KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has climbed up to rank 101 in the latest 2020 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Malaysia took home the biggest increase among 180 countries, topping the South-east Asian neighbors like it did in the 2019 Index, followed by Indonesia (119th) Philippines (136th) Myanmar (139th) Thailand (140th) Cambodia (144th) Brunei (152) Singapore …

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered massive layoffs globally, hammering industries, particularly in the tourism sector, and forcing closures of schools, hotels, restaurants, amusement centers, and factories, and people to stay home. No exception, Indonesia has also been affected,  where the government has projected unemployment in Indonesia to rise by five million in the face of the economic pressure …

In effort to handle impact due to coronavirus, the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) announced that it is currently offering public mental health consultations. This program will be launched to help people overcome the uncertain developments amidst the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It considers as crucial as physical health services, especially in the midst of daily activities confined in the house due …

KUALA LUMPUR – For the health and safety of all future passengers, Malaysia Airlines are now requiring a mandatory use of face masks at touch-points such as check-in, boarding, in the aircraft cabin, disembarkation and collection of baggage on arrival on all domestic, international and charter flights starting April 23, 2020. This requirement applies to all passengers to lessen the …

The cabinet approved a second automatic visa extension for foreigners for three more months on Tuesday in a bid to prevent long queues at immigration centres and stem the spread of the coronavirus. Foreigners whose visas had expired since March 26 will be permitted to stay until July 31 without having to apply for an extension, said Narumon Pinyosinwat, spokeswoman …

For the past three months since Covid19 started outbreaking in Thailand, the Prayut Chan-o-cha administration has adjusted its handling of the pandemic. For the first 58 days, Gen Prayut continued to behave like a busboy in a local restaurant, trying to do everything from welcoming guests to serving food and cleaning tables. In a major shift of his leadership style, …

The Thai Government has pledged to step up effort to protect woman who are victims of sexual harassment and come forward to complain. According to a resent study one in five Thai women experience sexual harassment. Thailand wants more women to report sexual assaults in the workplace. Furthermore cabinet has unveiled plans to shield those who do from unfair dismissals. …

We have just entered the second phase of the Movement Control Order (MCO). What was fashionably referred to as “social distancing” has now given way to “physical distancing”, with having one metre as a physical measure for us to “safely” distance ourself with the other person. According to the World Health Organisation, 1m is the average distance for the droplets …

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has finally decided and officially barred – after much criticism – all citizens from traveling to their hometowns or mudik during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations in a bid to curb the COVID-19 outbreak which has recorded 6,760 positive cases in Indonesia “At today’s meeting, I decided that the ban will be applied on the ‘mudik’ (Eid …

Covid-19 pandemic has affected to almost all aspects of the lives of the Indonesia’s population. One of them is crimes, especially after the Justice and Human Rights Ministry released more than 38,000 prisoners this month to prevent the virus outbreaks inside Indonesia’s overcrowded jails. Therefore, the National Police will carry out more street patrols and raids in anticipation of rising …