And a leader of a women's group discussed the earthquake that had devastated her native Jogjakarta in Indonesia and was able to glean valuable insight from a Sri Lankan psychologist, who had counselled survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

A Javanese Catholic leader, Kasimo, from a Jogjakarta royal house, struggled throughout his career over his commitment to the ecclesiastical hierarchy on the one hand, and his growing doubts about both the colonial project and emerging socialism on the other; this led ultimately to his affiliation with indigenous Indonesian Catholic parties during the Occupation and war periods.

In mid-2002, the Surabaya and Jogjakarta regional heads of Laskar Jihad, an Islamist group dedicated to advancing the Quran by the Kalashnikov if necessary, are a Western-trained engineer and a medical doctor, respectively.