still unknown. At 6.16, Nanggala-402 was officially declared missing. 53 people were on board the submarine.
Two dozen ships and hundreds of people have been involved in the search and rescue efforts including teams from Singapore, Australia and the United States and more foreign rescuers are on their way. They were racing against time because in the event of a power blackout, the crew would only have 72 hours of oxygen. If power was still on, they could still filter the air and everyone on board could survive five days underwater.
On Saturday morning, Navy chief, Admiral Yudo Margono announced that the submarine was no longer considered missing but had sunk after a few debris which had originated from the submarine along with a number of personal belongings had been found.
The admiral said the discovery indicated that the hull of the submarine had cracked from the pressure of the water and that the submarine might have sunk to the bottom of the ocean 850m deep, way beyond the diesel-powered submarine’s maximum depth of 500m.
Finding a submarine, which is designed to stealthily infiltrate enemy waters, is very difficult and Business Insider has a great article on why that is the case.
Unfortunately, the KRI Nanggala-402 and its crew have now sailed their last voyage. Fair winds and following seas, sailors.
India’s Alarming Covid Situation
Indonesia became one of the latest countries to ban foreigners from India, or anyone with a recent travel history to India, into their country. India is now looking at what some say as a “tsunami” of Covid-19 cases while others say that the country has descended into “Covid-hell.” Situation in India got so bad that people are fleeing to other countries, including here.
On Wednesday, 117 foreigners and 10 Indonesians arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport from Chennai, India, using a charter plane. Immigration let them enter Indonesian territories because there was no ban at the time and the foreigners all had KITAS. During their isolation period, 12 Indian nationals who were on that flight tested positive for COVID-19.
It is not known how many foreigners have arrived from India since the country experienced the surge in Covid-19 cases. One Health Ministry official said that there had been hundreds and some of whom had tested positive.
Covid-19 task force said they all carried negative PCR certificates. Now just because someone had a negative PCR certificate doesn’t mean they are Covid-19 free by the time they arrive. That is the case for 1,626 Indonesians and 241 foreigners who arrived in Indonesia from overseas since December. They all tested positive upon arrival. 30 of these foreigners are from India.
Starting 12am on Sunday, Indonesia temporarily stopped issuing visas for Indian nationals or foreigners who have travelled to India in the last 14 days. Indonesians arriving from India will be permitted entry but have to isolate for 14 days instead of 5.
Indonesia is a bit late in the game. Singapore has banned arrivals from India since Friday, Canada since Thursday, Pakistan since Monday, and New Zealand since 11 April.
Just how bad is the situation in India? On Thursday, the country reported 314,835 new infections, a new record, topping a peak of 314,312 recorded in the U.S. on Dec. 21. On Friday, another record was set at 332,730, before Saturday broke that record with 346,789, and Sunday, today, delivered 349,691 new cases. Phew.
India also recorded the highest single-day death toll on Friday, with 2,263 new deaths but on Saturday the country had 2,624 deaths and on Sunday 2,767. Say what?
The surge is not only blamed at a “double mutant” variant of the coronavirus but also the fact that they have been staging sports matches, weddings, events, political campaigns and a religious festival Kumbh Mela, which attracted 5 million worshipers.
As of Sunday, 25 April, nearly 17 million people in India has had Covid-19.
Indonesia’s Full of Illiterates
A viral TikTok video showed Indonesian elementary school children struggling to respond to the question, “what does the acronym SD stand for?” which is Sekolah Dasar, or Elementary School.
Though amusing, it highlights the problem that underlies the education system and the way school children just ignores or skips basic knowledge taught at school. The system apparently had driven the children to only retain information on what they wanted to know or what is being asked in homeworks, tests, and examinations. There’s hardly any thirst for knowledge, according to a child psychologist interviewed by CNN Indonesia.
A 2019 report by the Education Ministry found that the majority of Indonesians have low to very low literacy levels and no province had recorded high or very high levels. Out of a competency score of 100, only nine of the country’s 34 provinces scored between 40-60 while 29 provinces scored between 20-40 and one between 0-20.
The country’s PISA scores over the last several years had been roughly more than 100 points below the OECD average across reading, mathematics, and science.
No wonder almost everyone in the country seems to have serious reading comprehension issues.
More Dumb Foreigners
Adding to the increasing number of dumb foreigners in Bali, a Russian influencer and her Taiwanese boyfriend placed themselves in the crosshairs of Bali’s immigration authorities after a prank involving a painted fake face mask.
The influencer supposedly forgot to bring a mask when they were about to enter a supermarket in Bali, so her friend, who also happen to be Josh Paler Lin, a YouTube star with millions of subscribers and known for making prank videos, decided that painting a fake mask over her face would be hilarious, despite her initial reservations.
While they claimed that the prank worked because they were allowed in by the security guard and people seemed to accept that she’s actually wearing a mask, although some had suspicious looks on their faces, we’re more inclined to believe that the other shoppers simply chose to mind their own business instead of confronting them.
None would have been the wiser had they not decided to post the entire thing on social media. So of course it went viral. Of course it was noticed by more people than they’d care to imagine. Of course the authorities stepped in. Now their passports have been seized by the immigration authorities and they may be deported.
It’s friggin pandemic and they made a video flouting the laws and endangering the lives of everyone around them. If they became infected and spread the virus to other people, how sorry do you think they’d be?
The original video had been taken down and their accounts went private for a while but the video is still available here so you can watch it yourself. Josh posted this apology video a few days ago, shot in the law office of their legal representatives. The pair are currently awaiting trial.
Quick Reads
Speaking of Josh, … it’s not Indonesia but we just had to add this in because it was such an epic Internet moment. The Josh fight that was called on April last year actually happened today and from dozens, maybe a few hundred Joshes who participated in the pool noodle bash, a five year old Josh was crowned champion.
The recent enforcement of shariah finance laws in Aceh has forced conventional banks to leave the province, leaving only shariah banks. Aceh had been operating under shariah law since 2005 when it was given special autonomy by the Indonesian government. The province has gradually enforced harsh Islamic laws across all walks of live ever since.
Jakarta’s morning air is still toxic
Throughout the week Jakarta’s Air Quality Index had gone over 150 consistently and it’s toxic for those who wish to exercise in the morning. While the cleanest air is actually during lunch time, the worst is between 9pm and 9am. Including weekends.
Transgender Indonesians to get ID cards
Many transgender individuals in Indonesia apparently don’t possess official identity cards for various reasons and it’s preventing them from accessing basic and common government services. The Home Affairs Ministry will now fulfill their constitutional right by issuing them the necessary documents. However, the ID cards will not recognize them as transgenders and will use their official birth or legal names.