Indonesian lawmakers on Thursday dropped plans to amend regional election laws after violent demonstrations gripped the country over the proposed revisions that critics say will undermine democracy in the Southeast Asian nation, Bloomberg reported. Protests erupted in a number of cities, including the capital Jakarta where...
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Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian militant group responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings, has dissolved itself, an Indonesia-based think tank confirmed Thursday, an announcement that analysts say could transform the group’s future activities, Reuters reported. In a video statement, 16 senior leaders confirmed the group’s dissolution...
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Indonesia is planning to revamp the country’s broadcasting laws, a proposal that has stirred controversy about plans to restrict investigative journalism and prompted concerns from free speech advocates, the Voice of America reported. Officials recently unveiled a draft bill that will amend Indonesia’s 2002 broadcasting law,...
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Indonesian authorities shut down a provincial airport and evacuated hundreds of people this week following the eruption Wednesday of Mount Ruang in the north of the archipelago, prompting officials to also issue tsunami warnings, the New York Times reported. The volcanic eruption on a remote island...
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Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto declared victory in Indonesia’s presidential election Thursday, after unofficial results showed him leading the race with enough votes to avoid a runoff, a victory that some analysts and voters see as a sign of democratic backsliding in the world’s third-largest democracy,...
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Gen. Prabowo Subianto, 72, who is Indonesia’s defense minister, has pioneered the use of generative AI in his presidential campaign. The “doe-eyed cartoon” avatar of himself that he has disseminated on TikTok and other social media platforms has been key to his strategy of reaching...
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Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled against a petition that sought to impose restrictions on individuals over the age of 70 or those linked to human rights abuses from running for president, a verdict that clears the path for a controversial 72-year-old former general to run in...
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Indonesia’s top court ruled against lowering the minimum age for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, a decision that just a few months before the elections in 2024 could see the son of incumbent Joko Widodo run for the country’s top post, Al Jazeera reported Monday. The Constitutional...
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Kaesang Pangarep, a 28-year-old YouTube influencer and entrepreneur who is also the youngest son of Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, recently became the head of the youth-oriented political organization, the Indonesian Solidarity Party. His rise to power is now raising questions about whether his father is...
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The Miss Universe Organization cut ties with its Indonesian partner and canceled this year’s Malaysia pageant after contestants accused local organizers of sexual harassment, Sky News reported. Last week, six women alleged that Indonesian organizers forced them to strip naked and undergo intimate “body checks” –...
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Indonesian workers will enjoy a five-day weekend at the end of the month after the president ordered additional holidays in an effort to boost travel and consumption in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, Bloomberg reported. President Joko Widodo declared June 28 and 30 as collective leave days...
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Energy giant ExxonMobil settled a decades-long lawsuit filed by villagers in the western Indonesian province of Aceh, who alleged that soldiers the company had hired to guard a natural gas facility in the area committed torture, murder, and other human rights abuses, Al Jazeera reported...
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An Indonesian court convicted a soccer club organizer and its security chief of negligence Thursday over the death of 135 people inside the Kanjuruhan Stadium in East Java last year, an incident labeled as one of the world’s worst sporting disasters, the Australian Associated Press...
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Indonesia wants to auction off development rights for more than 100 islands spread out among 25,000 acres that offer some of the most biodiverse areas of the planet. The New York arm of auction house Sotheby’s was planning to accept bids for the opportunity to develop...
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Indonesia is considering a new law to punish sex outside of marriage with prison time, part of an upcoming overhaul of the national criminal code that has raised concerns among human rights advocates and investors, Fox News reported. Under the bill, neither Indonesian nationals nor foreigners...
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Indonesian authorities brought criminal charges against six suspects, including three police officers, for their roles in last week’s stadium stampede that killed 131 people, considered one of the deadliest crowd disasters ever recorded, the Associated Press noted. The tragedy occurred on Oct. 1 during a soccer...
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Indonesian officials are considering granting early release to Hisyam bin Alizein, also known as Umar Patek, the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group that killed 202 people in a bombing at a tourist spot in Bali in 2002. The officials felt that the murderer...
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Hundreds of Indonesian tourism workers launched a strike this week over the government’s decision to raise ticket prices to visit the country’s famous Komodo dragons, saying the move would impact their livelihood, the Independent reported. The demonstrations, which began on Tuesday, came a day after officials...
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Indonesian authorities cracked down on a chain of bars and restaurants in the capital this week for promoting blasphemy over a promotion to offer drinks for people named “Mohammad” or “Maria,” Reuters reported. The “Holywings” chain in Jakarta posted the ad on social media – it...
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Thousands of Indonesian students took to the streets of the country Monday to protest the rising cost of goods and a proposed plan to extend President Joko Widodo’s stay in office, Reuters reported. Demonstrators marched in front of the country’s parliament in the capital Jakarta as...
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