VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Poland governing coalition parties have agreed to postpone this Sunday's presidential election because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party had wanted the vote to go ahead to get Andrzej Duda, 47, re-elected. But junior coalition partner Agreement and the opposition said PiS was putting political gain ahead of public health. The election will now be rescheduled to a date "as soon as possible" and it will be a postal-only ballot. The timing of the election had plunged Poland into a serious political crisis on top of the ongoing health crisis, the BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw reports.

Both international and Polish election observers had also raised concerns the ballot would not be sufficiently transparent nor fair given that candidates have suspended campaigning due to the lockdown, our correspondent says. Poland has nearly 15,000 confirmed infections and more than 700 deaths, according to America's Johns Hopkins University. The Covid-19 numbers are lower than in many Western European countries, but the Polish health minister has warned that cases have not yet peaked//BBC

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany's goal of slowing the spread of coronavirus has been achieved, so all shops can be reopened as lockdown restrictions are eased. Bundesliga football has been given the green light to resume and schools will gradually reopen in the summer term. Germany's 16 federal states, under an agreement with the government, will take control of timing the reopening. They will operate an "emergency brake" if there is a new surge in infections.

General contact rules involving will continue for another month. A limited resumption has already begun, but this easing of restrictions is far broader. Two households will be able to meet and eat together, and elderly people in nursing homes and facilities for the disabled will be able to have visits from one specific person. 

"I think we can safely state that the very first phase of the pandemic is behind us," Chancellor Merkel said. "But we need to be very much aware we are still in the early phases and we'll be in it for the long haul." 

Germany has seen fewer than 7,000 deaths in the coronavirus pandemic - a much lower figure than in other Western European countries including the UK, Italy, France and Spain//BBC

The House of Representatives (DPR) must soon pass a Bill on Protection of Personal Data into a law following data breach involving millions of Indonesia's online shoppers, Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) researcher stated. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a law that protects personal data was deemed urgent since several people preferred to shop online, CIPS researcher Ira Aprilianti noted in a statement here on Wednesday.

"With the enactment of Large-Scale Social Distancing (PSBB), increasingly more number of consumers are conducting online transactions," she pointed out. There is a pressing need to enact the Bill on Personal Data Protection to protect e-commerce consumers.

Misuse of personal data of e-commerce service providers is quite common. In several cases concerning fintech companies, consumer data is disseminated and traded without the customer's consent. Consumer data leakage and illegal data trading could disadvantage consumers and affect the credibility of online shopping companies, which in turn will harm their businesses.

"The Personal Data Protection Bill ideally regulates the rights and obligations of service providers and consumers. It must clarify the purpose of using personal data and regulate what data can be accessed by service providers in connection with the transaction," she noted. 

Currently, 32 laws and regulations on personal data protection exist, and their implementation and supervision lie in the hands of various ministries and institutions. Aprilianti cited several regulations on personal data protection, such as the Telecommunications Law, Information and Electronic Transactions Act (ITE), Consumer Protection Act, and Trade Law, as well as several governmental and ministerial regulations. The implementation of regulations and supervision of personal data protection become difficult since the authorities are under several ministries, particularly the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Communication and Informatics//ANT

The coronavirus pandemic has severely affected the tourism industry in Raja Ampat District in the Indonesian province of West Papua, said head of the Indonesian Tourist Guides Association (PHI), Raja Ampat chapter, Ranny Iriani Tumundo. The current COVID-19 outbreak has kept tourists away from Raja Ampat, with no arrivals recorded so far. As a result, 184 tourist guides have lost their jobs since March this year, Tumundo told journalists on Wednesday. Tourist guides were making a living by offering their services to visiting travelers. But, the COVID-19 outbreak has put a halt to tourist inflows, partly owing to the enforcement of travel restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Tumundo noted. The out-of-job tourist guides are members of PHI, and 80 percent of them are married with children. To feed their families, many of them have tried to find new jobs, but they are not easy to come by amid the ongoing health crisis, he pointed out. 

"We all pray for God's mercy. May this storm vanish soon so that our tourism industry can run again. For all members of PHI, please stay healthy, and follow the COVID-19 preventive measures," he averred.

Raja Ampat is often called "Heaven on Earth", "Miracle of Papua", "Underwater Paradise on Earth", or "Real Wonder of the World" for its mesmerizing marine panoramas//ANT