Editor’s Introduction Kanti W. Janis is an Indonesian constitutional lawyer, acclaimed author, and political leader whose work bridges constitutional litigation, democratic governance, and anti-extractivist community defense. Emerging from a prominent anticolonial family of independence freedom … [Read more...]
The City and the Writer: In Jakarta with Khairani Barokka
August 25, 2026 by
Art, resistance, “slang unfurling and evolving”: Khairani Barokka considers Jakarta in all its multiplicity. If each city is like a game of chess, the day when I have learned the rules, I shall finally possess my empire, even if I shall never succeed in knowing all the cities it … [Read more...]
A Social Gathering of the Opposition
August 23, 2026 by
News that Oei Tjoe Tat would visit Salatiga, Central Java, in May 1986 reached Stanley Adi Prasetyo. Oei, who had served as a state minister under President Sukarno, was planning to visit the family of his wife, Rika, also known as Kwee Loan Nio, who hailed from that city. To Stanley, then an … [Read more...]
Review: On fascism and the book
August 22, 2026 by
I laughed when I reached the pages on Franz Magnis-Suseno. Then the laugh died in my throat. There is something frightening beneath the comedy. Here is the story. In Makassar, in August 2019 police and vigilantes in religious dress seized two books by Magnis-Suseno, Pemikiran Karl Marx (Karl … [Read more...]
The Sea Speaks His Name: Leila S. Chudori on Grief, Collective Memory, and a Curious Generation
August 19, 2026 by
In the months leading up to President Soeharto’s resignation in May 1998 after more than three decades of authoritarian rule, Indonesia was gripped by a wave of protests as economic collapse and political unrest converged. Across university campuses and city streets, students mobilized, calling for … [Read more...]
