Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) will divest the assets of its subsidiaries engaged in the sugar business. A new company is being prepared to attract jumbo investors.

The gold mining license issued to Tambang Mas Sangihe for the Sangihe Islands Regency did not obtain the authorization of the ministry of marine affairs and fisheries. The mining endangers the small island ecosystem. Is it true a presidential campaign volunteer is involved?

News summary of the week

Yopie Hidayat (Contributor)

The explosion of new Covid-19 cases in the past month will see the increase in health care expenditure, mainly to purchase 400 million doses of vaccines and for patient treatment. The emergency has compelled Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati to recalculate the budget as the health ministry increased its budget from Rp172 trillion to around Rp185 trillion. Having experienced in dealing with the 1997-1998 and 2008 financial crises, Sri Mulyani says the Covid-19 presents challenges that are starkly different from those of the previous economic calamities.

A panel of legal experts from various counties creates a legal definition for ecocide, which hopefully would be adopted as the fifth form of crime in the Rome Statute. It presents a momentum to push for similar awareness in Indonesia.

In the period between the 1970s to 1990s, aside from being places for sport events, sports arenas in many cities were locations for music concerts. These places gave birth to many talented musicians. The Saparua Sports Arena in Bandung, for instance, was the place for underground music communities to see bands emerge in the 1990s. These included Burgerkill, Puppen, Jasad, Koil, PAS Band, Pure Saturday, and Dajjal, who later became big and were the pioneers for other bands which came after.

Sports stadiums in other cities also provided space for the glory of local bands. There is the Manahan Sports Arena in Solo, Bulungan in Jakarta, also Pulosari in Malang. Unfortunately, several of these sports centers have been pulled down. Some are still standing, but they no longer service the performing arts. A slice of memory surrounding the glory of these sports centers for musicians has been recorded in a documentary about the Saparua Sports Arena, broadcast on several live streaming channels in June. The documentary by director Alvin Yunata raised the query whether sports centers could go back to being creative spaces for young people in an era when everything is digital.

Indonesian anti-colonial hero Untung Surapati is prominently present at the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands’ national museum, in its first major exhibition highlighting the country’s dark slavery history.

Letters from readers

Cartoon: Yuyun Nurrachman

Ivermectin is being promoted by a number of politicians and businesspeople as an effective treatment against the coronavirus. The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency must be independent from pressure.

Like power, noble values are usually associated with heroes – which is one reason people build monuments. These values—nobility of spirit, courage and so on—have no fixed place. The fixed is not in anyone’s heart.

AN ambulance passing an empty street during the implementation of the emergency Public Activity Restrictions (PPKM) in the Sudirman area, Jakarta, Saturday, July 3. Only vehicles operating in essential sectors are prohibited to operate and enter the 63 blocking points in the Jakarta, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi areas from July 3 to 20. The emergency PPKM is the government’s effort to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus which recently saw a spike hike in the number of positive cases. ANTARA/M Risyal Hidayat

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