Election fever mounts as candidates discuss strategic alliances and running mates, but academic and Indonesia expert Max Lane says this may be an election characterized by disappointmen

Anita Barraud – Democracy in Indonesia is fragile and the economy struggling. In a nation of 240 million, half the population live on less than $2 a day.

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It is very hard to believe that Tommy Soeharto could so easily knock down the Attorney General's Office (AGO) twice in two separate court battles.

David Greising, Tanjung Priok Port – Indonesia-Customs officer Tiko Murtiadji is no economist, but as he watches a truck-size X-ray machine inspect a cargo load of car tires here, he kn

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sent the country's security establishment into a spin, and left political observers divided, after alluding to a

Megawati Wijaya, Jakarta – When President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono became Indonesia's first directly elected democratic leader in 2004, the former soldier was catapulted to power despit

Jason Tedjasukmana, Jakarta – Four days after the fatwa went out, students continued to fill the yoga mats in the classrooms of Jakarta's Jakartadogyoga Studio. On Jan.

Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta – The lengths people will go to get what they want this election year is amazing, though not all that surprising.

Three of the six fatwa issued by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) have drawn strong resistance, not only from the general public, but also from individual Muslim organizations whose r

Julie Shingleton, Jakarta – Indonesian smokers and the country's tobacco industry have slammed a move by the nation's top Islamic body to place restrictions on tobacco use by Muslims, c

Ed McWilliams – During the Cold War, the United States built alliances with notoriously corrupt, abusive regimes, including that of Suharto in Indonesia.

David Jardine – Some controversies simply will not go away.

Sara Webb, Jakarta – Indonesia's former president Suharto has been dead for a year, but the country he ruled for three decades until his ouster in a populist uprising in 1998, is still

Joshua Frank – In wee morning hours on Friday, January 23, a US spy plane killed at least 15 in Pakistan near the Afghanistan border.

Riyadi Suparno, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has learned the lesson the easy way.

[Indonesia is bracing for the return of hundreds of thousands of 'tenaga kerja Indonesia' as the economic crisis sets in.

Frans H. Winarta, Jakarta – The withdrawal of testimony by a witness in a criminal proceeding often occurs without any reaction from the court.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono once said that the Munir case was a "make or break" situation.

The Corruption Court on Wednesday jailed two lawmakers – they were sacked by their political party after their arrest – for receiving bribes to speed up the amendment of the Bank Indone

Aleksius Jemadu, Bandung – The political impact of the acquittal of former top spy Maj. Gen.

The Constitutional Court's ruling on the distribution of legislative seats late last month deserves applause, as it basically curbs the power of the party system and instead allows for

The gavel was struck three times in the courtroom on New Year's Eve, after the former intelligence deputy was pronounced a free man.

Obama's new intelligence chief ran interference for Indonesia's butchers

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Indonesia looms large in the Australian psyche as a dysfunctional country, besieged by natural disasters, financial crises, terrorist attacks and political and soc

Usman Hamid, Jakarta – 2009 will be the year of politics – electoral politics to be precise.

Indonesia has specifically stated that people's productive years are between the ages of 18 and 55, but there is little agreement on an appropriate retirement age.

Melody Kemp, Nusa Tenggara – In eastern Indonesia's litter of islands, the remote Lembata seems an unlikely site to for a public battle over mining, replete with paid assassins, black m

Alexander Downer – With the death of former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas, Australia has lost a good friend who was also a decent bloke.

Jakarta – Indonesia's former foreign minister Ali Alatas, who died in Singapore on Thursday, was a widely respected figure in the region tipped at one stage to be a possible United Nati

Olle Tornquist, Yogyakarta – Today in Oslo, Finland's former president Martti Ahtisaari, leading diplomat and social democrat, is awarded the Nobel Prize for his outstanding contributio

The 71-year-old former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo today for his tireless efforts to end conflicts in many parts of the world, including in

A key principle of both good memorialisation and reconciliation is that the truth be honestly acknowledged in plain language.

Nurrohman, Bandung – I am rather relieved as I read the results of a survey conducted by the Center for Islamic and Society Studies (PPIM) at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic Unive

Monday was the Muslim day of sacrifice, but for Muslim and non-Muslim mudflow victims in Sidoarjo, East Java, it was just another day of sacrifice.

Aleksius Jemadu, Bandung – The spectacular rise in votes won by the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in national elections, from 1.36 percent of the total national popular vote in 1999 to

John M. Miller – According to some pundits, US reengagement with the largely unreformed and unrepentant Indonesian military is the best way to promote reform and human rights.

Sara Webb, Jakarta – Hillary Clinton's nomination as US secretary of state could prove tricky for Indonesia, a key ally in Southeast Asia in the US-led war on terror, because of a past

Winarno Zain, Jakarta – As the world economic outlook worsens dramatically, the Indonesian economy will be heading into a dangerous zone next year.

Kelik Ismunanto – After such a long period of time in a vacuum, uncertain of how to respond to change caused by neoliberal economic policies, little by little, democracy movement activi

Amzul Rifin, Tokyo – The government has decided to lower the export tax on crude palm oil (CPO) in November 2008 from 2.5 percent to 0 percent.

Simon Roughneen, Port Moresby – Speaking in Washington ahead of the recent Group of 20 global economic summit, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, popularly known as SBY, sai

It is certainly a very difficult time for companies in Indonesia now and will continue to be so next year, as our economy begins to feel the devastating impact of the financial crisis a

Paul Daley – There has been a lot of disagreement recently about just who said what to whom in serious policy and political discussions over the course of the last government.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are obstructing military ties

Mob power has taken over the role that the state once played in our recent past in curtailing our freedoms – from freedom of speech and expression and freedom of thought to freedom of r

Tom McCawley, Jakarta – Two old rivals are already jostling in Indonesia's biggest political battle, the presidential elections which take place every five years, with the next schedule

Marwaan Macan-Markar, Jakarta – In many crowded neighborhoods of this sprawling city families sat glued to their television sets late into the night of November 8, watching updates on t

Anthony Deutsch, Surabaya – The men bound the thumbs of dozens of suspected communists behind their backs with banana leaves and drove them to a torch-lit jungle clearing.

Akh. Muzakki, Surabaya – About midday a short conversation took place between a young girl (say Rini) and Cholilah, a fashion seller in Tanah Abang Market, Jakarta.