In Indonesia, people are celebrating. Joko Widodo’s supporters joined a parade on Monday to welcome him and Jusuf “JK” Kalla on the day they were sworn into office as Indonesia’s new president and vice-president…
Australian prime minister Tony Abbott is joining in a big party in Indonesia. Indonesia’s new president and vice-president are being inaugurated today. Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Jusuf “JK” Kalla are being…
Indonesia’s president-elect Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, will be sworn into office today in a divisive political environment. Jokowi, who won 53.15% of the votes in the presidential election…
Living alongside active volcanoes in places like Japan, the Philippines and especially Indonesia can be uncomfortable. Around half a billion people in the world live near high-risk volcanic eruption areas…
Indonesian leader Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will end his 10-year presidency in coming days. The retired general, popularly called SBY, won Indonesia’s first direct presidential election in 2004 and secured…
Rather than a new dawn for democracy, political and social reform in the region has led to less representation and more contestation. This has potentially far-reaching consequences. What does the May coup…
The Australian Senate passed a motion last week, with explicit support from the Foreign Minister’s office, expressing concern over the imprisonment of two French journalists for reporting in Indonesia’s…
Next year it will be 50 years since a group of middle-ranking army officers abducted the top brass of the Indonesian army. They had planned to bring them before President Sukarno, as they had heard rumours…
This week’s United Nations Climate Summit produced the New York Declaration on Forests. It promises to halt deforestation, one of the biggest contributors to global carbon emissions, by 2030. Indonesia…
Discounts for fuel in Indonesia have been hurting Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Set to inherit an account deficit when he takes office in late October, newly elected president Joko Widodo has pushed…
“Unity in diversity” is how Indonesia likes to describe its multicultural country. But cyber-bullying cases in Indonesia’s active social media project a different view of how Indonesia’s diverse groups…
Indonesians might lose their rights to directly elect local leaders as opponents of president-elect Joko Widodo are pushing to eliminate direct regional elections. The Red-White coalition of defeated presidential…
Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation y Prodita Sabarini, The Conversation
Indonesian human rights activist Usman Hamid says president-elect Joko Widodo could do better than the outgoing Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in solving the murder of rights activist Munir Said Thalib, despite…
A few weeks into his presidency, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono uttered one of his most memorable statements. Solving the murder case of the nation’s leading human rights activist, Munir…
Jakarta has returned to its normal crowded self, a month after the Eid holiday exodus that nearly emptied the city. Except that now the Indonesian capital has around 68,000 more residents. Every year thousands…
It’s not a good sign when parties cannot even agree on what they have just put their signatures to. On Thursday, Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop and her Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa…
Australia and Indonesia have agreed on a code of conduct on intelligence co-operation, with Australia pledging never to use its spy agencies in ways that could harm Indonesia’s interests. Today’s signing…
As many analysts predicted, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (MK) has rejected losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto’s challenge to the election result. Despite the decision, which is final and…
Tobias Basuki, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Indonesia
Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as Ahok, will be the first ethnic Chinese to govern Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. Ahok is not the first ethnic Chinese to gain political prominence in Indonesia, where…
A transgender woman with heavy makeup, a red wig and dressed in pink is chased by her pimp’s henchmen. A young woman hides her in her house. So begins the TV drama, a story of repentance of a transgender…