NAVEL EXERCISE

 

 Albrecht Dürer - themorgan.org, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18682721

 

 

Who you are doesn’t matter. You’re one of us and I’m one of you.

Gender, Colour, Ethnicity, Nationality, Culture, Language?

Deity?  Ten thousand religions to choose from - or ignore.

Whatever you wear - or don’t wear.

Height, age, width, fit or sick - we’re all the same.

All from the same place, a woman’s womb.

Proof is the navel  Everyone has one.  It’s our badge of birth

Even Adam and Eve.

Who were made ‘in God’s image’.

Work that one out.

DG

THANE OF JAVA, KING HEREAFTER

FATHER KNOWS BEST?  NOT THIS TIME

Pic:  The Jakarta Post

How comfy the throne, how rapid the change; a humble Republican from a riverbank shack is now plotting to be King of Indonesia with a regal family as courtiers.

Young Indonesians have had enough of outgoing President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's blatant nepotism, the rise of dynastic politics and a return of the oligarchs.

Furious protests in major cities last week sent the market trembling and forced the Parliament to adjourn. TV news showed police firing tear gas and water cannons as the crowds surged and spotfires flared.

Less than two months before disgraced former general Prabowo Subianto takes office in the land next door, students, workers and idealists are starting to snarl.

Tens of thousands have protested against legislators’ contempt for electors; they’re  demanding respect for representative government and the rule of law - and so far they’re succeeding.

The world’s third largest democracy (after India and the US) has allowed the principles of equality and equity to be slowly trampled during the leader’s past two five-year terms.

The crisis is a reminder that 19^th   century British politician Lord Acton’s quote is ageless and universal: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Several universities in Indonesia have reportedly issued petitions criticising the current state of democracy and calling on Jokowi to maintain state ethics.

Indonesia’s labelled a ‘flawed democracy’ by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s World Democracy Index. This ranks the Republic at 52;  the Nordic nations and NZ lead the 167 states surveyed.

Last Thursday more than 3,000 police were hopelessly outnumbered by ten times that number in Jakarta as masses condemned planned changes to the Republic’s regional election law in a bid to overturn a ruling by the Constitutional Court. There were no reported casualties or arrests.

Comments from the crowd would resonate with young Australians; fist-thrusters  were there  to protest state abuse of democracy, though also fed up with the rising cost of living, low wages, the power of elites and long delays in bureaucrats responding to complaints of inefficiency.

Once again this highly-charged political shemozzle involves the family of the super popular but ultra cunning Jokowi.  He’s trying to cement his legacy by slipping rellies into power and through them maintaining his grip on the state.

After two five-year terms he can't legally remain in office, though pushed to stay by big business backers. They've argued his rule should continue because it’s led to high economic growth (now above five per cent) mainly through Chinese-funded infrastructure, mining projects and loans.

Two years ago Jakarta owed Beijing  more than AUD 30 billion - a figure now believed to be much higher.

This week the  Court decided candidates in local elections must be at least 30 years old.  That ruled out Jokowi’s youngest son  Kaesang Pangarep, 29, from having his name on a ticket in the November poll.

Jokowi rustled up backers and rapidly garnered support from eight parties already in his pocket. They whipped up new bills a week before  the  candidate registration period to let  Kaesang stand.

Earlier this year the Court, then run by Jokowi’s brother-in-law  Anwar Usman, judged that citizens under 40 could stand for high office if they had prior government experience.

This allowed Jokowi’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, the former mayor of Solo in Central Java, to offer himself to the public in a three-party race as sidekick to Prabowo.

In February the pair scored 58 per cent in the general election. Prabowo is now the president-elect and Gibran vice president-elect.

Chief Justice  Anwar was reprimanded by his colleagues for - among other things - committing a “serious violation of the code of ethics” and failing to be impartial.

Daddy's boy Gibran

He was demoted but the Court’s decision was upheld.

This month it all got too much with Daddy’s bid to get Kaesang onto the public teat. Another princeling, son-in-law Muhammad Bobby Nasution, 31, is already suckling as mayor of Medan, the archipelago’s fourth biggest city.

The eager legislators said  right-oh boss, swift  passage of contentious laws coming up. But after rocks were chucked and attempts on Thursday to tear down the gates of Parliament, attitudes changed.

Lawmakers remembered the 1998 riots which tore down second president Soeharto after 32 years of autocracy, so suddenly discovered caution.

Jokowi sought to soothe the crowds, not in person but through a video: "We respect the authority and decisions of each state institution. This is a normal constitutional process that takes place within our state institutions."

No one was fooled.   The politicians peered out through barred windows and concluded keeping the status quo might be safest.

Deputy House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad was reported by Reuters as ruling out changes in the law, claiming insufficient time for debate.

In an Instagram posting, former Ambassador to the US Dr Dino Patti Djalal, who now runs a foreign policy think tank said attempts by politicians to bypass the Constitutional Court "have harmed the quality and credibility of Indonesian democracy.

"This has shaken people's trust in state institutions and damaged  Indonesia's good name in the international community.

“We are worried to see the rampant indications of politicization of law, where legal cases are used as tools to secure the political agenda of certain parties. We must all work hard to fight corruption, collusion, conspiracy, and nepotism.”

Jokowi’s replacement Prabowo has a reputation for being a hard-right disciplinarian. At an investment forum this year after winning the Presidency  he complained that democracy is “really, very, very tiring … messy and costly,”

Winston Churchill was more articulate.  He’s supposed to have said: “Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those others.”

Once in the top chair frustrated Prabowo might try “those others”.  Instead of placatory words maybe rifle butts and mass arrests.  Tense times loom.

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  First published in Pearls & Irritations,27 August 2024:  https://johnmenadue.com/father-knows-best-not-this-time/

FAREWELL NIGEL - ADVENTURER & TELLER

  

 A GRIM MESSAGE FROM THE  MOUNTAIN                   

It was to be no foolhardy adventure.  Explorer and author Nigel Bullough and his anthropologist friends were well prepared for the quest to find ancient sites.

Their sponsor was the private Surabaya University where  British-born Nigel was the leading consultant for the development of a cultural centre.

Their target was Penanggungan, 50 km south of the East Java capital, the year 2015.

The mountain is only 1,653  metres, but its slopes are steep and its story is a legend.  It was part of holy Mount Mahameru hauled from India to nail Java into the world, often labelled the 'sacred geography' linking Indonesia with the sub-continent.

The biggest lump became Semeru (3,676 meters), the highest peak in Java and close to Malang,  The rest became Pawitra (‘holy’ in ancient Javanese), now known as Penanggungan.  

When Nigel’s expedition started climbing a bushfire had cleared much of the undergrowth exposing sites probably unseen for centuries.

Locals think the firing was from a lightning strike.  The flames had revealed well-built tracks that negotiated the steep slopes once trodden by sandalled pilgrims and barefoot artisans.

Then Nigel slipped and fell, almost into a ravine.

He was saved when his camera strap snagged the shrubbery. But his left arm was jerked from its socket and the bone fractured.

It took his friends five hours to get him down the mountain, and a further hour of slow driving over rough roads to reach a police hospital. A surgeon dashed in from afar in the early hours.

 "The treatment was excellent," Nigel said more than six months after the accident. "My arm is almost back to normal. The mountain had briefly revealed its secrets and it was time to close. And the next day it started to rain.

 "Penanggungan (BELOW) was telling me that it was time to sit down and work on our discoveries."

These finds have been extraordinary. More than 130 previously uncharted sites have been discovered including a circular three-metre wide road once used by horses and carts to scale the mountain.

Years before the near-fatal fall Nigel had taken the Javanese name Hadi Sidomulyo, learned the language, and become a resident.

His medical doctor friend  Hery Kurniawan, says he was an introvert.  That fits because info about the former Englishman’s past is thin, sad because his determined research into the Majapahit Era (1292 - 1527) deserves to be widely known and vigorously applauded.

Majapahit symbol

Nigel died last month and was cremated in Bali; he was probably aged 72.  Some claim he came from Scotland, others believe London. Maybe both.

He was just out of his teens and backpacking the archipelago around 1970 when he snared a job with the government-owned phone company Telkom.

His work took him across East Java and he became aware of the province’s rich past, particularly the Majapahit, a Buddhist-Hindu empire that pre-dated the arrival of Islam.

It was based on Southeast Asian sea trade yet centred inland at what is now Trowulan.  Dr Hery, who believes in reincarnation,  said it was his friend’s “destiny” to be called to Java and drawn to reveal some of its secrets.

After quitting Telkom he got work with government departments writing coffee-table books despite having no formal qualifications in social anthropology.

 His first published work was a catalogue of paintings  Bali: An Adventure in Cultural Ecology sponsored by the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam; that would have helped provide credibility.

He was an excellent photographer and wordsmith able to use academic jargon for learned publications like Achipel, the French journal of inter-disciplinary studies on Southeast Asian nations.  

He could also flip to the uncluttered prose needed to draw ordinary tourists to the marvels in Memories of Majapahit.

As a consultant to the Department of Culture and Tourism in Yogyakarta (1986-1989) and Surabaya (1989-1994) he produced books like Discovering East Java as presentations for visiting VIPs.

The credits and intros were usually led by Indonesian bureaucrats pictured in splendid uniforms but who'd never dug the dirt.  The giveaways were the small lines with no portrait tucked away from the pompous on a left-hand page, though should have been on the cover:  Written and illustrated by Nigel Bullough.

Other authors might have demanded better recognition, but it seems a low status suited.

When former general Soeharto ruled last century, Westerners wandering the land and asking about culture were often considered suspicious.  Nigel seemed harmless.  He got close to officialdom through his assignments and was accepted.

Dutch businessman/historian Herald van der Linde who is currently touring Java to promote his book Majapahit:  Intrigue Betrayal and War in Indonesia's Greatest Empire knew Nigel as “a very gentle man, friendly, open, and deeply devoted to researching Majapahit:

"He once told me that he didn't consider himself an academic or historian, probably because he didn't have university qualifications. But he had unrivalled Majapahit knowledge."

There are now moves to have Penanggungan classified as a World Heritage site.  If successful the name Nigel Bullough / Hadi Sidomulyo should be included in the title.

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First published in Indonesia Expat, 23 August 2024: https://indonesiaexpat.id/travel/history-culture/a-grim-message-from-the-mountain/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SORRY IF OUR NEEDS OFFEND

 ALLOW US TO INGRATIATE 

All is forgiven - who cares about the past?  Jokowi reinstates Prabowo

There’s a seething and brutal guerrilla war underway in the Indonesian provinces closest to Australia. Thousands have been killed but little is known because foreign journalists and UN inspectors are banned.

At first it was arrows against AK-47s, but the independence-seeking rebels are now better armed and more lethal.

 A just-concluded security deal with Jakarta gives Canberra a chance to offer mediation,  let observers in  and help secure the human rights we uphold in other  conflicts.

Though not this one. Instead we get closer to an antagonist, ignore the abuses and agree to be gagged under the Agreement Between Australia and the Republic of Indonesia on the Framework for Security Cooperation.

 The deal was ticked while Indonesian Defence Minister and President-elect Prabowo Subianto was briefly Down Under.  Defence Minister Richard Marles is reportedly heading to Jakarta soon for the big final inking.

Australians keen to understand what international handshakes are happening  in their name might want to know who we’re dealing with and scrutinise the language.

An ‘agreement’ may be a synonym for a ‘pact’, ‘alliance’ or ‘arrangement’ in casual talk, but it’s not a formal ‘treaty’, whatever Anthony Albanese suggested in a joint media statement on Tuesday.  (20 Aug).

Treaties around the world are big time, the most notable being the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a military alliance of 32 states founded in 1949. Members agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. 

The ANZUS Treaty with the US has been our supposed defence bedrock since 1952.

Staged bonhomie is essential in diplomacy - and collaboration better than confrontation. Unfortunately in our dealings with Indonesia straight talk is the casualty.

The PM's office calling Prabowo 'HE General (rtd)' may be polite but untrue. The career soldier was cashiered in 1998 for disobeying orders, then fled into exile in Jordan for seven years.  

Men under his control were allegedly involved in the disappearance of activist students.  Their families have staged Aksi Kamisan (Thursday action) demonstrations outside the Presidential palace in Jakarta every week since 2007 wanting to know what happened to their sons.

Prabowo's record as a commander in East Timor last century is allegedly grim.

Australian researcher Pat Walsh, who was involved in the new nation's Reconciliation Commission (CAVR) has called Prabowo  ”a person with demonstrated disregard for the rule of law, of both the domestic and international kind, and regarded by many as a war criminal.”

Prabowo denies wrongdoing and has never been charged in court. He becomes president in October having decisively won (58 per cent) of the February election.

Understandably, Australian ministers dealing with the world's fourth-largest nation with a population eleven times bigger prefer to dodge historical facts and sell out upholders of human rights.

Before the Tuesday announcement Daniela Gavshon, the local director at Human Rights Watch wrote that Australian government leaders should “raise concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the Indonesian provinces of West Papua”.  

She alleged “ongoing abuses against indigenous Papuans include killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and mass displacement of people.”

According to four Australian academics including a former AFP investigator, "hundreds of thousands" have died since 1965 when Indonesia took over the territory.

There's no indication HR issues have ever been discussed during the negotiations.  Though the final text hasn't been released The Australian gave the show a page one paean, imagined multiple benefits, hinted China was a  common threat and  praised all participants.  

Prabowo would be delighted getting homeland-style  treatment in  a nation with a media reputation for tough reporting.

It's understood one article in the agreement bans Australian support, participation or encouragement in activities "including separatism".

There's no mention of West Papua but this is what the words are about - effectively gagging any Australian government from voicing distress and lobbying for resolution.

Far from being outraged Minister Marles has embraced the ban.  In February in Jakarta, he said:

 “There’s no support for any independence movements … we support the territorial sovereignty of Indonesia and that includes those provinces being part of Indonesia, no ifs, no buts, and I want to be clear about that.”

This week’s announcement dubbed by the ABC as an  "upgraded defence agreement",  hardly seems worth bedecking the halls. Yet the PM called it  "the deepest, the most significant agreement that our two countries have ever made."

 Marles likes the adverb ‘profoundly’ using it twice to describe the dealings.

The Australians' glee was not reflected in Prabowo's comments or demeanour. The best he could manage  was to call the deal a “good neighbour relationship.”

Instead, he spoke about the Olympics and illegal drugs,  notably  hosing down his host's ardour and extinguishing any hints of policy change:

"As you know we are, by tradition, non-aligned. By tradition, our people do not want us to be involved in any geopolitical or military alliances or groupings. I myself am determined to continue this policy."

While Albanese and Marles used ‘security’ to spruik the agreement as a defence deal, Prabowo only spoke of  ‘food security’.  No ’treaty’ on his lips, only Albanese’s:

“This historic treaty will bolster our strong defence cooperation by deepening dialogue, strengthening interoperability and enhancing practical arrangements.”

Using the term suggests that the local deal comes  within Coo-ee of NATO or ANZUS.  That’s ridiculous.  There's no suggestion we'll dash into the archipelago to help should anyone invade, or the other way around.

So what’s going to happen?   The PM again: “It will be a vital plank for our two countries to support each other's security, which is vital to both countries, but also to the stability of the region that we share.”

The best interpretation is that the Australian military will continue joint exercises with its Indonesian counterpart (the TNI) currently busy in West Papua.

 Indonesian HRW researcher Andreas Harsono told Michael West Media that any bilateral agreement  should include  defending the rights of all people:

 “I guess Indonesian officers will not be happy if Australian soldiers, involved in atrocities in Afghanistan are to take part in a military training program in Jakarta.

“Vice versa. Australian officers might not feel comfortable to train with abusive Indonesian soldiers who tortured indigenous Papuans.”

It hasn’t all been one-sided: This month guerrillas allegedly killed Kiwi chopper pilot Glen Conning; he was flying for an Indonesian company ferrying local health workers into a remote region.  The six passengers were reportedly unharmed.

Another NZ pilot Phillip Mehrtens was seized early last year by the  West Papua National Liberation Army.  He's reportedly alive and being held hostage.  The rebel group denies murdering Conning and has hinted at military involvement.

The PM said the agreement will “see us working together in the global commons to support the rules-based order and, importantly, it will allow us to operate from each other's countries."

Though not West Papua.

First published in Michael West Media, 22 August 2024: https://michaelwest.com.au/when-is-a-treaty-not-a-treaty-the-marles-and-prabowo-canberra-love-in/

 

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