Talking Indonesia

In July, Indonesia recorded its highest daily numbers of new coronavirus cases, making it the epicentre of the global pandemic, ahead of India and Brazil. The daily peak of 55,000 cases in mid-July, though shocking, only represented cases confirmed by PCR testing and reported by the government in its national tally. For many epidemiologists and other observers of Indonesia’s pandemic over the past...

Please note that this episode discusses gender violence that some people may find disturbing or triggering. Listener discretion is advised. UN Women recently described violence against women during Covid-19 as "the shadow pandemic". As Covid-19 has gotten worse, so has women’s experiences of domestic violence. Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) reported th...

On 15 July, the Indonesian legislature (DPR) revised special autonomy legislation for Papua and West Papua provinces, extending the provision of additional funds to the two provinces. The extension of special autonomy – or otsus – has been hotly debated for 18 months, with many civil society groups and independence supporters rejecting special autonomy altogether. Special autonomy is one strand of...

Dicky Budiman: the worsening pandemic crisis We are bringing you this episode early this week in response to the current escalation in the pandemic crisis in Indonesia, especially in Java. Last week, 16 months after announcing its first case of COVID-19, Indonesia passed the ominous milestone of 2 million officially recorded cases, and daily case numbers are surging. Local government officials in...

As the coronavirus pandemic extends into its second year, digital literacy is more important now than ever. Misinformation and hoaxes are everywhere. Cultural and political contests on social media have also become more intense, and politicians are already beginning to position themselves ahead of the 2024 elections. Being digitally literate entails not only the ability to use digital devices and...

The Indonesian government is aiming to vaccinate two-thirds of the population in order to reach herd immunity against the Covid-19 virus, but the sheer size of the population and its geographical extent make the vaccination task a very challenging one. In order to balance the vaccination drive with on-going productivity, they have enlisted the help of private corporations to launch and pay for ino...

Mass protest movements have increasingly become a feature of Indonesian democracy. The massive #ReformasiDikorupsi (“Reform Corrupted”) protests in 2019 were hailed as the largest democratic reform protests in the country in two decades. Nearly three years earlier, Islamist groups also showed their ability to mobilise through their “Defence of Islam” protests, which called for the prosecution of B...

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo disappointed environmentalists at home and internationally last month, when he failed to set a date for Indonesia to reach net-zero emissions at US President Joe Biden's recent virtual climate summit. Leading up to the event, officials suggested Indonesia was considering setting a target of reaching net-zero by 2070. Jokowi did, however, note that in 2020, Indonesia’...

Transgender women, commonly called waria, are an important part of contemporary Indonesian society. Growing discussion of LGBTQIA+ issues have seen gender and sexual minorities become increasingly visible in Indonesian public life, especially among younger and urban Indonesian populations. But what about the important role long played by waria in Indonesia's cultural-political landscape? How have...

In late March, Indonesia faced two terror attacks in the space of a week, with a husband and wife conducting a suicide bombing against a cathedral in Makassar, and a woman attacking Indonesian police headquarters carrying an Airsoft gun. Indonesian police described the perpetrators of both attacks as supporters of the Islamic State or ISIS – the group’s supporters have been responsible for a strin...

International Women’s Day was celebrated on 8 March. It aims to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women and bring attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence against women. Since the fall of Soeharto, the Indonesian women's movement has been instrumental in pushing for affirmative action policies that have promoted women's par...

What are effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and vulnerable populations in Indonesia? As most schools and educational institutions have been closed for more than a year, many children have to shelter in places that may not always be ideal. The pandemic has also restricted opportunities for children and vulnerable populations to express their concerns and participate in public. Who has bee...

In this Lunar New Year special episode, Dr Charlotte Setijadi chats with Dr Evi Sutrisno about the history and evolution of Confucianism in Indonesia, from its beginnings as a belief system for ethnic Chinese migrants to its recognition as one of the country's six official religions.

The December 2020 elections for mayors and governors marked the beginning of Indonesia’s fourth wave of direct local elections. Mayors and governors have been directly elected by popular vote since 2005, replacing a previous system of indirect election by local legislatures that was widely perceived as corrupt. Most candidates though are still nominated by coalitions of political parties, as provi...

Dr Ines Atmosukarto - COVID-19 and the vaccine Over the past few months, the Covid-19 crisis in Indonesia has escalated, with daily case numbers and deaths from the virus hitting record levels week after week. Without strict lockdowns, government efforts to encourage the public to comply with social distancing and masking advice has not been effective in controlling the spread of the disease.   On...

At the end of what has been a challenging year, governments around the world are imposing movement restriction orders to prevent Christians from traveling home and congregating at churches. The issue of restricting people’s rights to practice their religious rituals due to Covid-19 is a challenging and controversial one. However, in a country such as Indonesia where religion plays a huge part in t...

Religious harmony is a persistent challenge in Indonesia, whether between adherent to different religions or within each religious community. During the early years of the democratic transition, thousands of Indonesians were killed in large-scale inter-religious conflicts in several provinces in the east of the country; long after these conflicts have ended, the construction of new places of worsh...

Indonesia has long been known as one of the most active Facebook and Twitter nations, but more recently Instagram has become the social media platform of choice for many young Indonesians. Some of the platform’s most prolific users are female Islamic activists who are keen to utilize social media as novel tools for proselytisation (or da’wa). Why do female activists choose social media such as Ins...

Rafiqa Quaratta A'yun - the omnibus Law on Job Creation Since early October, large-scale protests have taken place on the streets of Jakarta and other cities around Indonesia in opposition to the new omnibus Law on Job Creation (UU Cipta Kerja). The 1000+ page law includes 186 articles and revises 77 existing laws, yet it took a relatively short time to be drafted and reviewed before being passed...

Indonesia’s micro, small and medium enterprises sector – in which most Indonesians work - has been hard hit by public health measures in response to the pandemic and by the broader economic downturn. How have these impacts varied for different micro, small and medium enterprises? How has the sector adapted to the pandemic? And has government assistance addressed the sctor’s needs? In this week’s T...

Illegal, undocumented and unregulated fishing became one of the most prominent issues of the first term Jokowi government. Its prominence arose in part because of repeated confrontations at sea with the fishing fleets and coastguard of China and Vietnam, but more notably owing to the hardline enforcement approach of Jokowi’s first term fisheries minister, Susi Pudjiastuti. Susi’s use of explosives...

According to Unicef, more than 60 million students in Indonesia have been temporarily out of school due to COVID-19, presenting the country’s education sector with unprecedented challenges. How have schools responded to these challenges? How have children and parents reacted? And what are the likely long-term implications of prolonged home schooling for Indonesian children? In this week’s Talking...

A/Prof Marcus Mietzner - the Soekarno dynasty The Soekarno dynasty is arguably Indonesia’s first and certainly most successful political family – able to count two presidents and the country’s largest political party, PDI-P - as its legacy, so far. Soekarno himself, was the nation’s founding father and first president and his daughter, Megawati, its fifth and to date, only female president from 20...

Recent years in Indonesia have seen repeated instances of the hacking of activists’ social media accounts, the defacing of media websites, as well as the activities of political influencers and automated bots attacking critics and promoting a pro-government line. On top of these digital attacks, the Indonesian government also twice throttled or shutdown the internet in 2019, first in Jakarta and s...

The relationship between Indonesia and Australia has not always been smooth, but the people of the two countries have mostly supported each other during times of crises. What is the state of Indonesia-Australia relations during these times of increasing international detachment and the defunding of public diplomacy programs? What are some of the contemporary challenges faced by those trying to fos...