The wRap Indonesia: Feb. 6, 2015

JAKARTA, Indonesia – The results of an official survey about how happy Indonesians are and updates on Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s trip to Malaysia lead our wrap of stories from Indonesia today. 

1. Worst traffic and safety situation? Jakarta is still home to happy people 

So Jakarta residents might be stuck in traffic most of the time, and safety might be more of an issue for them than residents of other big cities, but they are apparently still happy. The 2014 Indonesian Happiness Index released by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) on Thursday, February 5, showed Jakarta residents score 69.21 (out of 100), higher than the national average of 68.28. But Jakarta isn’t the happiest place in the country. That distinction goes to Riau Islands with a score of 72.42, followed by Maluku with 72.12, and East Kalimantan with 71.45, according to the Jakarta Post.

Overall, Indonesians were happier in 2014 than the year before. Curiously, the survey also found unmarried Indonesians to be happier than married and divorced ones, according to this Rappler report.  

2. Jokowi and Najib discuss how to resolve maritime disputes

Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Friday pledged renewed efforts to resolve stubborn disputes over maritime borders that have long nagged at one of Southeast Asia’s most important bilateral relationships. “We are committed to establishing an additional mechanism to resolve the outstanding (territorial) issues,” Najib said at the briefing. The tension has centered on competing claims to potentially energy-rich seabeds in the Celebes Sea off the eastern coast of the vast island of Borneo, which the two nations share along with tiny Brunei. But they also have disputed maritime borders in other spots, and Indonesia has lately sought to crack down on illegal fishing in its waters, using explosives to destroy and sink a number of foreign vessels caught in the act, including from Malaysia. Read the full story on Rappler. 

3. iPhone finally officially on sale in Indonesia… at steeper prices  

After a long wait, Apple fanboys in Indonesia on Friday were finally able to walk into a store and buy the latest iPhone models. They don’t exactly come cheap, though. At online store Lazada, for example, the lowest iPhone 6 model with 16Gb of memory was already selling for at least IDR9.8 million ($770), which seems higher than the US price but comparable with neighboring Singapore. The official prices released by Apple’s distributors show the same smartphone selling for IDR10.8 million. 

4. Jakarta governor sets conditions for buying Persija football club shares

“Well, if they want us to buy their shares, give us 20% first,” Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said on Thursday, referring to PT Persija Jaya Jakarta, the capital’s official football club. Ahok added that Persija should gather data on all of its assets, including its intangible assets such as goodwill, which includes trademarks, copyrights, patents, and organizational expenditures. “If we already get 20%, then we will buy the rest,” he said. Like other football clubs in the country, Persija is struggling to pay salaries and has been in arrears since last year’s season. It has to pay salaries totaling IDR1.8 trillion by February 13. Read the full story on Tempo.co.

5. Australia not giving up on Bali Nine pair on death row

Australia will continue to plead for the lives of two men on death row in Indonesia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Friday, vowing not to give up hope that their executions could be stayed. Lawyers for Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, who face death by firing squad, have admitted the outlook is bleak after they lost a legal bid to have their cases reviewed on Wednesday. “We are continuing to make representations at the highest level,” Bishop told reporters. “We are continuing to ask for people who have influence and contacts within the Indonesian government to make contact now and to make those representations.” – with a report from AFP/Rappler.com