Sunday, February 21, 2021

1) COVID-19 keeps posing serious threats to Papua: task force


2) Democratic struggle won’t stop with promised ITE Law revisions: Veronica Koman

3) Whats Worth a 38-Hour Airplane Marathon? A Cruise to Magical Raja Ampat.


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1) COVID-19 keeps posing serious threats to Papua: task force  
16 hours ago

Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA) - The Papua provincial government's COVID-19 Task Force disclosed that novel coronavirus disease keeps posing serious threats to residents in 22 of 29 districts and cities across this eastern Indonesian province.

As of Saturday, the cumulative number of Papua's confirmed cases had reached 17,383 while seven districts which had no reported cases were Deiyai, Dogiai, Intan Jaya, Mamberamo Raya, Nduga, Puncak, and Yahukimo, the task force stated.

"The number of local residents getting infected by COVID-19 tends to keep increasing. The death rate also shows a rising trend in 14 districts and cities," Papua's COVID-19 Task Force Spokesperson Silvanus Sumule said here.

He, however, did not elaborate the 14 districts and cities whose COVID-19 mortality rate tends to keep rising. Sumule just mentioned that there had been 333 residents succumbing to coronavirus there.

According to Sumule, some 2,104 residents remain hospitalized owing to this deadly virus. Therefore, he reiterated his call for locals to keep practicing the government's health protocols to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission.

Indonesia has been struggling to win the battle against the global pandemic since the government announced the country's first confirmed coronavirus cases on March 2, 2020.

To curb infections, the government has not only enforced restrictions on public activity in the islands of Java and Bali since January 11, 2021, but is also conducting a nationwide vaccination program that commenced on January 13, 2021.

The Health Ministry revealed earlier that it would take 15 months to vaccinate around 181.5 million people under the national COVID-19 vaccination program.

Since January 26, 2021, Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate has exceeded one million cases.

To attain herd immunity and free the nation from the clutches of the lethal pandemic, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has stressed on the need for successfully administering the COVID-19 vaccine to the targeted population.

"This is the largest and most determining vaccination program. It must be successful. We must not fail," Amin stated while speaking at an event held to commend and acknowledge the National Police's public services on February 16.

Vice President Amin reiterated that 70 percent of the country's total population must receive the COVID-19 vaccine to achieve herd immunity.

"I again want to emphasize the importance of not failing in implementing the compulsory vaccination program because it is the most effective way to reduce the COVID-19 infection rate and prevent transmission of the coronavirus," he remarked.

Furthermore, people must continue to practice health protocols strictly, he said, while reiterating that the vaccination program is compulsory, as stipulated in Presidential Regulation No. 14 of 2021.

Related news: Papua: Armed group member killed in gunfight near airport runway

Related news: Lawmaker urges government to assess strategy for handling Papua rebels

Reporter: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf

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2) Democratic struggle won’t stop with promised ITE Law revisions: Veronica Koman


CNN Indonesia – February 19, 2021

Jakarta – September 2019, and Veronica Koman was enjoying her final days in Australia. Her studies at the Australian National University were almost over and all that was left was to wait for graduation day.

One afternoon, Koman's mobile phone rang. There was an SMS message from a friend in Indonesia. Her colleague informed her that the police had declared Koman a suspect.

Since August 17, 2019, the Papua issue had been heating up. Racist actions by rogue security personnel against Papuan students in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya had triggered a wave of public anger.

Protest actions were held in several parts of the country, including in Papua. The government even cut internet access in Papua after several of the demonstrations ended in chaos.

In the mist of this critical situation, Koman was actively posting on Twitter, sharing information about the mass movement in Papua.

On September 4, Koman was officially declared a suspect. Police charged her under multiple articles, including the Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law.

Aside from the ITE Law, Koman was also indicted under Law Number 1/1946 on Criminal Regulations, Article 160 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) and Law Number 40/2008 on the Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination.

"I had thought about what articles would perhaps be used to criminalise me. I strongly suspected it would be the ITE. It turned out to be true, because the ITE is so rubbery", said Koman when contacted by CNN Indonesia on Thursday February 18.

Koman said that it is easy to use the ITE Law to criminalise people. Aside from the rubber (catchall) articles, the law does not require much evidence. A screen capture from the internet is enough, and the case can go ahead.

She believes there has been a tendency to use the ITE Law to silence activists over the last few years and gave several examples of cases in Papua.

Koman said that several Papuan activists were indicted under the ITE Law in 2020. They were accused of committing hate speech, yet the activists only criticised police policy.

"Hate speak must contain SARA [hatred based on ethnic, religion, race or inter-group]. Not for hating the police, that has now become hate speech. The tendency in Papua is like that, the ITE Law's interpretation of hate speech is like that. Yeah, shit, I was confused, upset", she said laughing.

After being declared a suspect, Koman was also put on the wanted persons list (DPO). Because she had been declared fugitive, she was unable to return to Indonesia after her graduation.

"The problem was, if got imprisoned, who would report alternative information (about Papua)? If they want to arrest me, then arrest me, but I'm not going to turn myself in", she said.

Agreement with Widodo

Koman supports President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's recent proposal to revise the catchall articles in the ITE Law, saying that the law violates freedom of expression.

She related how she is often teased by her followers on Twitter. They say she isn't afraid to criticise the government because she's unwillingly ended up on the DPO. Meanwhile they are afraid to criticise because of the ITE Law.

For Vero – as Koman is known – there is a serious issue behind the jokes by her followers. She says freedom to express an opinion in Indonesia is violated by the ITE Law.

"[Indonesian] citizens don't have to be imprisoned by the ITE Law for their rights to be violated, no. When citizens feel afraid to express themselves, express an opinion, then their rights have already been violated", said Koman.

Nevertheless, Koman warned that the struggle to uphold democracy will not end with the planned revisions to the ITE Law. She hopes that the public will take part in monitoring steps to improve the quality of democracy in Indonesia.

"Don't be satisfied because President Jokowi hopes that the move to revise the ITE Law will restore democracy. That's just one step, there's still a lot of homework to be done to restore democracy", she said.

Many are now waiting for Widodo to demonstrate his seriousness in abolishing the catchall articles in the ITE Law. So far he has asked Indonesian police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo to draft guidelines on interpreting the law.

"All that it needs is political will. Does he want to do it or not, or is it just lip service", said Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) Chairperson Asfinawati when contacted by CNN Indonesia on Thursday.

According to data released by the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), the catcall articles in the law which need to be abolished include Article 26 Paragraph (3), Article 27 Paragraph (1), Article 27 Paragraph (3), Article 28 Paragraph (2), Article 29, Article 36, Article 40 Paragraph (2) a, Article 40 Paragraph (2) b, and Article 45 Paragraph (3). (dhf/fra)

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Nasib Jerat UU ITE: Jadi DPO dan Tak Bisa Pulang Kampung".]

Source: https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20210219094440-20-608234/nasib-jerat-uu-ite-jadi-dpo-dan-tak-bisa-pulang-kampung



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3) Whats Worth a 38-Hour Airplane Marathon? A Cruise to Magical Raja Ampat.

 BY KLARA GLOWCZEWSKA AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY KONSTANTIN KAKANIAS  FEB 21, 2021


Once we can travel, put this Indonesian archipelago on your bucket list: 1,500 islands, 1,400 species of fish, 600 types of coral, and all the luxuries of the small ship Aqua Blu.

“Arrival is never easy,” said Serge Aliba, the Aqua Blu’s ­Lebanese-born acting cruise director soon after we boarded the ship in Sorong. To get to this ramshackle tropical port city, at the tip of the Bird’s Head Peninsula in the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua, I had to endure (in pre-pandemic January 2020) a 16-and-a-half-hour flight from New York to Hong Kong; a five-hour airport layover; a four-and-a-half-hour flight to Jakarta; an eight-hour layover; and a four-hour flight to Sorong. (“So wrong,” a British friend who had traveled here earlier had quipped.) 

But distance, for me, is part of travel’s allure. A trip may have some quick charm, but a voyage—arrival difficulties are implied—conjures discovery, the shedding of routines, the feeling of being unbound. If you’ve done a lot of traveling, that craving for the faraway, and the existentially remote, gets harder to satisfy. So when, 10 years ago, I started hearing about an Indonesian archipelago with a fetching name, Raja Ampat, I took note. A few travel pioneers had chartered private boats to explore it, and Sorong was the gateway……….

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