Talking Indonesia

Talking Indonesia: Regulating Islamic Preachers? Growing religious conservatism in Indonesia has turned some Islamic preachers into minor celebrities and influential political powerbrokers in recent years. The government has expressed concern about these developments, especially after some radical preachers took leading roles in the 2016 protests against former Jakarta governor Ahok. Are these concerns warranted? What role do preachers actually play in local communities? And how realistic are proposals to regulate preaching in Indonesia? In today’s podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Professor Julian Millie, an anthropologist and Professor of Indonesian Studies at Monash University in Melbourne. Photo credit: Julian Millie

Beginning on New Year's Eve, torrential rain caused some of the worst flooding in and around Jakarta for more than a decade. Residents of this low-lying city are used to heavy rain and flooding at this time of year, but as a spokesperson for the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said, this was "not ordinary rain". More than 300mm fell in a single day – the most since 1996, when records began. Up to 100,000 people were reportedly forced to flee their homes and more than 60 people died. Fixing Jakarta's problems with flooding has been a fraught political issue for decades. In the wake of these floods, and with so many Jakartans from all walks of life affected, people were again looking for a target for their frustrations. Informal settlements along the Ciliwung River have long been a focus for politicians and policymakers, with their removal a key policy of both former governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama and current governor Anies Baswedan. But what do we know about the people who liv

During December 2019 and January 2020, Indonesia and China have again become involved in a series of periodic confrontations over fisheries to the north of Indonesia’s Natuna Islands. Chinese Coast Guard vessels have accompanied a fleet of fishing boats in an area China says is part of its traditional fishing grounds, but which Indonesia claims as its exclusive economic zone under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Indonesia has sent naval and civilian patrol vessels in an effort to force the Chinese craft to leave, and Indonesian president Joko Widodo has personally visited the Natunas to underline the importance of the dispute to Indonesia, as he did in the aftermath of a previous confrontation with China in 2016. What do such incidents tell us about the implications of China’s rise for Indonesia, and how is the Indonesian government tackling the challenge of China as an ever larger strategic and economic power on its doorstep? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, the first

With rapid urbanisation and rising inequality in Indonesia, levels of urban poverty have also increased, and people living and working in informal circumstances face ongoing threats of eviction. Periodically, the urban poor’s activism to defend and advance their interests has taken centre stage in Indonesian politics, never more so than in the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections, when the issue of evictions became entwined with Islamist opposition to the incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok, in the massive mobilisation against him. What is the lived experience of urban poverty in Indonesia, and what forms of activism do the urban poor engage in? How have various Indonesian governments responded, and what prospects do the urban poor have to carve out a place for themselves in Indonesia’s cities? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dr Ian Wilson, Senior Lecturer in Politics and Terrorism and Count-terrorism Studies at Murdoch University and the auth

So much is still unknown about China-Indonesia relations during the Cold War, and in particular China’s role in the pivotal events of 30 September 1965. In a new book “Migration in the Time of Revolution: China, Indonesia and the Cold War” (Cornell University Press), Dr Taomo Zhou analyses the nature of China’s involvements in the immediate periods leading up to 30 September. Using materials such as then-declassified archives of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taomo pieces together the movements of various Chinese and Indonesian actors that contributed to the diplomatic and political dynamics at the time. She also shows how state-to-state diplomacy was influenced by transnational ethnic ties and the political practices of the ethnic Chinese.

The Indonesian media is heavily politicised. Many TV stations are owned by political power brokers or party leaders. During elections, these ownership structures place significant restrictions on the independence of journalists and media freedom more broadly. But how exactly do media bosses interfere in the daily lives of Indonesian journalists? What forms of intimidation do journalists face? And what are the implications of Jokowi’s victory for the Indonesian media? In today’s podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Hellena Souisa, a former journalist and PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. In 2019, 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 Charlotte Setijadi from Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscri

Since its formation in 2003, Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has established itself as one of Indonesia’s most trusted and popular institutions, owing to its prosecution of a string of powerful figures for graft. Indicative of the Commission’s strong public support, in 2014 Joko Widodo initially courted then KPK chairperson Abraham Samad as his vice-presidential running mate, although ultimately the pairing did not proceed. Once Jokowi was elected, he also asked the KPK to vet potential members of his cabinet, resulting in the exclusion of several potential ministers. But much has changed over the course of President Jokowi’s five years in office. No invitation was extended to the KPK in 2019 to vet Jokowi’s second term cabinet. The president also agreed in September to amend the KPK’s founding statute, significantly curtailing the KPK’s distinctiveness and independence. What accounts for this shift? And what are the prospects for the KPK and Indonesia’s fight against corruption more broa

Indonesia has recently seen widespread protests against proposed changes to the Criminal Code (KUHP), which threatened to tighten restrictions on human rights and freedoms, particularly those of religious and sexual minorities. In the latest episode of the Talking Indonesia podcast, we reflect on the progress made by persecuted and vulnerable minorities since the fall of the New Order more than 20 years ago. For the LGBTIQ community in particular, what gains have been made since 1998 and where are the threats to these gains coming from? How do we explain increasing intolerance for the rights of minorities and what do the recent protests across the country tell us about Indonesian democracy and the protection of vulnerable groups within it? To talk about these issues and more Dr Jemma Purdey chats to Dede Oetomo, renowned scholar, activist and founder of the Gaya Nusantara Foundation. Dede was recently in Melbourne and sat down with Talking Indonesia as the protests against the Criminal Code and other controv

Freedom of expression is under attack in Indonesia. Under President Jokowi, protests against the government have been routinely met with repression and intimidation. In 2019 alone, the space for public dissent has shrunk dramatically, as was evident during the presidential election campaign, during demonstrations in Papua and, most recently, during widespread student protests that occurred shortly after this podcast was recorded. What explains these increasing restrictions on freedom of expression? How does the government justify them? And how do Indonesian human rights activists respond? In today’s podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Dr Ken Setiawan, a lecturer in Asian and Indonesian Studies at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. In 2019, 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 Charlotte Setijadi from Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Toms

President Jokowi increasing highlights the digital economy and technology as central to Indonesia’s future, quipping during one of the presidential election debates in 2019, ‘In the future, strong countries won’t control weak countries. Fast countries will control slow countries.’ In line with this focus, digital start-ups such as ride-hailing company Go-Jek and e-commerce company Bukalapak have become some of Indonesia’s best known companies. At the same time, there are concerns about potential disruptive and divisive effects as the digital sphere becomes ever more pervasive. How will Indonesia change as the digital economy expands? And what role will government and the private sector play in this transformation? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Putri Alam, head of Government Relations and Public Policy at Google Indonesia. She spoke at the Indonesia Development Forum in July 2019 on the digital economy and the changing nature of work. Today’s episode is

Not long after winning a second term, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced that the nation’s capital will be moved from Jakarta to a new site in East Kalimantan. Jokowi said that the decision was mainly motivated by the fact that Jakarta is literally sinking from over-development and it can no longer handle the burden of being Indonesia’s centre of commerce and government. The government has argued that moving the capital to East Kalimantan will also help to redistribute economic development to regions outside of Java, particularly in eastern Indonesia. The news was received with both excitement and caution. A move of this scale will take many years to complete, and the costs will be astronomical. There are also questions about the environmental and social impacts of building a new city from scratch in an area that was formerly a tropical forest with rich biodiversity. To discuss the planned capital city move, I speak with Dr Martin Siyaranamual, a microeconomist and lecturer in the Department of Econom

Indonesia is one of the world’s leading emitters of carbon dioxide and the fifth largest producer of coal, both for export and its own domestic use. Recently, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo reiterated his commitment to reducing Indonesia’s dependence on fossil fuels and has set ambitious renewable energy targets. Indonesia is a signatory to the Paris Accord for climate change. But with Indonesia’s economy growing at a rapid pace and its energy needs increasing at around 5 per cent annually, are these goals realistic? How can Indonesia wean itself off coal and protect its electricity supply at the same time? With renewables currently making up only 7 per cent of its energy output, what is the future of this sector?   In Talking Indonesia this week, Dr Jemma Purdey discusses these issues and more with Emanuel Bria, the Indonesia Country Manager at the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). Emanuel is a fellow at he Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), in Bonn, Germany, and teaches energy policy at the

Talking Indonesia: Social Mobility Moving up the social ladder is a clear aspiration for many Indonesians – public opinion surveys show a large proportion of those who self-identify as being in the bottom two income quintiles predict they will have moved on within five years. But what are the prospects for young Indonesians today, as they and their peers become better educated and stand to live longer? And what social change are we seeing as important demographic characteristics of Indonesia’s population shift. In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dr Ariane Utomo, a social demographer from the School of Geography in the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne. 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 Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Photo credit: Yulius Satria Wijaya

Like elsewhere in the world, violent religious extremists in Indonesia are mostly male, but in recent years more and more female extremists have made headlines as they traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State and planned or perpetrated bomb attacks. What drives women to join extremist religious networks? What roles do they play in these networks once they are fully immersed in them? And what can we learn from existing patterns of radicalization to formulate more effective policy responses to the spread of violent extremism? In today’s podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Nava Nuraniyah, a terrorism expert from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) in Jakarta. In 2019, 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 Charlotte Setijadi from Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcas

The Constitutional Court has been firmly in the headlines in Indonesia over the past month, because of its role in adjudicating – and dismissing – Prabowo Subianto’s challenge to President Joko Widodo’s victory in the 2019 presidential election. But the influence of the Constitutional Court in shaping the outcome of Indonesian elections is much broader – through various of its decisions, it has reshaped various important aspects of Indonesia’s electoral systems. Indeed, it was a decision of the Constitutional Court that required the presidential and legislative elections to be held on the same day for the first time in 2019. What rights and requirements does the Indonesian Constitution set down for elections, and how has the Constitutional Court interpreted these? Should we be surprised at the degree of change the Court has required to Indonesia’s electoral system? What grounds also did the Prabowo camp advance to challenge Jokowi’s victory, and how did the Court consider them? Are changes required to the pro

Over recent years, concerns about Indonesia's food security have seen a sharp increase in industrial-scale agriculture across the country, including into the forests of West Papua. At the same time, the environmental and social ramifications of monocropping, particularly palm oil, are becoming well-known. Are the customary rights of indigenous peoples being respected in negotiations over land for agribusiness? What exactly is "sustainable palm oil"? And what are the impacts of palm oil plantation expansion on the forests and peoples whose culture and livelihoods are inextricably linked to the forests? In Talking Indonesia this week, Dr Jemma Purdey speaks to anthropologist Dr Sophie Chao, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney’s School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry and an honorary postdoctoral fellow at Macquarie University, about her research with the indigenous Marind peoples of Merauke district in West Papua. Dr Chao previously worked for indigenous peoples rights orga

The Indonesian Council of Ulama(MUI) is one of the most influential religious actors in Indonesia. In 2016 and 2017, for example, the organisation was instrumental in orchestrating the protests that led to the downfall of former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. The appointment of MUI head Ma’ruf Amin as President Jokowi's running mate in the 2019 presidential election indicated unprecedented access to formal power for the MUI. How did this organisation, which has neither a mass basis nor a charismatic leader, establish itself so close to the centre of power in Indonesian politics? How does it interact with other prominent Islamic organisations such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah? And what does its growing influence mean for the future of Indonesia’s increasingly fragile democracy? In Talking Indonesia this week, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other issues with Dr Saskia Schäfer, a Senior Research Fellow at Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2019, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted b

This year Indonesia was a featured country at the London Book Fair, which followed a similar showcasing of its literature at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2015. Is this a reflection of an expanding and globalising literary scene in Indonesia? Are more diverse voices being heard inside and outside the country, and what are the challenges for making sure that the stories are not lost in translation? To talk about these topics and more our guest this week is the young writer and poet Norman Erikson Pasaribu. Norman won the 2015 Jakarta Arts Council Poetry Competition and was a finalist in the 2017 Khatulistiwa Literary Award for Poetry. In 2017, he received the Young Author Award from the Southeast Asia Literary Council. His book of poetry 'Sergius Seeks Bacchus' translated by the award-winning translator, Tiffany Tsao, is published by Giramondo Publishing (2019). In 2019, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melb

The past few years have seen repeated questioning of the independent workings of police, the prosecutors and the courts in Indonesia, ranging from accusations that prosecutions have been used to limit opposition or coerce support for the government, to suspicions that the outcome of high profile cases such as the blasphemy prosecution against then Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama had as much to do with societal pressure and political considerations, as it did with the letter of the law. Are such perceptions justified regarding the politicisation of law enforcement, and how do the government and other external parties intervene in legal cases? What are the implications for the rule of law in Indonesia? In this week's Talking Indonesia podcast, ] Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dian Rositawati, Chair of the Board of the Indonesian Institute for an Independent Judiciary (LeIP). Dian has been closely involved in judicial reform in Indonesia for two decades, and is currently also undertaking a Ph

With a huge local market and growing production power, the Indonesian film industry has enormous potential. In recent times, Indonesian films, directors, actors, and other industry professionals are becoming more well-known around the world, not in small part due to a more integrated regional and global distribution network and web-based streaming services such as Netflix. Could films be utilised as a soft-power tool to increase Indonesia’s influence in regional and global cultural scenes? Furthermore, what are some of the market trends that may define the growth of the industry in the coming years? To discuss recent trends in the Indonesian film industry, I speak with Associate Professor Thomas Barker from University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.