DENPASAR Governor I Made Mangku Pastika and the Bali Police both say the conflict between customary law and official national law are making it very difficult for authorities to deal with disputes at community level. Customary law has made a comeback following devolution of power to regencies throughout the country in pursuit of the government’s [...]

NUSA DUA Bali’s slow train proposal — flagged earlier this year by Governor I Made Mangku Pastika as a way to beat traffic woes on the island’s roads — may be a step closer to reality following a recent meeting between Indonesian and Japanese transport officials. Tunjung Indrawan, a directorate of train transportation official, said [...]

JAKARTA Prosecutors promised a swift trial of radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir after police charged him on Monday with inciting others to commit terrorist acts, a crime carrying the death penalty. “We want to try him very quickly,” South Jakarta prosecutors office chief Mohammed Yusuf told reporters after the aged extremist presented himself under tight [...]

Happy Times: Bali’s beaches are popular with tourists and locals alike. Sindhu Beach at Sanur last week was extra crowded, with local families enjoying holidays for Islamic New Year, which was last Tuesday, and the Hindu festival of Galungan on Wednesday. Photograph: Juliyusman Sine/The Bali Times

How strange it is that Bali hosts an annual forum about democracy when it is an island that is far from being democratic. World leaders arrived in Bali this week to chat with host President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono about developing democratic principles globally. Indonesia even waded into the fermenting showdown on the Korean Peninsula this [...]

A railway system for Bali is a great idea. Creating a workable off-road mass transit infrastructure makes sense in the crowded south where the streets are jammed on no particular schedule, or at the behest of some policeman’s whistle or some stupidly parked or broken-down truck. But like everything, assessing a proposal, formulating a plan, [...]

Many people are dumbstruck by a central government scheme to charge people coming into Indonesia for bringing small personal items with them. Indeed the plan seems so ludicrous that you would certainly be forgiven for not taking it seriously at all and laughing out loud. But as bizarre and iniquitous as it sounds, the government [...]

By Arianna Huffington We all know the many ways the internet has been used in the service of terrorism – Al Qaeda-linked websites, recruitment videos, uploads of Osama Bin Laden’s latest video screed, and how-to-blow-things-up online manuals. Al Qaeda and its sympathisers were early adopters of the web and have made destructive use of its [...]

Oprah Winfrey’s ecstatic audience arrived in Sydney this week for their much-hyped tour Down Under with the talk show queen, kicking off a week-long showcase of Australia’s beaches, cities and wildlife. The 300-odd audience members selected for Oprah’s Ultimate Australian Adventure touched down from the United States early on Tuesday and were greeted by a [...]

Artist Susan Philipsz has won Britain’s Turner Prize for her sound installation featuring a 16th century Scottish lament by a sailor lost at sea. In a move that fitted with the Turner’s reputation for honouring unusual works, the judges of the contemporary art award handed Philipsz the £25,000 (US$39,000) prize. “It has been overwhelming the [...]

Around 7,000 Indonesians currently live in the French territory of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific as a result of a relatively little-known chapter in the history of Indonesia, writes University of Tasmania Indonesian culture and language lecturer Pam Allen Aged 65 and still working as an engineer in Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia, [...]

SINGARAJA A German couple who operate a small resort, Chili Mas, have been blockaded out of their home at Tejakula by local people angry at their attitude. Tejakula headman I Ketut Suardana told reporters this week the couple were viewed by locals as very arrogant and that they frequently disobeyed instructions handed out by the [...]