The House of Representatives plenary session Monday on Bank Indonesia's emergency liquidity credits to distressed banks during the economic crisis only strengthened public frustration o

Donald Greenlees, Dili – Before President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot outside his home on Monday, the Nobel Peace laureate was not overly concerned about his personal security in a countr

Justin Randell – Genocidal mass murderer and former Indonesian dictator Suharto died in hospital in Jakarta on January 27, aged 86, never having faced justice for the millions of people

Michael Leach – When I wrote on Monday that disarming the increasingly threatening and erratic Major Alfredo Reinado had become a critical priority for national unity in East Timor, the

Simon Montlake and Nick Squires, Bangkok/Sydney – A foiled dawn attack Monday by rebel soldiers on East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta, who was shot and seriously wounded, has roile

East Timor's maverick seemed desperate for martyrdom

Many government critics, non-governmental organizations and the media perhaps do not realize, or pretend not to realize, that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's anti-corruption offens

Loro Horta, Dili – Since the 2006 deployment of Australian peacekeeping troops to East Timor, the Australian Defense Force (ADF) has been confronted with a persistent anti-Australian se

Jakarta is flooded, again. Just one day of incessant rain, from Thursday night through Friday morning, was enough to paralyze the capital with floods.

Neil Campbell – An incident during my recent visit to Timor-Leste gave a useful insight into the difficult security conditions in the small, young and troubled independent state.

It may not look very scary to you or me, but to the Government of Indonesia it is a dangerous threat to the "unity of the nation".

There was a sense of deja vu when former president Soeharto was admitted to Pertamina Hospital in Jakarta over the weekend.

Deadly natural disasters look to have struck too early for Indonesia, just after the country won praise for hosting a key climate change conference in Bali last month.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported a decrease of 921,000 in the number of unemployed people between August, 2006 and August, 2007, to about 10 million or slightly over 9 perce

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – When Iraqi journalist Muntader Al-Zaidi threw his shoes at President George W. Bush it was to many, myself included, a deja vu.

Riding on the confidence and bullish market sentiment generated by the estimated 6.3 percent growth in 2007, the Indonesian economy is forecast to continue surging this year.

Neles Tebay, Abepura, Papua – Papua Province has been the only Indonesian province still rebellious against the Jakarta-based central government.

As we begin the New Year, we are all asking the same question: What does 2008 have in store for us? Looking at the horizon, one could say plenty.

As the curtains open on the new year we will note down 2007 as the year of a greatly bullish stock market with a rise of over 50 percent in the composite index, making it among the best

Sylvia Yazid, Melbourne – It has been more than three decades since the first wave of Indonesians left the country to work overseas.

At first, they attacked churches and prevented Christians from attending Sunday prayers – and the police largely turned a blind eye.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – The first day of 2007 was marked by a jetliner going missing, in what some later saw as a sign of things to come: It was the first in what was to be

Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – Australia's relationship with Indonesia is full of new promise.

Leon Agusta, Jakarta – After a disappearance from public attention, the anti-pornography and anti-porn bill has now resurfaced with the new name "Anti-Pornography Bill", when several fa

We cannot help but feel more cynicism toward our parliament, which has no sense of urgency in addressing the real issues.

Is all really quiet on the front line in the war against human rights abuses? Some people in Indonesia certainly think so.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Former three-star general Sutiyoso is Indonesia's epitome of a strong leader, first as Jakarta's military commander and until earlier this year as the capital cit

Joe Collins – The 1st of December was West Papuan National Day or National flag day.

It was certainly good news for Indonesia that it moved up the latest Human Development Index, the internationally accepted standard for measuring a country's welfare.

Warief Djajanto Basorie, Jakarta – How much has the Indonesian Military (TNI) changed?

Angus Grigg – It was a day Indonesia's columnists had clearly been looking forward to, and they were brutal.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Little news basically came from Sydney's Coroner Court inquest into the deaths of Australian-based journalists in Balibo, East Timor (1975) – except tha

Ali Darwin and Patrick Guntensperger, Jakarta – Considerable controversy has accompanied the Indonesian government's recent enactment of legislation requiring corporations to participat

The antitrust body's questionable ruling against Singapore's Temasek Holdings, its subsidiaries and Telkomsel on Monday just added more evidence of the legal uncertainty that has kept m

Damien Kingsbury – The finding by the NSW deputy state coroner that the five Australia-based newsmen killed at Balibo, East Timor, in 1975 were murdered by the Indonesian military has t

There is an almost palpable fear in the air of a repeat of the devastating floods that paralyzed almost all of Jakarta in February this year.

Clinton Fernandes – The NSW Coroner's inquest concluded yesterday into the deaths of five journalists at the border town of Balibo in East Timor in October 1975 was the first independen

The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) has reported steady and sharp increases in new foreign investment approvals amid persistently negative perceptions among foreign businesspeople

The truth about the murder of five journalists at Balibo on October 16, 1975, in the lead-up to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor is one of the longest and saddest cases of governme

Tony Iltis – In 1975, when Indonesia invaded East Timor, beginning a 24-year occupation that cost over 200,000 Timorese lives (over a third of the population), Australia's support for t

Consider the different fates of these two organizations. Both are small and both are trying to propagate their own brand of Islamic teachings.

It's ironic Indonesia refuses to appropriately respond to United Nations' moves to investigate alleged gross crimes against humanity in this country, despite its membership with the Uni

Agus Rakasiwi – The 1998 reform movement finished the task of removing Suharto from the Indonesian presidency. But have Indonesia's problems now ended?

The latest analysis by the International Monetary Fund which portends a weakening global economy could adversely affect Indonesia's economic prospects, which have looked much rosier aft

George Junus Aditjondro, Yogyakarta – The Helsinki peace agreement made on Aug.

The Idul Fitri party is over. People are now returning to Jakarta after spending time – and money – in their hometowns.

Being the religious holiday that it is, the extended Idul Fitri celebration has not left many people with a hangover.

A number of high-profile issues have made headlines in the past month, including the planned construction of the Muria nuclear plant and the political maneuverings ahead of the 2009 pre

Indonesians now know for sure that the state does not tolerate polygamy outside the conditions regulated by law.

Bramantyo Prijosusilo, Ngawi, East Java – The end of September has always been a time of questions throughout Indonesia's political history.