No More Inefficient or Intolerant Indonesia - Jokowi's New Vision

Similar to the gay cake row in Ireland a while back, although that one went to court if I remember correctly.
 
Do not underestimate the importance of cakes in the overall scheme of things. It is generally considered that the then Liberal opposition leader in Australia in 1993, John Hewson lost the election doing a television interview about the introduction of a new Goods and Services Tax. When he was asked if a birthday cake would now cost the same, more or less, Hewson tried to explain that as a cake it wouldn't cost more but if it had candles and ice cream then it may but it would all depend on the composition of the cake. The answer was so confused and muddled that it undid Hewson's bid for the election and the Liberals lost..

The post script to the story is at the next election the new Liberal leader, John Howard promised "No GST." The Liberals won the election and after Johnnie Howard became prime minister they then introduced the GST. Explaining the broken promise "No GST" Howard said that this had been a "non core promise".

Anyway, as I say, don't underestimate the importance of the cake.
 
I guess his "I'm not going to break any promises" was non core too?

I have a rather bad taste in my mouth about all this (no pun intended). Not only because it clearly showed the bigotry in society via a big chain while Halal certification as argument was debunked by the MUI. But also since Google has removed ALL negative reviews and everything is reset to the pre scandal situation. As nothing happened. It makes you wonder what influence the larger companies (can) have on its review system.

Anyway, a charm offensive has started; pictures of Tous les Jours employees in Christmas outfits have popped up.
 
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“But there is no rule about consumers’ request for customization, decorations on the cake for a takeaway,” Jati underlined, adding that stores were allowed to put non-Islamic greetings as long as they were customized cakes and not displayed at the store.
Does it mean halal-certified bakery and restaurants are also NOT allowed to have Christmas tree and other decorations with the wordings "Merry Christmas"?
 
“But there is no rule about consumers’ request for customization, decorations on the cake for a takeaway,” Jati underlined, adding that stores were allowed to put non-Islamic greetings as long as they were customized cakes and not displayed at the store.
Does it mean halal-certified bakery and restaurants are also NOT allowed to have Christmas tree and other decorations with the wordings "Merry Christmas"?

As far as I can tell, this just means that as long as it is 'customized'/bespoke or made to order, then we can have them write Christmas greetings on our cakes I think. I'm just not really sure what this means in practice though, as everything is probably still open to interpretation. According to the quote, it feels like it could be inappropriate to display "Merry Christmas" as it would fall under the category of "non-Islamic greetings". This is just if they want to maintain their Halal licence though, right? However, Christmas trees should be fine as it is a display but not a linguistic greeting. Again though, interpretation seems to be 9/10 of the law.

There is a significant "Kristen/Katolik" population too though and it would be nice if they were allowed to share some good old festive cheer. :)
 
As a species it is amazing how mean we can be to each other and especially over religious issues. The various inquisitions across the centuries being an unfortunate example.

Yesterday a pregnant Muslim woman, born and raised in Australia, was with friends in a Sydney cafe when a man walked in off the street and beat her and stomped on her before being pulled away. It seems the man was unknown to the woman but his attacked was triggered by seeing her and friends wearing head scarves. Fortunately the man was arrested and denied bail. The woman wasn't seriously injured but what an appalling experience.
 
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Now THIS is efficient:


And a good example for the young generation [sic] ?
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The whole situation at Garuda, only confirms that the Ministry of State Companies, was one big mess under Rini Soemarmo, the predecessor of Erick Thohir.

And all of these BUMN promotions in the previous legislation seem to be linked. These rising stars all belong to the friends club of Yusuf Kalla, the former Vice President. So not only Rini but also the CEO of Garuda for instance.

Of course, this culture is to be expected if you see what that Kalla did and proclaimed, for example about the perceived usefulness of preman.

Jokowi must have thought, "good riddance". And again. And again. Thohir is cleaning up.
 
Talking about Jokowi and his priorities; currently he is visiting Banten.

There he meets (ultra rich) businessman Prajogo Pangestu. This is to discuss speeding up the construction of a petrochemical plant. A refinery converts the raw materials (which can be oil, cane, beets, natural gas, ... )

Together with oil and gas, the import of these chemical products and compounds have a huge impact on the trade balance.

You probably remember in previous presidential elections that all candidates had similar programs with a strong emphasis on outsourcing less and doing more in the country.
 
Unfortunately, intolerance is gaining momentum. Below excerpt from an article written by Alissa Wahid (daughter of late President Gus Dur) titled “Agamamu Apa?” published 1st December 2019 on the newspaper Kompas page 16.

Seorang perempuan ditolak di sebuah salon kecantikan karena agamanya. Seorang pemesan ojek daring ditolak naik kendaraan setelah Kang Ojol tahu bahwa penumpangnya hendak pergi beribadah yang tidak sejalan dengan Kang Ojol. Seorang pembeli kue diberi tahu bahwa pelayanan hanya diberikan kepada sesama umat beragama. Satu keluarga diminta memindahkan makam anggotanya karena agamanya berbeda dari mayoritas warga kampung. Beberapa mahasiswa mengalami kesulitan mencari tempat kos karena agamanya. Seorang seniman yang sudah membayar sewa kontrakan terpaksa pindah setelah ketahuan beragama berbeda dengan kelompok mayoritas dengan pertimbangan menjaga harmoni masyarakat kampung setempat.

Google translation below;

A woman is rejected in a beauty salon because of her religion. An online motorcycle taxi customer is denied a ride after Kang Ojol knows that his passenger is about to go to worship that is not in line with Kang Ojol. A cake buyer is told that the service is only given to fellow believers. One family was asked to move the graves of its members because their religion was different from the majority of the villagers. Some students have difficulty finding a boarding house because of their religion. An artist who has already paid rent for rent is forced to move after being caught by a different religion from the majority group with the consideration of maintaining harmony in the local village community.
 
This is quite good; the Constitutional Court decided that someone who has been convicted, is not allowed to participate in elections to become regional head, for five years after their prison time.

Now don't forget that since 2004, the KPK already tackled 115 regional 'leaders'. Of which 17 governors, 75 regents and 23 mayors.

Amazing numbers.
 
It seems Joko has again addressed the notion of following up on a range of human rights issues. One of which is the matter of the 10 missing students in 1998 taken into custody and then disappeared. Now that is a tricky one when one of the principal military officers said to be involved is now the Minister for Defence.
 
The minister Erick Thohir will have quite a job to unravel the BUMN knot. Those governmental (state-owned) companies have gone completely haywire.

In a meeting with the board of Pertamina, Thorir was shocked to find out that there are 142 legal entities under Pertamina. He told the press he had just discovered that only 3 months ago Garuda had set up a new daughter company, Garuda Tauberes, a sort of broker.

Talking about structure: Krakatau Steel -which is making huge losses- has 60 companies, many of which have no connection at all with the core activities of that company. And the BUMNs have 85 hotels in their possession while the state owned PT Hotel Indonesia Natour, which focuses specifically on the hotel industry, owns a measly 12 hotels. Makes perfect sense, right?
 
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The newly opened tollroad Jakarta-Cikampek II.
 
That is a very curious looking stretch of freeway with those contours. Was it dictated by the terrain or some logic that the contours will see fewer people falling asleep as might happen with a dead straight, monotous freeway?
 
That is a very curious looking stretch of freeway with those contours. Was it dictated by the terrain or some logic that the contours will see fewer people falling asleep as might happen with a dead straight, monotous freeway?
Was asking myself the same question !
 
In a meeting with the board of Pertamina, Thorir was shocked to find out that there are 142 legal entities under Pertamina. He told the press he had just discovered that only 3 months ago Garuda had set up a new daughter company, Garuda Tauberes, a sort of broker.

The "Tauberes" name was especially humorous for Indonesians. It's a bit difficult for me to translate the meaning, but it is something like "Don't care how, I just want it done". It is often used in context of corruption/bribery.
 

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