Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/ANN) – For the umpteenth time fires have burned our forests and peatland, posing threats not only to people in the vicinity but also to our relationships with our neighbou

Andreas Harsono – The Indonesian government has been doing something remarkable over the past year with its political prisoners in Papua and West Papua provinces: Releasing them.

Dave McRae – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's hard-line rhetoric in recent weeks on the fatal shooting of drugs suspects has prompted many to question whether Indonesia is contemplating a Rodrigo D

Jakarta – The filing of criminal charges with the South Jakarta Prosecutor's Office against a suspected tax evader by the tax office on Wednesday is only the first step in a massive crackdown on ta

Damien Kingsbury – Timor-Leste came through the 2017 parliamentary elections with a general expectation that the two major parties, CNRT and Fretilin, would continue to dominate the small country's

Andreas Harsono – Twenty-eight-year-old Yulius Pigai of West Papua's remote Deiyai regency is the latest native Papuan shot dead by Indonesian police.

Jakarta – The campaign for an independent Papua has been relentless and has made significant gains in past years.

And the witch-hunt begins.

Andreas Harsono – The official Ombudsman of Indonesia has accused both the Attorney General's Office (AGO) and the Supreme Court of "maladministration" in denying a Nigerian citizen, executed for d

Gustav Brown – Many have cast the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election as a defeat for religious pluralism at the hands of political Islam, a movement which appears more potent and visible than at

Rifqi Assegaf – In late April 2017, the House of Representatives (DPR) stared down protests from the public – and some of its own members – and launched a special inquiry into the Corruption Eradic

Georgina Downer – For a nation that only won its hard-fought battle for independence 15 years ago, Timor Leste has travelled a long way fast.

Julia Suryakusuma, Jakarta (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network) – We Indonesians pride ourselves on being a nation of plenty.

Khoo Ying Hooi –- On July 22, 77 percent of Timorese cast their votes in the Timor-Leste's parliamentary election, which was contested by almost two dozen political parties in a country of just abo

David Webster – On May 20, 2017, the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (the country's official name, using the Portuguese words for East Timor) celebrated the 15th anniversary of the restoration o

Nava Nuraniyah – The Indonesian government's partial blocking of the messaging application Telegram – which has several million users in the country – may be an effective tool to pressure the tech

Anthony Fensom – Elections in Timor-Leste have highlighted the challenges facing one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations, amid predictions that its key oil and gas resources could be depleted by th

Michael Leach – With final votes tallied in the Timor-Leste parliamentary elections overnight, the results in Dili suggest a reframed power-sharing government will emerge, showing some continuity w

Damien Kingsbury – In a colourful and noisy event, unblemished so far by the violence that marred the first few years of independence, Timor-Leste prepares for its fourth parliamentary elections th

Michael Leach, Dili – Twenty-one parties will contest 65 parliamentary seats and decide who governs Timor-Leste in national elections this Saturday.

Alexander R Arifianto – On July 10, 2017, Indonesian President Joko Widodo (popularly known as Jokowi) signed a government regulation which amends Law No.

Tahnee Reed – There is a lot of doom and gloom about the possibility of Timor-Leste becoming a failed state. Caution is understandable, as failed states create regional instability.

Julie Chernov Hwang – Last week, Indonesian President Joko Widodo signed into law a decree to make it easier for his government to ban any group it deems "extremist."

Andreas Harsono – The Indonesian government today ordered the disbanding of Hizbut Tahrir, a conservative Islamist group that supports the creation of a Sharia-based Islamic caliphate to replace th

Jeffrey Hutton – Amid the din of a few hundred protestors that he helped assemble in front of the main gate of Indonesia's parliament, Cecep Supriyanto struggled to make himself heard by a visiting

Jakarta – The scene could not be more symbolic and the parallel could not be more striking.

Khoo Ying Hooi and Guteriano Neves – A total of 21 political parties are registered to contest the Timor-Leste parliamentary election on July 22.

Jeremy Menchik – In May, the governor of Jakarta, Indonesia – a Christian – was convicted for blasphemy against religion and sentenced to two years in prison.

Eka Kurniawan, Jakarta, Indonesia – Rizieq Shihab may be the most controversial public figure in Indonesia today.

Sana Jaffrey and Siswo Mulyartono – Indonesia has had a tumultuous year dealing with a divisive election and massive protests against Jakarta's former governor, led by the Islamic Defenders' Front

Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, Luqman-nul Hakim and Diatyka Widya Permata Yasih – More than any other previous Indonesian election, the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election saw candidates playing with iden

Andre Vltchek – "America first" and "to hell with the rest of the world"!

Amalinda Savirani – As some scholars argue, there is insufficient proof of the 'neoliberal' nature of the policies that outgoing Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has led.

Just a few months ago, the governor of Indonesia's largest city, Jakarta, seemed headed for easy re-election despite the fact that he is a Christian in a mostly Muslim country.

I visited Timor Leste this May, just as the first new nation of the new millennium turned fifteen.

James Scambary – On 26 October 2015, East Timor's Audit Chamber vetoed the largest contract in the country's history – worth US$719 million dollars – for 'non-compliance with basic standards in for

Tom Pepinsky – Indonesian politics has been rocked by two major developments in recent months, both involving the governor of Indonesia's capital and most important city, Jakarta.

Hamish McDonald – Tolstoy once wrote a short story about a greedy peasant offered as much land as he could get around in a day.

Alexander R Arifianto – On May 8, 2017, retired general Wiranto, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, issued a statement stating that after a careful study, the Joko Wi

Tim Lindsey – The conviction for blasphemy last Tuesday of the outgoing governor of Jakarta, Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama was not a surprise.

Jakarta – On Wednesday and Thursday, 60 commissioner candidates for the next National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) take part in a public dialogue, as part of their selection process.

Hendri Yulius – On 30 April, Indonesian police raided a "gay sex party" in Surabaya and arrested 14 men. Police forced the men to undergo HIV tests, explicitly violating their rights to privacy.

George Quinn – As governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) faced off against Islamist opponents in Jakarta's recent election campaign a remarkable story emerged from the grimy wharves and warehouses

Pat Walsh – The recent sentencing of Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, the Christian Chinese-Indonesian Governor of Jakarta, to two years in jail for blasphemy will leave many people in the Asia-Pacif

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has suffered two successive setbacks since his ally and former deputy Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, or Ahok as he is widely known, was accused of insulting Islam earlier

Binoy Kampmark – "The result of all of this, besides the abuse of law, is that people may be afraid to exert their rights to be critical of Muslims who use religion to justify inexcusable actions."

Kyle Knight – His neighbors had been watching him for weeks. Twenty-year-old Muhammad (a pseudonym) rented a room in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province.

Sidney Jones – Two back-to-back decisions have left Indonesia more religiously polarised than ever. One was politically inept, the second deeply unjust.

Veronica Koman – The need for press freedom in West Papua has never been more urgent: surging numbers at demonstrations over the past year have been met with thousands of unlawful arrests of peacef

The jailing of Jakarta's Christian governor for two years for blasphemy is a shocking and harsh ruling in a case that should never have been brought.