Talking Indonesia

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-author with Rage Taufika of a recent CSIS Indonesia commentary on the militarization of Indonesia’s Covid-19 response. 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 University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Photo credit: Arnas Padda for Antara Foto

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 at the Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne. In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo: Nova Wahyudi for Antara

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, Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo credit: Najmah

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 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 University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo credit: Raisan Al Farisi for Antara Foto

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 the Australian or Indonesian governments. 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, Associate Professor Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Photo credit: Siswowidodo for Antarafoto

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 continue to trend upward, with some of the biggest daily totals of new cases recorded in the past week. Why are Indonesia’s case numbers relatively low? Is the testing regime and data analysis adequate? Have the government’s PSBB or social distancing regulations been successful? And how that restrictions are being lifted, what does the future hold? My guest today is Dr Pandu Riono an epidemiologist from the Faculty of Public Health at the University Indonesia and a member of a team of researchers who carried out some of the earliest modelling of the pandemic in Indonesia. http://staff.ui.ac.id/priono @drpriono Twitter Photo: Courtesy Central Java Provincial Public Relations

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 “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 the Australian or Indonesian governments. 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, Associate Professor Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Photo credit: Aditya Pradana Putra for Antara Foto

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 from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo credit: ANTARA FOTO/Dhemas Reviyanto/foc.

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 government’s response, our guest this week is Athia Yumna is Deputy Director of Research and Outreach of the SMERU Research Institute. Athia has more than eleven years of experience working in the development sector and conducting applied economic research in the areas of poverty, inequality, social protection, health economics, and development economics. She is the lead author of the recently published Briefing Paper, 'Social Safety Nets amid the COVID-19 Crisis: What Should the Government Do Now?'. In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo: Antara / Nova Wahyudi

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? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dr Yanuar Nugroho, former deputy chief of staff to President Jokowi during the president’s first term, and a member of the Indonesian Young Academy of Sciences, ALMI. Dr Nugroho is also currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, and a senior advisor to the Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance in Jakarta. 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 University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Photo credit: Agung Rajasa for Antara Foto

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 University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey, 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, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Image credit: ANTARA FOTO/Muhammad Adimaja/pras

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 recently in Melbourne for a series of talks. He sat down with Talking Indonesia as the Covid-19 outbreak was gathering momentum. In 2020, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo: @AP 2018

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 Asia Institute, who has interviewed dozens of GoJek and Grab drivers for her research on the gig economy. Her research on the gig. Economy is also featured in. the inaugural edition of Melbourne Asia Review, a new online publication being launched by the Asia Institute next week. 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 University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Photo credit: Agus Bebeng for Antara Foto

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.

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 live in these settlements, sometimes for decades, risking constant threats of floods and eviction? Who are they? What has brought them to live in such precarious conditions? What is their everyday experience of living with regular flooding? Can they be part of the solution to better tackle this problem? In Talking Indonesia this week, Dr Jemma Purdey chats to anthropologist Roanne van Voorst, who lived for more than a year in a settlement on the banks of the Ciliwung River. They discuss the histories of these settlements and the complex social structures within these communities, their warning and recovery systems after flooding, and how residents negotiate their vulnerabilities everyday. In 2019, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey(link is external) from Deakin University and the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi (link is external)from Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa(link is external) from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes(link is external) or listen via your favourite podcasting app.

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 episode for 2020, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Emirza Adi Syailendra, Associate Research Fellow in the Indonesia Programme of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, who has written extensively on Indonesia and its foreign policy approach to China. 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 University, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the Singapore Management University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Photo credit: M Risyal Hidayat for Atara Foto

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 author of The Politics of Protection Rackets in Post-New Order Indonesia: Coercive Capital, Authority and Street Politics. 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. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Photo credit: Rivan Awal Lingga for Antara Foto

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, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo credit: ANTARA FOTO/Indrianto Eko Suwarso

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 broadly? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dr Laode Muhammad Syarif, one of five commissioners of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Appointed in 2015, Dr Syarif will complete his term in December 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 the Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Photo credit: Novrian Arbi for Antara Foto

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 controversial bills were gaining momentum. 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 Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo: ANTARA FOTO/Akbar Nugroho Gumay/ama

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 Tomsa from La Trobe University. Photo credit: ANTARA FOTO/Novrian Arbi/foc

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 the third 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 the Australian or Indonesian governments. 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. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Photo credit: Aprillio Akbar for Antara Foto

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 Economics at Padjadjaran University in Bandung, and Dr Rita Padawangi, a Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences.

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 Paramadina Graduate School of Diplomacy. 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 Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo: JasonParis @Flickr Creative Commons

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 for Antara Foto

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 podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo by AP.

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 process for the Court to hear electoral disputes ahead of the next round of elections in 2019. In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Professor Simon Butt, Director of the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney Law School and author of The Constitutional Court and Democracy in Indonesia. 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: Dhemas Reviyanto for Antarafoto

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 organisation Forest Peoples' Programme and has undertaken consultancies for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the United Nations Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations. 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 Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo: David Gilbert/RAN

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 by Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University, Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Deakin University and the Australia-Indonesia Centre, and Dr Charlotte Setijadi from Singapore Management University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Image credit: ANTARA FOTO/Basri Marzuki/nz

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 Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. PIC: 'Sergius Seeks Bacchus' cover / Leopold Adi Surya

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 PhD at Tilburg University. 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. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes at the Indonesia At Melbourne blog, or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo credit: Reno Esnir for ANTARA FOTO

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.

An important part of recent Islamic activism in Indonesia has been the rise of conservative women’s groups such as the Family Love Alliance (Aliansi Cinta Keluarga Indonesia, AILA). Moreover, several conservative female activists joined the 2019 legislative elections as candidates. Campaigning against what they perceive as threats against traditional morality and religious values, these women position themselves as anti-feminists, thereby challenging conventional notions of women’s political activism. Who are the women at the forefront of this new wave of conservative female activism? What motivates them and what are their main aims and strategies? How does their increased sense of agency relate to broader trends of growing religious conservatism in Indonesia? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Dyah Ayu Kartika, a researcher at the Center for the Study of Religion and Democracy (Pusat Paramadina) in Jakarta and currently a Correspondent Fellow for New Mandala. 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, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Image credit: Dyah Ayu Kartika

In today's episode, the final in the Election 2019 series, we gather the Talking Indonesia team to look back over the presidential and legislative polls and the key developments. What were the key factors in Jokowi's apparent victory? What can we anticipate after Prabowo's claims of victory, despite all reputable quick counts showing him to have lost the election by a clear margin? What were the legislative outcomes? Were there irregularities? Would we expect Indonesia to continue to hold the presidential and legislative elections on the same day in the future. Dr Jemma Purdey, Dr Dirk Tomsa and Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues and more. 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. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast fortnightly. Catch up on previous episodes the Indonesia at Melbourne blog, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo credit: Dave McRae

With less than one week until Indonesia’s simultaneous presidential and legislative elections on the 17th of April, candidates are going all out in a final push to get votes. Running concurrently with the arguably more exciting presidential election, the legislative elections have largely faded into the background and under-analysed. However, there are many important questions about this round of legislative elections that need to be addressed. For one, what does the socio-political landscape look like this time around? What issues matter to voters at the local level? Also, what can we expect this time around in terms of youth participation and the voting behaviour of the so-called ‘millennial voters’? To discuss about what is at stake in this round of legislative elections, Charlotte Setijadi speaks to scholars Ben Bland and Liam Gammon, and young politicians Rian Ernest and Faldo Maldini.

Recent months have seen a series of claims by political figures in Indonesia that the 2019 polls may be marked by significant irregularities. Senior political party figures and social media influencers have claimed that the electoral roll has been manipulated or could be hacked, cast doubt over the likely reliability of the vote count, and claimed that the civil service and security forces are being mobilised in support of particular candidates. These claims have come in particular from figures within the coalition supporting Prabowo Subianto, the challenger to President Joko Widodo. Is there evidence to support these claims? What safeguards are in place for the Indonesian polls? What role will civil society, electoral bodies and the government play in ensuring a fair election? In this week's Talking Indonesia podcast, the latest in the weekly Elections 2019 series that will continue until after polling day on 17 April, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Titi Anggraini, executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy, Perludem, and Dr Fritz Edward Siregar, a commissioner from Indonesia’s Elections Supervisory Board, Bawaslu. 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. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast weekly until after the elections, an every fortnight thereafter. Photo credit: Galih Pradipta for Antara Foto

To celebrate the 100th episode of Talking Indonesia, co-hosts Dave McRae, Jemma Purdey, Charlotte Setijadi and Dirk Tomsa come together to revisit some of the major themes of the first 99 episodes. As Indonesia is deep in election mode, they discuss what impact these themes – Islamism, corruption, fake news, economic development, foreign policy, gender – are likely to have on the 17 April elections. Image: Joko Widodo @Instagram

As Indonesia’s 2019 elections are drawing closer, public opinion surveys about the electability of Jokowi and his challenger Prabowo Subianto are released with increasing frequency. Though there are some differences between the results, virtually all pollsters agree that Jokowi is currently on track to win a second term. Why has Jokowi been able to maintain his lead in the polls so easily? What obstacles has the Prabowo campaign faced so far? And why are there no renegade pollsters who are trying to contravene the consensus for political purposes? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Dr Djayadi Hanan, a lecturer in political science at Paramadina University in Jakarta and executive director of Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), one of Indonesia’s leading political research and polling institutes. 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. Photo credit: Djayadi Hanan/SMRC.

With the 2019 elections now just weeks away, the economy has become a key issue in the campaign. In comparative terms, Indonesia's current GDP growth of over 5 per cent is healthy. However, this is below the 7 per cent President Joko Widodo pledged to deliver during the 2014 campaign. The president's opponents also claim that the government's huge expenditure on major infrastructure projects and social welfare programs has failed to deliver benefits for all Indonesians. What is the current state of Indonesia's economy and what are the key economic issues for voters? Has Jokowi's Indonesia Maju (Indonesia Progress) program paid off? Our guest this week is economist Lana Soelistianingsih. Lana is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Economics at Universitas Indonesia and Head of Research at Samuel Asset Management. 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 Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Image: Flickr/Creative Commons.

Indonesia’s five-yearly elections are now just over a month away, and Talking Indonesia is switching to a weekly format until after polling day on April 17, to cover the key themes, important groups and pivotal developments that will shape the outcome. The first of our pre-election episodes focuses on labour and politics in Indonesia. Unlike many other countries, no labour party or party of the left represents Indonesia’s working class in parliament, increasing the challenge for Indonesia’s labour movement to secure favourable outcomes for workers. How will the result of the 2019 elections matter to labour unions, and how can they influence the result? In this week's Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Professor Michele Ford, director of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at the University of Sydney and a leading expert on the labour movement in Asia. Professor Ford’s new book, From Migrant to Worker: The Global Unions and Labor Migration in Asia, has just been published by Cornell University Press. Her study of labour and politics in Indonesia has been jointly conducted with Professor Teri L. Caraway and will be published next year by Cambridge University Press. 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: Akbar Nugroho Gumay for Antara Foto

While it is true that Indonesian maids abroad often face terrible conditions, they have more agency than the public often give them credit for, and many also have creative pursuits like fiction writing. Recently, a new genre of literature has developed, one in which – often in short stories – these women reimagine their experiences as domestic workers in foreign lands. What do these literary works reveal about their lives abroad and the challenges they face? To discuss the agency and creativity of Indonesian foreign domestic workers, Dr Charlotte Setijadi chats with Dr Jafar Suryomenggolo who is an Assistant Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo, Japan. He is also the editor of an upcoming collection of 23 short stories written by Indonesian female foreign domestic workers titled ‘At a Moment’s Notice: Indonesian Maids Write on Their Lives Abroad’ published by NIAS Press.

In contrast to various neighbouring countries and various Western democracies, the collection and use of citizen’s data remains largely unregulated in Indonesia. Civil society groups are pushing for a Private Data Protection Law to be passed, but this will not be in place prior to April’s legislative and presidential elections, in which political candidates and parties are expected to use big data to more effectively target their campaigns. In this week's Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Wahyudi Djafar, Deputy Director for Research at The Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, ELSAM . Freedom of expression and privacy is one of ELSAM’s focus areas. Today’s episode is the second 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 the Australian or Indonesian governments. Photo credit: Irwansyah Putra for AntaraFoto 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.

Some of the most pressing environmental problems in Indonesia today are plastic pollution and the consequences of large-scale land reclamation projects. In recent years, protests against these problems have increased in size and impact, especially on Bali, where the ubiquity of plastic garbage and a controversial reclamation project in Benoa Bay have galvanised a large and diverse protest movement. What are the strategies and goals of the movement? Who is involved? And what role do music and visual art play in the movement’s engagement with residents and other activists beyond Bali? In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Dr Edwin Jurriens, Senior Lecturer and Convenor of the Indonesian Studies program 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. Photo credit: Edwin Jurriens

With Indonesia's general elections less than three months away political campaigning and the push to win over voters is reaching high gear. Our guest this week is Ward Berenschot, co-author with Edward Aspinall, of a timely new book that takes a close look at the informal politics of elections and patronage democracy. Democracy for sale: Elections, Clientelism, and the State in Indonesia (Cornell University Press) delves behind the scenes of local election campaigns, their ubiquitous success teams, systemic vote buying and exchange of favours, to reveal a complex social network based on reciprocity and identity politics. What are some of the key elements of informal politics? What role do the political parties play? How does Indonesia compare to other similar democracies? Is Indonesia's democracy really for sale? Ward Berenschot is a postdoctoral fellow at KITLV, Leiden University researching local democracy, clientelism and identity politics in India and Indonesia. 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 Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Image: Ikhlasul Amal/Flickr/Creative Commons.

Rice is Indonesia’s most important staple food, with consumption estimated at more than 100 kilograms per person per year, in a country of 270 million people. Although rice consumption is in long term decline, a common saying in Indonesia nevertheless holds, “if you haven’t eaten rice, you haven’t eaten”. How to provide such an immense quantity of rice to the population – whether through imports or domestic production – is a perennially thorny question in Indonesia, and one tightly bound with the country’s domestic politics. For decades, successive Indonesian governments have set rice self-sufficiency as their goal, albeit a goal that has been devilishly difficult to achieve. In this week's Talking Indonesia podcast, the first for 2019, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Associate Professor Jamie Davidson from the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore, whose current research compares the politics of rice policy in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia. 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. Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Photo Credit: Setkab

In early December, at least 16 civilians and 1 soldier were killed, with 5 others missing, in attacks on workers constructing the Trans-Papua Highway in Nduga district in the Papuan highlands. The armed wing of the pro-independence Free Papua Movement has claimed responsibility, as part of the protracted conflict between the Indonesian government and sections of Papuan society. Indonesian police and military have launched joint operations in response, reportedly also causing several fatalities. The two Papuan provinces - Papua and West Papua - have the lowest human development index scores in Indonesia, and the Jokowi government has placed infrastructure projects like the Trans-Papua Highway at the centre of its approach to the area. In the wake of this attack, questions inevitably arise however regarding Papuan attitudes to such development projects, their likely impacts, and regarding Papuan's perception more generally of the Indonesian nation and their place within it. In this week's Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dave McRae discusses these issues with Dr Jenny Munro , an anthropologist from the University of Queensland's School of Science, and author of the book Dreams Made Small: the Education of Papuan Highlanders in Indonesia . Today's episode is the final instalment of Talking Indonesia for 2018. The podcast will return on Thursday 17 January. 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: Indrianto Eko Suwarso for AntaraFoto

When Indonesians go to the polls in April 2019, they will see an unprecedented number of female candidates competing for seats in the House of Representatives. Around 40 percent of candidates will be women, but if results from previous elections are anything to go by, the chances for many of these women to actually win a seat are rather slim. While female representation in political institutions has gradually improved over the years, Indonesian women still face a range of socio-economic, socio-cultural and political challenges in their struggle to achieve gender parity. In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these challenges and the prospects of overcoming them with Ella Prihatini, a journalist and PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia in Perth and the author of the recently published article ‘Women’s Representation in Asian Parliaments: a QCA Approach’. In 2018, 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, subscribe via iTunes or listen via your favourite podcasting app. Photo credit: Wahyu Putro for Antara