Posts with tag: New Order

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?

Of heroes and villains: Prabowo’s playbook for power and historical revisionism 

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By elevating figures like Soeharto, the government legitimises past authoritarian rule and normalises such practices in the present, thereby strengthening the current president’s grip on power. This strategy allows the government to consolidate authority while sidestepping accountability.

Is Prabowo reviving the Soeharto regime?

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It is true that Indonesia’s democracy has come under severe oligarchic pressures that would exist regardless of who won the last presidential election. However, Prabowo seems to have the know-how, and, more importantly, the personal determination, to recreate a socio-political order that closely reflects Soeharto’s Integralistic state — the political model instrumental for the creation and maintenance of his autocratic oligarchic system.

Talking Indonesia: transnational human rights activism

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In Talking Indonesia this week, Dr Dirk Tomsa chats to Dr Vannessa Hearman about the letter-writing friendships that political prisoners under Soeharto developed with supporters and human rights activists overseas.

Arief Budiman, activist, public intellectual and scholar (1941-2020)

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Prominent public intellectual and leading critic of the Soeharto regime Arief Budiman died on 23 April. Professor Vedi Hadiz reflects on the life of the dissident academic and Foundation Professor of Indonesian Studies at the University of Melbourne.

The danger of rejecting democracy for the sake of economic growth

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As observers warn of Indonesia’s democratic retreat, Dr Robertus Robet questions the growing belief that authoritarianism is a shortcut to development

When is a tadpole like a bat? The riddle of Indonesia’s vanishing political divide

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As former arch-rivals Jokowi and Prabowo team up, Airlangga Pribadi Kusman asks how different their positions were to begin with.

Is Indonesian democracy still trapped in old-style politics?

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The election is barely over, so it might seem strange to contemplate the next, but the 2019 elections signpost a significant transition that will be evident by the time Indonesia votes again in 2024, writes Donald Greenlees.

'Istirahatlah Kata-Kata': young audiences discover a dissident poet

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"Istirahatlah Kata-Kata", or "Solo, Solitude", is a moving depiction of the life of dissident poet and activist Widji Thukul during a period of self-imposed exile under the New Order. Elly Kent presents a lovely review of the film, which has been immensely popular since its release on 19 January.

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

Editorial board: 
Professor Tim Lindsey
Dr Tim Mann
Aron Corbett

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