Indonesian reporter receives pig's head in incident condemned as ‘terror attack'
Advertisement
The head was found in a cardboard box from an anonymous sender addressed to 'Cica', the nickname of Francisca Christy Rosana, who works for the Tempo magazine.
The box was delivered to her office in Jakarta on Wednesday. It stayed unopened until Francisca returned to her office on Thursday after covering a story with her colleague Hussein Abri Yusuf Muda Dongoran, according to a report by Tempo.
Hussein told Tempo that there was a foul smell when the box was opened, revealing a decomposing pig's head with its ears missing.
It was unclear why the pig's head was sent to Francisca.
Advertisement
A Catholic living in Muslim-majority
Indonesia , Francisca has previously criticised the current government of President Prabowo Subianto and the preceding administration under Joko Widodo. Francisca and Hussein, along with several other colleagues, co-host a weekly podcast where they discuss sensitive political topics.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
12 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
US' annual China human rights review shorter, remains sharply critical
The US State Department's annual review of China's human rights record, released on Tuesday, was pared back as part of a broader restructuring of its country reports but still retained many of its most politically sensitive criticisms of Beijing's conduct. Advertisement 'Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year in China against predominantly Muslim Uygurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,' the report said in its executive summary. The China assessment, an extensive catalogue of Beijing's alleged violations in the previous calendar year, is part of a package of department reports reviewing some 200 countries and territories based on standards enshrined in international human rights agreements. Its release comes after a months-long delay amid controversy that the reports would substantially scale back long-standing critiques of certain forms of abuses or display bias against perceived US foes. In recent years, the reports have been released in the spring, accompanied by a launch event led by the Secretary of State. This year – the first release under the second Donald Trump administration – no such event was held. Advertisement Intended to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, the reports include some of the most comprehensive human rights reviews compiled by any single body in the world.
AllAfrica
6 days ago
- AllAfrica
Anti-Chinese 'Ali Baba' legacy still divides Indonesia
The Dutch presence in the Indonesian archipelago—first brought about by the decision of the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century to establish a spice monopoly in the region—has now influenced many of the institutions, norms, and educational practices within the modern Republic of Indonesia. The colony of the 'Dutch East Indies' that makes up modern-day Indonesia was also marked by racial violence and discrimination that lasted even shortly after Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch. In a few extreme cases, native Indonesians were brutally killed and had their villages destroyed by Dutch colonizers, such as in the 1621 Banda massacre. But more subtly, discrimination mainly came in the form of a system the Dutch had implemented: one of racial stratification that continues to shape Indonesian politics through present-day ethnic hostilities. During Indonesia's colonial period, which ended at the conclusion of World War II, the Dutch frequently employed the strategy of divide et impera ('divide-and-conquer') in order to assert their dominance and prevent the possibility of organized resistance or joining of forces between ethnic groups against them. The white Dutch settlers became the ruling class, while ethnic Chinese and Arab-Indonesian minorities were positioned above native Indonesians as 'Foreign Orientals,' with native Indonesians, or the pribumi , occupying the lowest position. The Dutch maintained that the Arab- and Chinese-Indonesians, who had descended from merchant classes, were more adept at trade and economic matters. While Arab-Indonesians were able to more easily assimilate with native Indonesians after the formation of an independent Indonesia, due to shared religious ties in Islam, Chinese-Indonesians remained more socially separated. Furthermore, zoning and pass systems carried out by the Dutch in the mid-1800s prevented Chinese-Indonesians from living among the native population, as they were forced to live in restricted areas and were only allowed to leave with a pass, once again to prevent the two groups from uniting against the Dutch colonizers. University of Malaya professor Chong Wu Ling writes that Chinese-Indonesians during the colonial period were 'indispensable' to the functioning of the colonial economy. She asserts that the Chinese-Indonesian minority was favored by the colonial government in the distribution of licenses to all sorts of businesses like pawnshops and gambling establishments. When Indonesia finally gained independence, 'Ali Baba' policies (officially, the 'Benteng program') were introduced by the then-newly established Sukarno government. These affirmative-action policies, intended to encourage native Indonesians to participate in the economy, led native Indonesians, referred to as 'Ali,' to serve as the 'frontmen' for businesses, with Chinese-Indonesians, 'Baba,' operating in the background. The end result of these discriminatory 'Ali Baba' policies, however, was not a post-colonial transformation; rather, it was the continuation and perpetuation of old colonial ethnic divisions. The Dutch succeeded in entrenching a heightened racial and ethnic consciousness between native Indonesians ('Ali') and the Chinese minority ('Baba') that persisted long after colonialism. While Sukarno-era 'Ali Baba' policies ended in the latter half of the 1950s, their legacy persists in present-day Indonesia, where native Indonesians continue to occupy more public-facing roles, and Chinese-Indonesian contributions tend to be more concentrated in commercial sectors. This has thus formed a sharp divide in Indonesia between those who wield economic power and those who command political authority. While Chinese-Indonesians largely dominate the private economy—holding '70–75% of medium and large-scale private companies' in Indonesia, a figure that has unfortunately often been exploited for demagogic purposes, they continue to remain underrepresented in public-facing roles in politics and the civil service. The underrepresentation of Chinese-Indonesians in contemporary Indonesian politics reflects the legacy of the Ali Baba policies from the Sukarno era, which were themselves influenced by the racial and ethnic divisions established during Dutch colonial rule—despite the strong anti-colonial sentiments of that time. A 2017 study from the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute even reported that the majority of native Indonesians (from a sample taken from 34 provinces) were 'uncomfortable' with the notion of a Chinese-Indonesian being in a position of political leadership. However, Al Jazeera found that Chinese-Indonesians are participating in politics today at a higher rate than during Indonesia's New Order era, with candidates emerging from various political parties. Indonesia needs to rise above the ethnic divisions inherited from Dutch colonization. It is important to understand that many of the ethnic tensions seen today can be traced back to the divide et impera strategies employed by the Dutch to ensure control over what was then the Dutch East Indies. The 'othering' of Chinese-Indonesians is a product of this division, and it is hoped that a more united Indonesia will soon emerge once the colonial attitudes that were ingrained are finally overcome. Rinzen Widjaja is an Australia-based Indonesian writer and cultural critic with bylines in the The Hill , Merion West, Modern Age periodical, and RealClearEducation .
RTHK
03-08-2025
- RTHK
Pope greeted by large crowd at Catholic youth event
Pope greeted by large crowd at Catholic youth event Pope Leo XIV gestures at the end of a vigil for the Jubilee of Youth in Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy. Photo: Reuters Hundreds of thousands of young people filled a vast field on the outskirts of Rome on Saturday to see Pope Leo, in the largest event yet of the new Catholic pontiff's tenure, as part of a special weekend aimed at energising the Catholic youth. Young people from more than 146 countries, some wearing colourful bandanas to ward off the hot summer sun, were pressed against fences in the Tor Vergata field as Leo toured the crowd in his white popemobile in the late afternoon. The pope, smiling broadly, waved, offered blessings and occasionally caught small stuffed animals and national flags thrown by the youth as he passed by. "Dear young people ... my prayer for you is that you may persevere in faith, with joy and courage," Leo said in remarks later to the crowd. "Seek justice in order to build a more humane world," he said. "Serve the poor, and so bear witness to the good that we would always like to receive from our neighbours." Many of the youth attending the event with Leo spent all day waiting in the field in heat approaching 30 degrees Celsius to see the pope. Many pilgrims are expected to sleep in the field overnight, waiting for a second chance to see Leo on Sunday morning, when the pope is due to celebrate a Catholic mass. The weekend events are tied to the ongoing Catholic Holy Year, which the Vatican says has attracted some 17 million pilgrims to Rome since it started at the end of 2024. Leo, the first US-born pope, was elected on May 8 by the world's cardinals to replace the late Pope Francis. (Reuters)
