The Kirana family builds a new airline, Super Air Jet. They are racing against time to pay off the mounting debts debilitating the Lion Air Group.

The Supervisory Board of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) found two investigators in a corruption case involving Covid-19 pandemic social assistance guilty of committing ethics violations. The Board considered the investigators had harassed and abused a witness in that case. There is concern that this will affect the verdict in the trial of former Minister of Social Affairs Juliari Peter Batubara.

News summary of the week

Yopie Hidayat (Contributor)

Secretary-General of the Indonesian Hospital Association (Persi) Lia Gardenia: adding more beds for Covid-19 patients will not solve the problem if the problems at the upstream are not resolved.

The impact of the public activity restrictions (PPKM) slashes people’s income and economy, particularly those working during the curfew.

Cartoon: Yuyun Nurrachman

There are allegations that central and regional governments are not being honest in the provision of pandemic data for reasons of politics or the status of regions.

The latest Greenpeace study warned about the impact of the rise in sea levels on Jakarta’s flooding by 2030. A more progressive strategy in lowering carbon dioxide emissions is imperative.

In Bergman’s film, The Seventh Seal, Block does not seem worried that it will all be pointless. He is returning from war, he has travelled through plague territory. He has seen how easily lives are lost. The thin knight with the tense expression is anxious not because of Death, but because God is silent. He has found no basis to his faith. Faith is a torment.

A MOTORIST in Jalan Karo-Langkat with the background of Mount Sinabung spitting out volcanic material in Kutarayat village, Karo, North Sumatra, Monday, July 19. Mount Sinabung erupts emitting a column of 1,000 meters high above the peak or 3,460 meters above sea level. Antara/Sastrawan Ginting

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