New Order

Subversive ‘underground’ voices in Indonesian rap Michael Bodden It’s Jakarta, June 2004 and the boom box is playing a hip-hop beat. It’s a far cry from the meditative gamelan music, saccharine love songs or even the sensual dangdut one expects to hear in Java. The rapper is Xaqhala and he spins a gritty, rhythmic poem of everyday youth experience.

Who should call the shots – international donors or local NGOs?

Much aid comes with strings attached – crippling loan repayments, exploitation of resources and vulnerability to unfriendly international markets

Foreign policy not poverty reduction drives the Australian aid program

Aid works best when it seeks to confront social injustice

How effective is the war on drugs?

Workers with soul take their message to the kampung

It’s been a long struggle trying to get unions to listen to women

Fauzi Abdullah reflects on more than a quarter of a century of organising

The East Timorese resistance movement also committed crimes.

Overwhelming data makes the East Timor report rock solid

Indonesia’s environment network faces dilemmas as it turns 25.

New anti-domestic violence law brings hope for women.

In his last interview, Pramoedya kept up his attack on elitism and corruption.

A younger writer remembers Pramoedya’s influence on his own life and work

Pramoedya the writer was also an historian who loved his country

Chinese Confucianism is recognised again as an official religion.

Missionaries and the military co-operate in converting the Asmat to Christianity.

A career soldier who commanded a country.