Society

Behind the jamboree

Direct local elections give Jakartans a say in their city’s future

Myth of the effective little NGO

Making idealism work is very hard. NORI ANDRIYANI, with extraordinary honesty, tells why.

Gay identities

Modern gay men in Indonesia learn to live alongside traditional concepts of homosexuality. DEDE OETOMO explains.

Satya Wacana University: an expensive lesson

Many foreigners have learned Indonesian on the green campus of Satya Wacana University in Salatiga, Central Java. Since 1993 it has been in the news for a different reason. BUDI KURNIAWAN reports that serious conflicts between the campus community and the university board have reduced the prestigious campus to a shadow of its former self.

Alternative press challenges information blockade

With mainstream print media subject to many restrictions, unlicensed publications satisfy a demand for news.STANLEY surveys the alternatives now flourishing in many Javanese cities.

Punks, rastas and headbangers: Bali's Generation X

Quite unknown to the tourists, Balinese youth are creating a dynamic musical identity that refuses to be colonised. EMMA BAULCH joins the death thrashers for an evening of metal.

Information revolution

Satellite TV and the Internet are opening Indonesia to the globe. MARK CRAWFORD asks: Will this mean less mind control by the state?

The forgotten cost of counter-insurgency in Aceh

KERRY BROGAN talks with two women whose husbands 'disappeared'.

Of money and trees: a 19th-century growth triangle

Unbridled money freely crosses borders and destroys Sumatra's pristine environment.... The 1990s? No, the 1850s, writes FREEK COLOMBIJN.

Middletown comes to Malang

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

Big projects, little people

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.

The world's first street university

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

Spread the word

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

The walking ghosts of West Java

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

Preventing AIDS

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

Fading signal

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

Gone fishing

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

Itinerant scholars

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.

Writing on the wall

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

How Muslims will say 'No'

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

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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.