From March 31 to April 2, Prabowo Subianto visited China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping, his first foreign trip since winning Indonesia’s presidential election in February. During the visit, Xi Jinping congratulated Prabowo on his electoral success and highlighted the high quality of the two nations’ recent bilateral cooperation, notably exemplified by projects … Read more
GoTo, the Indonesian tech giant that owns ride-hailing and delivery service Go-Jek and e-commerce platform Tokopedia, had an eventful 2023. In June, there was a management shake-up, with Patrick Walujo replacing Andre Soelistyo as president director (Soelistyo now holds a position on the Board of Commissioners). Then in December, GoTo reached a deal with TikTok, … Read more
Indonesia’s military says that it has arrested 13 soldiers after the emergence of a video showing the torture of a man believed to be a member of a Papuan separatist group. The video, which has been doing the rounds on social media since last month, shows men kicking, beating, and dunking a man in a … Read more
The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia policy. This conversation with Dr. Bridget Welsh – honorary research associate at the Asia Research Institute of University of Nottingham Malaysia, senior research associate of the Hu Feng Center for East Asia … Read more
In the late 1990s, during the Asian Financial Crisis, the Indonesian banking sector essentially collapsed. The crash of the rupiah pulled back the curtain and revealed that the balance sheets of many banks were stuffed with bad loans. Many of them went under, or had to be rescued and recapitalized by the government. Four such … Read more
An Indonesian search and rescue ship yesterday rescued dozens of Rohingya refugees from a capsized wooden boat off the coast of Aceh, underscoring the peril of the ocean journeys from Bangladesh. According to a report from The Associated Press, which had a photographer aboard the Indonesian vessel, 59 people were saved by the search and … Read more
Indonesia’s election commission has confirmed Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto as the nation’s next president, affirming the unofficial counts that showed the defense minister scoring a landslide victory over his two rivals The former special forces commander won the February 14 contest with more than 58 percent of the nationwide vote and is also believed to … Read more
Indonesia’s latest aviation “episode” would strike fear into the heart of even the most seasoned traveler. On January 25, two Indonesian pilots on a Batik Air flight from Sulawesi to Jakarta reportedly fell asleep in the cockpit for 28 minutes while the plane was in manual mode, causing the flight to veer off course. We … Read more
Yesterday, Indonesian presidential candidate Anies Baswedan announced that he will file a case at the country’s Constitutional Court contesting the results of last month’s election. Speaking with reporters yesterday, the former Jakarta governor repeated his past criticisms that the state had not been neutral in the February 14 election, which saw him come in second … Read more
In the tumultuous years of the early 1980s, a young Indonesian military officer took part in a series of combat operations in East Timor, then under Indonesian occupation. During one military campaign in September 1983, several hundred East Timorese were killed by Indonesian troops in an incident known to history as the Kraras Massacre. As … Read more