Yohanes Sulaiman – On Monday, Nyoman Minta became Indonesia's most famous gardener after he managed to bypass three security perimeters and walk within five meters of President Susilo B

Jakarta – The Law and Human Rights Ministry says that there will be 19 new penitentiaries in operation by 2012 to solve overcapacity problems in the country's jails.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives on Thursday finally endorsed the Law on Financial Service Authority (OJK), which rules on the establishment of a new authority tasked with regulat

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar – As many as 100 representatives from worker groups throughout the province of South Sulawesi staged a mass rally in the front of the governor's office.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) has urged the government to change its international standard school funding policy, which it says widens t

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – As the world is rapidly urbanized, promoting sustainable urban development is essential to ensure that people living in urban cities can have their basic

Jakarta – House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs has postponed the deliberation of a revision of the 2002 Corruption Eradication Law to next year.

Aguis Triyono – The combined wealth of Indonesia's 40 richest people is equivalent to that of about 60 million of its poorest citizens, a nongovernmental organization said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – An Indonesian court says it slashed radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir's prison sentence in part because of his advanced age.

Camelia Pasandaran – A third major survey in three weeks has given further credence to talk of a decline in the popularity of the president and his Democratic Party, with the Golkar Par

Agus Triyono – A group called on Indonesians to occupy the Freeport office in Jakarta and demand the deportation of foreign workers from the country.

Anita Rachman, Camelia Pasandaran & Ezra Sihite – Taufik Kiemas's controversial comments on Monday that his wife, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, should reconsider any plan

Jakarta – In advance of a national meeting, Golkar Party leaders have voiced support for chairman Aburizal "Ical" Bakrie as the party's sole candidate for the 2014 presidential race.

Antara & Dessy Sagita – Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih has blamed the death of a baby girl who was refused treatment at two hospitals, and given only cursory care at a t

Jakarta – A radical Islamic cleric accused of setting up a terror training camp in western Indonesia had his prison sentence slashed from 15 years to 9 years, an appeals court said Wedn

Jakarta – Members of the Dayak Ngaju tribe in Central Kalimantan say they have lost their ancestors' land to the government, oil palm plantations and mining companies.

Ronna Nirmala – Two men on trial for selling iPads without Indonesian-language manuals were acquitted of all charges by a panel of judges at the Central Jakarta District Court on Tuesda

Rizky Amelia – Cirus Sinaga, the former prosecutor accused of bribery and impeding the corruption investigation of disgraced taxman Gayus Tambunan, was handed five years in prison and a

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has suspended once again the endorsement of the social security providers (BPJS) bill after discord with the government over a

Yanto Soegiarto – Unless it makes concessions both to Indonesian workers and the government, Freeport is done for.

Elly Burhaini Faizal, Yogyakarta – Limited access to contraceptives has put millions of young girls at risk of unsafe abortions in Asia-Pacific countries.

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Weak government policies on population growth through family planning programs have accounted for the uncontrolled population growth in Indonesia since th

Budi Hernawan, Canberra – On Oct. 10, in chaotic circumstances, the police of Timika opened fire and shot dead an employee of PT Freeport Indonesia, Petrus Ayamiseba.

Jakarta – A recent global pledge to ban exports of toxic waste has not stemmed the flow of outdated electronic products to Indonesia, activists say.

Ronna Nirmala & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Banten's incumbent governor has been returned to office with the help of a former TV star, according to unofficial quick counts from Satur

Rizky Amelia – Earlier this month President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono "declared war" on excessive state spending, but a budget watchdog said on Sunday that the State Palace was one of th

Tifa Asrianti, Jakarta – After seven years in power, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono still has much work to do in law enforcement and economic development.

Sujadi Siswo, Jakarta – Women in Indonesia are staking their claim in the country's developing economy, 13 years after the world's fourth most populous nation underwent political reform

The tumult and violent labor strike against the Indonesian subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.

The violence in West Papua this week is deeply worrying – and raises uncomfortable foreign policy questions for the Australian government, writes Senator Richard Di Natale.

Ismira Lutfia – Hundreds of women marched from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to the State Palace on Sunday to call for the government to implement the National Social Security Syst

Jakarta – The Indonesian Police Watch (IPW) says that the ouster of former National lice chief Gen.

Richard Chauvel – Last Wednesday the Papuan People's Congress was closed down by the violent intervention of Indonesian police and military.

Mathieu Rabechault, Nusa Dua, Bali – US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his Indonesian counterpart on Sunday will discuss the two countries' growing military ties after more than a d

Another survey, this time by the Indonesian Voice Network (JCI), concluded that the public approval rating of the performance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono dropped to 53.2 perce

Tifa Asrianti, Jakarta – The government will implement what it calls a "gender-responsive budget" in 27 ministries and institutions and 10 pilot provinces next year, according to the na

Jakarta – A group of NGOs advocating agricultural issues are calling on the Agriculture Ministry to revoke its new regulation that allows cultivation of genetically modified organisms (

Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), an NGO focussing on human rights issues, says the newly installed Cabinet and the government's new direct

Fitri, Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a mammoth tourism project in Lombok on Friday that critics contend will lead to the forced displacement

Dessy Sagita – The Health Ministry has spoken out against criticism by women's rights activists and health experts of a ministerial guideline on female circumcision, saying the instruct

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – It took Rp 40 billion (US$4.52 million) of the state budget, a major property eviction and protests from millions of citizens to make lawmakers surrender t

Jakarta – Protesters from Jakarta to Makasssar took to the streets Wednesday to mark the end the first year of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's second term in office.

Jakarta – The Occupy Jakarta movement inspired by Occupy Wall Street in New York continues to reverberate with no end in sight in the midst of the controversy surrounding the cabinet re

Apriadi Gunawan, Rizal Harahap and Arya Dipa, Medan/Pekanbaru/Bandung – Students from across the country took to the streets on Thursday to protest "President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's

Esther Samboh, Jakarta – It is getting easier to start a business in Indonesia but the improvement is negated by the lack of reform in other business-related fields, including high elec

Esther Samboh, Jakarta – Investment rose in the third quarter on business confidence that Indonesia's economy will remain resilient amid global financial turmoil, with Singaporean inves

Bandung – While the number of eligible voters is predicted to rise, public participation in elections is tending to decrease, according to the head of the West Java Elections Commission

Bruce Gale – A little-known opinion poll carried out in August and published by the Indonesian-language Kompas newspaper has thrown up some interesting information about voter preferenc

The forceful dispersal on Wednesday of the concluding session of a three-day gathering of indigenous Papuans – self-proclaimed by the organizers as the third Papua People's Congress – i

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-216-2011

Dear friends,