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Timor Lorosa'e, a Country on the Crossroads of Asia and the Pacific

A Geo-Historical Atlas

Frederic Durand

 

On May 20, 2002, the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, located between Indonesia and Australia, became independent under the name of Timor Lorosa'e, "Timor rising sun", and thus became the first State of the third millenium. Out of a series of 136 charts, this work invites the reader to reflect on this country which has known the drama of a war against Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999.

 

Presses Universitaires de Marne-la-Vallée, 208pp, 136 charts, 106 photographs: 30 euros.

 

Indonesia: In Seach Of Transition

Henk Schulte Nordholt and Irwan Abdullah (eds)

 

This book presents position papers of four new Indonesian-Dutch research projects on contemporary Indonesia. It also contains articles by Emma Porio on civil society, Gerry van Klinken on ethnic violence in Kalimantan and Martin van Bruinessen on the last days of president Wahid.

 

Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, 2002, 217pp, ISBN 9799483190 (pbk).

 

Natural Press Attackers: Tekanan Terhadap Pers Indonesia 2001

Lukas Luwarso, Solahudin, Enrico Aditjondro

 

Natural Press Attackers provides detailed accounts of various cases of violence against journalists in Indonesia. These include attacks on the press initiated by Gus Dur’s supporters and the abduction of Belgian film-makers in the Jayawijaya mountains. Natural Press Attackers also covers journalists’ confusion as to why the police, who should be protecting the public, are instead repressing press freedom in Indonesia.

 

Jakarta: SEAPA, 2002, 220pp (English and Indonesian), 20,000 rp

 

Forests, People and Rights

 

Down to Earth's major new report, 'Forests, People and Rights', takes a comprehensive look at the ongoing crisis in Indonesia's forests and the continuing violation of forest peoples' rights.

 

The three-part report outlines the state of the forests, discusses the legal framework which denies forest peoples their customary rights to forest lands and resources, documents the political economy of forest destruction under Suharto, and charts the development of large-scale plantations.

 

The report then examines changes in policy and practice during the post-Suharto period up to the present. It considers the influences of the International Financial Institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, regional autonomy and pressure from civil society organisations.

 

'Forests, People and Rights' then presents the case for community-based forest management as a positive alternative to 'timber-mining'. It highlights Indonesian organisations working in this area and includes six short case studies of communities in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Java and Lombok.

 

'Forests, People and Rights' was produced with support from the Forest Peoples Programme and the Rainforest Foundation.

 

To order printed copies of the report (58 pages) send a cheque or money

order for GBP 5.00 or USD 10.00 to: Down to Earth, 59 Athenlay Road, London

SE15 3EN, England. Please add the equivalent of GB2 if paying with a

non-Sterling cheque.

 

Land Claims in East Timor

 

Daniel Fitzpatrick

 

The relationship of a people and their land has many aspects; spritual, familial, economics. Land provides the home and shelter for the family, the sense of security which is essential to human dignity. Land is a source of food; it is a source and the most permanent form of wealth. And so, the stability of a society depends upon the justice and effectiveness of the lawsand institutions which govern and protect the access of the people to land. East Timor begins its life as a new and independent nation without the benefit of established laws and institutions to regulate land, its ownership and use. It must create those laws and institutions in order to foster the peace, security and economy of its people.

 

In addressing questions of such magnitude, there is an inevitable risk that the solutions might be inadequate or, in copying the provisions of more developed legal systems, inappropriate. East Timor is fortunate in Mr Fitzpatrick's Land Claims in East Timor to assist. It is a work of scholarship, based firmly on his research into the existing situation in East Timor.

 

Asia-Pacific Press, 2002, 220pp, ISBN: 0 7315 3688 6, A$40.

 

Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia: the case of the “Ngruki Network” in Indonesia

8 August 2002

ICG Indonesia Briefing

 

Indonesia is not a terrorist hotbed. Proponents of radical Islam remain a small minority and only one network of militant Muslims, known as the Ngruki network, has produced all the Indonesian nationals so far suspected of links to al-Qaeda. The problem is that the Ngruki network is far wider than the handful of people who have been accused of ties to al-Qaeda and includes individuals with well-established political legitimacy for having defied the Soeharto government. The challenge both for the Indonesian government and the international community is to be alert to the possibility of individuals making common cause with international criminals without taking steps that will undermine Indonesia’s fragile democratic institutions.

 

http://www.intl-crisis-group.org

 

Roots Of Violence In Indonesia. Contemporary Violence In Historical Perspective.

Freek Colombijn and J. Thomas Lindblad (eds)

 

Jakarta, Sambas, Poso, the Moluccas, West Papua. These simple, geographical names have recently obtained strong associations with mass killing, just as Aceh and East Timor, where large-scale violence has flared up again. Lethal incidents between adjacent villages, or between a petty criminal and the crowd, take place throughout Indonesia. Indonesia is a violent country.

 

Many Indonesia-watchers, both scholars and journalists, explain the violence in terms of the loss of the monopoly on the means of violence by the state since the beginning of the Reformasi in 1998. Others point at the omnipresent remnants of the New Order state (1966-1998), former President Suharto's clan or the army in particular, as the evil genius behind the present bloodshed.

 

The authors in this volume try to explain violence in Indonesia by looking at it in historical perspective.

KITLV Press, 2002, 352 pp. ISBN 9067 181 889

 

Politics and the Press in Indonesia: Understanding an Evolving Political Culture

Angela Romano

 

This book explores the evolving political culture in Indonesia, by discussing the country's dominant political philosophies, then showing how those philosophies affect the working lives of ordinary Indonesian citizens. It focuses in particular on the working lives of news journalists, a group that occupies a strategic social and political position. The author discusses the philosophies of 'Pancasila', the official national ideology, as well as paternalism, integrationism and corporatism. Romano also explores the 32-year period of New Order government and the rapid changes that followed President Suharto's resignation in 1998, concentrating on how the day-to-day workings of the news media are affected by paternalism, corporatism, corruption, and evolution of the prevailing political culture.

 

RoutledgeCurzon, October 2002, 256pp, ISBN 0700717455

 

|Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia:The Umma Below the Winds

Michael Francis Laffan

 

This book argues that Indonesian nationalism rested on Islamic ecumenism heightened by colonial rule and the pilgrimage. The author contrasts the latter experience with life in Cairo, where some Southeast Asians were drawn to both reformism and nationalism. After demonstrating the close linkage between Cairene ideology and Indonesian nationalism, Laffan shows how developments in the Middle East continued to play a role in shaping Islamic politics in colonial Indonesia.   

 

           

RoutledgeCurzon, October 2002, 304 pp, ISBN 0415297575 (hbk)