Gangsters

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

The filmmaker explains that The Act of Killing exposes the imagination of terror

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

In Jakarta’s crowded neighbourhoods, beliefs in supernatural power and invulnerability still surround the figure of the jago tough man

The challenges of governing ‘societal organisations’ pose difficult questions for Indonesian democracy

Conflict between Timorese youth gangs and martial arts groups hark back to the Indonesian occupation

This edition of Inside Indonesia explores the complex politics of illegality

Ethics and politics don’t mix in the world of Jakarta’s preman

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.

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

The Military Fleeces and Polices Port Workers

Preman have had to change in order to stay in business