May 29, 2023 Last Updated 3:00 AM, May 26, 2023
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Human Rights

The politics of culture

Pramoedya's reputation is still dogged by the cultural polemics of the Sukarno era

A lesson in courage

An activist reflects on Pramoedya’s significance for young Indonesians.

Teacher and Friend

A younger writer remembers Pramoedya’s influence on his own life and work.

He wept for Indonesia

Pramoedya the writer was also an historian who loved his country.

Plea for West Papua

Plea for West Papua

The sixth religion

Chinese Confucianism is recognised again as an official religion.

Jungle to church

Missionaries and the military co-operate in converting the Asmat to Christianity.

Faith and violence

The Islamic sect Ahmadiyah has been under official pressure and violent attack.

One Step Forward

Indonesia has made only some legislative progress toward religious freedom, but the greatest freedom is the openness of debate.

Unions act globally

Workers unite to win severance pay for retrenched Securicor Indonesia employees.

Despised delight

wife eks tapol1
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.

Edition 138: Oct-Dec 2019

Moral politics

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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