Arnold Belau, Papuan, Jayapura – As many as 16 members of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) were arrested earlier this afternoon by the Jayapura municipal police (polresta) when they were handing out leaflets about a planned demonstration to take place throughout the land of Papua tomorrow.

With legislative and presidential elections only a few months away, the Australian spy scandal provided a perfect opportunity for political grandstanding with politicians of every strip falling over each other to demonstrate their nationalist credentials by either blasting Australia – or slamming President Yudhoyono for over-reacting or criticis

Man: Don’t go saying my party is a corrupt party!

With hordes of cheap, new cars and motorcycles continuing to hit the city’s streets, and the two rail-based public transit networks not expected to be ready until at least 2016, experts have warned that Jakarta faces total gridlock in 2014.

Man: Look out Mr!

Oktovianus Pogau, Papuan, Jakarta – On Monday afternoon scores of youth and students from the Papua Student Alliance (AMP) held a peaceful demonstration at the House of Representatives (DPR) building to declare their opposition to the creation of 33 new operational areas (DOB, new administrative areas) in Papua.

Man: There are still lots of masked monkeys like this in Jakarta right Mr?

Yogya – Scores of students from the Student Struggle Center for National Liberation (Pembebasan) held an action in solidarity with the October 31-November 1 national strike in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta. The action, which was held in front of the Yogyakarta Presidential Palace, was marked with the lighting of one thousand candles.

Edzan Raharjo, Yogyakarta – An action in solidarity with the national strike was held by scores of students from the Student Struggle Center for National Liberation (Pembebasan) at the Yogyakarta Presidential Palace in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on Friday evening.

Erul, Makassar – On Thursday October 31, several different organisations from the group Social Solidarity Action for the Indonesian People (Samurai) again held a protest action in front of Makassar Industrial Zone (KIMA) Gate II on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan Km 15 in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar.

Sandy Adam Mahaputra, Syahrul Ansyari – The president of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI), Said Iqbal, is demanding that three social organisations in Bekasi, West Java, be held accountable for an attack on workers who were holding a peaceful demonstration.

Agita Sukma Listyanti, Surabaya – Protesting workers are threatening to occupy the East Java governor’s office in the provincial capital of Surabaya if their demands for a regional and municipal minimum wage (UMK) of 3 million rupiah a month are not met, saying that for workers this amount is non-negotiable.

Document reads: ‘Iron-Sand Mining Project Permit’

Semarang – Hundreds for workers from the Indonesian Metal Trade Workers Federation (FSPMI) in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang have blockaded the Java northern coast (pantura) road demanding that the Central Java governor agree to a 3 million rupiah a month minimum wage for workers.

Jakarta – Former labour activist Dita Indah Sari says that a mature labour movement must strengthen its “negotiating muscles” or capacity to negotiate with individual companies rather then organise big demonstrations to achieve wage settlements.

According to a labour observer, although wages continue to rise, the real value of workers’ wages has declined so workers are being impoverished structurally.

Jakarta – Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad, Green Berets) commander Lieutenant General Gatot Nurmantyo has expressed doubts about the current course of democracy.

Yogyakarta – Freedom of association in the era of reformasi (the reform process beginning in 1998) is, as it turns out, still little more than jargon.

Wahyu Aji, Jakarta – It seems that not everybody has a negative assessment of Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi’s appeal to regional governments to foster closer ties with the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) as a partner in development.

Pito Agustin Rudiana, Sleman – A social gathering by victims of the 1965 tragedy at the Santi Dharma Retreat in Godean sub-district, Sleman regency, Yogyakarta, was attacked by the Indonesian Anti-Communist Front (FAKI) on Sunday October 27.