Apr 29, 2024 Last Updated 1:12 AM, Apr 19, 2024

Reviews Reviews Reviews Maluku Social & Political Unrest

Review: Lieutenant General Djaja Suparman tells his story

Editor’s note: For Indonesia-watchers the activities of the military and its leaders remain largely opaque and perhaps even menacing. In recent years the steady stream of memoirs and biographies by and about military leaders has, in some cases, assuaged some of this mystery and in others, added to the intrigue. As the public and judicial gaze has increasingly turned to the actions of military leaders with connections to the New Order, the memoir has been engaged by some as a form of testimony in an effort to ‘clear their name’. Whatever the motivation, with each new addition to this genre, we are offered new insights into the fractious and often treacherous ‘interior’ world of the Indonesian Armed Forces. Suparman holds the line but reveals some new insights into the transition of power after the fall of the New Order

Big prison, little prison

Stories from Papua’s political prisoners show life at the edge of freedom

Review: Reporting violence and promoting peace

A new book opens up debate about the power of the journalist and media organisations reporting conflict in Indonesia

Review: Power, change, and gender relations in rural Java

Tickamyer and Kusujiarti’s new book is essential reading

Review: My name is Khan

This Indian film’s popularity reveals a popular critique of the US

Review: From the dark side

Jusuf Wanandi’s memoir allows glimpses into the mindset of Suharto-era officialdom

Reviews: Flipping the national story of 1965

Recent ground-breaking publications, an internationally award-winning film and a major conference are opening up new truths about Indonesia’s past

Review: When perpetrators speak

Joshua Oppenheimer’s groundbreaking new film raises disturbing questions about why perpetrators of the 1965-66 mass killings still enjoy impunity for their actions

Review: An act of manipulation?

Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing is a bold, disturbing and ultimately unsatisfactory exploration of the place of violence in modern Indonesia

'Truth takes a while, justice even longer'

In 2012 significant new information exposed critical truths about the 1965 massacres in Indonesia, but there remain major obstacles to recovery and reconciliation

Review: The making of an Indonesian human rights lawyer

Dan Lev explains how an outsider became a national hero

Review: West Papua’s freedom struggle in its global context

Eben Kiksey invites the world to wake up to a crucial struggle unfolding in the Pacific

Review: At the scene of the crime

Essays, reflections and poetry on East Timor, 1999-2010

Living without a state

People in rural Papua are more interested in basic services than grand political struggles

Review: Khadir Supartini’s 'Journey'

A bold young painter signals new direction in Indonesian fine art

Back on the streets

A national strike shows that workers are once again a significant force  

Review: Power politics

Jeffrey Winters’ Oligarchy is an epic work of comparative political insight but has little that is new to add to the study of Indonesia’s politics

Review: Martial mayhem

This silat film breaks the mold

Review: Journey to womanhood

Eva Nourma’s novel provides us with a glimpse into the everyday lives of the Sasak community from Lombok – a group often overlooked in Indonesian literature

Review: The ‘man question’ in Indonesian film and literature

Marshall Clark examines how masculinity is imagined in contemporary Indonesia

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