The people of Indonesia & their culture, politics, economy and environment - Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia

Law Reform

Carbon on fire

Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) promises private participation towards a net sink future, but not a fire-proof one

Pertarungan untuk penghapusan kekerasan seksual

Penundaan pengesahaan Rancangan Undang-Undang Penghapusan Kekerasan Seksual (RUU PKS) berbarengan dengan peningkatan kekerasan terhadap perempuan

The fight to outlaw sexual violence in Indonesia

Delays to the Sexual Violence Bill have coincided with an increase in violence against women

A whistleblowing culture

The assumption of the importance of financial reward has held back work to eradicate corruption in Indonesia

Drugs and drug policy

Drug use in Indonesia has a long history

Drugs and the death penalty

Indonesia’s ill-informed war on drugs endangers and ends lives rather than saving them

Criminal patients

People who use drugs occupy an ambiguous position in Indonesian government rhetoric

Populism versus justice

Indonesia’s legal system is too flawed to sentence people to death

Cannabis, for starters

The growing support for cannabis decriminalisation in Indonesia could both help and hinder broader drug reform

Mining – who benefits?

Two carts rest on a mining site path. The photo is taken at an angle where the path appears to be going down from left to right.

Mining law changes in decentralising Indonesia raises new challenges and opportunities for local communities

The life and death of Indonesia’s mineral export ban

President Joko Widodo speaks at a podium, with a red banner as a backdrop.

The Jokowi government’s policy shift contributes to pervasive regulatory ambiguity in Indonesia’s mining sector

Resource nationalism as imperialism

A worker at a mining site points to the low-hanging clouds.

Foreign investment in large-scale mining has encountered serious obstacles

Mining and equitable development

A car drives along a concrete road among tall crop fields.

Mining dominates East Luwu GDP but development of agriculture underpins equitable development

Small-scale mining in Central Kalimantan

A car zooms by on a road in a barren landscape.

After reformasi, Kereng Pangi, Kalimantan became the site of a gold rush

Mining the land, mining people

A mining base, with a pipe running across the foreground and some wooden structures.

Irrespective of location or commodity, peasants now compete with multinational mining companies on the mineral-rich tracts of Indonesia

Multiplier effects on the Bombana goldfields

A photo of the front of a Toyota dealership.

Benefits ripple outwards but local government struggles to regulate the process

The extractive industries in East Nusa Tenggara

Protestors hold up signs expressing anger at mining activity and exploration.

As a number of communities in East Nusa Tenggara reject mining, tourism as a resistance strategy can be equally exploitative

Indonesia’s diaspora citizens

A panel of six sit on a small stage in front of a banner at the 4th Congress of Indonesian Diaspora. (Yearry Panji Setianto)

After decades of neglect, Indonesia’s diaspora demands more rights

New law, old bureaucracy

Taking stock after two years of village law implementation

The village head as patron

The Village Law might restore the dominance that village heads enjoyed under Suharto

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Lontar Modern Indonesia

A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar.