Hello reader,

I hope you’re winnin’ in this glorious Senin. If you’re not, there are four more days to make your mark.

Speaking of this week, I am going to do some traveling so the next few editions of Nusantara Notes may arrive in your inboxes earlier or later than the usual 6pm WIB. They will definitely arrive, though. You can quote me on that.

Enjoy reading!

Cheers,

Andra

Law/Politics

• The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has officially nominated Sohibul Iman, formerly vice speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), as their candidate for the November Jakarta gubernatorial race. PKS, a long-time supporter of Anies Baswedan, says the door is still open for the former Jakarta governor to join the party’s ticket under the condition that he becomes an official member of the party. Another Islamic party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), has already endorsed Anies and is open to an Anies-Sohibul pairing, but is reluctant to see Anies pledge allegiance to PKS.

• Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution admitted that he owes the huge backing he has received in the North Sumatra gubernatorial race to his father-in-law, President Joko Widodo. Bobby has already received endorsements from Golkar and the National Mandate Party (PAN), and is in the midst of considering a running mate for November’s election.

• The Jakarta Metro Police arrested a 17-year-old girl on Saturday after she allegedly stabbed her own father to death. Investigators say the suspect carried out the alleged murder when her father caught her stealing his money.

• A music festival in Tangerang Regency, Banten ended in riots and looting on Sunday, as festival goers were angry that a couple of headlining acts did not turn up at the show. The event organizers say the festival was compromised after an employee ran away with hundreds of millions of rupiah of operational cash just hours before the event.

Business/Economy

Permission to Permit

What do Coldplay and MotoGP have in common? There could’ve been so much more of them in Indonesia if not for red tape.

President Joko Widodo today lamented the country’s convoluted event permits during the launch of a new streamlined, digital permit application system. He said that was why Coldplay only played one show in Jakarta last year while they had multiple shows in Singapore, and why Taylor Swift skipped Jakarta entirely for Singapore. Even though MotoGP returned to Indonesia recently, Jokowi said organizers had to obtain 13 distinct permits in order to stage the race in Lombok.

Sounds like Indonesia all right.

The president went on to say that it had long been his wish to digitize the permit application process, which has finally come to fruition with the newly-launched Online Single Submission (OSS) system. As the name suggests, organizers would no longer have to obtain permits from all levels of local and regional administrations to hold their major events.

Permission to not hold our breath until we see how this plays out in practice?

In Other News

• The World Bank has upgraded Its GDP growth projection of Indonesia to an average annual rate of 5.1% from 2024 to 2026, up from its previous projection of 4.9% growth in 2024 and 2025. This bullish outlook is underpinned by the government’s strong macroeconomic policies. The government and parliament are targeting economic growth between 5.1% and 5.5% percent next year, surpassing the 5.05% recorded in 2023 and the 5.2% target for this year.

• There is no such thing as free lunch. The budget for President-elect Prabowo Subianto’s free school lunch program, one of his highlight campaign promises, is projected to hit a staggering IDR 71 trillion in 2025, according to Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto. It better be as nutritious as advertised.

• Indonesia’s state budget recorded a deficit of IDR 21.8 trillion as of May 2024, equivalent to 0.1% of GDP, due to a 7.1% drop in state revenue and a 14% increase in government spending. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati noted that this performance is still within the expected range set by the 2024 state budget law, which anticipated a full-year deficit of 2.29%.

• Blibli, an e-commerce platform owned by the Djarum Group, has acquired home and living startup Dekoruma for IDR 1.16 trillion. This strategic move is part of Blibli’s expansion efforts to enhance its product offerings and market presence in the home and living sector.

Everything Else

• The Ministry of Religious Affairs has updated the death toll of Indonesian Hajj pilgrims who passed away during this year’s pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia to 234. Saudi authorities also updated the total death toll to 1,301, citing excessive heat as the main factor behind the deaths.

• Officials say immigration checkpoints at major Indonesian airports are now running normally despite ongoing disruptions to the National Data Center (PDN). Last week, disruptions to the digital database meant immigration had to input data manually, causing lines to stack up at checkpoints.