JAKARTA: Indonesia’s heavy metal-loving leader Joko Widodo faces off against ex-military general Prabowo Subianto in the race to lead the world’s third-biggest democracy Wednesday, a re-run of the 2014 election contest narrowly won by Widodo.
A record 245,000 candidates are running for public office from the presidency down to local legislator positions, including an Olympic gold medallist, a pop diva, a frontman who lost his bandmates and wife in a killer tsunami and even a late dictator’s son convicted of masterminding a judge’s murder.
Widodo’s landmark 2014 victory capped a remarkable rise for the down-to-earth outsider in a political scene dominated by dynasties from the era of Indonesia’s late dictator Suharto.
A one-time furniture exporter, the 57-year-old shot to prominence when he was elected governor of the capital Jakarta in 2012 after a successful stint as mayor of his hometown Solo.
Raised in a bamboo shack in a riverside slum, his humble demeanour and love for headbangers Metallica proved a hit with voters fed up with a graft-prone elite.
But the father of three — popularly known as Jokowi — carries a mixed track record into the polls.
He championed an ambitious drive to build much-needed roads, airports and other infrastructure across the sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, including Jakarta’s first mass rapid transit system.
He also ushered in or expanded popular health and social development schemes, including cash for the rural poor.
But his rights record has come under scrutiny, with an uptick in discriminatory attacks on Indonesia’s small LGBT community during his tenure, and high-profile cases of intolerance directed at religious minority groups in the Muslim majority nation.
He has also been accused of creeping authoritarianism following arrests of opposition campaigners and a revised law that let Jakarta ban mass organizations.
Viewed as weak and out of his depth in his first year in office, Widodo consolidated power in part by appointing Suharto-era army generals with chequered pasts to key posts.
He has further isolated moderate voters by picking conservative Islamic cleric Ma’ruf Amin — known for his disparaging views of minorities — as his vice presidential nominee.
Indonesia’s reputation for tolerant Islam has come into question in recent years as religious hard-liners become increasingly vocal.
Widening inequality and a slump in the rupiah currency have sparked criticism of Widodo’s economic stewardship, despite annual growth of about five percent and low inflation.
His big-ticket infrastructure projects have also been knocked for offering little benefit to tens of millions of poor Indonesians.
Subianto lost by a whisker five years ago, cutting Widodo’s once-huge lead to just a few points by polling day.
The ex-general — and ex-husband of one Suharto’s daughters — faces another uphill battle in 2019, trailing by double digits in most opinion polls ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
Prabowo has tried and failed to win high office several times over the past 15 years, including an unsuccessful 2009 run for the vice presidency.
But his ambitions have been dogged by ties to the Suharto family and a dark past — Subianto ordered the abduction of democracy activists in the dying days of the dictator’s rule in 1998 and has been accused of committing atrocities in East Timor.
He was dismissed from the military over the kidnappings.
This time round Subianto has sought to portray himself as a defender of the nation who will boost military spending, and has accused Widodo of selling the mineral-rich country to foreign interests, including China.
He has courted hard-line Islamist groups and — despite being vastly wealthy himself — railed against the country’s elites, claiming they are exploiting the poor.
Some commentators say that the overseas-educated 67-year-old believes he is destined to lead Indonesia.
Others have questioned his hunger for the job, suggesting he is running to help his Gerindra party at the polls and to supply a platform for younger running mate Sandiaga Uno.
Uno, a 49-year-old former financier who is reported to have spent about $100 million of his own fortune on the campaign, has been popular with millennials and housewives, possibly paving the way for a tilt at Indonesia’s top job in 2024.
The dictator’s youngest son served just four years of a 15-year prison term for hiring hitmen to murder a supreme court judge who had sentenced him to jail for corruption.
Known as a playboy with a taste for flashy cars, the younger Suharto is running for a legislative seat in Papua, which his father annexed in the late 1960s following a UN-backed referendum widely criticized as a sham.
Considered one of badminton’s greatest doubles specialists, the 48-year-old and his partner Rexy Mainaky won over 30 international titles together, including a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Pop music star and actor Krisdayanti is taking her first run at public office after a successful career that saw the former teen model shoot to fame at home and also in neighboring Malaysia and Brunei.
Frontman of pop-rock band ‘Seventeen’, Ifan 17, lost his bandmates and wife when a towering tsunami slammed into a beachside resort at a concert last year on Java island.
Indonesia presidential race pits heavy metal against the general
Indonesia presidential race pits heavy metal against the general
- A record 245,000 candidates are running for public office from the presidency down to local legislator positions, including an Olympic gold medallist, a pop diva, and a frontman who lost his bandmates and wife in a killer tsunami
- Widodo’s landmark 2014 victory capped a remarkable rise for the down-to-earth outsider in a political scene dominated by dynasties from the era of Indonesia’s late dictator Suharto
ICC takes custody of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte
If his case goes to trial and he is convicted, the 79-year-old Duterte could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment
THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court said Wednesday that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been surrendered to its custody, to face allegations of crimes against humanity stemming from deadly anti-drug crackdowns during his time in office.
The court said in a statement that “as a precautionary measure medical assistance” was made available at the airport for Duterte, in line with standard procedures when a suspect arrives.
Rights groups and families of victims have hailed Duterte’s arrest Tuesday in Manila on an ICC warrant, which was announced by current Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.
Within days, Duterte will face an initial appearance where the court will confirm his identity, check that he understands the charges against him and set a date for a hearing to assess if prosecutors have sufficient evidence to send him to a full trial.
If his case goes to trial and he is convicted, the 79-year-old Duterte could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The small jet taxied into a hangar where two buses were waiting. An ambulance also drove close to the hangar, and medics wheeled a gurney inside. There was no immediate sign of Duterte. A police helicopter hovered close to the airport as the plane remained in the hangar, largely obscured from view by the buses and two fuel tanker trucks.
ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah confirmed that Duterte was on the plane, which made a stopover in Dubai during its flight from Manila.
Duterte’s arrest was announced Tuesday by current Marcos, who said the former leader was arrested when he returned from a trip to Hong Kong and that he was sent aboard a plane to the ICC.
Grieving families are hopeful
“This is a monumental and long-overdue step for justice for thousands of victims and their families,” said Jerrie Abella of Amnesty International.
“It is therefore a hopeful sign for them, as well, in the Philippines and beyond, as it shows that suspected perpetrators of the worst crimes, including government leaders, will face justice wherever they are in the world,” Abella added.
Emily Soriano, the mother of a victim of the crackdowns, said she wanted more officials to face justice.
“Duterte is lucky he has due process, but our children who were killed did not have due process,” she said.
While Duterte’s plane was in the air, grieving relatives gathered in the Philippines to mourn his alleged victims, carrying the urns of their loved ones. “We are happy and we feel relieved,” said 55-year-old Melinda Abion Lafuente, mother of 22-year-old Angelo Lafuente, who she says was tortured and killed in 2016.
Duterte’s supporters, however, criticized his arrest as illegal and sought to have him returned home. Small groups of Duterte supporters and people who backed his arrest demonstrated on Wednesday outside the court before his arrival.
ICC investigation
The ICC opened an inquiry in 2021 into mass killings linked to the so-called war on drugs overseen by Duterte when he served as mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao and later as president.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported and up to 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
ICC judges who looked at prosecution evidence supporting their request for his arrest found “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Duterte is individually responsible for the crime against humanity of murder” as an “indirect co-perpetrator for having allegedly overseen the killings when he was mayor of Davao and later president of the Philippines,” according to his warrant.
What happens next?
Duterte could challenge the court’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the case. While the Philippines is no longer a member of the ICC, the alleged crimes happened before Manila withdrew from the court.
That process will likely take months and if the case progresses to trial it could take years. Duterte will be able to apply for provisional release from the court’s detention center while he waits, though it’s up to judges to decide whether to grant such a request.
Duterte’s legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, told reporters in Manila that the Philippine Supreme Court “can compel the government to bring back the person arrested and detained without probable cause and compel the government bring him before the court and to explain to them why they (government) did what they did.”
Marcos said Tuesday that Duterte’s arrest was “proper and correct” and not an act of political persecution.
Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, criticized the Marcos administration for surrendering her father to a foreign court, which she said currently has no jurisdiction in the Philippines.
She left the Philippines on Wednesday to arrange a meeting in The Hague with her detained father and talk to his lawyers, her office told reporters in Manila.
Philippines no longer an ICC member state
Duterte withdrew the Philippines in 2019 from the ICC, in a move human rights activists say was aimed at escaping accountability.
The Duterte administration moved to suspend the global court’s investigation in late 2021 by arguing that Philippine authorities were already looking into the same allegations, arguing that the ICC — a court of last resort — therefore didn’t have jurisdiction.
Appeals judges at the ICC rejected those arguments and ruled in 2023 that the investigation could resume.
The ICC judges who issued the warrant also said that the alleged crimes fall within the court’s jurisdiction. They said Duterte’s arrest was necessary because of what they called the “risk of interference with the investigations and the security of witnesses and victims.”
UK revokes accreditation for Russian diplomat
- "It is clear that the Russian state is actively seeking to drive the British Embassy in Moscow towards closure," a foreign office spokesperson said
- Britain said it had summoned the Russian ambassador in London
LONDON: Britain said it would revoke accreditation for a Russian diplomat in response to a similar move by Russia earlier this week against British diplomats.
"It is clear that the Russian state is actively seeking to drive the British Embassy in Moscow towards closure and has no regard for the dangerous escalatory impact of this," a foreign office spokesperson said in a statement announcing the move.
Russia accused two British diplomats on Monday of spying and gave them two weeks to leave the country - allegations Britain had rejected as "baseless".
Moscow has been angered by Britain's continued military support for Ukraine and by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's recent statements about putting British boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping force.
Britain said it had summoned the Russian ambassador in London on Wednesday and made clear that it would not stand for the "intimidation" of its diplomats and staff.
"We have drawn a line under this incident and demand Russia do the same," the foreign office spokesperson said. "Any further action taken by Russia will be considered an escalation and responded to accordingly."
From hospital, Francis marks 12th anniversary as pope
- The latest bulletins from the Vatican on the 88-year-old pope’s condition have said he is improving and is no longer in immediate danger
- Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official known as close to Francis, called the pope’s anniversary “a reason for gratitude“
VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will on Thursday mark the 12th anniversary of his election as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, but he will do so from Rome’s Gemelli hospital where he has been treated for double pneumonia for almost a month.
The latest bulletins from the Vatican on the 88-year-old pope’s condition have said he is improving and is no longer in immediate danger. They have not said when he will be discharged from hospital.
Francis was elected pope by the world’s Roman Catholic cardinals on March 13, 2013. His continued stay in hospital — he was admitted on February 14 — is changing the tenor of how Catholics are celebrating the day.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official known as close to Francis, called the pope’s anniversary “a reason for gratitude.”
He said: “This year, his illness makes us especially aware (of the anniversary), especially grateful to God, and redoubling our prayers for his full recovery.”
Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, is the first pope from the Americas.
Elected pontiff at age 76, he moved quickly to make an impact. Over 12 years, he has reorganized the Vatican’s bureaucracy, written four major teaching documents, made 47 foreign trips to more than 65 countries, and created more than 900 saints.
Overall, Francis is widely seen as trying to open the staid global Church to the modern world. Among major decisions, he has allowed priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis and has appointed women to serve as leaders of Vatican offices for the first time. He has also held five major Vatican summits of the world’s Catholic bishops to discuss contested issues such as women’s ordination and changing the Church’s sexual teachings.
David Gibson, a US academic who has followed the papacy closely, said Francis “has come to seem like the indispensable pope” for many Catholics.
“Francis has really reset the expectations for what a pope should be: a pastor who welcomes all and judges no one of good will,” said Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture.
However, the pope’s agenda has upset some Catholics, including a few senior cardinals. They have accused him of watering-down the Church’s teachings on issues such as same-sex marriage and divorce and remarriage, and of focusing excessively on political issues such as climate change. Some survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse have said he should do more to protect children in the Church.
While Francis created the first papal commission on the issue, survivors’ groups have questioned its effectiveness and have called on the pope to create firmer zero-tolerance policies.
’WHAT OUR WORLD NEEDS’ Francis is known to work himself to exhaustion and has continued his work from hospital. But as he starts his 13th year as pope, it is unclear if he will be able to keep up his normal pace once he is discharged from hospital. Doctors not involved in his care said he is likely to face a long, fraught road to recovery, given his age and other medical conditions, which have severely limited his mobility. His prolonged public absence has stoked speculation that he could choose to follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign the papacy. But his friends and biographers have insisted he has no plans to step down. Much of the pope’s schedule for 2025 centers around the Catholic Holy Year, which has filled his calendar with audiences with groups of pilgrims coming to Rome. The Church expects 32 million pilgrims during the year.
Francis has also been planning at least one foreign trip. He wants to travel to Turkiye for the celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of a major Christian council of bishops in ancient Nicaea, now the modern day town of Iznik.
Vatican officials expect he will push to make the trip, even if it must be postponed beyond May, when it was planned.
Many Catholics are also hoping Francis will continue speaking out on political issues known as important to him, such as the treatment of immigrants, and on global conflicts. Just three days before going into hospital, Francis sharply criticized US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in an unusual open letter to America’s Catholic bishops.
“Pope Francis has offered the world both vision and leadership,” said Marie Dennis, a Vatican adviser and former leader of an international Catholic organization focused on issues of world peace.
“He is exactly what our broken, violent, confused world needs right now,” she said.
Pakistan army takes control of main southwest railway station after train hijacking
- BLA separatist group says it is holding 214 people hostage, including military, police and intelligence officials
- Security official says 190 passengers have been freed and an armed rescue operation is ongoing
QUETTA: The Pakistani army took control of a main railway station in the southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday as security forces continued to try and rescue hundreds of people taken hostage by separatist militants.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Balochistan Liberation Army bombed part of a railway track and stormed the Quetta-Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express in Mushkaaf, an area in the mountainous Bolan area. The group later said it was holding 214 people hostage, including military, police and intelligence officials. A security official said 190 passengers had been rescued by Wednesday afternoon.
The province has been the site of low-level insurgency for decades, with separatist groups accusing the government of stripping the province’s natural resources and leaving its people in poverty. They claim security forces routinely abduct, torture and execute ethnic Baloch, allegations echoed by human rights campaigners.
Government officials and security forces strongly deny violating human rights and say they are improving the province through development projects, including multi-billion-dollar schemes funded by China.
On Wednesday afternoon, an eyewitness told Arab News he had seen dozens of empty coffins being brought to Quetta railway station, which was overrun by army personnel while dozens of the hostages’ family members arrived in search of their loved ones. These included those of Amjad Yasin, 50-year-old driver of the Jaffar Express, who officials said was killed during Tuesday’s assault.
“We have been contacting railway officials since yesterday, but no one is telling the truth,” Amir Yasin, the driver’s younger brother, told Arab News. “There are multiple reports coming about my brother’s death but how can we believe it until we see his body?”
Railway official Ghulam Muhammad Sumroo said 16 passengers, including two injured Railway Police officers, had reached Mach railway station and were being moved to Quetta.
Muhammad Abid, a railway employee who was on the train and arrived at Mach, described the attack as the most horrific day of his life.
“We were sitting in one of the compartments of (the) Jaffar Express when a powerful explosion targeted the train and intense firing started,” he told Arab News during a phone call.
“We hid in the washrooms with other passengers, but then armed men came in and off-boarded us from the train. After checking our identity cards, they asked us to run on the track. My life flashed before my eyes when I saw dozens of armed men standing on the railway track.”
Muhammad Ashraf, a 68-year-old passenger traveling to Hafizabad in Punjab to meet his daughter, said that he heard an explosion followed by intense gunfire shortly after the train departed from Paneer railway station.
“Armed men boarded the train and asked everyone to leave the train or prepare to die,” he told Arab News, adding the militants made passengers walk on the tracks for three and a half hours.
Ashraf estimated more than 200 passengers had been detained.
A security official with direct knowledge of the ongoing rescue operation to take back control of the train said 190 passengers had been freed and at least 30 militants killed. He added there were suicide bombers on board the train using women and children as human shields.
“Due to the presence of women and children with suicide bombers, extreme caution is being exercised in the operation,” the official said. “Security forces are continuing their operation to eliminate the remaining terrorists.”
The official added the militants were in touch with their “handlers” in Afghanistan, echoing the belief of Pakistani security and government officials that a recent spike in militancy was being orchestrated from the neighboring country. Taliban rulers in Kabul deny they allow Afghan soil to be used by insurgents to plan or carry out terror attacks.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the BLA, which has demanded a prisoner exchange within 48 hours, said Pakistan’s government was not taking its demands seriously and was trying to free hostages through military action.
“BLA warns the enemy that if the Pakistani army commits any further aggression, even if a single bullet is fired, 10 more personnel will be eliminated,” it said.
“If our demands are not met within (the stipulated) time and the state’s stubbornness continues, then five hostages will be eliminated for every passing hour after the ultimatum ends.”
Germany’s Scholz criticizes US tariffs as ‘wrong’
- “We will react to them appropriately and quickly,” Scholz said
BERLIN: Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned sweeping new US steel and aluminum tariffs on Wednesday and said Germany was “studying the suggestions of the European Commission” for retaliatory measures.
“I think the decisions on tariffs by the USA are wrong and we will react to them appropriately and quickly,” Scholz told a press conference in Berlin alongside European Council chief Antonio Costa.
