Ross McKay has been living in or around Jakarta for eight years, and previously was a politician, among many other jobs. He graduated in Politics and Modern History, and took a post-graduate diploma in Soviet Studies (on the principle that a good doctor studies disease). |
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Lacklustre televised presidential debates are a ruling class ruse, rails Ross.
Ross rails against the techniques of hospital debt collectors on reality television in Indonesia.
Women in politics in Indonesia, women politicians and power.
Is Jakarta one of the top ten worst cities in the world to live in?
Who is behind the recent violence in Aceh, and the sharia laws, politics in Aceh.
Ross reels at the sight of TV soap Hareem, a harem love story, and wonders whether it is the worst sinetron ever.
Ross sees parallels between the Prosperous Justice Party/PKS, and the PKI of old.
Employers’ obsession with physical appearance at work.
Ross rails that faraway Palestinian refugees in the Middle East excite more sympathy than refugees in Lombok.
Mixing Sundanese disco music and Islam is a recipe for trouble in West Java, and community “mediation”, as Ross finds out.
Ross calls for a boycott of Blok M Square, as small traders are driven out.
Ross rails that Gestapo style tactics and methods of interrogation are used by the sharia police in Aceh.
Article on bias in the media, examples of Islamist bias on television screens in Indonesia.
Ross on the bigotry of teachers of religion in Islamic schools, religious differences and tolerance of pluralism.
Ross rails forth against an ex-deacon of IPDN, Lexie M. Giroth, murder cover up convict and now promoted professor.
Ross lambasts the legal profession for its tolerance of the Tim Pembela Muslim (TPM), the Muslim Lawyers’ Team.
Ross bemoans the fact that FPI leader Habib Rizieq was only jailed for 18 months.
Defending the monarchical principle in government and the Sultanate of Yogyakarta’s special status.
Confusion over Eid Al Fitr celebrations and what date they should be held on.
Ross on sharia lite in Tangerang and Mayor Wahidin Halim’s re-election bid.
The next target of Islamic fanatics will be old Javanese customs and traditions.
Ross questions the motives of subversive Islamic groups sensitivity over Papua.
Ramadan approaches, again, and Ross complains that religious leaders are intent on spoiling others’ fun and livelihoods.
Sinister motives behind renewed debate over the death penalty and convicts on death row.
TVRI is cheating the nation out of seeing Dewi Persik and Wong Telu.
BIN chief Muchdi Purwopranjono’s arrest by Indonesian police over the murder of human rights activist Munir.
Frozen Assets - good citizens in suspended animation.
Tips for travelling on Jakarta’s buses, the Jakarta public transportation network.
The stance of Indonesian clerics against homosexuality and about curing it.
Jalan Jaksa in Jakarta is going to suffer re-development.
How to self publish books cheaply and easily.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer as a bullying commissar of literature.
The lovely Julia Suryakusuma, and other intellectuals, commit treason.
Sharia inspired bylaws in Indonesia.
Thugs and murderers, celebrity jailbirds, Enrico Gutierres, Theo Toemion, and the lovely Lidya Pratiwi.
The Indonesian way of death is too graphic.
Whether there was a genocide in Indonesia in 1965 and what happened to the survivors.
Corporal punishment in Indonesia, spanking and caning, and attempts to have it outlawed.
Whether the Jakarta Post newspaper is too left wing.
Metro TV’s Chinese-language news service, Xin Wen.
Ross wonders about Ramadan, lazy rich women, and why kampung girls are the best.
Less than enthused about Fauzi Bowo’s election as Jakarta governor.
Ross asks whether the government is willing to bring some Muslims into the 21st century.
Ross complains that the global warming bandwagon has reached Jakarta.
Does Indonesia need a federal system, amid the separatist hysteria of late?
Governor Sutiyoso and anti-Australianism and street thuggery.
Hope For the Helpless? Overseas Workers Ordeals, by Ross.
The PP 37, a new law granting pay rises to parliamentarians.
Copyright Indonesia Matters 2006-09