Indonesia’s largest party expels Jokowi after he backed Prabowo for President’s post

JAKARTA (Bloomberg): Indonesia’s largest party has officially expelled former President Joko Widodo after he spurned the party’s own candidate in February elections and backed Prabowo Subianto’s successful campaign to become leader of South-East Asia’s biggest economy. Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle Chairwoman, known as PDI-P, Megawati Soekarnoputri made the decision to expel Jokowi, as the former...

Indonesia to pardon tens of thousands including Papua activists

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto will pardon tens of thousands of prisoners ranging from activists convicted of defamation to those jailed in the easternmost province of Papua for criticising the government, a minister said on Friday (Dec 13). Law minister Supratman Andi Agtas said some 44,000 prisoners nationwide might get an amnesty on humanitarian grounds and...

India’s palm oil import duty hike a ‘temporary challenge’, says ministry

KUALA LUMPUR: The tariff change in palm oil import duty by India is a "temporary challenge" for Malaysia's resilience and the competitiveness of its palm oil export, says the Plantation and Commodities Ministry. "From experience, these tariff changes are usually temporary, and their impact on Malaysian palm oil... is only short-term," it said in a parliamentary...

Landslides, flash floods in Indonesia’s North Sumatra kill six, injure seven

JAKARTA (Vietnam News/ANN): Six people were killed and seven others injured after landslides and flash floods hit Indonesia's North Sumatra province on Saturday night (Jan 23). According to the head of the operational unit of the provincial search and rescue office, the landslides struck Padang Lawas regency at 1:00 a.m. (local time), resulting in four deaths...

Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi erupts again, worsens air quality

JAKARTA: (Bernama-Xinhua) Mount Lewotobi, located in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province, erupted again on Wednesday (Nov 20), spewing ash and volcanic materials that significantly worsened air quality in the region, reported Xinhua. The eruption sent a thick, gray column of ash soaring up to 3 kilometres (km) high, dispersing to the west and southwest of the...

Indonesia’s Garuda names new CEO as its national carrier looks to fix finances, grow

JAKARTA (Bloomberg): Garuda Indonesia appointed Wamildan Tsani Panjaitan, a top manager at PT Lion Mentari Airlines, as its next chief executive officer as the Southeast Asian nation’s flagship carrier looks to turn a profit and expand its international network. Panjaitan was appointed to the post following Garuda’s extraordinary general meeting on Friday afternoon, according to a...

Mount Marapi in West Sumatra erupts once again

JAKARTA: Mount Marapi in Indonesia's West Sumatra province erupted on Thursday (Nov 7) morning, sending a column of ash up to 800m into the air, according to the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Centre, reported Xinhua. The eruption occurred at 8.54am Jakarta time, with ash dispersing to the east and northeast of the crater. Residents have been...

New Indonesia leader strikes harsher tone as he takes power

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s new leader Prabowo Subianto endeared himself to voters as a kindly grandfather vowing to give free meals to schoolchildren. Now to get things rolling in South-east Asia’s largest economy, the president is signaLling a strongman approach. The former general used his maiden speech on Sunday (Oct 20) to rail against corruption and poverty, a...

Indonesian woman, 24, surprised to find she was at previous wedding of husband, 62, when she was nine

JAKARTA: In a strange twist of fate, an Indonesian woman has discovered that the man she married was a groom she had met at a wedding when she was a child. Renata Fadhea, 24, from Bangka Island, Indonesia, realised after marrying her husband, who is 38 years her senior, that she had met him 15 years...

PM Anwar congratulates Prabowo on appointment as Indonesia’s new President

JAKARTA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim congratulated Prabowo Subianto on his appointment as the new President of Indonesia on Sunday (Oct 20). "I represent the Government of Malaysia in conveying my congratulations and well wishes as my long-time friend Prabowo begins his duties," Anwar told Malaysian media. Anwar also took the opportunity to express his appreciation...