Development programs cannot proceed and are practically interrupted in times of conflict or violence.

Olin Monteiro – Does anybody really believe that a concert can stir a mass of people to devote themselves to the devil, let alone change them to become immoral individuals?

Imam Shofwan – In August 2002, a number of Islam-based political parties demanded the Jakarta Charter be included in the Constitution, which would mean that Muslims in Indonesia would h

The trouble with Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa is that he has probably spent too much of time travelling abroad to really understand what's going on in his own country.

Andreas Harsono – It is fashionable these days for Western leaders to praise Indonesia as a model Muslim democracy.

Desi Anwar – I'm not going to write about the Lady Gaga saga. It's too depressing. Besides, too much has been discussed about it already.

Damien Kingsbury – On Sunday 20 May, East Timor will celebrate ten years of independence.

Galuh Wandita, Jakarta – Back in 2005, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made a pledge to rehabilitate former political prisoners from the 1965 purges.

Yanto Soegiarto – Thousands of students demonstrated in Jakarta last Saturday to commemorate the May 12, 1998, Trisakti University shootings that killed four students – Elang Mulia Lesm

As the nation braces for the 14th anniversary of Reformasi, university campuses, the driving force behind the sweeping political changes in May 1998, are showing signs of reviving the s

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Sourav Roy – British Secretary of State, William Hague, is a delight to listen to. Even more when he dismisses an uncomfortable question hurled at him.

Bibhu Prasad Routray – As Hisyam Alizein, alias Umar Patek and a cadre of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), rose to speak during his trial in the West Jakarta dis

Indonesia has been struggling for decades to address an intriguing debate over whether an individual's religion should appear in official documents such as identity cards.

Jakarta – Activists have once again blamed the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for not doing enough to rein in radical groups in the country that have graduated from ha

Bramantyo Prijosusilo – Recently we have witnessed more violence and intimidation under the guise of Islam.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono must be commended for his plan to issue a formal apology to the nation for every abuse of human rights committed by the state against its own citizens

Members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) were involved in an armed clash yet again on Sunday, apparently in a fashion that displays remnants – if not sid

Damien Kingsbury – States that have been colonised commonly reflect elements of their colonial past.

Max Lane – Between March 24 and 30, a wave of quite militant demonstrations against the coalition government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono spread throughout Indonesia.

The second round vote for the President of Timor Leste has been announced.

Damien Kingsbury – When East Timor's outgoing president, Jose Ramos-Horta, won office in 2007 by a crushing 69 per cent, many outsiders attributed the victory to his high profile as a c

Victor R Savage – The current presidential election in Timor-Leste has brought international visibility to this rather marginalised state within Southeast Asia.

Al Araf and Ghufron Mabruri, Jakarta – The legislation process in the House of Representatives has always sparked controversy among society.

Rizal Ramli, Jakarta – When Indonesia's students took to the streets in 1998 and won their battle for the overthrow of Soeharto, there was jubilation on campuses across the country.

The bureaucratic reform the country is undertaking is certainly more complicated and daunting than we may have thought, thanks in part to internal resistance, as the controversy centeri

Pat Walsh – On 20 March, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon agreed to a Department of Foreign Affairs request to block public access to 34-year-old cables on the famine that ravaged East Tim

Tim Anderson – East Timorese PM Xanana Gusmao looks likely to lose government to Fretilin in June.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono seems almost certain to fall short in his attempt to put in place a 33.3 percent fuel price hike, probably doing incalculable damage to wha

Damien Kingsbury – Jose Ramos-Horta's decision to support the Democratic Party (PD) in the parliamentary elections has two sets of implications for Timor-Leste's politics.

Will Hickey – Indonesia has a burgeoning population with an exponentially growing need for energy, but many still live hand to mouth.

Dwi Atmanta – The countdown for the Jakarta gubernatorial election has begun, although the provincial poll commission has yet to declare eligible tickets for the race.

Armando Siahaan – From the corruption saga implicating Democratic Party politicos to the plan to cut fuel subsidies, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is facing a public relations cris

Pangeran Siahaan – As you line up at the cashier at the supermarket, take a look at the shelf on your side, which is likely to contain an array of candies and chocolate bars.

Damien Kingsbury – East Timor incumbent president, Jose Ramos-Horta, has failed in his bid for re-election, with his former key rival, Fretilin's Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres, and former

Brendan Brady – When residents of Dili voted to elect a new president five years ago, more than a hundred thousand displaced people were scattered about the city in tent camps and gangs

Anna Powles, Dili – Timorese voters will go to the polls twice this year to elect the nation's president and parliament for the third time since achieving independence in 2001.

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat – Some attitudes are hard to change.

Yohanes Sulaiman & Phillip Turnbull – It appears we're having a coup. Or at least that is what some in the government would have us believe.

The government is dead serious in entertaining the idea of a plot being underway to bring down President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono by creating massive chaos via rioting when the governme

Last week, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tried to reiterate his supposed commitment to fighting corruption when he signed off on new punishments for graft convicts.

Yohanes Sulaiman & Phillip Turnbull – On Saturday, the violence-wracked Mesuji district in Lampung again grabbed the headlines as a riot took place, with hundreds of villagers burni

Inggrid Galuh Mustikawati – The early months of 2012 have seen several violent land disputes in Indonesia.

Organizing a massive movement of people for quite a long period of time with complex human relations and managerial problems, like the 40-day-long Indonesian haj pilgrimage, is indeed n

Over the last three weeks, at least three surveys have uncovered a growing public distrust of political parties, all because of corruption cases plaguing their leaders and individual me

Razali Ritonga, Jakarta – The labor protests over minimum wage demands that recently occurred in some parts of Indonesia should have been anticipated by the government.

Damien Kingsbury – As Timor-Leste heads into the three rounds of 2012 elections, election observers have begun to organise to monitor the election process and to report their findings.

The money laundering charges slapped on Monday by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Muhammad Nazaruddin, fondly known as Nazar, a former House member and Democratic Party t

Damien Kingsbury – The various contenders for Timor-Leste's presidency in the 17 March election have begun to try to persuade the voting public why they should be elected as president.

Jim Della-Giacoma – Early in 2010, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sitting in Kabul with some diplomats who had served in Indonesia and Timor-Leste.