Latest headlines from Indonesia at Melbourne, covering world, local, business, with clear attribution and direct links to the original publisher.
If Indonesia is serious about reproductive justice, it needs yet more legal reform. Abortion should be fully decriminalised, unnecessary administrative requirements should be removed, and primary healthcare facilities and general practitioners should be able to provide abortion care.
When the public loses clarity about which camp offers an alternative, it does not look for one in an empty space. It finds a figure whose performance is widely appreciated in his province, enjoying an image that stands in sharp contrast to the public's negative assessment of the president.
How did Indonesia, a country where wheat (the main ingredient in instant noodles) doesn't grow, become the world's second-largest consumer and one of the top five exporters of instant noodles? In this episode, Dr Clara Siagian is joined by Dr Elna Tulus, a recent graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, to explore the political and economic history of instant noodle production in Indonesia.
After two years of Prabowo’s presidency, the economic costs of his policies have sparked growing concerns. With 92% of experts expressing confusion about the direction of government policy, how long can Indonesia afford to continue on this path?
While Jokowi and PSI remain part of Prabowo’s ruling coalition, Jokowi’s manoeuvrings suggest his political family is open to taking on Prabowo in 2029. Prabowo’s latest Cabinet reshuffle suggests that the President is well aware of that threat.
It is possible to think that the title was unwise, insufficiently sensitive, or simply too provocative for the Indonesian context. I would not dismiss that criticism. Titles matter, especially when they use the name of the Prophet. But that is still different from saying that the title insults the Prophet or that the book is blasphemous.
In this week's episode, Jemma Purdey chats with Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, an Alexander von Humboldt research fellow at the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies and the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study in Germany, about how the 'preman state' persists in Indonesia.
For five days in late August, Jombang became a crowded arena of clerical authority, organisational politics and quiet negotiation.
Students can study the armed forces and question officers about defence, but giving an officer the lecturer’s podium to define the national ideology instead lends military authority a civilian endorsement – or could even elevate it to the position of judging civilian behaviour.
The post-Soeharto era of democratisation did not erode the influence of preman groups. Instead, these violent entities multiplied and decentralised down to the local level, mirroring the fragmentation of political and economic patronage across the provinces and sub-provinces.
In this week's episode, Dr Jacqui Baker chats with Dr Natalie Sambhi to help us understand how civil-military relations are changing under the Prabowo government, and how that affects Australia’s defence relations with Indonesia.
The alleged involvement of Gerindra Party members in facilitating the Pati demonstrations demanding the enactment of the Asset Bill has fuelled speculation that the President’s party is rushing it through to serve elite interests, not the public.
Indonesia’s new fire regime prompts a crucial question - not just how the state will manage fire, but who will govern it, under what conditions, and based on whose knowledge?
Indonesia’s regional engagement means very little: the agreement asks for cooperation without giving ASEAN a strong mechanism to evaluate domestic implementation. That may explain why regional engagement deepens while the domestic conditions that cause haze persist.
Dr Mitha Eka and Professor Linda Rae Bennett, with colleagues at the Centre for Reproductive Health at Universitas Gadjah Mada, spent a year co-designing the first patient education materials of their kind in Indonesia. Funded by the Australia-Indonesia Institute, the project brought together survivors, clinicians, four hospitals in Yogyakarta, community organisations, and government at both provincial and national levels.
