There’s a notorious stretch of road in Indonesia, by the border of North Sumatra and Aceh provinces, that passes through kilometres and kilometres of oil palm plantations. There are few people there, ...

Editor’s note: this article is based on the author’s Political Update paper presented at the 2023 ANU Indonesia Update Conference, the full version of which appears in the December 2023 edition of the ...

In the aftermath of Jakarta’s 2017 gubernatorial election, it seemed that Indonesia’s Islamists would be more solid than ever in their support for Prabowo Subianto’s challenge to Joko Widodo (Jokowi) ...

During visits to pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in Java and Sumatra, President Joko Widodo’s (Jokowi) running mate Ma’ruf Amin conveyed that metaphor many times in his speeches. “Pak Jokowi is ...

A battle for international recognition between Myanmar’s junta and Aung San Suu Kyi’s deposed civilian government is underway. The opposition in the incarnation of the Committee Representing ...

Observers in the West have largely interpreted the devastating violence that has engulfed Myanmar following the February 2021 military coup as a “battle between democracy and authoritarianism”. This ...

When the results of Indonesia’s presidential election became clear last Wednesday evening, they told a story of an electorate even more divided after five years of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

Versi Bahasa Indonesia bisa dibaca disini. Conflict, disappointment and fear have followed the opening of the major quinquennial art exhibition Documenta 15 in Kassel, Germany on 18 June, as ...

Nick Cheesman’s recently published book, Myanmar: A Political Lexicon, examined particular Burmese words and phrases as they are applicable in the current sociopolitical context. It stressed the need ...

This piece is co-published with AcademiaSG, a scholarly site promoting scholarship of/by/for Singapore. Singapore’s public housing program is sui generis, un-replicable in its entirety anywhere.

More than 70% of the population in Indonesia live within 100km of one or more of the country’s 130 active volcanoes—that’s a staggering 175 million people. 8.6 million Indonesians live within 10km of ...

For the first time, a resistance movement against military rule is welcoming and aiding soldiers who choose to join the ‘people’s side’. This post is an abridged version of an article that appears in ...