A handwritten letter from a prison cell is always a treasured document. A neat looking note from former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama made the rounds this week on social media, days before his much anticipated release from prison on Thursday.

Vietnam’s Vietjet Air is to open two direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Bali and Jakarta in May, while Vietnam Airlines is increasing its flights to Indonesia from Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. Direct flights connecting Cambodia and Indonesia are also being readied.

History shows that any change of guard within the PSSI in the last three decades rarely resulted in better performances from the national soccer team, even at the Southeast Asian level. 

For the multifinance industry, it is a dream come true as it could revive its business.

There is nothing wrong with granting an old and ailing felon conditional release or even a pardon on humanitarian grounds. But President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s decision to approve the early release of 81-year-old terror convict and firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir is wrong on so many levels. 

And if with such an unremarkable performance, Jokowi was still declared the winner by some analysts, it was simply because Prabowo delivered such an atrocious performance.

The capital now issues certificates for aspiring brides and bridegrooms, stating that their basic health status has been checked — but officials hastily claimed the newly enforced regulation on the “marriage-eligibility certificates” is not meant to hamper marriages if the aspiring couples do not have a clean bill of health.

Forming the team one year and nine months after Novel was attacked in April 2017 is too late, if not a show of ignorance, on the government’s part. 

It is simply the time now to lower ticket prices given the arrival of the low season, a stable rupiah rate and falling oil prices.

Many are skeptical about the course of 2019, declaring it a political season associated with deafening rhetoric, mudslinging and everything else that is expected to bury any hope for a better year.

The more often debates are held, the better, because they allow voters to exercise common sense. 

There are too many stakeholders defending different, if not conflicting, interests and policies. This year, two new systems — the MRT and the light rapid transit (LRT) — will begin serving the public.

Preliminary data from the fiscal and monetary authorities for 2018 indicate macroeconomic stability will remain strong throughout this election year. 

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said the post-Second World War international order was under threat from what she called Me-first policy.

Covering more than 215 million people, it has become the largest single-payer health insurance in the world.

True, the price of rubber, like most other commodities such as palm oil, cacao and coal, has been very low over the past five years.

Beyond just targeting individual candidates, it now seems that hoaxes and fake news are being designed to attack the credibility of the election itself. 

Although targeting graves might be unprecedented, evidently conditions have become more and more conducive to intolerance, regardless of the motives behind the latest incident.

In Indonesia, the most widespread misuse of personal data often occurs in the financial technology industry.

E-governance will improve the collection of international trade data and, most importantly, virtually abolish physical contact between businesspeople and customs officers, which has long been the stage most vulnerable to corruption. 

As Indonesia is licking its wounds from the most recent natural calamity that claimed over 400 lives and left thousands displaced, national soccer is reeling from yet more shocking revelations of match fixing practices that may inflict long-lasting and nagging injuries on the sport here.

There’s no sugar coating the fact that 2018 has been a terrible year, an annus horribilis. Entering 2019, many expect that things could take a turn for the worse.

The partnership, called the nucleus estate and smallholder (NES) scheme, was successful in the 1970s and 1980s under World Bank loan programs.

Many licensed miners had also simply abandoned their mines without rehabilitating them, which is mandatory.

Ahead of the anniversary of the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that hit Aceh 14 years ago, another disaster struck Indonesia’s shores again, the third major one since the Lombok earthquake in August.

However, there is no reason not to sing “Silent Night”. The song could at least serve as a reminder that millions are enduring their plight in many parts of the world.

Among the major short-term policy recommendations proposed by the World Bank in its latest quarterly report on Indonesia are those for lowering import barriers and restrictions for foreign investors to make the economy globally more competitive and to create jobs.

Many tend to confuse democracy with majoritarianism as in the Purbayan case. Democracy only works if every individual has equal rights. 

A week after an angry mob set fire to a police station in the East Jakarta district of Ciracas, nobody has been held responsible, let alone arrested. 

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between Indonesia and the four-member European Free Trade Association (EFTA) comprising Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland could go a long way toward expanding our trade with the whole of Europe.