Worry no more – just listen to this song My BankAccount by local artiste and deejay Yu Tian Long in his three-minute video clip. The clip has garnered more than 4.6 million views with 108, 000 likes since it was uploaded four days ago.

This Valentine’s Day song is based on the original version by Singapore singer-songwriter JJ Lin.

Yu tells The Star that he understands what some people may be going through, especially those who have no money to spend for Valentine’s Day.

Yu said he came up with the video clip because he and his friends were always stressed out when Valentine’s Day approaches.

“We men have to think of ways to surprise our girlfriends or wives and each year, we have to think of something different or else,” he said jokingly.

He said it would be nice for a change if women thought of ways to surprise their other halves instead.

“Men also love surprises and want to feel appreciated,” Yu said.

“So I wanted to send a message to all the lovebirds out there, especially to the ladies that men’s love towards them cannot be measured just by looking at what they planned for Valentine’s Day,” he explained.

Yu said he did not expect the video clip to be a hit in such a short period of time but was glad it did, and hopes his message got through.

“The original singer of the song JJ, apparently had also seen and heard this song and told a friend of mine, that this is a fun and nice clip,” Yu said, adding he was flattered by the compliment.

Yu said he spent less than a day coming up with the lyrics and just couple of hours discussing about the dance moves with his friends.

The video clip was taken at a popular eatery not far from the state capital here.

It starts with a woman complaining to her boyfriend that he has changed and was not as romantic as before where he used to shower her with gifts and surprises on Valentine’s Day.

The video ends with her crying behind a pillar away from the man after breaking up with him.

The lyrics among others touch about his drying bank account and the increasing cost of living.

It also incorporates a message at the end of the song telling people that Valentine’s Day is just a day in a year, and should not be used to measure a man’s love for a woman.//The Star/Asia News Network

The selected authors will develop their documentary projects from February 22 to March 5 at the Bophana Centre. One trainer from Germany, a writer and director himself, will mentor the programme.

Together they will analyse the content and the aesthetic options of their projects. They will screen films related to their projects, define the development possibilities, and finally write a new version of their script.

The Goethe Institute in Vietnam, the French Institutes in Vietnam and Cambodia, and the Bophana Centre in Phnom Penh, have jointly organised the programme. The organisers promise that it would be an opportunity for Vietnamese filmmakers to produce their works in a professional way and then introduce them to world cinema and television.

Founded by film director Rithy Panh, the Bophana Centre collects every archive image and sound on Cambodia, and offers free public access to this unique heritage. The Bophana Centre also trains young Cambodians for careers in filmmaking, broadcasting and new media. The goal is to open their mind to artistic creation and foster a personal cultural production.

There might be a political, non-religious factor underneath the surface of the respective cases. The discrimination against Ahmadiyah is not new, and to some degree such treatment of minority faiths has been politically instrumentalized by local governments, like that against the Shiites of Sampang, East Java. The minorities are branded “deviant” or non-Muslim, or committers of a grave sin in the case of the LGBT.

Such reactions are typical of conservative Islam, which dismisses human rights considerations and empathy toward those of other faiths.

Ahmadiyah is considered heretical because it is against the Islamic “orthodoxy” on the finality of Muhammad’s prophethood (which is not entirely true because Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s prophethood is not on an equal status with Muhammad’s). Its heresy is doubled as Ahmadis claim to be Muslims. Gafatar is said to be deviant because it is regarded as a syncretic cult, combining elements of the three Abrahamic faiths. As for homosexuality, it is still hard, at least until now, to say whether it is allowed under sharia as interpreted by the majority of today’s Muslims.

Yet in the history of the world’s major religions, each religion was considered deviant by the religious tradition of the community where the religion was born.

Muhammad’s claim of prophethood was regarded as blasphemous by Meccan pagans. From the perspective of Medinan Jews, Muhammad was appropriating the prophetic stories belonging to the Jewish tradition. Christians, claiming the messianic ministry of Jesus, let alone his divine status, were deviant in the eyes of the Jews. Add to this, Buddhism to Hinduism; Sikhism to Hinduism and Islam; and, more importantly, Nusantara’s local religions (aliran kepercayaan) to Indonesia’s officially sanctioned religions.

The history of aliran kepercayaan shows several elements picked from the major religions, combined or added to the previous beliefs and practices, and then appropriated — Gafatar is no exception. All these are something common to the history of almost all religions.

Further, all faiths become religions where the political context recognizes them as such. The fact that each religion becomes a distinct separate religion from its “ancestor” is a matter of political recognition. If aliran kepercayaan in Indonesia were officially recognized as religions, they would become religions.

In other words, there is no objective natural standard of deviant beliefs as well as “orthodoxy”. As such, considering Gafatar to be deviant based on Islamic orthodoxy is problematic. Besides, the deviant standard is politically constructed depending on who is in power — likewise the “normality” of heterosexuality and the “abnormality” of homosexuality.

If belief/practice X is considered deviant by religion Y because it picks an element from religion Y or interprets it differently from the mainstream, and as such X is worth eradicating, you can imagine how many aliran kepercayaan — as well as those embracing interpretations of Islam regarded as offensive to those who claim to be “pure” and orthodox Islam — would be considered blasphemous, treated like Gafatar, and maybe jailed for violating the country’s 1965 Blasphemy Law.

Therefore those Muslims shouting for the expulsion of people of other faiths merely because of their “deviant” beliefs have the same way of thinking and attitude as the Meccan pagans persecuting and expelling the early Muslims. Ironically those Muslims who were angry because of the expulsion of Rohingyapeople from Myanmar are now supporting what the Bangka government threatens to do to the Ahmadis.

As the government is set on fighting terrorism, it must first tackle the roots of terrorism — including the persecution of people based on belief. Law enforcement must guarantee freedom of belief as well as upholding clear authority and responsibility. Quite often, local governments and police exceed their authority and act according to the will of hardline groups and ignore their responsibility to protect persecuted citizens. In other words, the state must uproot or “deradicalize” itself from groups touting the persecution of others because of their different beliefs.

To end tyranny by the majority, the state must be neutral toward all beliefs, as mandated by its Constitution — certainly not by referring to edicts of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) in the treatment of minority faiths. MUI edicts have too often provided justification for discrimination against religious minorities. Worse, the state often uses the edicts of the MUI, a non-state body, to determine what counts as blasphemous or defaming belief, which actually has an obscure definition in the Blasphemy Law.

If the state really wants to end this tyranny by the majority, it should detach itself from the MUI, and treat the MUI like any other non-government Muslim organization such as the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah. In its place the state should weigh more the considerations of scientists rather than clerics in dealing with the issue of sexual orientation and impartially address disputes among religious groups, calls to violence and other threats to our security.

So far, there is no clear evidence that Gafatar, Ahmadiyah, or the LGBT community are inciting terrorism, spreading hate speech, or striving to change the state ideology Pancasila. Ironically, they are treated discriminatively while several Islamic movements that have a clear subversive agenda, seeking to replace the Republic of Indonesia with an Islamic state, can hold large gatherings and/or freely preach in mosques.

More ironic is that those expelling people and burning precious property are free; the police could not even stop them; while the expelled have been treated like criminals merely because of “deviant” beliefs or “abnormal” sexual orientation. Such stigma, justified by fatwa, has become a license to expel or kill fellow citizens.

Note: The writer is a graduate student at the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.

Binh Dinh, a central coastal province with a stunning stretch of beaches and mountain ranges as well as beautiful islands, is a seriously underrated tourist destination.

Like many other Vietnamese regions, the province has its own special cuisine and traditions that should be better known.

Dishes that deserve to be included on the tourist culinary trail include banh xeo tom nhay (fresh savoury pancakes with shrimp), banh hoi chao long (thin rice vermicelli with rice porridge), banh it la gai (glutinous rice cake covered with pinnate leaves) and bun song than (dual-thread vermicelli).

But it is nem (pork roll) that is the real standout dish.

A snack that can be eaten as finger food or as an appetiser to a larger meal, nem appears everywhere in Binh Dinh, from vendors’ baskets to luxury banquets.

There are two kinds of nem: nem tuoi (grilled fresh pork roll) and nem chua (fermented pork roll). The latter can be grilled or eaten fresh after removing the leaf covering.

Traditional nem contains either grilled or fermented pork in addition to crispy greens, peanut sauce, garlic, chili and aromatic herbs. It usually comes wrapped and rolled in rice paper.

The mixture of sweet, sour, salty and spicy flavours make your mouth salivate with each bite.

The province’s speciality, Nem Cho Huyen, can be found in Tuy Phuoc’s District’s Phuoc Loc Commune.

The nem is named after Huyen market, which is located near a row of restaurants lining the 2km-long Highway 19 section that traverses the commune.

The restaurants’ barbecue fill the street air with the aroma of grilled pork, whetting your appetite even hours before dinner time.

In the cool weather of the final days of winter, the warmth from the grills is especially welcoming.

Finding the restaurants, Vo Thi Thanh Hoa, deputy chief of the commune, however, told me that Bon Lai restaurant might be the oldest nem maker and showed me how to get there.

Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bon Lai was small but airy.

Welcoming me was Nguyen thi An, 76, the owner.

“My father-in-law was the one who created nem Cho Huyen,” she said. ” I’ve been making nem since I was 17 when I married his son. Now my daughter-in-law is managing the restaurant.”

The grilled nem tuoi and nem chua I ordered were served with a special sauce of peanuts, chilli, fish sauce, sugar and other spices.

I also had a side dish with fresh cucumber, dill, basil, lettuce, garlic and green mango, accompanied by rice paper for rolling the vegetables.

Some people like to eat nem tuoi fresh off the grill, but I prefer to add vegetables and roll it in rice paper as it helps to reduce the fatty taste.

A bit of fiery chilli paste from the condiment basket also adds a nice bite to the nem.

The fermented nem was covered with a guava leaf, which I like to eat. But some people take it off as it has a slightly acrid taste.

Bau Da wine, another famous speciality of the province, is often served with nem.

Handmade delicacy

Producing nem is a complicated process requiring patient, skilled workers.

Cook Le Thi Bay of Bon Lai restaurant told me that she and her workers visit the slaughterhouse each day as early as 4am to buy the best quality pork.

Only pork from the thighs of six- to eight-month-old pigs can meet the quality requirement.

To make nem, the pork is first sliced and ground with sliced pigskin, sugar, salt and garlic. For nem tuoi, the mix will be grilled over charcoal.

Fermented nem is wrapped with a guava leaf to absorb the moisture, and then covered with a banana leaf to make it look more attractive.

After three or four days, when it has a slightly sour taste, it is ready to eat. As it keeps well, it can be offered as a gift to family, friends or co-workers.

Nem is also made in other regions, especially during the Tet (Lunar New Year) season, as it is considered one of the must-have foods during the holiday.

Although nem Cho Huyen has been famous for nearly 100 years, it has yet to have a trade name.

The commune authority in Binh Dinh Province, however, has registered a copyright for nem Cho Huyen as part of its master plan to meet criteria for the national government’s new rural area programme, according to Hoa, the head of the commune’s people’s committee.

Though each region in the country has developed its own kind of nem, using most of the same ingredients, each version is a little different – crispier there, sweeter here and sour elsewhere. But all are indeed delicious.

The Ministry of Health and Singapore Work Development Agency announced on Saturday that they will be increasing the monthly training allowance for their five healthcare professional conversion programmes (PCP) which enables individuals to get qualifications and skills to work in this sector.

From April, the allowances will be raised by between $50 and $150.

Current allowances range between $1,300 and $1,900, but this will increase to between $1,350 and $2,050.

This is the second round of enhancements to the PCP following the increase in monthly training allowance and introduction of a career transition bonus in 2014.

From September, mid-career professionals can also apply for the Singapore Institute of Techonology’s (SIT) new full time four-year degree programmes in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and diagnostic radiography.

Trainees selected for the degree programmes will receive allowances of $2,100 to $2,420 each month, depending on their prior work experience, and a one-time bonus of $2,000 upon graduation.

These programmes will replace Nanyang Polytechnic’s three-year diploma programmes for the same areas of study, which took in their last batch of students in April 2015.

Since 2003, over 1,000 people have made the mid-career switch to the healthcare sector.

Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health and the Environment and Water Resources, said the changes “are aimed at enabling more mid-career professionals to join the healthcare family”.

“With an ageing population, we need to train and recruit more nurses, therapists and radiographers,” she said at the sidelines of a healthcare career preview for mid-career professionals at SIT on Saturday. Another preview will be held from 8.30am to 1pm on Feb 20 at the Academic Plaza in SITs Dover campus.

“We uphold the global standards, we filter culturally sensitive content,” Line Indonesia spokesman Teddy Arifianto said in a statement received by thejakartapost.com.

Teddy said that the company is sorry that the sensitive stickers were deemed as offensive as they were meant as an elaborate version of an emoticon, which are created by external parties from around the world and can be bought by Line users on its online store.

Line is reported to have subsequently removed all stickers considered to be culturally sensitive for users of the messaging app within the Indonesian market and would continue to monitor its search engine for any other inappropriate content.

Information and Communication Ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu said Thursday that social media and messaging platforms should drop stickers that expressed support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community.

The government’s recent warning to Line is the latest in a string of visible discouragement shown toward homosexuality within the socially conservative country. Although homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, it remains a sensitive issue.

Technology, Research, and Higher Education Minister Muhammad Nasir previously said, on the basis that a university is deemed to be a moral safeguard, that LGBT students should be banned from university campuses following news that a proactive organization at the University of Indonesia (UI) named the Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC) were organizing activities and offering counseling for LGBT students.

Nasir’s statement sparked a weeks-long public debate and other officials, including the Culture and Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Anies Baswedan, the People’s Consultative Assembly chairman Zulkifli Hasan, House of Representatives member Reni Marliawati and Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, have voiced similar sentiment with regard to the LGBT community. The Indonesian Ulema Council, the influential board of Muslim clerics, also voiced their concerns.

Meanwhile, human rights groups with the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM), describe the statements made by the public officials as a violation of human rights and suggest that they are contradictory to the fundamental principles of the nation.

Refugees are taking shelter in camps in five townships: Namtu, Kutkai, Mongyai, Namhkam and Kyaukme.

Over 80 refugees are staying in makeshift tents in Namtu. The two camps in Kutkai shelter more than 700 refugees. Some 500 refugees take shelter in camps in Kyaukme. Some refugees escaped to Mogok and urban areas of Kyaukme in which the Thiho Monastery shelters hundreds of refugees.

“Some refugees returned to their homes but when they saw there was nothing to go back to, they decided to return to the camps,” said Lo Poe Kyinti from the Ta’ang Women Organisation.

Rebels reportedly kidnapped the villagers and burned houses in Lanaw village, Namhkam.

The battles started on February 7 and are still raging.

Refugees are in immediate need of warm clothes, blankets, food and other essentials.

The first tranche of the EU support of 11.5 million euros will be added to the 48 million euro Australian-Initiated Basic Education Quality and Access in Laos (BEQUAL) programme, which aims to enable more disadvantaged children to complete good quality basic education and achieve literacy, numeracy and other life skills.

This programme is expected to benefit 450,000 primary school children in 66 most disadvantaged districts. Programme activities include renewing the curriculum, developing new materials, upgrading teacher skills, sponsoring pre-service scholarships to villages suffering from a tea cher shortage, and improving school based management.

The programme also aims to improve school infrastructure, provide school meals, and undertake a range of other activities with the intention of improving the quality of primary education and improving the participation of children and their communities in primary education.

The second tranche of 3.5 million euros will be used to continue strengthening education sector governance, particularly planning and budgeting, according to a joint statement on the project.

This information was revealed during the launch of the programme in Vientiane yesterday.

Deputy Minister of Education and Sports Sengdeuane Lachanthaboun, EU Chargé d’Affaires to Laos Mr Michel Goffin, and Acting Head of Mission of the Australian Embassy in Laos Mr Andreas Zurbrugg took turns to address the ceremony.

The event was also attended by representatives of the government’s line agencies, diplomatic corps, international organisations and development partners to officially launch the EU financial support programme.

Speaking at the event, Sengdeuane said that improving the quality of education was one of the top priorities of the Lao government and was critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and helping Laos to graduate from Least Developed country status.

The BEQuA-BasED programme is well aligned with the priorities of the Education Sector Development Plan (ESDP 2016-2020) and will also actively contribute to implementation of the National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP 2016-2020).

“Education is a strategic sector for poverty reduction and sustainable development but first and foremost ‘Education for All’ is a main cornerstone of a fair society. BEQuA-BasED was built upon on the EU Agenda for Change and the strategic priorities of the 8th NSEDP 2016-20 and the ESDP 2016-2020. The EU will work closely with the Ministry of Education and Sports and Australia to deliver this programme fruitfully,” Goffin said.

Education is one of the EU’s three priority sectors under its development strategy for Laos from 2014-2020.

Other key sectors include nutrition and governance and human rights, while its support for the areas of trade and private sector assistance, agriculture and rural development, health, environment and natural resources and UXO assistance are also maintained.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said the latest economic policy package was the government’s largest package yet.

He admitted, however, that bureaucratic problems continued to plague Indonesia and had become a serious obstacle to attracting investment. In response, the government would simplify the nation’s bureaucracies in forthcoming packages.

“Maybe a month from now, there will be more packages designed to tweak licensing procedures and bureaucratic matters,” he said at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.

The sluggish economy, Darmin continued, had weakened investment. Therefore, Indonesia had undertaken special emergency measures such as deregulations and the issuance of various economic policy packages.

According to Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) executive director Enny Sri Hartati, negative investment list (DNI) revisions must be viewed from two sides; how to attract investment and how to make sure that changes contribute to the national interest.

“At the same time, the government must provide legal certainty to the investors,” she said.

On Thursday, the government revealed its tenth economic policy package, designed to boost investment by revising the DNI. Thirty five sectors have been removed from the negative list and became open to foreign investment up to 100 percent ownership, while 20 others have been added.

“It’s a package that the world has been waiting for. I can tell you that it is the biggest package yet of all the ten economic policy packages delivered so far,” Darmin claimed.

The emojis — which are available on the popular apps LINE and Whatsapp as well as Facebook and Twitter — depict same-sex couples holding hands and the rainbow flag, commonly used to symbolise the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

“Such contents are not allowed in Indonesia based on our cultural law and the religious norms and the operators must respect that,” Ismail Cawidu, spokesman for the Communication and Information Ministry, told AFP Friday.

He said of particular concern was that the colourful emojis and stickers could appeal to children.

“Those things might be considered normal in some Western countries, while in Indonesia it’s practically impossible,” he said.

Cawidu said the ministry had contacted all companies that used such content, including Twitter and Facebook, and failure to comply with the request to remove the emojis could lead to the apps being banned in Indonesia.

LINE Indonesia has already removed its gay emojis from online stores and issued an apology.

“LINE regrets the incidents of some stickers which are considered sensitive by many people,” the messaging app said in a statement.

“We ask for your understanding because at the moment we are working on this issue to remove the stickers.”

While homosexuality is not illegal in Indonesia, the topic remains a controversial subject.

In January, the University of Indonesia told a support group providing sex education and counselling for LGBT students that they did not have permission to hold meetings on campus.

And last year Aceh, the only province in Indonesia which implements sharia law, introduced caning as a punishment for gay sex.

Prominent gay activist Hartoyo said the move to ban the emojis was symptomatic of a wider crackdown on LGBT rights.

“This is just the latest in a series of incidents that have happened recently,” he said. “The government has let this ignorance go on for far too long and it has put our nation in danger.”