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1 week ago | 
straitstimes.com | Stania Puspawardhani
JAKARTA – Mr Andri Prihatin has been patiently unloading rice sacks and bottled water in the past week at a neighbourhood grocery store in Jakarta, leaving behind his wife and two toddlers nearly 300km away, in search of a better life for his family. The former worker at a tofu factory in Tegal in Central Java province aims to find a permanent job as a shop assistant, and perhaps further down the road, open a roadside stall selling fried catfish.
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2 weeks ago | 
straitstimes.com | Joyce Lim |Shannon Teoh |Debarshi Dasgupta |Stania Puspawardhani
Chinese toy exporter fears that US orders would ‘shrivel up’ this yearSHENZHEN –Boxes of colourful toy tool sets which should have been bound for toddlers in the United States sit unclaimed in Ms Cece Wong’s Guangdong warehouse. The rapidly spiralling tariff war, which has given some American importers pause about purchases from China, has left exporters like her in limbo.
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2 weeks ago | 
thestar.com.my | Philip Wen |Shannon Teoh |Stania Puspawardhani
BANGKOK: Vietnam produces about half of sporting giant Nike’s shoes, hosts an Intel chip assembly plant, and is a major hub for the production of Apple’s watches and AirPods. Major apparel retailers Abercrombie & Fitch and Lululemon rely heavily on both Vietnam and Cambodia for their production. And electric carmaker Tesla signed a US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) deal in 2022 to source nickel from Indonesia for its e-vehicle production.
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3 weeks ago | 
straitstimes.com | Philip Wen |Shannon Teoh |Stania Puspawardhani
BANGKOK – Vietnam produces about half of sporting giant Nike’s shoes, hosts an Intel chip assembly plant, and is a major hub for the production of Apple’s watches and AirPods. Major apparel retailers Abercrombie & Fitch and Lululemon rely heavily on both Vietnam and Cambodia for their production. And electric car maker Tesla signed a US$5 billion (S$6.7 billion) deal in 2022 to source nickel from Indonesia for its e-vehicle production.
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3 weeks ago | 
straitstimes.com | Stania Puspawardhani
JAKARTA – Mr Oksand, a 40-year-old corporate manager from Bogor, West Java, will not be flying back to his family’s home town in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, for Hari Raya Aidilfitri, which is expected to fall on March 31 this year. “The ticket prices have surged to almost double the normal price during Ramadan, and as Hari Raya approaches, it’s almost triple,” he lamented. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
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1 month ago | 
straitstimes.com | Stania Puspawardhani
JAKARTA – Economic desperation led Ms Mawar (not her real name), a 26-year-old mother of two, to leave her home town of Medan, North Sumatra, in December 2024 for what she believed was a legitimate telemarketing job selling products for a company based in Myanmar. Having learnt from a friend about the role that paid US$800 (S$1,070) a month, she packed her bags and flew to Bangkok via Jakarta, before continuing her journey to Myanmar by land.
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1 month ago | 
straitstimes.com | Stania Puspawardhani
JAKARTA - The upcoming Lebaran or Eid al-Fitr celebrations will be less than festive for Mr Sriyono, 52, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. He is one of the over 10,000 workers at textile manufacturer PT Sri Rejeki Isman, popularly known as Sritex, who lost their jobs on Feb 26, after the company lost its court appeal against bankruptcy. “I still can’t believe this… I didn’t change companies because it feels like family here.
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1 month ago | 
straitstimes.com | Stania Puspawardhani
JAKARTA – Five months after stepping down as Indonesia’s president, Mr Joko Widodo has been kept busy by the queue of people keen to meet him at his house in Solo in Central Java, seeking his advice, bringing in petitions, or just to thank him for his contributions to the country. His social media posts highlight meetings with a local soccer club, undergraduates and community leaders.
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2 months ago | 
thestar.com.my | Arlina Arshad |Stania Puspawardhani
JAKARTA (The Straits Times/ANN): Nationwide student protests against Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s budget cuts continued in Jakarta on Feb 21, marking a key test of his leadership. The “Dark Indonesia” rally on a damp, drizzly Friday afternoon saw hundreds of students from leading universities carrying banners reading “Children eat for free, parents are laid off” and “Before: Love People. Now: Love People’s Money”.
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2 months ago | 
straitstimes.com | Arlina Arshad |Stania Puspawardhani
JAKARTA – Nationwide student protests against Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s budget cuts continued in Jakarta on Feb 21, marking a key test of his leadership. The “Dark Indonesia” rally on a damp, drizzly Friday afternoon saw hundreds of students from leading universities carrying banners reading “Children eat for free, parents are laid off” and “Before: Love People. Now: Love People’s Money”. Many clad in black chanted: “Our fight for democracy is not only today, this week, or this month.
