Posts with tag: May 1998

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?

Indonesia’s human rights movement sinks deeper into disarray as Prabowo rises

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The meeting between senior officials of the Gerindra party and several pro-democracy activists from the 1997/1998 period and their family members illustrates that although Prabowo has described himself “a staunch defender of human rights”, his past continues to be a concern.

Jokowi is not fooling anyone with latest nod to victims of rights abuses

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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo last week met participants of Indonesia’s longest running human rights protest, Kamisan (“Thursdays”). Dr Ken Setaiwan writes that despite the promising photographs that came out of the meeting, his government has little interest in pursuing justice for past crimes.

Could violence against the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia happen again?

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This month marks 20 years since the riots and violence that erupted in cities including Jakarta, Medan and Solo, and mainly targeted Indonesia's ethnic Chinese population. In light of the recent surge in anti-Chinese sentiment in Indonesia, Dr Jemma Purdey questions whether violence like that of May 1998 could happen again.

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Date created: 1 July 2015

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Dr Tim Mann
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