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Honduras President Xiomara Castro's election brought an end to 12 years of right wing National Party (PN) rule (Photo:AFP Luis Acosta) - 

Leftist Xiomara Castro was sworn in on Thursday (Jan 27) as the first woman president of Honduras after seemingly resolving a rebellion in her own party that had challenged her authority.

"I promise to be faithful to the Republic, to comply with and enforce the Constitution and its laws," 62-year-old Castro said at a ceremony attended by international dignitaries and her choice for Congress president, Luis Redondo.

Redondo had been at the centre of a disruptive rivalry within Castro's Libre party, which is in a majority alliance in Congress.

Factions of Libre split on who should be the legislature's new president and held rival sittings in the past week.

Castro needs a loyal Congress to carry out her election promises to tackle corruption, crime and poverty.

Her election last November brought an end to 12 years of right-wing National Party (PN) rule that followed the ousting of her husband, former president Manuel Zelaya, in a 2009 coup d'etat.

"Twelve years of struggle, 12 years of resistance. Today the people's government begins," Castro said on Twitter.

From dawn, queues had formed outside the national stadium in the capital Tegucigalpa where 29,000 people were due to watch the inauguration with US Vice President Kamala Harris, King Felipe VI of Spain and Taiwan Vice President William Lai.

Negotiations to end the impasse within Libre seemed to have reached a successful conclusion Thursday as Redondo opened a legislative session shortly before the swearing-in ceremony.

His rival Jorge Calix, supported by almost a third of Libre MPs backed by members of rightwing parties, did not attend a rival session as he had on Sunday.

Castro said late Wednesday she had offered Calix the job of cabinet coordinator - similar to chief of staff - in a bid to convince him to drop his claim to the Congress presidency.

The dispute, which last Friday saw lawmakers exchange blows in Congress, was an embarrassing distraction for Castro ahead of assuming office with a full in-tray.

Honduras is "a country in a deep crisis, above all a social crisis, whose despair, whose deterioration of living conditions have become so profound," Eugenio Sosa, a sociologist at the National University of Honduras, told AFP.

Hondurans are fleeing the country in droves, often to the United States, in search of work and a better life.

Castro accuses the Calix supporters within Libre of being in cahoots with the PN and other forces she says want to undermine her anti-corruption drive.

Harris would hold talks with Castro on the root causes of Central American migration toward the United States, a senior US official said ahead of Thursday's swearing-in.

"The topics will include expanding economic opportunity, combating corruption and humanely managing migration," the official added.

More than 70 percent of Hondurans live in poverty, according to the Fosdeh NGO, and drug- and gang-related violent crime is rife.

The murder rate is close to 40 per 100,000 inhabitants.

"Everyone wants to leave because there's no work. If there were more job opportunities here, there would be no need to look for another country," university student Jensi Davila told AFP in Tegucigalpa.

Lai will also meet Castro, though separately, "to exchange views on issues of mutual concern," according to Taiwan's foreign ministry.

Honduras is one of just 14 countries to recognise Taiwan.

China, which considers Taiwan a part of its territory, has spent decades successfully encouraging the island nation's allies to switch sides.

On the election campaign, Castro vowed to "immediately open diplomatic and commercial relations with mainland China" if she won//CNA

Geothermal plants will allow the nation to produce electricity continuously and support solar energy and wind power plants, which can only produce electricity when there is sunlight or when the wind is blowing, according to the National Energy Council (DEN). (ANTARA/HO-PLN) - 

The optimal development of geothermal power plants (PLTP) is necessary to support the penetration of solar and wind power plants that produce electricity intermittently, member of the National Energy Council (DEN), Herman Darnel Ibrahim, has said.

"Its maximum development in the future is needed to support the penetration of intermittent power plants such as solar power plants (PLTS) and wind power plants (PLTB), which will then support the energy transition towards net-zero emissions," he explained during a discussion related to the nation's geothermal potential here on Thursday.

Geothermal is a potential natural resource for Indonesia since the country is located in the Ring of Fire, he noted adding, it will potentially allow the nation to produce electricity continuously and support solar energy and wind power plants, which can only produce electricity when there is sunlight or when the wind is blowing.

"The installed capacity of stun magma in Indonesia is recorded at 2,384.9 megawatts (MW) or about 10 percent of the total resources of 24 thousand MW," he noted. This capacity is the second largest in the world after the United States, he pointed out.

"Electricity from geothermal energy is a base load generator that can continuously (generate electricity). So, this is very different from intermittent solar energy or wind energy," said Ibrahim.

The average installed capacity growth of geothermal energy in Indonesia is just 60 MW per year, he said. In comparison, the average growth in installed capacity of geothermal electricity globally is 200 MW per year, he added.

The recently published Electricity Supply Business Plan Fund (RUPTL) of the State Electricity Company (PLN) has set a target of generating 5,474 MW of power from geothermal power plants by 2030, he noted.

"The development of PLTPs is currently still slow due to the price policy, which is considered by the developer to be unattractive. However, if the price is raised, it will be a burden for the government and PLN," explained Ibrahim.

"While national electricity consumption is estimated to reach around 2 thousand TWh in 2050, the maximum role of geothermal power plants is estimated to only meet about 10 percent of the need," he added//ANT

Illustration - The logo of Bank Indonesia. (ANTARA/HO-BI Documentation/KT) - 

Bank Indonesia (BI) and China's central bank, the People's Bank of China (POBC), renewed the Bilateral Currency Swap Arrangement (BCSA), which came into effect from January 21, 2022.

The BCSA agreement allows central banks to obtain foreign exchange from partner central banks by swapping each country's local currency in order to be exchanged back on the agreed due time period.

"The BCSA agreement makes it possible for exchanges in both (Indonesia's and China's) local currencies up to 250 billion Chinese Yuan (equivalent to about Rp550 billion), which is also equivalent to about US$38.8 billion," BI Chief Executive of Communications Erwin Haryono stated here on Thursday.

Haryono noted that BCSA is a form of bilateral financial cooperation that is commonly implemented by central banks.

Moreover, he explained that the cooperation agreement aims to encourage bilateral trade and direct investment in each country's local currency for encouraging economic development in both countries. In addition, the BCSA agreement demonstrates the commitment of both central banks to maintain financial market stability.

Apart from the People's Bank of China, BI has also forged financial cooperation with other central banks in several countries in the region, such as South Korea, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The BCSA between BI and POBC was first signed in March 2009 and has been through several amendments and extensions, Haryono highlighted.

According to Haryono, it reflects strong cooperation between BI and POBC in the field of finance. Thus, it is expected to further boost market confidence in both countries' economic fundamentals.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has assessed that Indonesia's policies on macroeconomics and finance in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and boosting economic recovery can grow credible market confidence, Finance Ministry's Head of the Fiscal Policy Agency, Febrio Kacaribu, stated.

Indonesia was observed as being a country that has successfully handled the pandemic without sacrificing on financial stability, Kacaribu remarked//ANT

Concern over the spread of negative content on social media has led to the emergence of several communities that are working to educate the people about hoaxes, radical narratives, and the like. (ANTARA/Ho-Pixabay/FR) - 

Unrestricted exchange of information on social media has led to a rise in hoaxes, hate speech, and radical narratives, according to observers.

The fast pace of information technology development has been like a double-edged sword, they said. On the one hand, it provides instant access to information that allows users to acquire knowledge and insight, they pointed out.

On the other hand, it brings negative impacts in the form of destructive content that can spread just as easily if users do not learn to filter such content out, they added.

Hoaxes, hate speech, and radical narratives can appear at any moment and be directed at anyone, regardless of age and social environment, and they often contain elements of intolerance, according to analysts.

The government, through various methods, is striving to eradicate hoaxes, radicalism, and intolerance in the public domain, they said.

The methods range from formulating regulations for imposing penalties on hoax spreaders to digital literacy programs that encompass education and information dissemination concerning Internet utilization, they noted.

The question is: Can the government alone filter all hoaxes spreading across social media?

The answer to that is: Not without the active participation of all social media users.

So then, what contribution can the public make to support the government's efforts to eradicate hoaxes?

According to the Communication and Informatics Ministry's director of informatics application management, Teguh Arifiadi, the ministry is ready to collaborate with anyone and any community to tackle hoaxes by boosting literacy.

On Tuesday, he invited all elements of society to commit to eradicating hoaxes and hate speech by collaborating with the government.

Several such communities already exist within the nation, such as Mafindo, Cyber Kreasi, Cyber Hoax Community, and others that have thus far done their utmost to campaign against hoaxes, he noted.

However, in the regions, volunteers from such communities often have to go it alone, he said. Such communities die and revive themselves depending on the developing situation and do not have the capacity to sustain themselves, he added.

One such community has recently emerged in Bekasi city and district, West Java due to concerns over the spread of hoaxes on social media—Masyarakat Peduli Literacy Digital (Citizens Care for Digital Literacy).

The community members call themselves Malidi, a shortened form of the community's name.

The Malidi feel that hoaxes have been flooding social media since four years ago, and are marked by the prevalence of news of dubious validity, but are quickly believed by people.

The Malidi said they are working to verify information in the public domain by coordinating with sources that can provide authentic information, such as the government, the police, and the military.

"We participated in making clarification videos with the Puspen TNI (Indonesian National Defense Forces' information center) and anti-hoax dissemination with Kamtibmas (people's security and order) officials," Malidi's head, Heru Nugroho, said.

"We will continue this expansion through an education workshop and visit to educational environments while also collaborating with stakeholders to bolster literacy activities to spread factual news," he added.

"The Malidi members are focusing on digital literacy education and campaigning for healthy, smart, anti-hoax, and anti-radicalism social media utilization," he said.

They are doing this by upholding the principle of independence, transparency, assistance in educating the younger generation on social media, and unity, he added.

One of their periodic activities is a talk show that discusses various topics such as religion, health, education, economy, child protection, law, and entrepreneurship, he said.

All of these topics are covered within one theme that relates to positive information and communication through social media, he added.

The presence of Malidi among the public, and amid the destructiveness of technological development, is necessary because edifying people to critically analyze information has become important in the current era, he affirmed.

"I hope that the Malidi could also help the governments' work and play an important role in eradicating untrue information that could harm the people," Bekasi's acting mayor, Tri Adhianto, remarked.

Malidi and similar communities are expected to educate people on using social media wisely and make it a platform to promote national values and positive news for the public, he added.

In addition, educating the public on the dangers of hoaxes, radicalism, pornography, and fighting against any movement that threatens to fracture the nation is important, he said.

All of us certainly expect that the digital literacy community's handling of disinformation would help minimize the spread of hoaxes, he added.

It is also expected that people will utilize social media as much as they can by filtering information before sharing it, he added.

With these communities, it is expected that the people will discuss and share their thoughts through various methods, both through direct meetings and online platforms, so that the circulation of negative content and radicalism can be prevented, he said//ANT