In this episode, Stephanie chats with Dr. Sandeep Nanwani, a young Indonesian doctor who is currently getting his Master's degree in Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School, about his work with the "waria" community — translated imperfectly as transgender women. Sandeep has been working with this community primarily by providing access to health care for them and other marginalized and invisible voices in the streets of Indonesia. We talked about how in order to understand the waria and their stories, you have to also understand both the social and the economic circumstances that impact their everyday lives, from their daily poverty to the informal economics of sex work & street busking that has come to define them.

We also chatted about Sandeep's own journey into becoming a doctor and what led him to his current focus on researching cases of extreme mental illnesses among the homeless in Indonesia. Finally, we talked about how politically things have gotten more difficult for the "waria" as well as the wider LGBT community. We're excited to share Sandeep's story and the stories of the waria.

In this episode, we discuss last week's Whatsapp controversy, where the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (Kemenkominfo) threatened to block Whatsapp because people reported the proliferation of so-called "pornographic" GIFs on the platform. After a lot of back and forth, the ministry has backed down from its threats and the controversy has, for now, died down. That said, we want to take this opportunity to open up a broader conversation around the UU Pornografi & Pornoaksi (the Pornography and Pornoaction Law) that would have allowed the government to block Whatsapp. This law, which was put into place in 2008, basically provides an incredibly broad and legally vague definition of pornography, allowing the government to use it for its own patriarchal means. We talk about how in Indonesia, the law in general is often times male, and this law in particular has been used to police women's bodies and restrict their freedom.

While it might seem trivial that we're talking about a ban that never happened, or that we may seem like we're supporting pornography, our discussion is really about how these kind of open-ended laws are a threat to our freedom of speech, our rights, and our democracy.

In this episode, we discuss the new Governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan and his inaugural speech, in which he used the controversial word "pribumi," which refers to the indigenous Indonesian population. We unpack the segregationist history of this term, specifically in the context of targetting the "non-pribumi," which since Dutch colonial rule has almost exclusively been the Chinese-Indonesians. Anies' use of the term "pribumi" is deeply unsettling as it revives the damaging and dangerous anti-Chinese rhetoric that influenced the tragedy of May 1998 and, more recently, the ethnic tensions surrounding Ahok's blasphemy case and the gubernatorial elections, which Anies profited from.

We talk about how other politicians have reacted (or not reacted) to this controversy and discuss the laws that were set in place by previous presidents to prevent the use of both terms. Finally, we wrap things up by reflecting on Anies' speech and the tone of it in light of the 2019 presidential elections, which is less than 2 years away. Even though we're disappointed with how politicians and ministers have reacted to Anies' speech, we are inspired by the many young Indonesian netizens — pribumi and non-pribumi — who have criticized Anies' speech, reported him to the police for spreading racist rhetoric, and came out in support of the Chinese-Indonesians.

In this episode, we chat with Afu and Wikan, the two creators of "Frame & Sentences," a YouTube video essay series on issues and topics that affect the current generation of young Indonesians. We talk about the origins of the series, as well as Afu and Wikan's own progressive backgrounds that influenced the way they unpack some of their topics, which range from expectations on women & marriage to the 1965 genocide. We also explore Afu and Wikan's respective takes on feminism (including why they are hesitant to call themselves 'feminist') and have a frank and constructive conversation about the role this label has in fighting against the patriarchy. Check them out on YouTube!

Note: this episode is in a mix of Indonesian and English. For subtitles, please check out our YouTube video.

In this episode, we have a special interview with award-winning freelance investigative journalist and all-around badass female in the world of Indonesian journalism, Febriana Firdaus. We talk about her unique journey from TEMPO to TIME — including pit stops at Femina, Intisari, and Rappler — and her commitment to covering difficult and dangerous stories, particularly the ongoing human rights abuses happening in Papua right now.

We discuss the history of the conflict between Papuan freedom fighters and the Indonesian military, including Febri’s first-hand experience talking to locals and the situation on the ground right now. We also talk about Febri’s latest venture, the podcast-and-newsletter Suara Papua, or "Voice of Papua," which aims to spread awareness of local Papuan stories between foreign English readers as well as Indonesians & local Papuans who care about what’s happening to the Papuan community.

In this episode, we discuss the ongoing Rohingya humanitarian crisis, which has led to more than 400,000 Rohingyas fleeing and finding refuge in Bangladesh. We dig into the history of the Rohingya people and why they are dubbed by international media as "the most persecuted minority in the world," looking at the religious hate-mongering that has been perpetuated by both hardline Buddhist extremists groups as well as the Burmese government — and, as an extension of that, the ignorance of Myanmar's de facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi. We unpack who she is, the limitations of her political power, and why she has refused to acknowledge the atrocities committed by the Burmese army.

We also look into the international criticism of Myanmar and Suu Kyi's response, and break down the valorization (in particular, in Western media) of Suu Kyi as the democratic hope of Myanmar. In talking about this underreported issue, we hope that more people would know about the plight of the Rohinyga and demand not only the cessation of violence but also international action & aid to support those who are already deeply affected by this crisis.

In this episode, we have a special interview and conversation with one of Indonesia's fiercest female Muslim hijabi stand-up comedians, Sakdiyah Ma'ruf! Hailed as one of the first female Muslim comics in Indonesia (a "technicality," as she said), Sakdiyah has been doing stand-up comedy in both English and Indonesian for several years now. Her comedy touches on sensitive topics such as sexuality, Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism, and domestic violence, but she always finds a way to cut through the tension of such heavy topics without blunting her message of free speech and women's rights.

We hope you'll enjoy our conversation as much as we enjoyed having it!

In this episode, we commemorate the upcoming 18th anniversary of the East Timor Independence Referendum of 1999. In light of the growing West Papua independence movement, as well as an alarming rise in 'blind patriotism,' we think it's incredibly important to remember the atrocities that preceded East Timor's independence and learn its lessons about nationhood, sovereignty, and self-determination. We also have Stephanie in conversation with John M. Miller, the national coordinator for ETAN, the East Timor & Indonesia Action Network, an NGO created in 1991 to help facilitate and support the East Timor independence movement.

We hope that in talking about East Timor and honestly confronting the tragedies of the past, we can not only hold our beloved nation accountable but also walk down a greater and more just path for the future of Indonesia.

After a much-needed and too-long break (sorry!) we're excited to be back with Season 2 of Dialogika! In this episode, we share some life updates following our big moves from Indonesia to the United States and the travels in-between. We also provide an in-depth overview of what's been happening politically in Indonesia while we were out, including discussing the Habib Rizieq pornography case, the banning of Hizb ut-Tahrir, the unresolved Novel Baswedan acid attack case, and the weakening of KPK's power. All of these discussions are particularly significant when viewed with an eye on the 2019 Indonesian presidential election and Jokowi's chances in it.

We've got an exciting season ahead, with all new music as you can hear and new people helping us out (s/o to Sebastian Hadinata) and we can't wait to share it with you. Here's to Season 2 of Dialogika!

In this episode — on the week of the 19th anniversary of the May 1998 riots — we talk with our long-time academic crush Dr. Jemma Purdey of Monash University, author of Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia, 1996-1999 and co-host of the Talking Indonesia podcast. She helped us unpack what really happened leading up to the May 1998 riots, which killed over 2000 people and led to the rape of 152 Chinese-Indonesian women. We discuss how this event was not due to organic, spontaneous anger but rather was engineered based on ‘stable’ racism against Chinese-Indonesians. We also talked about Indonesia’s history of racism against ethnic Chinese-Indonesians, the impact it has had on national economics and its lasting effects on the psyche of the Chinese-Indonesian community.

In light of Ahok’s recent jail sentence, we discuss the current rising anti-Chinese sentiments, and finally, we end on a hopeful note that Indonesia’s maturing civil society and young democracy has grown enough that we can not only start to talk about the reality of what happened in May 1998, but also prevent it from happening again in the future.

AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

We will be taking a break to refocus our energy on lining up better interviews, stories, and sound engineering. For any of you who are interested in becoming more involved, we’d love to have you onboard as field producers/researchers/any role you’d be interested in. Email us at [email protected] or message us on Facebook! We’re looking forward to being back in a few weeks!