Glamping retreat for Indonesia leaders sparks criticism as cuts bite
Glamping retreat for Indonesia leaders sparks criticism as cuts bite/node/2591017/world
Glamping retreat for Indonesia leaders sparks criticism as cuts bite
University students pull a police concrete barricade with ropes during a protest against President Prabowo Subianto's government calling for various demands including reviews of government budget cuts and the free nutritious meal program for schools at the Arjuna Wijaya Statue in Jakarta on February 20, 2025. (AFP)
Glamping retreat for Indonesia leaders sparks criticism as cuts bite
Updated 20 February 2025
AFP
JAKARTA: The Indonesian government will host a week-long mountain glamping retreat for hundreds of regional leaders this week, a presidential official said Wednesday, sparking criticism as President Prabowo Subianto imposes widespread budget cuts.
More than 500 mayors, governors and regents will be taken to a military-style academy in the Central Java city of Magelang, where the recently inaugurated president’s Cabinet stayed in luxury tents in October. The 73-year-old former general, accused of rights abuses under dictator Suharto in the late 1990s, has pledged to drill and unite the country’s top politicians, choosing the mountains of Central Java for that mission. The camping trip for 503 politicians will take place between Feb. 21-28, presidential spokesman Hariqo Wibawa Satria told AFP, confirming Prabowo would attend in some capacity. The regional heads will be trained on good governance, improvement of public services and “chemistry building,” he said.
But the gathering — costing $808,000 from the Home Ministry budget — has prompted outrage online and criticism from NGOs.
“What’s the urgency? Why should it be glamping with aides? A cheaper version of camping should be doable,” a user posted in Indonesian on social media site X.
The criticism comes as Prabowo slashes budgets across the government after ordering cuts of around $19 billion last month.
Germany cracks down on Muslim groups viewed as threats to its constitutional order
Interior Ministry: Muslim Interaktiv represents a threat to the country’s constitutional order by promoting antisemitism and discrimination against women and sexual minorities
The group is known for a savvy online presence used to appeal especially to young Muslims
Updated 6 sec ago
AP
BERLIN: The German government on Wednesday banned a Muslim group, accusing it of violating human rights and the country’s democratic values, and conducted raids against two other Muslim groups across the country. The Interior Ministry said the organization which it banned, Muslim Interaktiv, represented a threat to the country’s constitutional order by promoting antisemitism and discrimination against women and sexual minorities. The group is known for a savvy online presence used to appeal especially to young Muslims who may feel alienated or discriminated against in Germany’s Christian majority society. The German government argued the group was a particular threat because it promoted Islam as the sole model for the social order and maintained that Islamic law should take precedence over German law in regulating life in the Muslim community, including in areas such as the treatment of women. The German government has in recent years been acting more forcefully against extremism, and banned several extremist groups – including several far-right and Muslim organizations. The crackdown comes after a spate of attacks, both by Muslim extremists and far-right groups plotting to overturn the country’s order. “We will respond with the full force of the law to anyone who aggressively calls for a caliphate on our streets, incites hatred against the state of Israel and Jews in an intolerable manner, and despises the rights of women and minorities,” German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said. The ministry also announced that investigations were underway against two other Muslim groups, Generation Islam and Reality Islam. “We will not allow organizations such as Muslim Interaktiv to undermine our free society with their hatred, despise our democracy, and attack our country from within,” the minister added. The ministry said in its statement that the group “is particularly opposed to gender equality and freedom of sexual orientation and gender identity.” “This expresses an intolerance that is incompatible with democracy and human rights,” it added. Authorities on Wednesday searched seven premises in the northern city of Hamburg, and also conducted searches in 12 premises in Berlin and the central German state of Hesse in connection with the other two groups under investigation. The government said Muslim Interaktiv sought to indoctrinate as many people as possible and “thus create permanent enemies of the constitution in order to continuously undermine the constitutional order.” The interior state minister of Hamburg, Andy Grote, where the group was especially active, applauded the ban and called it a blow against “modern TikTok Islamism,” according to German news agency dpa. In a recent report, the domestic intelligence service of Hamburg wrote that in their online posts and videos, the leaders of Muslim Interaktiv addressed socially relevant topics in order to exploit them “to portray a supposedly ongoing attitude of rejection by politics and society in Germany toward the entire Muslim community,” dpa reported. Ahmad Mansour, a well-known activist against Muslim extremism in Germany, wrote on X that “it is right and necessary that Interior Minister Dobrindt has banned this group.” Muslim Interaktiv, Mansour wrote, “is part of an Islamist network that has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous in recent months. They carry out intimidation campaigns, specifically mobilize young people, and attempt to indoctrinate them with Islamist ideology.” The online presence of Muslim Interaktiv seemed to have been taken down on Wednesday morning and the group could not be reached for comment.
