Category Archives: Indonesia

Dutch self-image challenged as country confronts its colonial past

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Exhibition aims to establish common ground amid fractious debate over violence in post-independence Indonesia

Its political centre, The Hague, may call itself “the city of peace and justice”. But in few European countries is the process of confronting the colonial period proving as fractious and divisive as in the Netherlands, where opposing sides have in recent years struggled to agree on who was victim and who was perpetrator.

This month, an exhibition at Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk gallery space and two new books in a major historical series try to establish common ground over the violence that ensued after Indonesia declared independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945.

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Joko Widodo’s son can run for Indonesian vice-president after controversial court ruling

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Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, does not meet age requirement of 40 but constitutional court – headed by president’s brother-in-law – makes exception

An Indonesian court has made a controversial exception allowing the eldest son of outgoing President Joko Widodo to run for vice-president in the 2024 election.

In a decision that outraged critics of the president, the constitutional court ruled that candidates under the required age of 40 can seek the presidency or vice-presidency in the 14 February ballot provided they have previously held elected regional office.

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Australia will pay $27m compensation to Indonesians held in adult jails when they were children

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Commonwealth agrees to settle with more than 120 Indonesians wrongly detained as adult people smugglers, some when they were as young as 12

The Australian government has agreed to pay more than $27m to Indonesians who were wrongly detained or prosecuted as adult people smugglers while they were children using a deeply flawed wrist X-ray technique.

The commonwealth this week agreed to settle a class action brought by the Indonesians, some who were as young as 12 when they were locked up in adult prisons and prosecuted in adult courts as people smugglers between 2010 and 2012 during the highly charged political climate around border protection.

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Travel website Booking.com leaves hoteliers thousands of dollars out of pocket

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As the website boasts about increased revenue, some partners say they have not been paid for months

Travel website Booking.com has left many hotel operators and other partners across the globe thousands of dollars out of pocket for months on end, blaming the lack of payment on a “technical issue”.

The issue is widespread in Thailand, Indonesia and Europe among hoteliers who are venting their frustrations in Facebook groups as rumours swirl about the cause of the failure to pay.

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Indonesia bans e-commerce sales on social media platforms like TikTok

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Government says regulation aimed at protecting small businesses from competition

Indonesia has banned goods transactions on social media platforms as it aims to protect small businesses from e-commerce competition.

Calls had grown in recent months for a regulation governing social media and e-commerce, with offline sellers seeing their livelihoods threatened by the sale of cheaper products on TikTok Shop and other platforms.

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Rhino numbers rebound as global figures reveal a win for conservation

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Tally rises to 27,000 but is still a far cry from former half a million, and Javan and Sumatran rhino remain critically endangered

Global rhinoceros numbers have increased to 27,000 despite populations being ravaged by poaching and habitat loss, new figures show, with some species rebounding for the first time in a decade.

Rhinos numbered about 500,000 across Africa and Asia in the 20th century but their populations have been devastated. Last year, they began showing signs of recovery in some areas, although two species – the Javan and Sumatran – remain close to disappearing.

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The world’s largest – and stinkiest – flower in danger of extinction, scientists say

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The 42 known species of the parasitic plant Rafflesia, known as the corpse flower, are endangered due to destruction of forest habitats

Parasitic, elusive and emitting an overwhelming odour of putrefying flesh, Rafflesia – often called the corpse flower – has intrigued botanists for centuries. Now, scientists are warning that it is at risk of extinction and calling for action to save it.

The blooms of the Rafflesia have become famous for their odour of decaying meat, produced to attract flesh-eating flies. But the genus – which includes the largest flowers in the world, at more than a metre across – is at risk due to the destruction of forest habitats in south-east Asia. There are 42 species of Rafflesia, and researchers warn that all of them are under threat, with 25 classified as critically endangered and 15 as endangered.

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Five killed as elevator at Bali resort plunges down ravine

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Accident at Ubud’s Ayuterra Resort believed to have occurred when cable in inclined lift carrying hotel staff snapped

Balinese police are investigating the catastrophic failure of a lift that left five hotel workers dead at a resort on Friday.

The accident took place at Ubud’s Ayuterra Resort about 1pm and is believed to have occurred when a cable in the inclined lift carrying the three women and two men snapped, plunging them 100 metres down a steep ravine at the hillside resort.

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Australia remains free of lumpy skin disease despite Indonesia blocking cattle imports, officials say

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Indonesia imposes strict testing conditions on cattle from three major export ports after claiming infectious disease detected in eight cattle

The Australian government has denied suggestions that a highly infectious livestock disease has been detected in the country, after the Indonesian government moved to block live exports of cattle from northern Australia.

On Sunday, Indonesian officials notified their Australian counterparts they had detected eight cases of lumpy skin disease in cattle imported from Australia.

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Indonesia’s tropical Eternity Glaciers could vanish within years, experts say

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El Niño weather pattern could accelerate melting, leading to sea level rise

Two of the world’s few tropical glaciers, in Indonesia, are melting and their ice may vanish by 2026 or sooner as an El Niño weather pattern threatens to accelerate their demise, the country’s geophysics agency has said.

The agency, known as BMKG, has said the El Niño phenomenon could lead to the most severe dry season in Indonesia since 2019, increasing the risk of forest fires and threatening supplies of clean water.

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Indonesian rescuers end search for crew member missing from surf boat

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Four Australians and two crew were saved after their boat capsized off Sumatra, but hopes of finding the remaining person on board appear over

Rescuers have ended their search for a missing Indonesian crew member one week after a boat with seven on board hit bad weather off Sumatra island, officials said on Monday.

The search was launched last week after authorities received a report that one of two boats headed for Pinang island from Nias island had failed to reach its destination.

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Search for Indonesian sailor continues as rescued Australian surfers contact relieved families

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Officials hope Fifan Marongo who went missing off Aceh on Sunday has safely stranded on an island on the western side of Sumatra

Indonesian authorities plan to continue a search for a missing sailor, after the other six people in a boat lost in remote waters off Aceh on Sunday were rescued on Tuesday.

Four Australians and two other Indonesian crew were safely recovered from the sea. They survived 36 hours in the water on surfboards they had brought for a beach holiday.

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Australian Associated Press contributed to this report

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‘He was petrified’: Australian surfer drifts at sea for 37 hours after boat capsizes off Indonesia

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Elliot Foote’s father Peter Foote says his son floated through the night alone on a surfboard in ‘amazing’ survival story

The father of one of the Australian surfers who were missing at sea off the coast of Indonesia has spoken of the 37-hour ordeal, saying his son was “petrified” as he drifted on a surfboard through the night.

Elliot Foote, his girlfriend Steph Weisse and friends Will Teagle and Jordan Short were in a small boat that capsized in the sea during a storm near Pinang island off Aceh on Sunday night.

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Missing Australian surfers found alive off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province

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Elliot Foote, Steph Weisse, Will Teagle and Jordan Short and two Indonesian crew have been found but one crew member is still missing

Four Australians who went missing when their boat encountered poor weather off the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province on Sunday have been found alive.

Steph Weisse, Will Teagle and Jordan Short were found floating in the water on surfboards on Tuesday.

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Four Australians among seven missing after boat hit by storm off Indonesian islands

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Search and rescue operation launched after small vessel failed to arrive at Pinang resort in the Banyak Islands off Aceh

Four Australian tourists and three Indonesian crew are missing after their boat encountered a storm on its way to a group of remote islands off the west coast of Indonesia.

A search and rescue operation was launched on Monday after the small boat failed to arrive at its resort island destination known for its surf and beaches on Sunday.

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Miss Universe cuts ties with Indonesia pageant over sexual assault claims

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Six Miss Universe Indonesia contestants allege they were asked to strip for ‘a body check for scars and cellulite’

The global organiser of the Miss Universe beauty pageant has cut ties with its franchise in Indonesia days after several contestants alleged they had been sexually abused in the run-up to the competition’s crowning ceremony in Jakarta.

Six contestants in the Miss Universe Indonesia pageant are understood to have filed complaints with police, alleging that organisers asked contestants to strip down to their underwear for “a body check for scars and cellulite” two days before the ceremony in July.

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Student journalists in Indonesia face backlash after reporting on sexual harassment

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Students say they are being targeted with expulsion, physical assault and death threats after writing about sensitive subjects

Yolanda Agne, 23, was just months away from graduating in journalism at a university in Maluku province, Indonesia, when she was banned from finishing her studies.

In March last year, the student magazine Lintas – of which Agne was then editor-in-chief – published a damning piece on the prevalence of sexual harassment on her campus at Ambon Islamic State Institute. Among the alleged perpetrators were eight lecturers, with incidents dating over a six-year period.

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Australian man arrested over alleged drunken rampage in Indonesia freed from jail

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Noosa man Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones tells news conference he is ‘relieved’ after being released

An Australian man arrested for an alleged drunken rampage in Indonesia has been freed from jail.

Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, was detained in April after he was accused of assaulting people during a naked rampage near a surf resort on the island of Simeulue, off the coast of Sumatra in Aceh province.

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West Papua rebels threaten to shoot New Zealand pilot if independence talks denied

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Phillip Mehrtens, who has been held hostage since February, makes the claim in a new video released by the separatist group

Rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region have threatened to shoot a New Zealand pilot being held hostage if countries do not comply with their demand to start independence talks within two months, a new video released by the group shows.

Guerrilla fighters in Papua’s central highlands, who want to free Papua from Indonesia, kidnapped Phillip Mehrtens after he landed a commercial plane in the mountainous area of Nduga in February.

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Australian man charged for allegedly spitting in Indonesian imam’s face

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Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur faces up to 14 months in prison if convicted

An Australian man is facing more than a year in jail after allegedly spitting in the face of an imam at an Indonesian mosque.

Brenton Craig Abbas Abdullah McArthur has been charged over the alleged assault at a mosque in Bandung that was captured on CCTV.

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