Professional Experience:
I have written 4 reports for ICG, which all have influenced on how many parties approach the matters of local election, decentralisation, police and security reforms in Indonesia.
My report on policing has triggered new reviews on the numerous community policing projects in Indonesia that have garnered sub-standard results. Some new projects have used the report as their guideline.
My piece on how local leaders are defying the central state gave a fresh take on why church construction is such a sensitive matter in Indonesia where many places have predominantly Muslim electorate and why the central leaders seem powerless in forcing local executives to follow court orders.
My first report on local election violence from 2010 is still prescient until now and serves as the standard document in analysing any disturbance during a local election in Indonesia. I have become a go-to person for journalists and anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of local election in Indonesia that has become a problematic issue since 2005.
While my second report is more like a contribution to the debate over Indonesia's new intelligence bill, it serves as an explanation how laws are formulated in Indonesia, especially on security matters.
Before I joined ICG, I worked for Bloomberg News where I reported corporate actions, political risks, natural disasters and environmental issues that affected the Indonesian economy. I also got involved in projects with global reach. My interview with George Soros in Jakarta became one of the most influential story during the first weeks of the Euro crisis in Greece. My story on the Indonesian infrastructure highlighted how difficult it was in Indonesia to improve the country's creaky ports, power plants and road projects. I often commented for Bloomberg TV on politics and the security condition in Indonesia.
I spent 7 years in Reuters where I covered key events in a very turbulent period in Indonesia from 2000-2007. I reported on the 2000 massacres in Kalimantan (one out of only 3 international correspondents who witnessed the hacking of a victim in Pontianak from feets away), the 2001 Malino peace talks, the 2002 Bali bombing trials, the 2003 Marriott hotel blast, the 2004 presidential elections, the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Yogyakarta earthquake (one of the first journalists outside the region to set foot on ground zero), the 2005 Aceh peace agreement (the first to break the content of the truce hours before the signing in Helsinki) and the 2006 Aceh elections.
I briefly worked for the Jakarta Office of the World Bank as an Communications Officer (April 2007 - August 2007). I
devised communications strategy to raise awareness of World Bank’s role in Indonesia, engaged with media on issues related to World Bank operations in Indonesia, advised Country Director and management on key developments in Indonesia, managed a communications team that incorporates a network of 16 region