Talking Indonesia Talking Indonesia

Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority country in the world, but it is not an Islamic state. The place of Islam within the state has been contested over the years, with proponents for and against a larger role for Islam in government and in the lives of citizens. The groups who advocate for a more prominent role for Islam occupy a wide spectrum of ideologies, approaches, and tactics. In the post-Soeharto era, terrorist acts have drawn attention through a handful of small, but committed, jihadist organisations mounting bombings at a variety of sites including churches, hotels, and, perhaps most famously, Balinese bars.

In this episode we talk about pathways to extremism. Why do some people gravitate towards, and join, religious extremist organisations? How can we understand the difference between extremist and terrorist groups? And what important role do social relationships play in facilitating memberships and networks in this context?

In this week's episode, Elisabeth Kramer chats with guest Dr Julie Chernov Hwang, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Goucher College in Maryland. She’s especially interested in how social networks facilitate entry into and exit from jihadist groups in Southeast Asia. She’s the author of a number of books including Why Terrorists Quit, published by Cornell University Press in 2018 and her most recent book is Becoming Jihadis: Radicalization and Commitment in Southeast Asia, published this year by Oxford University Press.

In 2023, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Tito Ambyo from RMIT, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University and Dr Elisabeth Kramer from UNSW.

Image by Masjid Pogung Dalangan from Unsplash.
Caption: Close-up of hands held up in Islamic prayer.

Joko Widodo’s recent trip to four African countries marked the first ever by an Indonesian head of state. The President’s five-day visit took him to Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, before finishing in South Africa where he attended the meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) group of nations in Johannesburg. In his address to the BRICS conference Jokowi evoked the ‘spirit of Bandung’ in reference to the Asia-Africa conference held in the West Java capital in 1955 and called for solidarity and cooperation between the nations of the Global South. But Indonesia stopped short of accepting an invitation to join the expanding group, which is seen as a potential challenge or alternative to Western hegemony in a changing new world order.

So, what motivated such a high-level trip to Africa? Why did Jokowi choose to make such an historic visit at this stage in his presidency? What is the current state of Indonesia-Africa relations and what might Indonesia’s ambitions be for its future in the continent?

In this week's episode Jemma Purdey chats with Dr Christophe Dorigné-Thomson who holds a PhD in Politics from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Universitas Indonesia, and a Master in Business/Management (Grande Ecole Programme) with a major in Finance from ESSEC Business School. His research focuses on foreign policy (Indonesia, Asia-Africa, and European nations notably); political economy; external powers’ engagement with Africa, Asia, and Europe, including political, economic, and defense and security approaches; and Indonesian, Asia-Africa, and Western politics. His forthcoming book, Indonesia's Engagement with Africa, will be published in 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan.

In 2023, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Tito Ambyo from RMIT and Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University.

Image: Antara/Press Bureau of Presidential Secretariat
Caption: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (left) and his host Mozambique President Filipus Nyusi wear traditional headbands as they attend the opening of the National Festival of Culture at Red Bulls Association Field in Maputo on Aug. 23, 2023.

Indonesians around the world will celebrate Independence Day in a range of ways on 17 August. Some will hold festivals in big cosmopolitan cities, serving Indonesian food to hungry diasporas, while Indonesian villagers will hold traditional celebrations with simple games and competitions, like tug of war and kerupuk eating. Many of these traditions have changed little since the New Order era. This leads us to ask, what should we think about independence in the context of Indonesia today?

We see that 78 years after Soekarno proclaimed independence in 1945 – Indonesians are still asking the question “sudahkah kita merdeka?” – are we truly independent yet? The question is asked so often it has become a cliché, but now many academics and activists are engaging with the question more seriously through frameworks and theories of decoloniality.

In this week’s episode of Talking Indonesia, Tito Ambyo chats with Tamara Soukotta, who recently defended her PhD thesis at the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In her thesis, she argues that to understand the Ambon conflicts that started in 1999, we need to view the conflict through a lens of decoloniality. Moreover, to be able to understand the processes of peacebuilding after the war, we also need to look at these events as decoloniality in praxis. In this episode, Tamara tells us about her research and shares her thoughts on celebrating Independence Day critically and decolonially - which is harder than it sounds.

In 2023, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Tito Ambyo from RMIT, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University.

Photo by Mo from Flickr.

Twenty-five years since embarking on its reform era following the fall of the New Order, observers, scholars and global democracy indexes agree that Indonesian democracy is in a state of regression.

Recent challenges levelled at key institutions including the Constitutional Court, the Corruption Eradication Commission, and threats to freedom of speech brought by the Information and Electronics Law (ITE Law) are evidence of significant degradation of the quality and integrity of democracy. Further, over the past two decades influence and control across the four branches of power – politics, media, civil society and business – is increasingly centred in the hands of just a few.

With the elections next year set to deliver a new government and new president, what must be done to halt further damage to Indonesia’s democracy and rule of law? What are the risks if it fails to do so?

In this week's episode Jemma Purdey chats with Professor Jimly Asshiddiqie, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Indonesia and a member of Indonesia’s senate, the Regional Representatives Assembly. Professor Jimly was founding Chief Justice of Indonesia’s first Constitutional Court, an adviser to presidents and ministers, was head of the Presidential Advisory Council, and former head of the Advisory Council of Indonesia’s National Commission of Human Rights. He is one of Indonesia’s leading jurists and distinguished legal thinkers, with more than 70 books to his name.

In 2023, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Tito Ambyo from RMIT and Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University.

Photo: KPU staff carry out drills in Banyuwangi in preparation for the general elections. Antara Foto/Budi Candra Setya.

The project of bureaucratic reform has now been ongoing for over 20 years. But what issues remain and what is the government doing to try and curb corruption and boost efficiency?

In this episode, Dr Elisabeth Kramer speaks to Dr Kanti Pertiwi about how effective efforts to improve the bureaucracy have been. They discuss the design and implementation of incentives to reform the civil service and how disparities between different ministries can impact the psyche of civil servants.

In 2023, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Tito Ambyo from RMIT, and Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University.

Photo by Rendra Oxtora for Antara.

In January 2021, a case that became known as ‘digital-nomad-gate’ gripped both Indonesia’s social and conventional media channels and was also reported around the world. An American woman living in Bali was deported following a series of tweets in which she described her enviable and ‘elevated’ lifestyle there, encouraging others to follow. Amid a pandemic that had hit Bali’s economy particularly hard, her tweets went viral and led to a public backlash condemning her for a lack of cultural sensitivity and awareness of her own privilege. The woman was eventually deported for flouting immigration rules, although she claimed the true reasons were related to her sexuality and race.

This is just one of many cases in recent years which, due in great part to the prevalence of social media, have caught out foreigners in Indonesia for breaking laws and flouting or ignoring social and cultural norms and sensitivities. These range from taking inappropriate photos at sacred sights to ignoring pandemic protocols and refusing to abide by laws and acknowledge the right of local authorities to enforce them.

At the same time, in order to boost economies ravaged by the pandemic, government authorities have sought to attract more foreigners as so-called ‘digital nomads’ or ‘mobile professionals’ to live and work in Bali and elsewhere in the country.

So, who are these new expatriates and what is their motivation for coming to Indonesia? What can the history of expatriates in Indonesia tell us about these more recent conflicts related to cultural awareness and privilege? And do the recent tensions reflect the stresses brought by the pandemic, or are we witnessing a real shift in how Indonesians perceive foreigners living and working in their country?

In this week’s episode of Talking Indonesia, Dr Jemma Purdey chats to Anne-Meike Fechter, Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex, and author of 'Transnational Lives: Expatriates in Indonesia', Ashgate Aldershot, 2007. Her article 'Expatriates, privilege and racism', is published in Inside Indonesia, Apr-June 2021.

In 2023, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Tito Ambyo from RMIT and Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University.

Photo by Matt Oldfield from Flickr.