Acehnese voters registered clear displeasure with the ruling Partai Aceh in national legislative elections, argues this report. Overview The 9 April 2014 legislative elections in Aceh produced three surprises. First, voters sent a strong message of displeasure to the ruling Partai Aceh (PA), the party controlled by leaders of the former rebel Free Aceh Movement...

Indigenous rights and agrarian reform may be on a collision course in Indonesia, adding to the complexity of resolving land conflicts there. Overview: A longstanding land conflict in Jambi province, Sumatra, highlights the tension between two strands of civil society: the movement to protect indigenous rights and the movement for agrarian reform. As the former...

This report examines the latest draft law on special autonomy in Papua, the politics behind it and how it might feed into Indonesia's coming national elections. Overview: The idea of a new law on enhanced special autonomy (otsus plus) for Papua is still alive, but it is not clear who beyond a tiny elite in...

Introduction: The conflict in Syria has captured the imagination of Indonesian extremists in a way no foreign war has before. For the first time, Indonesians are going overseas to fight, not just to train, as in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and 1990s, or to give moral and financial support, as in the case of...

This report argues that the weakness of Indonesian extremists today may be propelling them toward violence as the lack of training, experience or religious credentials leaves attacks as the only way to gain legitimacy. Introduction In December 2012, about a dozen men met in Bandung, West Java and proclaimed themselves Mujahidin of Western Indonesia (Mujahidin...