Asia's first LGBT-focused streaming service tackles taboos

Yahoo – AFP, Catherine Lai, December 30, 2019

GagaOOLala brings more than 1,000 feature films, shorts, web series, and
documentaries to people across Asia, where censorship and traditional attitudes
mean there has been little in the way of gay content in the mainstream
media (AFP Photo/Roslan RAHMAN)

Singapore (AFP) - A rom-com about a lesbian flight attendant and a romance in a gay spa are among the shows featured on Asia's first LGBT-focused streaming service, which is pushing boundaries in an often highly conservative region.

GagaOOLala brings more than 1,000 feature films, shorts, web series, and documentaries to people across Asia, where censorship and traditional attitudes mean there has been little in the way of gay content in the mainstream media.

After launching in 2017 in Taiwan, a beacon for gay rights since becoming the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, it has expanded to 21 territories including several that still criminalise homosexuality.

"One of the main impetuses for me to create GagaOOlala, (is) to kind of dispel a lot of the myths and misconceptions that a lot of people might have about LGBT people," said Jay Lin, a prominent LGBT rights activist in Taiwan who founded the platform.

"We're not all living really tragic lives -- we're entrepreneurs, we're fathers," the 46-year-old, who is raising twin boys with his partner in Taipei, told AFP.

With about 280,000 members, made up mainly of gay people but also including a significant number of straight women, its success comes as some progress is made on LGBT rights in parts of the region.

As well as Taiwan's move to legalise same-sex unions in May, India's Supreme Court last year struck down a colonial-era ban on gay sex.

Dire rights situation

But the gay rights situation remains dire in other countries where the platform operates -- making its presence in those markets all the more important, supporters say.

Gay sex is still banned in Singapore as it is in Malaysia, where in the past year women and men have been caned under Islamic laws for having same-sex relations.

The tiny, oil-rich sultanate of Brunei introduced death by stoning for gay sex as part of a harsh new sharia penal code earlier this year –- but later rolled it back following a storm of criticism.

Censorship also persists in some countries, with Malaysia's film board this year cutting gay sex scenes from "Rocketman", the movie-musical based on the life of British singer Elton John.

The platform -- which is planning a global launch next year -- has not run into any regulatory hurdles so far, according to Lin, but he acknowledged the need to tread carefully in more conservative places.

The service often relies on closed chat groups, social media and LGBT influencers for promotion instead of advertising openly.

Lin's team started by building up GagaOOlala's library with Western content, but has since branched out, making an effort to find content from across Asia.

Earlier this year GOL Studios, a sister platform, was launched to help LGBT filmmakers find talent and funding, as well as distribute and market their work.

Homegrown content

The platform ramped up its production of original content this year, making its first Thai film, its first lesbian feature film in Japan and a Germany-Spain co-production.

"As we have developed..., we have realised that actually a lot of Asians also want to see Asian faces, and watch Asian stories and watch films take place in places or cities that they're familiar with," said Lin.

For streamers focusing on niche areas like GagaOOLala, original shows are key to building their brands.

Lin said interest in the platform jumped after the recent release of the "Handsome Stewardess", a series about a Taiwanese, tomboyish lesbian who takes a job as a flight attendant to pursue her new love interest to Singapore.

"The Teacher", another original about a gay educator who is in love with an HIV-positive married man, also proved a hit, bagging best supporting actress at the Golden Horse awards, dubbed the Chinese-language "Oscars".

GagaOOlala is not alone in relying on original content to draw in viewers and boost its profile.

Bryan Seah, head of original productions at Southeast Asia-focused streamer Hooq, said people felt "pride" at seeing local performers on screen.

Viewers were sending a message that "I want to see my favourite Indonesian actor, I want to see my favourite Filipino director, fronting something that has the scale and ambition to match the best Korean content", he said.

Indonesia arrests nearly 200 over raging forest fires

Yahoo – AFP, September 16, 2019

The fires -- usually started by illegal burning to clear land for farming -- have
unleashed choking haze across Southeast Asia (AFP Photo/ADEK BERRY)

Indonesia has arrested nearly 200 people over vast forest fires ripping across the archipelago, police said Monday, as toxic haze sends air quality levels plummeting and sparks flight cancellations.

Jakarta has deployed thousands of personnel to battle blazes that are turning land into charred landscapes and consuming forests in Sumatra and Borneo islands, where thousands of schools have been shut over health fears.

The fires -- usually started by illegal burning to clear land for farming -- have unleashed choking haze across Southeast Asia, triggering diplomatic tensions with Indonesia's neighbours.

On Monday, authorities said they had arrested some 185 people suspected of being involved in activities that led to out-of-control fires sweeping the country.

"Indonesian Police will enforce the law against anyone who is proven to have carried out forest and land burning, whether it was done intentionally or through negligence," National Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told reporters in Jakarta.

Indonesia's peat fires: a smouldering problem (AFP Photo/John SAEKI)

"This is a last resort. The most important thing is prevention."

Four corporations were also being investigated, he added.

Last week, Indonesia sealed off dozens of plantations where smog-belching fires were blazing, and warned that owners -- including Malaysia and Singapore-based firms -- could face criminal charges if there was evidence of illegal burning.

Some of the most serious fires occur in peatlands, which are highly combustible when drained of water to be converted into agricultural plantations.

Thick haze in Borneo -- where air quality levels have plummeted to "dangerous" levels in some areas -- caused the cancellation of about a dozen flights Sunday, national airline Garuda said.

Rival Lion Air said about 160 Borneo flights had been affected at the weekend.

Meanwhile, nearly 150,000 people have been treated for acute respiratory infections linked to the haze in recent months, according to Indonesian health authorities.

Nearly 150,000 people have been treated for acute respiratory infections 

linked to the haze in recent months (AFP Photo/Str)

While forest fires are an annual problem, the situation this year has been worsened by drier weather in Indonesia, with diplomatic tensions soaring as toxic smog drifts over to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.

The haze pushed Singapore's air quality to unhealthy levels for the first time in three years at the weekend.

In 2015, Indonesia suffered its worst forest fires for almost two decades, which dramatically increased its greenhouse gas emissions.

Huge fires tearing through the Amazon are also compounding concerns about the long-term impact of such blazes on keeping global temperature levels stable.

Related Articles:

Singapore air 'unhealthy' ahead of F1 race

Indonesia is battling forest fires causing toxic haze across southeast Asia with aircraft, artificial rain and even prayer, President Joko Widodo said during a visit to a hard-hit areahttps://t.co/eyIkMCRURG

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 17 september 2019

Bangka Belitung Embarks on New Campaign to Attract Foreign Tourists

Jakarta Globe, April 03, 2017

A beach at Burung Belitung Island in Bangka Belitung province. Local tourism
agencies have been ramping up campaigns to attract foreign tourists to the
province in recent months. (Antara Photo/Teresia May)

Jakarta. Travel agencies from neighboring Singapore and Malaysia will send representatives to a series of events next month to promote tourism to the Bangka Belitung Islands.

The Pelangi Travel Mart 2017 will be held on May 9-12 and is being organized by Bangka Belitung regional representatives of the Association of Indonesian Tourism (ASPPI).

"Pelangi Travel Mart will host 50 sellers and 100 buyers and has booked 70 participants for the event so far. We are aiming to book local stakeholders, including hotels, souvenir shops and restaurants," ASPPI Bangka Belitung director, Agus Pahlevi, said on Saturday (01/04).

"If there are no hurdles, other neighboring countries will also participate in the event to offer travel packages to Bangka Belitung."

Aside from its hard selling strategy, the event's organizer plans to hold other activities to promote Bangka Belitung. The Travel Mart will be hosted on Lepar Island, in the central Bangka city of Namang and in the provincial capital of Pangkalpinang.

"We will emphasize promoting maritime tourism, but we are generally encouraging potential visitors to enrich themselves in Bangka Belitung's local cultural," Agus said.

"From Lepar Island, tourists are able to travel to surrounding islands, including to Kelapan and Mercusuar, and to Tukam village, a local town known for its industrious recycling program," Agus said.

Pelangi Travel Mart will also be supported by the Ministry of Tourism, the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurants Association (PHRI) and the Indonesian Tourist Guide Association (HPI).

Esthy Reko Astuti, the deputy minister for tourism marketing, said the upcoming events are an example of recent government efforts to attract more foreign visitors to the country.

"Tourists visiting Indonesia can contribute to the country's economic strength as their expenses determine our foreign exchange earnings," Esthy said. "Local tourism agencies, who are dominated by young people, have been shrewd enough to introduce the Bangka Belitung Islands to foreign tourists, a relatively unfamiliar destination."

"Agencies have been aggressively promoting tourism packages on social media," she said.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the event is crucial to building up the country's tourism industry.

"I would suggest local tourism agents join the Indonesia Tourism Xchange [ITX] – a digital marketplace endorsed by Tourism Ministry – to enable agents to promote their business through a streamlined online platform," Arief said.

During a National Coordination Meeting (Rakornas), Arief also said that conventional travel agents are facing new challenges to adapt to an increasing online marketplace. According to ministry data, at least 70 percent of tourists book their trips on the web.

AirAsia final report blames crew, computer fault for crash

Indonesia's National Transport Safety committee has released the details of its investigation into the downing of AirAsia Flight QZ8501. The tragedy was the result of computer and human error, it said.

Deutsche Welle, 1 Dec 2015

The final report on the crash of an AirAsia flight that killed 162 people last year blamed the disaster on a combination of a technical fault and subsequent crew action. The findings were released on Tuesday after a nearly 12-month investigation into the tragedy.

The initial problem was a cracked soldering joint on part of the aircraft's computer system - specifically the Rudder Travel Limited system - which controls the rudder's movement. According to the report, this had caused a series of malfunctions - 23 times in the year leading up to the December 28, 2014, crash and four times during the last flight of the Airbus A320 airplane.

"Subsequent flight crew action resulted in inability to control the aircraft ... causing the aircraft to depart from the normal flight envelope and enter a prolonged stall condition that was beyond the capability of the flight crew to recover," said a statement from Indonesia's National Transport Safety committee.

After the fourth warning signal about the malfunction, the pilots of Flight QZ8501 flipped the circuit breakers on part of the plane's control panel in an attempt to reset the system. Instead, this caused the autopilot to switch off and the aircraft started to roll.

The report also stated that information from the flight data recorders did not enable investigators to determine what role the stormy weather that day played in the downing of the flight.

Flight QZ8501 had taken off from Surabaya, Indonesia, and was bound for Singapore. It crashed less than halfway into the two-hour flight. The disaster helped highlight the problematic traffic volume of flights in Southeast Asia, as air travel in the region increases in affordability and popularity.

es/tj (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

The Unbearable Irreversibility of the Death Penalty

A global trend away from the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses means countries that do carry out executions are on the extreme fringe, a minority on the world stage

Jakarta Globe, Isyana Artharini, Jun 15, 2015

Supporters of Australians on death row in Indonesia Andrew Chan and Myuran
 Sukumaran light candles during a vigil at Martin Place in Sydney on April 28,
2015. The two were executed by firing squad hours later. (AFP Photo/Saeed Khan)

Kuala Lumpur. Chen Chin-Hsien walked up on stage and introduced himself before the audience: a civil court judge in Taiwan for the past four and a half years, and before that serving on the bench in juvenile and criminal courts.

“Twenty-one years ago,” he declared, “I believed firmly in retribution and the death penalty.”

But everything changed when, during a public discussion on judicial issues several years ago, a young woman asked him, “What if some day one of the defendants you have sentenced to death is found to be wrongfully convicted? What would you do?”

It was the first time anyone had brought up the possibility to him, Chen went on in his speech in Kuala Lumpur last week.

“I looked at her for a long time and I couldn’t answer her. Eventually I said, ‘I don’t really know. Maybe quit my job.’”

It was a possibility that, mercifully, Chen never had to face. One of the rare cases he heard in which the death penalty was prescribed involved a mentally ill young man on trial for slitting a child’s throat in an arcade.

Given the defendant’s mental condition, the panel of three judges, Chen among them, chose not to hand down the death penalty — and immediately drew condemnation from the press and society.

“This was no surprise. But the surprising thing was that we were also attacked so hard by our fellow judges. No judge supported our verdict. There are not many judges in Taiwan brave enough to resist such pressure,” Chen said.

He acknowledged the long tradition of martial justice in Chinese society, but argued that in the modern age, the death penalty is primitive and cruel.

Tide is turning

Chen was speaking at a congress hosted last week by the organization Together Against the Death Penalty/Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM) and the Anti-Death Penalty Asian Network (ADPAN). The ECPM has organized similar congresses on the abolition of the death penalty, but the Kuala Lumpur event was the first to be held in Asia, and served to highlight the use of the death penalty in the region, mostly for drug-related offenses.

Indonesia was, until 2012, among a growing number of countries exercising a de factor moratorium on the use of the death penalty. All that changed this year with the execution of 14 people, 12 of them foreigners, for drug-related offenses, drawing widespread criticism and riling diplomatic ties.

But the more than 300 delegates at the ECPM congress also heard about how the problem was not limited just to Indonesia: Singapore maintains a mandatory death sentence for drug-trafficking.

Malaysia also prescribes death for trafficking, but the tide is turning in that country, says Steven Thiru, the president of the Malaysian Bar Association.

The association has repeatedly passed resolutions at its annual meetings calling for the abolition of the death penalty, and while the government has never acquiesced, the public is increasingly in support of ending capital punishment. An opinion poll conducted in 2013 by the bar association and the Death Penalty Project, a leading human rights organization based in the Britain, found that the majority of the Malaysian public surveyed did not support the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking, murder or firearm offenses.

Thiru said there were no more barriers to abolishing the death penalty in the country. “It is up to the government and the legislators to drive the conversation forward. If they lead, the public will follow,” he said.

Debunking the myth

In the wider context, the position maintained by law enforcement in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia is increasingly a marginal one. Six Asian countries — Nepal, Bhutan, Philippines, Cambodia, Timor Leste and Mongolia — have already abolished the death penalty from their statutes.

Brunei, Myanmar and South Korea are abolitionists in practice, meaning they still retain the death penalty in their legislation but have not carried out any executions for some time.

Only 25 countries in Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands and the Middle East routinely carry out executions, said Raphaël Chenuil Hazan, the executive director of the ECPM.

“This trend debunks the myth that abolishing the death sentence is a Western value,” Hazan said.

Britain-based Harm Reduction International goes deeper in its report “The Death Penalty for Drug Offences: Global Overview 2012.”

The report identifies 49 countries in the Asia and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region as “retentionist,” or having the death penalty on their statutes; of these, only 13 carry out executions, and only five do so regularly.

Of the 92 retentionist countries and territories worldwide, a third prescribe the death penalty for drug-related offenses; only one in seven actively execute drug offenders, and only one in 18 do so with any regularity or in any great number.

That means that countries that do carry out death sentences are on the extreme fringe, a minority on the global stage.

Avoiding the real issues

Rick Lines, the executive director of HRI, said the decision to carry out death sentences was not a cultural, social or regional trend, but instead a mere political choice, which is what he saw happen in Indonesia, which went from two executions in the last five years to 13 in the last five months.

The fact that most of those executed were foreigners played to the narrative of drugs as a foreign threat, which Lines said was merely a way for the authorities to avoid dealing with developing health or harm reduction policies and therapies to treat people living with drug abuse domestically.

Julian McMahon, a lawyer for the late Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the two Australians executed in Indonesia on April 29, refuted the Indonesian government’s insistence that the death penalty served as an effective deterrent against the drug trade.

“The drug kingpins move drugs by the tons. It’s laughable to think that by executing these two boys, it will deter consumption or distribution of drugs in Indonesia. Nobody is talking about the distribution or the making of drugs already happening inside Indonesia,” he said.

McMahon, who usually avoids giving out personal stories to the media because they tend to divert attention from the actual legal work being done by his office, made a rare exception at the congress in Kuala Lumpur.

“When I first met those boys in 2006, they were ordinary punk criminals,” he said.

“But they became poster boys for what the prison reform system could be. They turned the prison around into a safe learning space.”

He also shared his story of spending time with Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina drug mule who was also slated to be executed with the others, and her two sons, all of them believing that it was the end.

“She held her two boys, thinking it would be for the last time. She sang to them, the boys sang to me, I gave them chocolate,” McMahon said.

When the shots rang out on the Central Java prison island of Nusakambangan, the grief of the Veloso family was immense. They were convinced she had been shot, only to be notified later that she had been granted a last-minute reprieve.

“And to think she’s going to face all of this again is just inhumane,” McMahon said.

He said what upset him the most about the Indonesian government’s approach to the issue was that there was no pretense whatsoever that President Joko Widodo had read the pleas for clemency: It was simply decided that 64 people must die, even though many of them, Chan and Sukumaran among them, still had appeals pending.

The Australians’ appeal hearing was scheduled for May 12; they were shot dead less than two weeks before their court date.

“There is no country in the world that deployed more energy, money and diplomats to get their citizens out of death row than Indonesia. And they do so in the most praiseworthy way,” McMahon said.

“So imagine my disappointment when all my legal efforts were met with the simple argument of trying to interfere with the sovereignty of another country.”

For the lawyer, the bitter experience of the Chan and Sukumaran case is the exact scenario that Chen, the Taiwanese judge, has always dreaded.

“Criminal judgment is not just about retribution, but also about a settlement between society and the defendant. In the rehabilitation process, society can embrace this defendant, or the defendant can embrace society again,” Chen said.

“But death is the ultimate retribution that leaves no chance for this settlement process to happen.”

Related Articles:

Saudi Arabia beheads 100th person this year

Former death row inmate and brother pardoned in 1983 rape-murder of girl

US man exonerated after 30 years on death row

Woman who spent 23 years on US death row cleared
Man freed 39 years after death sentence is awarded $1m in compensation

Interview: Ex-Singapore official: Zhou Enlai was center of Bandung Conference

English.news.cn, Ma Yujie, 2015-04-21

"Zhou Enlai was center of Bandung Conference," Singapore ex-diplomat

recalls the grand event

SINGAPORE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- "Zhou Enlai was the center of the Bandung Conference," said 91-year-old Lee Khoon Choy, who met Zhou in 1955 during the first Asian-African Conference (also known as Bandung Conference), in an exclusive interview with Xinhua here.

Lee, born in 1924 in Penang, Malaysia, joined the People's Action Party in 1959 in Singapore and was elected into the Legislative Assembly at the same year. By the time he retired from public service in 1988, he had held various positions in the government, including as a Member of Parliament and senior minister of state, and served as Singapore's ambassador and high commissioner to eight countries.

However, back in 1955, when Lee first met Zhou, the then premier of the People's Republic of China, he was a reporter at the Chinese newspaper Nanyang Siang Pau. He was in Indonesia to cover the Bandung Conference, a gathering of leaders and representatives from 29 Asian and African countries, most of them newly independent, to promote economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism.

The conference adopted a final communique containing ten principles, which underlined respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations and recognition of the equality of all races and the equality of all nations.

Even though more than half a century has passed, Lee can still remember many details. He recalled that Zhou and his "strong" Chinese delegation including Chen Yi, the then foreign minister, were the center of attraction as soon as they arrived.

"They received a warm welcome from overseas Chinese. They gave the delegation a very warm applause and some even set off firecrackers to celebrate."

Every time Lee talks about Zhou, he made a thumbs-up gesture to show his respect.

"Zhou Enlai came to the conference with a prepared speech. After listening to the speeches against China, I saw him leading the Chinese delegation in a walk back to their hotel room. There was a big crowd clapping hands when the delegation walked out of and back into the Merdeka Building in Bandung," Lee said. "When Zhou returned to the conference table, he threw away his prepared speech and spoke off the cuff."

"That came to be the historical moment of China's diplomacy," Lee said.

Zhou said he had come to the conference to seek peace and not enemies. He said China was willing to negotiate with America for peace.

"Zhou's speech totally changed the atmosphere of the whole conference. He became the very center of the stage, with everyone' s attention on him."

For then 31-year-old Lee, this was not the only impressive moment with Zhou.

"I have always remembered one sentence from Zhou - overseas Chinese like you should take part in politics," Lee recalled.

"Many people at that time were hesitant to step into politics, but after the Bandung Conference, a lot changed their minds," Lee said.

For Lee himself, Zhou's words had also more or less changed his life. Lee didn't make up his mind to join politics after the Bandung Conference, but was finally persuaded by then Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1959, an old friend who Lee Khoon Choy met when he went to London to attend a class for advanced study in journalism ten years prior (1949).

Lee has since then served in government for almost three decades before he retired in 1988. In 2005, he was invited by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to attend the 50th anniversary of the Bandung Conference. But to him, there's "no second Bandung Conference" like the one in 1955.

"China brought up the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence at the Bandung Conference, which was very good," he said.

"During the conference, Zhou got the opportunity to explain to other countries that China was not trying to subvert their political power, and it was the first time China established connectivity with countries in the world. Zhou made a great contribution to this."

It was not until 20 years later when Lee and Zhou met again. In 1975, Lee, the then minister of state for foreign affairs, visited China with Singapore's foreign minister S. Rajaratnam.

Zhou, who was suffering from cancer at that time, met them in Beijing where he was hospitalized. To his surprise, Zhou "had a really remarkable memory."

"He said, 'Oh, we met in Bandung and you had interviewed me," Lee said and smiled.

That trip later kicked off bilateral communications between Singapore and China.

Since the first trip to China in 1975, Lee has visited China more than 100 times, either as a politician, diplomat, tourist, businessman or antique collector. He has witnessed the dramatic changes of China.

"I admire Xi Jinping's axe on corruption, it will do great good to China," Lee said.

Editor: Mengjie

Related Articles:

Asian-African ministerial meeting opens, with Indonesian FM highlighting Bandung Spirit


"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader. Remember where you heard it... in a strange, esoteric meeting with a guy in a chair pretending to channel. [Kryon being factious... Kryon humor] Then when you hear it, you'll know better, won't you? "Maybe there was something really there," you'll say. "Maybe it was real," you'll say. Perhaps you can skip all the drama of the years to come and consider that now? [Kryon humor again]

These leaders are going to fall over. You'll have a slow developing leadership coming to you all over the earth where there is a new energy of caring about the public. "That's just too much to ask for in politics, Kryon." Watch for it. That's just the beginning of this last phase. So many things are coming. The next one is related to this, for a country in survival with sickness cannot sustain a leadership of high consciousness. There is just too much opportunity for power and greed. But when a continent is healed, everything changes. .."

".. Many years ago, the prevailing thought was that nobody should consider China as a viable player on the economic stage. They were backward, filled with a system that would never be westernized, and had no wish to become joined with the rest of the world's economic systems. Look what has happened in only 30 years. Now, look at Africa differently …”

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text-Version)

" .... Africa

Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit.. ...."

Korea As The Most Popular Destination for Indonesian Tourists

Jakarta Globe, Press Release, Mar 16, 2015

From the past few years, Korea has been regarded one of the most popular tourist destination in Asia, besides Singapore and Malaysia.

According to OH Hyonjae, Director of the Korean Tourism Organisation (KTO) for Jakarta Office, in 2014, there were approximately 208,329 Indonesian tourists who visited Korea, which increased 10,1% compare in 2013, (189,189 Indonesian tourists). It cannot be inferred that Korea has been successfully strengthening it’s tourism potentials throughout the year despite of the other negative year-on-year growth faced by other countries.

From the Ministry of Tourism Indonesia website, it is shown that the number Indonesian tourist who went overseas in 2014 reached 7,899,069 people, which decreased (-) 0,93% compared with the number in 2013.

While there is a downturn in the overall Indonesia’s outbound market, the tourism industry in Korea continually shows a tremendous growth. This is due to the strong hype of K-Pop culture as well as the opening of the KTO Jakarta since 2011 that extensively market and promote Korean pop culture within the Indonesian society.

New Taipei mayor praises Singapore as a tourist destination

Want China Times, CNA 2015-03-07

Eric Chu promotes tourism in New Taipei City during his visit to
Singapore, Mar. 3. (Photo/CNA)

Singapore is a great country despite its size, and Taiwan has much to learn from the city state in terms of tourism, said New Taipei mayor Eric Chu upon his arrival there Friday to promote tourism in his city.

Singapore is one of the best tourist attractions in the world, including its success in drawing high-end shoppers and international business travelers, said Chu, who also chairs the ruling Kuomintang.

Two-way travel has increased in recent years, with about 400,000 Singaporeans traveling to Taiwan last year, up from 194,000 in 2009.

The number of Taiwanese tourists to the city-state has risen to nearly 300,000 annually over the past two years from 137,000 in 2009, Chu added.

To draw travelers to New Taipei, a competition kicked off in Singapore on Friday to select a tourism promoter.

The winner will be rewarded a cash prize of 5,000 Singaporean dollars (US$3,670) and be treated to a two-week stay in New Taipei, during which the winner is required to post messages and photos on his or her trip on social media sites.

The mayor is also scheduled to attend the NATAS Travel fair, which began Friday and will run through Sunday.

Chu was accompanied by Chang Kuo-wei, chairman of Taiwanese airline EVA Air, which will increase flights to the city state to accommodate the growing two-way travel.

The airline said it will increase the number of flights to Singapore to 10 per week from the current seven, starting June 21, and to 11 starting July 1.

The carrier will transport passengers in its popular Hello Kitty planes on three of the flights, according to the airline.

Malaysia still top choice for Muslim travellers: report

Yahoo – AFP, 5 March 2015

A tourist couple walks on a street in Kuala Lumpur on March 4,2015

(AFP Photo/Manan Vatsyayana)

Malaysia is the most preferred global destination in the fast-growing Muslim travel market, despite two catastrophic air disasters that hit the country's flag-carrier in 2014, a survey showed Wednesday.

Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Indonesia followed Malaysia in the ranking of choice holiday destinations for Muslim travellers, said a report by Islamic travel specialist Crescentrating and payments giant MasterCard.

The report evaluates countries in terms of their attentiveness to the needs of Muslim travellers, including the presence and accessibility of "halal" restaurants with food prepared to Islamic standards, and the provision of prayer rooms at airports, shopping malls and hotels.

Scores in these and other variables were tabulated into a Global Muslim Travel Index in which Muslim-majority Malaysia came on top with a score of 83.8, followed by Turkey (73.8), UAE (72.1), Saudi Arabia (71.3), Qatar (68.2) and Indonesia (67.5).

"For Muslim travellers, Malaysia still remains the top choice simply because it is a great holiday destination for families while offering a very Muslim friendly environment," said Crescentrating chief executive Fazal Bahardeen.

"This includes everything from excellent attractions, halal food, accommodation, shopping to places for prayers. Malaysia has one of the best infrastructures for the Muslim traveller," he told AFP.

Fazal said 5.9 million Muslim visitors visited Malaysia in 2014, up from 5.7 million in 2013.

The report, the first carried out jointly by Crescentrating and MasterCard, involved 81 non-Muslim country destinations and 29 Muslim nations.

Its release came just days ahead of the first anniversary of the still-unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 on March 8, 2014 while on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

A massive air and underwater search has failed to find any trace of the plane in what remains one of history's great aviation mysteries.

On July 17 last year, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board.

Despite the twin disasters, arrivals into Malaysia from January to October 2014 rose 9.6 percent year-on-year -- but the number of visitors from China fell 11.2 percent as most of the passengers aboard MH370 were Chinese nationals, according to the latest Malaysian government figures.

The travel survey showed that non-Islamic countries have made strides in gaining a share of the Muslim travel market, estimated to be worth $145 billion in 2014 and forecast to grow to $200 billion by 2020.

Among the non-Muslim destinations included in the study, Singapore emerged as the top choice followed by Thailand. Taiwan and Japan also got high rankings, placing 10 and 11th, respectively.

Singapore has "some of the best halal food environments", while Thailand, Japan and Taiwan have taken big steps to meet the needs of Islamic holiday-goers, Fazal said.

"The typical Muslim consumer is now younger, educated and with a larger disposable income which has precipitated an increased propensity to travel," the report said.

Indonesia Pulls Visa-Free Travel for Australia

Jakarta Globe, Feb 16, 2015

A sailboat crosses the Bali Strait. Indonesia's idyllic beaches are a major
draw card for Australian tourists each year. (Antara Photo/Zabur Karuru)

Jakarta. Indonesia will withdraw its offer of visa-free travel for Australian tourists after the neighboring country failed to reciprocate, Indonesia’s tourism minister confirmed on Monday.

Australia was among five countries — including Japan, China, South Korea and Russia — that were offered a visa waiver by the government late last year as a means to boost tourism numbers.

On Monday, however, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said Australia would now not be included.

“Indonesia offers visa-free travel to countries that can offer us the same things,” Arief said. “Australia requires a visa for every foreign tourist to enter the country.”

“That means they won’t ever offer Indonesian tourists visa-free travel, even though we offer it to them.”

The minister said the two countries could not reach an agreement and could not force the issue.

Indonesia has set an ambitious goal of doubling foreign visitor numbers to 20 million per year by 2019, and waiving the 30-day visa on arrival for select countries was one of the policies aimed at boosting visitors.

With over a million visitors last year, Australia is a key source of tourists to Indonesia.

Arief said Indonesia was still negotiating the arrangement with the four other nations, and that Japan has agreed to the plan.

Tourists from Singapore snorkel at a coral reef in the waters off

Lombok, West Nusa Teggara. (AFP Photo/Sonny Tumelaka)

Related Article:

Indonesia Plans Infrastructure Push to Boost Tourism Sector

Commentary: In Saudi King Eulogy, Reminder of Pardons to Indonesians on Death Row

The president must be aware that routine executions of criminals are not a characteristic of democratic countries

Jakarta Globe, Johannes Nugroho, Jan 28, 2015

A picture taken on Jan. 26, 2015 in the coastal seaport City of Jeddah shows a
 Saudi man carrying his baby to pose for a picture in front of a mural dedicated to
 late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz with a slogan in Arabic reading: ‘Where are you
going? Look back and say hello. We didn’t get enough of you’. (AFP Photo)

In a eulogy of recently deceased King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: “At my request, the late king pardoned many Indonesian citizens who had been sentenced to death by Saudi courts.”

His remark is a timely reminder that attempts made by any government to prevent the execution of its citizens in a foreign nation are part of routine diplomacy. And apparently neither Yudhoyono nor the Saudi government saw the request as an intrusion into Saudi Arabia’s sovereignty. By contrast, a great portion of local media has portrayed attempts made by various foreign governments to plead clemency for their citizens on death row as an outlandish attack on Indonesia’s sovereignty.

Egged on by the media frenzy over threats to our “judicial sovereignty,” most Indonesian social media users have applauded the government’s adamant stance on denying clemency to those sentenced to death in our courts. The subsequent recalls of the Dutch and Brazilian ambassadors following the execution of six drug traffickers swung the Indonesian public opinion further into the government’s camp.

As common sense gives way to emotions, many of us have evidently forgotten that we ourselves take umbrage every time we learn an Indonesian national has been sentenced to death abroad.

It is surprising that the Dutch government decided to recall its ambassador from Jakarta, considering it did not take such action when Dutch engineer Johannes van Damme was hanged for heroin smuggling in 1994 by the Singaporean government. But over 20 years have passed since van Damme’s execution, and so the sociopolitical circumstances in the Netherlands today cannot possibly be compared to those in the recent past.

We should also understand that, although Singapore is widely admired for its order-liness and world-class standards of public service, it is not perceived as a working democracy. Despite the existence of elections in the small republic, the results have always been predictable. Civil liberties are also highly regulated there, effectively making freedom of speech something arbitrated by the government.

By juxtaposition, Indonesia’s democracy — flawed as it may be — is seen as the most robust in Southeast Asia. More importantly, President Joko Widodo at first managed to generate a worldwide image as a leader with a strong commitment to democracy and human rights. Arguably, much of Joko’s image as a defender of human rights is based on hope rather than on scrutiny of his performance in office.

The international media was also guilty of promoting this perception of Joko by portraying him as a man of the people and democracy. TIME magazine, placing Joko on its front cover last October, described the new president as “the new face of Indonesian democracy” and “the world’s most modest national leader.”

So, it was no wonder that most Western governments, perhaps rather naively, assumed that he was a leader who shared their values. Seen in this context, Joko’s seemingly inhumane refusal to grant clemency to drug offenders on death row was something contrary to what people expected of him. His attitude towards capital punishment was likely formed long ago, but attracted no attention.

While wrong on human rights, the foreign media was accurate in predicting the Joko government’s insularity, which is evident not just in its indifference to, if not anger at, foreign protests over the death penalty, but also in its foreign affairs directives. But the president must be aware that routine executions of criminals are not a characteristic of democratic countries.

Though Yudhoyono may not have had the prisoners on Indonesia’s own death row in mind at the time, his praise of King Abdullah’s mercifulness is indeed a potent reminder that mercy can legitimately be shown to people condemned to death.

Moreover, if an autocracy like Saudi Arabia can show mercy, why can’t a beacon of democracy like Indonesia?

Johannes Nugroho, a writer from Surabaya, can be contacted at johannes@nonacris.com.

Related Articles:

US executes man despite disability claim