Indonesia Highlights: President Jokowi Condemn French President Macron’s Stance on Islam | Megawati Maintains Criticism of Millennials | Man Arrested in West Nusa Tenggara Province for Insulting the National Police and Parliament

“Freedoms of expression that dishonor the sanctity and symbols of any religion cannot be justified and must stop. Linking religion to terrorism is a big mistake,” the 58-year old asserted. “Terrorism is terrorism. It has nothing to do with religion.”

Macron vowed to fight ‘Islamic separatism’ in France following the beheading of Samuel Paty, a schoolteacher who showed the offending cartoons to his students, by a Chechen Muslim earlier this October.

The statement triggered a chain of violent reactions, among them a knife attack by a Tunisian refugee which killed 3 people in Nice on 29 October, and calls in Muslim majority countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey to boycott French products.

Source:

https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/10/31/14553841/jokowi-kecam-pernyataan-presiden-perancis-yang-dinilai-hina-islam?page=all#page2. 

2. PDI-P Party Chairperson Megawati Stands by Criticism of Millennials

Megawati Soekarnoputri, the chairperson of Indonesia’s ruling party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle or PDI-P, has redoubled her criticism of millennials earlier this week over their role in protests against the government’s controversial Jobs Creation Omnibus Law.

“What is the point of [demonstrating] when the real intent is to destroy [public facilities]? It is not like [the protesters] can pay for the damages they inflicted,” said the former president, who is also the daughter of Indonesia’s first president and founding father Soekarno.

“There is nothing illegal about protests, as long as they are done legally. So if they are accompanied by destructive acts, it is unlawful.”

Millennial figures like National Democrat Party [Nasdem] legislator Hillary Lasut and the Students Executive Body [BEM] rejected Megawati’s premise as patronizing and belittling of their actions and contributions to the country.