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Privatising social justice
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Written by David Bourchier and Ian Chalmers
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As riots erupt across the country, Suharto is forcing rich companies to contribute to a private anti-poverty foundation. But, for DAVID BOURCHIER and IAN CHALMERS, the move smacks of personal greed.
Tags: National Politics
New Order (1967-98)
Fall of Suharto (1998)
Poverty
Inequality
Corruption
National
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Timor's betrayal
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James Dunn, East Timor: a people betrayed, Sydney: ABC Books, new edition 1996, 365 pp, RRP: AU$34.95.
Reviewed by JAMES ROSE
This is the comprehensive history of the East Timorese tragedy. Beginning from the time Portuguese sailors first arrived early in the 16th century, up to 1995, the author describes and analyses the grubby details of a very dirty period in our region's past, which has still not ended.
It will not make comfortable reading for many politicians. Five Commonwealth administrations are implicated. Their policies reveal 'aspects of Australian politics and values that many would rather not know, contradictions in our performance as a responsible world citizen'. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, with whom the author worked closely, bears the brunt of some scathing criticism.
The Whitlam government's ultimate submission to Indonesian aggression set the mold for future governments. It leaves one concluding that East Timor is one of the more shameful chapters in the history of Australian foreign affairs.
Schizophrenia
Dunn also offers a fascinating insight into the machinations of Indonesian power. The schizophrenia inherent in the 'dwifungsi' system is clearly revealed.
According to Dunn, the 'political' wing of Indonesia's parliament was less informed about East Timor than might be expected. President Suharto too was uninterested in, and ill- informed about, East Timor. Under the spell of a number of high- ranking officers such as Ali Murtopo and Benny Murdani, he was eventually convinced to annex East Timor.
Dunn notes the poorly staffed Indonesian consulate in Dili, and quotes foreign minister Adam Malik's far more conciliatory tones. These things, he argues, indicate that such high ranking ministers were out of touch with what the military was planning, and with the influence the military had over the President. Either this was one of the great con-jobs, or a huge victory for the military over the executive.
Former Australian ambassador to Indonesia Richard Woolcott wrote in one of many pre-occupation suggestions: 'I know I am recommending a pragmatic rather than a principled stance, but that is what national interest and foreign policy is all about'.
The extent to which Australians, and Australian governments, accept that doctrine will inform our East Timor policy in the future. James Dunn's book ought to be required reading for anyone wishing to partake in such a debate.
James Rose is a Master's graduate in international studies and an executive member of The Australian Institute of International Affairs. He lives in Melbourne.
Inside Indonesia 50: Apr-Jun 1997
Tags: Reviews
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Recovering women's history
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Written by Liz Martyn
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Saskia Eleonora Wieringa, The politicization of gender relations in Indonesia: The Indonesian women's movement and Gerwani until the New Order state, Amsterdam: Universiteitsbibliotheek (PhD thesis), 1995.
Tags: Reviews
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Big projects, little people
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Written by Lea Jellinek
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After 20 years, LEA JELLINEK returns to Jakarta's kampungs only to find many demolished for condominiums. The mood of their constantly evicted residents oscillates between resignation and resistance.
Tags: Marginalised Groups
Urban Indonesia
New Order (1967-98)
Poverty
Java
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A democratic Asia?
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Written by Chris Beale
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>Garry Rodan (ed.), Political oppositions in industrialising Asia Routledge Price, 1996, 338 pp. RRP: AU$36.95.
Reviewed by CHRIS BEALE
The trouble with good books like this is, before their ink is dry, they are out of date. That is how fast Asian events now move. However, for laymen wanting an over-view analysis of Asia's pro-democracy movements, it's hard to find a better starting place than this excellent volume. The back cover raises the crucial question: 'What kind of political opposition is possible?'.
Chapters by Ariel Heryanto and Ed Aspinall cover Indonesia. If journalism is history's first draft, this book is social science's second. Prone to theorising, the book is saved by Heryanto and Aspinall's history-in-motion.
Indonesia
However, this does not prevent out-datedness. There is no mention of Megawati's ousting from the PDI leadership, its violent aftermath, or the riots sweeping Indonesia.
Aspinall's comment 'that there has been no attempt to establish a new party' since the 1970's appears quaint in view of People's Democratic Party (PRD) chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko's 'subversion' trial. Likewise Islamic parliamentarian Sri Bintang Pamungkas' party PUDI.
Aspinall indicates a hard political nail might have to be hit, when he writes: 'In the end, civilians may be obliged to make a painful choice between Suharto and the army'. National stability in Indonesia still grows largely out of the barrel of a gun. Since this book was written, Suharto has become more dependent on the army.
Heryanto provides valuable coverage of the 1994 media bans, bank loan scandals, April 1994 Medan labour 'riot', closure of the national lottery, and Megawati successfully defeating Suharto's first attempt to remove her from the PDI leadership.
For all the book's focus on 'non-formal opposition', there's precious little about Indonesia's fastest growing, potentially most powerful opposition: Islam. But there's plenty of speculation, and some detail, about elite divisions - notably ICMI's co-opting Muslims. Ditto how Indonesia's oppositions exploit such division. These speculations have strong echoes of other Asian democracy movements, especially in Thailand and South Korea.
Bourgeoisie
The volume is a follow-up to editor Rodan's 1993 publication - 'Southeast Asia in the 1990's'. It also follows Murdoch University's 'New Rich in Asia' series, and is as pre-occupied with the well-heeled. The theme recurs that the middle classes want their democracy to administer the affairs of the bourgeoisie.
Essentially, the book argues that Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea more recently demonstrate what Singapore and Malaysia proved long ago. Beneath democracy's 'face', authoritarian regimes reap twin middle class (often Chinese) fears.
On one hand, the fear that 'democracy' might get out of control. Popular passions, pent up by rapid industrialisation, threaten ferocious unleashing. On the other hand, excessive authoritarianism - with feudalistic overlordship, cronyism, and corruption - results in inefficient capitalism, stifling and milking middle-class expansion.
This is the Asian middle class dilemma. It dominates Rodan's book, sometimes to the exclusion of other crucial political actors - the military, working class, religious groups.
Thailand
Selected country case studies are somewhat arbitrary. Why, for example, is the Philippines excluded? Birth place of 'people's power', it is undoubtedly a model for Indonesia's oppositions.
For anyone with a serious Indonesia interest, however, co-editor Kevin Hewison's chapter on Thailand, latest Asian domino to fall 'democracy's' way, is most interesting. It is also the worst for over-theorising. This is Hamlet minus Denmark's Prince, for there is no mention of the King's intervention in May 1992. Rival military units marched on Bangkok, against occupying troops, so demonstrators would not be 'denied access' to their revered Head of State. Yet these events crucially turned Thailand's democracy uprising from certain defeat into partial victory.
The same events also constitute crucial differences between Thailand and Indonesia. In Thailand, Asia's only country never conquered by the West, monarchy is unchallenged. Suharto? Indonesia has been one of Asia's most colonised. Heryanto documents Suharto's increasingly challenged hegemony, though there is no strong counter-hegemon, yet.
Heryanto and Aspinall's Indonesia articles concentrate on points Hewison's Thai analysis misses. NGO's, religious groups, students, unions, military factions - all responsible for bringing, inspiring, and eventually protecting hundreds of thousands in Bangkok's uprising, form parallel focuses for Heryanto and Aspinall.
Despite missing some of the action, this book is highly recommended.
Chris Beale was the only Australian journalist behind Thai military lines when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators in May 1992. He was writing for Broadside and Green Left Weekly. He speaks Indonesian and visits Indonesia often.
Inside Indonesia 50: Apr-Jun 1997
Tags: Reviews
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Bali's other face
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Written by Ron Witton
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Geoffrey Robinson, The dark side of Paradise: political violence in Bali, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995, xxii, 341 pp.
Tags: Bali
Reviews
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Middletown comes to Malang
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Written by Jason Price
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JASON PRICE talks with the new middle class and discovers they love progress but keep the poor at arms length.
Tags: Consumption
Urban Indonesia
New Order (1967-98)
Inequality
Java
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