VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian government emphasized that Vanuatu was not a representative for Papuans, when replying to the allegations of human rights violations that the Pacific country had brought against Indonesia.

"You are not a representation of the Papuan people, and stop fantasizing about being one of them," Silvany Austin Pasaribu, a young diplomat representing Indonesia said at the UN General Assembly, on Saturday.

In the official UN video footage, Silvany said Vanuatu had an excessive and unhealthy obsession with how Indonesia should act or govern its own country.

The reason is, almost every year in the UN General Assembly, Vanuatu always touches the issue of alleged human rights violations experienced by the Papuan people - an accusation that Indonesia considers deliberately echoed to support separatism.

"Indonesia will defend itself from all advocacy for separatism that is conveyed under the guise of artificial concern for human rights," Silvany said.

He emphasized that since 1945, Papua and West Papua are part of Indonesia which is a final and irreversible decision. This has also been strongly supported by the United Nations and the international community for the last few decades.

"The principles of the UN Charter that Vanuatu clearly does not understand are respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity," said Silvany.

In his answer, Silvany also questioned how Vanuatu, which has not ratified international conventions on the elimination of racial discrimination and signed international treaties on economic, social, and cultural rights, actually “lectures” Indonesia on human rights issues in Papua.

“We call on the Vanuatu Government to fulfill your human rights responsibilities to your people and the world. So before you do that, please keep your sermon to yourself,” the diplomat who is also the Second Secretary for Economic Functions at Indonesian Permanent Representative Office in New York said.

Vanuatu Prime Minister Bob Loughman accused Indonesia of committing human rights violations in Papua, and it continues to this day.

According to him, allegations of human rights violations in Papua are of particular concern to Pacific countries who have called on Indonesia to allow the UN Human Rights Council to visit Papua.

However, said Loughman, the Government of Indonesia did not respond to the call.

"I ask the Indonesian government to respond to the calls of the Pacific leaders," he said.

Last year, Vanuatu also accused Indonesia of not giving permission to the UN Human Rights Council to visit Papua.

"We are concerned about the Indonesian Government delaying the confirmation of time for the Human Rights Commissioner to visit Papua," Vanuatu's Permanent Representative to the United Nations for Sumbue Antas said in 2019. (Antaranews)

Indonesia has been officially selected as the host of the 59th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Tourism Working Group (APEC-TWG) meeting in 2022.

APEC-TWG is a forum for APEC member countries to encourage economic growth in the Asia and Pacific region with tourism.

Deputy for Resources and Institutions at the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Wisnu Bawa Tarunajaya, said that this event could help the recovery of the tourism sector in Indonesia which was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We expect this activity to accelerate the recovery process of the tourism sector by increasing the Meeting-Incentive-Convention-Exhibition (MICE) activity," Wisnu said in a statement received on Friday.

He said that implementing APEC-TWG which is an international scale event in the country can be momentum for actors in the tourism sector and the creative economy to strengthen the confidence of foreign tourists to visit Indonesia.

Wisnu said with Indonesia as the host, they can improve the quality of foreign tourist visits in terms of expenditure and duration of visits.

"We also expect this will improve Indonesia's image by hosting intergovernmental international organization meetings," he said.

At the APEC session, Indonesia became the leading economy in the 4th priority of the APEC Workplan: Sharing Good Practices and Knowledge on incorporating Sustainable Solutions in the Spatial Planning of Tourism in Conservation and Protected Areas; and the Management of Overtourism while Considering the Destination Carrying Capacity, after competing with Singapore which is also eyeing the same position.

Meanwhile, to capitalize on Indonesia's involvement in world global forums, the Indonesian delegation represented by the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy outperformed the Thai delegation who volunteered to host the 59th TWG APEC meeting in the first semester of 2022.

"We believe that together Together we can get through this crisis and restore the welfare of the APEC community through the tourism sector," Wisnu said. (RRI)

President Joko Widodo reportedly gave a basket of flowers to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

As informed by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), on Thursday, President Jokowi gave a series of flowers on the 72nd anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or North Korea.

Quoting KCNA, a basket of flowers from Jokowi was sent on September 22, 2020. Jokowi also reportedly sent greetings to Kim Jong Un. 

The following is the complete message from President Jokowi to Kim Jong Un:

"Allow me to convey to Your Excellency and the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, sincere congratulations on the 72nd anniversary of the establishment of the DPRK on September 9, 2020.

I believe the spirit of the anniversary will be to strengthen the efforts of the government and the DPRK community to overcome the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On this occasion I also want to reaffirm my commitment to strengthening cooperation between Indonesia and the Korean DPR for the common interests of the two countries, and for peace and progress in the region and beyond.

Please accept, Your Excellency, renewed assurance of my highest consideration, and best wishes for Your Excellency's health and continued success in Your Excellency's noble duties." (RRI)

The government emphasizes health to be the main aspect in efforts to recover the national economy by promoting the 3M campaign, namely wearing masks, maintaining distance, and washing hands to reduce transmission rates.

"Economic recovery is part of the main recovery the health aspect," Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said in a press conference via Instagram @perekonomiri in Jakarta, Friday.

The government also encourages the active involvement of the TNI and Polri security forces in disciplining the public to participate in the 3M campaign.

The government also intensifies 3T activities, namely tracking, tracing, and testing. Discipline enforcement trials in implementing health protocols conducted in eight regions plus one province with high infection and transmission rates (red zone) have shown good results.

This discipline will continue to be maintained for the next few months, so it becomes a yellow zone and then into a green zone.

The approach to implementing large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), said the Coordinating Minister for Airlangga, is also starting to make progress in a cluster, so that isolation will be carried out based on the source of transmission without sacrificing other places.

"We learned that the one size fits all approach is not right, because each location cluster is different, so the COVID-9 handling program will also differ according to the character of the location/cluster," he said.

This step will be expanded and continued so that the level of community immunity increases until vaccines are found and properly distributed.

Meanwhile, related to the realization of the budget for handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (PC-PEN) until September 16, 2020, has reached 36.6 percent or reached IDR 254, 4 trillion from the budget ceiling of Rp. 695.2 trillion.

The realized health budget reached IDR 18.45 trillion or 21.1 percent of the total budget ceiling of IDR 87.55 trillion.

Coordinating Minister Airlangga said that until the end of this year, the realization of the health budget in the PC-PEN is estimated to reach 96 percent or IDR 84.02 trillion.

They will allocate the remainder of the budget for social protection costs, which will be increased from Rp.203.9 trillion to Rp.242 trillion. (Antaranews)