The Asia Pacific Solidarity Network (APSN) is a network of activists around Australia who are building solidarity with and support for movements for social justice, genuine democracy and self-determination around the Asia Pacific region.

Contact us: If you or your organisation have an event you would like advertised on this website email us at jamesbalowski@yahoo.com.

APSN also has an wide range of essential resources, archived news and press releases, links and background reports on the Asia-Pacific region. Site map

News reports translated from Indonesian language news sources.

• Wiji Thukul and the angry generals - Detik.com. May 13, 2013. Even when he was a political fugitive, Wiji Thukul could still joke. When it was raining, he once wrote in a poem: The rain falls tonight/to protect me/the secret police with such small wages/must be really annoyed...
• Women's groups in Jakarta mark 20 since Marsinah's murder - Tempo.co. May 9, 2013. As many as 29 women's community groups from the Indonesian Women's Action Committee commemorated 20 years since the murder of Marsinah by holding a candlelight vigil in Central Jakarta on the evening of May 8.
• Women workers in East Java commemorate 20 years since Marsinah's murder - Kompas.com. May 8, 2013. Scores of women workers from various different groups in East Java held an action on Wednesday May 8 in the provincial capital of Surabaya to commemorate 20 years since the death of Marsinah, a women worker who was murdered on May 8, 1993.
• Women workers sweep factory preventing employees from joining May Day - Tribune City News. May 1, 2013. Scores of women furnished with bamboo sticks held a sweeping action in the Cakung Nusantara Bonded Zone in North Jakarta where a factory was preventing its employees from commemorating May Day.
• May Day action in Indramayu attacked by Pancasila and Golkar youth thugs - Cuplik. May 1, 2013. A peaceful International Labour Day action ended in chaos when members of the Pancasila Youth attacked protesters during a May Day action in the West Java city of Indramayu on Wednesday May 1.
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• No thanks US and Obama – Hands off Malaysia - Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM) Statement. May 17, 2013
• Indonesia: Further information: Shi'a community face removal from shelter - Amnesty International Urgent Action. May 14, 2013
• Indonesian President must release those arrested - Australia West Papua Association Press Release. May 14, 2013
• Letter send by Australian academics to foreign affairs minister on fatal shootings in West Papua - May 13, 2013
• Indonesia: Three dead and 22 protestors detained for their peaceful political activism in Papua - Amnesty International Public Statement. May 9, 2013
• Timor-Leste: Stability at what cost? - International Crisis Group Press Release. May 8, 2013
• Electoral fraud – BERSIH should lead the way - Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM) Statement. May 8, 2013
• SBY is no statesman! – Withdraw World Statesman Award - East Timor and Indonesia Action Network Petition Appeal. May 6, 2013
• Groups call on US to condemn Indonesian attacks on peaceful demonstrations in West Papua - East Timor & Indonesia Action Network Statement. May 5, 2013
• Indonesia: Four Ahmadiyya places of worship closed in a month, one more at imminent risk - Amnesty International Public Statement. May 5, 2013

Drunken Republic

The lighter (or darker) side of Indonesian politics

• Tens of thousands rally across Indonesia for May Day - By James Balowski. May 16, 2013
• Savar tragedy: solution in solidarity – By Navine Murshid. May 9, 2013
• What's behind the tensions on the Korean peninsula? - By Shomi Yoon. May 9, 2013
• The US chokehold on North Korea - By David Whitehorse. April 16, 2013
• Appeal from jailed Suzuki workers in India - April 1, 2013
• More >>

• Socialist Alternative Magazine articles on Asia and South Pacific
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News and analysis focusing on political developments in the Asia Pacific region.

• West Papua: Review of US State Department 2012 human rights report on West Papua - West Papua Advocacy Team. May 17, 2013
• Malaysia: Political gap narrows in Malaysia  - Asia Times. May 7, 2013
• Malaysia: Malaysia's election: An Indonesian comparison - New Mandala. May 6, 2013
• Indonesia: The urgency of trade union unity - Liberation Newspaper. April 30, 2013
• Indonesia: Review: From the dark side - Inside Indonesia. April-June, 2013
• More >>

• Palace calls SBY critics on freedom award narrow-minded - Jakarta Post. May 18, 2013. A presidential spokesman said on Friday that howls of protest against a plan by the US-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation to honor President Yudhoyono for upholding religious freedom would not change the fact that the President deserved the award.
• More than a million support petition to stop Aceh deforestation - Jakarta Globe. May 18, 2013. More than a million people across the globe have signed an online petition demanding the Indonesian government to cancel the plan to open the protected virgin rainforest in Aceh to commercial exploitation.
• Renowned priest protests award for SBY - Jakarta Post. May 17, 2013. Rev. Franz Magnis Suseno, a philosopher and renowned Jesuit priest, has sent a letter to the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, objecting to its plans to bestow the World Statesman Award to President Yudhoyono for promoting religious tolerance in Indonesia.
• Mob attacks Ahmadiyah mosque in East Java - Jakarta Globe. May 17, 2013. A mob of more than 100 people damaged an Ahmadiyah mosque in Tulungagung, East Java, on Thursday night.
• Environmental activists jailed for riot against sugar plantation - Jakarta Globe. May 17, 2013. A South Sumatra court sentenced two environmental activists to seven months in prison for provoking a riot against a sugar plantation, despite a public outcry against the criminalization.
• Beefgate takes new toll on PKS - Jakarta Post. May 17, 2013. The involvement of Hilmi Aminuddin in the import beef scandal has dealt another blow to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
• Burma releases political prisoners ahead of US state visit - Irrawaddy. May 17, 2013. Twenty-three prisoners, including at least 15 political prisoners, were released from detention on Friday by Burma's President Thein Sein ahead of a landmark meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington next week.
• UN puts French Polynesia back on UN decolonisation list - Radio New Zealand International. May 17, 2013. The United Nations General Assembly has put French Polynesia back on the UN list of territories to be decolonised at a meeting boycotted by France.
• Ahmadis, Shiites reject award for SBY - Jakarta Post. May 16, 2013. The Ahmadiyah and Shia communities in East Java are urging the Appeal of Conscience Foundation to reconsider its plan to award President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the religious tolerance in Indonesia.
• Dozens still trapped as evacuation hindered by area issues - Jakarta Post. May 16, 2013. Attempts at PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) to rescue workers trapped in a tunnel in the Big Gossan training facility in Mimika regency, Papua, have been hampered by the confined and restricted space within the tunnel.
• Politics stalls ratification - Jakarta Post. May 16, 2013. Politics has been blamed for the setback in the plan to ratify the Rome Statute for the accession to the International Criminal Court (ICC), with concerns over the prosecution of politically-wired generals being cited as the primary reason.
• Australia extends reach of tough refugee policy - Agence France Presse. May 16, 2013. Australia on Thursday extended tough refugee policies to any asylum-seeker who lands on its mainland, allowing them to be banished to remote Nauru or Papua New Guinea for detention.
• Officials downplay Papua separatist's overseas appeals - Jakarta Globe. May 15, 2013. Military chief of staff Agus Suhartono has sought to downplay Papuan separatist Benny Wenda's activities overseas, saying he is not worried because the firebrand activist is getting little support from Papuans at home.
• US State Department points to human rights problems in Indonesia - Jakarta Globe. May 15, 2013. Despite undergoing a dramatic democratic transformation over the last decade, a new report released on Tuesday by the United States Department of State maintains that Indonesia is still struggling with certain human rights matters.
• Aceh singled out as the worst province for press freedom - Jakarta Post. May 15, 2013. The Institute for the Free Flow of Information (ISAI) announced on Tuesday that Aceh is the least likely province to allow press freedom and the most dangerous for journalists in Indonesia's 34 provinces.
• Shia clerics call on House to end Sampang persecution - Jakarta Post. May 15, 2013. Members of the country's Shia community met with leaders of the House of Representatives on Tuesday to air their grievances over the plight of Shiites in Sampang, East Java, who have been in limbo for nearly a year after being evicted by the majority Sunni community there.
• West Papuan leader held by police - Sydney Morning Herald. May 14, 2013. West Papuan independence movement leader Victor Yeimo was detained and allegedly beaten by police on Monday as another prominent Indonesian national politician warned Western countries against supporting separatists in the troubled province.
• Marzuki urges Australia protest over Benny Wenda speech - Jakarta Globe. May 14, 2013. Marzuki Alie, the speaker of the House of Representatives, has urged the Foreign Ministry to take a stronger stand against domestic separatist groups operating overseas, arguing that the country's reputation and sovereignty are at stake.
• New Order rebel's poems to hit print - Jakarta Globe. May 14, 2013. Wiji Thukul disappeared 15 years ago this month, along with many others lost in the upheaval of the student-led protests that forced Suharto out of power.
• Bekasi mayor, MUI petition SBY to ban Ahmadiyah - Jakarta Globe. May 14, 2013. Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi and local Islamic leaders will petition President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to institute a nationwide ban on the oppressed Ahmadiyah Muslim sect.

News archives

• News reports on Aceh, Indonesia and West Papua are archived in the Indonesia News Digests.
• News reports on East Timor are archived in the East Timor News Digests.
• Other news reports are archived under their country specific page/section.

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