Latest news with #AnandaTeresia
The Star
15-07-2025
- Climate
- The Star
Boat capsizes off Indonesia's Mentawai islands, 11 people missing
JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesian rescuers were searching for 11 people missing after a boat capsized in bad weather off the Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra province, the local search and rescue agency said on Tuesday. Eight people had been rescued after the incident, which happened on Monday at around 11 a.m. (0400 GMT), the rescue agency said in a statement. (Reporting by Ananda Teresia; Editing by John Mair)
Time of India
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Indonesia signs wiretapping pacts with telco operators; analysts flag privacy concerns
By Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman JAKARTA: Indonesia's Attorney General Office has signed an agreement with four telecommunication operators to install wiretapping devices, an official from the Office said, raising questions among analysts about the potential impact on privacy and surveillance. The agreement, signed on Tuesday, would allow prosecutors to access telecommunication recordings and enable data exchange for law enforcement purposes, the Attorney General Office spokesperson Harli Siregar told Reuters on Thursday. "We have many fugitives and need technology to detect them," Siregar said, referring to the agreement signed with the country's largest telco company Telekomunikasi Indonesia and its unit Telekomunikasi Selular, as well as two other companies Indosat , and XLSMART Telecom Sejahtera . The pacts, which would include mobile phones, are in accordance with a law passed in 2021 giving wiretapping authority to the Attorney General Office, Siregar added. Indonesia's police and anti-graft agency are already able to use wiretapping, Wahyudi Djafar, an analyst focused on digital governance and public policy told Reuters. But he said the new arrangement with the Attorney General Office could allow prosecutors to use surveillance even on the grounds of suspicion without formal charges or legally named suspects in an investigation. Djafar, who is the Public Policy Director at Rakhsa Initiatives, an Indonesia-based think tank focused on digital governance and strategic security issues, said he feared the agreement could potentially widen the scope of wiretapping and lead to mass surveillance. "There is no clear limitation on how the wiretap will be conducted and for how long and who can use the data," he said, adding "the (AGO) office's wiretapping power will be stronger than the police and anti-graft agency." The Attorney General Office spokesperson Siregar, responding to the privacy concerns, said the office will only wiretap fugitives. When asked about the extent of the wiretapping powers, Siregar said the act would "not be done arbitrarily." Damar Juniarto, a board member at global rights group Amnesty International in Indonesia, said the wiretapping agreements would mean more state agencies doing surveillance, potentially further threatening civil liberties. Indonesia's Presidential Communication Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the concerns about the impact of wiretapping laws on civil liberties. Merza Fachys, a director at XLSMART, one of the telco companies, told Reuters that the Attorney General Office is one of the state agencies allowed to wiretap, and ensures customer data would be safe. A data protection law, passed in 2022, imposes corporate fines for mishandling customers' data. The biggest fine is 2% of a corporation's annual revenue and could see their assets confiscated or auctioned off.
Zawya
26-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Qatar's Qilaa International to invest initial $2.5bln in Indonesia housing project
JAKARTA - Qatar's Qilaa International group will make an initial investment of about $2.5 billion in its project to build 1 million affordable housing units in Indonesia, its chairman said on Thursday. The chairman said the company will build 50,000 units of apartments soon. (Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Ananda Teresia; Editing by John Mair)
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Ride-hailing drivers in Indonesia hold protests to demand better pay
By Ananda Teresia and Heru Asprihanto JAKARTA (Reuters) - Hundreds of taxi and delivery drivers joined protests in several cities across Indonesia on Tuesday over low wages and to oppose a planned merger between the country's largest tech company GoTo and U.S.-listed ride-hailing rival Grab. Ride-hailing and delivery services, especially by motorcycle, are a critical part of the transport landscape in Southeast Asia's largest economy, especially in big cities. GoTo's unit Gojek, which has more than 3.1 million motorcycle drivers on its books, and Singapore-headquartered Grab have dominated the Indonesian market for years. Drivers gathered in the early afternoon near the president's office, parliamentary buildings, and the office of the transport ministry in Jakarta, dressed in their trademark green jackets and helmets. They delivered fiery speeches through loudspeakers, waved flags and held up posters criticising what they said were unfair and exploitative company policies. Drivers, who say they typically make between 100,000 rupiah ($6.09) and 150,000 rupiah for 10 to 12-hour day, also rode in a convoy through some of the capital's major streets. GoTo said in a statement it was open to drivers' input but reducing the company's share of fares was not a solution. On the merger plan, it said it had received proposals from various parties but had "not made any decision." Grab did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Drivers asked the government to ensure they received 90% of the fare from each trip, Raden Igun Wicaksono, the head of the online motorcycle driver association, told Reuters. Under current regulations, companies are supposed to take no more than 20% of the fare, but Wicaksono said that sometimes the companies took more. "There is no sanction in the regulation and the government has always been soft on the companies," he said. Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi, who met company representatives on Monday to discuss the issues, acknowledged the drivers' concerns over the level of commissions and said in a statement that the government was evaluating the scheme. The companies say they take a commission on fares as regulated by the government. Protests took place in cities, including Surabaya, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Semarang on the country's main Java island, local media reported. Sunardi, 47, who joined the Jakarta protest, said company offers of discounted fares had also reduced driver incomes and called for an end to the practice. The drivers said they feared a merger between GoTo and Grab would result in a "monopoly" and lead to layoffs as well as "predatory prices" for consumers, said Wicaksono. Grab is looking to strike a deal to take over GoTo in the second quarter, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier this month. If the merger goes ahead it would create a regional ride-hailing giant with around 85% of the $8 billion market, according to data analytics firm Euromonitor International. ($1 = 16,410.0000 rupiah)
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Indonesia parliament set to ratify sea boundary with Vietnam, lawmaker says
By Ananda Teresia and Stanley Widianto JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's parliament is set to agree next week to ratify an agreement made with Vietnam that sets the boundaries of their exclusive economic zones in the contested South China Sea, a lawmaker said on Thursday. The South China Sea is a strategic waterway that has been a source of tension between China and its Southeast Asian neighbours, disrupting fishing and energy exploration in the area. Nico Siahaan, a lawmaker in the parliamentary commission overseeing the agreement, told Reuters the parliament and the government would formally agree to ratify it on Monday, with the actual ratification set for that week or the following week. The agreement, signed in 2022 after more than a decade of negotiations, determines the coordinates of the two nations' EEZs at sea. The Vietnamese parliament also needs to ratify the deal. Indonesia hopes it could reduce encroachments by Vietnamese fishermen in its waters, a frequent source of tension. Hikmahanto Juwana, an Indonesian international law expert who was consulted by the parliament last week, told Reuters on Thursday the agreement means the two countries are ignoring China's claims in the sea. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam, and waters off Indonesia's Natuna Islands. In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal ruled that China's claims have no basis under international law. China does not recognise the ruling, and insists it operates lawfully in its territory. Indonesia's deputy foreign minister, Arif Havas Oegroseno, told Reuters on Wednesday that the agreement would provide legal boundaries for fishermen and clearly define relations between the two countries at sea. "To Indonesia, as an archipelago with a lot of neighbours, ideally sea borders are done. So we have a legal certainty: where we can make patrols, drill oil," he said. Indonesia's signing of a maritime deal with China last year sparked controversy, with analysts saying it could be interpreted as a change in Jakarta's long-held stance as a non-claimant state in the South China Sea. Indonesia's foreign ministry has repeatedly said the country is a non-claimant state in the South China Sea and has no overlapping jurisdiction with China.
