Jun 03, 2023 Last Updated 2:32 AM, May 31, 2023

Human Rights

This woman wants polygamy

But her husband won’t come to the party.

Aa Gym

The rise, fall, and re-branding of a celebrity preacher

Strong women, strong unions

Women are challenging the stereotypes that have long defined Indonesian unionists.

Remembering Ong

About cooking, studying Java, and other serious pleasures

Ong Hok Ham, 1933-2007

Intellectual, Chinese, atheist, gay - and wholly Indonesian

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.

Myth of the effective little NGO

Making idealism work is very hard. NORI ANDRIYANI, with extraordinary honesty, tells why.

Human what?

'Human Rights' is no longer a dirty word within Jakarta's establishment. An official National Human Rights Commission, now in its third year, is overwhelmed with work. KRISHNA SEN caught up with Marzuki Darusman, its deputy chairman. Joining in was academic Arief Budiman. She asked them what 'human rights' actually mean in Indonesia, and what difference the Commission has made.

Antithesis of justice

While top officials hail the Australia-Indonesia security agreement, ARTHUR KING is appalled to find that, on the ground in East Timor, youths who resist still face torture.

Gay identities

Modern gay men in Indonesia learn to live alongside traditional concepts of homosexuality. DEDE OETOMO explains.

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.

Military human rights manual in Irian Jaya

There is concern within the Indonesian Armed Forces (Abri) about human rights abuses committed by its members. Part of the evidence is a manual on human rights recently issued by Maj-Gen Dunidja D., Military Area Commander in Irian Jaya. All soldiers in Irian Jaya are required to carry it as part of their personal equipment.

A day with Indonesia's radical student organisation

Authorities blame the recent Jakarta riots on the coalition PRD. It has hundreds of members, but military leaders liken it to the PKI of the 1960s, which had millions. Who are these 1990s activists? VANNESSA HEARMAN visited with one of the coalition partners earlier this year, and filed this inside story.

Aceh's year of living dangerously

Australian volunteer LEON JONES was living in Aceh in the lead-up to the violence that eventualy left up to 2000 dead.

The forgotten cost of counter-insurgency in Aceh

KERRY BROGAN talks with two women whose husbands 'disappeared'.

The world's first street university

Street children are not social misfits. They are creative exiles from an oppressive state system, according to LAINE BERMAN and HARRIOTT BEAZLEY.

Agung Kurniawan: 'My main theme is violence'

TOM PLUMMER talks with a graphic artist in Yogyakarta whose work is drawing international praise.

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.

Murder in the cathedral

IRIP NEWS SERVICE speaks with a member of Dili's Catholic Commission for Education and uncovers an assassination attempt against Nobel prize winner Bishop Belo

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