Early years Hardjono is from
Kramat Jati,
East Jakarta Hardjono studied at the
University of Sydney, Australia. it was announced that she had received a
Nieman Fellowship (1994) from
Harvard University, Boston. She was the third Indonesian to receive such a scholarship, after the journalist
Sabam Siagian and poet
Goenawan Mohamad.
Press career Harjono worked with the Indonesian daily
Kompas for several years. She was one of their correspondents in Australia As State Secretary, she worked to promote freedom of the press and is noted as having built the first civilian Presidential office since the fall of
Sukarno 35 years prior.
Greg Sheridan, foreign editor of
The Australian, has dismissed the spying accusations as having no shred of evidence, and attributes it to internal government politicking against
Kim Beazley. Hardjono resigned in mid-March 2000 with effect from 1 April to prepare for her wedding and to "avoid corruption, collusion, and nepotism". She was replaced by Djoko Mulyono.
After politics After her resignation, Hardjono became Programme Coordinator, Information and Publication for the
United Nations Development Programme, representing Indonesia. She also coedited
The Poor Speak Up, 17 Stories of Corruption in 2002. She still writes as a freelancer. Ratih has been Secretary General for the NGO Indonesian Community for Demokrasi (KID) since 2005, which is an NGO working in adult education in democracy by establishing Schools of Democracy at the District levels across Indonesia. She also is a Senior Advisor at
Albright Stonebridge Group. ==Personal life==