The wRap Indonesia: Oct. 14, 2014

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Mark Zuckerberg’s recap of his two-day visit to Indonesia and Jakarta’s plans to tighten supervision of foreign workers lead our wrap of stories from Indonesia. 

1. Zuckerberg shares thoughts on visiting Indonesia, meeting Jokowi

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recapped his two-day visit to Indonesia with a brief message on his official page on Monday, October 13. The IT billionnaire said of discussing with President-elect Joko Widodo the opportunities and challenges of connecting everyone in Indonesia: “He has an amazing perspective since he ran much of his presidential election campaign through Facebook and the internet in order to communicate directly with all 250 million Indonesians.” Zuckerberg’s visit was aimed primarily at promoting Internet.org and how to boost Internet access in the country. “Over the last couple of days, I’ve had the opportunity to meet many people here and talk to them about how they’re using the internet. Many are already using the internet to build businesses, improve their communities and connect with the world. If we can connect everyone in Indonesia, these benefits will only continue to grow.”

2. Jakarta to tighten supervision of foreign workers ahead of ASEAN Community

With an influx of foreign workers feared when the ASEAN Economic Community gets implemented in December 2015, the Jakarta administration plans to tighten monitoring of foreign workers to ensure they don’t take away jobs from locals. The head of the Manpower and Transmigration, Agency Priyono, told the Jakarta Post that though Indonesia was committed to labor liberalization under the AEC, only certain jobs in certain sectors would be open to expatriates.

3. Sri Mulyani in Jokowi’s cabinet? No way, says opposition

World Bank Managing Director Sri Mulyani Indrawati may be considered by international observers as one of the best finance ministers Indonesia has ever had, but not for the opposition camp. Rumors floated about her possibly being included in Jokowi’s cabinet after she reportedly met with Vice-President-elect Jusuf Kalla in Washington DC in August 2014. But Golkar Party, a member of the Prabowo Subianto-led opposition coalition, said on Monday they will strongly oppose such moves. Sri Mulyani’s controversial resignation as finance minister in 2009 was largely seen to have been caused by her conflict with Aburizal Bakrie, the Golkar party chairman.  

4. Want a second wife? That will be $82 in East Lombok 

Civil servants in East Lombok district, in West Nusa Tenggara Province, will have to pay a IDR1 million ($82) polygamy fee if they want to take a second wife, according to a new regulation issued by the local government. This is a “contribution” to help increase the local revenue, local officials said, according to Kompas.com. But this doesn’t mean men will suddenly start taking second wives. On the contrary, “it is aimed at making it more difficult, to add to the existing tough regulations,” the Jakarta Globe reported. Under existing regulations, a civil servant can take a second wife if he gets a permit from his first wife, treats both wives equally and is financially able to support two families. The second marriage can also be allowed if it turns out the first wife cannot bear a child in 10 years of marriage, of if the wife leaves the husband for a period of at least 2 years without permission.  

5. Indonesia will seek world heritage status for 7 tourism sites 

The Ministry of Education and Culture has identified 7 new sites in Indonesia that can potentially be included in the Unesco world heritage list. These are the kota tua (old city) areas in Jakarta and Semarang, the old mining town of Sawahlunto and Sijunjung in West Sumatra, Sangkulirang in East Kalimantan, Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi, and the Banda Islands in Maluku, according to a statement from Unesco. The ministry is working with Unesco this week to train teams from the 7 sites in developing the quality of their nomination dossiers. – Rappler.com