Mangadar Situmorang – The call for Papuan independence remains strong.

Knut D.

Damien Kingsbury – Australia's relationship with East Timor is at its lowest ebb since 2005 when Alexander Downer bullied then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri into accepting a fundamentall

Paul Toohey – East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has taken in recent weeks to heavily bagging Australia, including a strange speech in which he, seemingly apropos of nothing, du

M Zaid Wahyudi – The growing number of ordinary people's votes that are needlessly lost is a direct consequence of the application of an increasingly higher parliamentary threshold.

Simon Roughneen – East Timor's government has declined a proposal by Australian oil and gas company Woodside to process gas drawn from the Greater Sunrise field on board a floating liqu

Baudoin Koening – As a French journalist, I came to Indonesia to draw the portrait of the greatest emerging power of the G20 members and largest Muslim state in the world, in the contex

Pork barrel politics is as commonly practiced and proved effective in its country of origin the United States as in other countries like the Philippines, but it may not be the case in I

Relations between Indonesia and the United States are probably at their historic best, and the planned visit of President Barack Obama to Indonesia this month, which is now postponed, w

A number of senior police officers were reported for conducting suspicious financial transactions.

Elaine Pearson, Jakarta – As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized in a speech last year, Indonesia has now "embraced democracy."

Asvi Warman Adam, Jakarta – Since its conception in 1945, Pancasila (the five principles of the national ideology) has gone through four stages of history over several administrations:

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar (Bali) – What a difference a quarter makes.

B. Herry-Priyono, Jakarta – Unlike most accounts these days, this note is not a paean to Sri Mulyani Indrawati; neither is it a swan song for her departure.

In early May violence once again struck in Papua.

Tolerance is the social glue that keeps us from degenerating into conflict.

Christen Broecker – "Democracy in Indonesia is irreversible and a daily fact of life," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the World Movement for Democracy's annual assembly, in Jak

James Van Zorge – In more ways than one, there is disturbing evidence that Indonesia's politicians have not bothered to read the Constitution.

Damien Kingsbury – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao is not budging over terms of a deal with Woodside on gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Tom Allard – As news spread of the shock departure of Indonesia's reform icon and finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, this week, one senior markets trader in Jakarta gave an almost

Rizal Sukma, Jakarta – Within two weeks, two riots – the worst since the 1998 unrests – occurred in Indonesia.

One of the joys of my job is that if I sidled up to my employers to suggest that a jaunt to the Papuan highlands was in order, "off you go" is what they would say.

Yati Andriyani, Jakarta – The democratic transition in Indonesia is still hampered by a number of government policies.

Ishaan Tharoor – For most, the presence of an outfit of ninjas conjures scenes of Japanese comic book assassins or, perhaps, of mutant turtles dwelling in a sewer.

Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – Girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice. Boys are made of snips and snails, and puppy-dog tails.

Higher courts are regarded as the definitive bastion of justice.

Johannes Nugroh – Horrific scenes during last week's riots in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, have led to a welter of accusations of human rights breaches and oppressive conduct by public

A Papua analyst says a visit to Indonesia by US President Barak Obama in June could be pivotal in preventing a further deterioration towards violent conflict in Papua region.

John Braithwaite – US President Barack Obama's forthcoming trip to Indonesia is an opportunity to congratulate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for the considerable success he has had

Biak Traditional Council under threat as BIN and Kopassus move to set up an alternative traditional council.

After waiting for some time, we finally heard encouraging news coming from the National Police that they at last moved against police generals suspected to be behind case tampering invo

The news that Indonesia's government is planning a vast new agricultural project in the south-eastern corner of its Papuan region is a disturbing one, suggesting that its officials have

James Scambary – Here is the destruction of '99; here is the destruction of 2006, and here is the destruction of 2007," exclaims Mateus, a wide sweep of his hand encompassing a densely

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Jakarta – Men and weapons are sometimes seen as a pair of symbolic importance in maintaining the greatness of the state.

If there is a silver lining for US-Indonesian relations in President Obama's latest trip postponement, it might be that the two countries have more time to consider if and how Kopassus,

Damien Kingsbury – American journalist Allan Nairn's game of cat and mouse with the Indonesian military is a brave attempt to show that it continues to represent the greatest challenge

Anyone concerned about the future of this nation must pay close attention the congress of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Islamic social organization, in Makassar this week.

[Note: This article was written before United States President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia was postponed until June.]

Ati Nurbaiti, Canberra – The visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, capped with a standing ovation in parliament here Wednesday, highlighted a mutual willingness to push harder fo

Damien Kingsbury – Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's address to the Australian parliament yesterday marked a very real change in Australia-Indonesia bilateral relations.

Endy M.

Now that the House of Representatives has ruled the 2008 bailout of Bank Century was unjustified, the nation next has to brace for the inevitable political fallout.

P.M.

The Australia West Papua Association in Sydney has written an open letter to Prime Minister Rudd asking that he raise the human rights situation in West Papua with the Indonesian Presid

The report about Bahtiar Angkotasan, 47, who tied up his mentally disabled daughter in bed at their home in Bekasi, West Java, before he left for work every day, is yet another of the t

Clinton Fernandes – Australia conducted two military interventions in East Timor during the 20th century and both have been falsely reconstructed into myths that vary sharply from the h

The wealth of public officials is in the spotlight. Recently it was the former director general of taxation who is now chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), Hadi Poernomo.

The government, under pressure from the House of Representatives, has asked the state electricity company (PLN) to postpone the implementation of its tariff policy for big household cus

Tobias Basuki, Jakarta – Indonesia, the third-largest democracy in the world, may be facing gloomy days ahead.

From its inception we understood that the House of Representatives' inquiry committee into the Bank Century bailout would be a political process rather than an attempt to unearth legal