Indonesia 2024-

CIA World Factbook Indonesia
Britannica: Indonesia

What is Indonesia’s vision for the international order?
Ahmad Rizky Mardhatillah Umar speaks to Rheea Saggar about Indonesia’s vision for, and contribution to, the international order amid growing US-China competition.
As an emerging Asian middle power, Indonesia’s notion of international order is based on a commitment to democracy and a desire for autonomy in international politics.
(Chatham House) Since declaring independence in 1945, Indonesia has envisioned itself as a major regional actor. Indonesia organized the Asian-African (Bandung) Conference in 1955 and advocated for decolonization at the 1960 UN General Assembly session. In the 1960s, it helped establish the Non-Aligned Movement and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Since the Cold War, Indonesia has consistently engaged with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), transformed ASEAN, and become a well-known promoter of human rights and democracy in the region. These active engagements illustrate its aspirations to maintain regional stability and peace and play a constructive role in international institutions. 24 July 2023

15 February
‘Winter is coming’: activists’ fears as Prabowo Subianto likely wins Indonesia election
Former son-in-law of late dictator Suharto was discharged from military over alleged abuses dating back to 1980s
(The Guardian) In the runup to the election, Prabowo was the only presidential candidate who did not attend a press freedom event and did not respond to a questionnaire by Human Rights Watch on key rights issues facing Indonesians.
As results emerged on Wednesday, Veronica Koman, a human rights lawyer living in exile in Australia, wrote on Twitter/X: “Many Indonesians are saying that they want to leave the country because Prabowo is winning – similar phenomenon to US citizens when Trump was winning. The big difference is … ours is out of FEAR.”
On Wednesday night, Prabowo told supporters “this win shall be a win for Indonesian people” as he promised to govern for everyone “whatever the ethnicity, whatever the province, whatever the religion, whatever their social background”.
13 February
Indonesia election: president criticised over alleged interference on behalf of Prabowo
The presidential office denies that Joko Widodo has interfered in the upcoming vote

14 February
Rising palm oil deforestation highlights environmental stakes of Indonesia election
(Mighty Earth) As Prabowo Subianto claims victory in Indonesia’s election, new research reveals that palm oil-driven deforestation is on the rise in Indonesia after a decades-long decline. According to a new paper, deforestation for palm oil increased 36% from 22,000 hectares in 2022 to 30,000 hectares in 2023.
At the same time, a separate Mighty Earth analysis shows hundreds of thousands of hectares of Indonesian forest under threat from ill-considered infrastructure projects and dramatically expanded nickel mining for electric vehicle batteries. The bulk of the deforestation comes from a handful of companies that have evaded forest and climate policies adopted by the Indonesian government and most major agriculture companies.
Forest and energy policies figured prominently in the election debate and will be one of the most closely watched areas of Indonesian policy.

9 January
From military leader to ‘harmless grandpa’: the rebranding of Indonesia’s Prabowo
As election looms former son-in-law of late dictator Suharto has become popular with young voters thanks to Instagram posts with cats
… Prabowo, whose running-mate is the eldest son of outgoing president , is leading in election surveys ahead of next month’s vote in Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy. A recent Indikator poll suggested he is succeeding in capturing the support of younger voters, who will be crucial in deciding the outcome of the vote on 14 February. Voters aged between 17 and 40 will account for more than 50% of the electorate, according to data from the election commission.

2 January
A New Dynasty Rises in Jokowi’s Indonesia
One of the 15 key elections to watch in 2024’s historic global vote.
(Foreign Policy) Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most-populous country, after the United States. But more voters will head to the polls on election day in Indonesia than in the United States, making the country’s Valentine’s Day vote the world’s largest single-day contest of 2024. More than 200 million people are eligible to cast ballots in Indonesia, in contrast to the under 170 million registered voters in the United States. Turnout is generally much higher in the Southeast Asian archipelago nation, too. In Indonesia’s last presidential election in 2019, 80 percent of eligible voters participated; the 2020 U.S. election saw a record-high turnout of just 66 percent.
Democracy is a young and treasured—but imperfect—institution in Indonesia. The country was governed by a U.S.-backed military dictatorship from 1966 to 1998, mostly under the notorious Gen. Suharto. Suharto’s ouster has been referred to as an “inside job” that created rules that guaranteed entrenched elites retained power. Among those rules is a requirement that a prospective presidential candidate’s party hold at least 20 percent of seats in parliament for the candidate to run—the highest such threshold in the world.