Reviews Reviews Reviews Reviews Reviews ROOT Inequality

Semsar Siahaan (1952-2005)

An outsider to all establishments, even artistic ones, Semsar Siahaan is yet to be accorded his rightful place among the ranks of great Indonesian artists

Mochtar Lubis

Always controversial, Mochtar Lubis was one of Indonesia’s most respected journalists and best-known authors for over four decades.

Uniform jilbab

The Islamic headscarf is now compulsory in many high schools

Polygamy and chickens

This man’s message is simple — four wives are better for business than one

Bloodied but unbowed

Golkar still dominates Indonesian politics

Writing back

Local theatre in Makassar reveals a backlash against Java-centrism

Film revolution?

Women are now on both sides of the camera

Subversive ‘underground’ voices in Indonesian rap Michael Bodden It’s Jakarta, June 2004 and the boom box is playing a hip-hop beat. It’s a far cry from the meditative gamelan music, saccharine love songs or even the sensual dangdut one expects to hear in Java. The rapper is Xaqhala and he spins a gritty, rhythmic poem of everyday youth experience.

Comic heyday!

Indonesia’s comic scene is in a golden age but the industry remains marginal and plagued by self-doubt

Crossing male boundaries

Confidence crisis for Bali’s women mask dancers

Woman power

In Bali, a new all-female dance-drama troupe is flouting traditional gender roles

More voices

Women and marginalised groups seize new opportunities in the arts

Peace at last?

The latest agreement in Aceh seems too good to be true, but it’s also Aceh’s best chance for peace yet.

Reviews

Review: This book is a useful contribution to a very small body of scholarly work in English on Indonesian literature. Pam Allen

Aid must embrace social change

The looming AIDS epidemic

Intravenous drug use is exacerbating the spread of the HIV virus

Lecture me not

Helping to boost English teaching seemed a splendid idea, but then Indonesian realities intervened

A shared vision

Portraits of Islamic women from different centuries and different organisations

A new agenda for democracy

Is democracy stalled? An in-depth survey suggests hope for the future

Forty years on

With Suharto gone, the anniversary of the 1965 coup attempt is more controversial than ever

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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.