INDONESIA: Tiger Statue Destroyed By Army

The Indonesian army has demolished a tiger statue in front of a base in West Java after it became a laughing stock online.

The grinning tiger in a small village in Garut was supposed to be a mascot for the Siliwangi Military Command.

But internet users found it hilarious because it was so different from the fierce tiger on official logos.

I don't know why, but every time I see its face, I laugh buahaha said one Facebook user.

The tiger had been in place for several years, but only recently found internet fame.

Vincent Candra said he had laughed a lot when he saw the picture of the tiger and decided to share it on Twitter.

It has since travelled across social media and made its way into the national media.

Many have poked fun at the tiger's cartoonish appearance, while others edited it into film posters and surreal scenarios. Other people uploaded more weird looking tiger statues they had seen in front of army bases.

I didn't expect it will go viral, said Vincent. I felt sad when I found out that the statue was destroyed.

The army moved in to put the tiger out of its misery, demolishing it with chisels.

Siliwangi military commander Maj Gen Herindra said the statue had been made long time ago in Cisewu district.

Every unit has their own decision on how the statue was made, but sometimes the artist was not that good.

People who had been enjoying the humour online instead expressed grief.

RIP Cisewu tiger, thank you for entertaining us, said one Twitter user.

One had an alternative suggestion, saying it would have been better to move it into the zoo, so children can take selfies with it.

A parody Facebook page, Indonesia's Humour Ministry or Kementerian Humor Indonesia, said a lot of people were broken hearted.

As one of first sites to share the photo last week, they said they felt a bit guilty that it had now gone.

So they made a special goodbye cartoon to remind everyone of its unique grinning face.

Gen Herindra said the army would be looking at other statues in the region to see if they are consistent with the original military emblem.

If some of them are not good, we will change them, he said.

But he also promised a new tiger statue would be installed at the Siliwangi base, which was more similar to the command's logo.


Tourism Observer

INDONESIA: Indonesian Tourism To Grow With Asian Games

The glamorous opening ceremony of the Asian games 2018 in Jakarta could serve as a big promotional campaign for the country`s tourism.
The 18th Asian Games from Aug 18 to Sept 2 are held in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra.

The ceremony provide a good momentum to show the cultural wealth of the country, a tourism observer from the Soedirman University Chusmeru, said here on Sunday.

It was a blend of sports, entertainment, and recreation, display of cultural wealth, symbol of Unity in Diversity serving as a promotional stage for Indonesian tourism, Chusmeru said.

Sports events organized properly with good concept could be an effective forum for tourism promotion, he said.

This is a sport tourism that would attract tourists both domestic and foreign tourists . Asian Games 2018 is highly potential to contribute to the country`s tourism industry with contingents from 45 Asian countries, he said.

He said Asia Games could be made as a reference and source of inspirations for regional areas of Indonesia in organizing similar events in smaller scale to attract tourists .

Regional areas need only to find favorite sport events that could attract international participation, he said.

Regional areas could prepare tour packages to suit the athletes taking part in the events, he added.

Regional administrations should begin to consider and study the potential of sports beside natural beauty, cultural variety to speed up development of tourism industry in their respective areas , he said.

The Tourism Ministry itself already prepared tour packages with tourist objects in seven destinations including Jakarta, South Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, Banyuwangi, and Bali, he said.

The country is seeking to boost development of its tourist sector which is expected to a major foreign exchange earner for the country.

The government has set target to double the number of visits by foreign tourists to 20 million in five year until 2019.


Tourism Observer

INDONESIA: Steps Taken To Stop Child Sex Tourism

An activist group against child sex predation has highlighted the urgency of tackling a growing scourge in Indonesia that has long been overlooked by the authorities.

“Child sex tourism is a new and flourishing form of sexual exploitation toward kids in Indonesia,” Mr Ahmad Sofian, the national coordinator of the group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (Ecpat) Indonesia, said at a press conference in Jakarta yesterday (Dec 23).

He said the commercially facilitated sexual abuse of minors involved some two million children across the globe, half of them in Southeast Asia.

“In Southeast Asia, Indonesia is the main destination for travelling child sex predators after Vietnam and Cambodia,” Mr Sofian said, attributing this to a demographic that skews young — children and young adults account for half of the country’s total population of some 250 million.

Mr Sofian said lax law enforcement against child molesters in Indonesia was a key factor in the growth of child sex tourism, which is part of the multi-billion-dollar global sex tourism industry. He noted that the child protection law in Indonesia, a general act to protect the rights of minors, fails to make it a crime to buy sex from children.

Law enforcement, meanwhile, tends to focus only on cases of sexual assault and the like when tackling child sex abuse, Mr Sofian said. “Law enforcers seem to be ignoring child sex tourism because it involves tourists who bring in revenue for the local economy,” he added.

Research by Ecpat Indonesia, drawing from reports by Interpol, the Australian Federal Police, Unicef and the International Organisation for Migration between 2012 and 2014, identifies Bali, Jakarta, West Java, East Java, Batam, North Sumatra and Lombok as the top six provinces for number of child sex tourism cases.

“These are popular destinations for business or leisure travellers,” Mr Sofian pointed out, adding that the perpetrators included both domestic and foreign tourists, usually affluent.

The same research also highlights the role that taxi drivers play in the chain of child sex tourism, a problem closely linked with poverty, rapid industrialisation and exploding population growth.

“The most convenient means of transportation for these child sex offenders is the taxi,” Ms Mubha Kahar Muang, the president director of Jakarta taxi operator Putra, said at Wednesday’s press conference.

“Taxi drivers know the very heart of the city and they’ve unfortunately become a sort of informant for child sex predators who are on the hunt,” she added.

That’s why, she said, Putra has joined forces with Ecpat on a campaign aimed at eradicating child sex tourism in Indonesia.

In June and July, Ecpat trained some 250 Putra taxi drivers on how to discourage passengers who attempted to get information about places offering child sex prostitution.

“We taught them on how to politely reject such passengers so that they don’t get offended,” Ms Muang said.

The training is also expected to encourage the drivers to lead efforts in fight against child sex tourism in their own hometowns.

“We want to help break the chain of child sex tourism in the country,” Ms Muang said.

Mr Sofian said the measure was the first of its kind in Indonesia; the governments of Cambodia and Thailand have previously campaigned with local taxi firms to tackle the scourge in their countries.

Ecpat plans to carry out an identical campaign with taxi operators in the five other provinces.

The group’s ultimate goal, Mr Sofian said, was to get the government to pass a law specifically outlawing child prostitution and child pornography, rather than the broad but vague child protection act that prevails today.

“It’s going to take some time for such a law to come about, but in the meantime we want to raise awareness about child sex tourism,” he said.