Talking Indonesia

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...

Launched in 2014 and aiming to provide universal healthcare coverage, Indonesia’s national health insurance scheme, JKN, has gradually increased its membership to 220 million people, or 84 per cent of the Indonesian population. Nevertheless, questions remain about the equality of access to healthcare and quality of treatment that JKN members receive in different parts of the country. The financial...

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Indonesia was estimated to have between 55,000 and 100,000 political prisoners as a result of the Army-led anti-communist violence of the mid-1960s. Some of these prisoners maintained long-lasting epistolary friendships with supporters and human rights activists overseas. Who initiated these friendships and how did they evolve over time? What kind of broader supp...

The prominent role of active and retired officers of the Indonesian military, or TNI, has been widely noted, with Lieutenant General Doni Monardo serving as the head of Indonesia’s Covid-19 taskforce, the chief of staff of the army, General Andika Perkasa, serving as deputy head of a new COVID-19 handling and national economic recovery committee; in addition to the various retired officers occupyi...

Dr Amanda Achmadi: Covid-19 and the city As the pandemic enters its sixth month and Indonesia’s daily case numbers continue to rise, in order to avoid further deterioration of the economy the central and local governments have begun to loosen restrictions. For the tens of millions of Indonesians living in its densely populated cities this will prove to be a particularly difficult test. The pandemi...

The Covid-19 crisis in Indonesia shows no signs of abating as the government continues to struggle to find adequate responses to the crisis. In the absence of decisive government action, many grassroots communities are stepping up by starting their own initiatives to contain the spread of the virus. Who is driving this community engagement? What can be achieved at this level? And why do women play...

In the wake of these US protests triggered by the murder of George Floyd in May in Minneapolis, a #PapuanLivesMatter discourse has emerged in Indonesia, scrutinising racism against the indigenous populations of Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces, Papua and West Papua, site of a protracted conflict for independence between the Indonesian government and sections of Papuan society. #PapuanLivesMat...

The mental health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are generally assumed to be severe, but little data has been available to assess the situation in Indonesia. Indonesian survey firm SurveyMETER has conducted an online survey to measure the incidence of anxiety and depression during the Covid-19 crisis. In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses the survey with Dr Wayan Suri...

Dr Pandu Riono - Indonesia's pandemic In early March as the pandemic quickly spread across the world and its neighbours rushed to close their borders and economies, Indonesia’s Minister for Health Terawan Agus Putranto told local media he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about, describing the coronavirus as less dangerous than the flu. Indonesia did not record its first official case of C...

As the Covid-19 virus wreaks havoc across Indonesia, the World Bank predicts that Indonesia’s economy may shrink by as much 3.5 percent this year. The government is now pushing ahead to reopen the economy to prevent further weakening by easing restrictions in areas where infection rates are under control. How badly has the Covid-19 pandemic affected Indonesia’s economy so far, and which sectors an...

Across the world, the International Labour Organisation has highlighted the significant impacts lockdown policies have had on 1.6 billion informal workers, concentrated in low and middle income countries like Indonesia. The differing effects of Covid-19 responses on informal sector workers and those in formal employment is a massive issue for Indonesia, where more than half of the workforce works...

Many foreign media outlets have been highly critical of the Indonesian government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the Indonesian media, by contrast, seems far less inclined to question the government’s statistics and policy announcements. What explains this discrepancy in reporting standards? Are Indonesian journalists self-censoring because the space for dissent is shrinking in Indon...

Athia Yumna – COVID-19, the poor and vulnerable Globally, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating effect on the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. Prior to the virus emergency, Indonesia’s economy was the envy of many others around the world. Its steady GDP growth had led to a gradual decline in the number of Indonesians living below the poverty line to be...

The Indonesian government’s response to Covid-19 has been widely perceived as inadequate. Indonesia’s testing rate has been very low, sparking concerns that many Covid fatalities have gone undetected, but even so its current official death toll of 635 is the highest in Asia outside of China. It took almost a month after acknowledging its first case to declare a health emergency, enabling regions w...

Covid-19 is spreading fast in Indonesia and the government seems overwhelmed by the monumental task of combating the virus. President Jokowi has ordered social distancing measures, but there’s been much confusion about what exactly that means. The situation is further complicated by disagreements and a lack of coordination between the central government and local administrations, many of whom are...

Even without controversial changes to the Criminal Code that would criminalise same sex relations, many local level bylaws already persecute sexual and gender minorities in the name of public order and decency. What are the difficulties faced by LGBT Indonesians? How do they see their place in society? What are the barriers to basic services, including health care and what are the implications for...

Indonesian officials routinely highlight the success of the Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn company GoJek, whose founder Nadiem Makarim became Education Minister in President Jokowi’s latest cabinet. The green jackets of GoJek’s motorcycle taxi drivers and its regional competitor Grab have become ubiquitous in Indonesia’s cities - both companies also offer online taxis, food delivery, and a range...

In this belated Chinese New Year special, Charlotte Setijadi chats with Dr Josh Stenberg about the little known topic of Chinese Indonesian performance arts, and how their histories represent the strategies of Chinese minority self-representation over time.