Indonesia’s response to the Bondi shootings and the royal commission hearings exposed a deeper unease – one where fear, politics and prejudice still shape how Judaism and Israel are discussed in public life.
Duncan Graham
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An acid test of Indonesia’s democracy
An acid attack by four Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) soldiers on a human rights activist highlights growing tensions as President Prabowo reinstates military influence in Indonesia’s civilian administration. (more…)
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The unpromised land down under
A little-known proposal to settle Jewish refugees in Western Australia highlights how different history might have been – and the role of racism in shaping Australia’s decisions.
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Indonesia’s rice bowl gets bigger
Indonesia’s claims of rice self-sufficiency clash with import deals, opaque data and the growing political control of the food system. (more…)
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Indonesia’s democracy faces a quiet return of military power
Signs of renewed military involvement in civilian life are raising concerns that Indonesia may be drifting back towards the authoritarian practices of its past. (more…)
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Prabowo’s Middle East peace gambit is long on theatre, short on strategy
The weapons are fast and devastating, driven by big bucks and high tech. They’re being used in a war of religions that’s almost 14 centuries old. Both sides have recruited God. A man of war from Southeast Asia thinks he can bring reason to bear. He can’t. (more…)
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One error and damned forever?
Women and children held in Syrian detention camps force Australia to choose between rhetoric and the rule of law.
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Handshake diplomacy with Prabowo won’t secure shared values
Australia’s new security treaty with Indonesia is heavy on symbolism but light on substance. As President Prabowo Subianto tightens his grip on power, warm rhetoric from Canberra risks obscuring growing democratic regression and human rights abuses. (more…)
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Herzog’s visit exposes Australia’s legal weakness on human rights
As Israel’s president visits Australia, debates over protest, terrorism and antisemitism expose a significant problem: Australia lacks a coherent human rights framework.
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Indonesia’s economy wobbles as policy ambition outpaces planning
Market volatility, investor unease and fiscal strain are exposing deeper risks in Indonesia’s economy – where policy ambition is running ahead of institutional readiness. (more…)
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Irony abounds: Indonesia gets human rights protection job
Indonesia has assumed the presidency of the UN Human Rights Council, raising questions about credibility, consistency and the future of scrutiny in places like West Papua and Iran. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Out of darkness comes a shaft of cheer
The news from Indonesia this month has been dispiriting – natural disaster flooding in Bali and Flores, man-made maladministration, political chicanery, perpetual graft and rioting in the cities. The headlines imply the country is crumpling. It’s not, and here’s why. (more…)
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Prabowo’s first year: all power, no accountability
A year after Prabowo Subianto’s election, Indonesia’s democracy is under strain as power centralises, dissent is curtailed and the military’s influence grows. (more…)
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Blood, silence and history: questioning Indonesia’s 1965 narrative
As Indonesia prepares to release a new official national history, an Australian historian’s account of the 1965–66 mass killings threatens to reopen a long-suppressed debate about power, violence, and memory.
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Indonesia’s Gaza peacekeeping bid raises more questions than answers
Indonesia has offered to send up to 20,000 troops to Gaza as part of an international peacekeeping force. The proposal highlights shifting regional politics – and unresolved concerns about military power, credibility and human rights. (more…)
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Fatal free lunch
Indonesia’s free meals for kids program has left thousands of youngsters with food poisoning, and returned the country to the bad old days of military influence.
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Trick or treaty? Don’t know, can’t say
The Indonesian print media covering the one-day visit of President Prabowo Subianto to Australia this month has dazzled its readers with some splendid insights into a serious issue. (more…)
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Rewriting Soeharto’s story
Indonesian conservatives are rewriting the 32-year history of the late second president Soeharto, a former army general, champion of corruption and destroyer of democracy. (more…)
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The morality we need, the asylum they seek
Like many grumpy hacks from an age of lost standards, I’ve belittled colleagues’ usage of the perpendicular pronoun. We’re not the Mums needing attention – only the midwives bringing the stories of others into the world. We report and depart. (more…)
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Vanity, defence or just wanting to show off?
For a demagogue, what could be more stirring than to take the salute on a raised dais as thousands of armed men and women march past like robots in perfect synchronisation? (more…)
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Turmoil in tummies, pains in purse
The road to Indonesian hospitals is paved with good intentions and vomit. (more…)
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Out of darkness comes a shaft of cheer
The news from Indonesia this month has been dispiriting – natural disaster flooding in Bali and Flores, man-made maladministration, political chicanery, perpetual graft and rioting in the cities. The headlines imply the country is crumpling. It’s not, and here’s why. (more…)
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Xi targets Prabowo and ditches Trump
For the past decade, the most geostrategic country in Southeast Asia and the world’s third-largest democracy has been wooed by Washington and Beijing. (more…)
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Avoid Bali and the rest of Indonesia
Cashiered former general Prabowo Subianto was elected president of Indonesia last year on a contradictory campaign image. (more…)
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Absent – The 3D essentials: Discipline, direction and determination
Why did the Jakarta student riots of 1998 succeed in ousting President Soeharto while this week’s public displays of outrage seem doomed to fail? (more…)
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Know thy neighbour – he’s getting gun-happy
What does Australia’s legacy media think you want to know about Indonesia? (more…)
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Once Australia was important to Indonesia
Happy birthday, monster neighbour. Er, do we know you? We’re strangers here – our proper place is mid-Atlantic, ‘twixt the Old World and the New. However, we’re trying hard to cope by promoting trade and investment, while ignoring endemic corruption and avoiding deep involvement. (more…)
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No Indonesian high-speed rail wizardry for Oz
When PM Anthony Albanese was flying home after six days in Beijing, the Great Wall and a panda zoo, he told a newspaper that “Australia could learn from China’s fast-rail network”. The People’s Republic already has more than 45,000 kilometres of high-speed rail connecting 500 cities. We have zilch. (more…)
