May 5, 2015 edition
LAWYER and human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis admitted that on April 27 and 28 last week, the day of the Bali Nine (minus one, in the end) execution, he had a difficult time holding back his tears. With a heavy heart, he escorted the two convicted drug smugglers, Australian Andrew Chan and his fellow countryman Myuran Sukumaran, to Nusakambangan Prison at Cilacap, Central Java. Todung found it difficult to think that Chan and Sukumaran would face the firing squad soon. Chan had, the day before he was put to death, married Febyanti Herewila in prison.
Todung said one of the prosecutors offered him access to the execution area, but he just could not do it. Instead, he chose to go back to his hotel and watch the execution on the television monitor. Even then he could not stop his tears. After 01:00 Wednesday early morning, Todung tweeted in his account, "I failed. I lost," followed by "I'm sorry."
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April 28, 2015 edition
April 21, 2015 edition
YOUTH and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi was in Wollongong, Australia when the bad news hit him on April 10. The world football association FIFA, through its secretary-general Jerome Valcke, had sent Nahrawi a scorching letter. It asked the government not to interfere in the affairs of the All-Indonesia Football Association (PSSI).
FIFA sent the letter after an unending dispute about the participation of two football clubs which failed to pass the verification test of the Indonesian Professional Football Board (BOPI) to compete in the Qatar National Bank League 2015 (previously the Indonesian Super League). The clubs were Persebaya and Arema Cronus. According to FIFA, the government through BOPI forced the additional criteria so that the clubs could take part in the competition. FIFA said that was the authority of the PSSI, as the extended arm of that international association.
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April 14, 2015 edition
INSTABILITY and chaos following air strikes aimed at the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen has led the Foreign Ministry to activate its evacuation of Indonesian citizens program. By the ministry's count, as of September last year there are more than 4,000 Indonesian citizens living in that war-torn part of the Middle East. Twenty-three among them were arrested by the Yemeni authorities, but released on March 30.
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April 7, 2015 edition
THESE days, the YouTube blog of Sacha Stevenson, 32, appears to be somewhat dry. Besides her busy schedule shooting for a film, she has become more selective in what she uploads. Yet two years ago this Canadian wrote a weekly piece full of satirical humor on the ways of Indonesians, like the ubiquitous bureaucrat, the busker with his cellphone, or the way Indonesians use the toilet. All of them the fruits of Sacha's observations since she first came to Indonesia 14 years ago.
In a video series titled 'How to Act Indonesian' Sacha is not only the director, she is also the actor. One day she is a subdistrict official wearing a hijab who's slow in doing her bureaucratic tasks. Another time, she's a kampung woman clad in a housedress terrified of a man wearing a white gown, threatening her.
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January 1, 1970 edition
FIVE months after the new government was formed, threats to freedom of the press began to emerge. Not long ago, the reporters of Tribunnews and Warta Kota were reported to the police because they published chats between two Jakarta City Council legislators, Lulung Lunggana and Muhammad Taufik, which had appeared in social media's WhattsApp. Before that, the English-language daily The Jakarta Post was reported to the police for publishing a cartoon considered to offend Islam, leading its chief editor Meidyatama Suryodiningrat to be indicted. Tempo magazine is currently being sued for publishing the bank accounts of Police Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan, who was slated to become national police chief.
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January 1, 1970 edition