Indonesia’s customs office has been under fire this past week thanks to a few cases going viral.

First case was someone being charged 3x the value of the shoes he bought online. Customs said because there was a mistake in item value entered into the system by the sender (under invoicing) the recipient is now liable for the $1800 fine.

Second was a toy influencer receiving their self transforming Megatron toy two weeks late, damaged box, opened by customs, and being given a runaround by the customs office. He was supposed to be part of a global unboxing event last week. A special staff to the finance ministry responded on X but he got piled on due to bureaucratic speak and evasive responses. Customs also charged him based on the price for the Grimlock model which is twice as much.

Third one, prototype equipments for a special needs school given by a South Korean company has been held by customs since 2022 because the school hadn’t paid the import tax bill totaling more than $6,000. There’s no price available online because it’s a prototype so the office decided the value on their own. The school got tired of explaining and gave up in January 2023. Finance Minister made a statement on Instagram yesterday on expediting the process and dropping all fees.

All of these cases were resolved only after they went viral on X.

#Indonesia #TootSEA

One of the funniest things when I was living in Indonesia: because Malay and Indonesian are so similar, I kept saying things to the motorbike taxi drivers that to me were just things like ‘hello’ and ‘I’ and ‘brother’. I was wondering why everyone kept giving me their phone number. Those words, very neutral in Malay, were actually total come-ons and flirty language in Jakarta.

Don’t say ‘aku’ and ‘abang’ to strangers in Jakarta.

#TootSea #Malaysia #Indonesia #Languages

Desperately looking for a way to DIY our own Indomie seasoning from scratch because ‘export version Indomie’ (the ones sold outside Indonesia) are not as good as the original.

They’re just.. nowhere as spicy, or umami?! (The export version that says hot and spicy is closer than the normal one, but also has the same problem)

This recipe looks promising. I’m gonna try it

youtu.be/hQV50DsLTv4

#TootSea #Indonesia

If you like Indomie Noodles you must try this recipe! 🔥

Indomie noodles recipe | Indomie recipe | Indomie noodles | Ramen recipe | Instant noodles | Instant ramenToss aside your instant ramen seasoning packet and ...

^YouTube

CNA discusses why Indonesian politicians switch parties easily and frequently.

Short answer: most political parties have no strong ideological differences. There’s no such thing as left vs right, progressive vs conservative.

Almost all are nationalist conservative and try to carry the religious votes, so in most cases it doesn’t matter which party politicians are affiliated with. What matters is to which party leader do their loyalties lie. It’s hero worship and group identity, not political ideologies, that define the majority of Indonesian political parties.

channelnewsasia.com/asia/indon…

#Indonesia #Politics

Why political party-hopping is rampant in Indonesia and can anything be done about it

Internal conflicts, schisms, and opaque mechanisms in nominating legislative and executive candidates are some of the reasons why politicians switch political parties to contest elections.

^{Nivell Rayda (CNA)}

When I was growing up I was a devout student of southeast Asian colonial and post-colonial history but my studies largely focused on the British empire. I am now spending my free time reading about the Dutch.

HOLY SHIT.

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

#TootSea #Indonesia

Today in Labor History October 8, 1965: The Indonesian military, led by future dictator Suharto, began torturing and massacring thousands of "suspected" Communists, leading ultimately to the overthrow of leftist President Sukarno. Other targets of the murders were members of the Gerwani women’s movement, trade unionists, ethnic Javanese Abangan, ethnic Chinese, atheists, teachers, students, and alleged leftists in general. The U.S. embassy provided the death squads with the names of suspected “communists.” Intelligence agencies from the U.S., U.K., and Australia provided anti-communist propaganda, as well as military and logistical aid. Overall, the genocide (1965-1966) led to 500,000 to 1.2 million civilian deaths and 1.5 million imprisoned. A top-secret CIA report from 1968 called the massacres "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s." Nevertheless, Western media either downplayed the events, or celebrated them. Suharto remained in power until 1998, continuing to imprison, torture and slaughter workers and civilians. He also presided over the East Timor Genocide of up to 300,000 people in the 1970’s.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #genocide #indonesia #Suharto #ColdWar #communism #anticommunism #torture #EastTimor #DeathSquads #cia

Call for voice actors for a short story, preferably a middle-aged Indonesian native speaker with feminine voice.

Edit: the call is from @KhoreoMag

Details: docs.google.com/document/d/1MI…

#Indonesia #TootSEA