VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has asked his administration to prepare booster vaccinations, which are planned to be administered to Indonesians starting January 2022, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said here on Monday.

“Currently, we are resolving the mechanism for the provision of vaccines to fund assistance recipients (PBI) and non-PBI of the National Health Insurance program," he informed after attending a limited meeting on the evaluation of community activity restrictions (PPKM) chaired by President Jokowi.

The President has also urged that vaccinations of vulnerable people and children who have not been vaccinated be expedited, Hartarto said.

The attempt is crucial to curb the transmission of the new COVID-19 variant called Omicron which, according to studies, has infected many children, he explained.

"Hence, children's vaccination must be encouraged," the coordinating minister emphasized.

Furthermore, Jokowi has also asked his staff to continue evaluating and monitoring the development of the new virus variant, which has been detected in 45 countries, he said.

Anticipating the spread of COVID-19 ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, Hartarto—who is also the Coordinator for PPKM outside Java-Bali—informed that the President has ordered that any activity be attended by a maximum of 50 people.

“Meanwhile, the maximum capacity at restaurants is 75 percent, and only vaccinated people are allowed to travel," he added.

However, the restrictions amid the Christmas and New Year holidays will be further adjusted the to World Health Organization’s advice and regulated in the Instructions of the Home Affairs Minister, he said.

The WHO has urged all countries to implement genome sequencing analysis and restrict community activities to anticipate the transmission of the new Omicron variant, he added.

As of Monday, no Omicron infections had been detected in Indonesia, he added.

The government has banned nationals from 11 countries -- South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Hong Kong -- from entering Indonesia. (Antaranews)

The government has deemed that it is important to use the restorative justice approach to handle past cases of gross human rights violations, Law and Human Rights Vice Minister Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej has said.

"The government deemed that these cases (gross human rights violations) should be resolved, no longer through retributive justice, but with corrective, rehabilitative, and restorative justice," he noted.

At an online public discussion held to commemorate the 2021 Human Rights Day on Monday, he explained that retributive justice has a tendency to utilize the legal process as a platform to exact vengeance.

As a result, this incentivizes delivering the heaviest punishment and focuses on the wrongdoers, he added.

Meanwhile, restorative justice has an orientation of recovery, which also focuses on rehabilitation and correcting criminal actions, he said.

Law enforcement authorities often encounter hurdles concerning past gross human rights violation cases, Hiariej highlighted.

According to Law No. 26 of 2000 on Human Rights Trial, law enforcement officials involved in human rights trials need to be from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Attorney General's Office.

The police and the military are not involved because they are considered to have ties with past gross human rights violation cases, he noted.

"There is always tension and debate between the Komnas HAM, which believes that there is enough evidence, and the Attorney General's Office, which does not feel that there is enough evidence," he said.

Hence, Hiariej deemed that if law enforcement authorities only focus on resolving gross human rights violations through trials, then the problem will never be resolved.

"The other alternative is that we (the government) resolve past gross human rights violations not case by case, but the whole cases," he affirmed.

The President could create an ad hoc team whose job is to resolve all past human rights violations based on three main points, he suggested.

These three points are reveal the truth, rehabilitate the victims, and ensure that gross human violations do not happen again in the future, he said.

These steps are a part of restorative justice that aims to handle past problems without neglecting the importance of rehabilitation for victims affected by human rights violations, he added. (Antaranews)

Indonesia's Dwiska Afrilia Maharani and Elsa Dewi Saputri have bagged two gold medals in para powerlifting at the Bahrain 2021 Asian Youth Para Games (AYPG).

According to a written statement issued by Indonesia's National Paralympic Committee (NPC) on Monday, Maharalani won in the women 79kg category, while Saputri emerged victorious in the +86kg category.

The competition was held at Khalifa Sports City Stadium, Isa Town, Bahrain on Sunday.

"This achievement made us all proud because, from the beginning, we did not force our athletes to win a medal," the Indonesian contingent's chef de mission (CdM), Edward Hutahayan, noted in his official statement on Monday.

"I only urged all athletes to give it all they had got because this was an extraordinary occasion for them to fight on the international stage," he remarked.

Para powerlifting is expected to be Indonesia's winning sports branch in several international championships, including the upcoming 2024 Summer Paralympics, he added.

Indonesia has also won a gold medal in the single boccia sports branch. The medal was clinched by Febriyanti Vani Rahmadhani in the women's BC2 category.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Bintang Satria won a silver in the men's BC2 event and Muhammad Afrizal Syafa took home the bronze medal in the men's BC1 event.

"The medal gold for the single category surprised us because, from the beginning, we aimed to win gold ins the team category," Boccia's coach Islahuzzaman noted.

Indonesia still has a shot at adding another gold medal in the BC1-BC2 team category, he said. The Indonesian team for the event comprises Muhammad Bintang Satria, Muhammad Afrizal Syafa, and Febriyanti Vani Rahmadhani.

They will take on the Thailand team today.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Rizki won silver for Indonesia in the -70 kg category of para taekwondo. (Antaranews)

National Development Planning (PPN) Minister and Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) Suharso Monoarfa has called for the use of statistical data for village development, saying villages are the drivers of national development.

"(Development) planning must be conducted since the early stage, which is at the village level. Thus, we can get a plan which is according to evidence, facts, and data," he said at the Stats-enthusiast Village (Desa Cantik) Award, themed "Utilizing Data Towards Prosperity", here on Monday.

Villages should not remain development objects anymore, he remarked. They must become the subjects of development and drive the improvement of people's welfare, he said.

Village development policies will be more effective if they are made based on complete and accurate data, he observed. Hence, it is necessary to increase village capacity, he added.

However, local governments are facing a number of challenges in this regard, such as low involvement of villages in collecting data as well as the need for improving the quality and capacity of human resources managing the data, he noted.

The challenges are arising because of low literacy when it comes to village data, which affects the commitment of the rural government to optimizing data usage in development policy-making, he said.

Hence, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) is making efforts to increase village capacity in using data for development policies through the Desa Cantik program, as the agency has been mandated to improve data literacy in accordance with Law Number 16/1997 concerning Statistics, he said.

The program aims to improve the competence of village officials in managing and utilizing data to make village development plans more efficient, he informed.

In addition, it strives to realize Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 17 by developing partnerships between villages and BPS in data provision, he added.

"Village administrators must have complete and accurate data on various aspects of their regions, thus the programs run by them will become more effective," Monoarfa said.

Furthermore, the Desa Cantik program is in line with three Electronic-based Governance System (SPBE) frameworks, he added.

They comprise increasing digital literacy and digital data awareness at the village level, expediting the realization of One Indonesia Data, which is data standardization conducted by BPS, as well as establishing government’s Big Data and implementing artificial intelligence in the governmental sector, he said.

"Hence, we must encourage and guide village officers on differentiating data and facts in practice, thus they can be used as a basis for policy-making," the minister added.  (Antaranews)