Talking Indonesia

The Papal Visit

In early September, Pope Francis visited Indonesia as part of a tour of the region. It was the third papal visit to the country after tours by Pope Paul VI in 1970 and Pope John Paul II in 1989. This trip included Indonesia, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

The theme of this visit to the world’s largest Muslim nation was ‘Faith, Fraternity and Compassion’ and appeared to build on an earlier visit to the United Arab Emirates in 2019. On that trip the Pope and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar co-signed a statement known as the Abu Dhabi document, in which they declared a shared commitment to promote reconciliation, fraternity and with the aim of universal peace. The three-day visit to Jakarta was declared a success by the Vatican and Indonesian observers alike, with the Pope highlighting and praising Indonesia’s commitment to interfaith harmony.

So, what was the aim of this papal tour for the Vatican and the Catholic Church in Indonesia? What were the Pope’s key messages and how was he received? And what lingering influences might this visit have for this minority religion of 9 million people, but also for society more broadly?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Bagus Laksana, the Rector of Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta. He is author of 'Muslim and Catholic Pilgrimage Practices: Explorations Through Java' (Routledge, 2016).

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.

Image: IG @archbishopcomensoli

Corruption in Indonesia is widely acknowledged as a complex issue, with some even suggesting it as something that is deeply entrenched in Indonesian culture. However, this perspective overlooks the generally accepted notion among historians of colonialism that corruption in Indonesia and other post-colonial nations is, at least partially, rooted in colonialism and the abuses of power and wealth during the colonial era.

In this episode of Talking Indonesia, we examine the sugar scandal of 1926—a case involving wealthy industrialists and a powerful political party in the Dutch East Indies. We explore how a political donation, which was almost certainly considered a case of political corruption even by the standards of that era, somehow became accepted. Among various contributing factors, the fear of communism played a significant role in this acceptance.

Our guest, Uji Nugroho Winardi, is a historian involved in the Colonial Normativity research project. This initiative aims to systematically investigate and narrate the role of corruption in Dutch and Indonesian histories of state formation, as well as its enduring impact on contemporary Indonesia.

Through our discussion, we will address what insights we can glean from the 1926 sugar scandal corruption case in the Dutch East Indies, and how these historical lessons can inform our approach to tackling present-day corruption.

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Tito Ambyo from RMIT, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University and Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University.

Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via Apple Podcasts or listen via your favourite podcasting app.

Photo: Sugar plantation worker in Java. Nationaal Archieve, Den Haag.

Some of the most challenging issues post-colonial societies face involve managing the physical remnants of their colonial histories. In Indonesia, centuries of colonialism left many buildings and spaces with strong colonial identities. While some of these spaces are now abandoned and forgotten, others are being remembered and revitalised.

In this episode, Tito Ambyo speaks with Remco Vermeulen, a PhD candidate at Erasmus University Rotterdam and coordinator of international cooperation in collection management at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. Remco's professional experience informed his presentation at the EuroSEAS conference in Amsterdam this year on the revitalisation of Dutch colonial urban spaces in Indonesia. His ongoing PhD research examines how young Indonesians interact with and perceive these revitalised spaces.

Remco shares fascinating insights from his research survey and visits to Dutch colonial buildings in various Indonesian cities. His findings reveal an intriguing disconnect: while many young Indonesians view Dutch colonialism negatively, they often appreciate the aesthetic and functional aspects of colonial architecture.

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales, Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.

Starting a Start Up

Starting a small business is a challenge in any context, but what about if you're a foreigner looking to establish a restaurant in Indonesia? What's it like to move to Indonesia, knowing little to nothing about the country, and then go on to start a successful online food business? What is it about the business context in Indonesia that facilitates or blocks small businesses, especially those wishing to leverage Jakartans' large-scale online connectivity?

In this podcast, Elisabeth Kramer talks to entrepreneur Sujeet Ramgir, who came to Indonesia from India and went on to start a highly successful Indian food 'cloud kitchen' catering to the Jakarta market. At the end of 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic entered the chat, Sujeet launched his co-owned business, Accha. Little did he know how the pandemic and the mushrooming of online food apps would shape the trajectory of the business.

In this podcast, Sujeet shares his motivations for starting the business, his experiences, and his reflections on what it's like to do business in Indonesia through his role as co-founder of a food and beverage business. We also talk about how online apps have taken off in Indonesia and what this might mean for business owners, sharing the positives and the challenges of starting a start up.

Digital Populism

Just as we were recording this podcast, the hashtag #daruratdemokrasi (democratic emergency) went viral across Indonesian social media. The alert was prompted by the latest example of Indonesia’s parliament (DPR) attempting to override or block a ruling by the Constitutional Court related to the eligibility of candidates to run in regional elections. The online campaign quickly turned into calls for real action to take place on Thursday 22 August, in the form of protests at the national parliament in Jakarta and other cities across the country. This would be parliament’s final sitting day before it headed into recess ahead of the November elections, and therefore the last chance for any amendments to be passed. The response on the streets by some thousands of protesters, including celebrities, filmmakers, actors and academics, was significant enough to force the DPR to pause its intervention. This effectively put an end to what was seen by the protesters as an attempt to both prevent a key rival of the Jokowi-Prabowo coalition, Anies Baswedan, from contesting the Jakarta gubernatorial election, and allow Jokowi’s second son, Kaesang, to stand as a candidate.

This will be seen as a victory for a grassroots movement that began with digital activism and spilled out on to the street. The question now is, will this movement be sustained, or was it just a one-off?

Over the past decade, digital activism has become deeply embedded and highly professionalised within Indonesia’s political and social ecosystem. In the recent presidential election, the size of a candidate’s team of ‘buzzers’ and their stable of social media influencers was a decisive factor in delivering voters for the major parties, especially from the increasingly important Gen Z demographic. Prabowo’s landslide win was made possible, in large part, due to a re-branding of his image and targeted use of TikTok throughout his campaign.

Who and what is behind these campaigns driving what is known as digital populism in Indonesian politics? In a time when Indonesian democracy is under threat and protestors against the government are become more and more frustrated, does the internet in Indonesia still have the potential to be a force for good?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Ary Hermawan. Ary is the current editor of Indonesia at Melbourne and a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute. He earned his bachelor degree in Islamic history from the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University and his master’s degree in international journalism from the University of Arizona's School of Journalism. He previously worked as a managing editor and editor at large of Indonesia’s leading English daily, The Jakarta Post. He also briefly served as deputy director of Amnesty International Indonesia.

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.

Image: Prabowo-Gibran Campaign 2024

One of the signature campaign promises of the Prabowo Subianto presidency is free lunches and milk for Indonesian school kids. This plan is linked to a much wider set of reforms to the way Indonesia’s produces and organises its agriculture sector, including the modernization of agriculture and converting land to plantations. The details are still pretty scant but this is not a thought bubble, food sovereignty is an issue that Prabowo has spent much of his political career touting. Prabowo served as head of the Indonesian Farmers Association and chairs the advisory board for the Primary Rural Cooperative or (Inkud).

As Minister of Defence, Prabowo also led Jokowi’s food estate program, using private sector and military resources to open up massive new cassava plantations in Kalimantan. Those plantations failed. But nonetheless the incoming president is undeterred. Prabowo has called Indonesian farmers true patriots who will lead the country to food sovereignty.

Food security is going to be the signature policy of the Prabowo administration so I figured we all need a primer not just on agriculture, but a sense of how small holder farming has been organised politically, socially and historically to better understand how grant state projects for agricultural transformation impact the lives of ordinary rural communities.

The Indonesian music scene is currently experiencing a vibrant period of experimentation, where musicians are blending vernacular Indonesian music traditions with elements from diverse global influences and historical periods. This fusion has led to the emergence of groundbreaking acts like Senyawa, who have successfully captured international attention.

While the creative landscape pushes forward, however, there's a simultaneous return to older technology in music distribution, particularly the resurgence of vinyl recording. This vinyl revival, mirroring a global trend, has taken root in Indonesia. Taufiq Rahman, editor-in-chief of Jakarta Post as well as the founder of Elevation Records, is at the forefront of this. He and his business partners have now established the country's sole vinyl pressing factory, marking a significant milestone in Indonesia's contemporary music industry.

What is the role of vinyl recordings in Indonesian music history? And what are the factors driving its current renaissance? For those interested in exploring Indonesian music through vinyl, Taufiq Rahman will also offer his valuable insights, including why "Badai Pasti Berlalu" is one of Indonesia's finest pop productions and how the artistry of Rhoma Irama extends beyond dangdut music.

In 2024, 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.

Look out for a new Talking Indonesia podcast every fortnight. Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via Apple Podcasts or listen via your favourite podcasting app.

Antje Missbach - Refugees growing up in limbo

Indonesia is currently home to over 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers, a majority of them young people who are stuck in limbo waiting for their futures to be determined. For most, it takes years, sometimes more than a decade, for resettlement to become an option. In the meantime, for those who arrive in Indonesia as children and teenagers this means that much of their youth and formative years - when they look to form relationships, explore their sexuality and establish their identities - are also ones in which they have very limited opportunities for education, work and recreation. This means growing up amid endless boredom and with few pathways into society. The recent arrivals of boatloads of Rohingya refugees on Aceh’s shores is a stark reminder that the asylum seeker issue is not going away. New solutions are needed to enable the thousands currently in Indonesia, to establish a somewhat normal life.

With onward pathways to Australia and beyond cut off and resettlement extremely slow, will Indonesia shift its rhetoric and recognise its status as a destination, rather than transit, country for refugees? What will this mean for those stranded in Indonesia? Will they finally be permitted to integrate and make a place in society?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Antje Missbach, Professor of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Germany. Antje is an expert on asylum seekers in Indonesia and specialises in global and transnational migration and mobility.

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.

Image: /Ali Froghi

Teaching Indonesian as a second language comes with challenges. In Australia, there is a wide gulf between the government's rhetoric about the importance of learning Indonesian and the realities faced by teachers on the ground. In the absence of centralised resources, Indonesian teachers often have to work creatively to devise their own materials and deliver quality instruction.

Today's guests on Talking Indonesia, Dr Howie Manns and Dr Jessica Kruk, both discovered Indonesian at a young age and have gone on to research and teach the language. In this episode, they chat about teaching colloquial and formal Indonesian and other challenges faced by Indonesian teachers in Australia.

Howie and Jess believe in the power of open educational practices and collaboration among educators. To help out their fellow teachers, they are developing a new podcast called "Bloody Bagus” that will provide materials for standard and informal Indonesian, connect students with contemporary Indonesian culture and enrich their learning experience.

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Tito Ambyo from RMIT, Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University.

Bivitri Susanti - Dirty Vote

The frenzied final weeks of campaigning leading up to the presidential election on 14 February 2024 were packed with promises, symbols, celebrity and cash. When the dance literally stopped a few days before the polls opened, in the traditional cooling off period, a documentary film, Dirty Vote, dropped on YouTube.

The work of activist filmmaker, Dandhy Laksono, the film has a lecture-style format featuring three constitutional law experts as its cast. At just under 2 hours long, the film draws on extensive research conducted by the experts and their colleagues, to shed light on the depth of election fraud, money politics and the systemic deterioration and abuse of Indonesia’s democratic institutions, including the electoral system, anti-corruption agency and the judiciary.

Dirty Vote attracted over 6 million views in the first day of release and has since amassed around 30 million views. What were the filmmaker’s aims for this film and what kind of impact were they hoping it to have? What were its key messages and what is the path for Indonesia’s democratic project moving forward?

In this week's episode Jemma chats with Bivitri Susanti, Deputy Director of the Indonesia Jentera School of Law and co-founder of the Indonesian Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK).

In 2024, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre, Dr Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales and Tito Ambyo from RMIT.

Image: IMDb/Dirty Vote