Day: August 25, 2022

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Indonesia demands investigation into fatal shooting of fisher in PNG

Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned the Papua New Guinea (PNG) ad interim charge d’Affairs in Jakarta to convey a demand for comprehensively investigating a shooting incident by PNG security forces that killed an Indonesian fisherman.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks an explanation from the Papua New Guinea government regarding the shooting incident and presses for thorough investigation and strict punishment to be applied if procedural violations are found, including the possibility of excessive use of force,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens, Judha Nugraha, noted in an online media briefing on Thursday.

Indonesia conveyed a statement to the PNG Government in which it expressed deep regret over the shooting incident on August 22, 2022, that claimed the life of Sugeng, the Indonesian captain of fishing boat MV Calvin 02.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also requested information regarding the detention of two other fishing boats — MV Arsila 77, with a crew of seven, and MV Baraka Paris, with a crew of six members — by the PNG authorities.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs presses for consular access to be granted immediately to be able to meet the fishermen,” he added.

In response, the Ad Interim Charge d’Affaires of the PNG Embassy expressed condolences over Sugeng’s death.

“The Papua New Guinea Embassy confirmed regular patrols at the time of the incident. Various requests from Indonesia will soon be conveyed to the relevant parties in Port Moresby,” he remarked.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Ambassador to PNG Andriana Supandi has communicated with various PNG officials. The Indonesian Embassy in Port Moresby also delivered an official diplomatic note to convey Indonesia’s various concerns.

Earlier, the Papua New Guinean Defense Forces (PNGDF) allegedly shot a fishing boat from Merauke, Papua, that had entered the waters of PNG.

Based on the initial report received on August 22, three fishing boats were catching fish in the waters of PNG during which two were caught and one escaped.

Shots were fired as the boat attempted to escape, and the bullet hit one of Indonesia’s fishermen named Sugeng.

Source: Antara News

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Patriarchy still poses challenge to improving family quality: ministry

The patriarchal culture has remained one of the challenges to improving the quality of Indonesian families, Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister’s expert staff, Titi Eko Rahayu, has said.

“Our challenges can be seen from various aspects, not just economical, but also psychosocial and sociocultural aspects,” she told ANTARA here on Thursday.

“This comes back to the patriarchal culture that still considers or places women as number two,” she added.

According to Rahayu, many people still tend to forget the potential of women despite the fact that women have the potential to give birth to a golden generation.

In addition, women have the potential in the economy. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Indonesia and triggered an economic decline, she said she saw that women were active in their businesses to support their family’s economy.

“When COVID-19 happened, women suddenly had to become teachers (due to online schooling). There were also those who made time for their surroundings by distributing masks, sharing basic needs, and others,” she highlighted.

Therefore, the ministry has continued to push for gender equality, while also continuing to improve the quality and potential of Indonesian women through various programs, she informed.

“We certainly collaborate with many parties to do this, including through campaigns. We also utilize social media,” she said.

“When gender equality is already being noticed, when policies become gender-responsive and child-friendly, (women’s) productivity increases,” she added.

In addition, the ministry has continued to encourage equality in parenting. This means that the burden of parenting must not solely fall on women as mothers, but also on men as fathers, she explained.

The exception to this is if the women are the heads of the family or single mothers.

“This is because families have to provide support to women to undergo their roles,” she said.

“The fate of mothers is to give birth and breastfeed. However, parenting becomes the obligation for fathers and mothers,” she added.

Source: Antara News

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Mahfud appears before MKD over Sambo case

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Mahfud MD, on Thursday complied with a summons from the House of Representatives’ (DPR’s) Ethics Council (MKD) to clarify the murder charge against Inspector General Fredy Sambo.

Sambo is the former chief of the professional and security division of the National Police.

“I said that actually, Sambo conceived a scenario to make people confident that there had been a shootout (at his residence) so (he) pre-conditioned (premeditated the murder of Brigadier Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, or Brigadier J) by contacting a few people,” Mahfud, who is also chief of the National Police Commission, said in the MKD meeting room in Jakarta on Thursday.

“The few people are my work partners. I picked their names. Some of the few people are DPR members but I didn’t mention their names,” he added.

Mahfud said he never told the public that he knew DPR members were involved in conceiving the scenario to engineer the case involving Sambo.

He said he only knew Sambo had contacted some people.

He added that he had sought confirmation from the DPR members but had received no response from them. He, however, refused to mention their names.

“I didn’t mention (their names) because I didn’t know whether the names I had picked would be tried and I ought not to make it public for several reasons,” he said.

The people who Sambo contacted did not commit violations so why must they be tried, he asked.

He said the issue is over because when he contacted them they did not respond.

“But, I will make sure and prove that Sambo and his men have conducted a maneuver to make the people confident. The parties that (I) have contacted are Kompolnas (the National Police Commission), Komnas HAM (the National Commission on Human Rights), and several editors-in-chief,” he added.

Source: Antara News

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Ministry works incessantly to eradicate online gambling: Minister

Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny G. Plate stated that the ministry would not give up and work round the clock to put a halt to gambling activities in cyberspace.

“I tell those who set up online gambling sites that the Communication and Informatics Ministry will not back down to pursue and clean it up, and we will block (them all). The Communication and Informatics Ministry works 24 hours a day, three shifts, 365 days a year, non-stop, no breaks, we constantly pursue it,” Minister Plate remarked at the Presidential Palace Complex, here on Thursday.

The minister said that before any action was taken by National Police Chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, they had blocked several online gambling activities, a measure that aligned with the Constitutional mandate to clear the cyberspace of illegal activities. The ministry had reportedly blocked some 560 thousand online gambling accounts to date.

“What is removed online is gambling conducted by platforms built domestically and platforms built overseas. Everything (is removed), and there are more (made in) Indonesia as compared to (foreign ones),” he pointed out.

He also reminded social media celebrities, or known as celebgrams, to not promote online gambling accounts or sites, as this is a form of violation of the law in the digital space.

“Not only celebgrams, everyone, who promotes online gambling in Indonesia, (has violated) the law because it is done in the cyberspace,” he emphasized.

Plate acknowledged the presence of several challenges in eradicating online gambling, such as the lack of awareness to free Indonesia’s digital cyberspace of illegal activities.

“The challenge is only one, awareness. We have cleaned (the cyberspace) today, (but) after cleaning it up, they popped up again, cleaned again. What is lost is replaced by others, (we) continuously chase after them,” the minister concluded.

Source: Antara News

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Committed to implementing five anti-terror measures: BNPT

The National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) has said that it is committed to implementing five transformative measures to prevent and curb the threats of radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia.

“The first (measure) is to transform the nationalism spirit,” BNPT head Boy Rafli Amar said, according to a written statement received here on Thursday.

He made the statement during a hearing meeting with Commission III of the House of Representatives (DPR) at the Parliament Complex here earlier.

Besides transforming the nationalism spirit, the agency will also exert efforts to revitalize Pancasila values, religious moderation, and customary and cultural values, as well as promote welfare development-based terrorism prevention, the BNPT head informed.

The five transformative measures will be implemented to check anti-Indonesia and anti-Constitutional radical and terror movements, which are intolerant to differences, abuse religious values, are anti-humanity, and permit violence to achieve ideological goals, he said.

“BNPT will remain committed to protecting the nation from the threats of radicalism and terrorism,” he added.

Meanwhile, DPR Commission III legislators lauded the BNPT for its effective and accountable counter-terrorism and radicalism measures.

Legislator Heru Widodo said that the lack of terror crimes in recent years has demonstrated BNPT’s success in preventing terrorism in Indonesia.

Legislator Ichsan Soelistio lauded the agency for getting an unqualified opinion for its financial report in 2021, which proved BNPT’s effective financial management in efforts to prevent terrorism and radicalism.

“We commend your (agency’s) proper and accurate (budget) absorption,” Soelistio said.

Moreover, the parliamentary commission reiterated its commitment to supporting the counter-terrorism agency and reminded BNPT to bolster and focus more on terrorism and radicalism prevention programs.

Source: Antara News

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LKPP’s 2023 e-catalogue to feature 2 mln MSMEs: Bappenas

The government is aiming to include two million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the e-catalogue of the National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP) in 2023, which is nearly double the target for 2022.

Minister of National Development Planning and head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Suharso Monoarfa, made the remarks at the Presidential Office here on Thursday.

“Now, it (the e-catalogue) has more than 600 thousand (MSMEs), and the target this year is 1 million and next year, 2 million,” he said.

With the achievement of these targets, the LKPP would become a kind of e-commerce or market workshop for central and regional governments for the procurement of goods and services, he added.

In addition, the government is also intensifying efforts to encourage MSMEs to launch digital marketing, including by joining the LKPP e-catalogue.

With the help of digital transformation, the government could also improve the quality of spending because the mechanism for the procurement of goods and services would be more transparent and minimize the risk of violations, he explained.

“So that there is no duplication of expenditures from state budget and regional budget,” the minister added.

He said that the encouragement for MSMEs to enter the LKPP e-catalogue is also a form of support for domestic products.

The LKPP e-catalogue will have a price differentiation scheme to protect MSMEs so that they do not lose out to big domestic entrepreneurs, he added.

“Do not let it be in the context of this procurement, then MSME entrepreneurs and cooperatives are left behind, then the winners just because of the price and the big companies,” he said.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) earlier expressed dissatisfaction over imported products still dominating central government procurement despite the fact that 842 products in the e-catalogue could be substituted with domestic products.

“I know many ministries, institutions, and regional governments do not want to buy domestic products for various reasons. However, there are 842 domestic products in the e-catalogue that can be purchased,” he noted.

The head of state emphasized that central and regional government spending must take into account three important aspects: creating added value, generating domestic economic growth, and ensuring efficiency.

Source: Antara News

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DPR asks BNPT to devise radicalism eradication road map

The House of Representatives (DPR) has asked the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) to devise a radicalism eradication road map that will make it easier to draft budget plans for deradicalization, prevention, and counter-radicalization efforts.

“For example, in North Sumatra, we did not imagine it would happen in Sibolga, but the incident of explosion occurred there. It is an example that (showed that) the map is crucial for financing planning,” member of Commission III of the DPR, Hinca Panjaitan, explained during a working meeting at the Parliament Complex here on Thursday.

The legislator said that the road map is essential so that the budget can be prepared for the next 5–10 years to make early detection more accurate.

According to him, the BNPT does not need to worry when announcing the names of universities suspected of being infiltrated by radicals because it is necessary for deradicalization efforts.

“Then, plantation areas that are located far away can also become our concern for mapping because they are far from other areas,” he said.

During the working meeting, BNPT head Boy Rafli Amar said that the agency is currently enhancing the mapping of terrorism and radicalism spread in Indonesia.

In addition, he informed that the BNPT is also cooperating with research institutions such as Statistics Indonesia (BPS) and Alvara Research Center regarding the index of regions that are at risk of terrorism.

“We are finalizing it related to the Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJM) regarding the terrorism risk index. We release it (the terrorism risk index) every year,” he added.

Last year, the terrorism risk index was released at the end of the year, and the result was quite good, Amar informed. This year, the index will be released in December, the BNPT head added.

Source: Antara News

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Over 13,000 imported products frozen out of govt e-catalogue

The Government Goods and Services Procurement Policy Agency (LKPP) has frozen 13,600 imported products that have domestic substitutes out of the government’s e-catalogue in keeping with President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi’s) instruction.

LKPP head Abdullah Azwar Anas said that the freezing of imported products from the e-catalogue has been implemented concurrently with affirmative actions to enable the inclusion of domestic-made and MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprise) products in the e-catalogue.

“There are now some 13,600 imported products with (domestic) substitutes that we have frozen, making them inaccessible in the e-catalogue,” he informed at a press conference after attending a closed-door meeting on the acceleration of goods and services procurement digital transformation, which was presided over by President Widodo at the Presidential Palace here on Thursday.

The suspension of imported products from the e-catalogue is expected to increase following the adoption of blockchain and big data technologies with state-owned communication company Telkom, he said.

After the President instructed the agency to simplify the platforming process, more domestic-made products have been made accessible on the e-catalogue, the agency head noted.

“Earlier, we needed eight stages, but now, we need only two stages (to include new products in the e-catalogue). Hence, if in the past, there were only 52 thousand products in the e-catalogue, we now have 600 thousand products,” Anas said.

Meanwhile, Minister of National Development Planning and head of the National Development Planning Agency, Suharso Monoarfa, said that President Widodo has asked government officials to prioritize domestic products for procurements made using state and regional budgets.

“The desired domestic-made products are products with high domestic component level (TKDN), not merely imported products with new packaging that have only 1–2 percent but are tagged as domestic products,” the minister added.

Besides planning to draft a regulation on the certification of domestic products for inclusion in the e-catalogue, the government is also targeting the inclusion of one million domestic-made products by year-end, he informed.

Source: Antara News

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