News stories by Kafil Yamin

CIWIDEY, West Java, Indonesia, Jun 24 (IPS) - It appears to be business as usual at the Al-Ittifaq pesantren, the local term for an Islamic boarding school. Yadi and Rezki, both 18, join the subuh, pre-dawn prayer, in the local mosque. After a session of religious meditation, along with other santris, or students, the two study science in a pre-dawn class for about 30 minutes.

INDRAMAYU, Indonesia, Jun 24 (IPS) - For years Indramayu has been known as one of Indonesia’s rice centres. The district in West Java is the country’s number one rice producer, generating 1.3 million tons of husked rice in 2021, according to Indonesia’s Centre of Statistics (BPS). The country’s total rice production was 54 million tons.

MEDAN, Indonesia, Oct 17 (IPS) - Repeated volcanic eruptions of Mount Sinabung since 2010 have displaced thousands of people, leaving villages around the mountain deserted, with volcanic ash, lava and mud covering the soil, trees and empty houses.

SENGGI, Indonesia, Oct 24 (IPS) - Only two decades ago, Usku, Molof and Nambia, three villages in Senggi District, Papua, were the battlefield of feuding tribes fighting for their ulayat (communal land). Afra, the triumphant tribe, then settled in the villages and led a life of hunting and gathering.

JAKARTA, Aug 10 (IPS) - When four men were sentenced to eight months in jail in March for the ‘murder’ of orangutans, it was the first time that people associated with Indonesia’s booming palm oil industry were convicted for killing man’s close relations in the primate family.

Another month of plying his ‘becak’ (trishaw) in the capital city and Sarjo will be coming back to this West Java district to harvest the rice ripening on his 1,400 sq m paddy.

The fate of a gender equality bill pending in Indonesia’s parliament and aligned with the United Nations convention on the elimination of all forms discrimination against women (CEDAW) has become uncertain after falling afoul of powerful Islamist groups.

Ten years after an Indonesian agriculturist discovered microbes capable of producing natural fertilisers, farmers attest that they have boosted agricultural production.

The colour green has long been associated with Islam, but if some recent Muslim visitors here could have their way, it’s a link that could intensify some more in the future.

Is there such a thing as too much freedom in a democracy?