Indonesia faces calls to repeal blasphemy laws

Cayetano new PH foreign chief

JAKARTA, May 10, (Agencies): Indonesia is facing renewed calls to repeal its controversial blasphemy law after the jailing of Jakarta’s Christian governor, with critics pointing to a sharp increase in its use to target minorities.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama — known by his nickname Ahok — was jailed for two years Tuesday for blasphemy over comments he made about Islam while campaigning for re-election to the capital of the Muslim-majority nation, a far harsher sentence than had been expected.

Critics viewed the case as unfair and politically motivated. The allegations were pushed by hardliners who opposed a non-Muslim as governor, and sparked a series of mass protests that dented Purnama’s popularity and contributed to him losing the race for the Jakarta governorship to a Muslim rival last month.

The allegations against Purnama centred on a lighthearted remark he made about his rivals using a Quranic verse to trick people into voting against him, which judges ruled amounted to blasphemy against Islam.

The blasphemy legislation has been on the statute books since 1965 but was rarely used before 1998, when three decades of authoritarian rule under brutal dictator Suharto — who sought to run the country along largely secular lines — came to an end.

Basuki

Duterte names ally foreign chief:

A Philippine senator who is a staunch defender of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on illegal drugs has been named the country’s foreign secretary.

Duterte told reporters Wednesday before flying to Cambodia to attend the World Economic Forum on ASEAN that he had appointed Sen Alan Peter Cayetano to the position.

Cayetano, 46, a lawyer and former member of the House of Representatives who was first elected to the Senate 10 years ago, lost a race for vice-president last year when he ran as Duterte’s running mate. He then returned to his unfinished term at the Senate but continued his impassioned defense of Duterte.

On Monday, he stood up for Duterte against international criticism at the UN human rights review in Geneva. He accused the Philippine media and the president’s critics of spreading “alternative facts” that have been repeated by Western media regarding the thousands of suspected drug dealers and addicts killed in the “war on drugs”.

Mining law to stay – Duterte:

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday the government cannot scrap an existing mining law, suggesting he is open to easing up on a crackdown launched by a dismissed minister who ordered the closure of half the country’s mines.

His comments appear to be in sync with the new head of the environment ministry he appointed this week, former military chief Roy Cimatu, who has said it was possible to balance mining and natural resources protection in the world’s top nickel ore supplier.

Duterte said he told Cimatu “to be to be true to yourself, to be true to your country and protect the environment.”

Philippine navy gets new ship:

The Philippine navy welcomed on Wednesday a second Indonesianmade amphibious landing dock as part of the military’s modernization program.

The new ship named BRP Davao del Sur arrived at Manila’s South Harbor to a ceremony led by Rear Adm Gaudencio Collado Jr, commander of the Philippine Fleet.

The delivery completes a 3.8 billion peso ($76 million) procurement of two such vessels from Indonesian shipbuilder PT PAL Indonesia, said navy spokesman Capt Lued Lincuna.

The ship sailed from Surabaya, Indonesia’s secondlargest city, with 120 Filipino sailors and a 10-man Indonesian delivery crew.

NZ to axe blasphemy laws:

New Zealand plans to scrap the crime of blasphemy after calls from across the political spectrum for reform in response to an Irish investigation into British comic Stephen Fry.

David Seymour, leader of ACT, a minor opposition party, who has instigated the move, said lawmakers of all stripes wanted to end what they saw as an archaic curb on freedom of speech.

“New Zealanders cherish the fact that we have strong separation between church and state,” he told AFP on Wednesday.

“So when people discovered that there was a law that meant you could spend a year in jail for offending someone of a religious persuasion there was widespread condemnation.”

Thai army hunts 4 over car bomb:

Thailand’s military said Wednesday it was hunting four suspects over a large car bomb which wounded more than 60 people outside a supermarket in the insurgencyplagued south.

The Muslim-majority border region has seethed with violence for over a decade as ethnic Malay insurgents battle the Buddhist-majority state for more autonomy. Bombings and shooting are a weekly occurrence.

But on Tuesday two bombs — a small device followed by a much larger car bomb — went off outside a busy supermarket in the town of Pattani, the largest attack for months on a civilian target in the south.

Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the southern army, said the investigation was focused on two people who allegedly rode up on a motorbike to drop off the first device and on two others who left the much bigger car bomb outside the supermarket.

Qantas boss gets pie in face:

A man who squashed a lemon meringue pie into Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce’s face during a public address in Australia said Wednesday he was protesting Joyce’s advocacy for same-sex marriage.

Joyce, a gay, Irish-born 50-year-old, was giving a speech to 500 people in a Perth hotel on Tuesday when Tony Overheu approached from behind, pressed the pie in his face then fled.

Overheu, a 67-year-old Christian and former sheep farmer, released a statement accusing Qantas and other companies that support marriage equality of “corporate bullying aimed at social engineering.” He was charged with giving police a false name.