Indonesian President Joko Widodo was decisively re-elected in April but his second, and final, term in office looks set to be anything but plain sailing. The election revealed deep divides in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, with politics polarised along religious lines. The economy remains sluggish despite promises of structural reforms to unlock rapid growth. And Indonesia’s democratic system, long seen as a beacon of progress, is facing intensifying challenges, from crackdowns on free speech to a deterioration in the protection of minority rights.

The Indonesia Update has been an annual event held by the Australian National University in Canberra since 1983; this panel discussion was part of the 14th abbreviated Sydney edition held by the Lowy Institute.

Dr Eve Warburton is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute. Dr Warburton received her PhD in 2018 from the Australian National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia and Pacific Affairs, where she researched the political economy of economic nationalism in Indonesia’s natural resource industries.

Burhanuddin Muhtadi is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, State Islamic University, Jakarta. He is also an executive director of Indonesian Political Indicator and Director of Public Affairs at Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI).

Dr Martin Daniel Siyaranamual is an applied microeconomist with broad empirical interests. He earned a doctoral degree in economics from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Padjadjaran University, where he is also a lecturer at the department of economics.

The discussion was chaired by Ben Bland, the Director of the Lowy Institute's Southeast Asia Project.