Pearls and Irritations

Duncan Graham

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. A done deal – or a deal not yet done?

    Trying to do business in Java on a Friday is seldom a good idea.

     The chantings that Prime Minister Scott Morrison heard mid-morning last Friday were not part of the standard welcome to overseas VIPs, but calling the faithful to prayer. That included Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, much of his Cabinet and most senior bureaucrats.

     That Widodo took time to talk to his visitor on the Islamic holy day, when the Asian Games are concluding and campaigning about to start for next April’s presidential election, suggests he sees it’s important to maintain relationships with Australia, even if other politicians are indifferent or openly suspicious. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. The Bush Drivers Lament.

    Thousands of escapees from chilly southern cities are currently cruising northern Australia in search of warmth, wildflowers, new friends and a little adventure.

    The grey nomads prefer caravans, some so lavishly equipped they’re really villas on wheels with solar panels, family pets and air conditioning. The young and foreign go for small vans with a mattress and a gas stove.

    All bring money into backblock towns to buy fuel, food, souvenirs and spare parts.

    Local government reaction is mixed; some see opportunities so encourage visitors, others begrudge using ratepayers’ funds to supply services for outsiders, particularly budget travellers. The confusion is damaging tourism. Duncan Graham reports:  (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM New name, old menu, but hope looms

    Fresh news for stay-at-homes: The ABC has abandoned spin to reveal its overseas TV service is not aired to showcase the nation, but amuse expats. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Our failing media again-ignoring an election next door.

    ‘The World’ is a nightly news show on Australia Plus, our overseas TV showcase transmitted to 44 countries in Asia and the Pacific.  The one-hour programme pulls together the day’s global issues, often adding lengthy interviews dissecting international developments. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Praying is fine – Action is better.

    Five guards and an inmate died in a Jakarta prison riot last week, allegedly launched by Islamic State.  More than 150 terrorists are held at the overcrowded jail where turmoil erupted six months ago. 

    Then early on Sunday church bombings in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, killed nine at the start of the Muslim fasting month.

    In March police said they’d smashed an Internet jihad group known as the Muslim Cyber Army.  It was accused of spreading fake news to stir the gullible and destabilize upcoming elections.

    Where do the radicals recruit? At universities, according to Indonesia’s Intelligence Chief Budi Gunawan.

    He claimed almost 40 percent of students have been exposed to zealots ‘trying to mobilise new terrorists.’ 

    There are close to 3,000 tertiary education institutions in the Republic.  Most are private and run by religions.  Some are resisting the fundamentalists. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Finding ties that bind with Indonesia

    In early April, NSW Governor David Hurley spoke about Indonesian-Australian relationships. Although largely ignored by the mainstream media his speech was not the usual white bread served by those elevated to positions supra-politics.

    Hurley launched some awkward statistics:

    * Thirteen percent of Australians see Indonesians as trustworthy. Switch that around and the figure is 53 percent .

    * Nineteen per cent of Australians say they have a good knowledge of Indonesia. The reverse is 43 percent.

    * Unfavourable perceptions of the people next door? Australians 47 percent, Indonesians just ten percent. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Australia Plus – unfit for export.

    Though this starts like a fairy story it’s really a frightener: Once upon a time, Australian governments believed that broadcasting beyond our shores – and particularly into Southeast Asia – was an important responsibility, sowing ideas, informing and influencing. 

    Radio Australia shortwave started in 1939 to counter Japanese propaganda.  After the war, it became a ‘soft power diplomacy tool’ in the jargon of Foreign Affairs. It made us ‘globally connected’, able to ‘promote Australian values’.

    Now all has turned to froth.  Seldom seen by taxpayers is our $20 million presentation to the world.  Although called Australia Plus it adds little of value. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM Welcome Down Under, Mr President Widodo : An open letter

    Later this week Indonesian leader Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo is expected in Sydney with other heads of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for a ‘special summit’. The President recently told his ambassadors that while working overseas they should lift their nation’s status as a ‘great country’. Now Jokowi can do his bit. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Where’s Ozzie – down here or up there?

    This month Foreign Minister Julie Bishop spoke at the Menzies Research Centre in London on Australia’s Foreign Policy White Paper published three months earlier.

    Her theme circled around getting ‘rules-based order’ into Asia, just like Europe where she says nationalism has subsided.

    Dr Euan Graham (no relation), Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program, wrote in The Interpreter that the address was ‘probably Bishop’s most important foreign policy speech since her Fullerton lecture in Singapore (to the International Institute for Strategic Studies) last March.’

    However, its inconsistencies whizzed past the media obsessed with the Barnaby Joyce affair, bewildering those trying to understand Australia’s political location and Facebook likes. (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Visit Down Under and pay up.

    Indonesians will not be getting cheap and easy-to-obtain Australian visas available to Malaysians and Singaporeans. Australian campaigners seeking better access for Indonesian tourists have been officially told there will be no changes. This is despite the Republic giving Australians free visas-on-arrival and the Australian Government claiming it wants more Indonesian visitors.  (more…)

  • DUNCAN GRAHAM. Wanted: The real refugee story

    There should be no asylum seekers in offshore camps funded by Australia.  They’re getting food, healthcare and accommodation – even money. But the prolonged wait is inhumane and damaging.  Impractical solutions and unbalanced reporting are compounding the problem. (more…)