tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-146503982024-03-27T13:37:25.355+07:00NOTES FROM NEXT DOORFormerly Indonesia Now with Duncan Graham - and still Interpreting Indonesia with a Western perspective:
INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.comBlogger1260125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-81226062741827920152024-03-25T08:04:00.003+07:002024-03-25T08:04:34.343+07:00<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">PLAYING THE HUNGER GAMES</span></p><p><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2EkjbpQ4rMRptqZXnSrD69KcM0HeztSlCzcZVEAbKyePMOPnrAqhQkUWcWhZyK0y2HuHyiwArR8d8z7WI0oW9bCcEYRA428KmFi-KvTGkT_4m6S3LVBWiPiJCT6V7Uf5Q5bS1ZKctKHzwolMTrNAuYjHeNUGQYVTLrtFmrmnajeu8ZHPfYQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="956" data-original-width="1300" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2EkjbpQ4rMRptqZXnSrD69KcM0HeztSlCzcZVEAbKyePMOPnrAqhQkUWcWhZyK0y2HuHyiwArR8d8z7WI0oW9bCcEYRA428KmFi-KvTGkT_4m6S3LVBWiPiJCT6V7Uf5Q5bS1ZKctKHzwolMTrNAuYjHeNUGQYVTLrtFmrmnajeu8ZHPfYQ=w512-h375" width="512" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The nightmare sprung to life: A gang. Worse, an Asian teen gang. An hour before dawn. I’m alone. With a bike.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A dozen or more boys fired up with freedom, yahooing down the lampless highway, bashing bushes, tossing fire crackers, chiacking.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Strife seems likely. There are no side roads for a speedy escape. Maybe a bashing, a cycle theft? I'm less fit, well outnumbered, someone quite different, an easy target. No one else from my tribe’s around ready to rescue. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In an Australian suburb or town, particularly one like Alice Springs if reports of rampant lawlessness are right, the sweat would be stoked by fear.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Curses, too, for straying into a bad area like bond trader Sherman McCoy taking a wrong turn into the Bronx in Tom Wolfe's novel and film </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Bonfire of the Vanities.</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Yet this street is leafy and normally empty. </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Turn and run or push on? The second decision is right, flavoured with a bit of local slang that sets them laughing as they dash away. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 5.25pt; mso-char-indent-count: -0.5000; text-align: justify; text-indent: -5.25pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nothing happens because this is Malang in Central East Java not an Oz city. Though the kids are hyped up they’re not dosed with drugs or grog, just the buzz of being young and fresh and on their own.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This is a yearly event whatever the suburb, even the uni campuses at the start of Ramadan. Sometimes called Ramadhan it’s the holy fasting month leading to the great Muslim celebration of Idul Fitri on 10 April.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The adults wake around 3.30 am and fill themselves with plates overflowing like those wanted by Palestinians in Gaza. Then Dad and Mum go back to bed and kick the feisty sons out to roam as they won’t head to school till 9 am, two hours later than usual. Daughters also wander - though seldom with the boys. That age has yet to come.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Around 4 pm queues gather around the street stalls. It's </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">takjil</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (speed up snacks) till the food can be hogged on kerb stones or taken home once the siren shrieks that the day’s pangs are at an end.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It's a time of communion, the bond being hunger and the belief that all are suffering together while showing devotion. The atmosphere is positive, expectant of pleasures to come, the rewards of religious discipline.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">As the four weeks progress the hungry get testy. Those who give up along the way, offer excuses - they’re sick, spiritually lame. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Restaurants generally shut during daylight hours but joints like KFC and McDonald’s stay open. Window blinds are closed so passers-by don't get tempted to abandon their beliefs.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The fast-fooders feed the non-Muslims (about ten per cent of society is Christian - the population of Australia), and those excused for health reasons, pregnancy and menopause. An astonishing number of young women wearing </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">jilbab </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(headscarves) have periods at this time.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The pious are also expected to abandon sex and other pleasures, including nicotine. About 63 million men are </span><a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/955476/indonesia-number-of-smokers/"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">hooked </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">so smoke wafting from behind walls where Allah can’t see is a regular sight. Women seldom use as the noxious habit is supposed to be a sign of prostitution.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Westerners are advised not to eat in public and women should dress modestly. Java is not Hindu Bali but visitors should feel untroubled. The worst is to be called</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> bule,</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> which means a white-skinned European, a </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Belanda</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">-Dutchman.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Whatever our beliefs or non-beliefs, we get invitations to </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Buka Bersama </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(the shared feast at the end of a day's fasting). The meals are so big that weight gains result.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The worrying message comes from the Australian media creating images of fear. Like a </span><a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/islamists-in-west-spreading-antisemitism-destroying-democracy/news-story/6a35916bd81c714031d7f47813533b59"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">headline</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> this month: </span><a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/islamists-in-west-spreading-antisemitism-destroying-democracy/news-story/6a35916bd81c714031d7f47813533b59" title="Islamists in UK, Australia spreading anti-Semitism, destroying democracy"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Islamists in UK, Australia spreading anti-Semitism, destroying democracy</span></i></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A few years ago religious thugs enjoyed bursting into restaurants on “sweeping” missions to find fasting Muslims feasting. Reports of such outrages are now rare.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Surveys show growing distrust by Australians towards Indonesians. </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Jakarta Post</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> quoted an adage: </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Tak kenal maka tak sayang</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> - if you don't know you can't love - in an </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/%C2%A0https:/www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/07/02/australians-still-have-little-trust-in-indonesia-due-to-unfamiliarity-survey.html."><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">editorial</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> commenting on Lowy Institute research. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This showed we “still lack trust in Indonesia to do good in the world, largely due to a lack of understanding.” That was in 2020; later annual reports reveal the situation ain’t much better..</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That’s sad - and wrong. Here’s the anecdotal takeaway: Better to encounter a mob of Indonesian adolescents on a dark street than their counterparts Down Under. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">##</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">First published in <i>Pearls & Irritations</i>, 25 March 2024: </span></span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/playing-the-hunger-games/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/playing-the-hunger-games/</a></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-52166135872663980472024-03-17T10:20:00.002+07:002024-03-17T10:20:58.797+07:00WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE? EVERYTHING<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">THE KRAKEN WAKES - CLOSE BY </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">O Judgment ! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason. </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">― William Shakespeare, </span></span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2796883"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Julius Caesar</span></i></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzu2j2umnDUuhxP1zGKrpN2lPClhnSmicHXJlabQg19ARks3ozXC_MFNOm6I8jg5SAL6IcdCzxl7xNHfIEMOEBKrLE_THvDxL5C_mXrCJCC8Jsmp0IdGbuaOlU37n6BzM_SR9wtg_1eILbnuoCk2SXFf2NKUOiJxcpWKMOgI0Iscwai0W7g/s800/IMG_4072a-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" height="444" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfzu2j2umnDUuhxP1zGKrpN2lPClhnSmicHXJlabQg19ARks3ozXC_MFNOm6I8jg5SAL6IcdCzxl7xNHfIEMOEBKrLE_THvDxL5C_mXrCJCC8Jsmp0IdGbuaOlU37n6BzM_SR9wtg_1eILbnuoCk2SXFf2NKUOiJxcpWKMOgI0Iscwai0W7g/w640-h444/IMG_4072a-1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>The cross-eyed sidekick in Jokowi's eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming<br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">To lead their nation for the next five years Indonesians have picked a sinister military autocrat with a hideous past masquerading as a comic character.</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Through a series of cuddly cartoons, untested promises and silly claims electors were seduced into believing Prabowo Subianto, 72, a cashiered general with a dirty history was really a </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">gemoy, </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> an adorable and funny guy, fit and proper to run the world’s fourth-largest nation.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Though the two failed candidates (an academic and an administrator) plus 48 civil society watchdogs have </span><a href="https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2024/03/07/16093711/48-organisasi-ajukan-somasi-ke-jokowi-soal-dugaan-pelanggaran-pemilu-2024"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">alleged </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> malfeasance, overall the 14 February electoral process seems likely to withstand challenges. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The campaign had buckets of ballyhoo and thimbles of quality. The focus was on personalities, not policy. Avowed piety eclipsed proven merit.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Just as US Republicans backing Donald Trump ignore his gross transgressions and court convictions, so the Indonesian oligarchs, military and big business who run the nation have stamped down a grim past to lift their man into office.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 2019 President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo invited his once bitter rival to become Defence Minister, ensuring a platform. Last month he promoted Prabowo to four-star honorary general giving the disgraced soldier more status and bestowing forgiveness.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That's a gesture not all respect, particularly those who believe electors have been sold more than a pup. They fear discovering their rights and freedoms have been savaged as Indonesia once again becomes a hard-line military dictatorship. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">For 32 years (1966-1998) the country was controlled by General Soeharto, Prabowo’s former father-in-law. Prabowo and his wife divorced 25 years ago and neither has remarried.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">So who is our neighbour's choice? Is the leader-to-be a fascist, a dictator or a reformed bully? He's certainly a poor reader</span><a href="https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/study-prabowo-said-predicted-indonesia-dissolve-2030-actually-sci-fi-techno-thriller-called-ghost-fleet/"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> claiming</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a sci-fi novel was a research document predicting the end of Indonesia this decade as rapacious foreigners plundered the archipelago’s riches. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Defence Minister Richard Marles has </span><a href="https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/transcripts/2024-02-24/joint-press-conference-jakarta-indonesia"><u><span class="16" style="color: blue;">called </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">him ‘very much a friend of Australia’. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Not all see him so benignly. One-time UN advisor Pat Walsh doubts Prabowo has the temperament and skill to govern - or the history. He’s assembled a </span><a href="https://patwalsh.net/wp-content/uploads/Prabowo-Backgrounder-Nov2023.pdf"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">backgrounder</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> of Prabowo’s East Timor tours with soldiers and militias under his command allegedly committing murders of unarmed civilians and gross human rights abuses.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Former Australian Senator Rex Patrick and journalist Dr </span><a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/author/philip-dorling/"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Philip Dorling</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> have </span><a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/defence-alliance-with-indonesia-is-marles-cuddling-up-to-the-wrong-man/"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">summarised</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> what happened in 1998: ‘Tr</span><a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/indonesia-no-thanks-to-marles-bushmasters/"></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">oops</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> under Prabowo's command kidnapped and tortured democracy activists and the General was implicated in orchestrating mob violence in Jakarta against Indonesians of Chinese descent</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">’.</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That same year Prabowo was dishonourably discharged from the army and fled to exile in Jordan. He was banned from the US and Australia till 2014. He eventually returned to his homeland and with family help became a business tycoon and political aspirant. He has never been charged.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Although it put him in power Prabowo isn’t keen on democracy. He joined the military as a teen. Though he’s been educated in the US, UK, briefly at Duntroon and is a polyglot, these are his Trump-style repetitions </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/%C2%A0https:/www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/03/05/democracy-is-tiring-messy-prabowo.html."><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">according</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Jakarta Post</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> "I’ve participated in five general elections and let me attest, let me testify, that democracy is really, very, very tiring …very, very messy and costly." </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He said much the same a decade ago though better expressed during his first shot at the top job. Two Australian experts on Indonesian politics </span><a href="https://www.cetri.be/Indonesia-Prabowo-Subianto-vote?lang=fr"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">wrote </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">then that he’d asserted “direct elections were not compatible with the Indonesian cultural character.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The academics commented: “This is an extraordinary state of affairs. It is very rare in the modern world for would-be autocrats to openly state that they want to destroy the electoral system through which they seek to achieve power. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“They mostly mask such intentions before they’re elected.” </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nor is Prabowo fond of a feisty free media, </span><a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/924014/prabowo-subianto-express-distaste-against-media-journalists"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">castigating j</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ournalists for allegedly “manipulating democracy”. He’s declined interviews with Western writers (including this correspondent), probably concerned they’d ask about his past and highlight transgressions. </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Human Rights Watch </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">said he did not </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/The%20Prabowo%20file.edited.docx#cookie_message_anchor"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">respond</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to questions.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHZ-Iqal32a7pkHnM5MfFKN9jsv4aH1zEmf_pnqdba80gmLz-xA62sbAGcAuZ1a2kgNJayTl3dsbWktDYZhFoQr3j00Vz2Shoyoz3iEdXFNo9e8cbX6Fl-lWW1TqNpJlokCl_5MAbPbEDnxPukM6yqAwOkJBXjjd7WNaW4IuGbcBpERlfpZw" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="480" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHZ-Iqal32a7pkHnM5MfFKN9jsv4aH1zEmf_pnqdba80gmLz-xA62sbAGcAuZ1a2kgNJayTl3dsbWktDYZhFoQr3j00Vz2Shoyoz3iEdXFNo9e8cbX6Fl-lWW1TqNpJlokCl_5MAbPbEDnxPukM6yqAwOkJBXjjd7WNaW4IuGbcBpERlfpZw" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The real thing</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">Although his unsubstantiated xenophobia was widely rubbished, the hidden message is that thugs are Christians (the second largest faith group though only ten per cent of the citizenry) or the hated atheists - an even smaller minority. Religion can be an explosive issue.</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Western governments have to deal with whoever is delivered by voters. Indonesians have picked Prabowo and Canberra must accept their choice. That doesn't mean they're right.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">## </span></p><p>First published in <i>Independent Australia, </i>17 March 2024: <a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/indonesia-elected-former-military-officer-with-autocratic-streak,18429" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: blue; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.6667px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/indonesia-elected-former-military-officer-with-autocratic-streak,18429</a></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-39367218380170978472024-03-14T10:13:00.000+07:002024-03-14T10:13:21.246+07:00THE PIC IS THE TRUTH: BLOKES RULE, OK?<p> </p><p><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSweuPCfASgfOUH1jvHswg377i4EUUcFrT-tkCHMBitPf4tm99Ef3VoDG1d693IE_BHFkZaJJoCKSSPDhyQPersSbMPdzDgv8N4qwTBOIJNLc8AG_4Js_NBo5Ppx5N-o4QgnUpFpwq5Qdr7gn9zRczesxHgE2ZwmG0bXG_wabGzfMgaV54SA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="800" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSweuPCfASgfOUH1jvHswg377i4EUUcFrT-tkCHMBitPf4tm99Ef3VoDG1d693IE_BHFkZaJJoCKSSPDhyQPersSbMPdzDgv8N4qwTBOIJNLc8AG_4Js_NBo5Ppx5N-o4QgnUpFpwq5Qdr7gn9zRczesxHgE2ZwmG0bXG_wabGzfMgaV54SA=w640-h402" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">THINGS UNSAID, PEOPLE UNSEEN</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b> </b> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The irony was thick as lard, yet seemingly ignored by legacy media.. What an indigestible image for International Women's Day: What an appalling advertisement for the Melbourne ASEAN Summit and its Australian host, a claimed world leader for gender equality.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The above pic appeared last week just before Minister for Women Katy Gallagher released the government’s </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Working for Women</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/07/labor-gender-equality-targets-government-contracts-katy-gallagher-national-press-club-speech?cid=dd91371520fa7cb6e261dcc1a1d67a3e"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">strategy</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to “ensure women are better represented in leadership and decision-making roles.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The lineup of a dozen leaders representing nine of the ten members of the</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Association of Southeast Asian Nations</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> plus PM Anthony Albanese were all men wearing trousers tailored to allow stand-up use of urinals. This apparently bestows wisdom and authority. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The total population they allegedly represent is 700 million human beings. About half would be women, though not one was on the jolly pix of delegates awkwardly holding hands and weirdly labelled “family”. That usually means Dad and Mum.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Meanwhile, Albanese's fiancee Jodie Haydon took "spouses" (PM's Department term) to the Melbourne Museum where they could see how things used to be done and maybe get selfies with koalas.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Women at the conference did get a look-in at some of the breakaway sessions like Digital Transformation Entrepreneurship, but they were battling against the flood of testosterone. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The summit was supposed to celebrate half a century after the first meeting between ASEAN Secretaries-General and Australian officials in Canberra. Photos from the 1974 original show an all-bloke chat, so nothing’s changed for 50 years.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0000pt; mso-char-indent-count: -2.0000; mso-para-margin-left: 0.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: -21.0000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> One woman who should have been at the Summit in her own right was Nobel Laureate </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Aung San Suu Kyi, Her </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">National League for Democracy </span></i><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/myanmar-election-aung-san-suu-kyis-party-wins-absolute-majority/a-55584326"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">won </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the November </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Myanmar_general_election" title="2020 Myanmar general election"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">2020 Myanmar general election</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> with 346 seats against the opposition’s army-backed </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Union Solidarity and Development Party </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">that took just 25 of the available seats.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 31.5000pt; mso-char-indent-count: -1.0000; mso-para-margin-left: 2.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: -10.5000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The USDP claimed the </span><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-and-security-issues-cast-a-pall-over-myanmar-polls/a-55106894"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">vote w</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">a</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">s neither free nor fair</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. Three months later the army ripped up the ballot, seized the government and arrested Suu Kyi.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Thailand-based </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Assistance Association for Political Prisoners</span></i><a href="https://aappb.org/"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> claims</span></u></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">4,650 people have been killed and more than 20,000 detained since the coup.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Suu Kyi was tried in a closed court and sentenced to a total of 33 years in a secret jail for "corruption" and a swag of other charges. The 78-year-old will probably die behind bars.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYv9XVtr89vB4AW4INNyvDKgrqHinVDCixwgCbTN85KHb01s_3Rmsor47hyAY3Y3NIeD1P0iE0gR2LQsvJ4XhZUE3DcwUu8J-ZI-N705pas9uOCXOx7L1AsPr9iS8afrYUDPOOO-CXOAk250F4yC_tRBGOGwb4z67WPo-a6oOtL3iw84EilQ" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="515" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYv9XVtr89vB4AW4INNyvDKgrqHinVDCixwgCbTN85KHb01s_3Rmsor47hyAY3Y3NIeD1P0iE0gR2LQsvJ4XhZUE3DcwUu8J-ZI-N705pas9uOCXOx7L1AsPr9iS8afrYUDPOOO-CXOAk250F4yC_tRBGOGwb4z67WPo-a6oOtL3iw84EilQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0000pt; mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; mso-para-margin-left: 2.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.0000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The UN has condemned the sentences. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has </span><a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/blinken-denounces-new-3-year-prison-term-for-myanmar-s-suu-kyi-/6729605.html"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">reportedly</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> called her convictions “affronts to democracy and justice”.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0000pt; mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; mso-para-margin-left: 2.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.0000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Did any of this disturb Australia and the ASEAN delegates? (Myanmar was unrepresented). They never mentioned Suu Kyi in their 55-point Melbourne </span><a href="https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/ASEAN-AU-agreed-Melbourne-Declaration_FINAL.pdf"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">Declaration</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. Instead, it was choked with warm words like 'welcoming" and "supporting", "underscoring" and "looking forward".</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0000pt; mso-char-indent-count: 0.0000; mso-para-margin-left: 2.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.0000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the section on Myanmar delegates “strongly condemned the continued acts of violence and called for immediate cessation … effective humanitarian assistance, and inclusive national dialogue.” But the lady’s name didn’t appear.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 15.7500pt; mso-char-indent-count: -1.5000; mso-para-margin-left: 0.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: -15.7500pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The generals in Naypyidaw must be quivering, fearing a force of ASEAN peacekeepers - like those led by Australia that secured East Timor in 1999 after a referendum backed independence from Indonesia. The brigades might be assembled at the Melbourne meeting and rush to rescue the rule of law.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.0000pt; mso-char-indent-count: 1.0000; mso-para-margin-left: 0.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: 10.5000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Such interference is a fantasy, because ASEAN has no collective standing army and works on consensus. So the tiny Sultanate of Brunei (pop below 500,000) can kibosh a resolution from giant Indonesia, (pop above 277 million) rendering any decision useless.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It seems the violence in the once-British colony of Burma deserves less attention than the former colony of Portugal. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Summit could have been, but wasn't about promoting democracy and women’s rights; the idea was never mentioned in the 4,660-word Declaration. It was all about business - selling more Aussie goods into an expanding market now with enough money to pay for our goodies beyond grains and beef.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">US political scientist </span><a href="https://substack.com/@aseanwonk"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dr Prashanth Parameswaran</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> who calls himself an “ASEAN Wonk”</span><a href="https://www.aseanwonk.com/p/australia-asean-special-summit-outcomes"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> wrote </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">that the Albanese government “has consistently put strengthening ties with Southeast Asia at the core of its foreign policy …as an invested middle power contributing to the twin pillars of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This is a long-winded code for trade first, human rights somewhere else. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ASEAN is a party to the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Universal Declaration of Human Rights </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">which includes women as </span><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">equals.</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> T</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">he man who introduced HR into the discussions was not the Aussie PM who likes to promote freedom, but Anwar Ibrahim from a flawed democracy.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Malaysian PM has deep personal knowledge of the topic having been jailed twice (1999-2004 and 2015-2018) on charges of sodomy believed to have been engineered by his political rivals. He has since been pardoned.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In Melbourne Anwar lobbied Albanese to restart funding of the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, suspended after allegations that some workers for the agency took part in the Hamas attack on 7 October. The stoppage has directly impacted women and kids. Resumption is likely.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Domestic violence in Australia has only recently been recognised as a national scourge. Laws, shelters, police re-training and other measures are now in place, making us a leader in reform.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The curse of DV is also widespread in ASEAN countries, though little discussed because of cultural shame. </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Indonesian Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection </span></i><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20ASEAN%20Summit.edited.docx#:~:text=According%20to%20data%20from%20the,to%20acts%20of%20domestic%20violence."><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">reported </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">18,000 cases of violence for the first nine months of 2023. Women were almost always the victims.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A national survey by the ministry </span><a href="https://www.kemenpppa.go.id/index.php/page/read/31/1742/perempuan-rentan-jadi-korban-kdrt-kenali-faktor-penyebabnya"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">recorded</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 18 per cent of married women experiencing physical or sexual violence. Twenty-one per cent reported emotional violence, while a quarter had experienced economic violence where the man exploits his partner’s assets.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Here was a chance for this largely hidden crime to be exposed and discussed in the calm of Melbourne. West Australian scholar and Indonesian speaker Dr Kate O’ Shaughnessy has </span><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Gender-State-and-Social-Power-in-Contemporary-Indonesia-Divorce-and-Marriage/OShaughnessy/p/book/9780415590228"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">written </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">that Indonesian law “does not properly address ideological, religious and cultural definitions of gender roles.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Albanese has </span><a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-jakarta-0"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">acknowledged</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">business between his nation and the bloc has been "underdone". At the summit, he spruiked an AUD 2 billion fund "to boost trade and two-way investment (focusing on) infrastructure and green-economy transition projects."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The facility will provide loans, guarantees, equity and insurance for projects that will boost Australian trade and investment in the region. Australia will also give $140 million to a </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Partnerships for Infrastructure Programme </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">for "governments to deliver projects with expertise such as planning and procurement". </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Women should benefit, but who’ll get the money? Minister Gallagher has already </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/07/labor-gender-equality-targets-government-contracts-katy-gallagher-national-press-club-speech?cid=dd91371520fa7cb6e261dcc1a1d67a3e"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">said</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> companies that want government contracts must meet gender equality targets. Only in the Wide Brown - or everywhere?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Also not aired at the ASEAN Summit was pay equality - an issue getting wide coverage in Australia. A UN </span><a href="https://data.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/documents/Publications/ASEAN/ASEAN%20-leadership-factsheet.pdf"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">report</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> on leadership found less than half the women have paid work in Indonesia and adjacent states:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"Women's share of managerial positions across ASEAN countries remains below parity. With the exception of Laos and the Philippines, women remain underrepresented in management in all countries… representation in middle and senior management is even lower, at 26 per cent."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Though not on the stage. While the ASEAN Summit delegates in Melbourne were trying to get noticed, US superstar Taylor Swift was sucking out all the available news space in Singapore. Her performances forced fans from elsewhere in ASEAN to travel to the island state that’s earned big money on her success.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">While 12 men who think they’re special yarned in Melbourne about their plans to earn, independent Swift sang in Singapore and coined millions. That’s woman power, and it’s a lot more cheering and effective.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It’s a pity she didn’t make the ASEAN Summit. Then the HR issues she promotes would have been raised to the roofs.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><h3 style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">##</span></h3><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">First published in <i>Pearls & Irritations</i>, 14 March 2024: </span></span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/things-unsaid-people-unseen/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/things-unsaid-people-unseen/</a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; 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text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p></td><td style="border: none; mso-cell-special: placeholder;" width="129"><p></p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-46880325012099234102024-03-11T09:46:00.001+07:002024-03-11T09:46:39.472+07:00HISTORY IS BUNK - AGAIN<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">INDIFFERENCE KILLING DEMOCRACY</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A reason for Indonesians overwhelmingly supporting cashiered general Prabowo Subianto and a likely military dictatorship is because the electorate rarely reads; voters haven’t been taught to think critically so know little of their new president’s past.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJ0xwpbTj7NPF9oVpmgspK2g_xH98YYOAJ0C7cvLKomkUDe5nknlT4OP7aWbErGEfnFkGfy3mcUqmMVeZThpayvKuFocxLEzdO8CQfhnkce10udKNoYDDPRDkOQiEfhqsVC0wLV4_-aVSB4FOQn-J4fTwMpLiTSk74x0KzH83XVZ2kWqqGbw" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1300" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJ0xwpbTj7NPF9oVpmgspK2g_xH98YYOAJ0C7cvLKomkUDe5nknlT4OP7aWbErGEfnFkGfy3mcUqmMVeZThpayvKuFocxLEzdO8CQfhnkce10udKNoYDDPRDkOQiEfhqsVC0wLV4_-aVSB4FOQn-J4fTwMpLiTSk74x0KzH83XVZ2kWqqGbw=w400-h295" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br /><br /></i><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 1998 Prabowo was stripped of his rank and discharged from the Army for disobeying orders. His squad arrested student dissidents and 13 have never reappeared. He fled to Jordan and returned earlier this century to become a hugely successful businessman.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australian author and academic Max Lane, who translated the works of political prisoner Pramoedya Ananta Toer into English last century, </span><u><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></u><a href="https://jaring.id/wawancara-max-lane-prabowo-gibran-pemilu/"><u><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">says </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia is the only country in the world that doesn’t require students to read their own nation's literature: </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“This was deliberately created so that the Indonesian people would not understand their own nation so they would not have any imagination for the future.” As Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) said: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The condemnation of intellectuals and creatives, heavy censorship and book banning during second president Soeharto’s rule (1966 - 1998) caused a great slump in reading history. A US university study of</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The World’s Most Literate Nations</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303434532_World_literacy_How_countries_rank_and_why_it_matters"><u><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">ranked</span></u></a><u><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></u><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia at 60 of the 61 states surveyed. (Top is Finland; Australia is 12th). </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A Melbourne University commentary </span><a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/indonesians-are-not-big-readers-but-is-anything-being-done-about-it/"><u><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">concluded</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">: “Culturally, Indonesians have a very strong oral tradition, and the country is not going to transform into a nation of bookworms overnight (but) … to recognise that creativity and innovation are urgently needed to address the reading crisis.” </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Although World Bank data </span><a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?locations=ID&name_desc=false"><u><span class="15">shows </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesian literacy above 96 per cent, knowing how to read and using that skill widely are separate issues. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesian public schools are in a mess. One Australian academic </span><a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/beyond-access-making-indonesia-s-education-system-work"><u><span class="15">review</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">blamed “inadequate funding, human resource deficits, perverse incentive structures, and poor management” adding: “Problems with education quality and learning have also been, at their root, a matter of politics and power.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the past liberal Muslim parents ignored crucifixes nailed above doorways to get a better education in Catholic schools; this trend is </span><a href="https://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/dccirp/pdfs/novita_dewi.pdf"><u><span class="15">waning</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">as independent schools develop. However, the curriculum is still controlled by the government which is again rewriting history. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The first version of the 1965 coup, widely and uncritically taught, had naked Communist women dancing on the castrated corpses of murdered generals. The brief uprising was savagely suppressed by General Soeharto who went on to become the nation’s second president. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The lewd story was</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7OGfkAr-xc"><u><span class="15"> untrue </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">- a pre-internet hoax to foment hatred towards the Communist Party and its supporters seeking land reform. It worked - and an estimated half-million were slaughtered in a military-engineered </span><a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/theres-now-clear-proof-that-soeharto-orchestrated-the-1965-killings/"><u><span class="15">genocide.</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Soeharto (who died in 2008) is known overseas as the greatest kleptocrat in the Republic’s history, though never charged. He allegedly </span><u><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">stripped</span></u><a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2004/03/how-did-suharto-steal-35-billion.html"><u><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> US $35 billion </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">from the public purse. This is also not taught in schools.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Now Golkar Party Deputy Chair Melchias Markus Mekeng </span><a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20240229210559-32-1069013/elite-golkar-dukung-soeharto-jadi-pahlawan-nasional"><u><span class="15">reckons </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Soeharto should be made a national hero. That’s </span><a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20240229210559-32-1069013/elite-golkar-dukung-soeharto-jadi-pahlawan-nasional"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">reportedly</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> because he “did a lot of good work and was dedicated when he served as president.” No details.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The motive for trying to canonise a villain comes after the current and seventh president Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo last month suddenly smoothed the facts by rehabilitating his rival.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He awarded his cashiered successor Prabowo with the honorary rank of four-star general. When kicked out of the military 26 years ago he had three stars.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The promotion</span><a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20240228112657-32-1068184/ramai-ramai-tolak-pangkat-jenderal-kehormatan-prabowo"><u><span class="15"> dismayed</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">civil society groups that claimed Prabowo’s promotion was a ”</span><a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20240228110921-32-1068169/pernyataan-wiranto-saat-berhentikan-prabowo-dari-abri"><u><span class="15">betrayal</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of the 1998 Reformation.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A career military man educated in the UK and US, Prabowo's meteoric rise in the army was boosted by serving with alleged </span><a href="https://www.insideindonesia.org/archive/articles/is-prabowo-fit-and-proper-to-be-indonesias-next-president"><u><span class="15">brutality</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">in East Timor and marrying Soeharto's second eldest daughter Siti Hediati Hariyadi. The couple have since divorced.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He then tried to be elected president, crashing both times against the current holder of the title. To widespread astonishment Jokowi made his bitter opponent Prabowo Defence Minister, giving the failed candidate a platform.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">On his third try on 14 February Prabowo convincingly won the presidency, sweeping the stage of his two main candidates with close to 60 per cent of the vote. (Jokowi had already served two five-year terms and was prevented by the Constitution from standing a third time.)</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There are 24 political parties registered in Indonesia, including Golkar, the vehicle for Soeharto who served for 32 years before he quit in 1998 during an economic crisis and massive student protests.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Golkar (Party of Functional Groups) was formed by the military in 1964. It's now the second-largest party and claims to be democratic and nationalist. It backed Prabowo's candidacy in this year's election so will get some of the ministries.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Merit and skills in a specific portfolio are not required.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">So far the priority is not education but </span><a href="https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2024/03/01/08090201/klaim-banyak-warga-minta-dibangun-pos-tni-ksad-maruli-kehadiran-kami"><u><span class="15">military bases</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">in every province. There are 14 at present. During the election campaign, Prabowo pledged to increase these to all </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">38.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Any chance the schooling situation will change for the better with Prabowo as president? It’s unlikely </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">though</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> it depends on who’s appointed Education Minister</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> and how much clout they carry.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> In the Indonesian system, a minister can be recruited from outside politics.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The current education minister is billionaire businessman Nadiem Anwar Makarim who started the Gojek motorbike taxi service in 2009. He's not known as a member of a political party.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dr Anies Baswedan, once a university rector and failed presidential candidate, was a former Education Minister. He tried to reform the system but soon encountered opposition and was sacked by Jokowi in 2016.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Monash University’s Dr Sharyn Davies</span><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/raise-your-game-indonesian-education-australia-told"><u><span class="15"> reportedly said</span></u><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo’s nationalism “could affect higher education policy – including appetite for </span><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/more-australian-branch-campuses-proposed-indonesia"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">overseas university campuses</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“No Indonesian university apart from </span></span><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/monash-university-announces-branch-campus-jakarta"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Monash Indonesia</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> has foreign academics employed in anything other than guest adjunct positions.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“It’s a very insular, ultra-nationalist kind of education system and…my sense (is that) Prabowo will move that even more towards the nationalist insular side.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">First published in<i> Pearls & Irritations,</i> 11 March 2024: </span></span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/indifference-killing-democracy/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/indifference-killing-democracy/</a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">##</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-17943148828369852702024-03-05T17:58:00.005+07:002024-03-10T16:25:23.467+07:00THE CLUB TO NOT JOIN<p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A PARADE OF TALK MARCHING NOWHERE</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvwukIIvE3CPAoMFBNVag4upxs9JNfcn2FLNA_TbY3rlk-p38pbyU6OrEYQ6s5jOySnuBGnPTMKtaS6lBGnLoHf282ptffVXU51O2PQDNJjZE9GY7DHmzVUAHDu9DYQ-xbWlvYgU71VQge6BSXAEVGOXd4U_X2JBsBGxyODT0qWaRUkPzDxg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvwukIIvE3CPAoMFBNVag4upxs9JNfcn2FLNA_TbY3rlk-p38pbyU6OrEYQ6s5jOySnuBGnPTMKtaS6lBGnLoHf282ptffVXU51O2PQDNJjZE9GY7DHmzVUAHDu9DYQ-xbWlvYgU71VQge6BSXAEVGOXd4U_X2JBsBGxyODT0qWaRUkPzDxg=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Count the women</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ASEAN has been around for so long media outlets rarely spell the full name - Association of Southeast Asian Nations. That sounds significant and grand. It’s not.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A better title for the acronym would be Association of Supercilious Egoists and Nationalists</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. Even that </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">snide </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">put down wouldn’t do </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">enough in</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">justice to a ten-member group that likes to think it’s </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">a local version of</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the European</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Economic </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Comm</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">unity.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ASEAN is not Asia’s Common Market, but this week Australians will be bamboozled into thinking otherwise.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Summit delegates will meet in Melbourne this morning for a two-day bun fight that will generate indigestion, photos of ranks of mostly plump men and a mass of verbiage. The taxpayers of the region who fund this knees-up will be served commentary that means nothing because ASEAN does nothing.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"The African Union has shown it can take “collective action against coups and other breaches of democratic rule, as well as taking collective action in the face of other political crises.” ASEAN can’t, </span><a href="https://www.cfr.org/expert/joshua-kurlantzick"><u><span class="15"> according</span></u><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">to US journalist Joshua Kurlantzick, a Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Council on Foreign Relations.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Some background: In 1967 during the Vietnam War Indonesia with US support set up ASEAN with Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. The idea was to block the advance of Communism.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Ironically two latecomers are Red – Vietnam - subtly backing Russia - and Laos, with feudal Cambodia sticking close to China. The absolute monarchy of tiny Brunei (population less than half-a-million) signed up in 1984. Despotic Myanmar now a military dictatorship became a member in 1997. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Talk of Australia joining this Cold War relic long past its use-by date is academic because decisions must be unanimous.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">We’re a Western nation aligned with Northern Hemisphere powers, superior and racist - an image already </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/14650398/4044112922549994277"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">hardened </span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">by the Voice result. On the other side we’re democratic and follow the rule of law. That makes us out of place in ASEAN.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Only Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines follow forms of ‘flawed democracy’ </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">as</span><a href="https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2022/"><u><span class="15"> assessed</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">by the</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Economist Intelligence Unit.</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> That doesn’t mean they’re goodies, just not so bad as the rest.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The US found AUD$ 142 million this year to support ‘the robust implementation of the ASEAN Outlook’ whatever that’s supposed to mean.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The only frayed twine stringing the ten disparate nations together isn't language (meetings are in English), culture, history, ideologies, total population (672 million) or economies. It's geography.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Is the continent and Commonwealth of Australia in Southeast Asia? Most ASEAN citizens and Australians wouldn't think so despite our politicians from Whitlam onwards claiming otherwise. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Eleven years ago then PM Julia Gillard </span><a href="https://apo.org.au/node/31647"><u><span class="15">released</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/14650398/4044112922549994277"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australia in the Asian Century White Paper</span></i></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">’nurturing deeper and broader relationships … by taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Asian century.’</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It vanished from government websites following the election of Tony Abbott but has now reappeared.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The truth is we relate better to New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, countries that provide us with visitors and workers mainly using the same language and having similar faiths.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">To soften up Melburnians to tolerate traffic snarls caused by summiteers’ sightseeings, locals have been told by the </span><a href="https://aseanaustralia.pmc.gov.au/resources"><u><span class="15">PM’s office</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">that the show celebrates Australia becoming ‘ASEAN's first Dialogue Partner in 1974.’ There’s more:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘Australia and ASEAN have worked together to address the complex challenges facing our region. Our practical cooperation contributes to making the region more peaceful, open, stable and prosperous.’</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Maybe the words will comfort the activists fighting for their lives, villages and a return to democracy in Myanmar, a member state of ASEAN and now a vile military dictatorship.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The PM's office blurbs use the word 'bloc' as though all member states coalesce. That's another misnomer - distrust among neighbours is widespread and ancient.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 2021 Australia and ASEAN set up a ‘</span><a href="https://asean.mission.gov.au/aesn/CSP.html"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Comprehensive Strategic Partnership</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">’. What this means in terms of dollars spent, paid and understood by citizens is another blur of obfuscation:</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘We've been working with our ASEAN partners on giving effect to our partnership, agreeing shared priorities, increasing resources and advancing new programs. Our </span></span><a href="https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/ASEAN-Australia-Plan-of-Action-2020-2024-FINAL-updated-with-Annex.pdf"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Plan of Action</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> guides the implementation of the goals and objectives of the partnership.’</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There is some business underway but whether this has much to do with ASEAN is doubtful. Our trade in 2021 with ASEAN states was AUD178 billion, but almost a third was with or through Singapore.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Two-way</span><a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/countries-economies-and-regions/southeast-asia/invested-australias-southeast-asia-economic-strategy-2040/appendixes/singapore-country-profile-and-action-plan"><u><span class="15"> investment</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">with that tiny island nation (population six million) was AUD 225 billion. The figure for ASEAN is AUD 249 billion - and that includes Singapore. Whoops. Not a stat the host nation wants to spread.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Supporters of ASEAN rightly promote the importance of</span><a href="https://eastasiaforum.org/2023/06/28/internal-discord-the-greatest-threat-to-southeast-asian-unity/"><u><span class="15"> regional unity</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">, </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">but warn: ‘Diversity, divisions and disputes remain consequential features of the region that pose a significant threat to unity.’</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 2012 ASEAN delegates declared they supported human rights. Fifty-five civil rights organisations were furious, claiming the statement</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/that%20implies%20that%20their%20people%20are%20less%20deserving%20of%20human%20rights%20than%20the%20people%20of%20Europe,%20Africa%20or%20the%20Americas.%20The%20people%20of%20ASEAN%20should%20never%20accept%20a%20lower%20level%20of%20protection%20of%20their%20human%20rights%20than%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20world."><u><span class="15"> implied</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘their people are less deserving of human rights than the people of Europe, Africa or the Americas.’.</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Cambodia is this year's ASEAN chair and PM Hun Sen seems indifferent to the Myanmar coup that so distresses Western democracies. ‘He has essentially invited Myanmar's military leaders to just return to the ASEAN fold, provided they meet laughably easy markers,’ writes </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Kurlantzick.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The truth behind the hoopla is that Australia has no idea of how to relate to the region. It has a Free Trade Agreement with Indonesia, the burgeoning and largest state in ASEAN with a population 500 times bigger than Brunei. But this FTA is moving so slowly that Canberra regularly pushes businesses to do more.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Western investors are reluctant because of political instability and corruption throughout ASEAN. Today’s show will be another attempt to breathe some purpose into the old pact while hoping some other more credible association can arise.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That’s unlikely.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">##</span></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="text-align: left;">First published in <i>Pearls & Irritations,</i> 4 March 2024: </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/the-parade-of-talk-going-nowhere/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/the-parade-of-talk-going-nowhere/</a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span> </p><p><br /></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-34119613478622466372024-03-02T11:38:00.001+07:002024-03-02T11:40:35.061+07:00HAVE WE GOT GOODIES FOR YOU<p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">WE’RE HERE TO HELP - TRUST US</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEI2AiKkIC2suoo0O0vZStFHV4k7MqwZRX2FIzkQaFA-YQGkifgL-K3dk8jVjY-YeJHMdLyTUTVBf1WYPCp7ZhoNTLJaYXv5CO6P5xY-RLmWR_HzutHkUxOi0qX6dBd3fxhQ6251_sywErHBS8yzImGMAPo9AqrPfaW_gTTCL-mg6Kzi5dwQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEI2AiKkIC2suoo0O0vZStFHV4k7MqwZRX2FIzkQaFA-YQGkifgL-K3dk8jVjY-YeJHMdLyTUTVBf1WYPCp7ZhoNTLJaYXv5CO6P5xY-RLmWR_HzutHkUxOi0qX6dBd3fxhQ6251_sywErHBS8yzImGMAPo9AqrPfaW_gTTCL-mg6Kzi5dwQ=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br />Photo: DeTik.com<p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Defence Minister Richard Marles telling Indonesians of “shared collective security” is irony rich. In February neither nation saw basic fishing craft sail 800 km here, drop passengers and head home.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesians worry about their confrontational neighbour Down Under. It points missiles in our direction and invites foreign nuclear-capable bombers to use nearby airfields. The Aussies are also shopping for warships and submarines to sail in seas that lap our shores. Alarming?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Relax folks. These weapons are meant to smash someone else far away; they'll just fly overhead and sail past. She’ll be apples.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This was the comforting message carried last week by Marles in his two-day dash to Jakarta to meet counterpart Prabowo Subianto and offer congrats. He’d just had a major but delayed promotion to President of the Republic.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The official results of the 14 February election won’t be available for another three weeks. The two losing candidates’ teams have combined, </span><a href="https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/2024-worst-electoral-fraud-02262024134349.html"><u><span class="15">alleging</span></u></a><u><span class="15"> </span></u><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“fraud, meddling and favouritism" and demanding an inquiry. </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">These issues didn’t bother Marles or another in-and-out visitor to Jakarta, Defence Force Chief General Angus Campbell, also scrambling to shake Prabowo's hand.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiK2K5-SPUmOpAk2sT2vi1Z5o_AHDUHQBlN2W8InG1Q_9tkzeKlBrx1WxB9SAh5FVJFq8Uy8gH9pnxpcymHCSj2KRU25LFP1AFWEO2a_JM2cW9xeamTUgFlw3-euVXIZ5wOzIyfZhPl-JzGWb8z6QSkkiFCxu_mZsJwO-25SDraA2WvCmmp3A" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="750" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiK2K5-SPUmOpAk2sT2vi1Z5o_AHDUHQBlN2W8InG1Q_9tkzeKlBrx1WxB9SAh5FVJFq8Uy8gH9pnxpcymHCSj2KRU25LFP1AFWEO2a_JM2cW9xeamTUgFlw3-euVXIZ5wOzIyfZhPl-JzGWb8z6QSkkiFCxu_mZsJwO-25SDraA2WvCmmp3A" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This led </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to a flurry of</span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-australia-sign-defence-pact-within-months-australia-says-2024-02-23/"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> mainstream media stories </span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">on a detail-free but adjective-heavy </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"very significant defence cooperation agreement within the next few months.” </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Most Indonesians paid little attention; as in Oz, domestic issues top their concerns. The price of rice has </span><a href="https://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesian-traders-express-concerns-as-rice-prices-surge-over-20"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">risen </span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">20 per cent in the past few months. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Biggest fleet coming </span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Marles</span><a href="https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2024/02/24/14100391/australia-akan-bangun-armada-terbesar-sejak-pd-ii-wakil-pm-untuk-keamanan"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> reportedly </span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">told Prabowo his government plans to build the largest naval fleet since World War II for "mutual security … the single deepest and most significant defence cooperation agreement in the history of the two countries.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"Australia and Indonesia have a shared destiny and a shared collective security and that is the basis on which we are moving forward with our own defence planning."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The bureaucratic hype sounds bracing but the words are bullshit. The “collective security” was exposed when an Indonesian fishing boat or boats carrying 39 mainly Pakistan</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">i</span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-21/boat-landing-beagle-bay-asylum-seekers/103488396"><u><span class="15"> asylum seekers </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">crossed an open sea, beached their human cargo, and then zipped away undetected</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Either the fishers are extraordinary skilled seafarers, or shared surveillance is a nonsense. As a footnote to his talks Marles added the ministers are “discussing the issues of people smuggling and people trafficking.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Then there’s the issue of acceptance. Prabowo won’t take over till October when he’ll have to fill a Cabinet of disparate Ministers. Not all will like their neighbour or its prezzies.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Thanks, but no thanks</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> As ANU Professor Hugh White has </span><a href="https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2018/07/the-jakarta-switch"><u><span class="15">pointed out</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">, </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesian “economic growth is driving it towards a position of political and economic influence that it seems both uninterested in and incapable of exploiting.” </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In other words, Jakarta hasn't been keen on being courted by the US (via postmen from Canberra) or China, but falls back on old cliches about treating all equally, staying midstream and not joining pacts.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australian defence funding for this financial year is AUD $50 million (US$33 billion). Indonesia, eleven times larger than Australia in population, wants to</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-approves-20-rise-defence-budget-by-2024-2023-11-30/"><u><span class="15">spend </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">US$25 billion. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Despite the archipelago’s intense religious-based hostility to the godless Communists, the government has no desire to confront Beijing. The PRC is buying megatonnes of Indonesian resources - particularly coal and nickel - and lending billions for infrastructure projects like high-speed rail. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia has already been caught in a </span><a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1774722/economist-sees-indonesia-has-fallen-into-chinas-debt-trap"><u><span class="15"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘debt trap’</span></span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> say</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> some economists, owing more than US$27 billion according to </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20Defence%20new%20top.docx#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Indonesia%20External,off%20and%20is%20still%20running."><u><span class="15">reported </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Bank Indonesia data.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">China has 55 people to every Australian and an economy that could devour Oz and its neighbours without belching. It already has a nuclear-armed inter-continental ballistic missile that could reach and vaporise Canberra.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Curiously the idea that buying lots of ordnance from Western countries and signing pacts might help Australia in a stoush with a monster has merit for some, like Marles and Campbell.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Though they argue they're concerned with defence and not aggression, it's hard not to see otherwise.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The arms trade is far more important than the educators, civil engineers, climate scientists, inventors of better ways to provide peace, medical workers who want to find cures for nasty diseases - and just about everyone else who’d like to be close to Indonesia and help the people.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a statement ahead of his trip </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Marles said </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the two countries have a long history of close cooperation on maritime security and would "share an ambition to further broaden and deepen our defence relationship.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“This is a shared challenge for both of our countries and we need to be working cooperatively</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Villainy nearby </span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">To placate edgy nationalists he signaled to journalists that “there’s </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">no support for any independence movements</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">… w</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">e 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.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">If "we" means himself and a few senior conscience-cauterised Cabinet members he may be right. Otherwise, he's wrong. Politicians, NGOs and churches distressed at reports of brutality, evictions and killings are </span><a href="https://thesoutherncross.org.au/news/2019/02/27/government-called-to-account-in-west-papua/"><u><span class="15">backing</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the Free Papua movement, well-embedded in Australia. </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesian human rights activist and lawyer Veronica Koman lives in Oz though she's</span><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/9/4/indonesia-police-name-suspect-in-west-papua-unrest"><u><span class="15"> wanted</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">in her homeland for alleged incitement and spreading of fake news online about West Papua.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Jakarta took over West Papua from the Dutch after a staged referendum in 1969 when the hand-picked local ‘leaders’ voted unanimously to accept Indonesian control.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Since then the issue of independence has bubbled along more like a hot spring than the cool pool of Marles’ rhetoric, at times erupting into heated confrontations. In 2006 then PM John Howard turned up the heat by giving 43 asylum </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2006-04-09/govt-criticised-over-handling-of-papuan-asylum/1727456"><u><span class="15">seekers </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">from West Papua refugee status.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Seven years later</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the Australian Signals Directorate </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">clumsily bugged</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the private phones of </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australophile </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> and </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">his late wife Ani.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The couple and their country were furious.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 2017, Indonesia </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">parked </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">military cooperation</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> following</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> an alleged </span><a href="https://en.antaranews.com/news/108764/australia-apologizes-over-insult-of-indonesian-pancasila-ideology"><u><span class="15">mocking</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">of </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">national </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ideology </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Pancasila</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> by an Australian language teacher.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Last year a US-dominated multi-nation </span><a href="https://id-usembassy-gov.translate.goog/id/pimpinan-militer-senior-as-dan-indonesia-resmi-buka-latihan-militer-super-garuda-shield-2023/?_x_tr_sl=id&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc"><u><span class="15">defence exercise</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">dubbed</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Super Garuda Shield </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">was held, prompting this comment from China:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“The US needs to earnestly respect regional countries’ effort to uphold peace and stability … stop meddling in South China Sea issues, stop sowing discords and creating trouble.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The real challenge is bringing the people on both sides of the Arafura Sea closer and less </span><a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/suspicious-minds-will-closer-australia-indonesia-engagement-yield-greater-trust"><u><span class="15">distrustful.</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> Not so easy when the tip of a Tomahawk missile looms just over the horizon.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">## </span></p><p>First published in <i>Michael West Media</i> 2 March 2024: https://michaelwest.com.au/richard-marles-indonesia-australia-relations/</p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-14413998698933694372024-03-01T09:51:00.017+07:002024-03-01T10:07:36.620+07:00BLEAK TIMES FORECAST<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">THE COMING OF FEAR</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear. ― George Orwell (Eric Blair) </span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqfT9QeVaiwRL09IRHFvgjwRPCbd4SPr2Mrhyphenhyphen87vzeLVbiEILsqgSs5uOzQ0ns2A9RXR3PPnClOb3BrNi5tAZUlmby6EbMk2hwclDIyfpR87fU19clUGG2ssMl6xg0mitZUvXysxZ-UAjNq3Xobk8RRsrtfELp-FkpDVeqJnWbp-4sGcxgAw/s800/IMG_3828-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqfT9QeVaiwRL09IRHFvgjwRPCbd4SPr2Mrhyphenhyphen87vzeLVbiEILsqgSs5uOzQ0ns2A9RXR3PPnClOb3BrNi5tAZUlmby6EbMk2hwclDIyfpR87fU19clUGG2ssMl6xg0mitZUvXysxZ-UAjNq3Xobk8RRsrtfELp-FkpDVeqJnWbp-4sGcxgAw/s320/IMG_3828-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Later this year it’s unlikely you’ll be reading columns like this unless keyboarded outside Indonesia. Ex-pat writers will fear deportation for </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">lese majest</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">e aka ‘subversion’ and ‘against our culture’ while local journalists will risk jail time.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In October the third largest </span><a href="https://infid.org/en/how-democratic-are-we-in-indonesia/"><u><span class="15">albeit-flawed </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">democracy (after India and the US) will revert to an army-based government led by disgraced former general Prabowo Subianto, elected the Republic's eighth president at a national poll on 14 February. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo was cashiered in 1998 and fled to exile in Jordan. He was banned from entering the US because of alleged human-rights abuses. More details </span><a href="https://www.insideindonesia.org/archive/articles/apakah-prabowo-fit-and-proper"><u><span class="15">here.</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">In the latest</span><a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/d-7215330/prabowo-terima-anugerah-pangkat-istimewa-jenderal-tni-hor-hari-ini"><u><span class="15"> reinstatement </span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">chapter, Prabowo has been made an honourary four-star general by a tone-deaf President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo. The disgraced runaway soldier (he fled to Jordan in 1998 after being cashiered) has been recognised for his “dedication and contribution to the military and defence world." </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">When Prabowo met Defence Minister Richard Marles in Jakarta last month he </span><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/richard-marles-gun-shy-over-indonesian-presidential-gift-from-prabowo-20240226-p5f7xs.html"><u><span class="15">reportedly </span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">gave the unlicensed Australian a rifle that can’t be imported without special authority and good reason. Having Opposition members in his sights would not be reason enough.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The present government has</span><a href="https://engagemedia.org/2024/youth-indonesia-criminal-code/"><u><span class="15"> laws</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">against criticising authority - though so far not well-used. That could change with the fate of the three solemn academics who produced the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dirty Vote </span></i><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=dirty+vote+video+YouTube&sca_esv=891b730bda1d1fac&rlz=1C1YTUH_idID1030ID1030&ei=4HzVZbDoKuGiseMP_9-3mAk&ved=0ahUKEwiw2O6FzbuEAxVhUWwGHf_vDZMQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=dirty+vote+video+YouTube&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiGGRpcnR5IHZvdG"><u><span class="15">video</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">aired just ahead of the 14 February election</span><a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/02/14/muslim-student-group-files-police-complaint-against-dirty-vote.html"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. They've been </span><u><span class="15">dobbed into </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the police by hard-line Islamic students. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The well-referenced documentary that producers say has been clicked more than eight-million times, alleges systematic election fraud by Jokowi and his administration. It runs for two hours, while a cuddly Prabowo TikTok cartoon that dominated the campaign takes just seconds to watch and absorb.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Like other dictators, Prabowo fears and hates criticism. He’s a cosmopolitan polyglot having been educated in the UK and US, but his</span><a href="https://www.liputan6.com/global/read/5503122/prabowos-anger-issues-becomes-his-achilles-heel-in-2024-election"><u><span class="15"> reported</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> fiery outbursts are a worry.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Few in Canberra realise how bad the situation could become - and what to do when Prabowo assaults democracy, and civil society’s hostilities to the new president harden and thicken. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Once in power an early target is likely to be the media. </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Jakarta Post </span></i><a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2024/01/05/i-believe-in-democracy-press-freedom-prabowo.html."><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">reported</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a video of Prabowo “launching a tirade against the press, in which he says that he keeps tabs on all negative coverage of him.” It should be a full file.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ary-hermawan-1513083"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ary Hermawan</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, a former editor at the Indonesian daily</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">and now a Melbourne Uni g</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">raduate researcher,</span><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biggest-threat-to-indonesias-democracy-its-not-prabowo-its-the-oligarchy-223974"><u><span class="15"> fears </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the oligarchs as much as Prabowo:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“ …the real question is what the oligarchs are up to now that Prabowo is in charge.At this point, Indonesia’s democracy is already in tatters”.</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia is facing a crisis that threatens to split the country; the progressive and better-educated worrying about the democratic destiny of the Republic and trying to repair the wrongs - and Prabowo’s backers.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Barring an external event - such as a more virulent version of Covid or a deadly plague, the only present hope is that the pudgy septuagenarian will suffer a heart attack; myths of that happening stalk him daily. Life expectancy for Indonesian men is 69. Prabowo will be 73 when he takes office in October.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Between now and then the seriously wounded opposition will have to regroup, get the prosthetics fitted, learn how to use them and grab the wheel before the truck tips over the cliff. At the moment they’re still prone with pain trying to understand what happened.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">One reason is the rejection of the U-20 World Cup soccer contest (five months before the 7 October Hamas attack) because it included an Israeli team, so denying Indonesia a host’s right to play on the world stage. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevzgNKS56si__w44h7px5EjnHD0iAHnXoFerQ_AnrhnTJVJCgFGnnUvByW1bNQ14FGsqGy-LgT0b7dDDRNG_trjZE0U-Qai20FDXS5MDwt8TO8bZGivkvoADlJD6Lx_jF-VW8ilyW4AXgh92tXJwYMow8eFb1fShOq5DRxuLg8Zi0VjkDjw/s800/20231224_060307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="511" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevzgNKS56si__w44h7px5EjnHD0iAHnXoFerQ_AnrhnTJVJCgFGnnUvByW1bNQ14FGsqGy-LgT0b7dDDRNG_trjZE0U-Qai20FDXS5MDwt8TO8bZGivkvoADlJD6Lx_jF-VW8ilyW4AXgh92tXJwYMow8eFb1fShOq5DRxuLg8Zi0VjkDjw/w255-h400/20231224_060307.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The decision endorsed by Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo a presidential candidate- infuriated millions of fans. Indonesians play badly but cheer lustily. Sport scores better than politics.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gibran’s Pop is the present president Jokowi who was elected in 2014 and again in 2019. In both cases his opponent was Prabowo. Local wisdom claims electors think that having Gibran in Jakarta’s Palace will ensure Daddy’s policies will stay intact.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gibran is a small-town mayor and caterer who has found himself as Number Two in the world’s fourth most populated nation after India, China and the US. His predecessors were known as ‘spare tyres’ only wanted in a breakdown.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Whether he’ll be able or want to get in the front seat is the critical question. At the moment he looks more like a bunny in the spotlight than the assertive egoists he’ll encounter. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">When the opposition regroups and finds an acceptable leader of international standing and credibility, she or he needs to have an open airline ticket to any Western nation and a car with a driver who knows the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">jalan tikus </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">- back streets - to a private airport. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Saudi Arabia, Israel and Russia aren’t the only states capable of eliminating opponents. In 2004 human rights lawyer and activist </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Munir Said Thalib was murdered by arsenic in a soft drink given by an off-duty pilot on a flight to the Netherlands with the national carrier Garuda.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The poisoner Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, an alleged </span><a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20201017195411-20-559628/pollycarpus-meninggal-pilot-garuda-di-kasus-pembunuhan-munir"><u><span class="15">agent </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of the State Intelligence Service was jailed, claiming he acted on orders from above. He’s since died.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia - specifically the island of Hindu Bali - is now the </span><a href="https://www.miragenews.com/indonesia-surpasses-nz-as-top-choice-for-aussie-1174367/"><u><span class="15">first choice</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">for holidaying Australians. They may want to revert to New Zealand - it’s dearer but safer.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">##</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham</span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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.</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">First published in </span><i style="text-align: left;">Pearls & Irritations</i><span style="text-align: left;">, 1 March 2024: </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/the-coming-of-the-fear/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/the-coming-of-the-fear/</a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-59376279950422470812024-02-20T09:03:00.004+07:002024-02-20T09:03:40.013+07:00DON'T CRY FOR ME INDONESIA - I NEVER LEFT YOU<p> <b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY</span></b></p><p><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b style="text-align: justify;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6xzmx8Mh1DsZij5-4WDbc3QTKLPyDbLc0nT-QES4QuT73Z2s8ZU5MtofgCQ5h-qohnJ1C6UyiKkOFe6bhNB2Wy4Zlw3fa-SlwSTJ9Cforf-wdK81U6FhdnESs-ptQbvPiMupnA2BWUeTqam0b_FDo9htGY8Ljirjr2Q_gaDhVgNwokCgaQ/s800/IMG_3843-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6xzmx8Mh1DsZij5-4WDbc3QTKLPyDbLc0nT-QES4QuT73Z2s8ZU5MtofgCQ5h-qohnJ1C6UyiKkOFe6bhNB2Wy4Zlw3fa-SlwSTJ9Cforf-wdK81U6FhdnESs-ptQbvPiMupnA2BWUeTqam0b_FDo9htGY8Ljirjr2Q_gaDhVgNwokCgaQ/w268-h400/IMG_3843-1.JPG" width="268" /></a></b></div><b style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Why did well over half the 200-plus million Indonesian registered electors choose disgraced general Prabowo Subianto as their next President?</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Duncan Graham</span></b><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> has some answers.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Authority - and fun. The former cashiered general banned from the US and Australia in a previous life has on early counts won almost 60 per cent of the popular vote. Locally he’s considered certain to be the Republic’s eighth president in October when sworn-in. He’s even been </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/Anthony%20Albanese%20on%20X:%20%20/%20X%20(twitter.com)"><u><span class="15">congratulated</span></u><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">by PM Anthony Albanese on X.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He got to the top by portraying himself dishonestly. He purported to be a softie, a good guy when in reality he's an army thug who </span><a href="https://patwalsh.net/wp-content/uploads/Prabowo-Backgrounder-Nov2023.pdf"><u><span class="15">allegedly</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">did evil things in Java and East Timor.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo's earlier campaigns (he tried three times and lost the lot) had him as a strutting dictator much like Mussolini the pro-Hitler leader of Italy in the 1930s, complete with a prancing stallion and ranks of guards.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His 2024 appeal was not as a fascist but a jolly oldie, a try-hard who deserved the chance to run the world’s fourth largest nation with 280 million just like the present popular president Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The division is stark, the “gap between the richest and the rest in Indonesia (growing) faster than in any other country in Southeast Asia,” </span><a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/inequality-indonesia-millions-kept-poverty"><u><span class="15">according</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">to Oxfam International.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“It is now the sixth country of greatest wealth inequality in the world. Today, the four richest men in Indonesia have more wealth than the combined total of the poorest 100 million people.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo and his brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo, 69, are among the mega-rich. Unlike Jokowi who came from a riverside shack and could relate to the downtrodden, Prabowo has always been up there with the elite and has no personal knowledge of poverty.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The vast sums spent on getting him elected created an atmosphere of must-win, will-win.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the 2019 election where Jokowi beat Prabowo by 11 points, religion was considered so important that the winner had an aged Islamic scholar as his sidekick. This time faith was barely an issue; though Gibran Rakabuming, his Dad and Prabowo are all Muslims they’re not known for their piety.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hashim, Prabowo’s brother and co-founder of their Gerindra Party, is a Christian. So was their late mother Dora Maria Sigar. But the family’s beliefs didn’t become a factor in this year’s campaign in a nation where religion dominates all, from food to clothing to lifestyle.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo was seen as a leader with authority who wouldn't bother electors with boring issues like the economy, corruption, debt to China and foreign relations. Leave that to the minority eggheads. The people wanted cheaper foods and a tough guy who'll take them back to the imagined glorious days of his late one-time father-in-law Soeharto.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The second president handled everything, including the</span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/indonesia-64948264"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u><u><span class="15">killing </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of anyone that got in his way. His administration called itself</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Orde Baru</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (New Order). Soeharto was a ruthless military dictator who neutered opposition by </span><a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/theres-now-clear-proof-that-soeharto-orchestrated-the-1965-killings/"><u><span class="15">orchestrating</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the genocide of an estimated half-million ‘Communists’. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The US and Australia approved. The late PM Harold Holt was quoted as</span><a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/australias-role-in-the-1965-66-communist-massacres-in-indonesia/"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u><u><span class="15">telling </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> New York Times:</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> "With 500,000 to 1 million Communist sympathizers knocked off, I think it is safe to assume a reorientation has taken place.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo comes from the same hate factory. Most volunteers who join the military in any country are women and men who like killing people and fixing problems with force. They tend to be doers, not debaters. They thrive on discipline.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It's a condemnation of Indonesian schooling that the present generation is tragically too</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/P&%20I%20Prabowo%20wins.edited.docx#:~:text=54%2B08%3A00-,Where%20is%20Indonesia%20ranked%20in%20education%3F,is%20among%20the%20highest%20globally."><u><span class="15"> ill-educated</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">to inquire and research, to discover for themselves the candidates asking for their backing.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Other factors in Prabowo’s win include Jokowi being insulted by his party head and fifth president Megawati Soekarnoputri - daughter of first president Soekarno. The public thought this morally wrong.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There's been an abundance of comments and what it means for the democratic future of the nation; much has been the moaning of losers. An exception has been the Harvard-educated Islamic scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla, one of the country’s progressive intellectuals.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the country’s leading broadsheet </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Kompas </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">he</span><a href="https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/jokowi-congratulates-prabowo-on-win-02152024112536.html"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u><u><span class="15">wrote</span></u><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">that “Prabowo’s win reflects the popular desire for continuity rather than change.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"Like it or not, we have to listen carefully to this popular wisdom. Is the narrative of democratic decline really a concern for the wider public, or, on the contrary, only a concern for the middle-class educated group? The people may have different priorities than the issue of democratic decline." </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Bothering the "educated groups" has been the nepotism that allowed the courts to give Gibran 36, the right to run as Prabowo's vice-presidential candidate when the law says the minimal age is 40. Having an uncle as a judge helped the young fellow’s case.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">So what? Graft is widespread and long accepted - except by the ethical thinkers and they’re in the minority. What the majority know is that Gibran’s Dad is a good guy so his offspring must be the same. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The reasoning runs that Jokowi, 62, (who Constitutionally can’t stand for a third term) will be on hand to jerk the strings of his puppet son and through him the new president. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Blessing the union and having the new president continue his predecessor’s policies ( adding free lunch boxes and milk for schoolkids) is all that the majority of voters want to know. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That thinking is flawed; unpredictable and egotistical Prabowo won’t be told how to govern. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His opponents are reportedly looking at “possible fraud” alleging his camp resorted to “legal manipulation, various forms of coercion, and abuse of state resources to gain an advantage in the contest.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Their i</span><a href="https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/jokowi-congratulates-prabowo-on-win-02152024112536.html"><u><span class="15">nquiries</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> will go nowhere.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Having the time and energy to debate the subtleties is a privilege only for the oligarchs and their political and media mates. The wee folk, known a</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">s wong cilik </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">have little interest in world affairs or that their nation’s economy now ranks 16</span><sup><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; vertical-align: super;">th</span></sup><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> in the world, and is moving higher.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo spoke to them with slogans, not statistics. His rivals, Dr Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo - candidates with strong administrative experience as governors - were hampered by treating the electorate seriously and releasing policy statements.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Both men were interviewed by Western journalists and replied in English to Human Rights Watch inquiries. Prabowo, who was educated in the UK and US, refused media requests including from this correspondent.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His tactic was to relate to the electorate by shouting flim-flam promises and basking in the glory of having Jokowi's son as a "cool" partner - as the first-time voters said. It paid off. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Now we wait to see if his critics will be cowed into submission by Prabowo's </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Orde Baru Versi Dua. </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(Version Two) with opponents jailed like the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Perhaps Prabowo as president will turn out to be a reformer embracing dissidents. Maybe wombats will find airspace.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">First published in<i> Pearls & Irritations</i>, 20 February 2024: </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/keeping-it-in-the-family/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/keeping-it-in-the-family/</a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-36756096451823755312024-02-15T15:58:00.005+07:002024-02-15T15:58:49.397+07:00REGRESSION<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">INDONESIA CHOOSES - BACK TO THE PAST</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTFnJt9yW7eNJg3mrbxt_MPxY7mike9xO6CA_B5TSMAhTMLC9doPlVKNiMWj5YquuvYjzELWQ3EQeeExZClxt59eEOjIjwcxrkKX-37MW8O9ZRnBKzPtkYURy9sXaTM7lzcxP2FphwgyWetjINSXBD3ZnpnoRqTan-NQbew6mbnL3fVOn-pQ/s800/IMG_4072a-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTFnJt9yW7eNJg3mrbxt_MPxY7mike9xO6CA_B5TSMAhTMLC9doPlVKNiMWj5YquuvYjzELWQ3EQeeExZClxt59eEOjIjwcxrkKX-37MW8O9ZRnBKzPtkYURy9sXaTM7lzcxP2FphwgyWetjINSXBD3ZnpnoRqTan-NQbew6mbnL3fVOn-pQ/s320/IMG_4072a-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">First, the good news from Jakarta on the day after the national election.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The asphalt will not turn red. Canberra and Washington warning their citizens to stay inside and beware of riots were misplaced - no evidence-free allegations that the vote had been rigged, no overturned fire-bombed cop cars, no killings.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Instead, hundreds of thousands cheered and danced to celebrate the apparent win of their heroes - disgraced former general Prabowo Subianto, 72, and his vice-president sidekick Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He’s the eldest son of the present president Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo and mayor of small-town Solo. He was supposedly recruited to attract the youth vote, but also to keep Dad’s infrastructure policies going - particularly the new capital and palace in East Kalimantan.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cNT9TnqggxFlkMvDsky2JBD1KbbZOYbz-CPnRQDcpS5VebixLZpjq8IRHgUQrGJLfrCgHC7C0v3M485akU3ZPxWjn6S7EcwGQdQ6XCduEhmbc1kmljIyZTfR85vMATWXoigIhu9UmJZpvog-QagJmnaPgJ0MUOpWWXwPmkAn6ew4KBM4sg/s800/IMG_3830-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cNT9TnqggxFlkMvDsky2JBD1KbbZOYbz-CPnRQDcpS5VebixLZpjq8IRHgUQrGJLfrCgHC7C0v3M485akU3ZPxWjn6S7EcwGQdQ6XCduEhmbc1kmljIyZTfR85vMATWXoigIhu9UmJZpvog-QagJmnaPgJ0MUOpWWXwPmkAn6ew4KBM4sg/s320/IMG_3830-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Although final figures are still unavailable, a quick count yesterday night put the pair capturing 58 per cent of the vote, far ahead of the second place (25 per cent) held by Dr Anies Baswedan, a one-time academic and governor of Jakarta,<span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The third candidate, Ganjar Pranowo, the former governor of Central Java, was almost out of sight with 17 per cent.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">So Prabowo is set to take over in October. He'll be the nation's eighth leader since the 1945 Revolution when first president Soekarno declared the archipelago a Republic free from the three-century grip of the Dutch. A four-year guerrilla war followed before The Hague realised its colonial era was past.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 1965 Soekarno was overthrown by the military led by General Soeharto who instigated the genocide of maybe 500,000 real or imagined Communists. More than 32 years of authoritarian rule known as </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Orde Baru </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(New Order) followed. In 1998 Soeharto resigned in the face of widespread demands for democracy.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the late 1700s, the French Revolution guillotined the ruling royalty to ensure they'd never return. The Indonesian activists who brought down Soeharto at the turn of this century didn't want bloodshed; they naively assumed the King of the Kleptocrats and his cronies would disappear into quiet retirement tending their grand gardens, all wreathed in shame.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Wrong call: The Soeharto-era just shook its shoulders and garnered the funds to mount a full-on assault on the Palace using the new democracy.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Yesterday's voters knew little of the past and seemed to care less. It didn't matter to them that Prabowo, a professional soldier, had been dishonourably discharged for disobeying orders and then fled to exile in Jordan.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Three US presidents banned him from their country for violating human rights in both Indonesia and East Timor. He was also banned from Australia till 2019 when he entered as Defence Minister.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">With the help of his businessman dollar billionaire younger brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo, Prabowo started the right-wing </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gerakan Indonesia Raya </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(Gerindra - the Great Indonesia Movement) party as a vehicle for his political career after established parties rejected his approaches.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The cashiered former general lost three times, once as a vice president candidate and twice as president against Jokowi, but has now triumphed.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3zpsaeHMBzBrTLcRkypv3cj2-XAjcoEEku8yjgNes6yhlbegE2wJ6aemnsdnU2h5PMCfPyFvXSy7y0LR_dNhSCd8-gQxwG8x6oNJmBkrCPny3be5Z80Xe_KZ58ZYawLZysED3A33AgMF8h_F1nUdzRn6xqS42DzPscin19OdJAj6dGJwXQ/s800/IMG_3843-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3zpsaeHMBzBrTLcRkypv3cj2-XAjcoEEku8yjgNes6yhlbegE2wJ6aemnsdnU2h5PMCfPyFvXSy7y0LR_dNhSCd8-gQxwG8x6oNJmBkrCPny3be5Z80Xe_KZ58ZYawLZysED3A33AgMF8h_F1nUdzRn6xqS42DzPscin19OdJAj6dGJwXQ/s320/IMG_3843-1.JPG" width="214" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">What sort of leader of 280 million people will he be? Australian Pat Walsh, an advisor to East Timor's CAVR (</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Comissão de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliação</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">), has no doubt.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In a scarifying </span><a href="https://www.insideindonesia.org/archive/articles/is-prabowo-fit-and-proper-to-be-indonesias-next-president"><u><span class="15">review,</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the co-founder of the prestigious Australian magazine </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Inside Indonesia </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">concluded that Prabowo was not a fit and proper person to be president.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"(He) …shared responsibility for the fate of hundreds of civilians who endured crimes …that offends the very essence of civilised humanity included starvation, forced displacement (including of children), rape, torture, killings, imprisonment and forced displacement."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This was not the image seen by voters. Instead, they were presented with a baby-faced </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">gemoy</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (cute) grandpa, though the divorcee’s only son is childless and lives in Europe as a fashion designer. A triumph of jolly cartoons over serious policy and the future of the world's fourth-largest nation.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The VP role now held by Gibran is dubbed </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ban serep</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (spare tyre) in Indonesian slang, a powerless ceremonial job. More than half the voters are millennials or belong to Gen Z, so whether Gibran will lie back and enjoy the role or want to be involved and challenge his arrogant boss is one to watch.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Contrary to the imagery, the hot-tempered authoritarian Prabowo is not cute, says Professor </span><a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/made-nagi-epa-cute-grandpa-or-authoritarian-in-waiting-who-is-prabowo-subianto-the-favourite-to-win-indonesias-presidential-election/"><u><span class="15">Tim Lindsey</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of Melbourne University:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“He has repeatedly said Indonesia’s democratic system is </span></span><a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/indonesia-presidential-election-prabowo-democracy-term-limits-opposition-4085111"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">not working</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> and the country should return to its original 1945 Constitution. This would mean unraveling most of the reforms introduced since Soeharto fell …</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“Among other things, Indonesia’s charter of human rights would go, as would the Constitutional Court. The courts would no longer be independent, direct presidential elections would end, the two-term presidential limit would go and the president could again control the legislature.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Little is known in Indonesia of Prabowo's past, where a sanitised version of history is taught in schools. This shows the gallant military fighting for freedom in the 1940s, then defeating godless Communism in the 60s and recovering the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, now Timor L'Este, in the 70s. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo had been involved in four tours of duty on the island. According to Amnesty International, the invasion and occupation</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://timorarchive.ca/uploads/r/bishops/e/6/5/e651c745efd0039096990cb1220fed6e004ba693723cfc4b03c28e8e15c1c1bb/East_Timor-_Indonesia_s_Killing_field.pdf"><u><span class="15">cost the lives</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> of 250,000 civilians from violence or starvation during Indonesia’s 24-year control.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"A truth-telling process in Indonesia is needed," wrote Walsh. "The deeply regrettable downside of this overdue process in Indonesia is that 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, may be elected Indonesia's next president."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">But he has been elected by the people in a process that may be the last. Commented Lindsey: “Indonesia’s fragile democratic system may be the next thing he reinvents – or, more likely, dismantles.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Canberra will have to accept Prabowo and afford him status - that’s international diplomacy. It also needs Indonesia to help relationships with China that has been doing big business in Indonesia, particularly with loans and labour for nickel smelters, toll roads and fast rail.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That doesn’t mean the Australian human rights lobby and historians will not rally against the new President. If he does visit Canberra, watch out for the protests now not happening in Jakarta.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">##</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="text-align: left;">First published in </span><i style="text-align: left;">Michael West Media, </i><span style="text-align: left;">15 February 2024: https://michaelwest.com.au/indonesia-elects-a-new-president-prabowosubianto/</span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-55048487027054949732024-02-14T08:21:00.018+07:002024-02-14T08:46:17.800+07:00THE END OF THE ROAD TO A FAIRER SOCIETY<p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">FAREWELL DEMOCRACY </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgjgwTXDj20pG7oxfn1etyzocq3Nl9u-k2dvhb9f4WZv_oou2r5Ttw6PFtJqIE9-itAYDS-Uhrxigb_U-D_tM0RJv67_kCqamlwkZ5uB7FPT0csHQk9iurS3ZtMwJf2b-ZEsE_wWdpS31xrXcuS1yPFZvhwZAH7lgmCww-QeXo9MeKrKHEHrQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="1123" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgjgwTXDj20pG7oxfn1etyzocq3Nl9u-k2dvhb9f4WZv_oou2r5Ttw6PFtJqIE9-itAYDS-Uhrxigb_U-D_tM0RJv67_kCqamlwkZ5uB7FPT0csHQk9iurS3ZtMwJf2b-ZEsE_wWdpS31xrXcuS1yPFZvhwZAH7lgmCww-QeXo9MeKrKHEHrQ=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There’ll be a good indicator - if not a firm result - by the time most Australians go to bed tonight. Then we’ll know if the ferociously ambitious Prabowo Subianto - Indonesia’s political</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i><a href="https://www.insideindonesia.org/archive/articles/is-prabowo-fit-and-proper-to-be-indonesias-next-president"><i><u><span class="15">psychopath </span></u></i></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> - will be running the nation next door and booting out democracy.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Economist Intelligence Unit has consistently</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/04/10/protecting-rights-defenders.html."><u><span class="15">tagged </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia as a “flawed democracy”, behind Malaysia and the Philippines. Whatever the analysts think today the Republic will be holding a monster - reportedly the world’s </span><a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/explainer-how-indonesia-holds-the-worlds-biggest-single-day-election"><u><span class="15">biggest </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">one-day election.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Imagine your local supermarket eleven times larger. Every shelf is sagging, every product in abundance - only the labels differ with few ingredients listed. Now transfer the lot onto social media and the street, smothering anything green with vinyl advertising. Presto - the 2024 Indonesian election campaign.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It’s a vast country but only three sets of candidates (all male, Muslim and Javanese) are slugging it out on 14 February to run the Republic for the next five years. So what’s the big deal?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Forgotten by the AI headliners is that this isn't solely about former Jakarta Governor Dr Anies Baswedan, cashiered one-time general Prabowo Subianto and Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, all desperate to be El Supremo. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Thousands of Indonesians are standing for a cluster of 20,000 national, regional and local seats next Wednesday. From the banners of their fizzogs, it seems half the citizenry has its hat in the ring - though it’s only 200,000. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">With a population jostling 280 million, Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest country after India, China and the US - and it’s right next door. Be warned, says Canberra - don’t go if you don’t know; millions will be on the streets and not all will be happy.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Although all candidates are smiling on their placards, that's not everyone's default position. Fist-waving and finger-pointing are essential. The few women have lots of lippy and </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">jilbabs</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (headscarves); the young guys bruised foreheads supposedly from head-banging while praying in hard-floor mosques. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In religious Indonesia, where all citizens must belong to one of six government-approved faiths, it seems that piety is the main qualification for secular administration.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Looking at their forced grins the hopefuls would be happier sneering and snarling, which is how they’ll behave once they lose - as most will. Hoaxes abound,</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Citizens need to be 17 or over though </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/cek-fakta-anies-sebut-akar-masalah-pernikahan-anak-adalah-kemiskinan-benarkah-222673?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Nawala%20TCID%20-%20Editor%20Lingkungan%20-%20070224&utm_content=Nawala%20TCID%20-%20Editor%20Lingkungan%20-%2007"><u><span class="15">underage marrieds</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">can also visit the ballot box in their street or village. Voting is often in the open and there are so many booths the show is often done and dusted by noon. The system is first-pass-the-post.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Around 205 million have registered. Based on earlier figures 80 per cent should turn up, though voting isn’t compulsory. Purple ink on the finger shows you’ve already been to a booth. Social media is full of tales of bribes, but your correspondent has been unable to verify.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The cost is enormous and most of the big backers are Indonesian businesses. One stab is US $ 500 million, but that seems far too low. For an analysis, go </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/templeton-research_campaign-financing-and-the-business-interests-activity-7161229170713194500-31UB/"><u><span class="15">here.</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Half the population is under 40 and the prospective legislators have little idea on how to reach a tech-savvy generation with no knowledge of last century’s authoritarian politics and ruthless dealings with dissidents. Much has been spent on cartoon characters and silly memes, a real insult to thoughtful voters. Sadly they’re the minority.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The formal handover of power will take place in October. Till then the admin of President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo will continue.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Of the present 575 polis in the Big House, many come from little parties who back Jokowi. That means he does what he likes and the only opposition comes from NGOs in rented offices with leaky ceilings and shared toilets. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fortunately Jokowi has been relatively benign, good on toll roads, factories and exports, poor on human rights. He has an 80 per cent approval rate - or did until he backed his eldest son Gibran Rakabuming to stand with Prabowo, earning widespread</span><a href="https://dinsights.katadata.co.id/read/2024/02/07/tension-escalate-as-civitas-academica-critics-faces-silent-retaliation"><u><span class="15"> wrath</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">from academics.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His successor will inherit a steady </span><a href="https://infid.org/how-democratic-are-we-in-indonesia/"><u><span class="15">slackening</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of enthusiasm for democracy.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">With ten or more individuals chasing every seat in the regions and districts, how does the elector make sense of it all? Best just follow the simper or smirker you like best, or shove a hole through your party's choice using the nail supplied - a left-over from the days when many electors were illiterate. (The rate now is</span><a href="https://en.antaranews.com/news/187734/indonesias-illiteracy-rate-down-to-171-in-2020-ministry"><u><span class="15"> around </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">one per cent and decreasing,)</span><a href="https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partai_Demokrasi_Indonesia_Perjuangan"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) is the only stand-alone as it scored more than 20 per cent of the votes last time.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The others have formed coalitions, diluting their impact and independence, but ensuring a slice of the pizza cut by the winner. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Monday and yesterday were campaign-free, giving candidates a breather and the chance of a clean up.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">candidate</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> pairs</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">- pres and vice - </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">need a simple majority to win.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> At this stage it's reckoned no one will get that score, meaning a run-off by the top two on 26 June. But check tonight.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> ##</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p> First published 14 February 2024 in<i> Pearls & Irritations</i>; <a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/farewell-democracy-link-b-pic-prabowo-subianto/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/farewell-democracy-link-b-pic-prabowo-subianto/</a></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-76303730487027943852024-02-09T06:29:00.011+07:002024-02-10T11:59:52.806+07:00THE YEAR OF VOTING FEARFULLY<p style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">COMING SOON - D(ECISION) DAY</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8bbNRBG9A8_Oz0AL9bla4h3kDhqzaqli6qXAs95enbw1t-WAT_2gkxeDxmL7U-pl5ab-gua0yV_TAzRZqY2X9PM_J7Bix6p21As2gUGoOF4GmBZMBV6LdFslVIxtRSfCFDxy1olxGVaZKfY8bCpLNvA3vie4MeRoU09UHW_ZeyZhPVgdQZw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8bbNRBG9A8_Oz0AL9bla4h3kDhqzaqli6qXAs95enbw1t-WAT_2gkxeDxmL7U-pl5ab-gua0yV_TAzRZqY2X9PM_J7Bix6p21As2gUGoOF4GmBZMBV6LdFslVIxtRSfCFDxy1olxGVaZKfY8bCpLNvA3vie4MeRoU09UHW_ZeyZhPVgdQZw=w640-h426" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br />Image: MWM</span></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Tis the season to be electing: In 2024 </span></i><a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/2024-election-watch-bracing-for-the-year-to-come/"><i><u><span class="15">four billion </span></u></i></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">will pick leaders in the US, India, South Africa and 70 others. Among the first is Indonesia. </span></i><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham </span></b><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">is there.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A week to go. Exhaustion is obvious and frustration rising after the fifth and final TV debate on Sunday, long on rhetoric, brief on implementation, negligible on costing. Much was incontestable, like support for the disabled and better maternal care.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">On Valentine's Day Indonesians are set to select who'll run the world's third-largest democracy from a field of three candidates and their sidekicks. Our deeply religious neighbour is technically secular but has more Muslims than any other nation.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">So far there’s been no reported violence. This could change if the hoaxes take root and hates grow. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesians like to think they control their emotions. Not always. In 1965 an army-organised </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20Final%20debate.edited.docx#:~:text=The%20Army%20and%20Indonesian%20Genocide,resulting%20as%20one%20of%20the"><u><span class="15">genocide </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">took half a million lives. </span><a href="https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/15592816.pdf"><u><span class="15">Riots </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">in 1974, 84, 94 and 99 killed thousands. The English word ‘amok’ comes from the region.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Cashiered former general Prabowo Subianto, a hard-right, my-destiny candidate and the man most likely to light the fuse if he loses, </span><a href="https://library.fes.de/libalt/journals/swetsfulltext/15592816.pdf"><u><span class="15">said </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">earlier: </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“Indonesians can very quickly turn to violence. (It’s) something we would like to address, to control, and to manage. But it is there: fighting between families … villages …tribes …ethnic groups, and finally fighting between religions.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The ring of fire isn’t confined to volcanic eruptions.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Who are the voters?</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Academic research </span><a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1771904/indonesias-young-voters-precarious-and-sidelined-by-the-system"><u><span class="15">estimates </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">that 60 per cent of the 204 million eligible voters are in the 17–39 age demographic.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The campaign has revealed separate sets of millennials and Gen Zs. The thoughtful ones are real but invisible to the politicians who want their votes, though not their questions.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The other mob is imagined: </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Calcified by shock media images the candidates see gadget-crazed narcissists, careless about the direction of their nation so easily distracted with bread and circuses.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckYPHY1gt1reZfQzr6LONFoWcihO2bY8f-_UDGoQXaaLtcDROqSwNH6AkxOIiXuawcMfr9KoxSHgiOxVyR99xXWOgk6kxZ5IwIsaIY8lHPmC2F4KCledetHXIqqTVYDko6hI0RSMAWzYUvTm5mumQs_23fzScNyJuF_9QBzwmYjAvIXlZIA/s800/IMG_4072a-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckYPHY1gt1reZfQzr6LONFoWcihO2bY8f-_UDGoQXaaLtcDROqSwNH6AkxOIiXuawcMfr9KoxSHgiOxVyR99xXWOgk6kxZ5IwIsaIY8lHPmC2F4KCledetHXIqqTVYDko6hI0RSMAWzYUvTm5mumQs_23fzScNyJuF_9QBzwmYjAvIXlZIA/s320/IMG_4072a-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">They get served trite slogans and cartoons (the speciality of Prabowo’s campaign ), plus </span><a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/k-pop-and-the-presidential-election-anies-baswedan-riding-the-korean-bubble/"><u><span class="15">K-Pop </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">from supporters of former Jakarta Governor Dr Anies Baswedan. He benefits, but being an academic denies personal involvement in such base tactics. Running a Republic requires gravitas.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">One corny stunt involved choppering a sizeable white shirt above Jakarta’s Hotel Indonesia roundabout, supposedly implying former Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo has broad shoulders to carry the load. It looked like a heavenly Hills Hoist.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The torrent of money suggests donors expect handsome rewards for their investments. Presidents can appoint ministers from outside politics. At a rough count, Prabowo is outspending his competitors two to one. As in Australia figures are fuzzy.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Contempt for customers is bad for business and representative government, but hey - who cares? Snatch their vote, then shove ‘em back in steerage for five more years.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">But teens grow up.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesian education is in a</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/beyond-access-making-indonesia-s-education-system-work"><u><span class="15">bad way,</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> but it’s been worse. The internet has demolished school walls and excited curiosity. Kids are discovering the history road they’ve been led down is potholed with missing facts. Like ours and the frontier wars.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Most want the forests and rivers saved and cleansed but few polis do green - they prefer smokestacks. Respondents to a uni </span><a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/no-ambition-youth-bemoan-green-pledges-ahead-of-indonesia-poll"><u><span class="15">survey </span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">l</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ast year sought declaration of a climate emergency; sixty per cent thought the government hadn't handled the crisis properly.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nothing happened.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Problems with the ump</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hopes for intelligent policy debate haven’t been helped by Indonesia’s Electoral Commission</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (Komisi Pemilihan Umum </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">KPU</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">)</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> an agency with a grubby past. In 2005 its chair, Monash Uni-educated Dr Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin, was </span><a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/d-2239233/mantan-terpidana-korupsi-nazaruddin-sjamsuddin-nyaleg-dari-pbb"><u><span class="15">whacked </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">with huge fines and seven years in jail for taking bribes.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The KPU presently smells fresh, extra important because it's staging an event far more complex than anything attempted by Canberra. In the 2019 poll 7.4 million election workers were employed. Around 500 </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/(500%20poll%20officials%20reportedly%20died%20from%20stress%20in%202009)"><u><span class="15">reportedly</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> died </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">from stress-related sicknesses.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Politics is a blood sport; the KPU, fearful of reputational assaults, sought friendly chats. Questions in its TV debates came from ponderous academics and mostly men, not bristly journos.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The public wants gladiators, but adrenalin drains away through a 30-minute prelude of prayers, the national anthem, the KPU song (</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Choose for Indonesia</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">), handshakes and formulaic speeches. The candidates’ times are truncated, their canvas contained.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">When the piles and fart-cure commercials (metaphors too apt to ignore) shown in the breaks are more credible than the candidates’ pledges of clean government, it’s clear the stench is ineradicable without extreme surgery. That doctor’s not on-call.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Graft stinks as pungently as it did a decade ago when new President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo promised a fix. It’s repelling the ethical investors his regime yearns to lure: The </span><a href="https://www.indoleft.org/news/2024-01-30/graft-watchdog-says-jokowi-has-made-no-contribution-at-all-to-corruption-fight.html"><u><span class="15">latest </span></u></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Corruption Perception Index</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> elbowed Indonesia down from 110 to 115 out of 180 countries measured.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Economy up - and down</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Left-wing academic and Australian author </span><a href="https://www.iseas.edu.sg/articles-commentaries/iseas-perspective/2024-8-understanding-indonesias-2024-presidential-elections-a-new-polarisation-evolving-by-max-lane/"><u><span class="15">Max Lane</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">reckons Indonesian politics isn't based on economic or social divides but on how the show has been staged: "Governance built around dynastic power, cronyism, and a right to rule presumed by members of the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">New Order </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">elite.” </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That was the 1966 - 1998 autocracy of General Soeharto. Although repressive the economy expanded at an average of 7.1 per cent. Then came democracy and growth crashed to 5.2 per cent. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“This is an irony or paradox, that in an era when political freedom was much curtailed, the economy grew at a rapid clip, while poverty levels fell away much more quickly than in the democratic era,” said ANU </span></span><a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1829255/hal-hill-indonesia-should-not-fear-globalization"><u><span class="16">economist</span></u><u><span class="16" style="color: purple;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dr Hal Hill. An awkward truth - dictators can get things done. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There’s been a flurry of vote buying. Days out from the election Jokowi, whose son Gibran Rakabuming is Prabowo’s VP pick, </span><a href="https://indonesiaweekly.substack.com/p/social-welfare-pnspolritni-salary?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=5fcu"><u><span class="15">announced</span></u><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">welfare payments for the poor (a cohort larger than the population of Australia), plus wage rises for soldiers and civil servants.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">More subtle are the social media finger </span><a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesia-election-the-four-finger-salute-and-how-jokowi-spurred-its-spread"><u><span class="15">salutes</span></u></a><u><span class="15"> </span></u><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">supposed to send secret messages of support but look more like an Aussie F*** Off signal. Promises get pencilled on face wipes. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo’s</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://voi.id/en/news/333926"><u><span class="15">idea </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">to give 83 million school kids free milk is already sour. There aren’t enough dairy cows in the tropical nation, and </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20Final%20debate.edited.docx#:~:text=intolerance%20in%20Indonesian-,Conclusions,and%20micronutrients%20is%20a%20concern."><u><span class="15">lactose intolerance</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">is widespread.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Clown-of-the-month award (gender studies) goes to VP hopeful Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin (Mahfud MD) blaming women for men’s corruption, reviving the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">New Order’s </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“</span></span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/13420600"><i><u><span class="15">State Ibuism</span></u></i></a><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This specified </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">women's duties as breeder, feeder, scrubber and carer. If the kids go off the rails it's Mum's fault, added Mahfud. The Legal and Security Minister later </span><a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1829255/hal-hill-indonesia-should-not-fear-globalization"><u><span class="15"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘clarified’ </span></span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">his comments. By then modern couples had gone elsewhere. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The polls are sus because sample sizes are too small, but suggest no one candidate getting more than half the votes. If right there’ll be a run-off on 26 June.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australians should rest easy with either of the former governors winning, though much will depend on the new foreign minister. Anies has assured his neighbours - </span><a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/i-pose-no-risk-to-australia-chameleon-reformer-anies-baswedan-in-the-race-to-rule-indonesia/news-story/a5b8ec103f87d26d29c60b9c4fa37a65"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u><u><span class="15"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“no risk”.</span></span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesian democracy is already wounded. Elections are “considered neither free nor fair, (because) many other prerequisites … such as freedom of speech and association are absent” </span><a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/2024-election-watch-bracing-for-the-year-to-come/"><u><span class="15">reports</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Economist Intelligence Unit. </span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A Prabowo win will put democracy out of its misery.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><img height="91" src="file:///C:/Users/duncan/AppData/Local/Temp/ksohtml11444/wps1.jpg" width="116" /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham</span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p><p>First published in <i>Michael West Media,</i> 8 February 2024: <a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://michaelwest.com.au/indonesia-elections-jokowi-favourites/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: large; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://michaelwest.com.au/indonesia-elections-jokowi-favourites/</a></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-22400428023620222882024-02-07T16:42:00.000+07:002024-02-07T16:42:15.081+07:00I ADORE YOUR ELECTION<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">LOVE </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">ME, LOVE MY VOTE </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">Duncan Graham</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5rDFrLi9di1rb2SmHZQEKoOfWOfhN2cBQXmdAEdFq_IJgFZZt7DOucIZEWBWiGwRGPwN96j_vUjB6FDoUH3xhDNpqJ68fu1q7CabEUYKGoesBOCh3580i8-lFd8OL7RIFGqmrc5ue2IWzpBw3tu5z_SMe3L6G_ejrtH5dm1RocE_kxDwBdw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="1280" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5rDFrLi9di1rb2SmHZQEKoOfWOfhN2cBQXmdAEdFq_IJgFZZt7DOucIZEWBWiGwRGPwN96j_vUjB6FDoUH3xhDNpqJ68fu1q7CabEUYKGoesBOCh3580i8-lFd8OL7RIFGqmrc5ue2IWzpBw3tu5z_SMe3L6G_ejrtH5dm1RocE_kxDwBdw=w640-h310" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Pledges</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> of love </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">eternal </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">flourishing on social media are like the vast east coast plains of normally arid Australia</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">saturated by summer storms,</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">As you read this billions of flowers will begin to bloom, the tiny seeds lying still for months, years sometimes, waiting patiently for the blessings of rain. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">R</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">eaders want</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ing</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to enjoy this joyous sigh</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">t should not delay</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, for the vengeful parching sun will soon return and all will wither.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This is how it is with the election maturing on the day we also celebrate the passing of the third-century Saint</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Valentine. Sad story: The Roman was allegedly</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> beaten up and beheaded because he wouldn’t renounce his faith.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That ad</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">verb has been added</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> because no one knows for sure how </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the martyr</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> left the world in his early 40s. No dashboard vision or CCTV.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> might have come home late with an unusual sha</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">de </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of lipstick on his toga collar - and then been </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">dished</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> with a frying pan</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> by a furious Mrs V. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In those days kitchen utensils were made of cast iron.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">We only know that the icon of affection is no longer with us, though the love he sowed springs still.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">And so it is with the </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Big Ballot,</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a mass wooing of more than 200 million </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">eligible</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">s</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> in the world’s third largest democracy (after India and the US).</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Whatever their origins, </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia Expat</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> aficionados have probably never seen such a mass of smiling, charming men and women seeking their affection</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, grinning</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">from the crowded sidewalks. Many </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">even try to </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">wave down motorists </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> by flapping faces with their undress of ripped vinyl.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">They’re hoping, praying even, that those not already engaged or even wedded to one party will bestow their favours. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">C</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">osmopolitan readers will have encountered </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">similar scenes </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">elsewhere - in Singapore’s Geylang district for example</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> -</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> where the lights are red.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sadly political polygamy is outlawed. The seducers’ faces are so angelic, their </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ambitions so pure</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, most of us will be tempted</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to go for the lot.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Satisfaction comes through shoving a nail on a hard stick provided by the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Komisi Pemilihan Umum </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(Electoral Commission) straight through their smiles</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">No lukewarm pencil ticks as in overseas systems. In Indonesia we want to be certain come the count</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. Voting across the archipelago is a holey experience.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">If only 14 February would last forever. Then the candidates could bestow upon us their airbrushed beauty and handsome features</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, love eternal</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The dream would never fade.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Alas, the universal truth: Nothing lasts forever</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. F</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ortunately that includes the ink on the finger. Tip: Avoid embracing your beloved immediately after exercising your right to do so. Blue lips are for cold climes and have yet to become trendy in the tropics.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The lawmakers were wise to restrict entrance to the cardboard booth</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">s</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to those above 17. By that age</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">innocence ha</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">s </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">already been flayed, like the body of Vin the Unlucky at the gate of </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Via Flaminia </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">where the stones were s</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">plashed r</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ed.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">E</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">lectors will not be so inexperienced in life to be startled and distraught on </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the night of the results</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. That’s when they’ll discover the </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">once controlled</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> emotions of their swains, chosen for their sweetness and piety, have now turned to hate.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Losing is not for the gentle.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Shakespeare is supposed to have said: “Love me or hate me, both are in my favour. If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart. If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind’.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">T</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">he source for this aphorism is unlikely to have been the Bard. The author most likely was a copywriter for a card company that makes a whopping profit in mid-February then nothing for the next 51 weeks - much like the desert blooms Down Under.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">We doubt the English language’s greatest sonneteer would scribble such shallow lines -and in any case ‘you’ and ‘your’ were not in his lexicon. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> ‘Thee’ and ‘thine’ carry more </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">intimacy</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">nyone </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">today </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">who heard such words whispered in the shadows of </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dunia Fantasi </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">would probably look for a </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">satpam</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> to escort her out of the park and into a GoCar</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">L</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">et’s keep an open mind: If WS did dip his quill in</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">to</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a well of bad rhyme it must have been for want of a</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> quick </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">guinea from a </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">card </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">publisher scratching for enough cliches when demand was greatest. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Last year the real or imagined moral codes of the City Fathers and Mothers of Malang in Central East Java were shocked to the core. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">They’d </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">noticed couples were using the sidewalk benches on </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Jalan</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ijen </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">to enjoy the Almighty’s gifts of gender difference, so ordered bamboo sticks strapped across the seats.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">When this didn’t deter,</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> threats were made to demolish the street furniture</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. Fortunately less jealous and </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">more mature lawmakers pointed out that many of the people using the facilities were </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the weary </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">elderly.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Some were </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">seen </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">holding hands as they’d done for decades of marriage, proving that love wi</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ll</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> stay whatever the politicians say - or betray.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Happy Valentine’s Day</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> - and don’t forget to exercise your vote.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">##</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="text-align: left;">First published in </span><i style="text-align: left;">Indonesia Expat</i><span style="text-align: left;">, 7 February 2024: </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="text-align: left;">https://online.fliphtml5.com/qinqh/zedc/index.html#p=15</span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-27136834063394942832024-01-31T09:47:00.000+07:002024-01-31T09:47:06.845+07:00GETTING CLOSER, NASTIER<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">SHAFTED BY ETIQUETTE</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1udFDKfRwum_LGusxGgGKR6ylzHw9UAzZDitiDrb5r-Xu3Gqa0APm5V1XQfB7SerdwkcpuGAg3uV9U3CtahsVl1Sw3SsLB1eR7_xDmzHBC5Vlq368ayyCZtYi6Uv36oegTiFixt0h1XBBX9Bjy6qdQkJB0XB3a7XVy76xrYa89JrZOLD5Rg/s800/IMG_3828-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1udFDKfRwum_LGusxGgGKR6ylzHw9UAzZDitiDrb5r-Xu3Gqa0APm5V1XQfB7SerdwkcpuGAg3uV9U3CtahsVl1Sw3SsLB1eR7_xDmzHBC5Vlq368ayyCZtYi6Uv36oegTiFixt0h1XBBX9Bjy6qdQkJB0XB3a7XVy76xrYa89JrZOLD5Rg/s320/IMG_3828-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></i></div><i><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Last month this</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/14650398/7686047160717849143"><u><span class="15"> column</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhAI-bT2wN6DXBN1DAROxHwukcyPFIctwHMeL0BBW4W1rddnSeUiTq67HwBr7d47fR_lDTxhEkgZolVvVtn8cZ7HO58_RIEbbicNX2mJqFMv33BY2VT6anikP47C38dipHRB2uz8tc-JYfeXMF63Xz7JG6DZF3it-3iVDtPF6gQz_S5n2OCQ" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="700" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhAI-bT2wN6DXBN1DAROxHwukcyPFIctwHMeL0BBW4W1rddnSeUiTq67HwBr7d47fR_lDTxhEkgZolVvVtn8cZ7HO58_RIEbbicNX2mJqFMv33BY2VT6anikP47C38dipHRB2uz8tc-JYfeXMF63Xz7JG6DZF3it-3iVDtPF6gQz_S5n2OCQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><i>Credit: Daily News Indonesia</i></span></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In earlier times he tried to stop Muslims saying Merry Christmas to unbelievers. His reputation floundered when he was videoed breaking his own rule.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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'.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The genocide of half a million real or imagined Reds and their mates by army-directed militias is rarely mentioned.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Bright, young modern Gibran risks his reputation by tolerating this association.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">First published in Pearls & Irritations, 31 January 2024: </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="3" href="https://johnmenadue.com/shafted-by-etiquette/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/shafted-by-etiquette/</a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-81923636710466184402024-01-24T15:08:00.000+07:002024-01-24T15:08:29.854+07:00SEA SLUG VIAGRA<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">SEX AND THE SEA: SLUGS NOT FOR SHARING </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australians ended 2023 to shock-horror </span></i><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20Trepang%20re-edited.docx#:~:text=Australian%20Border%20Force%20(ABF)%20has,the%20coast%20of%20Western%20Australia."><i><u><span class="15">reports</span></u></i></a><i><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFukn_BjnMxd3YnAdSHNDdflbN6l8MIJMyXW1l1bCuxjcuI0YF4pFx-aOdmhmwIMC10A5nYc__eIuGbC1lKvrOKHsoUd_8rKOKTaYegI_Jck1WBx04Oaoti_bnnmQBfNWzh2rr7HWSceM4KxbTi6nSdfoBfM-ewTvkF-zYAp0gp079ABICw/s800/IMG_3968-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="800" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFukn_BjnMxd3YnAdSHNDdflbN6l8MIJMyXW1l1bCuxjcuI0YF4pFx-aOdmhmwIMC10A5nYc__eIuGbC1lKvrOKHsoUd_8rKOKTaYegI_Jck1WBx04Oaoti_bnnmQBfNWzh2rr7HWSceM4KxbTi6nSdfoBfM-ewTvkF-zYAp0gp079ABICw/w640-h378/IMG_3968-1.JPG" width="640" /></a></i></div><i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></i><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">They were seized by the paranoid Australian Border Force (ABF) - and disappeared. The managed media has reported one side of the story. </span></i><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham </span></b><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">tells another:</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Patahudin Sijaya finds Australians hard to understand, though not for want of trying.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-nucpvkcsrHaOMy_aVKzqBFFtvjxoOWMmC_saH-3MNEIr9rwUinDo_AttAitz_sYdk9Hy3ScZcGFnhG0IF2ZpuUGFitdOiWnqSTF2knjNY-uvDaxG6f9uPsIQBo2l3dyPYAOAE-przn1KXgLuT-VvQ_uxHfL68PF4CLehTU8Tk0FOd75Iw/s800/IMG_3915-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-nucpvkcsrHaOMy_aVKzqBFFtvjxoOWMmC_saH-3MNEIr9rwUinDo_AttAitz_sYdk9Hy3ScZcGFnhG0IF2ZpuUGFitdOiWnqSTF2knjNY-uvDaxG6f9uPsIQBo2l3dyPYAOAE-przn1KXgLuT-VvQ_uxHfL68PF4CLehTU8Tk0FOd75Iw/s320/IMG_3915-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That puzzles the ‘Captain’ as he’s known in his home port of Palalakkang near Makassar on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. He told </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Michael West Media</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> what he wanted to yell across the waves:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“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.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUeDlIqwpSt2G9Uu6UK5To1X93z7-dFVPRhhT9Nwd5HLL3Zr4RhifEeC28jAam9khqcmqzepa6zN9RDL4Ae3rnEbzb10TuPPzqCr_YjQwF9XysuWRnlKIxx5kFZCIuL5Et2Pdoc5JzgCY1zoJBgxlbxm0uUkqFl_WwlCXTikeA2FUw9EeaAA/s800/IMG_3853-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUeDlIqwpSt2G9Uu6UK5To1X93z7-dFVPRhhT9Nwd5HLL3Zr4RhifEeC28jAam9khqcmqzepa6zN9RDL4Ae3rnEbzb10TuPPzqCr_YjQwF9XysuWRnlKIxx5kFZCIuL5Et2Pdoc5JzgCY1zoJBgxlbxm0uUkqFl_WwlCXTikeA2FUw9EeaAA/s320/IMG_3853-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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'.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Although no evidence upholds this illogicality, limp men are keen to pay more than $300 a kilo. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">rindu kampung halaman </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">- homesickness.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Abundance</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmRn3ApwBcJ9d_JJM-VsZMvKAcyR_7WsUn1dtEUsFsXGCZWqWBZ3RwZEx1jJgwsqW1eeyRJ0r9BZ3vXTQ06Wv7__CWzxLRKBkG5L6OLWv33nFk-ghf5d7vbL339vcDO6Z7ZnhbcZx9RzsM0ZWpjNs-XDU17RJ8o0Z2uUEHq5o1g5WT_Ng54g/s800/IMG_3855-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmRn3ApwBcJ9d_JJM-VsZMvKAcyR_7WsUn1dtEUsFsXGCZWqWBZ3RwZEx1jJgwsqW1eeyRJ0r9BZ3vXTQ06Wv7__CWzxLRKBkG5L6OLWv33nFk-ghf5d7vbL339vcDO6Z7ZnhbcZx9RzsM0ZWpjNs-XDU17RJ8o0Z2uUEHq5o1g5WT_Ng54g/s320/IMG_3855-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“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.” </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">When Australia became a Federation it brought the omnipresent fear of the Asian Invasion that persists still. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://indonesianow.blogspot.com/2016/08/gallant-retiring-daring-sama-bajo.html"><u><span class="15">first laws</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">against "poachers" were passed in 1906 because the foreigners were said to be "too industrious". </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.insideindonesia.org/archive/articles/australian-law-on-rote"><u><span class="15">Commented</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fishers are penned into 50,000 square kilometres of the Timor Sea through a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, tagged by pedestrian bureaucrats as the </span><a href="https://www.afma.gov.au/international-fisheries-management/enforcement-operations/traditional-indonesian-fishing-mou-box"><u><span class="15">MoU Box. </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Another error - it’s shaped like a jigsaw piece.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Canberra’s sea grab surged ahead. In 1981 the Australian Fishing Zone was pushed out to 320 km. 'Total Exclusion Zones’ appeared on maps.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Though joint patrols are sometimes run Australia does the heavy policing. Indonesia has more compelling issues than helping a neighbour nurture sea slugs. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 - </span><a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/indonesian-people-smugglers-wrongly-imprisoned-finally-compensated/"><u><span class="15">often illegally </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">- boats burned and their human cargo sent to Nauru.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That traffic seems to have lessened giving the ABF the chance to track trepangers.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The December catch followed an ABC TV </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Lateline</span></i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hkaCu-lib0"><i><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></i><u><span class="15">programme</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> featuring</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A Fisheries Management spokesperson told </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">MWM: </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">"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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Diver’s Tale</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8svdf1lhtaBmSJ1J_E_z2Susco-CB7nFLl8VH-Ul4gYPNmHP2_Moa3KxV0ciYAX8l6r3mXip4MqKfjDNXksBP4uNfsd5pmFxEa2DdDwoLj4cK44jWrAamJjNc-je9b3WX1urMgg1igmlGHFxPT6kS1XI9aRC__QpaY3SXs7YeKPftB2LBg/s800/IMG_3990-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="800" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo8svdf1lhtaBmSJ1J_E_z2Susco-CB7nFLl8VH-Ul4gYPNmHP2_Moa3KxV0ciYAX8l6r3mXip4MqKfjDNXksBP4uNfsd5pmFxEa2DdDwoLj4cK44jWrAamJjNc-je9b3WX1urMgg1igmlGHFxPT6kS1XI9aRC__QpaY3SXs7YeKPftB2LBg/s320/IMG_3990-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Diver Sukri surfaced twice in the last decade to find a boat waiting with men in uniform. He was not afraid.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“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.” </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His overseas adventures excite his mates on </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Location-of-Barrang-Lompo-island_fig2_364359174"><u><span class="15">Barrang Lompo</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> a </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">half square kilometre island an hour from Makassar. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/08/syria-torture-prisons/"><u><span class="15">Syria.</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“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</span></span><a href="https://wageindicator.org/salary/minimum-wage/indonesia/40284-dki-jakarta"><u><span class="15"> wage</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">in Jakarta is $500, less in the provinces.)</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">No Buyer’s Remorse</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMBejKlJvuH5g_Hqnin5EF-OJJG25pS4pzvln7nB-o4nWw7cR16IOeJPnZfHgKJK6DjvDSm8uR97wlIPR8OGB-yusJil_xJ_8yO0TR4Jq5c-Die8lrYEdSsM7Y_hz-Geoi72E1e0Mv1tpl0oFAJs0NyMk11bJsPh_yflwRpTWsmJ9zDoD_tA/s800/IMG_3984-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMBejKlJvuH5g_Hqnin5EF-OJJG25pS4pzvln7nB-o4nWw7cR16IOeJPnZfHgKJK6DjvDSm8uR97wlIPR8OGB-yusJil_xJ_8yO0TR4Jq5c-Die8lrYEdSsM7Y_hz-Geoi72E1e0Mv1tpl0oFAJs0NyMk11bJsPh_yflwRpTWsmJ9zDoD_tA/s320/IMG_3984-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2022/02/11/endangered-delicacy-tropical-sea-cucumbers-in-trouble.html"><u><span class="15">reportedly</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">worth $300 million a year, a figure that seems too low.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“I sell to the processors and the trepang eventually go to China,” he said. “Prices vary according to supply and demand.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sydney University </span><a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2022/02/11/endangered-delicacy-tropical-sea-cucumbers-in-trouble.html"><u><span class="15">research</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">suggests trepang numbers are falling on the Great Barrier Reef. There are no reports of Indonesians working Queensland waters.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The fear factor</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3fukZtJLZnieqpGYKojm4ar5CB3ewBo1wHiZD75vNQ505jjqX0a4RTZTmCugoonNpQa_bYgDE7O-5mvBPT7frq-Vp8b5uhJV5DKlXc5_tQCxSucooBfyNnEpIsyjrbls5N13IOWn85ize1V8ujbCVacKw76t4czLNYsZNPvsdQBpLTLmLw/s2439/IMG_3965a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1363" data-original-width="2439" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3fukZtJLZnieqpGYKojm4ar5CB3ewBo1wHiZD75vNQ505jjqX0a4RTZTmCugoonNpQa_bYgDE7O-5mvBPT7frq-Vp8b5uhJV5DKlXc5_tQCxSucooBfyNnEpIsyjrbls5N13IOWn85ize1V8ujbCVacKw76t4czLNYsZNPvsdQBpLTLmLw/s320/IMG_3965a.JPG" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The story broke courtesy of the ABF feeding understaffed newsrooms with its </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20Trepang%20re-edited.docx#:~:text=Australian%20Border%20Force%20(ABF)%20has,the%20coast%20of%20Western%20Australia."><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">version </span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> It keeps its doings </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">sub rosa, </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It didn’t say whether the men had been charged, and if so which court and when. </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> MWM </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">has been vigorously seeking answers. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20Trepang%20re-edited.docx#:~:text=Habeas%20corpus%20('produce%20the%20person,to%20order%20the%20prisoner's%20release."><i><u><span class="15">Habeas corpus</span></u></i></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ABF refused to take questions; the government’s Fisheries Management Authority would only say “these matters are currently under investigation …(no) further comment.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">From other sources and after a fortnight of nagging </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">MWM </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Chance to fix</span></b><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">First published in <i>Michael West Media </i></span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i>, </i>24 January 2024: <i> </i></span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="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" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">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</a></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">##</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-81513769710813786622024-01-24T14:38:00.000+07:002024-01-24T14:38:05.995+07:00UNDERSTANDING THE INDONESIAN ELECTION<p> Click the YouTube here: <a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://youtu.be/V_9-zWDihTg?si=6X2I1lJTZ8ag0xGK" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web (West European)", "Segoe UI", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/V_9-zWDihTg?si=6X2I1lJTZ8ag0xGK</a></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-69031952661984253822024-01-23T16:01:00.001+07:002024-01-23T16:01:50.301+07:00HARMLESS FOLK FOR SURE<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">THE DELIGHTFUL DUO</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3spo5hQw9c0ayYF4xBnGBy-0gtiX7hipClx_s8-1Fs5ClQ1wIo19WC9BvbBxqoS5GcNuGeDGFNVywk-luPHHYQPml-ts4cpXqH8be8uPHXI1vMQwGZpZyqRs0m0CaNk0yOZeKg-AnaGSa9mwW_5exOG4-GzbpNrY-_yhyhbeMRnz6cADKUQ/s800/IMG_4072a-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="800" height="445" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3spo5hQw9c0ayYF4xBnGBy-0gtiX7hipClx_s8-1Fs5ClQ1wIo19WC9BvbBxqoS5GcNuGeDGFNVywk-luPHHYQPml-ts4cpXqH8be8uPHXI1vMQwGZpZyqRs0m0CaNk0yOZeKg-AnaGSa9mwW_5exOG4-GzbpNrY-_yhyhbeMRnz6cADKUQ/w640-h445/IMG_4072a-3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It looks like a student parody of two pretenders to the throne, but this is from a street poster promoting candidates for the <i>Gerindra </i>Party, cashiered former general and alleged human rights abuser Prabowo Subianto (left) and his vice presidential hopeful Gibran Rakabuming.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">One is 73, the other 36.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-2227460621249815662024-01-21T13:51:00.003+07:002024-01-21T13:56:58.240+07:00POWERFUL PLANS, POWERLESS REALITY<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">FIVE REASONS WHY INDONESIA’S EV PLAN IS POWERLESS </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">Duncan Graham</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg420Ur6g0fPh_E6DVPTS9pcxbeMDjjdSsqn3Lu14ZU8doXwKX4j8UUTvVtNaw5ui8XOQSJr7h0L1On_aT1Njerlw6iZrnyT5zWmo2v2V06u9dIePzancNd2fkKR1lkvwwf52GCNG_p4g7ufnnxcTGWXth2R83AuneaaERcvG1Qvdb7Athn1A/s800/IMG_4626-4.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg420Ur6g0fPh_E6DVPTS9pcxbeMDjjdSsqn3Lu14ZU8doXwKX4j8UUTvVtNaw5ui8XOQSJr7h0L1On_aT1Njerlw6iZrnyT5zWmo2v2V06u9dIePzancNd2fkKR1lkvwwf52GCNG_p4g7ufnnxcTGWXth2R83AuneaaERcvG1Qvdb7Athn1A/s320/IMG_4626-4.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">To an Indonesian conservationist all lights look green.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The wondrous 16,000-island archipelago has </span><a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1813183/large-lithium-reserve-discovered-in-indonesian-territory-says-minister-luhut"><u><span class="15">nickel</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">needed for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Specialist factories are planned </span><a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/husic/media-releases/indonesia-and-australia-cooperation-electric-vehicles"><u><span class="15">using </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australian lithium.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It seems the E-age has arrived. Not so. Missing is the determination to transform using subsidies and laws that are enforced. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">First </span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the price: The Honda Beat four-stroke motorcycle is the nation’s</span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/INDONESIA%20%20EV.edited.docx#:~:text=Ownership%20of%20motorcycles%20Indonesia%202022%2C%20by%20model&text=According%20to%20a%20survey%20conducted,to%2031.1%20percent%20of%20respondents."><u><span class="15"> top seller</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">capturing more than 30 per cent of the market. It retails around Rp 18 million ($1,160) and often bought on terms.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The government is offering a Rp seven million ($450) subsidy for selected buyers Four months ago it had</span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-widens-subsidy-access-electric-bikes-after-poor-uptake-2023-08-29/"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u><u><span class="15">received</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> only 2,429 applications.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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).</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There are more than 125 million gas-powered motorbikes in Indonesia, a nation of 275 million people. In 2022 </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/INDONESIA%20%20EV.edited.docx#:~:text=Indonesian%20Motorcycle%20Industry%20Association%20(lit,target%20set%20by%20the%20association."><u><span class="15">sales reached </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">5.2 million units. Turning this around will be a monster task.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrCV5ajiAy12vDqgbxbnPntA5M5q6RMxAPdPxC_L4oUj70JJ9o3tJ0KckF_XSBeOoyNNhLTRSsmhWViBedDEfAVJAtk01o5uLGgYz2NCdW_5muqsd03OqWBxuYDz3l4E9ncZtTLJxQf3kXwDXYut-Uw24ZRWG-jm1dxqUmc2yk8-Y7MBmYA/s800/IMG_4592-4.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrCV5ajiAy12vDqgbxbnPntA5M5q6RMxAPdPxC_L4oUj70JJ9o3tJ0KckF_XSBeOoyNNhLTRSsmhWViBedDEfAVJAtk01o5uLGgYz2NCdW_5muqsd03OqWBxuYDz3l4E9ncZtTLJxQf3kXwDXYut-Uw24ZRWG-jm1dxqUmc2yk8-Y7MBmYA/s320/IMG_4592-4.JPG" width="214" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Second</span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> is range: Cut manufacturers’ </span><a href="https://www.empoweringebikes.co.uk/empowering-e-bikes-batteries"><u><span class="15">quotes</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Most 110 cc bikes have a four-litre tank giving a </span><a href="https://www.motodeal.com.ph/articles/motorcycle-features/5-reasons-why-travelings-treat-honda-beat"><u><span class="15">range</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">of above 200 km. The EM1 can just make it to 40 km provided all stars are aligned.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Ayla can go 300 km with a load; the Air might make 200 km with a slim teen behind the wheel.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjswYiQ7hCTO_n2EGbw_RBtNapcv2-twJ2uwlMUvo56dSVY6uUFfRhrfD94CFViItI6ySoTmEECnq0km8WSZH8etdR8WizsEfmCzcfdaOsm_EKNA7M5sLVUbuvfYZA7gRYji7OrXB-xxqlljIhlzOa4JJjhfdhKs7DOurKW-UQ2TptpIl4c4w/s800/IMG_4584-4.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjswYiQ7hCTO_n2EGbw_RBtNapcv2-twJ2uwlMUvo56dSVY6uUFfRhrfD94CFViItI6ySoTmEECnq0km8WSZH8etdR8WizsEfmCzcfdaOsm_EKNA7M5sLVUbuvfYZA7gRYji7OrXB-xxqlljIhlzOa4JJjhfdhKs7DOurKW-UQ2TptpIl4c4w/s320/IMG_4584-4.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Third - top up. </span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Java has enough government-owned Pertamina stations to satisfy careful riders though queues are often long. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Although the trade is supposed to be </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">gelap</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (illegal), roadside re-sellers of petrol in bottles are commonplace. The price is higher but the convenience is ideal.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Getting in the car and going off without thinking is not the E-way.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Jakarta has </span><a href="https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/indonesia-electric-vehicle"><u><span class="15">ordered</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> t</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">he 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</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fourth - service.</span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Final fifth - safety. </span></b><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> E-bikes whisper and are swifter, so often not heard or distance misjudged by pedestrians. My city has dedicated bike lanes clearly marked.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/INDONESIA%20%20EV.edited.docx#:~:text=1.,a%20bicycle%20in%20everyday%20life."><u><span class="15">Netherlands</span></u></a><u><span class="15">,</span></u><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the world’s most bike-friendly country, will be a long and rough ride.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-57792652378884010692024-01-20T05:07:00.001+07:002024-01-20T05:07:09.002+07:00<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-indent: -5.25pt;">WHY INDONESIA IS MORE MONARCHY THAN DEMOCRACY </span></p><p><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-indent: -5.25pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-auXMMxfeN8YyCHzg8jHHDusNR6OBzp7HIRyHme0KSRg1AmlioRLJ1jweA8ZyUqZYg9EnvXFv5Ml7WcSFjf28lh4mGrhLYeJt3BcOUtt7pFuguIGSDMeaDLYz9totrv1mQkVw9KZ4U8Jb207LyCm7ioGDi0HSZQcn0xiPHZ0AHbzgGQNy7g/s800/IMG_3811-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-auXMMxfeN8YyCHzg8jHHDusNR6OBzp7HIRyHme0KSRg1AmlioRLJ1jweA8ZyUqZYg9EnvXFv5Ml7WcSFjf28lh4mGrhLYeJt3BcOUtt7pFuguIGSDMeaDLYz9totrv1mQkVw9KZ4U8Jb207LyCm7ioGDi0HSZQcn0xiPHZ0AHbzgGQNy7g/s320/IMG_3811-1.JPG" width="214" /></a></div><br /> <i style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That’s not the case this year as the Republic now has an apparently independent </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Komisi Pemilihan Umum,</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (General Elections Commission, KPU) to police the process in what is supposed to be a democracy. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">International authorities </span><a href="https://thediplomat.com/2022/06/is-indonesias-grand-experiment-with-democracy-coming-to-an-end/"><u><span class="15">label</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">it ‘flawed’ which is being kind. Local academics </span><a href="https://indonews.id/artikel/336029/Diskusi-Paramadina-dan-LP3ES-Masa-Depan-Demokrasi-Jika-Dinasti-Jokowi-Menang-Pilpres/"><u><span class="15">predict</span></u><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">more dilution after the February election whoever wins.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(The global leader in grand misnomers is North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.)</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The largest party by membership and seats is the ruling </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 - </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(DPR). </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">She considered him a ‘</span><a href="https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/jokowis-golkar-gambit/"><u><span class="15">minor functionary</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">’</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. This year she handpicked the former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo as his successor, a man reportedly more pliant to her demands.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, then quit the PDI-P to join Prabowo as his vice president candidate. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the last election (2019) the</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> PDI-P </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In colonial days bowing and scraping was the way to win favours; in a modern Republic. </span><a href="https://theconversation.com/a-third-of-indonesian-voters-bribed-during-election-how-and-why-100166"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">s</span><u><span class="15">tuffed envelopes</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">are more effective.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">According to </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Transparency International</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, Indonesia</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022/index/idn"><u><span class="15">ranked </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">110 among 180 countries measured for corruption. The score starts at 1 = most pure. Here’s where the Nordic nations and NZ cluster.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Golkar </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Five people died, 149 were injured and 23 remain missing. The party was reformed as centre-left nationalistic and added</span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘</span></span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">struggle’ to its title. For many years it was popular through its underdog status , but that’s waned.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVMG1Nf47nwyTDrDyEW4j3UdiKssZcFSuZZzmRLUt5Q2pTRwZCHlMHarrM2oiJP6AwXlH_smnDWdZED4wIxOGC15FhsTZKPDb4tLuOGDZVRLqVTbF5I_p9kwYwrzbtz96AX7rGwG8cfB_7fAmz6fKueXa6JscufG7gtrtbhcONyGITFBX5g/s800/IMG_3828-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHVMG1Nf47nwyTDrDyEW4j3UdiKssZcFSuZZzmRLUt5Q2pTRwZCHlMHarrM2oiJP6AwXlH_smnDWdZED4wIxOGC15FhsTZKPDb4tLuOGDZVRLqVTbF5I_p9kwYwrzbtz96AX7rGwG8cfB_7fAmz6fKueXa6JscufG7gtrtbhcONyGITFBX5g/s320/IMG_3828-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The hard-right </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gerindra</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (Great Indonesia Movement) is the third-largest party with 78 seats. It's the poodle of Prabowo, Indonesia’s version of Mussolini.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Golkar. </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gerindra </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashim_Djojohadikusumo"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hashim Djojohadikusumo</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The slightly left </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">NasDem</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (Democratic Party) has 59 seats in the DPR; it’s steered by Surya Paloh who owns the 24-hour news channel </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Metro TV.</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Surya was a key figure in </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Golkar</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> for 40 years before starting </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">NasDem </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">in 2011 and reportedly has 400,000 members.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/2024/01/indonesia-election/index.html?nlblurb"><u><span class="15">social media,</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">wrinkles smoothed by </span><a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/indonesia/2023/11/23/prabowo-gibran-team-says-ai-characters-used-in-campaign-ad.html"><u><span class="15">AI.</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gerindra</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">As Tim Minchin sings in his Opera House</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ouigVtUvo"><u><span class="15"> tribute </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Play It Safe: </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘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.</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/indonesian/en/article/21-years-on-who-is-responsible-for-trisakti-riot-killings/fhnm97m4t"><u><span class="15">last century </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">- so why not now?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">First published in Pearls & Irritations, 20 January 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/why-indonesia-is-more-monarchy-than-democracy/</span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-66097907783348282802024-01-17T05:30:00.002+07:002024-01-17T05:30:49.913+07:00<p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">OUR LEADING LADY’S NOT LEADING</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRy7be2t54do35S5fTJyiMrpdHLy2TI9a81ue0hQqtbL1famQkKX-QSusrrGGyTsbQ290xK2VF1z-VPg9_ywdjJLSb2A8HICZ2pR0cyQQ8nCV5RIiFXRmf4N7r53T3KAVUFYe4FFwxjo8hJDO13gPsMjBxrhidEdXt_SxhW1iGqNCcK5stvA/s5184/IMG_3336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5184" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRy7be2t54do35S5fTJyiMrpdHLy2TI9a81ue0hQqtbL1famQkKX-QSusrrGGyTsbQ290xK2VF1z-VPg9_ywdjJLSb2A8HICZ2pR0cyQQ8nCV5RIiFXRmf4N7r53T3KAVUFYe4FFwxjo8hJDO13gPsMjBxrhidEdXt_SxhW1iGqNCcK5stvA/s320/IMG_3336.JPG" width="213" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“So much for Australia’s engagement with Asia,” </span></span></i><a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/the-unknown-unknowns-of-a-global-year-of-elections-20240101-p5euh6"><i><u><span class="15">wrote </span></u></i></a><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.”</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Kicking journos is an easy sport but needs two teams to engage - and in Jakarta our captain isn’t on the pitch.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The news value went beyond a well-qualified woman running our largest overseas mission, more a fortress since the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Jemaah Islamiyah</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> suicide </span><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/jakarta-embassy-bombing-threat-has-faded-but-memory-remains-10-years-on-20140908-10e1yf.html"><u><span class="15">bombing </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">two decades ago that killed nine Indonesians and sowed fear into friendships.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ms Williams was different. As a young student from Tasmania, she’d spent time in Jakarta and learned Indonesian.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Her previous positions included High Commissioner to Malaysia, and first Ambassador for Women and Girls, so clearly a DFAT favourite.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hoping to continue the positive and professional dealings enjoyed with her forerunner Gary Quinlan, your correspondent offered congratulations and sought a sit-down interview:</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/suspicious-minds-will-closer-australia-indonesia-engagement-yield-greater-trust"><u><span class="15">measurable </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">and worrying. Here was a task for a smart woman.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">No acknowledgement. Resend. Resend.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“I'm keen to get the Ambassador's assessment of RI-Oz relations and how these can be improved.</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“Apart from hearing what she'd been doing, I'm interested in her thoughts on getting messages about Australia through to the </span></span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">wong cilek</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (ordinary folk) and helping our middle and working classes (ANU terms) better understand their neighbours.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“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.</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhap4v4Vjh0tjxLvGcqfJnhQVx4qj2fNdy1y2QHsCY2_X2vl3jhrt0XUznX2omCaqX3OS1C6AMA4FOy2jSALn8V94i5HRb27P6T-1LZHCV79fSBfJ7GgRLHaTeOVOETmOY3d0Snzol4W93teRfZDdICOJNR7jJtPRQFTKBk66TemAh0uGUKdw/s3820/IMG_3330a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3010" data-original-width="3820" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhap4v4Vjh0tjxLvGcqfJnhQVx4qj2fNdy1y2QHsCY2_X2vl3jhrt0XUznX2omCaqX3OS1C6AMA4FOy2jSALn8V94i5HRb27P6T-1LZHCV79fSBfJ7GgRLHaTeOVOETmOY3d0Snzol4W93teRfZDdICOJNR7jJtPRQFTKBk66TemAh0uGUKdw/s320/IMG_3330a.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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 </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Tyranny of Proximity </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">and asked again for a sit-down. She said she’d check her schedule. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">All</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> pleasant and </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">respectful, but nothing happened. Another stir; after two years of requests came the answer: “Unfortunately Ambassador Williams is not available at this time.” </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Assuming this </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">might </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">mean she’s unwell I wished her a speedy recovery. She turns 60 this month with</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> no reports of incapacity</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The consolation </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">prize offered was a ‘catch-up’ with a Consul-General, though not as the Ambassador’s stand-in authorised to speak on the record.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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 </span><a href="https://indonesia.embassy.gov.au/jakt/articles.html"><u><span class="15">listed</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">two ’Articles and Speeches’ and nothing since.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ms Williams' three-year engagement will end soon, so the Albanese administration will be listing candidates. A model to consider is the late Richard </span><a href="https://www.trinity.unimelb.edu.au/globalimpact/richard-woolcott-ac"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Woolcott</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, ambassador 1975-78.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In a </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Pearls & Irritations </span></i><a href="https://johnmenadue.com/vale-richard-woolcott-one-of-the-last-great-australian-diplomats/"><u><span class="15">obituary,</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> 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.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In Washington (2010 - 13) Dr Dino Patti Djalal got expats to invest in their homeland and was dubbed Indonesia’s ‘Marketeer of the Year’.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nineteenth-century British editor Walter Bagehot asserted that an ambassador "is not simply an agent - (s)he is also a spectacle."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(An invitation remains open for Ms Williams to respond to this commentary.)</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;"> First published in</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><i style="text-align: left;">Pearls & Irritations,</i><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">17 January 2024: https://johnmenadue.com/our-leading-lady-in-jakarta-is-not-leading/</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-11227400035129774182024-01-10T08:51:00.003+07:002024-01-10T08:51:52.527+07:00CAMPAIGN FATIGUE<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">YAWNING DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3sdySTZSIbsUlh1FPFeYrXBoRDbexcwoGkl8loKW1oo23ybROufXleb0Qd3XFaaYU7uQFYcSWZxj5ZSDHRfbe213g5OB09QuTDG-Y6hUD4ocoYoAu6MyJSpRXZU5Lx9GMkjh3_kAQjV0eDkCRLmXiRi1Y2tyX84Wgnk4dGzX4OUQLZg9uw/s800/IMG_3828-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX3sdySTZSIbsUlh1FPFeYrXBoRDbexcwoGkl8loKW1oo23ybROufXleb0Qd3XFaaYU7uQFYcSWZxj5ZSDHRfbe213g5OB09QuTDG-Y6hUD4ocoYoAu6MyJSpRXZU5Lx9GMkjh3_kAQjV0eDkCRLmXiRi1Y2tyX84Wgnk4dGzX4OUQLZg9uw/s320/IMG_3828-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Is it possible to overdose on politics? In Indonesia, yes. There’s a month left before the 14 February deciding date - and the road signs are showing wear and tear.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Literally, because the kerbside vinyl banners featuring the faces of fist-shaking or praying candidates (it’s difficult to do both) are getting flipped and ripped by the monsoon winds and rains now drenching Java. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The campaigners’ teams aren’t mustering much energy to repair, suggesting funds are as exhausted as enthusiasm.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Apart from social media, Indonesians get their voting info from the giant billboards polluting the streetscape - and TV.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The third of five scheduled debates between the three main contenders for the presidency was</span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-08/indonesias-presidential-hopefuls-face-off-in-debate/103292294"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> screened </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">last Sunday - a blessing for insomniacs.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> US-educated former academic and Jakarta Governor Dr Anies Baswedan, one time Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo and cashiered general Prabowo Subianto tried to keep interest afloat.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">But the show’s producers schooled in TV game shows thought this should be a flashy fun event, as though the winner would be waved away with a beribboned new motorbike rather than the prize of running the world’s fourth largest country.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Apart from having more Muslims than any other nation while remaining constitutionally secular, Indonesia is also the third largest democracy - of a sort - though only this century.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">For the 32 preceding years it was an autocracy-cum-kleptocracy known as </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Orde Baru </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(New Order) run by General Soeharto who ousted founding President Soekarno in an anti-Communist coup. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Economist Intelligence Unit </span></i><a href="https://pages.eiu.com/rs/753-RIQ-438/images/DI-final-version-report.pdf"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">rated </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia a "flawed democracy" because of its limited accountability to voters, meaning parties stitch up deals without consulting members.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">One expert has been blunter with the lable </span><a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/indonesian-democracy-is-best-understood-as-existing-in-a-state-of-disorder/"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“a state of disorder” </span></span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. His reasoning is that President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo has “partnered with corrupt politicians, military figures, bureaucrats and businesses, who then used their influence to repurpose democratic institutions for the interests of their survival.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Like Trump’s villainy doesn’t seem to worry GOP supporters in the US, Widodo’s alleged flaws haven’t stopped him recording popularity ratings above 80 percent, largely because he used to look like an ordinary bloke - one of us. No longer.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Some readers may recall he took then PM Malcolm Turnbull to a </span><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/frenetic-scenes-as-malcolm-turnbull-and-indonesian-president-joko-widodo-make-impromptu-visit-to-market-20151112-gkxscz.html"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">market </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">in 2015 where the two men were swamped by fans. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">blusukan </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(impromptu visit) style has faded with tightened security, but his successes have been substantial: New toll roads, railway lines and airports - plus health insurance that so far seems to be doing better than Medicare in getting the needy into surgeries.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Constitution limits him to two five-year terms, so his eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, has abandoned the PDI-P party of his father to couple as vice-president hopeful with Prabowo in a bid to create a dynasty.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">To those raised in the political religion of the Westminster System this arrangement is totally weird. But it works in Indonesia because personalities are far more important than policies.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gibran is young enough to be Prabowo’s grandson, so the image-makers have been erasing lines and creases on one man’s phiz - and adding to the other.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The TV producers thought it better to get acclaimed academics to put questions in sealed envelopes instead of asking seasoned journos to toss curlies. This resulted in queries about geospatial technology, which your correspondent can guarantee is not foremost in the minds of hungry voters counting their rupiah.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This didn’t matter because the candidates ignored the questions and just said what they wanted, rarely bothering to explain how they’ll build the nation’s food security. Once an exporter of rice Indonesia now relies on India and Vietnam to cope with more mouths.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Unrestrained building of homes and roads has seen once super-fertile lands covered by concrete and asphalt, an irreversible loss. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Polls in Indonesia are unreliable, so the indicators that Prabowo is the leading contender should get be treated with handfuls of salt. But he seems to be outspending his opponents so getting more publicity.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His father-knows-best appeal is that he’ll return Indonesia to the state of low prices and little social disorder because the military will fix everything. In the mid 1980s a series of extra-judicial killings called </span><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2644242"><i><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;">petrus</span></u></i><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">cleaned up real or imagined criminal gangs in big cities.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo’s opponents try to remind voters that the divorced son-in-law of Soeharto was banned from the US for many years because of alleged human rights abuses, including the 1998 kidnapping and disappearance of protesting students. He responds by saying that’s stuff from the past and it’s time to look ahead.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Like Trump, his wild assertions that Indonesia is being exploited by outsiders determined to break up the ‘unitary State’ and plunder its mineral wealth go largely unchallenged in the media.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Voting is not compulsory. The 2019 election saw a turnout of around 83 per cent when Jokowi trounced Prabowo by ten points. The loser’s supporters then rioted with eight killed and around 300 injured in post-poll riots. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Instead of being condemned, Prabowo was rewarded with the Defence Ministry - and that’s not a misprint. With this platform he’s been able to convince some that he’s no longer a brutal authoritarian leftover from the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Orde Baru</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">, but a cuddly gramps.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">If the Valentine’s Day vote isn’t a massacre but a run-off as no one contender scores more than 50 per cent of the vote, there’ll be a run-off on 26 June. Then the electors will have to find the energy to do it all again. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">First published in Independent Australia 10 January 2024: </span></span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/indonesia-failing-to-inject-energy-into-upcoming-election,18227" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #0563c1; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 14.6667px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/indonesia-failing-to-inject-energy-into-upcoming-election,18227</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjFpUXWbCuqWL4N7oQQBfHbAhjWJV5ZMEaXzTZmkk86leAHvGaNBsm0R0h0Ygl46t537tLF007oTTLd01DRjV1CxSJJlih73-1iCfSI0bXwXmvUJZ3q7Wux-a9qTei44mvM3ipcV9AnjElTV-lsPHd5ZBMOXIIOJj0cxZZeY_4rOtjSMooMQ/s800/IMG_3828-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjFpUXWbCuqWL4N7oQQBfHbAhjWJV5ZMEaXzTZmkk86leAHvGaNBsm0R0h0Ygl46t537tLF007oTTLd01DRjV1CxSJJlih73-1iCfSI0bXwXmvUJZ3q7Wux-a9qTei44mvM3ipcV9AnjElTV-lsPHd5ZBMOXIIOJj0cxZZeY_4rOtjSMooMQ/s320/IMG_3828-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-76860471607178491432024-01-04T10:43:00.004+07:002024-01-04T10:43:59.927+07:00CAN GIBRAN BE HIS OWN MAN?<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">GOODISH GUY IN BAD COMPANY </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gibran Rakabuming Raka is smarter than his stolid Dad Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, President of our huge neighbour since 2014. As Vice President Gibran could be a positive change agent - but that demands missionary zeal and the guts to challenge his dangerous leader . Does he have The Right Stuff?</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43_w3rrt2UiTikak8d3nLQXDoFw2WkILe22eQiVcVuvSa-zIHuyYa1_Tu-B6idljDCTkmjeMOq9a9J6S4ofMyG5wBCcq494lqvQRHVa8prDzC6SZnV1wbAcV65DKwLdzuWKsShDVRDUuwqeXTj1VJJUey39R9ZavHq5BpQOX5ZN4PSCps9w/s2027/IMG_3786a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2027" data-original-width="1176" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43_w3rrt2UiTikak8d3nLQXDoFw2WkILe22eQiVcVuvSa-zIHuyYa1_Tu-B6idljDCTkmjeMOq9a9J6S4ofMyG5wBCcq494lqvQRHVa8prDzC6SZnV1wbAcV65DKwLdzuWKsShDVRDUuwqeXTj1VJJUey39R9ZavHq5BpQOX5ZN4PSCps9w/s320/IMG_3786a.JPG" width="186" /></a></div><br /><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In the lead-up to the 14 February national poll, a TV debate between Gibran and his older and more accomplished rivals showed the 36-year-old Mayor of Solo in Central Java is no daddy's shadow - as shown in the street posters - but an individual, a VP candidate in his own right. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">However, he's burdened by the company he keeps and the dirty dealings done to give him a shot at the big game. These issues distress the educated middle classes concerned with the erosion of democracy under Jokowi's reign; sadly most voters won't care a dish of cold rice because nepotism and corruption are accepted as the Indonesian way even though it repels the ethical international investors the economy needs.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That won't change till any new president becomes an Indonesian version of the late Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew (1959 - 1990) tough enough to burn bridges, stare down the threatening oligarchs and jail mates. Chances of this happening are about the same as Trump turning to empathy.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">After his everyman Dad beat elite opposition to head the world’s third largest democracy his team sought photo-ops with loving family. Gibran was a reluctant drag-in from his catering business. He looked surly, a young man with better things to do than play in a political pantomime.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hot cakes must have done well because a few years later he</span><a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/1390058/solo-election-candidate-gibran-rakabumings-wealth-worth-rp22-billion"><u><span class="15" style="color: blue;"> </span></u><u><span class="15">revealed</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> AUD 2.2 million in assets. When Papa showed that politics pays better than kitchen toil Gibran warmed to the addiction of power. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Fo the sympathy vote Jokowi plays on his poor riverbank home history like Anthony Albanese uses his single-mum, council flat background. But unlike the PM’s story, the President’s oft-told tale sustains popularity ratings of around 80 per cent. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">So the tacticians got young Gibran to tag along with one of the old boys hoping Dad's lustre would rub off and add youth to the real candidate.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That should have been Ganjar Pranowo, the choice of the nationalist </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_Democratic_Party_of_Struggle" title="Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (PDI-P). It’s Jokowi’s party and endorsed him twice but as he constitutionally can’t stand again chose the Governor of Central Java as his replacement.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaLMs1bQAyW54nUrae5YamvS_fWgCns7qcrhrKUF0qfeeBex8xGNNU-KbyDyJwYO24LdOXKQMG0EaBUxMWOxu8TMJFNXDlwpay4HVWFqd4DaBx5tjAF7cdplTpW-Nccg8xxKsnLKkxHyrXOWOihoviO0JUv2N1sg0kOpWO99F0z8vwo_EU1A/s800/IMG_3787-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="572" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaLMs1bQAyW54nUrae5YamvS_fWgCns7qcrhrKUF0qfeeBex8xGNNU-KbyDyJwYO24LdOXKQMG0EaBUxMWOxu8TMJFNXDlwpay4HVWFqd4DaBx5tjAF7cdplTpW-Nccg8xxKsnLKkxHyrXOWOihoviO0JUv2N1sg0kOpWO99F0z8vwo_EU1A/s320/IMG_3787-1.JPG" width="229" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gibran is also a member of PDI-P but its axe-grinding matriarch Megawati Soekarnoputri <i>(right) </i>put hatred of Jokowi ahead of political sense and dubbed Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin (Mahfud MD) as VP candidate.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A standard factory-made politician Mahfud was picked to draw Gen Z which covers around a third of the electors, with his supposed competence and experience. He also hectors and his record repels.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In a separate forum, the 66-year old misogynist explained corruption this way: “In many cases, husbands get involved in crimes because their wives are not good.” The coward’s defence: ‘She made me do it, ya honour’.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">When the PDI-P door shut by Mega, Jokowi's ambitious offspring was seduced by </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gerindra </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(Greater Indonesia), the party of cashiered general Prabowo Subianto. He drives a jeep load of unresolved human rights allegations involving kidnappings and killings. He's so ruthless he makes Peter Dutton look woke.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Fabled Aesop wrote that “a man is known by the company he keeps”. Gibran has stained his nascent character. To bypass regulations banning under 40s standing for high office there was an appeal to the Constitutional Court, conveniently chaired by his uncle Anwar Usman. Though the judge has since lost his job for a gross ethical breach, the decision stands. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Gibran has much to learn. He prefers the teenage pout to the mature politicians’ ersatz smile. His rivals dub him </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">anak ingusan</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (snotty child), but that’s not his TV image. In the overlong over-managed debate he was calm, sharp, articulate, well-prepared and surprisingly confronting. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That breaks the Javanese code of respect for elders, suggesting he’s absorbed Western ways. That will annoy oldies but delight the young and restless. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 26.2500pt; mso-char-indent-count: -0.5000; text-align: justify; text-indent: -5.2500pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He was educated in Singapore and Sydney (UTS) so should know about civil liberties -something his political partner fears. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 26.2500pt; mso-char-indent-count: -0.5000; text-align: justify; text-indent: -5.2500pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">So far he’s snubbed the foreign media. After a stake-out ABC correspondent Bill Birtles only </span><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-21/what-we-know-about-indonesias-presidential/103257444"><u><span class="15">snagged a</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">cursory "feeling confident" tossed out of a moving car’s window.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Though he follows all the rituals, Gibran is not known as a prisoner of religion. His other rival is Muhaimin “Cak Imin” Iskandar, chair of the PKB (National Awakening) Islamic party.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His inclusion is supposed to magnetise the Muslim vote for Dr Anies Baswedan. Indonesia has more Muslims than any other nation so conventional wisdom has meant pandering to this block in return for ‘wet’ (lucrative) ministries.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The political plotters have now discovered that the young are getting better educated and more inclined to pick candidates on merit rather than supposed piety. They don’t come structured so immune to payoffs.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This shrieks problems for Prabowo who has no idea who these voters are and what they want. As a way to their hearts his media advisers have urged him to endorse a cartoon blob, the type used to sell toilet chemicals.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">To transform from villain to jolly fellow he does TikTok moves. These simulate bayonet charges. Artists' </span><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/prabowo-subianto?image_type=vector"><u><span class="15">makeovers</span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> turn Gibran sage and Prabowo, who’s old enough to be his grandfather, into a sibling. The ad agencies’ contempt for voters is limitless. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Indonesia’s VPs are called ‘spare tyres’, not there to help with the steering. They must stay in the boot and follow the last century </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">duduk diam</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (siddown and shuddup) rule, alien to Gibran’s progressive generation.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There’ll be confrontations; Gibran has no military background so won’t accept orders shouted by an autocrat demanding obedience. Should Prabowo make it into the Jakarta White House, the impatient VP won’t stand around waiting for Allah to send the villainous P to his place in the abyss. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2i7gB6QPBk5pxqkPttJVPXJN57HM07ruuvNqrPg_9UbrNkqv5523savG88BEHLL8VEpMzx3RDK2Bpd8ma-hvHD1G5gvcqueAtA-WANXdlfDUsSwFmI7KbevPM_tfbR-ukO7atSv_VMhzmAwLYWq6OBdCmZoARoRO4b2uJD_ZtvQrd8mWTCw/s1967/IMG_3783ab.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1146" data-original-width="1967" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2i7gB6QPBk5pxqkPttJVPXJN57HM07ruuvNqrPg_9UbrNkqv5523savG88BEHLL8VEpMzx3RDK2Bpd8ma-hvHD1G5gvcqueAtA-WANXdlfDUsSwFmI7KbevPM_tfbR-ukO7atSv_VMhzmAwLYWq6OBdCmZoARoRO4b2uJD_ZtvQrd8mWTCw/s320/IMG_3783ab.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Prabowo (with Jokowi, right) should be worried. Like Cassius, Gibran thinks too much; such men are dangerous. His first major public performance proves he runs his own show. Local commentators reckon he'll be jerked by the strings held offstage by his </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">dahlang</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> (puppet master) Dad and continue the policies of infrastructure and development.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">That assumption is open to doubt. </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Kompas</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> media group polls put the undecideds close to 30 per cent. Does this mean the electorate is getting more discriminating, better able to see through the fog of lies and crass diversions? Let it be so.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham </span></i></b><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i> </i>First published in<i> Pearls & Irritations</i>, 4 January 2024: </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="0" href="https://johnmenadue.com/goodish-guy-in-bad-company/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://johnmenadue.com/goodish-guy-in-bad-company/</a></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-4757338219665919832023-12-23T11:55:00.001+07:002023-12-23T11:55:18.339+07:00ANOTHER AUSTRALIAN STUFF-UP RESOLVED BY TAXPAYERS<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21pt;"> BOAT BOY SHAME MORE THAN A MINOR MATTER </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHXMNEFxAczU7234eeDoDHmq5crYnqZkvhnGjeEm0o2jwvQ-Latvx8DB0IzJN76fowFqmTsZITND3yPDRctUS9wnLmN6_xAAeUHSQ46tV-mhyphenhyphenM5GsITUOPZlcUcTbT6lHxh0E8NRmNj_h0Wtgk72ACPXwrrdj_N54kwi8es7QNGiouoRyOXA/s800/IMG_3689-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHXMNEFxAczU7234eeDoDHmq5crYnqZkvhnGjeEm0o2jwvQ-Latvx8DB0IzJN76fowFqmTsZITND3yPDRctUS9wnLmN6_xAAeUHSQ46tV-mhyphenhyphenM5GsITUOPZlcUcTbT6lHxh0E8NRmNj_h0Wtgk72ACPXwrrdj_N54kwi8es7QNGiouoRyOXA/w640-h428/IMG_3689-1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.0000pt; mso-char-indent-count: 2.0000; mso-para-margin-left: 0.0000gd; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.0000pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Federal Court is set to endorse a Commonwealth payout to settle a 13-year scandal.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">About 220 Indonesian men will share $27.5 million in compensation because Australian authorities broke international laws designed to protect the weak. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">This is the cost of hanging onto a political ideology in the face of escalating uncertainty about proving the age of Asians, coloured by an assumption they lie.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Kids were slammed into adult jails. That’s illegal. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Under-18s must be held apart from perverts and brutes under the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Australia is a signatory.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The prime victims of the Stop The Boats panic that gripped Australians last decade are the terrified teens from remote villages on the archipelago next door wrongfully charged as people smugglers.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The xenophobia was politically weaponised. Huge sums have been paid to lawyers trying to hammer square dogma into round reality while insisting - as the Attorney General’s office </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20People%20smugglers.final.docx#:~:text=The%20rule%20of%20law%20underpins,to%20the%20benefit%20of%20laws."><u><span class="15">does</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">- that “the rule of law underpins the way Australian society is governed.”</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIchF91u9vRX5UWetT6OCMwEVfEgdshnAC6_-DxOuSY1NLBiREpR5XHhWiuNQUr050IyeIlcfZIO-z98LfJgGL5enksdd_z5dkRN_UknsnroEIvr6p32q4DzucN3b6pUbo7sdBqu9aQ4YDjFQpnc-4SzBfFdInrQvWYPt0AMWgL9gK5v9wiQ/s1005/Colin%20Singer%20A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="1005" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIchF91u9vRX5UWetT6OCMwEVfEgdshnAC6_-DxOuSY1NLBiREpR5XHhWiuNQUr050IyeIlcfZIO-z98LfJgGL5enksdd_z5dkRN_UknsnroEIvr6p32q4DzucN3b6pUbo7sdBqu9aQ4YDjFQpnc-4SzBfFdInrQvWYPt0AMWgL9gK5v9wiQ/w200-h160/Colin%20Singer%20A.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></div><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The story started when Colin Singer (right) exercised his conscience. Had he done so in the Year of Persecuting Whistleblowers he might have been banged up inside Perth’s Hakea Prison. But in 2010 the JP was an ‘official visitor’ bailed up </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">by medical director Dr Brian Walker. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“He told me there are kids in here,” Singer said later. “I thought this impossible. I had great faith in the Australian justice system and believed it to be fair.</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“Then I saw them - they were pre-pubescent frightened children, certainly not men.”</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The striplings were former deckhands hired by people smugglers to help ferry asylum seekers fleeing conflict zones and who’d made it to Indonesia. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Singer spoke to Ali Yasmin (later to become the lead plaintiff and get a separate $40,000 award) from tiny Lembata island more than 1,000 km east of Bali. "He was alone and clinging to a fence, clearly traumatized," Singer recalled.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Tough, said the Australian Federal Police, take it like a man because we have proof. A wrist X-ray that </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">referenced a 1942 US bone atlas with a four-year plus-or-minus margin of error determined Ali was 19. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He was 14, but couldn’t prove his age. Jobless lads hanging around harbours don’t carry passports. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He quit school at 12 to support his mother after his Dad died knowing little of the outside world. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">A letter from Ali’s principal confirming </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">his 1996 birth date and organised by TV journalist Hamish Macdonald was rejected because it wasn’t a sworn statement. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There’s no evidence of Australian or Indonesian agencies visiting the school to get the paperwork right. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">(Lawyers acting for Yasmin have told him not to talk to the media until the settlement is endorsed. Requests for a compromise have been ignored.)</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 5.2500pt; mso-char-indent-count: -0.5000; text-align: justify; text-indent: -5.2500pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Meanwhile the adult smugglers did OK - and in a perverse way have lifted our image. Their actions were illegal but a civilised state’s must be legal - no bashings or, thrashings.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 5.2500pt; mso-char-indent-count: -0.5000; text-align: justify; text-indent: -5.2500pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5bVThkODzt3t-kL9GA7d15-cU45yRjGokh6d7V4XUw1ndDRA9ixkJO2ff-ps2BtwCAI8KqnPLYMtqhv1OE_jQMRxZzlbFQC6nI9FpJacmAneo3EoYRixQibhyphenhyphenPOhf7N0o6Q7Pm6Q6nC69qf7QPtGaeyhWH5Okpi1wxnMcnlFF_CraTzDtGQ/s800/IMG_3735-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5bVThkODzt3t-kL9GA7d15-cU45yRjGokh6d7V4XUw1ndDRA9ixkJO2ff-ps2BtwCAI8KqnPLYMtqhv1OE_jQMRxZzlbFQC6nI9FpJacmAneo3EoYRixQibhyphenhyphenPOhf7N0o6Q7Pm6Q6nC69qf7QPtGaeyhWH5Okpi1wxnMcnlFF_CraTzDtGQ/s320/IMG_3735-1.JPG" width="214" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 5.2500pt; mso-char-indent-count: -0.5000; text-align: justify; text-indent: -5.2500pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nurdin Tanal (left), now 47, admits his wrongdoing, pocketing $3,500 to captain a fully-provisioned boat organised by an Arab speaker in Jakarta whom he never met. His wife Hajija Buja (also left) used the money to build a new house in the village of Waipare on Flores - a largely Catholic island 1,200 km east of Bali.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">But he didn't get to see it after being jailed in Brisbane for carrying 44 people from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan - including a breast-feeding mother. When Nurdin realised they'd paid around $10,000 each for the three-day trip, he reckoned he'd been cheated.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“I’d go back to Australia tomorrow if it was legal,” Nurdin told </span></span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Michael West Media. </span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“I was suddenly released and told I was not guilty. I came home with almost $2,000, for working, given by Aussie friends, and the Indonesian Embassy.” </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQketeMPDtmHZWCLj2i1hqJivLlhqPxOkBZNsvo-QfVcdUdk1KZyLBHxsvleuPdmfpN6oG76DSut3QZge55FrpJl4u_JPyodJElm21BR6zMPjHzmZiF8jp5-WWxDD5MLow6npLBOM_AdB7D8KyW657Z5-uIZdRTFzFFdAK7-lpCloMis8yBQ/s800/IMG_3683a-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="800" height="156" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQketeMPDtmHZWCLj2i1hqJivLlhqPxOkBZNsvo-QfVcdUdk1KZyLBHxsvleuPdmfpN6oG76DSut3QZge55FrpJl4u_JPyodJElm21BR6zMPjHzmZiF8jp5-WWxDD5MLow6npLBOM_AdB7D8KyW657Z5-uIZdRTFzFFdAK7-lpCloMis8yBQ/w200-h156/IMG_3683a-1.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Wuring is a Muslim village. Rayah, 62, (right) is the go-to gossip. the snack seller at the port entrance. Though she's never been Down Under, her info gleaned from locals makes her a splendid influencer: "Australia good. You look after people."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMXa-mzYt9971sxEqY5r9vLyjBT_pPxSjxcmJmSvNeFJHyp7RrsiRsdxPjrY-DBSly7VloiLwMgoJBgbl0IYmtC-F_rnZEmoEXAx52Vzo7Od5KWXY-1wJXvCgsqdNpsYrYCcbJnKBciPtLaxur9sO-2j5hLmrK-xGMj9Sc9l2iJSWHRiWhQ/s800/IMG_3673a-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="800" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzMXa-mzYt9971sxEqY5r9vLyjBT_pPxSjxcmJmSvNeFJHyp7RrsiRsdxPjrY-DBSly7VloiLwMgoJBgbl0IYmtC-F_rnZEmoEXAx52Vzo7Od5KWXY-1wJXvCgsqdNpsYrYCcbJnKBciPtLaxur9sO-2j5hLmrK-xGMj9Sc9l2iJSWHRiWhQ/w200-h137/IMG_3673a-1.JPG" width="200" /></a></div> Like shark-fin fisher Abdul Muthalib ( left), <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">rescued off Darwin by the RAN. He said in an Adelaide jail he was paid to clean mess rooms, treated well and never suffered discrimination. </span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> In 2012 the Australian Human Rights Commission </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">published</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20People%20smugglers.final.docx#:~:text=An%20age%20of%20uncertainty%20%2D%20Inquiry,children%20%7C%20Australian%20Human%20Rights%20Commission"><i><u><span class="15">An Age of Uncertainty</span></u></i><u><span class="15">. </span></u></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> The 331-page report found the wrist X-rays "an inherently flawed technique …unreliable and untrustworthy."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Like Robodebt the system hugged its wrongs when it should have been hugging the wronged. As they were shuffled through the bewildering system, scores of officials, many of them parents, must have been struck by the doubts that upset Dr Walker.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Also slow to mature was PM Anthony Albanese’s “Australian instinct for fairness, decency and care and respect for each other.” His </span><a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/lets-unite-and-make-our-great-nation-greater"><u><span class="15">assessment</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">was made before the Voice referendum results. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Singer said he found most prison staff compassionate: “My criticism is for the bureaucrats, politicians and lawyers who turned away from their responsibilities and ignored the rights of children.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Like fallen trees blocking roads, the facts got too big to drive around. Ali and 14 others were released 'on licence' in 2012 and headed home. The WA Court of Criminal Appeal quashed their sentences, "satisfied that a miscarriage of justice has occurred."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">I saw my first child 'people smuggler' in a Perth court in 2012 - X Hadi, standing with an adult X Riadi. Many Indonesians have only one name – an actuality Australian bureaucracy can't handle. The label X is usually reserved for witnesses who can't be identified.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The ‘Mr Big’ organisers of the vile trade were absent. Few accompany their customers on overseas trips.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Through an interpreter, the men pleaded not guilty to "unlawfully transporting aliens" - the fishermen call them “black goats”. Facing the accused was a jury of a dozen Australian citizens and several confident Afghans keen to back the prosecutor's story of their voyage to freedom.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hadi said he'd crewed a craft carrying coconuts that later collected 54 foreign men. A lawyer asked why he didn't sniff illegality, jump ship and report his suspicions. The question made no sense culturally or practically. Some police have </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20People%20smugglers.final.docx#:~:text=I%20think%20there's%20no%20question,whole%20picture%20on%20the%20incident."><u><span class="15">allegedly</span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> been involved in </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">the rackets.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The boat was seized by an Australian naval patrol and tagged SIEV (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel) 86.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Australians arrested abroad arouse the tabloids and TV squawkers to demand rapid repatriation to escape dodgy foreign justice. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The Indonesian government seemed unconcerned about their X-men. Outside the court, an official explained prisoners "get good food, high quality medical care, and earn $30 a week doing kitchen chores."</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Laws to calm public terrors of a tsunami of Asians tied the hands of the sentencing bench - five years mandatory. Judge Richard Keen said prison would "bring home the message that Australia treats people smuggling seriously." </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmuCNhcUdgRksVRU6gvGoeQGCgVu2wwtCm64_ckcktH2vQYsC60MXPSfTLgKB9__Q8NUUwj3v2dUEzTs_p_UVT6UPURx68c0VLRr9lti7jm1kC_JEushIjr8PQt6yd0S9SvS5Ifo6OoqA1CwvgjYibuiXykC3mAdbYxXM1SVUzYS39maACUA/s800/IMG_3688-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmuCNhcUdgRksVRU6gvGoeQGCgVu2wwtCm64_ckcktH2vQYsC60MXPSfTLgKB9__Q8NUUwj3v2dUEzTs_p_UVT6UPURx68c0VLRr9lti7jm1kC_JEushIjr8PQt6yd0S9SvS5Ifo6OoqA1CwvgjYibuiXykC3mAdbYxXM1SVUzYS39maACUA/w640-h428/IMG_3688-2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It didn’t; the Federal Court's message is that Australia stuffed up. Finding the beneficiaries will be tricky - those still fishing are often itinerants. Distribution of the compo has yet to be determined, but probably around $125,000 each.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The average time spent far from home was 950 days - 130 bucks per nightmare. Had they sought a template - like parity with Federal politicians' away-from-home </span><a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/Powers_practice_and_procedure/Practice7/HTML/Chapter5/Members%E2%80%99_remuneration_and_expenses"><u><span class="15">allowances</span></u></a><u><span class="15"> - </span></u><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">payouts would have doubled. </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Paradoxes abound. While jailing kids was morally and legally wrong, the policy may have helped deter the smugglers. While compensation is right it may encourage the exploiters to try again. </span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">Posters at Indonesian ports once warned of the dangers. They’ve vanished, like the </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/duncan/MWM%20People%20smugglers.final.docx#:~:text=1%2C720,Source%3A%20Australian%20Border%20Deaths%20Database."><u><span class="15">estimated </span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">1.720 who tried to reach the promised land last decade. All the more reason for Canberra and Jakarta to talk seriously.</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">The PM reportedly </span><a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3245656/australia-indonesia-make-remarkable-progress-towards-binding-defence-pact-amid-calls-collective?registerSource=loginwall"><u><span class="15">claims </span></u></a><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“remarkable progress” on agreements about defence. How about human lives?</span></span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><img height="91" src="file:///C:/Users/duncan/AppData/Local/Temp/ksohtml11604/wps1.jpg" width="116" /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Duncan Graham </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">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.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p>First published in <i>Michael West Media,</i> 23 December 2023: https://michaelwest.com.au/indonesian-people-smugglers-wrongly-imprisoned-finally-compensated/</p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-7578692126912684322023-12-19T14:11:00.001+07:002024-01-08T12:18:05.639+07:00KIDS & POLICY - NOT AN ACID-WATER MIX.<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">TAKING THE FOREIGN OUT OF AFFAIRS </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">How to get the young involved in current affairs? Politicians shy from the question fearing Gen Z’s latent power could shrink their authority, so best seek an answer elsewhere.</span></i><b><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Like Indonesia?</span></i></b></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihgD2f2RTX6NYwMsRQkZsc-P65fPrP6o6NphIuV6knqzkGx4BBT7YvyGvFg7eDEOABwrpLHIsX_iK5iwJ68c5uhU8q6o2ZVA3ejitlf1bXkc75jae0dGeFEm8R65clJbrinsuh6QMwBy5f0Xvjmz_NTiIxQk_fjf6gyOsGYc6stOvFa2CGiw/s2205/IMG_3563a.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1574" data-original-width="2205" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihgD2f2RTX6NYwMsRQkZsc-P65fPrP6o6NphIuV6knqzkGx4BBT7YvyGvFg7eDEOABwrpLHIsX_iK5iwJ68c5uhU8q6o2ZVA3ejitlf1bXkc75jae0dGeFEm8R65clJbrinsuh6QMwBy5f0Xvjmz_NTiIxQk_fjf6gyOsGYc6stOvFa2CGiw/w640-h456/IMG_3563a.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">"Now here's another point" : Dr </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 14px;">Dino Patti Djalal,</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 14px;"> (left) versus presidential candidate Dr Anies Baswedan</span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><i><br /><br /></i><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The queue was long, wide, pressing, hot and young. It spilled beyond the five-star hotel’s car park and forecourt. Waiters chatted excitedly about the day ahead, surely a Taylor Swift concert?</span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">But the jolliness was jarred by the walk to the venue past ranks of pavement traders selling Palestine flags ready for the street protests to come.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">For this was dawn on a Saturday in Jakarta this month and the masses had come to a show with the turn-off title </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">From Non Alignments to Creative Alignments.</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> It featured foreign affairs, international politics and fixes for an ailing world; with wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar there was no need to fossick for issues.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Why did an estimated ten thousand teens willingly spend a full Saturday getting involved in international relations with the sort of enthusiasm displayed for the Coldplay concert a fortnight earlier? </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Here’s the formula: Hire a plush monster hall and make tickets free. Get an entrepreneur with headline acts on speed dial, then let him loose unconstrained by the fear and caution of a government department or uni admin. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Then it supposedly becomes ‘the biggest grassroots foreign policy group in the world …determined to form a large international relations community with mature and sensitive insights on bilateral, regional, and global issues.’</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The go-to guy is Dino Patti Djalal, 58. If Indonesia used silver spoons this fella was born with a mouthful.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">He entered the world in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Belgrade</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> where his father </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasjim_Djalal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Hasjim Djalal</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> was a diplomat - and later deputy FM. The lad was schooled in the US, Canada and the UK where he scored a PhD at the London School of Economics.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 2010 as US ambassador he won fame by inspiring the diaspora to plug back into the nation they’d fled last century when Soeharto was president . But his ambition flew him too close to the sun; he quit Washington for a pitch at the presidency in the 2014 election.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">His pedigree and qualifications failed to move the oligarchs who bankroll parties in Indonesia; they prefer clerics, business tycoons and old soldiers to intellectuals too canny to control. Indonesia’s Icarus hit the ground hard and learned a discomforting truth: Openings for used diplomats are rare. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">But he had enough money to start an enterprise, rightly reckoning that the student idealism that had driven out the autocratic Soeharto in 1998 and steered in democracy was floundering to find the right map to power ahead.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Uni courses in politics were pedestrian - why not make them energetic and accessible?</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Together with academic and policy adviser Dewi Fortuna Anwar, who got her PhD from Monash and has a CV longer than this story, they started the </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">FPCI calls itself a ‘non-politic and independent foreign policy organisation to discuss and introduce international relations issues’ to diplomats, government officials, academics and students, business people and journalists.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sounds good - but impotent without the clout of the Republic’s Foreign Affairs Department. Despite this handicap the FPCI seems to have captured interest by running workshops and seminars. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The presenters wear T-shirts and don’t peer down their spectacles at uppity students. Lecturers are engaging, locals but overseas trained.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In an earlier interview with this writer he said: “Our mission is to promote peace and bring foreign policy to the public.That means finding out how to talk to ordinary people about these issues. They may not seem interested but that changes when, for example, the price of imports rise.”</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">At the annual conference this month the bill-toppers included two of the three presidential candidates - former governors Anies Baswedan (Jakarta) and Ganjar Pranowo (Central Java). Cashiered former general and alleged human rights abuser Prabowo Subianto was invited, agreed, and then pulled out.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Dino asked the polis to address issues but not to campaign, which is like urging a fish not to swim.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ganjar appeared online from West Papua but Anies turned up and was mobbed by fans. Unlike the average plodding politician he cracked jokes, exhausted the local media with his availability and avoided the booby-trap question which could have exploded his hopes on the spot.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Who’s his most admired figure? A magazine editor who once </span><a href="https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/farewell-arswendo-atmowiloto/"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">published</span></a><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a readers’ poll that put the Prophet in seventh place spent five years in jail for blasphemy. Anies got his sequence right, then added Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Others on stage during the day included a pondering of international professors telling of their fears and hopes for relations with China. All spoke in English as did many in the audience, students using the show as a chance to dazzle friends.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Ten embassies have caught on to the opportunities running stands promoting their unis. Australia sells quality and proximity, its rivals add scholarships and accommodation. Academic life used to be marketed as austere and sober, Now it’s offered as intoxicating.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">To lighten the mood between sessions on the failure of diplomacy to keep fighters in hangars and drones unarmed, a try-hard lady filled in with stand-up comedy. Hopefully, she’ll refine her act before next year’s event.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">By then there’ll be a fresh president and government. The new mob may not be so tolerant of Dr Dino and his bid to poke the noses of the people into the affairs of the State.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">First published in<i> Independent Australia, </i>18 December 2023: </span></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0a1633;">https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/getting-younger-generations-involved-in-politics-,18184</span></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><img height="91" src="file:///C:/Users/duncan/AppData/Local/Temp/ksohtml2028/wps1.jpg" width="116" /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-72102743220106737442023-12-18T04:26:00.000+07:002023-12-18T04:26:01.007+07:00RI POLITICS: NO ROOM FOR SMART WOMEN<p> <span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span class="15" style="color: #0e101a;">Equality is risky - best stay with blokes </span></b></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span class="15" style="color: #0e101a;"><br /></span></b></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><b><span class="15" style="color: #0e101a;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2_Pi3u9BoQ2sOB4D_GXbAJgheihqicx9vxRLoMgwsKZKaOqVq5E9eItZ9c8Ta-XM5JgILXFMoztXC9YiFFpyd1mA7QasQYAji8rj-oJ2cqnhq0xzGAnD622Jq_-17SXQQeuastuSWSAs4sx5YqL96-ZCFRMtKlLUmNY2lf7_mE3zEZILdJw/s1280/Yenny%20Wahid%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2_Pi3u9BoQ2sOB4D_GXbAJgheihqicx9vxRLoMgwsKZKaOqVq5E9eItZ9c8Ta-XM5JgILXFMoztXC9YiFFpyd1mA7QasQYAji8rj-oJ2cqnhq0xzGAnD622Jq_-17SXQQeuastuSWSAs4sx5YqL96-ZCFRMtKlLUmNY2lf7_mE3zEZILdJw/s320/Yenny%20Wahid%20a.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></div><b><br /> </b><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Indonesians have just witnessed a messy, badly produced TV ‘debate’ between the politicians jostling to run the world’s fourth largest democracy facing a national election in less than two months.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Just a few weeks ago it seemed Indonesian politics was edging towards modernity by recognising that half the voters are women with different values, needs and expectations.</span><i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Not to be. The oligarchs have spoken: In a nation that claims to be progressive and tolerant there's no place for a woman in any leadership team The six candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency are men, all Javanese, all Muslim.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">For a short but hopeful time in the juggling for positions, it seemed possible that a woman might get a go. Mid-year t</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">hree ferociously ambitious </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">mega-rich </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">guys </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">were seeking </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">a partner for </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">the 14 </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">February</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">poll. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">What date could be more auspicious for starting anew?</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">The paramours were lusting after a Vice President who could relate to those who’ve matured this century in a democracy, albeit</span><a href="https://habibiecenter.or.id/img/publication/825aedece8d3ddbb46b5a4efb69dba59.pdf"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> flawed.</span></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> Voting is voluntary. In the 2019 presidential election, the </span><a href="https://www.idea.int/data-tools/country-view/142/40"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">turnout </span></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">was 82 per cent.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Th</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">e obvious choice was</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> Yenny Wahid</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">, 49, and she was willing.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">The second daughter of the Republic’s fourth president, the late Abdurrahman </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">(</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Gus Dur</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">)</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> Wahid (1940 - 2009), ha</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">d</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> the professional and personal qualifications for high office, so who</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">’d</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> win her hand? It</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> was</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> the </span><i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">sinetron</span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> (</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">soapie</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">)</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> spellbinding the nation.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> The lady most likely head</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">ed</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> a tiny socialist party with Buckley’s chance of scoring even a footstool in the 575-seat national parliament</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> by going alone.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> She</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> was</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> being wooed for her qualities, ancestry and reputation for relating to the young. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">When the Indonesian Army trashed East Timor after locals rejected Indonesian rule in the 1999 referendum, Yenny was a correspondent with the then Fairfax Press, a journo in the coverage team that won a Walkley Award, Australia's highest prize in journalism.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">(Use of forenames is Indonesian style. It doesn’t imply partiality.)</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> Now she heads the </span><a href="http://www.wahidinstitute.org/wi-id/"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Wahid Institute</span></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">, an Islamic think-tank working for ‘the development of both Indonesian as well as Islamic society, improving the welfare of lower classes … building democracy and fundamental justice, and expanding peace and non-violence.’</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">In 2009 the </span><a href="https://www.weforum.org/people/yenny-zannuba-a-c-wahid"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">World Economic Forum</span></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> named Yenny a young global leader. She has a Harvard master's degree, a persuasive personality and international experience.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">She’s a liberal Muslim with</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> all the </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">credentials. Her great-grandfather </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasyim_Asy'ari"><span class="16">Hasyim Asy'ari</span></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> founded the world's largest Muslim organisation </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahdatul_Ulama"><span class="16">Nahdatul Ulama</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(NU) </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">which </span><a href="https://theworld.org/stories/2019-03-08/world-s-largest-islamic-group-wants-muslims-stop-saying-infidel"><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;">claims</span></u></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> close to 100 million members</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">In Indonesian culture </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">the way women dress and behave is scrutinised for signs of unorthodoxy; Yenny</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">, a married Mum of three, </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">c</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">ame</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> across as an </span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;">Ibu Ibu,</span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> a safe homely matron, which doesn’t mean a soft touch. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">In a</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">n earlier</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.insideindonesia.org/indonesia-s-woman-to-watch"><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;">interview, </span></u></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">she quashed suggestions of subservience: </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">This is the way I express my right to wear what I want. (She </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">uses</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> a half-</span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;">jilbab</span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> headscarf.) </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">I</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">t’s my symbol of struggle.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">It might be easier if I was a man in this macho society, but then the pressures could be physical rather than mental.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">”</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Young</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">ish</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> voters will dominate the </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> February </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">ballot</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> according to</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2023/07/07/listen-to-youth-voters-or-perish.html"><i><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;">The Jakarta Post:</span></u></i></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">”</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Around 114 million Indonesians eligible to vote next year are under 40.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">”</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Th</span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;">e </span></i><a href="https://www.kompas.id/baca/english/2023/07/17/en-komodifikasi-kaum-muda-di-ruang-politik-3?status=sukses_login&utm_source=kompasid&utm_medium=login_paywall&utm_campaign=login&utm_content=https://www.kompas.id/baca/english/2023/07/17/en-ko"><i><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;">Kompas </span></u></i></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">national newspaper </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">commented</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">: </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Young people are always the target of the contestants' votes (but) not many policies are in favour of the younger generation.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">”</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">The quinquennial election is the only time the ignored feel frisky. Indonesia’s teals have clustered around the centre-left </span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;">Partai Solidaritas Indonesia </span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">(PSI)</span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;"> </span></i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;">which includes Yenny’s politician husband Dhohir Farisi, and </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">the socialist </span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;"> </span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">New Indonesian Nation Sovereignty Party</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> (PKBIB)</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> chaired by Yenny.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Both were formed this century by student </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Utopians</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> after </span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;">Reformasi</span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> - the 1998 fall of the autocrat General Soeharto who ran the nation for 32 years.</span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;"> </span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;"> </span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">In the late 1700s, the French Revolution beheaded the ruling royalty to ensure they’d never return. In 1998 the Indonesian</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> activists</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> who brought down Soeharto naively assumed his cronies would disappear along with the </span><a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2007/07/11/king-of-the-kleptocrats"><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;">king of the kleptocrats</span></u></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">, all wreathed in shame.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">The students were too soft, so</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> last century’s oligarchs still rule and plunder, promise and default. A </span><a href="https://www.newmandala.org/the-macbethian-tragedy-of-indonesian-democracy/"><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;">Macbethian tragedy </span></u></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">wrote one academic. Another </span><a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/indonesia-country-disappointments"><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;">commented </span></u></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">that Indonesia’s experiment with democracy has </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">been hijacked by the dark forces that held the country back before.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">’</span></span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Yenny’s problem shouldn’t</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> have been</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> gender, except among ultra-conservatives. The world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation had its first female president in 2001. As vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri inherited the job when Yenny’s father was impeached.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Even as coalitions, the small parties don’t have enough cash and candidates to steer the state, so </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">their best</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> chance of getting close to the driver is as VP. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">The PSI</span><a href="https://www.weforum.org/people/yenny-zannuba-a-c-wahid"><u><span class="16" style="color: #0e101a;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> nominated </span></span></u></a><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Yenny to stand with Ganjar Pranowo, 54, of Mega’s PDIP - the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">But Mega </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">has no love for the Wahid family, </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> so no-go.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Likewise with disgraced general Prabowo Subianto, 7</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">2</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">, Indonesia's Donald Trump.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Insiders</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> then</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> predict</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">ed</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> Yenny </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">pairing</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> with the former Jakarta Governor Dr Anies Baswedan, 54</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">The one-time Education Minister and University Rector has the skills needed to work with a </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">smart</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> female. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">The US-educated Anies has been nominated by</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> the secular centrist</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i><span class="17" style="color: #0e101a;">Partai NasDem</span></i><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> (National Democrat) which has 59 seats in </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">the current </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Parliament</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">While Yenny’s swains th</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">ought</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> she ha</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">d</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> the youth ratings, </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">in the end, they feared her</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> liberal values</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">. So Prabowo selected outgoing President Joko (Jokowi) Widodo’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Ganjar Prabono (from Mega’s Democratic Party of Struggle - PDIP) went for former Constitutional Court justice Mohammad Mahfud Mahmodin while Anies picked Muhaimin Iskandar, the deputy house speaker but more importantly religiously close to Yenny’s late father through the NU Islamic organisation.</span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;">Though not so near as his daughter. </span><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> First published in <i>Pearls & Irritations,</i> 18 December 2023: </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #0e101a;">https://johnmenadue.com/equality-is-risky-best-stay-with-blokes/</span></span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="p" style="margin-bottom: 0.0000pt; margin-top: 0.0000pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14650398.post-69122431374876952892023-12-12T08:26:00.051+07:002023-12-12T17:58:40.746+07:00INDONESIA'S MORAL DILEMMA<p> <span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;">BOAT PEOPLE’S HOPES BEACHED</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">T</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">he Monsoon </span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">rains are moving south</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> and the people smugglers are back in business. Duncan Graham reports from a remote beach in northwest Indonesia.</span></i><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgudvFqU3xCJSBBYRINj0KjvFuHFonX8OP5zErsmWr3Xl44Jwp6P8S32HXQh078MoR4Ie50TaTFGcpbAw9RAyRlaJ8k4wB8llvBz02O4merpEkjv7zcUzdmvnhd_PsprdpdIWIFGUP7Cy67jpQ7wtD6GBRoebMaAPxsk4UBOu6qFJVIhgpY8g/s985/Screenshot_20231212_153803%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="985" data-original-width="741" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgudvFqU3xCJSBBYRINj0KjvFuHFonX8OP5zErsmWr3Xl44Jwp6P8S32HXQh078MoR4Ie50TaTFGcpbAw9RAyRlaJ8k4wB8llvBz02O4merpEkjv7zcUzdmvnhd_PsprdpdIWIFGUP7Cy67jpQ7wtD6GBRoebMaAPxsk4UBOu6qFJVIhgpY8g/s320/Screenshot_20231212_153803%20a.jpg" width="241" /></a></i></div><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Abdu Solam <i>(right)</i> wasn’t paraded for media sympathy. The chance encounter during an unchaperoned wander by the only Westerner among 233 traumatised asylum seekers came as the 11-year-old dragged himself past a torn tent. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Flapping blue plastic sheets flag the location in Indonesia of Rohingya Muslims, forced from their Myanmar homeland by a ruthless military junta bent on ethnic cleansing. Survivors then fled to the world’s biggest refugee camp (pop one million) in Bangladesh after years of misery and squalor.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Abdu had been a cripple from birth and his wasted legs suggested polio. In the West, he’d get prosthetics and training. Indonesia hasn’t signed the International Convention on Refugees so has no legal obligation to help. Consequently, he’s unlikely to ever get the aid he needs.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Nor in Australia where conservatives hostile to accepting ‘boat people’ would see a disabled child as a drain on ‘taxpayer-funded’ NDIS. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">No shelter in Oz suburbs likely either for the thin, illiterate hassled women scrubbing clothes and cooking over wood fires, their multiple kids climbing through the barbed-wire fence to frolic in the surf. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3wcquBoSaSozx8kuy6TDQ53sK9hBFgTLlIGu2VJOf0jZsj11KdPBIXD5VhaSXNPjb9QVjcukWndoIvtyxHtd1T0hUo_eUpPNZIgd8vnMeECBqp6OnLH_MwiB2WWtxutS3hGMUYgmwR3lP3uOsO61luUx8GNrPQBOhMX4QCcNEJmx3g_9c3A/s1070/Screenshot_20231212_153716%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="1070" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3wcquBoSaSozx8kuy6TDQ53sK9hBFgTLlIGu2VJOf0jZsj11KdPBIXD5VhaSXNPjb9QVjcukWndoIvtyxHtd1T0hUo_eUpPNZIgd8vnMeECBqp6OnLH_MwiB2WWtxutS3hGMUYgmwR3lP3uOsO61luUx8GNrPQBOhMX4QCcNEJmx3g_9c3A/w200-h143/Screenshot_20231212_153716%20a.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Not OK. Cattle scouring plastic trash for something organic aren’t the only depositors of waste. With no toilets, the Rohingya use the sea which is fine till the tide turns.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> They catch rain water for washing.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzeGotNkGyBrirLZ2lqrVcip0uh-wOJTC2wI000okMn3kKF4aNJWU6sLOPJM-8WyVzaKBmtOGXu4EVKTVp1oCCXNYK7Dt82iunHoF8MBCs4yTSBOyHhyeil5AIzGe9YjN93N_T29gfet2Z72QvhlZSHnLbiVq9H-F4J5yHEFYbgB7gU1PsA/s1433/Screenshot_20231211_101924%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1433" data-original-width="1056" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzzeGotNkGyBrirLZ2lqrVcip0uh-wOJTC2wI000okMn3kKF4aNJWU6sLOPJM-8WyVzaKBmtOGXu4EVKTVp1oCCXNYK7Dt82iunHoF8MBCs4yTSBOyHhyeil5AIzGe9YjN93N_T29gfet2Z72QvhlZSHnLbiVq9H-F4J5yHEFYbgB7gU1PsA/s320/Screenshot_20231211_101924%20a.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span face="Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 16px; text-align: start;"> (Left)<i> </i><i>Zafor Ulleh - son Mohammed Jayaan</i></span></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Also unwelcome Down Under w</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ould</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> be the middle-aged black-bearded men</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> in long robes</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> sitting on the dirt chanting verses from open copies of the Koran carried during the 17-day, 2,000 km plus hazardous journey.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Although they seemed to be giving thanks for their salvation, to the self-labelled ‘true blues’ they’ll be putative terrorists plotting bombings.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Should some humanity prevail in this post-compassion era</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">,</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> states offering settlement will only want the young, skilled and adaptable, like Aziz Ullah. The incandescently bright photographer taught himself English in the Bangladesh camp which his family fled to from their bombed and burned village last decade.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDuJPij2p5r8y2i51IOVqeTLiR3JAI2vFG3sjvw1uhjH2kNZBxS_RRcIehQt0dNyJfmy5ik611TED8lb2H1GfA2Sr5-iLgMoMeUqEubAbQsJRj0NYArVwhp-E-EQZNzGnfdFP4foVojF-F7vEyLeqOvl02drI36TfN6H2nZFsJcu6Mub2JRA/s1331/Screenshot_20231212_153509%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1331" data-original-width="794" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDuJPij2p5r8y2i51IOVqeTLiR3JAI2vFG3sjvw1uhjH2kNZBxS_RRcIehQt0dNyJfmy5ik611TED8lb2H1GfA2Sr5-iLgMoMeUqEubAbQsJRj0NYArVwhp-E-EQZNzGnfdFP4foVojF-F7vEyLeqOvl02drI36TfN6H2nZFsJcu6Mub2JRA/s320/Screenshot_20231212_153509%20a.jpg" width="191" /></a></div><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Like all refugees interviewed for </span><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Michael West Media,</span></i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> the 19-year-old said he didn’t care where he spent the rest of his life. He hankered to live in a society ‘where men and women are equal, where we are treated as human beings’. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">When invited to nominate a destination, no one suggested Australia; Europe, the US and Canada were mentioned with the rider that climate and cultural differences weren’t the issue, just safety, no persecution and the chance to be human.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Mohamad Fahad, 15, wanted to write his response in English, reproduced here without edits: ‘As my age is going over and also I can’t learn education, my future will become worse, so I’m asking to high-level education.’ </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMvW0PCvPRUy03Tst1EavmYeq1RKiLHue4mc-tGos54t2YPnmZBlNDXGuFNviOe0Sd822jA-DjlNwe0vk6FKD9zF13qY3ZTsc1z8YTRu2zEmJ704ACLej9tP8dlvigwweh0dwYvpNcjhFzcI4W1-K_vrVNb0tYY-YsGYxqlXz0ZhbZYBGKA/s800/IMG_3627-1.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="800" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMvW0PCvPRUy03Tst1EavmYeq1RKiLHue4mc-tGos54t2YPnmZBlNDXGuFNviOe0Sd822jA-DjlNwe0vk6FKD9zF13qY3ZTsc1z8YTRu2zEmJ704ACLej9tP8dlvigwweh0dwYvpNcjhFzcI4W1-K_vrVNb0tYY-YsGYxqlXz0ZhbZYBGKA/s320/IMG_3627-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">More than a thousand Rohingya refugees landed in Aceh last month, the largest number ever experienced by veteran human-rights activist Farida Haryani, 56, (left) She runs the social-aid agency Pasca Aceh which gets Australian Aid to help the disabled.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Most are survivors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed around 228,000 - the majority in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia’s most northern province and close to Malaysia. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Aceh </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">has some autonomy from Jakarta and is the only place where strict Islamic Sharia law prevails. This puts dress codes above civil rights and employs ‘morality police’ to enforce gender proximity rules and flog </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">miscreants</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. Muslim women must wear jilbab (headscarves) and cover all the body apart from the face.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Said Farida: ‘We try to support the refugees by filling the gaps in the basic aid supplied by overseas agencies, like the UN High Commission for Refugees. We have a staffer in the camps who teaches English and Indonesian. Almost all refugees have only their language and few can write as they’ve had no schooling.’</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Farida also speaks out against the hostility shown by some Indonesians towards the refugees, using arguments familiar to xenophobic Australians. ‘ ‘There is too much misunderstanding,’ she said. ‘All religions stress humanity. We must accept these people and argue about settlement later.’</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The hostiles claim newcomers carry diseases, are criminals - or will be - can’t integrate and will steal jobs and </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">land</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. The most ridiculous slur yet widely believed is that the Rohingya are Asian Israelis; Once they settle they’ll oust the locals like Palestinians.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjo-6Yc1lPwBBGsv2_DYCBWYaLe88DJeP7vDm-m1x8lj00OsrbIfU92sE-TF4qw1IzTKU5lfXtECqQdT2IZibyvYeU9MuIGmJRO9OE5-KscfJqK9IUFqwiEWTLgxBimdZ8trYzLzBHDug-ZIfyPgi2W9Ayi3y-IwGMlj4lUwnHsSWVsve7g/s1070/Screenshot_20231212_153706%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1070" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmjo-6Yc1lPwBBGsv2_DYCBWYaLe88DJeP7vDm-m1x8lj00OsrbIfU92sE-TF4qw1IzTKU5lfXtECqQdT2IZibyvYeU9MuIGmJRO9OE5-KscfJqK9IUFqwiEWTLgxBimdZ8trYzLzBHDug-ZIfyPgi2W9Ayi3y-IwGMlj4lUwnHsSWVsve7g/s320/Screenshot_20231212_153706%20a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">There have been reports of calls to push the refugee boats back to sea, but so far tolerance has prevailed.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Messages and calls to expel UNHCR and other foreign agencies are driven by claims they’re pull factors encouraging asylum seekers</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. In reality</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> a prime lure is next door Malaysia which has already, though reluctantly, taken in 184,000 Rohingya according to UNHCR and allowed them to work.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The demands were carried on signs waved by 25 young men demonstrating at the main traffic circle in Banda Aceh and seen by this writer. The peaceful protest was overseen by about 50 police. Passers-by paid no attention and the show ended with handshakes all around.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">It’s been a different story on nearby Sabang island - where more boats have landed, according to videos circulating on social media showing violent confrontations with police in riot gear.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3TNp8NangvRwu0onHnjz5E0ZMmwLrv6_eziZQqmUxqnMEjvziUP8qR7veEFFRDN0LX-jeUPKxbCMjXG9DycpYLJ0FzDeygtqkqXH-sxxFClYwaJoeoB-E3iZetk6PNE8kAbOcQQoeBcWjEsThhdUCaxeZVAqstxw37ND7_61wUKNR863_3Q/s1051/Screenshot_20231212_153449%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1051" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3TNp8NangvRwu0onHnjz5E0ZMmwLrv6_eziZQqmUxqnMEjvziUP8qR7veEFFRDN0LX-jeUPKxbCMjXG9DycpYLJ0FzDeygtqkqXH-sxxFClYwaJoeoB-E3iZetk6PNE8kAbOcQQoeBcWjEsThhdUCaxeZVAqstxw37ND7_61wUKNR863_3Q/s320/Screenshot_20231212_153449%20a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">The 20-metre timber freighter that brought Aziz and his fellow hopefuls to the beach at Sigli about 120 km south of Banda Aceh has already been stripped of its engine and other parts by local chancers. Relations with villagers seemed good, with some bringing food and clothes.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Eventually, the UNHCR will bus them to a more secure temporary camp if provided by the local government. A former roadworkers' base, Mina Raya has a few decrepit buildings in a square around a basketball court with no hoops and a deflated ball, a metaphor for the </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">depressing</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> mess. </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Simple fixes could have made the area fit for play, but the people haven’t even assembled a prayer room, though they’ve painted murals idealising their homeland. The long-term mental damage will be entrenched.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Few men among the 500 inmates can hold a gaze, making them seem shifty when in reality they’re racked by shame, grief, guilt and anger - though all questioned denied this last emotion.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Two cried while being interviewed.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PT_aotacdaHPJZ0r4brZZfO60A2r7KTwoeRXxljNd995sSMsehecQExEVzJhW9xc_Y03U_UcGV74jMnT9iq-mj2qoCrgWrFJ_qMWWH1JYwuRRmHf9BbhkEfLbN3bqN6MMGLMoRZGCfRSnbjhA6PMtWMb4AM5jDk6acqiR0WESOMoGeAukQ/s857/Screenshot_20231212_153315%20a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="857" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PT_aotacdaHPJZ0r4brZZfO60A2r7KTwoeRXxljNd995sSMsehecQExEVzJhW9xc_Y03U_UcGV74jMnT9iq-mj2qoCrgWrFJ_qMWWH1JYwuRRmHf9BbhkEfLbN3bqN6MMGLMoRZGCfRSnbjhA6PMtWMb4AM5jDk6acqiR0WESOMoGeAukQ/s320/Screenshot_20231212_153315%20a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Among the 500 inmates is Alomgir, 22, who calls himself Alex</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">; he</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> smiles</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> continuously </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> but prefers to study trees and clouds when talking. He’s been in the camp for a year with his seven-month-pregnant wife Omy Lasa. She’s been getting care at a local hospital through NGOs.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> He said the couple paid people smugglers one lakh (100,000 Bangladesh taka - AUD 1,400) for their journey. </span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘The Indonesians are good, very kind,’ he said. ‘It’s better here than in Bangladesh, but we don’t know what is happening and when we can ever move.’ On Jakarta's fringes, there are </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">14,000 mainly</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> Afghan refugees; some have been in Indonesia for more than a dozen years.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘Asylum seekers are an international problem which should not be left to NGOs and local governments,’ said Farida. </span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">‘I’ve told my government that it must get involved at a national level</span></span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> before the situation worsens</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">. It should go further to ASEAN because the problem started with Myanmar and now affects us, Malaysia and Thailand. All are members.’</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">In 2002 fifty nations set up the Bali Process to sort out the tragedy of boat people. Hundreds</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> of asylum seekers</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"> have drowned trying to reach Australia and Indonesia</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">; these </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">two countries co-chair the forum</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">On the evidence in this story the ministers and their officials seem to be better at talking than fixing. T</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">ime to </span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">start doing something before the situation worsens.</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">##</span><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><i><span style="color: #0a1633; font-size: 10.5pt;">Since this story was filed 400 more Rohingya refugees have arrived in Aceh, prompting talk of transferring them to Galang Island in the Riau Archipelago. </span></i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="text-align: left;">First published in </span><i style="text-align: left;">Michael West Media </i></p><p align="justify" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="text-align: left;">12 December 2023: https://michaelwest.com.au/nowhere-to-go-refugees-stranded-in-indonesia-while-the-world-looks-away/</span></p>INDONESIA NOW with Duncan Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05398713019875266960noreply@blogger.com0