Hello friends!
Just a heads up for Dari Mulut ke Mulut subscribers (if that’s not you and you’d like it to be, well) this election is really something so Tuesday will shift to Wednesday and Friday to Saturday until April 18.
I took this snap at the Habibie Centre in Kemang on Monday, don’t ya love it?
This week on Indonesia dll Hayat and I talk about the political parties contesting the legislative elections. Each and every party must hit a 4 percent threshold to be eligible to take up seats. For some, like Golkar and PDI-P, that’s no problem. But for others it’s not looking likely. So what do they want? Listen, duh! Find Indonesia dll on Soundcloud, Spotify or your podcast app of choice.
Welcome home, Siti Aisyah! She is back in Indonesia this week after a Malaysian court dropped murder charges. By now we all know the story but I will take any opportunity to reshare GQ’s The Untold Story of Kim Jong-nam’s Assassination longform so if you need a refresher go there.
The optics have been good for the Jokowi camp. I’m hesitant to overplay the ‘it’s a campaign stunt’ cynicism, because I think it is fundamentally the perk of incumbency and it is a very happy ending. Still, Siti and her family have profusely thanked the president and his government while Legal Affairs Minister Yasonna Laoly has been repeatedly photographed by her side. Messages of thanks to Jokowi trended on Twitter for a couple of days.
The charges were dropped after intensive lobbying from Indonesia, Malaysian Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said on Monday, as reported by Reuters. Jokowi is said to have directly lobbied his counterpart too.
Not quite, says Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. "This is a decision made by the court. She was put on trial and the charge was withdrawn ... I did not receive any information," he said, as reported by Malaysiakini ($ but sign up, it’s Malaysiakini!). It’s possible that Siti has been pressured into talking up the current government’s role in securing her freedom, it’s also possible Mahathir is not interested in revealing any wheelin’ and dealin’ while Vietnam is still lobbying. So what do we believe? And does it even matter?
It’s thankfully been fairly quiet on the terrorism front here for awhile now. So a brief flurry of violence in recent days is highly concerning. Three separate incidents are worrying enough individually, but linked? Ooh, boy.
Firstly in Lampung, I am very impressed with the parents of 23-year-old man who dobbed him into local police who then found explosives he had hidden next door. A man in Pontianak was arrested shortly afterward. Both are believed to be linked to Jamaah Ansharut Daulah. And then there was the most hideous. A 23-year-old woman killed herself and an infant in a suicide blast after a stand-off with police in Sibolga, North Sumatra. She is believed to have been linked to the man who was done in Lampung.
President Jokowi had a visit to the town planned for next week and has confirmed it will go ahead. “[It has] nothing to do with that. The incident was actually related to the arrest of a suspected terrorist in Lampung,” North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Agus Adrianto told media after speculation the raid had been related to the visit.
As regular readers would know, when it comes to terrorism in Indonesia 🙏 In Sidney Jones We Trust 🙏 so will hopefully be back with analysis from her shortly.
Read this from Reuters on the buzzers which are taking over the election on social media. There will be a lot more opportunity to crack into this, I’m sadly certain!
Election authorities say they’ve been the target of cyber attacks and hacking attempts originating from China and Russia. Likewise, there’s a lot to unpack here so keep an eye out.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has long been fractured. Will a new mass movement headed by senior party members be the death nail ($)?
Riding in cars with (bad) boys. Prabowo cruised around Cianjur, West Java, earlier in the week in a Toyota Alphard. Bummer it was owned by Chep Hernawan who once said he’d funded Indonesians to join ISIS in Syria. Yikes!
Fishing communities have been central to Jokowi’s oceans-first reforms, but are the policies actually helping? Neither camps are biting.