Reviews Reviews Reviews Reviews Reviews Reviews ROOT

56: 15th Anniversary Edition

Oct-Dec 1998 15th Anniversary Learning to talk Habibie's weakness is a plus - Gerry van Klinken Ballot ballet The May 1999 elections - Kevin Evans Raising the West Papua flag Eyewitness account of demonstrations - Andrew Kilvert Remembering May Day of no laws An Australian amid the Jakarta riots - Vanessa Johanson Cleansing the earth How the arts community took part - Marshall Clark Jakarta's May Revolution A comparison with other movements - Aboeprijadi Santoso The morning after... Habibie: those for and against - Loren Ryter Rape is rape Shocking report of Jakarta rapes - Sandyawan Sumardi Orphans no more Yogya had the biggest demo - Dwi Marianto Economy and society Who murdered the rupiah? Expert comment on the fiscal crash - Sritua Arief Tommy's toys trashed The car industry and Suharto's son - Ian Chalmers Women do it tough How the crisis is affecting women - Charlene Darmadi Worshipping cancer sticks Cigarette consumption in Indonesia - Catherine Reynolds Environment 'They just want love...' Saving the orangutans - Willie Smits Regulars Editorial Your say Newsbriefs Bookshop On the net Ed Colijn Inside Indonesia 55: Oct-Dec 1998

Box - The Togian Islands

KATE NAPTHALI falls in love with the Togians, and discovers that health and education are major needs

West Kalimantan at a glance

The election: what is at stake?

History, horror and homelands

History with the right and left brain

Despised delight

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.

Not that I don't love

This short story, written by an ex-political prisoner, has never been published in its original Indonesian version. We cannot disclose the author's real name or the various pseudonyms under which she has been publishing since her release. A member ofGerwani, a women's organisation with alleged connections with the Indonesian Communist Party, banned since the so-called coup of September 1965, the author seems to have started writing fiction only after her detention. The experience colours much of her writing. Most of her short stories are about the down and out, the women whom poverty has driven to theft, begging and prostitution, the 'criminals' (or were they the victims?) with whom the author shared her prison cells.

Keeping your head

Memoir of detention in Indonesia

Workers – go politics!

The workers of Bekasi get a political education as union activists make history in a coordinated campaign

A part of history

Inside Indonesiaand the People’s Culture

Colonial industrial heritage and memory

A UNESCO-listed colonial mining town in West Sumatra raises complex questions about framing Indonesia’s industrial heritage

Falling through the cracks

Inequities in service availability affect access and use of HIV-related health care among transgender people

Wayang helps save the reef

Shadow puppetry is helping to save Indonesia’s coral reefs and inspire a new generation of environmental activists

Page 116 of 116

Subscribe to Inside Indonesia

Receive Inside Indonesia's latest articles and quarterly editions in your inbox.

Lontar Modern Indonesia

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