University students demonstrate to reject the 1998 Special Session of the People’s Consultative Assembly. Photo by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Indonesia. Publication of the Indonesian government without copyright notice.

Arief Budiman 4th Annual Lecture

Civil society and democracy in Indonesia

Delivered by Professor Dr. Todung Mulya Lubis

DateWednesday, 20 November 2024Time4.00 – 5.0pm
VenueYasuko Hiraoka Myer Room (106),
Sidney Myer Asia Centre
LocationThe University of Melbourne

A brief overview

Professor Todung Mulya Lubis was a good friend of Professor Arief Budiman.

They worked together since their university days, consistent in their efforts to strengthen the civil society movement opposing Suharto’s policies that weakened democracy, violated human rights, and ignored the rule of law.

In the fourth iteration of the annual lecture, Professor Todung Mulya Lubis revisits the social and political activism of Arief Budiman and others during the New Order era of Suharto, an era of authoritarianism resulting in the weakening of civil society and democracy.

Response by Professor Vedi Hadiz, FASSA, Director of the Asia Institute.

Chaired by Emilia Lisa Sterjova, PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School.

The Arief Budiman Lecture was made possible by the Asian Studies Trust Fund.

About the speaker

Professor Dr. Todung Mulya Lubis is a prominent Indonesian human rights lawyer and writer.

His scholarly book, In Search of Human Rights: Legal-Political Dilemmas of Indonesia’s New Order 1966-1990, remains important in defining democratic thinking about human rights in Indonesia.

In 2014, he was appointed as Honorary Professor at the Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne.

In 2018, President Joko Widodo appointed him as the Indonesian Ambassador to Norway and Iceland.