A ‘re’-writing history project - Grace Leksana
Shortly after taking up his position as the Minister for Culture and Education in the Prabowo government, Fadli Zon announced he was commissioning a reworking of the official Indonesian history textbook.
In early 2025, outlines of the project’s terms of reference started to trickle out, and historians, activists and survivors’ groups grew increasingly concerned. The new version, assembled without broad consultation, contained a raft of significant changes and glaring omissions, including human rights violations carried out by the New Order, and the roles of women at various stages in Indonesia’s pre- and post-independence past. Moreover, Minister Zon was determined to deliver the new book in time for the celebration of Indonesia’s 80th anniversary of independence on 17 August. That deadline has now passed but the project remains in progress.
What and who was behind this ‘rewriting’ history project? What were their motives? What ‘red flags’ most alarmed historians and others, and ultimately what can be done to resist and possibly reverse the course of this project?
In this week's episode Jemma chats with Grace Leksana an Assistant Professor in Indonesian history in the Cultural History section of Utrecht University. Grace is author of Memory culture of the anti Leftist violence in Indonesia: Embedded Remembering (Amsterdam University Press, 2023). She is a member of the Indonesian History Openness Alliance (AKSI).
In 2025, 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.
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Aliansi Gusar - Overseas Responses to Indonesia's Protests
On August 25 2025, protestors took to the streets in Jakarta outside the parliament to vocalise their loss of confidence in the current parliament. While the protests were triggered by a newly announced increase in parliamentarian housing allowances, the protests were about so much more. Underpinning it all was a general lack of confidence that Indonesian politicians care about, or were effectively responding to, the very real struggles of everyday Indonesians that they are supposed to be representing. These protests spread to other parts of the country and in some cases, turned deadly.
In today’s special episode, we turn to the thoughts and responses of Indonesians currently living overseas. Being away from home when such serious and concerning events are underway poses its own challenges, and today I want to find out more about how they are getting information, what they see as the key issues, and what can be done from abroad.
Elisabeth Kramer talks to Indonesian students currently studying at the University of Sydney, Australia--Mahesti Hasanah (PhD Candidate Political Economy), Benni Hasbiyalloh (PhD Candidate Government and International Relations) and Ifana Tungga (Masters Candidate Cultural Studies). They are some of the organisers behind Aliansi Gusar, a grassroots based organisation concerned with justice and equality in Indonesia. They share their thoughts and experiences regarding the current protests and organising around ongoing issues in Indonesia.
This podcast was recorded on 7 September 2025.
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Rebecca Meckelburg: Indonesia's New Protest Movements
In late August, demonstrations against housing allowances for national parliamentarians escalated dramatically when a motorcycle delivery driver, Affan Kurniawan, caught up in the protests, was run over by a police tactical vehicle. His death, live-streamed, saw waves of protests in at least 47 Indonesian cities in a convulsion of genuine national rage and frustration.
Parliaments were set on fire in at least 4 cities, police stations were attacked, and the homes of prominent political figures were looted, including Finance Minister Sri Mulyani. Our social media feeds were awash with footage of angry protestors and police brutality. Ibu Ana, a housewife in Jakarta, caught the national mood when she was photographed in the rain in thongs and a pink headscarf, facing down a cordon of heavily armed police officers with the Indonesian flag on a bamboo pole. Who are these protestors? How did they mobilise so fast? What do they want and how will they achieve it?
Super fans of the podcast might remember Rebecca Meckelburg from a year ago when I interviewed her on agrarian change. Her view from Central Java, where she lives, complicates conventional pictures of a protest movement that spontaneously burst into view last week, originating in Jakarta and spreading out to the peripheries.
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Clara Siagian - Rusunawa and the State
While Jakarta's eviction politics have often dominated headlines and grassroots campaigns, the experiences of those who have been relocated to rusunawa (social housing) complexes have remained largely invisible. Yet these families reveal how Indonesia's vision of urban modernity is being literally built into the architecture of everyday life, changing the ways people connect with each other and build their lives.
In this episode of Talking Indonesia, host Tito Ambyo explores these tensions with guest Dr Clara Siagian, whose ethnographic research uncovers how social housing design enforces specific values of respectability on the urban poor - from banning certain cooking methods to restructuring family life itself.
Clara Siagian did her PhD at the Australian National University and is senior researcher at the Center on Child Protection and Wellbeing at Universitas Indonesia as well as a postgraduate researcher at the University College London. Her research examines urban governance, childhood policy, and development through the perspectives of marginalised populations.
In 2025, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Tito Ambyo from RMIT, Dr Elisabeth Kramer from the University of New South Wales, Dr. Jacqui Baker from Murdoch University and Dr Jemma Purdey from the Australia-Indonesia Centre.
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Diah Angendari - AI Policy in Indonesia
From the algorithms that curate your social media feed to the recommendation systems that influence what you buy, artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping every aspect of our daily lives. Yet most of us remain in the dark about how these powerful technologies are governed—and that's a problem we can't afford to ignore.
Artificial Intelligence (or AI) policy isn't just about tech regulation; it's about who gets to shape the future of work, privacy, and power in our increasingly digital world. The rules being written today will determine whether AI serves all of society or just a privileged few.
In this episode of Talking Indonesia, Dr Elisabeth Kramer dives into Indonesia's approach to AI governance, taking its cues from the private sector, with guest Diah Angendari.
Diah Angendari is a PhD Candidate at Leiden University and her dissertation examines the interplay between imaginaries, power, and interests in policymaking. She’s using the case study of AI in Indonesia to understand the factors that shape these policies. Prior to joining the PhD program, Diah was a lecturer in the Department of Communication Science at Gadjah Mada University.
In the Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Jemma Purdey, Dr Jacqui Baker, Tito Ambyo and Dr Elisabeth Kramer present an extended interview each fortnight with experts on Indonesian politics, foreign policy, culture, language and more. Find all the Talking Indonesia podcasts and more at the Indonesia at Melbourne blog.
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