What does Australia’s legacy media think you want to know about Indonesia? (more…)
Duncan Graham
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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…)
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The penalty for being late is to be doomed forever
Infected by wars and climate change is the other intractable issue: how to help 43 million refugees? More than 3,451 pledges to change the mountain-size misery have been made worldwide by governments, NGOs, and individuals, including Australians. The issue is less about gathering signatures, more about turning words into action. (more…)
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Collateral damage? Focus on the principle, not the fallout
Among his many defects, Donald Trump is a vengeful obsessive. Which is why poor Indonesians (that’s about 40 million of the 285 million rice-eaters) could soon be paying more for their essential starches. (more…)
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Not waving, drowning – Indonesia may lose warming battle
This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a flooding: With apologies to T. S. Eliot (more…)
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Scrubbing away the bloodstains, tipping out the truth
Lit lovers argue who first said “History is written by the victors”. It’s sharp enough to belong to Churchill, though earlier and longer versions come from politicians in the US and Germany – including fascist Hermann Göring. (more…)
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Let one version win – ours
The Church burned translators of the Latin Bible into English in the late 14th century and forbade its teachings, to ensure only one narrative ruled. Australian sinophobes want their version of what the People’s Republic of China is doing, thinking and planning to prevail. (more…)
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Pregnancy as a death sentence
Genuine good news stories involving government initiatives are rare. Here’s an exception. (more…)
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Is Marles the right fit for defence?
P&I readers don’t need to be told that Defence Minister Richard Marles is floundering when trying to make security links with Indonesia seem as though they’ve “never been in better shape”. (more…)
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As Keating advised, it’s time for Australia to seek its security in Asia
“The world America made for us is passing away. Its place is being taken by a new and harder post-American world, and we are at a loss to know what to make of it.” (more…)
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Don’t stir Semar – He seeks harmony
Ancient Javanese mythology, often inherited from India and adapted to fit local culture, is rich with striking characters in the wayang kulit shadow puppet theatre. The fat-gut wise clown Semar is charged with maintaining stability. (more…)
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Indonesia’s old guard wants its old world back
Anthony Albanese’s pilgrimage to Jakarta this week as the new prime minister follows the standard post-election Hi Neighbours goodwill wave. But this time the parades and handshakes may get blurred by heat from Indonesia’s simmering Constitutional crisis.
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Trump shoves Indonesia into China’s hands
Jakarta is not a charmer, but her assets are attractive. Beijing and Washington have long been wooing the Indonesian capital for her strategic power and influence. (more…)
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How to lose friends and help rivals
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Does Jesus need a barber? The question is a trap
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The creeping crisis we’re ignoring
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Free meals threatened – and threatening
Before the 18th century Enlightenment, church and state in Europe were one. In Indonesia, fears that Islam will infiltrate civic affairs go back to the founding of the Republic. Instead, the threats are not from the mosques, but the military. (more…)
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Sound the alarm: ABC at risk
The Federal Parliament has yet to pass a law ensuring five-year funding for the ABC. If it doesn’t get passed, it leaves the national broadcaster open to cuts and threats should the government change. (more…)
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Yesterday’s man is stuffing up
Trump Two is the world’s big story – will he fly high and take the dollar aloft – or crash and fry? Whatever, he’s shading the sun from the right-wing blusterer next door who isn’t doing well after three months. Duncan Graham reports. (more…)
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Jakarta pips Dutton in nuclear race
Peter Dutton’s hopes for Australia to be the first nation in the Southern Hemisphere to pioneer the use of small-to-medium nuclear reactors seem dashed.
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Debunking deforestation
Indonesia’s new president, former disgraced general Prabowo Subianto, is making an awkward discovery: gaining respect in the international community as head of a nation of 280 million civilians is not the same as ordering a special squad to intimidate. (more…)
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Farewell fair go, hello despair
It’s true.
The night fears have come to pass.
The evidence is too great to ignore any longer. My country, our nation, is racist. (more…)
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One word fouls straits settlement – “Overlapping”
It was supposed to be the Tour Triumphant, showing that Indonesia – the globe’s fourth-most populous nation – has a cosmopolitan new boss who can stride the world stage with panache. But cashiered former general Prabowo Subianto has tripped badly. (more…)
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Moderates begone: ‘TIS THE AGE OF THE DESPOT
Prabowo Subianto has got his diary right: First overseas handshake from the new President of Indonesia is for his bankers in Beijing, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. Trump can wait. (more…)
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Come in now Indonesian democracy, your time is up
It took less than a week for the reality to be exposed. Even Deputy PM Richard Marles must now acknowledge that the nation next door he praises for its moderation and democracy is now a military dictatorship and a serious threat. (more…)
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Gender equality? – Not our culture
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Small, smart and struggling
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Can this Odd Couple survive?
