Jakarta – Hundreds of people from the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) and the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) gathered on Jl. Pangeran Diponegoro in Central Jakarta on Friday December 1.

Alpen Martinus, Tondano – Scores of Manado State University (Unima) students from the Student Struggle Centre for National Liberation (Pembebasan), the Minahasa Progressive Women and individual pro-democracy activist held a solidarity action at the Unima main gate on Monday November 27.

Suharto’s former ruling party Golkar, which for years has stood by Setya Novanto in the face of a string of corruption scandals, is moving quickly to distance itself from the House speaker and party chair who they now see as an electoral liability following his arrest by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last week.

Friski Riana, Jakarta – Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno has confirmed that the Jakarta regional government will allocate grants of some 1.7 trillion rupiah from the 2018 regional budget (APBD) to several organisations.

Rinaldy Sofwan, Jakarta – Philosopher and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Noam Chomsky and a group of international academics are calling on the Indonesian government to withdraw all troops from West Papua following allegations of human rights violations against civilians by security forces in the province.

Cikarang – On Monday November 20 some 644 PT Alpen Food Industry or PT Aice workers went on strike in protest against the ice cream company.

Heyder Affan – A number of locations in the vicinity of Purwodadi, Central Java, have been confirmed as sites of mass grave, places where bodies were disposed of and sites where people accused of being members or sympathisers of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were executed in the months after October 1965.

Sarinah – The setting of the 2018 minimum wage has it seems has been full of drama compared with previous years. Newly elected Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno, who were earlier applauded and flattered “as high as the sky” by their trade union supporters, are now being labeled as liars.

Lalu Rahadian, Jakarta – Vertical and horizontal conflicts in Papua province will not be resolved until the Indonesian government provides the Papuan people with an opportunity to determine their future through an international forum.

M Yusuf Manurung, Jakarta – The Central Jakarta municipal government today demolished illegal dwellings in the vicinity of the Western Flood Canal, Jl. Tenaga Listrik and Tanah Abang with residents saying that they were disappointed in Anies-Sandi.

Jayapura – The Papua provincial government has explicitly refuted a statement by the Papua regional police chief that residents have been taken hostage by an Armed Criminal Group (KKB) in the villages of Banti and Kimbely near the PT Freeport Indonesia mine in Tembagapura district, Mimika regency.

Bambang Hari, Jakarta – An employee at the PT Freeport Indonesia gold-and-copper mine in West Papua, Aser Gobai has refuted information that a PT Freeport worker has been taken hostage by an armed civilian group.

Free Papua Organisation (OPM) spokesperson Sebby Sambon denies that his group has acted in a criminal manner by taking hundreds of local people hostage and raping them. According to Sebby, reports making such claims are just propaganda aimed at damaging the OPM’s struggle.

Jayapura – Mimika District Police Chief Assistance Superintendent Victor Dean Mackbon has denied that residents of the Kimbely and Banti villages are being held hostage by an Armed Criminal Group (KKB).

Having skillfully used his political power and influence to dodged the law a in series of corruption scandals dating back to 1999, House speaker and Golkar Party chair Setya Novanto – dubbed by the media as ‘Mr Teflon’ – may finally face justice after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) again named him a suspect a month after a controver

Yakub Mulyono, Jember – Hundreds of students from the Muhammadiyah 5 Vocational High School (SMK) in Jember, East Java, have uninstalled WhatsApp (WA) from their mobile phones as a form of protest because WA can access content that contains pornography.

Ahmad Bil Wahid, Jakarta – The Alumni 212 held a commemoration of the 411 Action at the Al-Azhar Mosque in South Jakarta. Newly elected Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan was also invited but did not attend.

AC Nielsen research shows that the recent decline in consumption is not a result of a shift to online shopping because the digital trade segment accounts for only 1 percent of consumption.

David Oliver Purba, Jakarta – Indonesian Trade Union Confederation (KSPI) president Said Iqbal says that former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok had far more courage in setting the provincial minimum wage (UMP) than the current Jakarta governor and deputy governor, Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno.

Sign above door reads ‘Kuper (lack of attention) Fireworks Factory’