GETTING CLOSER, NASTIER

 SHAFTED BY ETIQUETTE

Just a fortnight to Indonesia’s big 14 February election and the mood is shifting as more than 200 million electors realise the reality - they’re being played by the oligarchs like puppets.

Last month this column was getting ahead of itself by speculating that front-runner Prabowo Subianto, 73,  a cashiered former general from last century's politics, had snatched a tactical victory by recruiting Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36,  as his candidate for vice president.

The former mayor of Solo in Central Java is the eldest son of the popular current president Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo constitutionally barred from a third five-year term.

Through pairing with Gibran,  Prabowo planned to capture the youth vote by appealing to the majority under - 40 cohort - people he knows little about.  His only son from a failed marriage with Soeharto's daughter is fashion designer and socialite Didit Hediprasetyo who lives in Europe.

For a while, it worked till electors remembered that vice presidents in the past have been powerless. The current holder was drawn from an Islamic group to give Jokowi an  image of a pious leader and offset slurs that he's a Christian Communist in disguise.

This was the tactic used at the 2019 election.  At the time Jokowi was promoting himself as an action man fixing the nation's crumbling infrastructure, more comfortable in a hard hat talking to engineers with clipboards rather than priests with holy books.

Bit too secular for the hard-liners parading themselves as the nation's moral arbiters, so Islamic scholar Ma'ruf Amin was shanghaied as vice president.  

Now 80 he's the Republic's oldest VP.  If he's done anything in the job other than chant Koranic verses with fellow scholars and fathered nine kids he's aroused no interest in the wider public.

Credit:  Daily News Indonesia

In earlier times he tried to stop Muslims saying Merry Christmas to unbelievers.  His reputation floundered when he was videoed breaking his own rule.

The idea that he might take over should Jokowi tumble under a high-speed Chinese train while commissioning another new track was worrying indeed, for the man has no known administrative abilities or wider interests apart from religion and English football.  To be precise - Liverpool.

Gibran doesn’t easily fit the traditional job description:  He defied his Dad’s desire that he take over the family furniture business and instead started his own catering company, suggesting he wants to go his own way.  It has reportedly earned him more than Papa’s woodworking.

Gibran has no military background and despite his promoters' attempts to show him as a fun fellow from a bang-bang smartphone game, he comes across as dour and serious Suddenly he’s revealed a cynical side that worries the public - if social and mainstream media responses are any guide.

In the last TV debate, he used sarcasm - a common tactic in Western culture and maybe picked up when he was apparently a  University of Technology Sydney student though he graduated in Singapore in 'management development'.

At the TV studio, Gibran peered around the podium claiming he was looking for the policies of his opponents.  He also flummoxed them by asking about 'greenflation' a trendy Western economic term so new it's still being defined.

Not funny. Voters were reminded that Javanese etiquette requires the young to respect the old.  The two VP candidates the subject of his sneers were Muhaimin Iskandar, 57, a former Minister for Manpower, and Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin, 66, a legal academic.  

Gibran bowed and kissed their wrists before the debate started, then started punching, turning from a polite young man to a smart arse-and that’s not the Javanese way.

 His enrolment may yet turn out to be an impediment to Prabowo’s ambition to U-turn Indonesia back to the days when the military ruled.

Indonesian schools teach a warped version of history where the army in 1965 saved the nation from a real or imagined Communist takeover.  Doubting this account was considered heretical.

The genocide of half a million real or imagined Reds and their mates by army-directed militias is rarely mentioned.

Only now are some daring to question the government’s rigid portrayal of the past, and wondering about Prabowo’s role in the disappearance of 13 students protesting in 1998 against Soeharto’s 32-year authoritarian rule.

Slowly this other history is creeping into the discussions despite Prabowo reminding critics that he’s never been charged with human rights abuses, though the accusations were so strong he was barred from the US.  That’s something only those who lived through the era of fear remember.

Bright, young modern Gibran risks his reputation by tolerating this association.

But maybe few care.  Like Trump supporters, they reject every wrongdoing of their hero.  If he did bad things decades ago then they must have been necessary.

Two weeks more to secure a lead - or stuff up again.  One more TV debate to go on 4 February.  The tea-leaf readers reckon no clear winner so a run-off on 26 June. If right, tense times loom.

 

 Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.

First published in Pearls & Irritations, 31 January 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/shafted-by-etiquette/

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEA SLUG VIAGRA

 SEX AND THE SEA:  SLUGS NOT FOR SHARING       

Australians ended 2023 to shock-horror reports of "the largest cohort of foreign fishers to be detained in over a decade."  The Return of the Living Dread? Not quite - just  30 Indonesian trepangers.

They were seized by the paranoid Australian Border Force (ABF) - and disappeared.  The managed media has reported one side of the story.  Duncan Graham tells another:

Patahudin Sijaya finds Australians hard to understand, though not for want of trying.

The 49-year-old Indonesian skipper of a hefty 25-metre timber fishing boat is a friendly guy hampered by a lack of English. Despite our self-awarded reputation for mateship the ABF crews he’s encountered aren't friendly, waving their neighbours away as their bobbing craft come close in disputed waters.

That puzzles the ‘Captain’ as he’s known in his home port of Palalakkang near Makassar on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.  He told Michael West Media what he wanted to yell across the waves:

“Hey, what’s the matter with you Australians?  You’ve got so many fish why don’t you let us stay for a few days, then we can leave with a full hold?  If you don’t like that idea get going and catch them yourselves.  You treat them like pets.”

Only weirdos could find trepang, aka sea cucumbers, cuddly. They're not fish but tropical reef and ocean-floor scavengers classified as echinoderms, Greek for 'hedgehog skin'.

That explains why predators retreat, though not humans. Plain thinkers see an anal discharge but imagineers reckon they look phallic so must be an aphrodisiac.

Although no evidence upholds this illogicality, limp men are keen to pay more than $300 a kilo.   

The commerce predates James Cook by three centuries, maybe more.  Unlike the British settler fleets the all-bloke crews were and are sail-ins, sail-outs.  That's still the situation.  Indonesians cheerfully admit to rindu kampung halaman - homesickness.

Abundance

In a high-wall yard in the village of Galesong is a sight to raise joy in the impotent. Hundreds of trays of gutted trepang drying in the sun. Some weigh more than a kilo, others are small and black like shriveled snakes.

“They’re brought here  to be processed and then sent to East Java for export.  I don’t know their origins,” said village leader Muhammad Ikhsan.   “So many varieties, no shortage.”

When Australia became a Federation it brought the omnipresent fear of the Asian Invasion that persists still.  The first laws against "poachers" were passed in 1906 because the foreigners were said to be "too industrious".  

In 1974 the Whitlam Government started trying to get serious about Asia.  A new sea boundary was set  telling fishers what boats they could use.  Sails OK, motors no.  

 Commented two legal researchers: “The prohibition against the use of technology has contributed to the deaths of numerous fishermen during cyclones. Instead of acting as a deterrent against fishing, (this) has simply increased the suffering of an already impoverished population.”

Fishers are penned into 50,000 square kilometres of the Timor Sea through a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, tagged by pedestrian bureaucrats as the MoU Box.   Another error - it’s shaped like a jigsaw piece.

The deals are one-sided. Though the 'box' is 200 nautical miles north of Broome, it’s only 60  south of Indonesia's Rote Island.

Canberra’s sea grab surged ahead. In 1981 the Australian Fishing Zone was pushed out to 320 km. 'Total Exclusion Zones’ appeared on maps.

Though joint patrols are sometimes run Australia does the heavy policing. Indonesia has more compelling issues than helping  a neighbour nurture sea slugs.  

The arrangement stayed afloat till some skippers found ferrying asylum seekers paid better than harpooning trepang. The Boat People  scare hardened loose laws. Crews were jailed - often illegally - boats burned and their human cargo sent to Nauru.

That traffic seems to have lessened giving the ABF the chance to track trepangers.

The December catch followed an ABC TV Lateline programme featuring Australian authorities and high-tech fishers with steel boats venting their disquiet and voicing rumours of hidden mother ships.The views of the Indonesians weren’t included.

A Fisheries Management spokesperson told MWM: "The Kimberley Marine Park has seen a significant increase in illegal foreign fishing since July 2023 (and) many Indonesian fishing vessels intercepted." No data was supplied.

The Diver’s Tale

Diver Sukri  surfaced twice in the last decade to find a boat waiting with men in uniform.  He was not afraid.

“I love Australia,” he said, “everyone was kind and polite.  They gave me regular health checks, plenty of food and even money when I was deported.”  

His overseas adventures excite his  mates on Barrang Lompo a half square kilometre island an hour from Makassar.  

It’s the largest homeport for trepang fishers in Eastern Indonesia with a fleet of around 100 diesel-powered timber boats. Most are leased so burning or confiscating by the ABF rarely impacts crews.

Sukri said he was warned of jail if he gets caught again.  He doesn't fear the shame of imprisonment so the threat is useless. To make it work we'd need to starve and torture inmates in isolation cells like  the system in Syria.

“Catches are down but that could be the weather,” he said. “I’ve just earned Rp 14 million ($1,350) working Indonesian waters for 40 days.  That’s good.” (The minimum monthly wage in Jakarta is $500, less in the provinces.)

No Buyer’s Remorse

Yusran's under-house store, also on Barrang Lompo, has eight 50 kg Styrofoam boxes of fresh salted trepang. He said he paid a captain $80 a kilo, down  $20 from a month ago.  The trade is reportedly worth $300 million a year, a figure that seems too low.

“I sell to the processors and the trepang eventually go to China,” he said.  “Prices vary according to supply and demand.”

Sydney University research suggests trepang numbers are falling on the Great Barrier Reef. There are no reports of Indonesians working Queensland waters.

The 30 men caught in December were sent to a WA detention centre.  The Indonesian Consul General in Perth said it  hadn’t been told the men’s homeports and names, suggesting Jakarta was being kept out of the loop.

The fear factor

The story broke courtesy of the ABF feeding understaffed newsrooms with its version of events plus video.The 6,000-strong ABF is a third force extra to the police and defence. Some officers carry guns. It was set up in 2015.

 It  keeps its doings sub rosa, even though it operates in a democracy. To ease any distress citizens might suffer on discovering sea-slug gatherers stepping ashore the ABF release added: "The Australian community can be assured these fishers will be detected and our response will be resolute."

It didn’t say whether the men had been charged, and if so which court and when.  MWM has been vigorously seeking answers.

 Habeas corpus (produce the person) is a fundamental principle of Australian law requiring every prisoner to be brought before a court.  If  illegally held  they must be released. A prisoner has to apply so needs legal help.  The men were picked up in the Silly Season, not ideal to activate legal aid.

ABF refused to take questions; the government’s Fisheries Management Authority would only say “these matters are currently under investigation …(no) further comment.”

From other sources and after a fortnight of nagging MWM can now reveal that 15 men have been deported and the rest are scheduled to fly in a few days.    So no public scrutiny and no political outrage.  Is that how we want our agencies to operate?

Chance to fix

Like pollution and global warming, conservation is an international concern. Trepang wriggle across sovereign borders, so their carers and catchers better think outside the box.  

The election of a new president this year gives Canberra a chance to reset relations. That includes negotiating better ways to preserve marine life without demonising and jailing poor fishers following orders and spending millions to process and deport the naughties.

Maintaining the present policy may keep the ‘Indonesian invaders’ story alive in the mainstream media - but who benefits from continually bashing that drum of amorality?

 

Duncan Graham has an MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.

First published in Michael West Media , 24 January 2024:  https://michaelwest.com.au/indonesian-boat-people-scare-just-fishermen/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2024-01-24&utm_campaign=Michael+West+Media+Weekly+Update

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UNDERSTANDING THE INDONESIAN ELECTION

 Click the YouTube here: https://youtu.be/V_9-zWDihTg?si=6X2I1lJTZ8ag0xGK

HARMLESS FOLK FOR SURE

 THE DELIGHTFUL DUO

It looks like a student parody of two pretenders to the throne, but this is from a street poster promoting candidates for the Gerindra Party, cashiered former general and alleged human rights abuser Prabowo Subianto (left) and his vice presidential hopeful Gibran Rakabuming.

One is 73, the other 36.

Their message to the more than 200 million registered electors: Vote for us - we’re cuddly, cute and fun people- ideal for running the world’s third-largest democracy and the nation with more Muslims than any other state.  You don’t want boring folk handling this sort of show.  Life's serious enough.

BTW, no temper tantrums if you don't win, thanks.  The last time was bad enough - eight dead, 300 injured, cars and buildings burned.  Good losers take their toys and toddle home.

POWERFUL PLANS, POWERLESS REALITY

 FIVE REASONS WHY INDONESIA’S EV PLAN IS POWERLESS   Duncan Graham

To an Indonesian conservationist all lights look green.

The wondrous 16,000-island archipelago has nickel needed  for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Specialist factories are planned using Australian  lithium.

President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo wants E-power to cut pollution and the Republic’s dependence on imported fossil fuels. Government-subsidised E-bikes are already in showrooms plus a few cars.

It seems the E-age has arrived.  Not so.  Missing is the determination to transform using subsidies and laws that are enforced.  

For business it's the old dilemma - build it and they'll come, or wait till they come and then start construction.  Either way Indonesia’s way behind.

First the price:  The Honda Beat four-stroke motorcycle is the nation’s top seller capturing more than 30 per cent of the market. It  retails around Rp 18 million ($1,160) and often bought on terms.

The company's  EM1 E bike price starts at Rp 40 million ($2,600), more than double its gas-powered mate.  For that money, you'd need something that signs, dances and goes twice the distance.  This doesn't.

The government is offering a Rp seven million ($450) subsidy for selected buyers  Four months ago it had received only 2,429 applications.

The cheapest conventional four-wheeler is the low-powered Daihatsu Ayla - Rp 147 million ($9,500).  The box-on-wheels Wuling Air E-car (too small and ugly for the status-conscious) sells for Rp 243 million ($16,000).

There are more than 125 million gas-powered motorbikes in Indonesia, a nation of 275 million people.  In 2022 sales reached 5.2 million units.  Turning this around will be a monster task.

Second is range: Cut manufacturers’ quotes by a third.  The factory figures may be accurate for a 50kg rider heading downhill with a tailwind.  But reverse these conditions and revise expectations for real-world usage.

Most 110 cc bikes have a four-litre tank giving a range of above 200 km.  The EM1 can just make it to 40 km provided all stars are aligned.

The Ayla can go 300 km with a load;  the Air might make 200 km with a slim teen behind the wheel.

Third - top up.  Java has enough government-owned Pertamina stations to satisfy careful riders though queues are often long.

Although the trade is supposed to be gelap (illegal), roadside re-sellers of petrol in bottles are commonplace.  The price is higher but the convenience is ideal.

A dead E-vehicle on an isolated road is the stuff of horror movies.  Your correspondent has just completed a 3,500 km E-car drive across Australia's arid Nullarbor (no tree) Plain.  

Planning had to be perfect:   Headwinds? Stab keyboard, read data. We'll get there only if acceleration is smooth and the speed held below 90 kph.  Boring, though safer for kangaroos and emus.

 Getting in the car and going off without thinking is not the E-way.

Jakarta has ordered the state power monopoly PLN to build 6,318 EV charging points and 10,000 battery swap stations by 2025. How these will function is a puzzle: Other countries have E-bike standards but Indonesia is a wild market with racks of Chinese knock-ups, most with different batteries

Till then it's plugging into domestic wall sockets. Waiting up to nine hours is no problem if overnighting at home or hotel - but a pain at midday and appointments to keep.

Fourth - service. I’ve done more than 9,000 km on East Java roads in the past two years using a Pedelec (pedal electric), the type common in Singapore and Western European nations, used to commute and deliver goods in urban areas.  Should the battery die just pedal harder - and lose more weight.

A replacement (battery, not rider) costs Rp 2.5 million ($162) - a third of the price of bike and battery.  Had that money gone on gas for a motorbike I’d have covered 10,000 km.  That’s a fact the e-bike pushers aren’t keen to announce.

Dud power cells can be repaired- though only by an electrician who understands the complex new technology. My guy is a dab with TV sets but after four failures and a patchwork of solder burns, the fault eludes.

Workshops repairing four-stroke bikes with staff often trained by manufacturers are commonplace.  Then there’s the self-taught young guys who get their mates' coughing beasts purring again using hairpins.

Final fifth - safety.  E-bikes whisper and are swifter, so often not heard or distance misjudged by pedestrians. My city  has dedicated bike lanes clearly marked.

Street traders grab these spaces to sell noodles.  The signs say that's not allowed, but who cares?   Indonesia is the land of the broken rule.  Getting to become Southeast Asia's Netherlands, the world’s most bike-friendly country, will be a long and rough ride.

Duncan Graham has a MPhil degree, a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He lives in East Java.

 

 

 WHY INDONESIA IS MORE  MONARCHY THAN  DEMOCRACY          

    General Soeharto who ruled Indonesia for 32 years last century used to stage a ‘Festival of Democracy’ every five years.  This was export quality irony - the results were known before the poll papers were printed.

That’s not the case this year as the Republic now has an apparently independent Komisi Pemilihan Umum, (General Elections Commission, KPU) to police the process in what is supposed to be a democracy.

International authorities label it ‘flawed’ which is being kind.  Local academics predict more dilution after the February election whoever wins.

The KPU is not the problem - it’s the parties.  Three of the 24 contesting the presidency and a confusion of other national and regional positions have ‘democracy’ in their title.  The other 21 idly pass the gift of the Greeks around in their pronouncements like a smoke with a few sucks left before it’s stubbed out.

(The global leader in grand misnomers is North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.)

If democracy means the people have the power then none of Indonesia’s major parties nurture that essential. There are annual meetings and flash events to show that all bleatings are heard.  But these displays are for the shepherd to tell the flock where it’s heading, not why.

The largest party by membership and seats is the ruling Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan (Democratic Party of Struggle) led by Megawati Soekarno, 76, the daughter of first president Soekarno.  She was the fifth president (2001 - 04) and now party president for life.

PDI-P is supposed to have half a million followers, but as with the first Elizabeth only the Monarch’s voice may be heard. One card-carrier is the current President Joko ’Jokowi’ Widodo, constitutionally barred from standing for more than two five-year terms.

A decade ago Mega reluctantly launched his career from Jakarta Governor to national politics.  She couldn’t muster public support for a dynasty through her unpopular daughter Puan  Maharani, chair of the House of Reps - Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat (DPR). 

Despite Jokowi's wins in 2014 and 2019, and an approval rating of around 80 per cent, Mega paid him no respect as the leader of 270 million people, the world's third-largest democracy after India and the US.  

She considered him a ‘minor functionary’.  This year she handpicked the former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo as his successor, a man  reportedly more pliant to her demands.

To revenge the slights Jokowi dropped endorsement of his party colleague and instead blessed Prabowo Subianto his bitter rival in the last two contests. Jokowi's son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, then quit the PDI-P to join Prabowo as his vice president candidate.

It’s widely thought he’s there as Jokowi’s proxy, but the former mayor of Solo (Central Java) may yet turn out to be his own man.  If so the businessman who has never been subject to military discipline will need guts to disobey the fiery-tempered absolutist Prabowo.

In the last election (2019) the PDI-P scored just under 20 per cent of the vote and 128 seats in the DPR.  The Jokowi and Gibran defections will cut down these scores.

In colonial days bowing and scraping was the way to win favours; in a modern Republic. stuffed envelopes are more effective.

According to Transparency International, Indonesia ranked 110 among 180 countries measured for corruption. The score starts at 1 = most pure. Here’s where the Nordic nations and NZ cluster.

Autocrats hate critics, so Jokowi’s bloodless way to neuter opponents has been to invite minor parties to abandon their principles, join his coalition and get money-making ministries.  He’s done this so well his actions only get chastised by NGOs and unions.

Golkar (Functional Groups) was the plaything of the late Soeharto. It claims 840,000 members, but that appears to be a leftover from last century when all public servants had to belong.  

In 1997, the last election before he was ousted, the party had 325 of the 400 seats, now only 85.  A few minor parties were allowed to give the pretence of democracy but only Mega’s mob offered any opposition so was trashed by Soeharto’s thugs in 1996.

Five people died, 149 were injured and  23 remain missing. The party was reformed as centre-left nationalistic and added ‘struggle’ to its title.  For many years it was popular through its  underdog status , but that’s waned.

The hard-right Gerindra (Great Indonesia Movement) is the third-largest party with 78 seats.  It's the poodle of Prabowo, Indonesia’s version of Mussolini.

The cashiered former general and alleged human rights abuser started the party after returning from self-imposed exile in Jordan in 2008 and finding no welcome mat at Golkar.

Gerindra boasts half a million members, but that doesn’t imply they’re paid-up card holders.  The money comes from Prabowo’s dollar billionaire businessman brother  Hashim Djojohadikusumo.

The slightly left NasDem (Democratic Party) has 59 seats in the DPR; it’s steered by  Surya Paloh who owns the 24-hour news channel Metro TV.  Surya was a key figure in Golkar for 40 years before starting NasDem in 2011 and reportedly has 400,000 members.

The media tzar comes from Sumatra, a huge handicap in Java-dominated politics so has appointed other candidates, this time former Jakarta Governor Dr Anies Baswedan.

He's not doing well in the polls, probably because he used to be an academic and takes leadership seriously.  Better harken to coarse Prabowo who uses the Trump primer:  Rant, lie flat out like a thirsty lizard, blame unnamed foreigners for all evils, sow fear and promise to fix everything without explaining one policy detail.

That's because there aren't many - and those that surface soon evaporate.  Indonesian politics isn't driven by ideas gleaned in democratic party conferences where intellects clash, but by personalities created by social media, wrinkles smoothed by AI.

The Gerindra duo are being promoted as jolly cartoon characters as though running the world’s fourth largest nation with more Muslims than any other state is a pastime for a Blinky Bill lookalike.

As Tim Minchin sings in his Opera House tribute  Play It Safe: ‘You gotta keep it simple’. Economics and foreign relations?  Boor-r-r-ing. Just choose  someone like the late Soeharto (Prabowo is his former son-in-law) who kept prices low and fixed dissent with gunfire.  Those were the days.

In 1998 the students who helped bring in democracy reckoned they were activists, but the president said they were terrorists so good riddance.  It worked last century - so why not now?

The answer is that the electorate is better educated, knows more of the world through uncensored smartphones and maybe better able to research the history they didn’t get at school.  Whether their learning has reached the age of discretion will be known after 14 February.

 

 First published in Pearls & Irritations, 20 January 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/why-indonesia-is-more-monarchy-than-democracy/

OUR  LEADING LADY’S NOT LEADING

“So much for Australia’s engagement with Asia,” wrote former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer this month, punctuating a claim that the media gives “close to 20 times the coverage to the US presidential elections as Indonesia’s.”

Kicking journos is an easy sport but needs two teams to engage - and in Jakarta our captain isn’t on the pitch.

In 2021 career civil servant Penny Williams was appointed Ambassador to Indonesia - a good news story that should have drawn the salaried reporters of Australia’s mainstream media that still retain offices in Southeast Asia.

The news value went beyond a well-qualified woman running our largest overseas mission, more a fortress since the Jemaah Islamiyah suicide bombing two decades ago that killed nine Indonesians and sowed fear into friendships.

In 2020 the neighbours celebrated 70 years of diplomacy. Until Ms Williams presented her credentials to President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo her 22 predecessors had been blokes. Not all had known the culture well or the language.

Ms Williams was different. As a young student from Tasmania, she’d spent time in Jakarta and learned Indonesian.

Her previous positions included High Commissioner to Malaysia, and  first Ambassador for Women and Girls, so clearly a DFAT favourite.

Then the bonus: She was also a Mum in a nation where the personal trumps policies. Westerners rarely get quizzed on their academic qualifications, more likely their reproduction records. Ms Williams scores four, presumably now adults.

Hoping to continue the positive and professional dealings enjoyed with her forerunner Gary Quinlan,  your correspondent offered congratulations and sought a sit-down interview:

Please tell us your plans for making the most of this splendid opportunity to start again by repairing a rotting relationship - so bad it's measurable and worrying. Here was a task for a smart woman.

No acknowledgement.  Resend. Resend.

Her politely badgered staff gave assurances she’d read all requests. Then a question about my questions - curious, because top newsmakers rarely need digestion pills to chew up humble hacks without burping.

“I'm keen to get the Ambassador's assessment of RI-Oz relations and how these can be improved.

“Apart from hearing what she'd been doing, I'm interested in her thoughts on getting messages about Australia through to the wong cilek (ordinary folk) and helping our middle and working classes (ANU terms) better understand their neighbours.

“Trade and security issues are regularly canvassed in the media so I'd prefer to stay on fresher matters; if she leads into pastures new I'll follow.”  The in-box stayed empty.

At the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival last October (right) she confirmed awareness of my long-term quest. I gave her a copy of my latest book Tyranny of Proximity and asked again for a sit-down. She said she’d check her schedule. 

All pleasant and respectful, but nothing happened.  Another stir; after two years of requests came the answer: “Unfortunately Ambassador Williams is not available at this time.” 

Assuming this might mean she’s unwell I wished her a speedy recovery. She turns 60 this month with no reports of incapacity.  The consolation prize offered was a ‘catch-up’ with a Consul-General, though not as the Ambassador’s stand-in authorised to speak on the record.

Ms Williams is entitled to favour certain scribes - that's commonplace.  Being snubbed is every journo's occupational hazard; we toughen up or quit. Personal slights get flicked off the carapace, but her apparent indifference to the Fourth Estate seems total.

 If the Ambassador has given any serious speeches or in-depth interviews in the local or Australian media since her appointment by the Morrison Government they’re well hidden.  In 2021 the Embassy website listed two ’Articles and Speeches’ and nothing since.

Ms Williams' three-year engagement will end soon,  so the Albanese administration will be listing candidates.  A model to consider is the late Richard Woolcott, ambassador 1975-78.

In a Pearls & Irritations obituary, John McCarthy, another former ambassador to Indonesia (1996-2001), wrote of his one-time colleague’s communication skills and “outstanding capacity to engage with everybody - from the most elevated to the rest of us.”

The most effective ambassadors are also activists and entrepreneurs.  Former TV entertainer Tantowi Yahya became a national figure in NZ (2017 -22) by running big concerts and debating West Papua independence.  

In Washington (2010 - 13) Dr Dino Patti Djalal got expats to invest in their homeland and was dubbed Indonesia’s ‘Marketeer of the Year’.

Nineteenth-century British editor Walter Bagehot asserted that an ambassador "is not simply an agent - (s)he is also a spectacle."

Nothing in this commentary suggests Ms Williams is not a competent administrator and energetic envoy, applauded by her employer. Maybe she squirrels away effectively in the shadows winning new friends and engineering deals to benefit all.

But to engage with Indonesia the media needs much more, an inspirational up-front leader, ideally from outside the bureaucracy. Essentials include a winning style and enthusiasm for using the press to articulate our democratic values and concerns in the marketplace of public opinion.

Or does Canberra fear that an adventurous and assured ambassador might upset the pricklies in Jakarta and start another tsunami in a rice bowl while an election campaign is underway?

(An invitation remains open for Ms Williams to respond to this commentary.) 

  First published in Pearls & Irritations, 17 January 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/our-leading-lady-in-jakarta-is-not-leading/