Migrant Workers

Long-distance marriage is believed to have led to high divorce rates in Blitar.

recent data suggests that separation mostly affects women

who work as migrant workers and their unemployed husbands.

The Blitar Religious Court had received nearly 2,000 divorce applications this year alone as of April,

most of which were filed by women.

 According to the court’s spokesperson

of the total 1,839 cases filed, 1,309 were filed by the wives,

while the remaining were filed by the husbands.

Of the cases filed by the wives, 756 had been ruled on.

“Thus we still have 553 cases left,”

 The data also suggests that

75 percent of the women who filed for divorce this year had worked as migrant workers.

Most of the remaining cases also involved couples who work overseas.

Premature Case

The Semarang State Administrative Court in Central Java

The court has rejected a lawsuit filed by a former police officer, against the Central Java Police,

The police officer was identified only as TT,

The Central Java Police fired him in December because of his sexual orientation.

Ma’ruf is a lawyer with the Community Legal Aid Center (LBHM), which

He is assisting TT,

the panel of judges decided that

they could not continue examining the case because

TT should have first appealed the dismissal to the authorities within the Central Java Police

when he received the termination letter before resorting to filing a lawsuit.

“But there is no such mechanism within the police institution.

During Thursday’s hearing, Panca, the presiding judge, said

TT’s lawsuit was “premature” because

TT had not yet filed an administrative comp...

Suffer in Losses

The Jakarta administration has suffered Rp 465 million (US$ 32,302) in losses
because of public facilities damaged during the riots.


the figure was the cost of repairing damaged public facilities.

The biggest cost came from damaged roadside parks and road separators.

Still, he said that the figure was relatively small.

“Value-wise Rp 465 million is big, but

in terms of its proportion of the city’s projects the figure is not big,” .
the repairs will be paid for with money allocated as maintenance funds every year in the city budget, which

allowed the city to repair all the damage immediately.
He regretted that the protests turned violent on May 22 when

protestors damaged some public facilities in the city such as
road separators, greenery in the middle of the road and traffic signs.
He expressed hope that the police would arrest those responsible for instigating the riot.
“I regret the riot.

It was a side effect [of the protests] that should have run peacefully.

We all hope after the investigation is complete
we would know the people who provoked the riot,”.

The post-election riots started in the early hours of Wednesday in front of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) building

and moved to other locations like Petamburan, Jatibaru and Slipi.