October 27, 2015 edition
Sidelines
Every October 28th I am reminded of soto. On that day in 1928, when the youths made their pledge for "one country, one nation, and one language", there was no general acclaim for "one soto, Indonesian soto" to be heard.
And so it is that we can still taste Bandung soto, Banjar soto, Betawi soto, Kudus soto, Pekalongan soto, Madura soto and so forth, all those sotos side by side from west to eastthis is what Indonesia is.
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Interview
Rio Haryanto :
Winning for the Nation
On The Record
Philippe Lacoste Deputy Special Representative, Paris Climate Conference
There is no other planet
Diplomatic Bag
Indonesia and Saudi Arabia Discuss Oil
Interview
ONLY two more GP2 auto racing series remain this season, and 22-year-old Rio Haryanto, who hails from Solo, Central Java, needs to set up his Formula 1 team soon to prepare for the next season. Otherwise, he will lose his chance to take part in the world's most famous automobile racing event.
Rio's achievements in the GP2 have been amazing. He was the winner three times and twice the runner-up. Today, he stands in third place of temporary classifications. After he won the GP2 Silverstone Series in the United Kingdom last July, three F1 teamsthe Sahara Force Indi, Sauber and Manorexpressed their interest in Rio and invited him to join them. His consistent performance during the season became quite a conversation topic.
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On The Record
Born in Strasbourg, capital city of Alsace in northern France, Philippe Lacoste, 57, has spent more than 20 years dealing with climate issues. To Lacoste, who grew up in an industrial city, the environment was not a big part of his life. But the holder of a master's degree in environmental science from the National School for Public Infrastructures (ENTPE) decided that he wanted to save the planet. "I saw the damage caused by the waste of industrial revolution," he said.
This year, Lacoste was appointed as the special representative for the climate conference (COP21) in Paris, which will be held between November 30 and December 11. It has been a daunting task for him, given that all 196 signatories in the upcoming conference are expected to come to a consensus on climate change. Nevertheless, Lacoste remains hopeful. He believes that people's mindset toward the issue has begun to change. "People are more aware of it now," he added.
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Diplomatic Bag
President Joko Widodo welcomed Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir during his visit to Indonesia on October 20. "Both countries are committed to strengthening our cooperative agreement," said Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, adding that al-Jubeir's visit was a follow-up of Jokowi's visit to Saudi Arabia last September.
Retno said that as an outcome of the meeting, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have agreed to pursue further cooperation in four different sectors: refineries, crude oil, petrochemicals and storage facilities. She said an Indonesian delegation would depart for Saudi Arabia in the next four weeks to secure the agreement.
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International
The visit last week of Denmark's Queen Margarethe II and her husband Prince Henrik to Indonesia is one indication of improving relations between the two countries. Beyond the usual protocols were serious meetings and discussions between Indonesian government and private sector representatives with a Danish delegation 62 business people, the first of such in the 65 years of relations between the two countries.
"Relations between Indonesia and Denmark will change from a cooperation based on development assistance to a commercial or business-based cooperation," said Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen, who was part of the delegation.
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Interlude
Following the 'Sisyphus' performance, several spectators gathered around the heartwood instrument for a close-up look. "We left the 3.5-meter-long instrument made by Wukir at Plesungan Studio in Solo," said Melati Suryodarmo. "This is the replica which was brought to Germany."
It is indeed a unique instrument. "We call this Kiai Wukir, just like the names of gamelan at the Yogya Keraton (palace)," said Ikbal S. Lubys, who played the instrument, laughing. 'Kiai Wukir' simulates the sound of electronic music.
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Opinion
Dozens of containers full of illegal animal feed are free to pass through the ports of Tanjung Priok and Tanjung Perak. This worrying state of affairs has continued for a whole year. There are no permits and no income into state coffers. Yet again, the government seems powerless in the face of these growing abuses.
Animal feedstuff is not a complex matter. It is either made from corn seeds and is known as corn gluten meal (CGM), or from bones and entrails, in which case it is called meat and bone meal (MBM). Supplies of meat remnants must be imported because there are not nearly enough domestic cattle. So far, the government has only allowed imports of MBM from Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Bones and entrails cannot be imported from Europe because of the risk for mad cow disease.
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Indicator
FREEPORT will have been mining in Papua for nearly half a century when its permit ends in 2021. Recently, the government asked the US-based company to increase its investment to US$18 billion, or approximately Rp250.3 trillion.
The Indonesian government claims it receives only a small portion of Freeport's profits in the form of royalties, dividends and taxes. Freeport, meanwhile, says 60 percent of its earnings goes to the government. In the last 22 years, they claim to have contributed around Rp214.76 trillion.
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Letters
A Letter for the Director-General of Higher Education
During the university new students' admission test this year, our son managed to be accepted at Unika Atma Jaya Jakarta medical faculty through its JBT program. His name is Raimundo Antonio Patangke. We have paid his tuition fee in four installments from December 2014 to May 2015, for a total of Rp138,510,000.
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Outreach
Data from the International Coffee Organization (ICO) ranks Indonesia as the world's fourth-biggest coffee producer. "Three years ago, we were ranked third," said Eris Susandi, Executive Secretary for Training and Business of the Indonesia Association of Coffee Exporters and Industries.
The decline in the nation's ranking is not because Indonesia is producing less coffee, but rather because the total number of coffee plantations has dropped. In the past, coffee plantations were hold-overs from the Dutch colonial era.
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Law
FOR nearly five hours, 19-year-old Bima Satria Putra endured a torrent of queries in the police interrogation room in Salatiga, Central Java. Police grilled the chief editor of the Satya Wacana Christian University (UKSW) campus-based magazine Lentera with questions about an early October article published in the magazine titled 'Salatiga, the Red City'.
The day before Bima's questioning, police seized 14 copies of the magazine from the Godhong Pring cafe, located some three kilometers from the Satya Wacana campus. Police demanded that Bima and his team recall the 500 copies of the magazine already circulating within and outside the campus. "We told them we would not recall the magazine," Bima told Tempo.
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Weekly Business
STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES
Pertamina Profits Drop
Pertamina has announced US$914 million (approximately Rp12.5 billion) in profits in the third quarter of 2015. The figure is a 47 percent decline compared to last year. Pertamina's finance director Arif Budiman said the decline in the company's performance had mainly been triggered by the falling rupiah rate against the US dollar, as well as plummeting world oil prices. "We're not out of the woods yet because of the exchange rate fluctuation," he said last week.
Pertamina Profits Drop
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Economy
A foul odor filled the warehouse on the Cikande-Rangkasbitung highway in Serang last week. Piles of three-meter-high animal feed made from offal and bones stood in the middle of the 7,200-square-meter building. Dozens of workers were busily packaging them into 20kg sacks.
Budiman, a warehouse keeper, said the feed came from 16 containers that had arrived in late September. Oddly, the goods document stated that the feed was derived from corn gluten meal (CGM). The majority of the contents, however, were meat and bone meal (MBM). "There was also no seal from the quarantine office at the agriculture ministry or from the customs and excise directorate general on the container door," Budiman said.
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Tempo Talks
Improving Connectivity, Boosting Cooperation
This year, Indonesia and India mark 75 years of diplomatic relations. However, the ties between the two nations have existed much longer, predating the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia and the Republic of India. These connections span social, cultural, religious, economic, and trade aspects. But do those close ties of the past have any bearing on the present relationship? Why is there no direct flight between the capitals of the two countries?
Indian Ambassador to Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Sandeep Chakravorty, shares his views on this matter at TEMPO TALKS.
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