Talking Indonesia

A/Prof Marcus Mietzner - the Soekarno dynasty The Soekarno dynasty is arguably Indonesia’s first and certainly most successful political family – able to count two presidents and the country’s largest political party, PDI-P - as its legacy, so far. Soekarno himself, was the nation’s founding father and first president and his daughter, Megawati, its fifth and to date, only female president from 2001-2004. Today Megawati continues to lead the family party, which has played a significant role in Indonesia’s democratic consolidation. However, with the matriarch, Megawati, failing twice in her attempts to re-capture the presidency, in 2014 the decision was made to put forward a ‘proxy’ nominee for the party’s presidential bid. As history tell us, their choice, Joko Widodo, proved a very good one. Now, six years later, with Jokowi in his second and final term, the issue of a successor is once more on the table, and with it questions about the ability of the Soekarno dynasty to regenerate and hold on to its powe

Recent years in Indonesia have seen repeated instances of the hacking of activists’ social media accounts, the defacing of media websites, as well as the activities of political influencers and automated bots attacking critics and promoting a pro-government line. On top of these digital attacks, the Indonesian government also twice throttled or shutdown the internet in 2019, first in Jakarta and subsequently in Papua. Digital attacks on activists and the media raise a host of questions: who is responsible for these attacks, what effect do they have on Indonesian democracy, and what reforms are needed to better protect Indonesian internet users? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Damar Juniarto, Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) The Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe Univers

The relationship between Indonesia and Australia has not always been smooth, but the people of the two countries have mostly supported each other during times of crises. What is the state of Indonesia-Australia relations during these times of increasing international detachment and the defunding of public diplomacy programs? What are some of the contemporary challenges faced by those trying to foster public diplomacy programs between the two countries? Charlotte Setijadi spoke about the history and current state of Indonesia-Australia people-to-people relations with Dr Lis Kramer and Ms Ele Williams.

Launched in 2014 and aiming to provide universal healthcare coverage, Indonesia’s national health insurance scheme, JKN, has gradually increased its membership to 220 million people, or 84 per cent of the Indonesian population. Nevertheless, questions remain about the equality of access to healthcare and quality of treatment that JKN members receive in different parts of the country. The financial sustainability of the scheme also remains an ongoing issue, with the healthcare fund’s deficit reaching Rp 28 trillion rupiah (approximately A$2.5 billion ) in 2019, a significant burden for the government even prior to the severe economin downturn caused by Covid-19. In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues, as well as the impact of Covid-19 on Indonesia’s national health insurance scheme, with Professor Laksono Trisnantoro, Head of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing at Universitas Gadjah Mada . Professor Lakso

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Indonesia was estimated to have between 55,000 and 100,000 political prisoners as a result of the Army-led anti-communist violence of the mid-1960s. Some of these prisoners maintained long-lasting epistolary friendships with supporters and human rights activists overseas. Who initiated these friendships and how did they evolve over time? What kind of broader support networks for political prisoners emerged out of this letter writing? And what legacy did this activism leave for contemporary human rights campaigners? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, we take a closer look at one of these epistolary friendships. Joining host Dirk Tomsa is historian Dr Vannessa Hearman, a Senior Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, and the author of 'Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia', which was recently awarded the 2020 Early Career Book Prize by the Asian Studies Association of Australia. In 202

The prominent role of active and retired officers of the Indonesian military, or TNI, has been widely noted, with Lieutenant General Doni Monardo serving as the head of Indonesia’s Covid-19 taskforce, the chief of staff of the army, General Andika Perkasa, serving as deputy head of a new COVID-19 handling and national economic recovery committee; in addition to the various retired officers occupying positions within the palace and the cabinet. How has the involvement of the military shaped Indonesia’s Covid response, and has TNI’s role in countering the pandemic altered the balance of civil-military relations? How also is President Jokowi likely to manage relations with the military for the remainder of his term, as the retirement of current TNI commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto looms in 2021? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dr Evan Laksmana, Senior Researcher in the Department of International Relations at CSIS Indonesia. Dr Laksmana is co-autho

Dr Amanda Achmadi: Covid-19 and the city As the pandemic enters its sixth month and Indonesia’s daily case numbers continue to rise, in order to avoid further deterioration of the economy the central and local governments have begun to loosen restrictions. For the tens of millions of Indonesians living in its densely populated cities this will prove to be a particularly difficult test. The pandemic has highlighted tensions between the informality that characterises these large cities, and the bureaucracies struggling to deal with this major public health crisis. What did the ‘lockdown’ in Indonesia’s cities look like? What were the restrictions on public gatherings and use of public spaces? How is public space being organised under PSBB to accommodate the large informal sector? And as markets, malls, mosques and cinemas open up again how will Indonesia’s urbanites respond? To answer these questions and more is Dr Amanda Achmadi a senior lecturer in Architectural Design, Asian Architecture and Urbanism

The Covid-19 crisis in Indonesia shows no signs of abating as the government continues to struggle to find adequate responses to the crisis. In the absence of decisive government action, many grassroots communities are stepping up by starting their own initiatives to contain the spread of the virus. Who is driving this community engagement? What can be achieved at this level? And why do women play a particularly important role in such initiatives? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, we chat about Covid-19 and community engagement in South Sumatra. Joining host Dirk Tomsa are the incoming Director of the Monash Herb Feith Indonesian Engagement Centre, Associate Professor Sharyn Graham Davies, as well as Najmah and Yeni, two members of the Department of Biostatistics & Epidemiology at the Public Health Faculty, Universitas Sriwijaya in Palembang. In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University,

In the wake of these US protests triggered by the murder of George Floyd in May in Minneapolis, a #PapuanLivesMatter discourse has emerged in Indonesia, scrutinising racism against the indigenous populations of Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces, Papua and West Papua, site of a protracted conflict for independence between the Indonesian government and sections of Papuan society. #PapuanLivesMatter itself follows on from the massive, sustained anti-racism protests in Papua in August and September 2019, after Papuan students studying in Surabaya and Malang in East Java found themselves the target of racial abuse in the days leading up to Indonesia’s independence day. To discuss racism towards Papuans, its impacts and drivers, I’m joined today by Ligia Giay, a PhD candidate at the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, and a frequent author on racism against Papuans. She is also part of the team that runs the Voice of Papua newsletter: https://voiceofpapua.substack.com/. The Talking Indonesi

The mental health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are generally assumed to be severe, but little data has been available to assess the situation in Indonesia. Indonesian survey firm SurveyMETER has conducted an online survey to measure the incidence of anxiety and depression during the Covid-19 crisis. In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses the survey with Dr Wayan Suriastini, Executive Director of SurveyMETER. Keep an eye on the SurveyMETER website for the results of the survey discussed in today’s episode, as well as future polls. Today’s episode is the latest in the “Policy in Focus” series of Talking Indonesia episodes, supported by the Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI), a partnership between the Australian and Indonesian governments that aims to improve the use of evidence in development policymaking. This series will appear periodically in alternate weeks to the regular Talking Indonesia episodes. The views expressed in this podcast episode do not represent the views of th

Dr Pandu Riono - Indonesia's pandemic In early March as the pandemic quickly spread across the world and its neighbours rushed to close their borders and economies, Indonesia’s Minister for Health Terawan Agus Putranto told local media he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about, describing the coronavirus as less dangerous than the flu. Indonesia did not record its first official case of COVID-19 until 2 March and would not issue its PSBB or lockdown orders until the end of the month and in some provinces even later. Meanwhile, since January epidemiologists at the University of Indonesia and from other institutions across the country were working behind the scenes to convince the government that the pandemic posed a major threat to the country’s inadequate and fragile heath services and infrastructure. Fast forward to June 2020 as lockdown restrictions are being eased and official numbers of cases and deaths ascribed to COVID-19 remain well below those earlier predictions and estimates but contin

As the Covid-19 virus wreaks havoc across Indonesia, the World Bank predicts that Indonesia’s economy may shrink by as much 3.5 percent this year. The government is now pushing ahead to reopen the economy to prevent further weakening by easing restrictions in areas where infection rates are under control. How badly has the Covid-19 pandemic affected Indonesia’s economy so far, and which sectors and sections of society have been impacted the most? Is the government’s push to reopen the economy premature? What can the government do to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 while also minimizing the damage to the economy? To analyse the situation, Dr Charlotte Setijadi spoke to Dr Puspa Delima Amri, an Assistant Professor of Economics at Sonoma State University.

Across the world, the International Labour Organisation has highlighted the significant impacts lockdown policies have had on 1.6 billion informal workers, concentrated in low and middle income countries like Indonesia. The differing effects of Covid-19 responses on informal sector workers and those in formal employment is a massive issue for Indonesia, where more than half of the workforce works in the informal sector. How have informal sector workers coped during the Covid-19 crisis in Indonesia, and what is the Indonesian government doing to assist them? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Joanna Octavia, Visiting Fellow at Centre for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia, and a PhD Candidate at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research. She is the author of the recent CSIS Commentary, Towards a national database of workers in the informal sector: COVID-19 pandemic response and future recommendations. Today’s episode is the latest in the “Pol

Many foreign media outlets have been highly critical of the Indonesian government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the Indonesian media, by contrast, seems far less inclined to question the government’s statistics and policy announcements. What explains this discrepancy in reporting standards? Are Indonesian journalists self-censoring because the space for dissent is shrinking in Indonesia? Are foreign journalists exaggerating the extent of the crisis? In today’s podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Febriana Firdaus, an Indonesian freelance journalist currently based in Bali, and Max Walden, a reporter and producer with the ABC Asia Pacific Newsroom in Melbourne and a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s Asian Law Centre. In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Deakin University, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa f

Athia Yumna – COVID-19, the poor and vulnerable Globally, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating effect on the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. Prior to the virus emergency, Indonesia’s economy was the envy of many others around the world. Its steady GDP growth had led to a gradual decline in the number of Indonesians living below the poverty line to below 10 percent in late 2019. The economic shutdown and social distancing measures put in place to stop the virus have dramatically impacted the household incomes of these groups, many of whom work in Indonesia’s large informal sector. How will the economic contraction impact on Indonesia’s overall poverty levels? What is being done by government to provide assistance to the poor and vulnerable, including those who are in danger of falling into poverty? Will this be enough? What more can the government do? To talk about recent research related to the impacts of COVD-19 on Indonesia’s poor and vulnerable and the gove

The Indonesian government’s response to Covid-19 has been widely perceived as inadequate. Indonesia’s testing rate has been very low, sparking concerns that many Covid fatalities have gone undetected, but even so its current official death toll of 635 is the highest in Asia outside of China. It took almost a month after acknowledging its first case to declare a health emergency, enabling regions with high numbers of cases to institute social distancing. It was only on Tuesday this week that the government issued a ban on the annual mudik - where tens of millions of Indonesians living in major cities go home to rural areas at the end of Islamic fasting month, potentially taking Covid-19 with them. But with the fasting month starting at the end of this week, many Indonesians have already gone home. What accounts for the Indonesian government response to Covid-19? What considerations have informed the government’s response, what challenges does it face, and does the crisis threaten the government’s legitimacy

Covid-19 is spreading fast in Indonesia and the government seems overwhelmed by the monumental task of combating the virus. President Jokowi has ordered social distancing measures, but there’s been much confusion about what exactly that means. The situation is further complicated by disagreements and a lack of coordination between the central government and local administrations, many of whom are pushing for stricter measures. Why has the Indonesian response been so ineffective? How can the disagreements between the national and local governments be resolved? And what is the likely trajectory of the virus in view of the upcoming Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan, when many Indonesians normally travel to their home villages? In today’s podcast, I will discuss these and other questions with Dr Riris Andono Ahmad from the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Population Health at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta. In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the Univer

Even without controversial changes to the Criminal Code that would criminalise same sex relations, many local level bylaws already persecute sexual and gender minorities in the name of public order and decency. What are the difficulties faced by LGBT Indonesians? How do they see their place in society? What are the barriers to basic services, including health care and what are the implications for this community and Indonesian society as a whole if they are left behind? In Talking Indonesia this week, Dr Jemma Purdey discusses inclusion, access and empowerment for LGBT Indonesians with Ignatius Praptoraharjo (Gambit) a research consultant at the Centre for Health Policy and Management at Gadjah Mada University and the HIV AIDS Research Centre, Atma Jaya Catholic University. Gambit completed his doctorate 2010 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has been a recipient of the UIC-AIDS International Training and Research Program Scholarship from the US National Institute of Health. Gambit was recent

Indonesian officials routinely highlight the success of the Indonesian ride-hailing unicorn company GoJek, whose founder Nadiem Makarim became Education Minister in President Jokowi’s latest cabinet. The green jackets of GoJek’s motorcycle taxi drivers and its regional competitor Grab have become ubiquitous in Indonesia’s cities - both companies also offer online taxis, food delivery, and a range of other services through their apps. Companies like GoJek and Grab claim to provide a platform to more efficiently bring service providers and customers together, but across the world their critics claim such companies have eroded worker rights and made the nature of work more precarious. But how do these dynamics play out in Indonesia, a country where tens of millions of people have always worked in the informal sector under very adverse conditions? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Diatyka Widya Permata Yasih, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s Asi

In this belated Chinese New Year special, Charlotte Setijadi chats with Dr Josh Stenberg about the little known topic of Chinese Indonesian performance arts, and how their histories represent the strategies of Chinese minority self-representation over time.