Talking Indonesia

Progressive politics in Indonesia has historically enjoyed only a narrow support base. Nevertheless, there have been several attempts to mobilise the support of progressives for political purposes. In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae chats with Dr Amalinda Savirani about one such example, the emergence of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) to contest the 2019 elections. As Dr Savirani and her co-authors highlight in their article, “Floating Liberals: Female Politicians, Progressive Politics, and PSI in the 2019 Indonesian Elections”, PSI stood out as having a female face. This was seen in the prominence of women among party leaders, having women as almost half of its candidates, and in tackling controversial issues relating to gender equality in Indonesia. The party secured a number of seats in regional legislatures (DPRD). At the national level, however, where parties must obtain 4% of the vote to occupy any seats in the House of Representatives (DPR), PSI fell well short, with only