Society

JASON PRICE talks with the new middle class and discovers they love progress but keep the poor at arms length.

After 20 years, LEA JELLINEK returns to Jakarta's kampungs only to find many demolished for condominiums. The mood of their constantly evicted residents oscillates between resignation and resistance.

Street children are not social misfits. They are creative exiles from an oppressive state system, according to LAINE BERMAN and HARRIOTT BEAZLEY.

MELODY KEMP discovers some quiet achievers in environmental education -- who accept no foreign aid.

PETER HANCOCK finds that women in a rural Nike factory are considerably worse off than those who work in other factories.

The epidemic is spreading more slowly than once feared, but OCTAVERY KAMIL still wants better resources for prevention work.

STANLEY fears slashing Radio Australia's Indonesian service will harm Australian diplomacy.

AHMAD SOFIAN explores the lives of young people on hundreds of isolated fishing platforms in the Malacca Straits

Hinduism and Islam were born so far away. How did Indonesians learn of them? KAREL STEENBRINK traces a long history of religious scholars travelling overseas.

Remember the election last May? MAS SUJOKO was there and listened in to the people's vote, recorded on walls all over Yogyakarta.

What are the prospects of Islamic opposition? How democratic will it be? GEORGE ADITJONDRO finds much to be hopeful about.

DJOHAN EFFENDI explores the paradox of young progressives in Indonesia's most traditional Islamic organisation.

A Spanish enquirer gets the catechism in an exclusive Jakarta suburb. MARGARET COFFEY was there too.

'I write the truth and if I have to die for it, well so be it' wrote Udin shortly before he died. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL investigates.

To Jakarta, he is an enigma. To the Madurese, he holds out hope for a better society. GERRY VAN KLINKEN goes to the grass-roots.

The riot that engulfed Jakarta on 27 July 1996 started after army-backed gangsters invaded Megawati's PDI headquarters. JESSE RANDALL traces the strange relationship between government and criminality.

TOM PLUMMER speaks with Moelyono, an artist engaged with farmers threatened by a large dam.

When this teacher tries to explain the electoral system, he ends up in knots. SUGENG PERMANA listens in.

HERTJE SURIPATTY tells how developers used soldiers and thugs to try to force her out.

The World Bank has joined the IMF in a huge rescue package. Indonesian non-government organisations (NGOs) presented this memo to World Bank president James Wolfensohn in Jakarta.