PRAKSIS was launched on Human Rights Day. Its goal is to promote the “common good” in a society where socio-economic inequalities have grown in the past 10 years, with political life increasingly in the hands of a small elite. The daughter of former President Abdurrahman Wahid also attended the event, speaking out against the harm done in society by the weakening of Indonesian democracy.

The death penalty is again a topical issue in Southeast Asia after a Philippine woman sentenced to death for drug possession is set to go home where the death penalty is not in force. Capital punishment is widely enforced in Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam. A call is getting louder for “the protection of vulnerable communities”, with many voices warning that “no justice system is immune to error”.

In Indonesia's local elections, the candidates running for the party that backed Jokowi and Prabowo won everywhere except in Jakarta. Mindful of what happened six years ago with the campaign against Christian governor Ahok, local voters ostensibly rejected the Kamil-Suswono ticket, which courted radical Islamist groups.

Indonesia goes to the polls today to elect all its governors in first ever simultaneous vote. In Jakarta and Central Java the two most eagerly awaited challenges are the PDIP candidates and those of the unprecedented alliance between former general Prabowo elected president in February and his long-time opponent.

A priest has denounced the decay around the historic St Ignatius College, residence for professors and seminarians. The Indonesian Minister of the Environment demanded immediate action and threatened legal action against the local administration, which admitted to having difficulties.

In 2010, Mary Jane Veloso was stopped at Yogyakarta airport because a suitcase she was given to carry contained heroin. Then Philippine President Benigno Aquino III obtained a reprieve 11 hours before the execution was set to take place. Since then, the two countries have been working to bring the 39-year-old woman home.