Hi folks, we’re back after some time off. Did you miss us? Let’s get straight into it, shall we?
The Rp2 Trillion Prank
As they say: “when something is too good to be true, it probably is.” But the writing on the wall appeared to be ignored by just about everyone, including the police chief of South Sumatra Insp. Gen. Eko Indra Heri and Governor Herman Deru when they ceremoniously received a check for Rp 2 trillion on July 26, from the family of the late businessman Akidi Tio.
Mr Akidi, his daughter Heriyanti said, left a will saying that he had set aside such an astronomically large sum of money to help others. The family decided that the Rp2 trillion inheritance should be used to help the province’s efforts to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic.
The gesture garnered nationwide praise. One politician even highlighted the fact that the late businessman’s donation was second only to Bill Gates’. Netizens are more worried that such a huge sum of money would likely end up in the pockets of crooked bureaucrats.
Hardly anyone questioned if the money, pledged by a relatively unknown contractor, was real. When the time came to cash in the check the bank simply told officials that the money wasn’t there.
On Aug 2, Heriyanti was taken to the South Sumatra police HQ for questioning after she exited a bank. The provincial police’s intelligence and security director Sr. Come. Ratno Kuncoro even told the media that she was “arrested” and had been declared as a “suspect” on a slew of charges including “insulting the state”.
South Sumatra police spokesperson Sr. Commisioner Supriadi later insisted that she wasn’t arrested and that police were simply seeking “clarification” which by the way lasted eight hours. The spokesperson also insisted that she had not been charged with anything and that police were simply requiring her to “wajib lapor” or come to the HQ on a regular basis.
The drama continues. A former minister claimed that a source told him that the money is real and is stashed somewhere in Singapore, prompting a wide discussion on Indonesian money stashed overseas. The police chief is now facing an internal inquiry by the National Police chief despite apologizing for the fiasco. And police had enlisted the help of psychologists to examine Heriyanti.
Covid-19 Situation
Number of new cases is still fluctuating nationally, ranging between 26k to 39k daily during this past one week. Although confirmed infections are declining throughout Java and Bali, the same cannot be said for the rest of the country.
Jokowi highlighted this during a cabinet meeting on Saturday. He even brought up how on Aug 6, cases outside of Java and Bali represented 54% of the daily national caseload and urged regional leaders to pay close attention to this.
Epidemiologists have been expressing concerns about the spike outside of Java and Bali for weeks. Their healthcare system and testing capacity are not as good as Java and Bali, thanks to unequal wealth distribution. Meanwhile, vaccination isn’t as massive, because again... unequal distribution.
Besides, the Covid-19 mitigation efforts for outside Java and Bali is not led by the much more powerful Hammer and Mace Minister for Everything but the Economy Minister who once tried to hide the fact that he got Covid and now appears to be busy erecting billboards even though the presidential election is three years away and there are more pressing issues at hand.
Now, despite new cases dropping nationally, our daily death toll is actually still pretty bad fluctuating between 1,500 to 1,800 a day. Experts say this is caused by our low vaccination rate and the fact that some people opted to stay out of the hospital even though the hospital bed occupancy rate has gotten better.
But we think mortality is still high compared to new cases because we are not testing enough people. Positive rate still exceeds 25% most days and we are only testing 100,000 to 152,000 people a day even though the government pledged to increase this to 400,000.
A Historic Olympics for Indonesia
The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics is over. Indonesia went home with one gold, one silver, and three bronze medals from the event, which equaled our second best haul of five medals in Barcelona 1992 but we did it with fewer athletes, 28 instead of 42. Also, in 1992 we took home two gold, two silver, and one bronze medals.
Frankly we probably should have gone home with more this time, given the opportunities and talents that we had in badminton, but the gold that we took was a prized one that’s proven to be elusive until this year.
Greysia Polii, who’s now also the oldest female badminton player to win a gold medal, along with her doubles partner of four years, Apriyani Rahayu, defeated China in straight sets in the final match to win the women’s double event. Their victory completed the set of Olympic badminton gold medals for Indonesia, making the country only the second to do so after China.
The closing ceremony was held without too much fanfare on Sunday night though there was an impressive light display which culminated in the Olympics logo being shown floating in the middle of Olympic Stadium.
It turns out, unfortunately, that it was just special effects done for the TV broadcast. Athletes and other ceremony participants in the stadium were standing still in darkness waiting for the segment to end. Bummer.
Fun fact, Tokyo Ska Paradise who performed at the ceremony, played Kyu Sakamoto’s Sukiyaki, which many Indonesians know as Nyanyian Kode, thanks to Warkop DKI’s Kasino who messed up the song in their movie, Pintar Pintar Bodoh.
While the Summer Olympics is over, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will happen on 24 August to 5 September and Indonesia will be fielding 23 athletes to compete in seven events. Seven competitors each to athletics and badminton, one cyclist, one power lifter, two shooters, two swimmers, and one table tennis player.
Indonesia had been quite a strong participant in the Paralympics in the 70s and 80s and more surprisingly the fields in which the athletes brought medals were athletics and … lawn bowls. Yes, lawn bowls. Unfortunately we haven’t been as strong since.
Quick Reads
Holiday shift to avoid long weekend
In case you missed it, the government has decided to shift the Islamic New Year holiday to Wednesday to prevent anyone from having a long weekend this week because you know… pandemic. To be clear, the Islamic New Year still falls on Tuesday, only the public holiday will be shifted. So kris owners beware. We’re not sure when Suzanna’s “Malam Satu Suro” will be on.
Now… if they follow the same logic, do you think they’ll shift the Independence Holiday too?
More attempts to boost national pride
The Ministry for Education, Culture, Research, and Technology had issued a decree mandating every official and staffer of a public or state university to stage flag raising ceremonies every Monday to boost national pride.
The decree, which was signed on Jul 21 but only became public on Aug 1, also mandated that the National Anthem be played every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am and the Pancasila be recited on Wednesdays and Fridays also at 10am.
Because we are still in a pandemic, the ceremony can be performed online.
No More Cheetos, Doritos, and Lays
The split between PepsiCo’s Frito Lays and Indofood means these three favorite snacks will disappear from Indonesia for the next three years. While the companies announced the separation last February, retail sales will cease this month. Apparently, though, Indofood will rebrand those snacks into their own. We won’t know for sure if they’ll keep the same flavors until these “new” snacks hit the shelves.
The notorious drummer for Superman is Dead, I Gede Ari Astina, who also goes by Jerinx, may be going back to the court after he openly accused a man of causing his Instagram account to be deactivated and threatened him with physical assault. Jerinx is known to have his social media accounts suspended multiple times for various reasons. He’s barely spent time out of jail after accusing the Indonesian Doctor’s Association of being minions of the WHO.