The people of Indonesia & their culture, politics, economy and environment - Inside Indonesia: The peoples and cultures of Indonesia

Kalimantan

Women rising

Women in East Kalimantan join male-dominated ‘ormas’ to empower themselves and their community

Mining – who benefits?

Two carts rest on a mining site path. The photo is taken at an angle where the path appears to be going down from left to right.

Mining law changes in decentralising Indonesia raises new challenges and opportunities for local communities

Small-scale mining in Central Kalimantan

A car zooms by on a road in a barren landscape.

After reformasi, Kereng Pangi, Kalimantan became the site of a gold rush

Comes with the territory

A sign next to a dirt road reads in Indonesian, ‘Welcome to the territory of the Kiyu customary forest under Constitutional Court Decree No. 35/PUU-X/2012. THIS IS OUR CUSTOMARY FOREST, NOT STATE FOREST.’

Compromises must be made in the quest for indigeneity among the Dayak Meratus

Haze of democracy

Schools were closed for over a month due to the forest fires - Ardiles Rante/Greenpeace

Elections are fuelling the forest fires in Central Kalimantan

Aspiring to become a civil servant

Trying to secure a government job, educated youth in Pontianak are rethinking the meaning of work and middle class success

An ongoing environmental challenge

More action is needed if Indonesia is to slow its current world record rate of forest loss

The business of politics in Indonesia

Warburton 1 Prabowo and Team at Senayan Rally Credit Liam Gammon

Democratic institutions are increasingly burdened by the illicit transactions and collusive practices of politico-business elites

Undercutting Kalimantan's future

Forest conversion in Kalimantan is a local, national and global concern

Tweeting about politics

Indonesian politicians want to raise their public profile but don’t want the criticism

Rock music and social activism on the internet

Bali rockers Navicula find a platform for social change in online social media

Public works and ethnic conflict

Tarakan’s riots illustrate the risks of collusive public contracting and the continued weakness of local security responses

A new frontier

East Kalimantan was once timber country, now it’s coal that rules

Community engagement

Don’t ignore REDD’s impacts on communities!

Praying across borders

Doctrinal borders that divide traditionalist and modernist Muslims in Banjarmasin are breaking down, but slowly

Passports optional

Indonesian migrant workers without visas - or sometimes even passports - rely on the help of middlemen to get past immigration checkpoints into East Malaysia

Corrupting politics

Corruption continues to shape the political landscape in Kutai Kartanegara, Indonesia’s richest district

'Selamat Berbuka Puasa'

In South Kalimantan local politicians target TV screens with strategically-placed messages for Ramadan

Land, ethnicity and politics

Direct local elections have led to new developments in the struggle for land rights in East Kalimantan

The politics of Imlek

In contemporary Indonesia, Imlek is much more than a cultural celebration

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.