Politics: The president revived the post of vice energy minister – a likely precursor to a cabinet reshuffle that may accommodate a figure from the National Mandate Party (Pan) in the new position (Page 2).  In a move that will likely reverberate politically, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan is entrusting his signature project – a Formula‑E rally – to a steering committee under Golkar’s Bambang Soesatyo (p. 3). 

Health: Case detections declined again, but only marginally from the previous week.  Daily vaccine jabs rose 18 percent week‑on‑week to 1.5 million (p. 4).

Policy News:  A Constitutional Court verdict took issue with the format, legislative procedure and legal validity of the 2020 Jobs Creation ‘Omnibus’ Law – and justices called on the government to rectify these deficiencies within two years.  An omnibus, which simultaneously revises multiple existing laws, was an unknown instrument prior to 2020 and the verdict therefore disputed its legality.  The government will likely redress the matter by revising Law #12/2011 on Formulating Legislation to explicitly accommodate the use of an omnibus.  In the meantime, the law and its implementing regulations remain in force.  But justices ordered the government to desist from issuing further implementing regulations, or taking strategic decisions based on the law, until the needed corrections are in place.  The verdict makes no changes to labor‑market regulations, nor should it impact the recently enacted 1.1 percent average minimum‑wage hike for 2022.  The court’s adjudication is reasonably sound: policymakers did indeed mishandle the law’s formation and rectifying deficiencies in its format and status will be worthwhile (p. 4).    

Justice: In what could be a landmark indicator of a weakening of Pemuda Pancasila, police apprehended 15 members of the paramilitary‑style gang for injuring one of their officers.  The roundup serves to puncture an aura of invincibility that has underpinned PP’s clout (p. 7).  Navy officials and other commentators denounced international reports of efforts to extort bribes from the owners of vessels moored illegally near Batam (p. 8). 

Economics: The current account turned robustly positive in the third quarter, fueled by high prices for commodity exports.  This provides the government with a respite in which to focus on attracting investment – which Indonesia will likely need to fund a resurgent current‑account deficit when commodity prices eventually subside (p. 9). 

Environment: The president ruled out funding an energy transition (p. 10).