Posts with tag: Featured Article

‘Mysterious’ bamboo fence off Tangerang coast spotlights uneven urban development

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The Tangerang bamboo sea fence has sparked public controversy. For weeks, the public were left in the dark over the identity of the parties responsible. Who erected this 6 meter-high sea fence in the Java Sea? And why?

Will Anies and Ahok join forces to challenge the Jokowi-Prabowo alliance?   

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While it is hard to predict whether Ahok and Anies’ reconciliation was genuine, it certainly reflects changing elite configurations in Indonesian politics after the 2024 presidential election. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is now serving as the only opposition party to the Jokowi-backed Prabowo Subianto government, and so Ahok, a PDI-P member, now finds himself in the same boat as his former enemy, Anies, a key political enemy of both Jokowi and Prabowo.

Talking Indonesia: art, activism and a cancelled show

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In this week's episode, Dr. Jemma Purdey chats with Dr Wulan Dirgantoro, a lecturer in art history and curatorship at the School of Culture and Communication, the University of Melbourne, about the cancelled art exhibition by Yos Suprapto and what it means for freedom of expression, art and activism in Indonesia.

A surprise victory for democracy? Why the Constitutional Court scrapped the presidential nominations threshold

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The Constitutional Court’s new ruling is a welcome respite amidst political doom and gloom in the country following the election of Presidential Prabowo Subianto last year, with many fearing he hopes to unravel Indonesia’s democratic system.

2024 year-end review: Winter is coming for Indonesia’s civil society forces 

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If what transpired in 2024 is any indication of what to come, we can safely say that 2025 will not be a democratic spring for Indonesia.

Talking Indonesia: regional elections

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In this week's episode, Dr Jacqui Baker chats with Dr Ian Wilson to assess what the regional elections round up tells us about how power is being reorganised in Indonesia today.

Election fatigue or elite shenanigans? Why fewer Indonesians went to polls to elect their local leaders

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The old narrative that elections are a "people's festival"–a manifestation of the people's political sovereignty–now rings hollow to many Indonesians, especially in Jakarta. Local elections have become a political game only the elite can play, leaving voters out in the cold.

Return of the technocrats: Can Prabowo's economic team prove the doubters wrong?

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Given Indonesia’s current gloomy political and economic landscape, the appointment of capable technocrats within the inner circle of national leadership is a breath of fresh air.

Talking Indonesia: East Timor's Great Famine, 1977-1979

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More than two decades since East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia the truth and associated trauma of this conflict-induced famine remains little known.

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