Nov 15, 2018 Last Updated 6:23 AM, Nov 5, 2018

Inside Indonesia

Politics

Rengat, 1949 (Part 1)

Dutch paratroopers massacred hundreds, perhaps thousands, in a Sumatran town during the Indonesian Revolution, yet nobody outside Rengat seems to know.

Rengat, 1949 (Bagian 1)

Pasukan payung Belanda membunuhratusan, bahkan mungkin ribuan orang di Rengat, sebuah kota Sumatra, pada masa Revolusi Nasional Indonesia, tapi kelihatannya orang-orang di luar Rengat tidak tahu itu.

Review: A life beyond boundaries

Benedict Anderson’s memoir showcases a broad-minded approach to the world and Indonesia Source: Verso

Benedict Anderson’s memoir showcases a broad-minded approach to the world and Indonesia

The forgotten killings

Monumen Bambu Runcing (Bamboo Spear Monument), Surabaya Credit: Lidya Mewengkang

The slaughter of Indonesians by young nationalists has been hidden by romantic narratives of the independence struggle

Islamic cyber-activism

The yufid.com search engine provides potential followers with a search filter limited to approved Salafi sources

Yogyakartan Salafi youth are turning to social media to promote their faith

Book Review: Inventing Imam Samudra

Book Cover

Book Review: Imam Samudra’s Revenge, by Angus McIntyre

Justice denied?

Source: Lexy Rambadeta

The Indonesian way of confronting the past underestimates the importance of truth and justice

Interview with an activist: Soe Tjen Marching

Soe Tjen Marching at Frankfurt Bookfair 2015 Source: Angus NIcholls

Standing up in the name of truth and justice

Reading for pleasure, 15 minutes a day

The National Book Committee Team - Courtesy of National Book Committee

Indonesia’s struggle to create a culture of reading

The pattern of a batik revival

Batik Showroom with specially dressed Parkir - Credit: Tod Jones

How UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage program transformed the batik neighbourhood of Laweyan

Cultural heritage: The politics of pictures of Indonesia

Kaibon Palace in Banten Lama - Credit: Tine Suartina, Courtesy of LIPI (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia)

When visitors take pictures of Indonesia, they tend to photograph Indonesia’s cultural heritage. These pictures share certain qualities. They seem harmonious and to be of activities or places that have remained the same for generations or centuries. They also often exclude people or represent them as bound by history and relics of a past era

Samarinda’s deadly mining pits

A GSM plaintiff and a farmer stand on the edge of her mined land in Samarinda - Armin Hari

The end of the boom has not meant an end to the perilous impact of coal mining in East Kalimantan

A dispensable threat

Information and Communication Ministry ordered instant messaging applications including LINE, to remove emoticons depicting same-sex intimacy

LGBT rights and recognition have been under attack in the Indonesian media, for various reasons

Religious Bandung II: The champion arrives

Newly provided with a functional artificial grass surface, Bandung’s public square is now a popular social space for Bandung residents. (Julian Millie)

Bandung’s civic improvement program continues after its patron is imprisoned

Beyond categorisation

Trans* FTM individuals can identify with many different labels - FAMM Indonesia

An Indonesian transsexual movement faces challenges from within, as well as from without

Punkrock and global protest culture

Tolak reklamasi posters set up in Bali’s villages and neighborhoods - Birgit Bräuchler

An environmental movement is generating new forms of resistance by fusing traditional and contemporary Balinese art with social media

Imagining a nation divided

A mosque in Sidikalang, a town in North Sumatra just across the border from Aceh Singkil - Daniel Andrew Birchok

Aceh Singkil’s recent church burning may reflect common ways Indonesians have linked religion and region

Review: Women, Sexual Violence and the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66

Women, Sexual Violence and the Indonesian Killings of 1965-66 - Routledge

Pohlman’s study provides sensitive and powerful testimony of the impact of this violence on women and girls

Murdering army, silent church

Rev. Mery Kolimon: ‘The Indonesian Churches did not protect the victims of 1965’ - Willem van Gent

Reverend Mery Kolimon, researcher and advocate working on the 1965 killings in Eastern Indonesia, has a personal connection to this piece of history

Testimony of a messenger

President Sukarno with PKI Secretary General DN Aidit at an anniversary celebration for the PKI, 23 May 1965 - Howard Sochurek

A memoir by a former army officer offers insights into Suharto’s moves in October 1965

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