Talking Indonesia

Two decades after the fall of Suharto, the nature of Indonesian democracy and the trajectory of political reform remain a matter of animated debate in Indonesia and abroad. Undeniably, fundamental change has taken place since the end of Soeharto's authoritarian New Order regime. By the same token, the continued prominence of political and business figures who rose to the prominence during the New...

Indonesia’s blasphemy legislation gained global attention during the trial of former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) in 2017. But apart from Ahok, many other Indonesians have also faced blasphemy charges in recent years, even though the constitutionality of the law has been challenged repeatedly. Why is blasphemy such a serious offence in Indonesia? What do recent blasphemy cases ha...

The mass demonstrations against former Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in 2016 and 2017, and rising intolerance against religious and sexual minorities have raised concerns about the growing influence of more conservative forms of Islam in Indonesia. The popularity of radical and conservative clerics such as Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) leader Rizieq Shihab and celebrity preacher F...

Indonesia's environmental challenges are vast and the impacts of forest degradation, in particular, have implications globally as well as locally. For many years within civil society environmental groups and academics have worked at all levels - international, national and local - to raise awareness, enable local communities and lobby government. The search for solutions involves negotiating a com...

Indonesia's current criminal code dates to colonial rule, with efforts to complete and enact a new draft of the code consistently foundering. Under the administration of President Jokowi, the drafting process has gained new impetus, however, and a sense is growing that a new criminal code will be enacted this year. At the same time, civil society activists and legal experts have lined up to critic...

Violent Islamist extremism has been a serious security threat in Indonesia for nearly two decades now. But while terrorist networks continue to recruit new members, there are also former militants who have turned their back on violence and terror. What prompts such acts of disengagement? Why do some terrorists quit, while others don’t? And what can governments and peace activists learn from previo...

Young Indonesians are often misunderstood. The older generations perceive them as entitled, unmotivated, apathetic, and narcissistic, a far cry from the image of the pemuda, or the revolutionary youth who fought for the country’s independence. But what do Indonesian young people actually think about the social, political and economic issues around them? Do they care about social inequality and env...

Ethnic Chinese make up an estimated 1-2 percent of Indonesia's population. Of this group, a tiny minority are Muslim. As such, ethnic Chinese Muslims occupy a unique and significant position where the religious majority intersects with this ethnic minority, which has long assumed a role of economic middleman and been used as political scapegoat. In many ways Chinese Muslims in Indonesia disturb bo...

The prohibition of pornography has been a hotly debated and controversial area of law in Indonesia, attracting the attention both of Islamic conservatives and activists promoting freedom of expression. Several public figures have been investigated and prosecuted under questionable circumstances, raising concerns that the law is being applied arbitrarily. Most recently, The police investigation of...

Vigilantism made headlines in Indonesia in 2017 owing to a spate of so-called "persecution" incidents, entailing physical intimidation or violence against online critics of prominent religious figures. But these incidents are just one manifestation of the broader phenomenon of vigilantism, which remains widespread in democratic Indonesia. How pervasive is vigilante violence, and what patterns do w...

In the shadow of Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody crackdown on drugs, Indonesia has been fighting its own war on drugs. Under President Joko Widodo, executions for drug traffickers were resumed and, more recently, researchers have recorded a growing number of fatal police shootings of drug suspects. As in the Philippines, the government’s hard-line stance toward drugs has broad public support, which makes...

October 2017 marked three years since President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo came to power. Elected in 2014 as a symbol of hope for Indonesia’s progressives, Jokowi won support with lofty promises of infrastructure building, better governance, improved welfare, and economic growth, among others. As Indonesia gears up for another round of important elections, the time is right to assess Jokowi’s leadership...

How does support for political Islam correlate with other political attitudes in Indonesia, such as support for decentralisation, choice of a political party, anti-Chinese sentiment, and so forth? How have the correlations between support for political Islam and other political attitudes manifested in the actual political behaviour of Indonesians, and what implications might they bear for forthcom...

Last month protesters disrupted a meeting at the offices of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta)and its national umbrella body, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI). In what was a first for the NGO, police did not initially prevent the protesters from blocking meeting, an academic discussion on 1965-66. What does this attack signal for human rights and civil society in Indonesia?...

In 2016, Tempo magazine named Istirahatlah Kata-Kata (Solo, Solitude) its film of the year. The  arthouse film attracted acclaim at festivals around the world, and played to packed houses in cinemas across Indonesia. Since its release, it has sparked discussion, especially among younger audiences, about its subject, poet and activist Widji Thukul,  and the mystery still surrounding his disappearan...

In the midst of growing nationalism, the notion of 'food sovereignty' has come to occupy an increasingly prominent place in food policy within Indonesia. But what does food sovereignty mean, and is it being used within Indonesia in similar ways to which it is understood globally? How effective are food sovereignty policies in enabling Indonesia to tackle the considerable challenge of ensuring all...

Indonesia’s tertiary education institutions have long performed poorly in global university rankings. Among the various deficits that are routinely recorded for Indonesian universities are low teaching and research quality, inadequate levels of knowledge transfer and a lacking international outlook. The Indonesian government has repeatedly expressed its concern about the dismal results in the rank...

The vast number of Indonesian migrant workers working abroad have long been a prominent feature of Indonesia's labour market. Indonesian government policy on migrant workers tends to come into the public spotlight primarily when cases of maltreatment and abuse towards these workers emerge, not infrequently spurring the government to impose moratoriums on departures to particular countries and regi...

The Jakarta gubernatorial election, held earlier this year, was perhaps the most divisive and bitterly fought campaign seen in modern Indonesian politics. Social media and the internet played a large role in the campaign, which was characterised by racism and sectarianism. But how much can we blame the internet for the bitterness of the campaign and how much is it explained by Indonesia’s conserva...

In line with Indonesian President Joko Widodo's vision to establish Indonesia as a global maritime fulcrum, Indonesia in February this year issued its first National Ocean Policy. Drafting of the policy was overseen by the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs, newly formed as part of the Jokowi administration, which in July also launched a new map of Indonesia that alters some of Indonesia's...

Jemma Purdey talks with Deasy Simandjuntak about the latest challenge to the independence and authority of Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), this time from the House of Representatives (DPR),which has initiated an inquiry into the institution. What triggered the inquiry? What are the implications for the KPK? Talking Indonesia, co-hosted in 2017 by Dr Dave McRae, Dr Jemma Purdey...

Jakarta’s urban village (kampung) communities have received considerable attention in the last few months amid the hotly contested Jakarta gubernatorial election. While most of the election coverage focused on race and religious issues, former Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama’s track record of forced evictions of kampungs along Jakarta’s riverbanks also stirred much controversy. Kampung resi...

Wildlife trafficking is thought to be the third largest illegal trade after drugs and weapons. As a global hot spot for this illicit trade, Indonesia is not only a source country for the rapidly growing international market, but it is also home to a huge domestic market, especially for songbirds. In recent years, the volume in trafficking has risen dramatically and for many of the archipelago’s en...

We continue our conversation about the state of women’s activism in Indonesia in the midst of a conservative turn that has seen a particular focus on women’s bodies and non-traditional sexualities. In this podcast we explore the ways in which issues important to women, including sexuality and religion, are being shared and communicated beyond the conventional media. How has digital media created s...

In May, the Indonesian government announced it would ban the Indonesian branch of Hizbut Tahrir, an Islamist organisation which seeks to replace democratic governments with an Islamic caliphate through non-violent means. Indonesia is not the first democracy to consider a ban of Hizbut Tahrir - the organisation has been banned from public activities in Germany, and Great Britain and Australia, amon...