Jakarta – The Draft Law on Regional Elections (RUU Pilkada), which abolishes the direct election of regional heads and was successfully enacted into law (UU Pilkada) by the parties backing Prabowo Subianto’s Red and White Coalition (KMP) is a threat to democracy.

Anang Zakaria, Yogyakarta – Ten non-government organisations (NGOs) and student groups in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta are demanding the annulment of the recently enacted law on regional elections (UU Pilkada) that abolished the direct election of regional heads.

[The following is a joint statement by the Yogyakarta Working People’s Association-Political Organisation Congress (KPO-PRP), the Politics of the People (PR) and the People’s Liberation Party (PPR).]

Safari Sidakaton – International Women’s Day (IWD) was commemorated by a variety of different women’s communities and organisations that united under the International Women’s Day Action Committee (KAHPS), which presented a “Claim for Payment” to government institutions and agencies on Friday March 8.

Laurencius Simanjuntak – Founded on July 22, 1996, or when Suharto’s New Order regime was still savage and cruel, it was not an easy time for the People’s Democratic Party (PRD). Moreover the social-democrat orientated party explicitly declared its opposition to Suharto’s power.

Friends and comrades, all the people of Indonesia, are you aware of the escalating violence that has been taking place in West Papua over the last few days. Terror, violence and intimidation have become the daily face of life for the Papuan people.

Angling Adhitya Purbaya, Semarang – Commemorating May Day, thousands of workers from the Workers Challenge Movement (Gerbang) held a protest action at the Central Java governors’ office on Jl. Pahlawan in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang.

PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of Freeport McMoran Cooper and Gold – of which 90.64 percent of the shares are owned by Freeport CEO James R. Moffet – is the largest mining company in the world. Freeport contributes 95 percent of the entire production of gold by Freeport McMoran and a significant percentage of its copper production.

Democracy in South-East Asia is currently under attack. After the Thai Embassy in Jakarta was the target of a demonstration on June 27 because the Thai government arrested Red Shirt activist leaders, today it was the turn of the Malaysian Embassy on Jl. HR Rasuna Said in Kuningan, South Jakarta, to be the target of demonstrators.

Ari Saputra, Jakarta – The Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta has been ‘attacked en masse’ by scores of labour and youth activists condemning the arrest of 30 Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM) activists by the Malaysian government.

Hendra A Setyawan, Jakarta – The discourse on the simplification of political parties such as by increasing the parliamentary threshold (the minimum number of votes required to obtain a seat in the national parliament) is the principle challenge facing new political parties seeking to get into the parliament through the 2014 general elections.

Medan – Protesters calling themselves the Women’s Liberation Progressive Committee (KP3), which is an alliance of the North Sumatra Islamic University (UISU) Islamic Students Association Commissariat (HMI-KOM) faculty of agriculture, the UISU HMI-KOM faculty of literature, Free Women (Perempuan Mahardhika), the Political Union of the Poor (PPRM)

Umi Kalsum, Eko Huda S – Around 700 people held a protest action against the recent basic electricity rate (TDL) increases in front of the State Palace on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta on Saturday August 7. They demand that the government cancel the increase that took effect last month.

Over the eight years of Venezuela Bolivarian Revolution, it has never been free of intervention, harassment and provocation by the United State government.

Yogyakarta – Demonstrators from the People’s Challenge Alliance (ARM) held a protest action at the University of Gajah Mada (UGM) traffic circle in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on Thursday June 3 calling for the world’s people to unite against imperialism for the national liberation of Palestine.

Israel’s attack on a convey of six ships transporting humanitarian assistance for Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla, in international waters, resulted in the death and injury of civil

Marsinah was a woman worker who was militant and courageous.

Women are not just housewives. They are not second class citizens.

The following is a compilation of abridged translations of the January 28 protest actions held around the country to commemorate the first 100 days of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's second administration. The reports are ordered alphabetically by city.

The North Sumatra Pro-Democracy Movement says that the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and Vice President Boediono, as well as the rotten political elite, have failed to implement the mandate to end the Indonesian people’s suffering.