Yogyakarta, 5 March 2025–After passing through a democratic party over the past year, Indonesia has experienced a dynamic political movement. At the same time, Election Corner Fisipol UGM released a new research titled “Coalition Map of 2024 Simultaneous Regional Election Winners in Indonesia”. This research reveals the political dynamics in the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections (Pilkada) held throughout Indonesia. The main finding of this research highlights the trend of minimal electoral competition due to the dominance of large coalitions.
SDGs 10: Reduced Inequalities
“Through the roadshow, we want to “kulanuwun”, greeting friends from various university in Indonesia and introducing the Ajisaka Festival as a collaborative space for creative folks in expressing their care and concern towards the issue that we have raised,” Adelia Christi mentioned in the interview, as the Leader of Ajisaka Festival .
The Ajisaka Roadshow started on the 20th of February at Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta and UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta. The roadshow program is planned to be organized frequently until the 24th of March. The roadshow agenda is done offline in campuses at Yogyakarta and Solo, while it will be done online at the other campuses. The roadshow consists of information sharing in regards to the competition categories, janamejaya video screening, and icebreaking activities.
Yogyakarta, March 1st 2025─Festival Ajisaka, an annual event initiated by the Department of Communication Science students, is back with a theme that carries the spirit of sustainability. This year, the Festival Ajisaka raises the issue of green economy with the title “Gaman Kamulyan: Echoing the Hope of Sustainability”. This theme was chosen as a form of concern for the importance of environmentally sound economic development, especially in the midst of an increasingly worrying environmental crisis.
The ASEAN-Maybank Scholarship programme is a partnership between Maybank Foundation and the ASEAN Secretariat. It is one of the ASEAN-level initiatives undertaken by Maybank Foundation, a newly accredited ASEAN entity, with the aim to “promote an innovative ASEAN approach to higher education”, which is one of the strategic measures listed in the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint 2025.
The scholarship programme is designed to provide young, talented, and deserving ASEAN nationals with full scholarships to pursue their undergraduate studies at prestigious universities listed under the ASEAN University Network (AUN), located outside their home countries within the ASEAN region, while promoting intra-ASEAN integration.
Yogyakarta, 21 February 2025–Pursuing higher education is not easy. Students, including doctoral or PhD students, often face various problems or challenges, from financial to mental health. Responding to this issue, The Conversation Indonesia held a webinar entitled “The Doctoral Road: From Financial Difficulties to Mental Stress” with academics and doctoral candidates. The event invited Pratiwi Utami, PhD (Lecturer at the Department of Communication Sciences UGM) and Herman Yosef Paryono (Doctoral Candidate in Organizational Behaviour, University of Groningen) as webinar speakers.
Dr. Wawan Mas’udi, S.IP., MPA, as the Dean of Fisipol UGM, welcomed all the postgraduate students who were officially accepted to Fisipol UGM with open arms. “Welcome and happy learning. It is expected that once in the postgraduate level, all of you can further explore social, economical, and political phenomenons not only as empirical aspects, but as a framework that requires discipline,” Dr. Wawan mentioned. He then went on to explain that Fisipol UGM provides the much needed access for students to create, build their career, as well as networking.
Postgraduate education holds an important role in cultivating the development of knowledge. Dr. Wawan explained further that the faculty has an agenda to make Fisipol UGM as the center for the development of the study of social and political sciences. Of course, this mission is not only aimed at reaching new heights nationally, but globally as well. Because of that, Fisipol UGM always tries to build international networks in order to further push the development of the study of social and political sciences even wider. “If we want to be the global center for knowledge, it is necessary for Fisipol UGM to interact with the outside world. The academic world is broad and borderless,” Dr. Wawan explained. He also explained the three flagship research that Fisipol UGM owns, which includes the research regarding climate change, digital transformation, and social inclusivity. The development of these three flagship research cannot be separated with the roles of postgraduate students in responding to these issues through a global academic lens.
The welcoming event was continued with the presentation of basic public policy by Dr. Rob Manwaring. Dr. Rob explained the important foundations regarding the field of public policy and why the development of this field is very important. According to him, the government carries an important mandate in organizing the livelihood of thousands or even millions of the population. The process of decision-making then has to consider the interests and needs of the people as a whole. Rob then elaborated the two main elements in public policy, that is the tool and instrument of the government.
“One of the instruments in public policy is the law. The government of Australia, in some cases, used the law as the main instrument, although the people-centered perspective is still used,” Dr. Rob mentioned. He gave several examples in how the government handled the problems of drivers going over the speed limit and Driving Under the Influence (DUI). For some time, Australia experienced a spike in traffic fatalities due to crashes. Responding to this issue, the Australian government then gave out sanctions to drivers who were caught to be under the influence by taking away their drivers license.
2 percent of positions in central government institutions to persons with disabilities, and 1 percent of positions in the private sector. Nevertheless, the National Economic Survey also noted that the amount of persons with disabilities in the productive age who are currently employed is less than 10 percent.
Yogyakarta, January 15th 2025 ─ Looking at the movement of labor organizations in Indonesia, Fisipol Corner of Universitas Gadjah Mada held a book review session of Labor and the State in Indonesia and Labor Writes 3: Split, Move on Wednesday (15/1). Both books contain reflections on labor experiences that are packaged in history so as to produce a picture of the political economy situation from time to time.
Vedi R. Hadiz, author of Labor and the State in Indonesia, states that the cultural condition of the current government’s fundamental system is not much different from the New Order. Starting from the question of why the voice of workers is still weak, even though democratization has been running after the reformation, Vedi thinks that this condition is due to the complex situation of the government. “Even though during the new order, the institutions and the government were destroyed, the power relations are still running until now,” explained Vedi.
Yogyakarta, 15 January 2025–Fisipol once again held an offline Christmas celebration event at Selasar Barat on January 8, 2025. This event was held at the same time to welcome the turn of the year at the same time. This year’s Christmas celebration was titled “Born to Serve the Justice and Peace of His Love”. This theme is carried to realize the justice and peace of Christ through actualization in real action, especially in favour of those who are marginalized and vulnerable. The justice referred to here not only refers to marginalized groups but also protects His creation, which is often neglected.