Indonesia

Indonesia notch 200th medal at SEAGames

JAKARTA: Indonesia claimed their 200th medal of the Southeast Asian Games on Wednesday while former Olympic badminton champion Taufik Hidayat made a winning start to his quest for gold in the singles badminton. Indonesia have collected 80 golds after only five full days of competition, nearly double its tally of […]

Muhammadiyah Bans Smoking

The country’s second-largest Islamic group has thrown its full weight behind efforts to rid Indonesia of its heavy smoking habit. After issuing a fatwa in March 2010 to tell its tens of millions of followers that it was religiously unacceptable to light up, Muhammadiyah is now set to declare all […]

SEA Games Off to Golden Start in Indonesia

As the Southeast Asian Games opened with an extravagant ceremony at Sriwijaya Stadium in Palembang on Friday, the real party began at a still-unfinished venue on Cipule Lake. Hours before the Rp 150 billion ($16.8 million) opening ceremony started, Indonesian athletes earned the country’s first two gold medals in rowing […]

Dialogue between Religions in Indonesia – On the Interdenominational Construction Site of Humanity

Source: Qantara For the past 20 years, the Indonesian NGO DIAN/Interfidei has been engaged in interdenominational dialogue. The organization has also tried to include atheists, Confucians, and even fundamentalists in its activities – with various degrees of success. Anett Keller reports from Yogyakarta “Everything began with anger,” recalls Daniel Dhakidae, […]

Indonesians Rush to Marry on 11-11-11

Indonesian couples have flooded the Ministry of Religious Affairs with requests to get married on Friday, believing the date, 11-11-11, will bring them good fortune. State news agency Antara reported that in just three cities, 1,000 couples had registered to perform their nuptials. In Bogor on the outskirts of Jakarta, […]

China’s barrage of Halal products

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has confirmed a dramatic rise in the number of halal food products coming in from China, but remained skeptical over that country’s developing halal industry. “The number of halal products from China has increased by 50 to 100 percent since last […]

GDP growth: Strongest in Southeast Asia

Analysis: Harry Su, Bahana Securities Helped by strong domestic demand and exports, Indonesia reported continued solid third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 6.5 percent year-on-year, flat over the last two quarters and slightly lower than our and consensus estimates of 6.6 percent (exhibit 2). We note that growth across […]