Hello reader,

It’s hump day, and after so many bumps along the way, parliament has finally passed a bill extending maternity leave for working mothers in Indonesia.

The move has been hailed as a progressive step towards enhancing women’s rights in the workforce, but some concerns linger — will the law discourage employers from hiring women in the first place?

We’ll dive into that major story, as well as other updates from across the archipelago, just below.

Cheers,

Andra

Law/Politics

• President Joko Widodo says he’ll begin working from Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara in July, pending water supply installation at the Presidential Palace. The president added that Nusantara will be ready to host the August 17 Independence Day ceremony despite the recent resignations of Nusantara Capital City (IKN) Authority leaders. Further driving home the message that everything is okay in Nusantara, Jokowi this morning broke ground on the construction of an international school at the new capital.

• West Bandung's acting regent, Arsan Latif, has been named a suspect in a corruption scandal involving the Sindang Kasih Market project in Majalengka, in which he allegedly embezzled funds into his personal bank account. The case also implicates the son of a former Majalengka regent.

• A Briton may face up to five years behind bars after he allegedly drove a motorcycle recklessly and assaulted a local in Gianyar, Bali on Tuesday. The victim reportedly suffered minor injuries to his face.

Business/Economy

Maternity Leave Extended

Mothers deserve the world and more. So the figurative tumpeng was served when the House of Representatives (DPR) yesterday passed the Maternity and Child Welfare Bill (RUU KIA), which provides working mothers with the right to up to six months of maternity leave.

Pending government ratification, the new law entitles working mothers to at least three months of paid leave following childbirth, plus up to an additional three months of paid leave for qualifying medical conditions. This extended leave is a substantial increase from the previous regulation, which granted only three months of maternity leave evenly split either side of childbirth. Fathers, meanwhile, are granted two days of paternity leave, plus up to three more days at the employer’s discretion.

While the legislation's approval undeniably marks a progressive step towards enhancing the rights and well-being of working parents, there is still some concern that it could be used as a grounds to further discriminate women in the workforce. After all, we live in a society where it is too commonplace for women to be invasively asked at job interviews if they have any immediate plans to have children.

For what it’s worth, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin Indonesia) gave their assurances RUU KIA will not pose another hurdle for women to get hired. That would be great, in theory, but Kadin doesn’t exactly speak for every individual employer.

In Other News

• The Indonesian government has granted an extension for Freeport Indonesia’s mining license until 2061, ensuring operations until the mineral reserves at Grasberg are exhausted. This decision is driven by the significant untapped mineral resources still present in the mine and the need to maintain investor stability for the miner, which is now majority-owned by the Indonesian government. Separately, the government remains steadfast on lifting its export ban on copper concentrates even after Freeport raised concerns about a potential 20% drop in revenue to US$ 7.4 billion this year.

• Indonesia's major banks are significantly cutting down their physical infrastructure amid the rise of digital payments (hello, QRIS!). The Financial Services Authority (OJK) noted that there were 91,412 ATMs, CDMs, and CRMs in circulation in Q4 2023, 1,416 fewer than the previous quarter and 2,604 fewer compared to the previous year.

• The National Food Agency (Bapanas) has identified high production costs, which affects the entire supply chain, as a key factor driving up the prices of unhusked rice (gabah) and rice in Indonesia. Despite efforts to manage and stabilize prices through policies like flexible purchasing prices by Perum Bulog, the prices of both unhusked and milled rice remain high at the customer level.

Everything Else

• People have been tweeting pornography on X since time immemorial, but the platform’s updated rules officially allowing explicit content has once again put it on Indonesia’s Communications and Information Ministry’s radar. The ministry has fired a warning shot at X, threatening that it would block access to the platform in Indonesia — where pornography is illegal — if it doesn’t reverse its decision.

• Around 2.5 million people in at least five Sumatran provinces went without electricity for nearly a day. The blackout was reportedly caused by an exploding lightning arrester, resulting in the lengthy shutdown of the 275 kV Lubuklinggau-Lahat overhead power line. Almost all affected have had power restored in their homes as of Wednesday afternoon.

• It wasn’t the most promising first day at the 2024 Indonesia Open, with local superstar Anthony Sinisuka Ginting bowing out at the round of 32 after losing to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto. In the women’s singles, Putri Kusuma Wardani was also knocked out at the first round, losing out to fellow Indonesian shuttler Gregory Mariska Tunjung.