Indonesia’s founding president Soekarno was a dazzling demagogue, feared and loathed by the West and admired by the East. Apart from Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), his successors’ performances at the podium have been pedestrian, but suddenly Joko Widodo, the epitome of a mild-mannered Javanese, has let loose.
Duncan Graham
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The ABC-Out of sight, out of care
This continues yesterday’s feature on ABC Australia, our underfunded and neglected TV presentation to the Asia Pacific. Look on, ye neighbours, and despair.
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ABC sending a strange message to the region.
The slashing and burning of ABC workers, their goodies and services seems to have missed the overseas TV service ABC Australia. That’s no reason to whoop. Further cuts will kill.
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Chinese ties put Indonesia in a bind.
Beijing has warned citizens against travel to Australia claiming ‘a significant increase’ in racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and Asians blamed for the Covid-19 pandemic. (more…)
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Back to the good ol’ ways in Jakarta
Cities can snap-back from the Corona-19 crisis – though not necessarily to a New Normal. Jakarta shows how.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. More Jakarta, Less Geneva!
It’s become a ritual for every Australian leader for the past half-century.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM If Bali lets you in – will Oz let you back?
When is a pandemic suppression order not a lockdown? When it’s in Indonesia.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. Blame – don’t shame
It’s warming to see Australians helping jobless Balinese felled by Covid-19 with tuckerbags as hotels shut and tourists flee. One donor called it her ‘moral obligation’, a commendable motive.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. When in doubt, think up a number
Indonesia’s second president General Soeharto had a fix-all to calm restless citizens demanding improvements. He’d pronounce a numbered plan. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM The year of living disastrously
Most days the ABC website publishes graphs showing the trajectory of Covid-19 cases. The charts feature nine countries including Taiwan, Japan and Australia. Though not Indonesia.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. Not the Freshest Meat in The Australian.
The Australian has become very liberal with their use of the word ‘EXCLUSIVE’. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. A breakup’s unthinkable – so let’s give it another go
Australia and Indonesia are not the neighbours we ought to be. Many button lips for fear of arousing wrath, but here’s the truth: The neighbours aren’t part of the Anglosphere. They don’t understand or trust us, nor we them. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM Don’t cry for us,, Indonesia
Some foreign correspondents in Jakarta have done a bunk, leaving their Indonesian fixers and colleagues to confront the catastrophes they fear to face.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. Normal service will be rezoomed forever
Witless vandals defacing the odd Zoom chat room have given repressive states (think Singapore) another excuse to stomp on a development they dread: Technology that’s letting a hundred schools of thought contend.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. Mobocracy rules in Indonesia.
The videos are ghastly. Young men stripped to the waist, roped together in a line, shuffling forward on their knees. Their bodies are bruised and bloodied, their smashed faces creased with fear. They’re not just the victims of kampong rough justice – they’re also casualties of the Indonesian government’s mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM But the dead are many
Indonesia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic makes a train wreck seem structured. The fourth most populous nation has next to no testing, no info, no direction – and most important of all – no trust. Such is the legacy of authoritarianism.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM.- Not a model land
Curious about life as a sheep? Visit Incredible Indonesia, as the tourist promos once hollered.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM It’s looking real bad next door
Doomsayers are society’s detestables yet needed as truth-tellers. So here goes: The omens are awful. Thousands of Indonesians are threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic through denial and indecision. Responses have been too few, too late and too uncoordinated.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM For sale: Bat viruses in Indonesia
Indonesia’s 8.9 per cent death rate for COVID-19 infections is the second highest in the world, just behind Italy nudging ten per cent. The apparent inaction of the Government is particularly concerning with Indonesian meat market practices being quite similar to in Wuhan where it all started.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM The land of no social distance
While the Western world thinks staying apart is wise to avoid Covid-19 infections, Indonesians still remain together.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM.-The wealthiest one per cent (all men) own half Indonesia’s total wealth.
Ma’ruf Amin is a name few Australians would recognize. Before his election last year as Indonesia’s vice-president, the hard-right Islamic cleric showed minimal interest in his southern neighbour. Suddenly he wants Australian aid. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM Reporting from afar using mining models
The Australian Associated Press closure in June will shut Australians out of much domestic journalism. Courts, councils and commissions whose workings underpin democracy will often go unreported. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM The Washington watcher on UWA’s cast-iron balcony
Why is the Perth-based USAsia Centre backed by Australian taxpayers? If this foreign influencer was run by the Chinese or Russians it would be forensically examined. As a US show it slips past scrutineers.
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DUNCAN GRAHAM.The pachyderm on the patio
Kupang is at the bottom of West Timor. It’s the largest city in far eastern Indonesia. Imagine how Canberra would react if Jakarta allowed the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to station their armed jets just 830 km northeast of Darwin. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. From blusukan to bland in five years
There are some cheering on-line videos worth checking from 2015 when Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull visited Jakarta. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. Bali Nine ‘Black Sheep’ pleads for mercy
The media curtain-raisers for Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s visit to Australia focused on trade and visas. Human rights activists were hoping the agenda might include the fate of the five surviving Bali Nine. One is Martin Stephens. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM. This bus isn’t moving fast.
It’s not too difficult for outsiders to get the gist of Indonesian economics. That’s because terms, like ‘administrasi, deficit, bangkrut, fiskal’ and others have been pinched from English and tweaked. (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM.-Indonesian Free Trade – not there yet
For much of 2019’s last quarter Australian rural journals and politicians were forecasting a bonanza.But some reality is overdue (more…)
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DUNCAN GRAHAM . Can young voices get into elders’ ears?
Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s Cabinet selection has been met with widespread dismay by liberal progressives. There have been some weird choices noted here https://publish.pearlsandirritations.com/duncan-graham-dont-cry-for-me-indonesia/
The most disturbing was making Widodo’s bitter and brutal rival Prabowo Subianto, 68, Defence Minister, even though the former general with a suspect human rights record had been decisively rejected by the electorate. (more…)
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Sunup in Sawojajar
Expat blogs praise the joys of living in Bali. A low-cost paradise, they say. Sundowners with fellow retirees while a maid (‘a real treasure’) prepares dinner and ‘our’ gardener trims the lawn. Good time to bitch about deemed interest rates on pensions. Below the green paddy, the cheerful reapers. This is Indonesia. So is East Java, though unalike Bali on every measure. A peek next door.