Posts with tag: History

Talking Indonesia: the people versus Fadli Zon

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In June 2025, Minister of Culture Fadli Zon went on the record questioning if sexual assaults and rapes had taken place during the May 1998 riots. A few months later, a group of advocates, including some of those directly involved in the fact-finding investigation and who provided support to victims at the time, filed a case against the minister in the Jakarta Administrative Court. What was the nature of their case against Minister Zon? How did the court respond? And what implications might this case have for the broader struggle for human rights protections and democracy in Indonesia right now?

Talking Indonesia: 'kramat' and the politics of Indonesian history

In this week's episode, Tito Ambyo chats with Panggah Ardiansyah, a research associate at the University of Sheffield's Digital Humanities Institute, whose research challenges us to read Indonesian antiquities through Indonesian epistemologies.

Talking Indonesia: Soeharto as national hero

In this week's episode, Dr Elisabeth Kramer is joined by historian Dr Ken Setiawan and Lailly Prihatiningtyas, a PhD student representing the Sydney-based group Aliansi Gusar, to explore what the designation of Soeharto as a national hero means for Indonesia's democracy, its memory politics, and its ongoing struggle with accountability for past atrocities.

Naming Soeharto a national hero undermines democratic reforms

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10 November is Indonesia's Heroes’ Day, and  President Prabowo Subianto is a few steps closer to declaring his former father-in-law, the late autocrat president Soeharto, a national hero. It seems the government’s Council for Titles, Medals, and Honours, chaired by Minister of Culture Fadli Zon, may reframe Soeharto’s legacy as a corrupt, autocratic ruler with a more positive image by awarding him the hero title.

Indonesia’s National Gallery rewrites history as Prabowo’s revisionism takes hold

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The take-home for lovers of Indonesian contemporary art is clear: if we don’t defend the freedom of artistic expression, they won’t just rewrite history—they’ll script the future for us too.

Talking Indonesia: a re/writing history project

What and who was behind this ‘rewriting’ history project? What were their motives? What ‘red flags’ most alarmed historians and others, and ultimately what can be done to resist and possibly reverse the course of this project?

Indonesia’s new history project: the bleak future of the nation's past

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The project is essentially a revival of the old format of the Sejarah Nasional Indonesia (SNI, Indonesian National History). Developed under the New Order regime, the SNI was an effort to shape a hegemonic narrative of Indonesian history.

Half a century on, victims' voices haunt a democratic Indonesia

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Joko Widodo is seen as the most committed to human rights of Indonesia’s potential leaders, but what priority the next Government will give to dealing with the nation's dark history remains unclear, writes Katharine McGregor and Jemma Purdey.

Indonesia at Melbourne is supported by:

Melbourne Law School Asia Institute Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society Indonesia Forum Faculty of Arts Indonesia Democracy Hallmark Research Initiative

Indonesia at Melbourne

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Date created: 1 July 2015

Editor: Ary Hermawan

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Professor Tim Lindsey
Dr Tim Mann
Aron Corbett

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