By Jonathan Thatcher WEST JAVA, Indonesia – Rizki doesn’t have a job. A high school graduate, he’s what my mother would have called “a nice young man” — well spoken, polite and conservatively dressed. He’s also too short. He may look of average height and be in...
By Jonathan Thatcher After the world’s largest ever democratic election in a single day last week, Indonesia’s 20-year-old democracy is looking reassuringly predictable. There was even an indignant post-election sulk by the losing candidate, who claimed, as he did...
By Jonathan Thatcher In the farming village where I stay in Indonesia’s West Java province, Islam is central to daily life. The village has its own religious school, and those who can afford it sign up for the 10-year wait to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. But its...
By Jonathan Thatcher Indonesia, the world’s third biggest democracy, sparked an international outcry with last month’s mass executions of convicted drug traffickers, most of them foreigners. At home, however, President Joko Widodo’s refusal to cave in to foreign...