Category Archives: Indonesia

Indonesia names site of capital city to replace sinking Jakarta

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Choice of Borneo for £27bn project raises fears of forest destruction and pollution

Indonesia has announced plans to move its capital from the climate-threatened megalopolis of Jakarta to the sparsely populated island of Borneo, which is home to some of the world’s greatest tropical rainforests.

President Joko Widodo said the move was necessary because the burden on Jakarta was “too heavy”, but environmentalists said the $33bn relocation needed to be carefully handled or it would result in fleeing one ecological disaster only to create another.

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West Papua: thousands expected at fresh protests after week of violence

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Rallies that began after military taunted Papuans with racist slurs have led to the government blocking internet in the region

Thousands of protesters were expected to take to the streets in six regions of West Papua on Monday, one week after violent demonstrations flared across Indonesia’s easternmost provinces, leaving one dead and dozens injured.

Activists expect thousands will join the protests as the population of highland areas is largely comprised of indigenous Papuans, compared with coastal towns such as Jayapura, where migrants from across Indonesia make up half of the population.

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West Papua protests: Indonesia deploys 1,000 soldiers to quell unrest, cuts internet

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Jakarta cuts online access to Papua ‘and surrounding areas’ until the atmosphere ‘returns to being conducive and normal’

Indonesia has deployed more than 1,000 security personnel to West Papua and cut internet access, amid days of violent demonstrations in what activists say are the largest protests to occur in the region in years.

On Wednesday, violent unrest occurred in Fakfak, where a market was set ablaze and street battles erupted between police and protesters.

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Protesters in West Papua clash with Indonesian security forces – in pictures

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Large demonstrations and violent protests have taken place across the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. On Wednesday, Jakarta said it was sending a further 1,000 security personnel to tackle the unrest, sparked by the arrest of Papuan students in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. Indonesia’s communications ministry cut the internet to its most eastern province on Wednesday ‘until the atmosphere of Papua returns to being conducive and normal’. Jakarta has battled an independence insurgency in the region since it was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a widely discredited UN-sponsored ballot

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Suburb in the sky: how Jakartans built an entire village on top of a mall

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Depending who you ask, Cosmo Park is an ingenious urban oasis or an ill-conceived dystopia

It’s Thursday and the residents of Jakarta’s Cosmo Park are out jogging, watering their plants or walking their dogs along neat asphalt roads.

Neighbourhood kids pedal their bikes under frangipani trees and peach-coloured bougainvillea to the pool and tennis court. Apartments, comfortable and modern, sit side by side, with barbecues and toys stacked outside.

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Two Australians arrested in Bali reportedly linked to cocaine trafficking

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Charges yet to be laid against former Melbourne nightclub promoters William Cabantog and David Van Iersel

Two former Melbourne nightclub promoters are being held in Bali amid reported links to a cocaine-trafficking operation.

The men have been named in media outlets as William Cabantog, 35, and David Van Iersel, 38.

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Garuda Indonesia bans in-flight photos after being mocked for handwritten menu

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Popular video blogger whose image of the menu went viral now faces police inquiry

Indonesia’s national airline has come under fire for banning the taking of in-flight images after a popular video blogger posted a photo online showing a handwritten menu he was handed in business class.

The travel v-logger Rius Vernandes was also reported to police after the post, which led to the airline Garuda Indonesia being widely mocked online. The photo was uploaded with the caption: “The menu is still being printed sir.”

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Indonesian women suffering ‘epidemic’ of domestic violence, activists warn

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Marital rape not being prosecuted enough, campaigners say, in a country where women face growing harassment

Activists have warned of an “epidemic” of sexual harassment and violence against women in Indonesia, in the wake of two recent cases of horrific domestic abuse.

In one incident, a man in Jakarta reportedly slashed his wife’s throat with a machete after she refused to have sex with him, an act witnessed by their two children, aged seven and 14.

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Australia urged to invest in recycling manufacturing after Indonesia sends rubbish back

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Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggests

Australia could quickly solve the problem of Indonesia and other countries rejecting its waste if governments invested in recycling manufacturing as promised and required the use of recycled material in public projects, industry and environmental groups say.

Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish.

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Forest twice size of UK destroyed in decade for big consumer brands – report

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Greenpeace estimates 50m hectares cleared by 2020, warning companies must evolve to prevent ‘climate breakdown’

An area twice the size of the UK has been destroyed for products such as palm oil and soy over the last decade, according to analysis by Greenpeace International.

In 2010, members of the Consumer Goods Forum, including some of the world’s biggest consumer brands, pledged to eliminate deforestation by 2020, through the sustainable sourcing of four commodities most linked to forest destruction: soya, palm oil, paper and pulp, and cattle.

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Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung spews huge column of ash during latest eruption – video

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Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, sent a huge plume of thick ash 7km high into the sky during an eruption on 9 June. Residents living near the volcano were urged to use masks when ash rains down and those living along the rivers upstream were warned of cold lava floods during rains. There were no reports of casualties.

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Labor holds off supporting Indonesian free trade agreement

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ALP had pledged to renegotiate agreement if it won office but will now wait until parliament resume to decide whether to ratify it

Labor is holding out its support for the Indonesian free trade agreement signed off by the Coalition in the previous parliament, as the trade minister, Simon Birmingham, warns against a retreat into protectionism following a meeting of G20 trade ministers.

Speaking to Guardian Australia following the meeting in Tokyo over the weekend, Birmingham said that given trade tensions between China and the US, the country’s signed agreements with Indonesia, Peru and Hong Kong carry additional importance.

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Treated like trash: south-east Asia vows to return mountains of rubbish from west

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Region begins pushback against deluge of plastic and electronic waste from UK, US and Australia

For the past year, the waste of the world has been gathering on the shores of south-east Asia. Crates of unwanted rubbish from the west have accumulated in the ports of the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam while vast toxic wastelands of plastics imported from Europe and the US have built up across Malaysia.

But not for much longer it seems. A pushback is beginning, as nations across south-east Asia vow to send the garbage back to where it came from.

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Mount Agung: flights cancelled after Bali volcano erupts

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Volcano spews ash over popular tourist island but authorities yet to raise alert level

Bali’s airport has cancelled flights following an eruption of the Mount Agung volcano, which spread ash over the south of the Indonesian island.

The national disaster agency said Friday night’s eruption lasted four minutes and 30 seconds, spreading lava and incandescent rocks about 3km from the crater.

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Indonesia riots: six dead after protesters clash with troops over election result

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Mobs set fire to vehicles in Jakarta after supporters of Prabowo Subianto, who lost the vote, took to the streets

Six people are dead and more than 200 are injured, according to Jakarta’s governor, after mobs clashed with security forces and set fire to a police dormitory and vehicles in the Indonesian capital following the release of official election results.

National Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said protests by supporters of an unsuccessful presidential candidate turned violent late on Tuesday and continued through the night. Police said they had arrested 20 “provocateurs”.

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Indonesian troops on alert as Widodo wins more than half of votes

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Country fears civil unrest as rival campaign complains of cheating in general election

Heavily armed troops are on high alert in Indonesia amid fears of civil unrest after the incumbent president was declared the winner of last month’s election in a surprise early announcement by the election commission.

Joko Widodo took 55.5% of votes against 44.5% for his challenger, retired general Prabowo Subianto, the commission said on Tuesday.

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‘Moral panic’ over gender identity film sparks backlash in Indonesia

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Director gets death threats as 93,000 sign petition to have ‘LGBT film’ Memories of My Body banned lest young ‘imitate behaviour’

The release of an award-winning Indonesian film about a male dancer exploring his sexuality has led to a backlash from religious groups in the south-east Asian country.

The release of Garin Nugroho’s Memories of My Body comes at a time of increased antagonism towards the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

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Goodbye, Jakarta? Indonesia’s president suggests new capital

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Idea of unhitching country’s administrative centre from its megacity has a long history – but experts are sceptical

Not only is the megacity of Jakarta besieged by a confluence of modern ills – including pollution, overpopulation and soul-destroying traffic – it is also one of the fastest-sinking capitals in the world.

So when Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, this week suggested making somewhere else the capital, it did not come as a shock. Indeed, the idea of relocating the country’s administrative centre is almost as old as the republic itself – it was floated by Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, in 1957 and has been brought up again by several presidents since.

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Indonesia election: 270 officials die as overwork takes toll in huge poll

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Electoral commission says most died from fatigue due caused by long hours counting millions of ballots

Ten days after Indonesia held the world’s biggest single-day elections, officials say more than 270 election staff have died, mostly of fatigue-related illneses caused by long hours of work counting millions of ballot papers by hand.

The 17 April elections were the first time the country of 260 million people combined the presidential vote with national and regional parliamentary ones, with an aim to cut costs.

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‘Death by a thousand cuts’: vast expanse of rainforest lost in 2018

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Pristine forests are vital for climate and wildlife but trend of losses is rising, data shows

Millions of hectares of pristine tropical rainforest were destroyed in 2018, according to satellite analysis, with beef, chocolate and palm oil among the main causes.

The forests store huge amounts of carbon and are teeming with wildlife, making their protection critical to stopping runaway climate change and halting a sixth mass extinction. But deforestation is still on an upward trend, the researchers said. Although 2018 losses were lower than in 2016 and 2017, when dry conditions led to large fires, last year was the next worst since 2002, when such records began.

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