Jakarta – The number of floating voters is tending to increase. This can be seen not just from the decline in participation levels in elections between 1999 and 2009, but the political parties in general would be unable to hold on to their constituents if an election was held today.

M Hernowo – Case of human rights violations that took place around the time of the fall of the New Order regime have still not been fully resolved. Moreover President Suharto’s decision on May 21, 1998 to release his grip on the reigns power, which he held for 32 years, has been taken advantage of by some groups.

Man: They say to be involved in politics you have to be like a rat, sniff things out first, then bite!

Kid: That’s right dad! It’s also what’s called a political rat! – a play on the word politikus: politik (politics) + tikus (rat) = politician.

Yogyakarta – Scores of demonstrators from the Student Struggle Center for National Liberation (Pembebasan) held an action in front of the Gajah Mada University traffic circle on Friday January 28 demanding that the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and Vice President Boediono resign because they have become loyal servants of

Exhaust: Bank Century, Lapindo disaster, racial, religious & ethnic conflicts, judicial & tax mafia, migrant workers, Yogyakarta gudeg, tiwul food poisoning.

M Hernowo and Anita Yossihara – The Joint Secretariat (Setgab) of political parties supporting the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. This was one of the important political “breakthroughs” in 2010, and the controversy surrounding it has continued to this day.

Taxation, Politics, Funny business

Alie Usman, Jakarta – A meeting organised by the Muhammadiyah Youth Association to address problems of the state and nation, which presented figures such as Rizal Ramli and Romo Magnis Suseno at the Muhammadiyah Central Board office in Jakarta, has ended in chaos.

Jakarta – The mechanism of checks and balances that should be carried out by the House of Representatives (DPR) over the government is progressively disappearing.

Jakarta – It is as though state has no presence any more. Thus was an assessment by Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud MD in depicting the endless cases of violence in this country. Law enforcers, which it would be hoped are the means to resolve social conflicts, instead generate injustice.

The attacks by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) against the two-week International Q! Film Festival which opened in Jakarta on September 24 is a violation of basic human rights and threatens democracy in Indonesia.

While the political elite sell off the country’s enormous natural wealth and divide the spoils among themselves, more than half of Indonesia’s 240 million people live on less than US$2 a day, 25% of children under five are malnourished, only 48% of the rural poor have access to clean water and only 55% of poor children complete junior high schoo

Politician: Remember... during the holy fasting month we should control our passion and lust.

Man: Including the lust for corruption?

Politician: Let me get back to you on that one...

Sri when will you come home. You left without telling me. They say you went to the market to buy prawn paste, but you still haven’t come home... come back now Sri... come back now. (adapted from Sri Ran Away by Sony Josz)

Let us unite to overthrow the pro-imperialist government of SBY-Boediono and the rotten political elite. Replace them with a United Government of the Poor!

Suits: Political parties, funny companies, tax mafia

Marsinah was a woman worker who was militant and courageous.

Vivi W – Commemorating May Day, 5,000 workers from the Workers Challenge Alliance (ABM) held a protest action in Jakarta today against the pro-capitalist administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono (SBY-Boediono), which have consistently brought suffering to the Indonesian working class.

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – Scores of women activists in the East Java city of Yogyakarta commemorated International Women’s Day on Monday March 8 by calling for equality and freedom for Indonesian women.