Tag Archives: indonesia

In a statement on Tuesday, Ayub Junaid, vice chairman of the Jember city council came out to apologize "on behalf of the leadership and local legislative bodies...to the public, especially women, in particular girls and children". It was reported last week that the city council had proposed "virginity tests" for high school girls as part of a "good conduct" legislation that officials were considering, citing what they said were worryingly high HIV rates among high school children in the region. Another law maker later expressed support for expanding the proposal to cover the entire 2.3 million strong province, with the intention of "scaring" girls away from sex.

A popular Indonesian Muslim cleric has released a fatwa, or religious ruling to declare that selfies are sinful. Indonesian Muslim clerif Felix Siauw posted on his Twitter to say that those who take selfies are succumbing to pride and arrogance.

Soon after returning home with her family at around 6.30pm, the mother took out a packet of breast milk from the refrigerator as she wanted to top it up. Noticing a pungent smell when she opened the packet, she decided to check the others and found that another packet also reeked of the same odour. She told her husband about it and they decided to check the maid's personal belongings that evening.

Indonesia on Sunday (Jan 4) deployed the controversial KRI Usman Harun to aid in the search for the missing AirAsia QZ8501 plane, as it is equipped with advanced underwater sonar capabilities, according to Indonesia's Metro TV and Republika.

An Indonesian warship recovered more than 40 bodies from the sea today in the search for the AirAsia jet, a navy spokesman said. “Based on the navy radio, it has been reported that the warship Bung Tomo has retrieved 40 bodies and the number is growing. They are very busy now,” Manahan Simorangkir said.

Indonesian search and rescue officials said today they are hopeful they will be able to locate the black box from missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 soon, adding that it should not be too far from where debris from the aircraft has been spotted.

Indonesia must stop subjecting female police recruits to physical tests in an effort to determine whether they are virgins, a leading human rights group said today (Nov 18), describing the practice as degrading and discriminatory. Human Rights Watch said in a report that such tests were a longstanding practice in Indonesia, where patriarchal attitudes and practices in the security forces are common. The report was based on interviews with female police officers and police applicants in six Indonesian cities who had undergone the so called “two-finger” test to determine whether their hymens are intact.

Under Indonesian law, it is an offence for citizens to serve a foreign military, and those who do so risk being stripped of their citizenship. But the law will take into account those Indonesians who study in countries that adopt mandatory national service. Indonesia has in the past asked Singapore to exempt its citizens who are PRs from performing national service. But in Singapore, male PRs are liable to be called up for national service.

The air quality in Singapore has been relatively good in recent weeks, despite earlier expectations of a return of the haze. But satellite experts say that hotspots in Sumatra are spreading, which could cause haze to return to Singapore in the later part of the year. Southern Sumatra is expected to experience drier weather and also more hotspots in September. This could mean a likely return of haze in September and October this year.

Time flies. I find it so difficut to let it go and I’m still thinking about my wife and mum every night who died in May 1998 during the Indonesia riots when more than 1500 Indonesia ethinic chinese were killed. They shared the same fate with many Indonesen chinese women who were gang raped and tortured to death by the rioters.