Aceh Requests Foreign Aid
Aceh residents are urging the government to allow the entry of 500 tonnes of humanitarian aid from Malaysia, as survivors continue to struggle nearly three weeks after devastating floods hit the province. The aid, donated by Acehnese communities living in Malaysia, remains stranded in Malaysia due to administrative hurdles and because the disaster has not been declared a national emergency, according to Aceh administration spokesperson Teuku Kamaruzzaman. “We are asking the central government to grant a dispensation so humanitarian aid from the Acehnese community in Malaysia can enter the province, even though Indonesia has not declared a national emergency,” Teuku told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. “All humanitarian aid should not be delayed and must be expedited to reach displaced residents in urgent need of assistance,” he added. Datuk Mansyur Usman, president of the Aceh Community in Malaysia, said his organization had planned to ship the aid from Port Klang in Selangor to Krueng Geukueh in Aceh using a private cargo vessel. Read also: Nowhere to pray as logs choke flood-hit Indonesian mosque However, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia, Danang Waskito, said the request could not be approved in the near term, as Indonesia has yet to declare the floods a national emergency, a prerequisite for the entry of foreign humanitarian aid. (Jakarta Post)
Coffee Growing Areas in Sumatra Severely Affected by Cyclone Senyar
The extreme weather and heavy raining from 23 – 27 November 2025, hit severely across northern part of Sumatra covering Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra provinces caused by Tropical Cyclone Senyar and have resulted in devastating massive flooding and landslides. By 9 December 2025, total casualties from the three provinces have reached over 1000 deaths and 281 people are still missing. More than 3.3 million people affected and 2.1 million people displaced. Indonesia disaster office (BNPB) reports this regional disaster have destroyed 147,300 houses, 405 bridges and 701 educational facilities. Aceh province in particular, the death toll has reached 391, reported missing is 31 people and 4.200 people injured. Infrastructure damage included 452 roads and 313 bridges. The Gayo highland coffee plantation zone in Aceh (covering Aceh Tengah and Bener Meriah Districts) has been also badly affected by this disaster. Extreme rainfall, strong winds have resulted to flush flooding, shifting soil, and landslides in many parts of Gayo highland where more than 90,000 hectares of Sumatra Gayo arabica coffee plantation are located.
Possible End to Direct Elections
President Prabowo Subianto has once again raised the idea of scrapping direct regional head elections to cut costs, ahead of a planned revision to election rules at the legislature and despite persistent opposition from pro-democracy activists who have warned of a possible rollback of democratic safeguards. The Prabowo administration and the government-controlled House of Representatives have been seeking to introduce sweeping changes to election laws, prompting debates over potential changes to electoral systems, including the prevailing direct voting for governors, regents and mayors. Speaking at the 61st anniversary celebration of the pro-government Golkar Party in Jakarta on Friday, Prabowo said that having regional heads be elected by regional legislatures (DPRD) was an idea worth considering because it might offer a more affordable approach while maintaining democratic principles. “If we have already elected members of legislatures at the provincial and regional levels, why not have them [legislators] also choose governors and regents?” said Prabowo, who chairs Gerindra Party, the de facto leader of the ruling coalition. He pointed out that similar systems were already practiced in some countries such as Malaysia, India, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, stressing that “the richest countries in the world use cost-effective political systems”. (Jakarta Post)
Editor’s Note: Direct elections for governors, regents and mayors have been in place since 2005 as part of the reforms and decentralization process instituted after the 1998 fall of the authoritarian New Order regime under the country’s longtime leader, Soeharto, former father-in-law of Prabowo.