The government extends public activity restrictions (PPKM). Business owners lobby for the PPKM not to be extended.

Supported by the capital strength of technology companies, a number of banks are preparing to become digital banks. Regulations are running behind.

Weekly News 

Alex Ong has supported migrant workers in Malaysia for 20 years. He sold his company in order to focus on helping workers from Indonesia. 

Yopie Hidayat

(Contributor)

A reader takes issue with used medical waste during the pandemic. 

In the midst of a flurry of activities to procure and distribute Covid-19 vaccines, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir has additional responsibility of overseeing the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) and the selection of the fund’s board members. The government is confident that the fund will help restore the national economy.

The embezzlement of social assistance shows there are fundamental weaknesses with the protection offered to the poor in Indonesia. It is proof of the lack of commitment from the government and from the party that claims to care about the little people.

Viruses are wars without borders. There is no space or time that can be completely ordered and stabilized in indices and maps. Contagion and healing go on within traces of differing attitudes towards life, sickness, and death.

Flowing down from the top of Mount Merapi, seen from Turi in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Wednesday, January 20. During the observation period on January 20, between 12am and 6am Indonesia Western Time (WIB), the Geological Disaster Technology Research and Development Center (BPPTKG) recorded three separate pyroclastic flows reaching as far as 1,200 meters and 47 molten lava discharges. /Antara/Hendra Nurdiyansyah

SOUTHEAST Asia has faced numerous human rights violations and abuses, ranging from the worst crimes against the Rohingya and other religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar to extra-judicial killings in the Philippines under President Duterte’s administration. Many enforced disappearances have also occurred across the region, along with violence against human rights and democracy defenders, attacks on freedom of religion and belief, freedom of expression, and some other incidents. 

It does not mean the region has no institution that addresses human rights issues. Since 2009, member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have had the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights or AICHR. But critics said this body has been ineffective and ‌incapable of protecting human rights in the region. 

To commemorate the International Human Rights Day on December 10, TEMPO TALKS presents Yuyun Wahyuningrum, the representative of Indonesia to AICHR who will explain about human rights problems in the region and how her organization addresses the issue on TEMPO TALKS