On The Level with Jeff Hutton

The Dutch colonial era Bandung Zoological Garden made international headlines last year for all the wrong reasons. With its doors shut because of the pandemic, officials said it may need to slaughter its deer to feed its big cats. Neglected for decades and reviled by activists, the news seemed grimly plausible. But a closer look revealed a community rallying to save their zoo and a turnaround effort that is reshaping how Indonesians see animals.

Kevin O’Rourke of Reformasi Weekly returns to help sort through the country’s regional elections that are taking place against the backdrop of Covid-19 and the return of hardline cleric Rizieq Shihab from self-imposed exile. Never a dull moment in Indonesia.

Joko Widodo: a reformer who allies himself with Suharto era generals, an entrepreneur who expanded the state-owned sector. Ben Bland joins the pod to discuss the bundle of contradictions that make up Indonesia's seventh president.

Trump cabinet officials were no strangers to the region but their boss undermined them and gutted US credibility with his tantrums, trade tiffs and by flouncing out of the Trans Pacific Partnership -- originally a US brainchild. AmCham's managing director, Lin Neumann, says President-Elect Joe Biden will have his work cut out for him repairing his country's reputation.

As Thailand’s king seeks to expand his authority, Malaysia sidesteps a parliamentary tussle for power. Erin Cook of 'Dari Mulut ke Mulut' returns for a look at Southeast Asia politics.

Tens of thousands of people around the world with real and perceived mental illnesses are unwillingly caged or chained in confined spaces sometimes for years. Covid 19 is making matters worse as families re-confine relatives, once freed owing to life changing medication, because the pandemic has disrupted supplies. Human Rights Watch's Kriti Sharma joins to discuss the awful practice.

Indonesia's former finance minister Chatib Basri weighs in on the country's controversial labour law reforms, the challenges he faced wooing investors and the scourge of underemployment.

Indonesian police are deputising hardline groups like the Betawi Rempug Front (FBR) to enforce social distancing rules amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. The move has sparked controversy because the groups are linked to violent street thugs known as 'preman'. Kyai Luthfi Hakim the chairman of the FBR, Jakarta's biggest so called mass organisation, argues why his group makes good allies in the fight against COVID. 

The pod talks with Kevin O'Rourke from Reformasi Weekly about the surge in coronavirus cases and then heads to Sydney to talk with Australian Financial Review's Mike Smith about his narrow escape from China amid a diplomatic row between the two countries.

Indonesia's street thugs, known as preman, have a long and colourful history of doing the dirty work of police and the military during the time of the New Order. The arrest in June of one of Jakarta's most notorious preman, John Kei, has reminded the capital that its thugs haven't gone away. Ian Wilson of Murdoch University in Western Australia says that in democratic Indonesia street gangs are as active as ever - just less visible.

Journalist Krithika Varagur, author of "The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project" discusses how Saudi money helped conservative Islam take root in Indonesia, Nigeria and Kosovo and how governments are trying to weed it out.

Rizky Fauzan recounts his ordeal while aboard the Chinese fishing vessel Long Xing 629 where four Indonesians lost their lives from mysterious illnesses allegedly owing to harsh working conditions

Hendri Yulius Wijaya talks on how LGBT becomes a four letter word in Indonesia after the 2015 landmark US Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage. And Kevin O’Rourke of Reformasi Weekly tells us a star is born in Central Java

Novel Baswedan joins On The Level to discuss how police handling of the 2017 acid attack that left him partially blind shows that the government of President Joko Widodo has lost its reforming zeal

Eventually the pandemic will end, but city living will change forever as monolith office districts break up and maybe - just maybe - consumers discover they can live without so much stuff. We talk to Tony Matthews, urban planning expert from Griffith University in Queensland on how the pandemic shaped the changing landscape of urban living.

Dede Oetomo is probably Indonesia's best known LGBT rights advocate and scholar. He's the go-to guy for comments on gay and trans issues for foreign correspondents. Despite hardening attitude toward sexual minorities, the enduring open mindedness of his students makes him optimistic better days are ahead for gay and trans rights.

Governor Ridwan Kamil of West Java, Indonesia's most populous province, returns to the Pod and says that the COVID-19 pandemic is "under control" thanks to widespread testing. His province's experience is an example of the "stories of inspiration" that offers some hope during Indonesia's escalating crisis.

YouTuber Acep Gates went public with his HIV diagnosis in October 2018, two weeks after testing positive. The video and follow up segments on his relationship with his family, sexual health and sexuality have attracted millions of views. Acep has lost friends and family but his straight talk has found an audience hungry for the facts on HIV and sexuality in a country where both are taboo.

To understand how cities may deal with pandemics in the future we check in with Sibarani Sofian, a designer of Indonesia's planned capital -- a city that is still very much in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has people avoiding enclosed spaces in droves. That's a disaster for big Asian cities relying on public transport to ease gridlock. We speak with William Sabandar of the Jakarta MRT. All aboard!

Southeast Asia struggles to get noticed despite its size. The pod is joining a movement to focus more attention on our neighbourhood, which when taken together would be the world's fourth biggest economy and endlessly fascinating, anyway. Erin Cook, author of newsletter Dari Mulut ke Mulut (https://darimulut.substack.com/)  will join us for a bi-monthly round up the news and analysis from the region. Here's her Twitter: @imerincook. On The Level will be back after the Eid holidays. For now here's our first interview with Erin.

In China a sense of normalcy has returned for many with shops and schools open. But the country is lashing out at critics and being increasingly sensitive to how it's portrayed in foreign media. And as infections level off in Jakarta they are climbing on the capital's outskirts meaning social distancing will be a fact of life for the foreseeable future.

Our round up Indonesian news with Kevin O'Rourke and we commute to work with Dr. Erlang Samoedro, a Jakarta doctor on the front line of the battle with COVID-19.

Ridwan Kamil, governor of West Java, was the first to introduce wide spread rapid testing in his province, uncovering potentially hundreds of unconfirmed cases of the coronavirus. He says Indonesia's true number of infections may be a multiple of the official tally. But the annual pilgrimage home ahead of Ramadan, which starts later this month, may spread the deadly virus deep into Indonesia's far flung places where it's tough to find and treat. Rather locking down Jakarta, Governor Kamil is still counting on education and help from religious leaders to help convince the faithful to stay in the cities for now.

Social distancing, work from home, generous safety nets may work in the rich world, but in emerging economies with densely packed populations like Indonesia's, they are an option for a small fragment of the country. Kevin O'Rourke, author of intelligence brief Reformasi Weekly, says that while the country can leverage off its geography and close off islands to stop the spread, "the outlook is grim" as thousands of sick risk overwhelming the country's meager health services. Mr O'Rourke said that after a slow start the government of President Joko Widodo is taking the outbreak seriously but the coronavirus promises to be a long-term public health threat here.

As the world scrambles to rein in the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, a study published last week by the Brookings Institute said if past pandemics such as the Spanish Flu and the Hong Kong Flu are any guide, as many as 15 million may die, even in a mild scenario, wiping more than US$5 trillion from global GDP. Warwick McKibbin of the Australian National University said that the deaths and the disruption will centre on jurisdictions with limited coordination between government agencies and poor health care services. Mr McKibbin spoke with Jeff from Canberra.

From remembering where she left her house keys while she’s praying, to confessing she relies on her headscarf to cover up a “bad-hair day”, Sakdiyah Ma’ruf gently challenges her country’s slide into religiosity by reminding her audience of the humanity behind the ritual. Sakdiyah says she’s frequently trolled on Twitter and asks her audiences to refrain from posting video of her act on social media in order to avoid scrutiny from conservatives. She’s scared but undaunted. This month she makes an appearance at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. We spoke about religion, comedy and becoming a mother relatively later in life. This is one of my favorite interviews in years. And I think it shows. 

When the government of Indonesia said last week they would leave their former IS fighters in Syria it was hard not to feel a little schadenfreude. But Noor Huda Ismail, who has made a career understanding why his countrymen turn to extremism and reintegrating them when they return, said that’s just emotion talking. Far better to bring them home and know where they are than risk having them sneak back into the country.

China’s newly named COVID-19 corona virus may at last be slowing. But virtually all of the more than 1100 deaths have occurred in China raising questions about Beijing’s handling of the epidemic. Cities like Wuhan are under lockdown while local officials in big cities like Wuhan are insisting residents returning from Chinese New Year isolate themselves at home. Mike Smith, Shanghai correspondent for the Australian Financial Review talked to me about the political, economic and personal impact the virus has had.

Indonesia has been a democracy success story. But the rise of Islamic conservatism threatens that record by infringing on individual liberties. I talk with Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch about Indonesia's backsliding on human rights, his account of the 1965 massacre, and his new book.