President Joko Widodo has been accused of meddling in the February 14 election, in which Prabowo Subianto named Widodo’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, as his running mate.

The quality of democracy has ‘deteriorated markedly’ over the course of Widodo’s presidency, capped by new laws stifling dissent and freedom of expression.

Susi Air pilot Phillip Mehrtens was abducted by the West Papua Liberation Army in the highlands of Nduga two months ago after a routine flight to the area.

Descendants and relatives of alleged communists can now join the military. But amid efforts at ‘national reconciliation’ for Indonesian victims of rights violations, fears of communism and anti-Chinese sentiment continue to be exploited for political gain.

Two of the 11 are believed to have been involved in the stabbing, the other nine allegedly committed arson; police are hunting seven others.

Ahmad Gazali, a key member of the East Indonesia Mujahideen network, conducted several executions, including the beheadings of four Christian farmers.

Mitora Pte Ltd is demanding US$40 million and trying to reclaim land and buildings that are part of the Tamam Mini Indonesia Indah park.

Indonesia’s TNI military gave up a role in politics and never tried to get it back. Myanmar’s Tatmadaw take note: TNI is now Indonesia’s most trusted institution.

The Sukarnoputri sisters in Indonesia, Singapore’s Lee siblings and the royal family of Thailand electrify the public with their personal and electoral spats.

Under Suharto’s rule, Chinese Indonesians were discouraged from speaking Mandarin, but many are now embracing their heritage and using their language skills to their advantage as China invests in the country.

Proposed constitutional changes would empower upper house of parliament to elect the country’s leader, echoing the system of the Suharto era.

Suharto, the late Indonesian dictator, banned all Chinese-language education and media in the country. In the years since his resignation, Mandarin news has only had a small audience – but could that be about to change?

Writer Andreas Harsono spent 15 years and carried out 2,000 interviews for his book looking into the themes of race, Islam and power.

Azmi Abubakar hopes the Indonesian Solidarity Party can lower the level of prejudice among young people. He faces an uphill struggle to get elected on April 17, but there is hope that his message of tolerance will take root.

Reformers with proven track records upend the incumbent status quo in three major provinces, all good signs that the country’s president could ride his reformist credentials into another term in office.

Indonesian badminton has fallen on hard times. But a retired star sees reason for cheer – and remembers the good old days weren’t always so good for the country’s ethnic Chinese.

Twenty years after Indonesia’s Reformasi movement started, the activists who were persecuted under the dictator Suharto warn that the country could be backsliding into authoritarianism.

Just two decades on from the Asian financial crisis and the fall of Suharto, the Indonesian economy has passed the trillion-dollar milestone and entered the G20. Yet ways to redistribute its wealth remain stubbornly elusive.

Indonesia has come far on its road to democracy. Yet the dictator’s generals retain influence, pockets of extremism fester, freedoms are being whittled away and a corrupt judiciary holds court.

The fall of Suharto was marked by anti-Chinese riots that killed 1,000. Twenty years on, violent repression is in the past, yet resentment of a largely Christian community in a largely Muslim country remains.

Twenty years since the fall of Suharto, a sultanate clings to colonial era notions and a ban on ‘non natives’ owning land – raising questions as to whether the country has laid to rest its dark past of racial and religious tensions.

With Chinese former Jakarta governor in jail for insulting Islam, and less than 20 years after Asian economic crisis sparked deadly anti-Chinese riots, some families are taking no chances, with escape routes from country at the ready