Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, was returning to normal Friday as traffic returned to the centre following two nights of deadly clashes between protesters and police that left seven dead and hundreds injured.The subdued mood in what is normally a frenetic and noisy urban sprawl of more than 30 million people belies a polarisation in the country that has been building steam for years.
Indonesia pulled off a complex yet peaceful election across its vast – and ethnically diverse – island territory this week, cementing its place as a democratic beacon in a sea of authoritarian governments, analysts say.But the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation still faces a spike in militant Islam and myriad other challenges.On Wednesday, the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago saw as many as 190 million voters cast ballots to elect a new president, parliamentarians and local legi
Indonesia's Joko Widodo said Thursday his re-election as head of the world's third-biggest democracy was all but assured, calling for calm as his firebrand ex-general rival insisted he had in fact won the nation's top job.Widodo, 57, said he had received phone calls from world leaders to congratulate him on his country's biggest-ever election, but added he would await the final results before formally declaring victory.He cited a series of so-called "quick counts"
For Siti Mutmainah, a government cash handout of 800,000 rupiah (US$56) every quarter has turned her family’s life around, putting health care and education for her two children well within her reach.Mutmainah’s family is one of the 10 million households – or just over 15 percent of the country –benefiting from Indonesia’s ‘family hope program’, known as PKH, first introduced in 2007 to end the cycle of poverty among the country’s most vulnerable.President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, almost
Is Russia meddling in the Indonesian elections too?The question is far from settled despite denials from the Russian embassy in Jakarta and presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto, who say the charge levelled by incumbent leader Joko Widodo is baseless.Widodo, who is seeking re-election in April, fired the first salvo last week, saying a campaign team deployed foreign consultants and resorted to “Russian propaganda” including defamation, lies and hoaxes.
