VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 24 - The Indonesian Foreign Ministry has refuted a Reuters report saying Jakarta has agreed to Myanmar junta’s action plan for holding fresh elections, affirming that is not the Indonesian government’s political stance.

"I deny there is a plan of action. It is absolutely not Indonesia's position," Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah told journalists in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has been striving to consult with her counterparts from other ASEAN member states to gather their views on Myanmar's political crisis, he said.

Marsudi's meetings with her counterparts have followed President Joko Widodo's recent meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in Jakarta early this month, he added.

Foreign Minister Marsudi has visited Brunei Darussalam and Singapore over the past week, Faizasyah informed.

She is scheduled to make a trip to Thailand in the near future to consult with her counterpart about how ASEAN can play a role in seeking solutions to Myanmar's political crisis, he said.

"What we want to underline is how we can find a peaceful solution in Myanmar… an inclusive democratic political process that involves all parties," he stated.

The news report from Reuters, an international news agency, on Monday had prompted loyalists of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi to stage a peaceful rally in front of the Indonesian Embassy in Yangon on Tuesday.

Over the past few weeks, Myanmar has been hit by waves of protests against the military coup of February 1, 2021.

The protesters are demanding an immediate release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and recognition of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s victory in the second parliamentary elections, held on October 29, 2020.

According to a BBC report on February 1, 2021, following the coup, Myanmar's military seized power while Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically-elected leaders were detained.

Myanmar is one of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The nine other member countries are Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. (Antaranews)

Feb. 24 - A food estate project in Central Sumba District, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), will be expanded to reach 10 thousand hectares, comprising 5,600 hectares for rice and 4,400 hectares for corn, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) stated.

The coverage area of the food estate will be increased, from five thousand hectares constituting three thousand hectares of rice and two thousand hectares of corn.

"Why is it to be implemented in NTT, especially in Central Sumba District? We have to speak the reality, Mr district head and Mr governor. It is because my data shows that 34 percent of the population lives poverty here," the head of state noted during his review of the food estate development project in Central Sumba on Tuesday. The visit was broadcast live by the Presidential Secretariat office.

The food estate in Central Sumba is projected to enable rice harvesting biannually and corn and soybean harvesting once year.

Currently, local farmers harvest rice once a year only. NTT is an arid province that recurrently bears the brunt of water shortages.

To overcome the problem of water shortages, the government has built numerous ground wells since 2018 and also large reservoirs. However, they were unable to supply adequate water to meet the requirements of local inhabitants. Hence, the NTT authorities have requested the government to build more dams and reservoirs.

"I have ordered the minister of PUPR (Public Works and Public Housing) to explore the possibility of building more reservoirs or dams as well as drilling wells. The Ministry of Agriculture must help provide agricultural equipment, particularly tractors, which are urgently required," Jokowi emphasized.

The head of state inspected the food estate project in Central Sumba as part of his day-long working visit to the province on Tuesday.

Jokowi stressed on the significance of developing the food estate in East Nusa Tenggara on grounds of its poverty rate and harvest time.

The central government is currently developing food estates in North Sumatra Province, Central Kalimantan Province, and East Nusa Tenggara Province, in a bid to achieve nationwide self-reliance in food. (Antaranews)

Feb. 23 - The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday welcomed a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to work towards abolishing the death penalty in the United States.

Biden, a Democrat, promised voters last year he would seek to end the federal death penalty, and took office last month as the country’s first abolitionist president.

“I welcome the pledge by the new U.S. Administration to work towards ending the death penalty, both at federal and state level,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.

The punishment at a federal level was revived by Donald Trump last year after a 17-year hiatus caused in part by the increasing difficulty of obtaining drugs for lethal injections.

Merrick Garland, Biden’s nominee for U.S. attorney-general, on Monday told Congress his support for the death penalty had eroded amid concerns it disproportionately affected Black Americans and other communities of colour and that too many were wrongfully convicted.

“Deterrence is often an argument of those who oppose its abolition. However, there is no evidence that it deters crime more effectively than any other punishment,” Bachelet said during a U.N. Human Rights Council debate.

“On the contrary, studies suggest that some states that have abolished the death penalty saw their murder rates unaltered or even decline,” she said.

The U.S. delegation, which has observer status, did not speak at the debate, held every two years.

The “vast majority” of countries have abolished the death penalty in law or do not carry out executions in practice, Bachelet said.

Iran and Saudi Arabia, among the top five countries carrying out executions according to Amnesty International, defended the practice during the debate as being only for the most serious offences, in line with sharia law. (Reuters)

Feb. 23 -  President Joko Widodo will visit the food estate in Makata Keri Village in Central Sumba District, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), on Tuesday during which his itinerary will also include the inauguration of Napun Gete Dam.

The head of state, along with a limited entourage, departed for the trip aboard the Indonesia-1 Presidential Aircraft from the Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta on Tuesday morning as cited from the Presidential Press Bureau in Jakarta on Tuesday.

After landing at the Tambolaka Airport in Southwest Sumba, President Jokowi is scheduled to head to the food estate in Makata Keri Village where he will embark on a visit to the rice granary that has become the government's long-term program in NTT.

The president will thereafter head to Sikka District for a visit and inaugurate the Napun Gete Dam, the construction for which commenced in 2016.

During his trip, the head of state is accompanied by Minister of Public Works and Public Housing Basuki Hadimuljono, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Presidential Military Secretary Air-Vice Marshal M. Tonny Harjono, Commander of the Presidential Security Detail Military Mayor General Agus Subiyanto, and Presidential Secretariat's Deputy for Protocol, Press, and Media Bey Machmudin. (Antaranews)