Current Finance minister Agus Martowardojo is approved by Indonesia's Parliament (DPR) to replace Darmin Nasution as governor of Indonesia's central bank (Bank Indonesia) in May 2013. Martowardojo, who has been active in banking for over two decades and had a successful term as head of state-controlled Bank Mandiri, was finance minister since May 2010 after taking over from Sri Mulyani, who was pressured out of Indonesian politics.

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Yesterday Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI), a leading Indonesian public opinion research institute, published the result of a survey that indicated Megawati Soekarnoputri is leading the poll to become the country's next president in 2014. In the survey she is closely followed by Aburizal Bakrie and Prabowo Subianto. This preliminary result can be regarded negative as these names are 'products' of the old regime and thus will not support further democratization.

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Today, Indonesian private airline Lion Mentari Airlines (Lion Air) ordered a record-breaking 234 airplanes from France-based Airbus for a combined price of €18.4 billion (US $24 billion). This mega-purchase marks the aggressive expansion drift of the Indonesian low-cost airline. In November 2011, the company had already ordered 230 aircrafts from (Airbus competitor) Boeing for the combined price of USD $21.7 billion.

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Last Thursday night, a Nigerian drug dealer, imprisoned since 2004, was executed by firing squad near Kepulauan Seribu to the north of Jakarta's coast. This execution is the first since the execution of three Islamic radicals (who were involved in the 2002 Bali bombings) in 2008. Meanwhile, on Friday morning, counter-terrorism squad Densus 88 killed three suspected Muslim militants that robbed a jewelry store in Tambora, West Jakarta.

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