Articles - Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia

57: No turning back

January - March 1999 Helping a neighbour The new poor Upwardly immobilised by the crisis - Lea Jellinek Shelter from the rain The crisis closes a shelter for steet kids - Jane Eaton Tough, poor, unbeaten On Atauro, drought is the real crisis - Gabrielle Samson Help that helps Targetting small business and farming - Vanessa Johanson Globalisation challenge Western economic control is the issue - Wim Wertheim Pak Wertheim Obituary - Herb Feith No turning back NGOs consider their responsibilities - INFID Australia's response Aid must address governance and rights - Philip Eldridge Politics and human rights Megamania! Megawati's PDI triumph - Stefan Eklof No shortcut to democracy It's all about good policies and good institutions - Olle Tornquist Islamic conversations Four Islamic leaders talk - Hisanori Kato Who plotted the 1965 coup? Colonel Lafief says he knows - Greg Poulgrain Aceh exposed A legacy of abuse and hurt - IRIP News Service In the tiger's den Marwan Yatim's story of torture - Marwan Yatim Culture Flower in the grass Interview with Nyi Supadmi - Jody Diamond Cockroach Not a pest but an award winning comic - Laine Berman Reviews Beyond the horizon - Ron Witton Saman - Marshall Clark Travel A river runs through it Journey to a Sumatran village - Jim Della-Giacoma Regulars Editorial Your say Newsbriefs Bookshop The net Inside Indonesia 57: Jan-Mar 1999

56: 15th Anniversary Edition

Oct-Dec 1998 15th Anniversary Learning to talk Habibie's weakness is a plus - Gerry van Klinken Ballot ballet The May 1999 elections - Kevin Evans Raising the West Papua flag Eyewitness account of demonstrations - Andrew Kilvert Remembering May Day of no laws An Australian amid the Jakarta riots - Vanessa Johanson Cleansing the earth How the arts community took part - Marshall Clark Jakarta's May Revolution A comparison with other movements - Aboeprijadi Santoso The morning after... Habibie: those for and against - Loren Ryter Rape is rape Shocking report of Jakarta rapes - Sandyawan Sumardi Orphans no more Yogya had the biggest demo - Dwi Marianto Economy and society Who murdered the rupiah? Expert comment on the fiscal crash - Sritua Arief Tommy's toys trashed The car industry and Suharto's son - Ian Chalmers Women do it tough How the crisis is affecting women - Charlene Darmadi Worshipping cancer sticks Cigarette consumption in Indonesia - Catherine Reynolds Environment 'They just want love...' Saving the orangutans - Willie Smits Regulars Editorial Your say Newsbriefs Bookshop On the net Ed Colijn Inside Indonesia 55: Oct-Dec 1998

Box - The Togian Islands

KATE NAPTHALI falls in love with the Togians, and discovers that health and education are major needs

History, horror and homelands

History with the right and left brain

The Suharto Government's political prisoners have only very rarely been allowed to speak. Here, for the first time, we have an autobiographical story written by a woman, the wife of an ex-tapol, the mother of his child.

Christmas in a prison camp

The following excerpts are taken from a diary of letters kept by an Australian woman who lived in Java, Kalimantan and Bali for nine years. In this letter, written in January 1978, the author describes her visit to a detention camp for women political prisoners Just after Christmas 1977. The prisoners have since been released. The letter begins with a description of the long drive from Semarang west to Pelantungan where the camp was located up in the mountains. The visit was arranged by a Dutch pastor, 'Co'. Fenton-Huie was accompanied by the pastor's wife, Phia, and a Dutch nursing sister, Truus. After abandoning their car which could not travel the last stretch of the rough rocky road, the women had to walk the final kilometres to the camp, which also held 40 delinquent boys. The visitors shared a simple Indonesian meal in the house of one of the guards before entering 'a large barracks-type hall' to witness the camp's Christmas concert.

This short story, written by an ex-political prisoner, has never been published in its original Indonesian version. We cannot disclose the author's real name or the various pseudonyms under which she has been publishing since her release. A member of Gerwani, a women's organisation with alleged connections with the Indonesian Communist Party, banned since the so-called coup of September 1965, the author seems to have started writing fiction only after her detention. The experience colours much of her writing. Most of her short stories are about the down and out, the women whom poverty has driven to theft, begging and prostitution, the 'criminals' (or were they the victims?) with whom the author shared her prison cells.

Memoir of detention in Indonesia

57: No turning back

56: 15th Anniversary Edition

Box - The Togian Islands

History, horror and homelands

Despised delight

Christmas in a prison camp

Not that I don't love

Keeping your head

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