Dec 05, 2019 Last Updated 11:46 PM, Dec 3, 2019

Inside Indonesia

Economy

An unlikely unionist

An unlikely unionist

Inspired by television and Muchtar Pakpahan, a traditional fisherman decides it’s time to act.

Children at work

Officially, 2.4 million Indonesian children work in factories or on the streets, instead of being at school. Unofficially, the number could be 10 million. SHARON BESSELL talks with some working children, and asks what is being done.

Waiting for Ngaben

Kuta Beach ceased some time ago to be what the brochures say it is. For Robert Goodfellow, the piles of plastic rubbish are signs of a deeper malaise.

Fishing in Australian Waters

In the past decade, 140 Indonesian fishermen drowned in Australian waters, a further 400 were imprisoned. JILL ELLIOTT reports that policies dealing with the issue are costly, ineffective and have tragic consequences. She suggests better alternatives.

Regulate or abolish?

Should child labour be abolished or regulated? WENDY MILLER spoke with activist ARIST MERDEKA SIRAIT during the Child Labour Conference at Melbourne's Monash University.

Information revolution

Satellite TV and the Internet are opening Indonesia to the globe. MARK CRAWFORD asks: Will this mean less mind control by the state?

New forms of rural conflict

Idyllic rural Java is rapidly becoming urban. As a result, peasants are now less in conflict with landlords than with the state. This radically changes the way we think about the best way to organise for change, according to JUNI THAMRIN andVEDI HADIZ.

Of money and trees: a 19th-century growth triangle

Unbridled money freely crosses borders and destroys Sumatra's pristine environment.... The 1990s? No, the 1850s, writes FREEK COLOMBIJN.

Colonial legacy

It may be true that Java rules Indonesia. But Javanese labourers in Sumatra, writes BUDI AGUSTONO, have been at the bottom of the heap for generations.

Privatising social justice

As riots erupt across the country, Suharto is forcing rich companies to contribute to a private anti-poverty foundation. But, for DAVID BOURCHIER and IAN CHALMERS, the move smacks of personal greed.

Middletown comes to Malang

JASON PRICE talks with the new middle class and discovers they love progress but keep the poor at arms length.

Big projects, little people

After 20 years, LEA JELLINEK returns to Jakarta's kampungs only to find many demolished for condominiums. The mood of their constantly evicted residents oscillates between resignation and resistance.

Ecotourism: can it save the orangutans?

RACHEL DREWRY investigates ecotourism as a conservation tool.

Togians: ecotourism is not the answer

While others hope environmentally sensitive tourism will help the Togian Islands, KATE NAPTHALI wants to beef up traditional industries instead.

The walking ghosts of West Java

PETER HANCOCK finds that women in a rural Nike factory are considerably worse off than those who work in other factories.

Dayak anger ignored

MICHAEL DOVE traces Dayak unhappiness to inequities in state development.

Gone fishing

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

Lippogate? Not really

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.

What the elite do when their banks are in trouble

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.

Taking on the timber tycoons

It's lonely in the Forestry Minister's office, says GERRY VAN KLINKEN.

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