November 10, 2015 edition
Some large trucks are lining up in front of the warehouses. Parked right outside the warehouse doors, they are ready to load and transport rice. Sacks of rice are stacked up to the entrances of warehouses that line a four-kilometer stretch in Cai Be District, Tien Giang Province, Vietnam. Most of the rice in Cai Be is for the local supply in Vietnam.
When Tempo visited Cai Be in mid-September, some warehouses were accepting foreign orders, including from Indonesia. Li Ha Phuong, a seller who owns the Tan Thanh rice warehouse, said that they often exported rice to Indonesia. "The last export was about 50,000 tons last June to July," she said.
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More Cover Story articles in other editions
November 3, 2015 edition
The halal logo welcomed guests entering Cafe Bayan at Hotel Santika Mataram in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) last week. No beer or other alcoholic beverages were on tap. An assortment of dishes on the menu came with the halal guarantee for Muslim visitors. The three-star inn holds the status of 'hilal one', meaning that the hotel is equipped with the minimum requirements for the basic necessities of a Muslim. "There are instructions on the direction of the qibla in the room ceiling, ablution places and a prayer hall for the congregation," said Reza Bovier, general manager of Hotel Santika Mataram.
The NTB government is aggressively promoting 'halal tourism' programs. The result is remarkable: NTB was selected as the World's Best Halal Honeymoon Destination and the World's Best Halal Tourism Destination at the World Halal Travel Summit & Exhibition (WHTSE) in 2015, which was held on October 19-21, 2015, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. "This is a victory for all of us. In the future, we must focus on developing Indonesia as a destination for Muslim tourists," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya told reporters two weeks ago.
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October 27, 2015 edition
Throughout his first year in office, President Joko Widodo faced a series of problems, some of them caused by his own political decisions, others by the turbulent global economy. This affected the public's level of satisfaction with his government, which according to a number of surveys, had declined significantly.
Jokowi himself admitted his dissatisfaction at what had been achieved so far, which he described as a period of consolidation. "The government has underachieved," said the President in a special interview with Tempo at the State Palace in Jakarta last week. It was exactly one year since he and Vice President Jusuf Kalla were sworn in by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
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October 20, 2015 edition
On his way to Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said's cellular phone rang. An aide of President Joko Widodo was calling with important news. That very morning, on Tuesday two weeks ago, the President summoned Sudirman to the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. Sudirman cancelled his flight without even knowing what they would discuss.
Upon arriving at the Palace, Sudirman headed straight to Jokowi's office. "Sudirman was surprised to see Jim Bob there," said one energy and mineral resources ministry official with knowledge of the meeting last Tuesday. Jim Bob, of course, is the nickname of James R. Moffett, chairman of Freeport-McMoRan, the parent company of Freeport Indonesia. The energy ministry official said Moffett had arrived at the Palace in the morning. Flying in on a private jet, he arrived at Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport at 7:30am.
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October 13, 2015 edition
Although Sofyan Djalil, Indonesia's minister of national development planning, rushed to Tokyo on Sunday evening, September 27, he failed to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Japanese leader was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Instead, on Tuesday at the end of September, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga met with Sofyan. The envoy bore news from President Joko Widodo: the Indonesian government had made a decision regarding the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway project. However, since the government preferred a fully business-to-business arrangement that does not involve any state funding, Indonesia would forgo the Japanese proposal. China's offer seemed more suitable.
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October 6, 2015 edition
Joshua Oppenheimer*
When The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence were released, I had high hopes that these two films would be useful for the reconciliation process in Indonesia. With The Act of Killing, I wanted to invite the audience to see a history that is different from what we read in the school textbooks. With The Act of Killing, I wanted us to deconstruct the New Order's black propaganda that justified the mass killings in 1965 and even celebrated them as being heroic.
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September 29, 2015 edition