GENERAL NEWS AND HEADLINES

Year-end polls still on, govt asserts
Kompas (https://tinyurl.com/yx9769mj); Tempo (https://tinyurl.com/y3unchns)

One of Indonesia’s largest mass Muslim organizations, Muhammadiyah, has called on the General Elections Commission (KPU), the Home Ministry and the House of Representatives to consider mounting calls for a postponement of the 2020 simultaneous regional elections because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to the demand, presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman said that this year’s regional elections, which are slated for Dec. 9, are still planned to go ahead as scheduled to protect the people’s constitutional and political rights.

“President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has asserted that the country cannot wait until the pandemic is over [to hold the elections], because no one knows when [the pandemic] will be over,” said Fadjroel.

Fadjroel added that the President had urged the implementation of stringent health protocol along with strict law enforcement and punishment as the elections near to prevent the emergence of new COVID-19 clusters.

 

House deliberates problematic family resilience bill
Kompas (https://tinyurl.com/y2kwj6dc); Detik (https://tinyurl.com/y2wxnjbh)

Amid mounting objections to and controversy surrounding the family resilience bill, the House of Representatives Legislation Body (Baleg) met earlier today with the bill’s initiators, namely lawmakers Ledia Hanifa and Netty Prasetiyana of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Ali Taher, to discuss the substance of the bill.

Ali said that bill was necessary considering the inequality between the developments in urban and rural areas, which, according to him, would result in, among other things, unemployment, poverty and criminalization.

Netty, on the other hand, said the issuance of the bill was necessary given that family was the foundation for the development of qualified human resources.

The bill, one of 50 bills listed as priorities in the 2020 National Legislation Program (Prolegnas), has faced public criticism, with many women deeming it patriarchal in nature.

Many have also raised their objections to the bill because they think it goes too far into people's private lives. The Golkar Party even went so far as to retract its support for the bill, claiming that the Golkar lawmaker who had proposed it, Endang Maria AstutI, had not read the draft.

 

KPK criticizes Supreme Court’s supposed leniency toward graft convicts
TribunNews (https://tinyurl.com/y36ekvxu); The Jakarta Post (https://tinyurl.com/y4jxdnmn)

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has criticized the Supreme Court’s recent record of granting judicial reviews of graft cases that have often led to lighter punishments than originally decided.

According to the KPK, at least 20 graft cases handled by the commission between 2019 and 2020 were “botched” by the Supreme Court’s supposedly lenient rulings.

KPK spokesperson Ali Fikri said the tendency to lessen punishments for graft convicts could paint a negative image of the country’s legal system as a whole.

“As the vanguard of justice, the KPK believes that this phenomenon will contribute to a poor public image […], which in turn will erode public trust in legal institutions,” he said, adding that corruption eradication efforts required a strong commitment and a shared vision within the legal system.

 

 BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS NEWS AND HEADLINES 

Energy ministry: Mining companies should prepare reserve fund
Kontan (https://tinyurl.com/y5xluo6z) 

The government will issue a regulation that compels mining companies to prepare a reserve fund as stipulated in Article 98 of Law No. 3/2020 on coal and mineral mining. Irwandy Arif, a special advisor with the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said the reserve fund was an urgent matter maintain mining reserves and production sustainability. Indonesia Mining Association (IMA) executive director Djoko Widajatno suggested to the government that the reserve fund should account for 3 to 5 percent of a company’s net profit. Indonesian Geologists Association (IAGI) chairman Sukmandaru Prihatmoko suggested a similar number, 5 percent of a company’s net profit or 1 percent of revenue.

 

Pertamina accelerates data transfer for Rokan oil block
Kontan (https://tinyurl.com/y5a3udzp); Tempo (https://tinyurl.com/y6zgcs8g) 

State-owned oil and gas giant PT Pertamina, through its subsidiary PT Pertamina Hulu Rokan, has accelerated the transfer of exploration and exploitation data for the Rokan Block in preparation for drilling 44 new oil wells. The drilling will be carried out right after the transition from Chevron Pacific Indonesia to Pertamina Hulu Rokan on August 9, 2021. Pertamina Hulu Rokan president director RP Yudantoro said the company was working on a construction project to replace a 364-kilometer trunk pipeline that channels crude oil from the Rokan Block to the Dumai oil refinery.

 

Auction for 2021 infrastructure projects to start next month
Kontan (https://tinyurl.com/y2hlr3mc); Tribun News (https://tinyurl.com/y3obguvl) 

The Public Works and Housing Ministry will hold a tender for fiscal year 2021 infrastructure projects next month, earlier than in past years. The ministry’s Bina Konstruksi director general Trisasongko Widianto said preparations were underway. House of Representatives Commission V, which oversees infrastructure, has approved a Rp 149.81 trillion (US$10.2 billion) budget for the public works ministry in 2021. Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said the ministry’s budget would be used to accelerate the national economic recovery.

 

Gaikindo may cut car sales target even further
The Jakarta Post (https://tinyurl.com/y3jc7ybj) 

The Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo), after earlier this year slashing its annual domestic car sales target by 40 percent to just 600,000 units because the COVID-19 pandemic forced showrooms to close, has warned it may have to cut its sales forecast even further. Gaikindo’s special staff Stefanus Soetomo said on Thursday that the association would have to rethink its current target, as it was based on the assumption that the pandemic would be under control by July and that car sales would fully rebound between August and September. Despite national car sales rebounding to 37,200 units in August and 25,200 in July, the figures are still well below the association’s target of 80,000 in August alone, according to Stefanus. Car sales crashed in May with a more than 95 percent year-on-year drop as the coronavirus outbreak hit demand, before jumping in June to 12,623 units.

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