VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo awarded the title of national hero to six figures at the State Palace, Jakarta, Tuesday.

The award is based on the Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia Number 117 Kindergarten Year 2020 which was set on November 6, 2020.

"Awarding the title of national hero to those whose names are in this attachment as a high honor and respect for services - his services were extraordinary, during his lifetime he led and carried out armed struggles, or political struggles or struggles in other fields to achieve, seize, defend, and fill independence and realize national unity and integrity," wrote the Presidential Decree read out in the Award Ceremony National Hero 2020 at the State Palace, Jakarta.

The six figures are the late Sultan Baabullah of North Maluku, West Papuan Machmud Singgirei Rumagesan, late General Police (ret) Raden Said Soekanto Tjokrodiatmodjo from Jakarta, late Arnold Mononutu from North Sulawesi, late Mr Sutan Mohammad Amin Nasution from North Sumatra, and late Raden Mattaher Bin Pangeran Kusen Bin Adi from Jambi.

Also attending the award ceremony were Vice President Ma'ruf Amin, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD, and Minister of Social Affairs Juliari Batubara.

The event is continued with a prayer reading by the Minister of Religion Fachrul Razi. President Jokowi then congratulated the heirs who attended the event. (Antaranews)

The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer has proven to be more than 90 percent effective based on initial trials, Pfizer said in an official broadcast on Monday, as quoted by Reuters on Tuesday.

This is a major victory in the fight against a virus that has killed more than a million people around the world and hit the global economy.

Scientists, public health officials, and investors have welcomed the first successful interim data from a large-scale clinical trial as a key moment that could help tackle the pandemic if the full trial results go well.

However, the mass rollout, which has to pass multiple regulations, will not occur this year and some vaccines are seen as necessary to meet enormous global needs.

Pfizer and German partner BioNTech will seek to allow emergency use in the US this month, so it is likely that regulations could be decided in December.

If permits are down, they estimate that they could provide up to 50 million doses of vaccine this year, enough for 25 million people, then produce up to 1.3 billion doses of vaccine by 2021.

"Today is an extraordinary day for science and humanity," he said.

Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla. Experts say they want to see the full trial data, but initial results look encouraging.

"This news makes me smile widely. It is such a relief to see positive results with this vaccine and bodes well for the COVID-19 vaccine in general, ”said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford.

Many questions remain, such as how effective the vaccine is based on the patient's ethnicity or age and how long immunity can last.

"But the bottom line is, it's a vaccine with over 90 percent effectiveness, that's incredible," leading US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN.

Pfizer hopes to get permission from the US so that this vaccine can be used by people aged 16-85 years.

For that, it needs further data for two months to make sure there are no side effects. The data is expected to be available in the third week of November.

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said it took several weeks for the data to be received and processed before the approval was issued. (Antaranews)

Thousands of supporters gathered at Jakarta’s airport on Tuesday to welcome back Rizieq Shihab, a firebrand cleric and Islamist leader, who went into exile in Saudi Arabia after facing charges over sending pornographic messages and insulting state ideology. 

There were chaotic scenes at the airport as his supporters, dressed in white, paralyzed the toll road, scrambling to get a glimpse of the cleric and trying to kiss his hand.  Some airlines were forced to reschedule flights. 

“We really miss him because we know he really fights for Islam and the Indonesian nation,” said Abdul Sobur, 42, who was among the crowd.

“I hope Muslims can unite.”  Rizieq, who was jailed in 2008 on charges of inciting violence and who is head of the hardline Islamic

Defenders Front (FPI), became a figurehead for conservative Islam and a politically influential movement that helped bring down Jakarta’s former Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as “Ahok”, who in 2017 was jailed for insulting Islam. 

That year, police filed a case against Rizieq over insulting Indonesia’s secular state ideology, Pancasila, and breaching pornography laws, after a purported steamy exchange with a supporter that included naked images of a woman was circulated online. 

The cleric left Indonesia in 2017 and police dropped both cases a year later, but he had remained in self-exile in Saudi Arabia until Tuesday.  Another supporter, Ima Sari Kartika, 39, said she was jubilant the cleric had returned home to the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. 

“I have been waiting for his presence among Indonesian Muslims for a long time because Indonesia is the largest Islamic country, so there should be an imam who leads the people here,” she said. (Reuters)

Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto said Indonesia's trade balance surplus during the January-September 2020 period gave a positive signal to trade performance and national economic recovery.

Minister of Trade Agus stated that the cumulative trade balance for the January-September 2020 period was recorded as having a surplus of US $13.5 billion.

"The impact is huge because this surplus carries a positive signal. We will maintain the export trend even amid a pandemic," said Trade Minister Agus in a virtual discussion held by BNPB, Monday.

The Minister of Trade explained that the cumulative trade performance for January-September 2020 exceeded the 2017 trade balance surplus of 11.84 billion US dollars and was the highest surplus achievement since 2012.

Several commodities, especially non-oil and gas exports experienced an increase in September 2020. They were iron and steel, vegetable fats and oils, vehicles and spare parts, electrical machinery and equipment, and plastics and plastic goods.

The five products contributed an export share of 34.02 percent of Indonesia's total non-oil and gas exports in September 2020.

There is an increase in steel exports due to increased demand for products from China and Malaysia, along with the recovery of industrial activity in the country.

"Meanwhile, the increase in export value was also influenced by the increase in CPO prices in the international market and the increase in demand for CPO from China and India," said Agus.

He added that the country is seeing economic recovery, one of which was based on the trade balance, provided motivation for domestic MSME players to increase their exports. (Antaranews)