The wRap Indonesia: Feb. 27, 2015

JAKARTA, Indonesia – In today’s wrap of stories from Indonesia, netizens rally behind the Jakarta governor and the sentencing of former maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih’s ex-employer in Hong Kong.

1. Netizens rally behind impeachment-threatened Jakarta governor

#SaveAhok #KitaJagainAhok #InAHOKWeTrust pic.twitter.com/j8vpc2U3XR

— janny kusmawardi (@jannykusmawardi) February 27, 2015

Jakarta’s city council (DPRD) agreed on Thursday, February 26, to exercise its rights to investigate Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, which can lead to impeachment proceedings. Netizens quickly rallied behind the governor, who they saw as being persecuted for preventing the DPRD from inserting questionable items into the regional budget. Within hours of the DPRD voting 91-106 to begin the inquiry, the hashtag #SaveAhok was trending on Twitter.

2. Erwiana’s former HK employer jailed 6 years

A Hong Kong court on Friday, February 27, sentenced Law Wan-tung to 6 years in prison for beating and starving her Indonesian maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, and keeping her prisoner in a case that has attracted massive international attention. The judge also called for an investigation by Hong Kong and Indonesian authorities into the workers’ conditions. Erwiana said she appreciated the decision, but she was hoping Law would receive the maximum sentence of 7 years. Read the full story on Rappler.

3. Caskets prepared for drug convicts on death row

A funeral home in Cilacap, Central Java, has reportedly prepared at least 10 caskets ahead of the planned execution of death-row convicts on Nusakambangan prison island. The same funeral home provided the caskets for the 5 executed on the island in January. This time, based on the size of the casket order, the funeral home director said he believed that 10 people would face the firing squad. “One of the 10 caskets was noticeably larger than the rest at around 2.5 meters long,” he said. Read the full story from the Jakarta Post.

4. Indonesia to be removed from money-laundering blacklist

Indonesia will be removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) money-laundering blacklist, according to Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports Analysis Center (PPATK) chief Muhammad Yusuf Ali. The decision was made on Wednesday in Paris, he told Tempo.co, in recognition of improvements Indonesia has made, particularly on the freezing of assets of terrorists. FATF will visit the country in May to validate the report Yusuf presented in Paris.

5. Iwan Fals organizing people’s concert for 4 million 

Legendary Indonesian musician Iwan Fals met with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Friday to discuss a plan to hold a massive people’s concert, expected to be for Independence Day on August 17. “I wanted to consult the idea of gathering 4 million people for the concert,” Iwan said after meeting the president. He said he did not know yet when or where the concert would be held, and would wait for Jokowi to help him with these details.

Iwan also reminded the president to fulfill his promises. “It does take time, but he is eager to fulfill them,” he said. – Rappler.com