Regions

STANLEY fears slashing Radio Australia's Indonesian service will harm Australian diplomacy.

AHMAD SOFIAN explores the lives of young people on hundreds of isolated fishing platforms in the Malacca Straits

DAVID HILL and KRISHNA SEN scour the music shops. They find that foreign music is now as Indonesian as batik. From Hindi film to 'Indie' punk rock, foreign musical genres are being indigenised, and imbued with Indonesian political meaning.

NELLY VAN DOORN discovers a woman preacher revered for her faith and drive, who questions the image of a male-centred Islam.

Allegations of influence peddling by Indonesia's Lippo financial group may be unproven, but opened a bigger trail that led elsewhere. JAY LOSHER reports from America.

Hinduism and Islam were born so far away. How did Indonesians learn of them? KAREL STEENBRINK traces a long history of religious scholars travelling overseas.

Despite an impression that Islam has lately become a potent force of opposition, GREG BARTON thinks many Muslims have a stake in the status quo.

Remember the election last May? MAS SUJOKO was there and listened in to the people's vote, recorded on walls all over Yogyakarta.

What are the prospects of Islamic opposition? How democratic will it be? GEORGE ADITJONDRO finds much to be hopeful about.

DJOHAN EFFENDI explores the paradox of young progressives in Indonesia's most traditional Islamic organisation.

A Spanish enquirer gets the catechism in an exclusive Jakarta suburb. MARGARET COFFEY was there too.

Many private banks set up by Indonesia's super-wealthy in the 1980s are reeling under the weight of mismanagement. But connections sometimes allow them to evade the laws of financial gravity, as SUARA INDEPENDEN shows in these two reports.

ANDREAS HARSONO visits Burma and is intrigued by the respect its military show for the Indonesian model.

'I write the truth and if I have to die for it, well so be it' wrote Udin shortly before he died. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL investigates.

To Jakarta, he is an enigma. To the Madurese, he holds out hope for a better society. GERRY VAN KLINKEN goes to the grass-roots.

The fires were no natural disaster, says JOKO WALUYO. The smoking gun is in the hands of plantation companies.

Heike Krieger, East Timor and the international community: Basic documents, Cambridge University Press, 1997, 494+xxviii pp, hardcover, Rrp AU$160.Geoffrey C. Gunn, East Timor and the United Nations: The case for intervention, Lawrenceville, N.J: Red Sea Press, 1997, 241+vi pp, paperback, Rrp US$19.95. Avail: Red Sea Press, 11-D Princess Road, Lawrenceville, N.J., USA 08648-2319; fax: 1-609-844-0198. Reviewed by RICHARD TANTER

The riot that engulfed Jakarta on 27 July 1996 started after army-backed gangsters invaded Megawati's PDI headquarters. JESSE RANDALL traces the strange relationship between government and criminality.

TOM PLUMMER speaks with Moelyono, an artist engaged with farmers threatened by a large dam.