Indonesia Economy Forum

[trishna_amṛta]

Indonesia, Japan Cooperate in Developing Electric Car
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Doubtful about this. So far Japanese auto industry has been staying away from electric vehicle business, thus they don't have much experience in electric vehicle (not saying they couldn't do it though)

 

[Kansel]

Indonesia president seeks to speed up 'Silicon Valley'-like capital

Indonesian President Joko Widodo reacts during the inauguration of Balikpapan-Samarinda Toll Road section 2, 3 and 4, near the area of Indonesia's new capital in Samboja, Kutai Kartanegara regency, East Kalimantan province, Indonesia December 17, 2019 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Akbar Nugroho Gumay/via
REUTERS

Indonesian President Joko Widodo gestures as Governor of East Kalimantan Isran Noor stands during their visit to an area, planned to be the location of Indonesia's new capital, at Sepaku district in North Penajam Paser regency, East Kalimantan province, Indonesia December 17, 2019 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Akbar Nugroho Gumay/via
REUTERS


(Reuters) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday he had ordered his cabinet to speed up a $33 billion project to move the capital city from Jakarta to forested Borneo island so that the new "Silicon Valley"-like city could be ready by 2023.

That timeline is a year earlier than the government's original estimate and Widodo said he had also ordered the construction of basic infrastructure to begin next year.

The president announced in August the government intended to move the administrative capital to East Kalimantan province, on Borneo, by 2024 to relieve the heavy burden on the current capital Jakarta due to overcrowding and pollution.

He visited the site of the new city for two days from Tuesday, observing from a helicopter the spot where a new state palace was due to be built, according to government statements.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Widodo said the government would form a new agency to oversee the relocation project next month and it would then officially submit a bill backing the move to parliament.

"The whole process, including the grand design, I hope can be completed in six months. Then, we can do some land clearing and basic infrastructure construction," he wrote on the posting, next to a photograph of himself standing on some barren, scrubby land atop a hill.

While some Indonesians have been excited by the plans to move the capital, some green groups have criticized the project for its potential environmental impact and others have questioned how Indonesia will raise the funds to build it.

Some non-governmental organizations have also said that a number of national and local politicians with land interests in the area could stand to benefit from the megaproject.

The 256,000 hectare site of the capital is on highland overseeing a bay, Widodo said, noting government offices would begin to be built next year and should be ready by 2023.

On Tuesday, Widodo expressed hope that the new capital could be the "next Silicon Valley" due to a cluster of research and innovation facilities envisaged for the area.

He also inaugurated the first toll road in the Kalimantan area.

Jakarta, the current capital of the world's fourth most populous country, on the island of Java, is now home to 10 million people and is sinking due to over-extraction of ground water, as well as being prone to floods and traffic gridlock.



(Reporting by Jessica Damiana and Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Gayatri Suroyo and William Maclean)

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

https://mobile-reuters-com.cdn.ampp...om/article/us-indonesia-capital-idUSKBN1YM1J2

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[Nike]

 

[katarabhumi]

Indonesia Integrates Nine Bank Reports into Single Mechanism
Published on 20th December 2019

The integration aims to minimise redundant and inconsistent information, while simultaneously improving bank operational efficiency and the quality of reported data.

Bank Indonesia, the OJK (Financial Services Authority) and LPS (Deposit Insurance Corporation) will bank reporting into a single mechanism, to be implemented starting on 31 December.

Currently, there are nine different reports banks have to submit to the three authorities in separate applications.

From 31 December 2019, bank reporting will go through a single portal mechanism known as Pelaporan.id.

The integration aims to minimise redundant and inconsistent information, while simultaneously improving bank operational efficiency and the quality of reported data.

This will enable easier and faster access to increasingly granular banking sector data by each of the three authorities for decision-making and policymaking purposes, a key factor in the decision to introduce integrated reporting.

https://www.regulationasia.com/indonesia-integrates-nine-bank-reports-into-single-mechanism/


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Doubtful about this. So far Japanese auto industry has been staying away from electric vehicle business, thus they don't have much experience in electric vehicle (not saying they couldn't do it though)

They have to or they'll fall behind and lose a big market. EV is the future, and it is also applies to Indonesia (solidify by Perpres No.55/2019). There is even a plan from the government to replace all kendaraan dinas with EV starting 2021. Japan surely don't want to miss that.

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[Nike]

Taiwan to build modern fishing vessels in Indonesia
20th Dec 2019 18:49

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Taiwan's Chien Fu Shipbuilding Co, is ready to build modern high-tech fishing vessels made of fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) in Indonesia in cooperation with two national companies. The two local partners are PT. Indomina Cipta Agung in Semarang and PT. Kelola Mina Laut (KML Food), Director of Administration and Planning Department of Taiwan's Ship and Ocean Industries R&D Center (SOIC) Ming-Hsien Tsan said in an official statement, made available to Antara in Jakarta on Friday.

"Chien Fu has chosen Surabaya, in East Java, as a location for their business in Indonesia and will start their activities next year," Ming said.

SOIC is a Taiwanese marine industry development institute that organized a meeting between Chien Fu and the two Indonesian partners.

Ming explained the reasons behind the planned development of FRP technology vessels which are not only environmentally friendly and reduce the significant use of wood but also offer the same price as those made of wood. Moreover, fiber has a higher level of endurance than wood.

"So FRP (vessels) are far more economical for Indonesian fishermen," he said.

Related news: Taiwan invited to take part in maritime development in Indonesia

Related news: Taiwanese investors keen to build hub in Indonesia

PT. Kelola Mina Laut will send some of its employees to Taiwan for nearly a year to learn the technology and ways to build a fishing vessel weighing 30 to 50 tons, he said.

The dispatch of PT Kelola Mina Laut to Taiwan is aimed at ensuring the smooth transfer of technology, he said.

Indonesia needs transfer of technology since the Indonesian fishery industry is the biggest in Southeast Asia so that the country has great potential to develop fishing vessel manufacturing industry, Ming said.

In addition to the great potential in developing the fishery business, Chien Fu Shipbuilding Company's business expansion is also part of Taiwan's New Southbound Policy expected to strengthen cooperation with Southeast and South Asian countries, particularly Indonesia, Ming said.

Established in 1942, Chien Fu Shipbuilding Co, Ltd is one of leading companies in Taiwan engaged in the fishing vessel construction business.

Related news: Indonesia, Taiwan accord to boosting economic cooperation

Related news: Taiwan to increase direct investment in Indonesia

Translated by: Edy Sujatmiko/Suharto
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga


https://en.antaranews.com/news/138488/taiwan-to-build-modern-fishing-vessels-in-indonesia

 

[trishna_amṛta]

They have to or they'll fall behind and lose a big market. EV is the future, and it is also applies to Indonesia (solidify by Perpres No.55/2019). There is even a plan from the government to replace all kendaraan dinas with EV starting 2021. Japan surely don't want to miss that..

I'm fully aware that EV is the future, which is why I just sold my only car 2 months ago and haven't bought any replacement yet. I wan't to wait-and-see what kind of regulation pertaining to EV before committing to procure any automobile.

Back to Japan auto industry, so far I haven't see any notable EV coming from any Japanese manufacturer and considering the time it akes to design any new car I don't expect any notable EV from any of them for at least another 5 years. Keep in mind that it takes about 10 years to design a new car from design phase to mass production.

 

[Nike]

Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway on track as China Railway installs first box girder

• News Desk
  The Jakarta Post
  

Jakarta / Thu, December 19, 2019 / 06:39 pm

Chinese construction firm China Railway Group Limited erected the first box girder of the elevated section of the high-speed railway project connecting Jakarta and Bandung, West Java, on Thursday. (Handout/China Railway Group Limited (CREC))
Chinese construction firm China Railway Group Limited erected its first box girder of the elevated section of the high-speed railway project connecting Jakarta and Bandung, West Java, on Thursday.

The erection of the “extra-large” 32 meter by 2.6 m box girder follows the development of the Walini tunnel in May and the connection of the first continuous beam in October this year, the company said in a statement.

“China Railway has made a new breakthrough in the construction of the Jakarta-Bandung high speed railway, and has laid a solid foundation for the early completion of the project,” the company said in statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

China Railway, known as CREC, is part of the local consortium PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China (KCIC) in charge of the project. Four other state-owned enterprises (SOE) have joined the consortium as well, namely railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), builder Wijaya Karya (Wika), plantations firm Perkebunan Nusantara VIII and toll road operator Jasa Marga. The SOEs fall under the consortium of Pilar Sinergi BUMN Indonesia.

KCIC in October installed the project's first box girder which will support an elevated section in West Cikarang, West Java. In total there will be 2,000 box girders to be built to support the elevated structure, which makes up majority of the project, said KCIC president director Chandra Dwiputra.

The 142.3 kilometer high-speed railway will be serviced by a train with a maximum speed of 350 km an hour. The train is expected to cut travel time between Jakarta and Bandung to just 40 minutes from more than three hours previously.

The railway project is one of the government's national strategic projects in the transportation sector. The project kicked off in January 2016 with a total investment of US$6.07 billion.

The railway project will serve four main stations: Halim in Jakarta, Karawang in West Java and Walini and Tegaluar in Bandung regency. A total of 80 km of the railway will be elevated, while there will be a further 16.9 km of tunnels.

On Nov. 5, SOE Minister Erick Thohir said he would establish a task force led by KCIC president director Chandra Dwpututra so the project would not miss its completion deadline of 2020 and operation target of early 2021.

“We are trying to prevent delays of the [Jakarta-Bandung] high-speed railway project because the railway will also connect to Surabaya. If there are delays, it will also slow economic development” Erick said on Nov. 5 as quoted from Kompas.com. (mfp)


Editor's note: This article has been updated to contain background on the first box girder installation by KCIC in paragraph five, and to specifically cite the project as China Railway's (CREC) first box girder installation in the title and first paragraph.


https://www.thejakartapost.com/news...way-on-track-as-first-box-girder-erected.html

 

[Nike]

Inpex Buka Tender Desain Detail Proyek Blok Masela
SKK Migas menyebut Inpex juga memproses perizinan lahan dan AMDAL untuk proyek Blok Masela.
Jum'at, 20 Desember 2019 | 15:53 WIB
Verda Nano Setiawan

KEPALA SKK MIGAS DWI SOETJIPTO DAN PRESIDENT DIREKTUR INPEX INDONESIA SHUNICHIRO SUGAYA MENANDATANGANI HEAD OF AGREEMENT (HOA) PENGEMBANGAN BLOK MASELA DISAKSIKAN MENTERI ESDM IGNASIUS JONAN, MENTERI EKONOMI, PERDAGANGAN DAN INDUSTRI JEPANG HIROSHIGE SEKO, DAN CEO DAN PRESIDEN DIREKTUR INPEX CORPORATION TAKAYUKI UEDA DI JEPANG PADA MINGGU (16/6). SKK MIGAS




Kepala Satuan Kerja Khusus Pelaksana Kegiatan Usaha Hulu Minyak dan Gas Bumi (SKK Migas) Dwi Soetjipto menyatakan proyek Blok Masela terus berjalan. Inpex Corporation telah membuka tender untuk pengerjaan desain detail atau Front End Engineering Design (FEED) untuk proyek tersebut.

Menurut Dwi, proses lelang FEED dalam tahap finalisasi pra kualifikasi. "Kami masuk di desain, itu sekarang akan ditenderkan siapa yang akan mengerjakannya," kata Dwi saat ditemui di Gedung SKK Migas, Kamis (19/12).

Secara pararel, Inpex dibantu SKK Migas mengurus proses perizinan lahan dan Analisis Mengenai Dampak Lingkungan (AMDAL) fasilitas LNG Blok Masela. Selain itu, proses pencarian calon pembeli potensial terus berlangsung.

Hingga saat ini, Inpex dan SKK Migas baru mendapatkan 40-50 persen calon pembeli gas Blok Masela yang berasal dari domestik dan luar negeri. "Diutamakan dalam negeri. Kalau dalam negeri tidak ada yang mengambil lagi, maka itu ke luar negeri," kata Dwi.

(Baca: Perusahaan Listrik Asing Bidik Blok Masela, ESDM Imbau PLN Lebih Aktif)

SKK Migas menargetkan produksi LNG blok migas tersebut sebesar 9,5 MTPA dan gas pipa sebesar 150 MMscfd. Sekitar 60 persen produksi Blok Masela ditargetkan terserap untuk kepentingan dalam negeri dan sisanya sebesar 40 persen untuk ekspor.

Berdasarkan data SKK Migas, total produksi gas kumulatif Blok Masela dari 2027 hingga tahun 2055 mencapai 16,38 TSCF dengan total gas yang dijual sebesar 12,95 TSCF. Selain itu, Blok Masela menghasilkan kondensat dengan kumulatif produksi sebesar 255,28 MMSTB.

Investasi pengembangan Blok Masela diproyeksi berkisar US$ 19,8 miliar dengan internal rate of return (IRR) bagi Inpex mencapai 15 persen. Dari investasi tersebut, Indonesia bakal mendapatkan bagi hasil minimal 50 persen dari produksi Blok Masela.

(Baca: SKK Migas: Perusahaan Jepang dan PLN Serap Hampir 50% Gas Blok Masela)

https://katadata.co.id/amp/berita/2019/12/20/inpex-buka-tender-desain-detail-proyek-blok-masela

 

[katarabhumi]

Back to Japan auto industry, so far I haven't see any notable EV coming from any Japanese manufacturer and considering the time it akes to design any new car I don't expect any notable EV from any of them for at least another 5 years. Keep in mind that it takes about 10 years to design a new car from design phase to mass production.

Toyota and other Japanese auto companies have build their own EV prototypes for quite some time even as far back as 90s. Their EV technology is matured and only waiting for considerable demand from the market to launch production model.

I think the main reason they're not yet aggressively into it because in most of their main market countries like Africa and Asia (including Indonesia) the infrastructure to support EV are simply lacking or unavailable, and the people there are still prefer gas fueled vehicle because of the lower price and maintenance cost, hence low demand for EV.

Now with strong commitment and action from the government backing with solid regulation, there's no reason for them to not jumping in.

All in all, they are very ready.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/1792504/toyota-anticipates-decade-of-electric-cars
https://www.slashgear.com/toyotas-electric-vehicle-plans-just-got-aggressive-07579666/
https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...le-in-india/articleshow/71700187.cms?from=mdr
https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/10/honda-e-electric-car-pricing/?guccounter=1

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[Kansel]

Collapse of Jakarta Seawall Raises Concerns over Flood Threat
December 20, 2019

People walk near a giant sea wall which is used as a barrier to prevent sea water from flowing into land and cause flooding in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, July 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

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Collapse of Jakarta Seawall Raises Concerns over Flood Threat



The recent collapse of a seawall protecting the Indonesian capital of Jakarta has raised concerns about the ongoing flood threat.

When part of the seawall broke earlier this month, it brought back bad memories for Awing Takalar, a fisherman who lives nearby. He thought back to 2007, when another levee burst and washed all his belongings away.

Luckily, waves were not running high at the time of the most recent break. So, Takalar and others living in the area along Jakarta’s northern shoreline were not flooded.

Takalar told the Reuters news agency that he knows he could be less lucky next time. “My worry is that the water is higher than the land,” the 46-year-old Takalar said. He expressed concern for the safety of his teenage daughter when she stays alone at the family’s one-room home in Jakarta’s Muara Baru area.

When the sea broke through the levee 12 years ago, Takalar took his family back to their home on the island of Sulawesi. “When it got better, I returned again,” he said. He added that once his daughter finishes school, he might leave the area for good.

Jarot Widyoko is the director of rivers and coasts at Indonesia’s public works and public housing ministry. He said officials were investigating why a 170-meter stretch of the 2.3-kilometer-long wall broke -- even though it was built only a few years ago.

The incident has brought attention to efforts aimed at protecting parts of the low-lying city from major flooding in the future.

Jakarta has been slowly sinking. Large amounts of ground water have been extracted from under the city. Rising sea levels have made the threat of flooding even worse. The situation has pushed city officials to try to come up with protective measures.

In 2014, the government announced a plan to build a giant seawall along the coast as part of a $40-billion project to protect the city through 2030. The project includes a delayed plan to build a new city on a series of reclaimed islands in Jakarta Bay.

Environmental groups have criticized the plan. They say the developers have not considered the project’s effects on Jakarta Bay and are not addressing the problems related to sinking.

Heri Andreas is an expert on settling and sinking land at Indonesia’s Bandung Institute of Technology. He told Reuters that land in Muara Baru was sinking about 12 centimeters per year, one of the fastest rates in Jakarta.

In August, officials announced a decision to move the national capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo. One of the main reasons for the decision was to help ease a “heavy burden” related to overcrowding and pollution in Jakarta, the government said.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com...aises-concerns-over-flood-threat/5209154.html

 

[Nike]

• NEWS
• BUSINESS

Pertamina’s strategic gas project in East Java almost 50 percent complete

• Norman Harsono
  The Jakarta Post
  

Bojonegoro, East Java / Wed, December 18, 2019 / 05:05 pm

Workers erect a drill rig to bore one of six wells in the Jembaran Tiung Biru gas field in the Cepu Block, East Java in October. The field's operator, Pertamina EP Cepu, expects to the field to begin commercial operations in July 2021. (Pertamina/Pertamina)
The development of the Jambaran Tiung Biru gas project in the Cepu Block, East Java, was 47.3 percent complete as of November, the project’s operator, Pertamina EP Cepu (PEPC), said.

Pertamina's subsidiary has acquired the needed land and built access roads. All that remains is to finish drilling six gas wells and constructing a gas processing facility, which was 43.5 percent complete as of last month.

“We expect commercial operations to begin in July 2021,” said PEPC president director Jamsaton Nababan while in East Java on Tuesday.

He said the company invested $331 million to develop the field this year and had plans to invest $591 million next year, mostly for drilling and construction.

PEPC currently expects the $1.6 billion project, financed by four domestic banks and eight international lenders, to produce 192 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas, up 11.6 percent from earlier estimates. Most of the gas (100 mmscfd) is slated for electricity generation, while the remainder would be for manufacturing industries in Central and East Java.

The Jambaran project was added into the national strategic projects list in 2016, as stipulated under Presidential Decree No. 3/2016, which authorizes public officials to revise rules deemed to hamper project development.


https://www.thejakartapost.com/news...-in-east-java-almost-50-percent-complete.html

 

[Kansel]

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A Test for Foreign Teachers
In Indonesia: Are You Gay?

Under a government regulation, teachers at some international schools face intrusive questions aimed at identifying those with “abnormal” sexual orientations.

Image

An anti-L.G.B.T. protest in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2016. Lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people face growing hostility across Indonesia.Credit...Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images

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By Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono

• Dec. 23, 2019Updated 1:54 a.m. ET

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Agree or disagree, the exam asked: “I would feel uncomfortable knowing my daughter’s or son’s teacher was homosexual.”

Or this, true or false: “The gender composition of an orgy would be irrelevant to my decision to participate.”

In recent weeks, foreign teachers at some private schools in Indonesia have been required to answer these questions and many more like them in what has been billed as a psychological exam.

The goal is to determine teachers’ sexual orientation and attitude toward gay rights under a 2015 government regulation that prohibits international schools from hiring foreign teachers who have “an indication of abnormal sexual behavior or orientation.”

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“For foreign teachers, if the psychologist declares that a candidate has a deviant sexual orientation, certainly the school will not hire that person,” said Waadarrahman, an official with the Ministry of Education and Culture. Like many Indonesians, she uses one name.

The test comes as lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people face growing hostility across Indonesia, which was once seen as among the most tolerant countries in the Islamic world. Officially secular, Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population.

In September, Parliament came close to passing an overhaul of the criminal code that would have effectively outlawed gay and lesbian relations. A similar proposal is expected to come up in the new year.

In Bekasi Regency, which adjoins the capital city, Jakarta, the Child Protection Agency said this month that it had used police records to identify 4,000 people who suffer from the “disease” of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

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Promoting theories debunked in the West, the agency’s commissioner, Mohamad Rojak, told reporters that “the majority of sexual disorientation” was caused by “carefree lifestyles” and urged the people on his list to overcome their condition by getting “therapy.”


The crackdown on L.G.B.T. people in Indonesian workplaces extends beyond schools. The office of Indonesia’s attorney general, which is responsible for enforcing laws against discrimination, last month said on its website that job applicants must not have “sexual orientation disorders” or “behavioral deviations.”

“We just want the normal ones,” a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, Mukri, told reporters. “We don’t want the odd ones.”

Homosexuality is currently not illegal in Indonesia except in the autonomous province of Aceh, where gays and lesbians can be caned under Shariah, the Islamic legal code.

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But the country’s new vice president, Ma’ruf Amin, formerly a leading Islamic cleric, has long supported criminalization and harsh punishment of gays and lesbians.

The teacher-testing requirement was adopted after a contentious 2014 case in which a Canadian educator and six Indonesians were accused of sexually abusing young students at the prestigious Jakarta International School.

All seven were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms on the basis of preposterous evidence, including that the Canadian, Neil Bantleman, used magical powers to seduce the children and render the crime scenes invisible. He was granted clemency in June and freed after serving five years.

Image

Neil Bantleman, left, a guidance counselor, and Ferdinand Tjiong, second left, a teaching assistant, in a holding cell in Jakarta in 2015. Credit...Bay Ismoyo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Officials say one purpose of the testing regulation was to prevent foreign pedophiles from being hired as teachers. But the psychological exam questions reviewed by The New York Times focus instead on sexual orientation and attitudes toward homosexuality.

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Ms. Waadarrahman, the education ministry official, said the regulation applies to 168 schools, including the renamed Jakarta Intercultural School, that offer an international curriculum.

Many of the schools attract wealthy Indonesians who want their children to have access to an international education with Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs.

The Jakarta Intercultural School’s headmaster, Tarek Razik, declined to comment on the regulation or how the school handles the psychological screening of its teachers.

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The recent wave of testing has alarmed some foreign teachers who are concerned that schools or government officials are seeking to remove teachers who may be gay or lesbian.

But teachers who were critical of the test declined to speak out publicly for fear of losing their jobs.

Under the regulation, the schools are required to have a psychologist certify that each teacher does not have a behavior disorder or an “abnormal sexual orientation.”

Enforcement of the regulation, however, is haphazard. Each school is left to hire a psychologist to conduct the teacher certification process, which is required both before a teacher is hired and every six years when a school’s accreditation is renewed.

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There is no standardized exam. The testing procedure is left to individual schools and some versions of the exam are more intrusive than others.

One school that administered the test last month was the Mentari Intercultural School in Jakarta.

The exam included many behavioral questions, at least 38 of which dealt with sexual orientation and attitudes toward gay rights, according to pages of the test provided to The New York Times.

While the intention of the regulation might have been to root out predators, many of the questions covered attitudes toward gay rights.

For example, agree or disagree:

• “A sexual education curriculum should include all sexual orientations.”

• “Celebrations such as gay pride day are ridiculous because they assume an individual’s sexual orientation should constitute a source of pride.”

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• “Teachers should try to reduce their student’s prejudice toward homosexuality.”

Many questions appeared to be derived from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, which is designed to assess personality traits and psychopathology. Other questions aimed to show where each teacher fit on the Kinsey Scale of sexual orientation.

Many of the questions were personal. These were asked of men:

• “I wouldn’t want to die without having experimented sexually with both men and women.”

• “I can be sexually attracted to anyone in the right circumstances.”

• “I am only attracted to men.”

Mentari school officials did not respond to questions about the test.

Image

Homosexuality is currently not illegal in Indonesia except in the autonomous province of Aceh, where gays and lesbians can be caned under Shariah.Credit...Beawiharta/Reuters
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A psychologist in the city of Bandung, Ifa H. Misbach, said she declined a school’s request to prepare such an exam because it would be unethical for members of her profession to engage in discriminatory practices.

“It is weird for me, in my humble opinion,” she said in an interview. “Psychologists cannot discriminate on the basis of sexuality.”

She noted that attitudes toward homosexuality are very conservative in Indonesia, where being gay is widely seen as a choice, not a characteristic determined by birth.

“It is different from American culture,” she said. “Every day they have to hide from a society that judges them badly.”

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Discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation in hiring is “against Indonesia’s constitution, and against Indonesia’s obligations under international human rights law,” said Usman Hamid, director of Amnesty International Indonesia.

The advocacy director for the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies, Riska Carolina, said gays and lesbians face increasing government obstacles in many areas of society, including barriers to scholarships or high-profile positions in sports programs.

“The pattern is clear,” she said. “If there are groups that are considered different, they get excluded instead of getting taken care of.”

Dera Menra Sijabat contributed reporting.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/world/asia/indonesia-gay-teachers.html

 

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Jokowi's Millennial Advisor's Startup Ruangguru Raises $150m in Fresh Funding
BY :HERMAN

DECEMBER 26, 2019

Ruangguru's chief executive Adamas Belva Syah Devara, left, and its chief of product and partnership Iman Usman, second left, speak in press conference at Graha Sapta in Tebet, South Jakarta. (Photo courtesy of Ruangguru)

Jakarta. Ruangguru, an Indonesian online learning platform founded by one of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's "millennial advisors," has raised $150 million in a Series C funding led by global investment firm General Atlantic and venture capital company GGV Capital, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

"We expect the partnership would help us accelerate our mission. These firms have a strong track record of partnering with entrepreneurs and scaling sustainable business models in the education and technology sectors," Belva Devara, Ruangguru's co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

Belva established Ruangguru with his partner Iman Usman in 2014. The company now caters to more than 15 million students and 300,000 teachers across Indonesia, providing them with educational animated videos, quizzes, infographic summaries and mock tests. The company said it is now expanding to Vietnam.

The investment is the second one in Indonesia for General Atlantic, after it invested in food and beverage franchiser MAP Boga Adiperkasa.

General Atlantic has other education companies in its portfolio, including Byju's, Hotmart, Arco, Open Classrooms and Little Golden Star.

"We are committed to supporting all education stakeholders, including the government, teachers and parents, in helping Indonesian students achieve holistic development and become more competitive globally. We look forward to leveraging experiences from our global portfolio, particularly in technology-enabled education in emerging markets, to help fuel Ruangguru's continued expansion," said Ashish Saboo, the managing director and head of General Atlantic Indonesia.

As part of this investment, Ashish will also join Ruangguru's board of commissioners.

Jixun Foo, GGV Capital's managing partner, said Ruangguru's activities are in line with the venture capital's commitment to work with founders who show enthusiasm and intelligence in finding solutions to a variety of fundamental problems that plague society today.

"By utilizing technology to distribute quality learning materials, Ruangguru has succeeded in bringing quality and affordable education to millions of students in Indonesia. Ruangguru can realize their potential and produce a sustainable impact," Foo said.

https://jakartaglobe.id/tech/jokowi...tartup-ruangguru-raises-150m-in-fresh-funding