Politics
Indonesia turns down ear-splitting ‘haram’ street parties
People in an Indonesian village watched as a tower of loudspeakers mounted on a truck rumbled through their usually serene home, blasting a thumping bass loud enough to crack windows.
Loudspeaker towers are commonplace on Indonesia’s main island of Java, blaring a repetitive mix of electronic tunes and traditional folk music at street parties, but they have drawn the ire of local authorities and calm-seeking neighbours.
The loudspeaker stacks have proven so disruptive that officials this month have restricted their use while religious bodies have declared excessive and damaging sound from them to be “haram”, or forbidden under Islamic law.
“The sound is booming from 1pm to 3am. They play loud music and drink alcohol,” Ahmad Suliyat, a resident of Ngantru village in East Java province, told AFP.
“It’s really disturbing.”
Indonesians in East Java have shared videos on social media of cracked walls, falling roof tiles and damaged stores caused by the noise impact known as “sound horeg”, which loosely means to move or vibrate in Javanese.
The online backlash forced authorities in East Java to issue an order this month limiting noise levels and specifying the times and locations loudspeakers can be used.
“It was made for health and security reasons. The noise level must be regulated so it will not disturb the public peace and order,” East Java governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa told AFP.
Hearing problems
Ear-splitting noise has been shown to have adverse health consequences, including a higher risk of heart conditions for those exposed.
And Indonesia’s loudspeaker towers, popular for little more than a decade in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, have had dire consequences for some who attend the deafening street gatherings.
A woman died this month after allegedly suffering cardiac arrest caused by loudspeaker towers at a carnival she attended, local media reported, while there has been an increase in hearing problems among those attending the events.
The East Java government has capped sound system levels at 120 decibels, while mobile units used in parades or protests are limited to 85 decibels.
Mobile units are also banned from being used near schools, hospitals, ambulances and places of worship that are in session.
In July, a local Islamic council issued a religious edict that said excessive sound at parties that is capable of causing damage is forbidden by religion.
“The use of a sound system excessively, especially during a wedding convoy, or any other events that cause noise, disturb road users, or make people neglect worshipping, is haram,” read the fatwa.
Locals typically rent the speaker towers for weddings, circumcisions and Independence Day events — all celebrations that can last until dawn.
Some like Daini, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, believe the loudspeakers are a local tradition that should be kept.
She glanced at her cracked window, held together by duct tape, as music blared from the truck in Ngantru.
“The glass cracked during a sound horeg event last year. But that’s OK, people here like loud events,” said the 61-year-old.
Lax enforcement
But loudspeakers have continued blasting above the new limits, due to lax enforcement by local authorities.
After the rules were issued, an AFP journalist heard loudspeaker towers blaring music at an East Javan event as authorities watched on.
The World Health Organisation says sound at 85 decibels and above can cause hearing damage over time, and anything above 120 decibels can cause immediate harm.
Some Indonesians posted screenshots online of apps registering loudspeaker sound levels as high as 130 decibels.
Operators of loudspeaker towers argue they are responding to demand that generates revenue for local businesses.
“I believe most people who dislike sound horeg are not from here,” said David Stevan Laksamana, a 40-year-old loudspeaker rental owner in Malang.
“In Malang alone, it employed tens of thousands of people. This business is helping the economy.”
Others who cannot stand the disruptive street parties fear reporting them, with some loudspeaker tower owners reportedly parking outside complainants’ houses to blare music for hours.
“I never complain to the village head,” said Ahmad.
“I just keep quiet. I’m afraid of intimidation if I say anything.”
A man in India’s south brutally killed his estranged wife at a women’s hostel and took a selfie with her dead body, according to NDTV.
The victim, identified as Sripriya, employed at a private firm in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, had separated from her husband, Balamurugam, who was from Tirunelveli.
Police said the suspect arrived at the hostel on Sunday afternoon, concealing a sickle in his clothes, and was seeking to meet her.
They had an argument soon after the couple met, and the feud turned into a violent attack by Balamurugan, who drew the sickle and hacked the woman to death.
Furthermore, the police said he then took a selfie with her body and shared it on his WhatsApp status, accusing her of “betrayal”.
The incident spread panic and chaos in the hostel.
Following the brutal murder, the suspect did not escape from the spot but waited until the police arrived, and he was arrested at the crime scene. The murder weapon was recovered.
The initial investigation suggested that he suspected his wife of being in a relationship with another man.
- Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand witness large scale devastation.
- At least 176 people perish in Thailand and three in Malaysia.
- Indonesia’s death toll reaches 502 with 508 more still missing.
PALEMBAYAN: Rescue teams in western Indonesia were battling on Monday to clear roads cut off by cyclone-induced landslides and floods, as improved weather revealed more of the scale of a disaster that has killed close to 700 people in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have seen large scale devastation after a rare tropical storm formed in the Malacca Strait, fuelling torrential rains and wind gusts for a week that hampered efforts to reach people stranded by mudslides and high floodwaters.
At least 176 have been killed in Thailand and three in Malaysia, while the death toll climbed to 502 in Indonesia on Monday with 508 missing, according to official figures.
Under sunshine and clear blue skies in the town of Palembayan in Indonesia’s West Sumatra, hundreds of people were clearing mud, trees and wreckage from roads as some residents tried to salvage valuable items like documents and motorcycles from their damaged homes.
Men in camouflage outfits sifted through piles of mangled poles, concrete and sheet metal roofing as pickup trucks packed with people drove around looking for missing family members and handing out water to people, some trudging through knee-deep mud.
Months of adverse, deadly weather
The government’s recovery efforts include restoring roads, bridges and telecommunication services.
More than 28,000 homes have been damaged in Indonesia and 1.4 million people affected, according to the disaster agency.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto visited the three affected provinces on Monday and praised residents for their spirit in the face of what he called a catastrophe.
“There are roads that are still cut off, but we’re doing everything we can to overcome difficulties,” he said in North Sumatra.
“We face this disaster with resilience and solidarity. Our nation is strong right now, able to overcome this.”
The devastation in the three countries follows months of adverse and deadly weather in Southeast Asia, including typhoons that have lashed the Philippines and Vietnam and caused frequent and prolonged flooding elsewhere.
Scientists have warned that extreme weather events will become more frequent as a result of global warming.
Marooned for days
In Thailand, the death toll rose slightly to 176 on Monday from flooding in eight southern provinces that affected about three million people and led to a major mobilisation of its military to evacuate critical patients from hospitals and reach people marooned for days by floodwaters.
In the hardest-hit province of Songkhla, where 138 people were killed, the government said 85% of water services had been restored and would be fully operational by Wednesday.
Much of Thailand’s recovery effort is focused on the worst-affected city Hat Yai, a southern trading hub which on November 21 received 335 mm (13 inches) of rain, its highest single-day tally in 300 years, followed by days of unrelenting downpours.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has set a timeline of seven days for residents to return to their homes, a government spokesperson said on Monday.
In neighbouring Malaysia, 11,600 people were still in evacuation centres, according to the country’s disaster agency, which said it was still on alert for a second and third wave of flooding.
- Ex-Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, sister Rehana also sentenced.
- Case relates to illegal allocation of a plot of land: local media.
- Prosecutors highlight political influence, collusion abuse of power.
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court sentenced British parliamentarian and former minister Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail in a corruption case involving the alleged illegal allocation of a plot of land, local media reported.
The verdict was delivered in absentia as Siddiq, her aunt and former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana — all co-accused in the case — were not present in court.
Hasina was sentenced to five years in jail and Rehana to seven, the local media reports said.
Hasina, who fled to neighbouring India in August 2024 at the height of an uprising against her government, was sentenced to death last month over her government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators during the protests.
Last week, she was handed a combined 21-year prison sentence in other corruption cases.
Prosecutors said that the land was unlawfully allocated through political influence and collusion with senior officials, accusing the three powerful defendants of abusing their authority to secure the plot, measuring roughly 13,610 square feet, during Hasina’s tenure as prime minister.
Most of the 17 accused were absent when the judgement was pronounced.
Siddiq, who resigned in January as the UK’s minister responsible for financial services and anti-corruption efforts following scrutiny over her financial ties to Hasina, has previously dismissed the allegations as a “politically motivated smear”.
Britain does not currently have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.
UK budget mildly deflationary; debt to climb past 106%: Fitch
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