A melting pot of cultures, Indonesia is very fortunate to be blessed with a mix of Melayu, Indian, Arab, Chinese and European music, now known as dangdut. The popularity of the genre has reached far and wide; however, maybe not as far as the United States — or so one might think. 

Since rabies was declared endemic to East Nusa Tenggara in 1997, there has been little progress in the provincial government’s efforts to eliminate the zoonotic  disease, as the virus remains a serious health issue today. Reporting from Maumere, The Jakarta Post contributing writer Djemi Amnifu explains how the local government’s neglect, combined with the locals’ appetite for dog meat, has contributed to the spread of the deadly disease. 

Inspired by success stories in Yogyakarta and Malang, an increasing number of slum areas in major cities across Indonesia have transformed into new colorful quarters worthy of sightseeing.The Jakarta Post writers Corry Elyda in Jakarta and Aman Rochman in Malang take a closer look at how the trend is sparking a new social media craze.

The indigenous forest people of the remote Mentawai Islands, about 150 kilometers off the west coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean, are being pushed even further to the edge. They are powerless to defend their pristine forest, which a company has eyed for converting into a plantation. The Jakarta Post journalist Moses Ompusunggu recently visited Siberut, the largest of the three islands that make up the regency, and observed the native people’s struggle to protect their ancestral home.

Followers of Sunda Wiwitan, one of the countless indigenous faiths in Indonesia, have survived colonial oppression and purges of non-official religions by the authoritarian New Order regime. The Jakarta Post writer Corry Elyda takes a look at how the small communities scattered across West Java and Banten provinces have stood the test of time.

Indonesia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community has been subjected to prejudice, hatred and physical attacks. Adding insult to injury, public officials and religious leaders have further exacerbated the situation with their politically charged anti-LGBT rhetoric. The latest challenge is the insistence by lawmakers on criminalizing same-sex relations. The Jakarta Post’s writer Safrin La Batu reports on how the marginalized group is putting up a fight for its rights.

The world-class Gelora Bung Karno sports complex, a legacy of Indonesia’s founding father Sukarno, has been renovated for the upcoming Asian Games, which will be cohosted by Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra. The Jakarta Post sports correspondent Ramadani Saputra has taken a look at the history of the sports complex, from its inauguration to what it looks like today after having gone through a US$205 million renovation.

Despite its reputation as a resource-rich country, Indonesia still bears the shame of a problem with stunting, globally having the fifth highest number of cases. The Jakarta Post journalist Moses Ompusunggu examines why Indonesia remains struggling with the issue and what it is doing to address it.

The Mahakam, one of Indonesia’s mightiest rivers, is home to endangered freshwater dolphins in Kalimantan. Conservation group Rare Aquatic Species of Indonesia (RASI) estimates their number at 80. Pollution from the mining industry and logging has been largely blamed for their endangerment. The Jakarta Post correspondent in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, Nurni Sulaiman, recently joined researchers and activists on a three-week trip along the Mahakam River to monitor the animals’ degrading habitat and conservation efforts.

The challenge to feed the world’s 7.6 billion people has never been more daunting. Scientists, governments and farmers have come together to promote biotechnology and boost agricultural products in the face of shrinking arable land and global warming. During a recent ASEAN Plant Science Primer event organized by agriculture companies association CropLife Asia in Manila recently, The Jakarta Post’s writer Corry Elyda had the opportunity to observe how some ASEAN countries are making the most of biotechnology.

The recent Constitutional Court ruling that allows millions of adherents of indigenous faiths to state their beliefs on their ID card has raised expectations of an end to state-sponsored discrimination. The Jakarta Post writers Margareth S. Aritonang and Corry Elyda review the landmark ruling and its pitfalls. Our correspondents Bambang Muryanto in Yogyakarta and Apriadi Gunawan in Medan take a closer look at local native faiths.

Indonesia may not yet have an unmanned establishment like Jack Ma’s Tao Café in Hangzhou, China, or driverless buses like those in France and Switzerland, but the impact of digitalization on employment in the country is becoming increasingly obvious. The Jakarta Post journalist Stefani Ribka examines how the digital revolution will continue robbing people of jobs but considerably improve business efficiency at the same time.

The recent bust of a prostitution service disguised as an online dating platform has put the controversy over nikah siri (informal unregistered marriage) back into the spotlight. The Jakarta Post’s Corry Elyda and Ika Krismantari discuss why people still love to embrace this bald-faced hypocrisy.  

The prevalence of China’s mobile payments is hard to overlook. Not only is everyone talking about the e-payment platforms, but also people are using them in their daily lives to the point where it seems they can’t live without them.

After three years of fully fledged operations, the social security system continues to struggle with low participant acquisition and poor premium compliance.

They turn down television deals and, with their own quantifiable online audience and self-produced videos, these are people who do not have the slightest worry about ratings or “getting axed.”

As a developing country with a burgeoning middle class population, Indonesia has become one of the world’s largest markets for electronics. According to the latest survey from the Indonesian Internet Providers Association (APJII), almost 133 million Indonesians had access to the internet last year through their smartphones and computers.

In 1986, then East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) governor Ben Mboi issued a bylaw on the trade in sandalwood that everybody in the impoverished province has been regretting ever since; five years later it was revoked and replaced with a more populist one.

Until seven years ago, event organizers would rely on music and dance to liven up parties. Things began to change with the rise of stand-up comedy, which quickly gained popularity thanks to its steady stream on TV.

Anti-vaccine movements gaining ground on the back of rising religious conservatism and the thriving internet are threatening to foil Indonesia’s painstaking effort to achieve its goal of 100 percent immunization. This worrying trend has seen the comeback of preventable diseases like diphtheria.

The “excessive” censorship of TV programs in the past couple of years and disharmony between the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) and the Film Censorship Board (LSF) is in the spotlight.

Being a former grassroots activist and an avowed communist, Mustafa Barghouthi did not mince his words when criticizing the Israeli government and a whole host of its policies.

The alarming examples of intolerance, which go along with growing religious conservatism and get a free ride in the burgeoning democracy by weak governments in the wake of the 1998 wave of political reform, have been sounding a death knell for the diversity of Indonesia.

Hope and despair fills the first half of 2017 in efforts to protect the rights of women and girls. In late April the first ever Indonesian Women Ulema Congress issued a fatwa on preventing child marriage and ending sexual violence.

A continuously increasing number of Indonesian Muslims performing umrah (minor haj) to the Islamic holy land of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, has led to an increase in travel agencies offering trip packages throughout predominantly Muslim Indonesia.

In search of more empathetic police

Barely heard of a decade ago, “media influencer” is becoming a household name and a promising profession among Indonesian millennials. Unlike conventional jobs, making it big in this one requires the new media proficiency of business-minded kids from the smartphone generation.

Within the last five years, startups have become a part of our daily lifestyle, alongside the increase in internet access penetration among Indonesians.

"I’m wearing batik because I’m comfortable in it. Batik can be worn for casual or formal events, so I’m wearing it because of that," Mela Siagian said.

Collateral damage in war against poachers