Writer
Duncan Graham
Duncan Graham has been a journalist for more than 40 years in print, radio and TV. He is the author of People Next Door (UWA Press) and winner of the Walkley Award and Human Rights awards. He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia.
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Easter in Indonesia: a time to be wary
Easter is different in Islam-dominated Indonesia. High on the facade of the Catholic cathedral and other churches in Malang, East Java stand statues of a welcoming Jesus. Beneath his outstretched arms parishioners got the extra protection of six-wheeled armoured personnel carriers, soldiers and police ready to intimidate potential bombers…. Continue reading »
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The jilbab: human rights in Indonesia
An Indonesian woman appears before God who will pass judgement. The almighty checks the freshly-deceased’s CV, noting she prayed regularly at the mosque, recited the Koran and lived an upright life. However, she didn’t always wear a jilbab. For the sin of letting strangers see her glossy black locks, she’ll be condemned to the everlasting… Continue reading »
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How not to win friends and influence people
“No country is more important to Australia than Indonesia. If we fail to get this relationship right, and nurture and develop it, the whole web of our foreign relations is incomplete.” Paul Keating – 1994… Continue reading »
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The long Chinese march into Indonesia with vaccines
Chinese officials in Australia rarely miss an opportunity to chill relations by turning down the thermostat on our democratic values and way of seeing the world. Meanwhile, the Middle Kingdom’s men in Jakarta are playing a long and warming game.So far about four million have had their first vaccine shot and around 1.5 million needle… Continue reading »
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Australia could take a leaf from Indonesia’s personalised approach to aged care
Our street in Indonesia has 70 households. Many are mixed-generation families. With few nursing homes or retirement villages, and those being far away, families have two options: The kids do the caring or employ a carer. Either way, Grandpa or Grandma stays home…. Continue reading »
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Thin-skinned Widodo in Indonesia: Messengers beware
The first who told of Lucullus’ coming so angered Tigranes that he had the messenger’s head, effectively ensuring no one brought bad news. Deprived of fresh intelligence Tigranes watched while war raged, listening only to flatterers…. Continue reading »
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Indonesia still waiting for legislation to penalise sexual violence
Five years ago a Bill was put before Indonesia’s lower house (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat) to penalise sexual violence. Activists stressed the need for urgency as the scourge was increasing. They’re still waiting…. Continue reading »
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Murdoch & Morrison v. The ABC – GetUp fails a commendable mission
GetUp has added public broadcasting to environmental justice, human rights and other worthy issues. Through the just-released video, Murdoch & Morrison v. The ABC, it’s trying to arouse anger against the impact of News Corp’s never-ending siege of the national broadcaster … Continue reading »
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Indonesia’s pandemic policy: Pray and pay
Indonesia’s former health minister, a medical doctor, predicted the satanic infection would fly over the country because the people below were so pious. The world’s fourth most populous nation has a huge vaccination task ahead. … Continue reading »
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Diplomacy’s pointy end. Chinese vaccines in Indonesia.
The choreography was about reassurance. A well-masked Indonesian President Joko Widodo sitting before a large red sign saying AMAN dan HALAL – meaning safe and approved for Muslims. Alongside stood Palace doctor Professor Abdul Muthalib ready to show 270 million citizens that the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine Sinovac was OK…. Continue reading »
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Children in Prison: shame, Australia, shame
In February 2012 X Riyan and X Hadi were led into the Perth District Courtroom 7.1 by uniformed security guards…. Continue reading »
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Sinophobia as a political weapon
Morality racketeering’ is Australian academic Dr Ian Wilson’s shorthand for Indonesian white-clad mobsters who dress in religious righteousness to terrorise their animus-du-jour. Last century it was vice. More recently it’s been blasphemers. Now it’s the government of President Joko Widodo…. Continue reading »
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Small nail, big hammer
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, a leader prone to blunders (he initially took the Trump no-worries approach to Covid-19 now ravaging the Republic), may have made another serious error. He’s banned a Muslim organisation that’s become the loudest and most militant critic of his government…. Continue reading »
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The elephant, the canary, the wolf and other beasties to dispatch by journalists.
The tweeters are using the media as spittoons. Along with the contrived malice of Donald Trump and the spinmeisters of government they’re doing their damnedest to discredit our profession. We don’t need help: This is a job we’ve been doing ourselves…. Continue reading »
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Sinophobia as a political weapon
‘Morality racketeering’ is Australian academic Dr Ian Wilson’s shorthand for Indonesian white-clad mobsters who dress themselves in religious righteousness to terrorise their animus-du-jour. Last century it was vice. More recently it’s been blasphemers. Now it’s the government of President Joko Widodo…. Continue reading »
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We pay lip service to our relationship with Indonesia
If a relationship just concentrates on STDs it’ll never mature. That goes for countries as well as couples…. Continue reading »
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Corruption in Indonesia: Ants after sugar
Corruption is heavy stuff so let’s lighten with an old Indonesian joke: A farmer’s goat is stolen so he reports to the police. They’ll investigate if he pays. The fee is a cow. The theft is neither solved nor the bovines returned. … Continue reading »
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Let them all speak English
Did university administrators know of federal government policies to boost learning about Indonesia before they rushed to slash and burn? Or maybe they knew but are too blinkered to care…. Continue reading »
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An early test of strength in Indonesia
Just a year into its second five-year term, Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s government is under threat. Opposition is being powered by a hate group led by an incendiary preacher demanding the nation abandons democracy for a sharia state. How serious is the menace? We’ll know next week…. Continue reading »
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A grog ban in Indonesia!
Hard hit by the pandemic, Indonesia is in recession. The government is desperate to revive the economy and draw overseas investors, particularly into the tourist industry which earned almost AUD 20 billion a year before Covid-19. So not the ideal time to tell potential travellers that prohibition is proposed…. Continue reading »
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Australian charity in Indonesia can be a problem.
Until recently Indonesia presented itself to the West not as a Muslim country but through Bali, a land of smiling faces, exotic dancers, paradisiacal landscapes…. Continue reading »
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Return of the dangerman preacher
It was a full-on snub to history and a challenge to the social and business reforms of President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo. More worrying is the likelihood of a return to faith-based hate politics in the world’s most populous Muslim country…. Continue reading »
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Off the Ground: A new generation of foreign correspondents
Mazoe Ford is billed as the ABC’s ‘Southeast Asia Correspondent’. She’s been reporting on the civil strife in Bangkok – from Sydney…. Continue reading »
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While the US flounders, China plants ideas and friendship in Indonesia
Of all the corroded clichés used in reporting the US election, the rustiest claimed ‘the whole world was watching.’ … Continue reading »
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Where to send granny? Bringing the last generation back into total society
There used to be five. Two have died in the past year, so with just three using wheelchairs and walking frames the street looks less like an archipelagic version of what Australia used to call ‘nursing homes’. That was before Covid-19 and realising the term was a lie…. Continue reading »
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Pompeo came to Indonesia, he saw, he scurried
Does anyone in Washington know anything about Indonesia? Clearly not, or White House staff would have urged State Secretary Mike Pompeo to enjoy fall in Washington. So there must be another reason for a 32,000 km round trip other than to escape Trump’s tirades…. Continue reading »
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Threats or inducements in dealing with China?
The day after US State Secretary Mike Pompeo announced he’ll be visiting India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia this month to try and keep the Indian Ocean nations on side, his rival for the region’s attention ,China, was making its pitch courtesy of an Indonesian think tank. The approaches were remarkably unalike – one a clenched… Continue reading »
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Protests against Indonesian economic reform: stability and a minimum wage have gone
Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants to snare foreign investors. They’re a wary lot. Though excited by big markets and the chance of bigger returns, they’re fearful of losing fortunes, and with good reason: Risk…. Continue reading »
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Forgotten East Timor: Island, principles, people
Did Gough Whitlam greenlight Indonesia’s violent seizure of East Timor in 1975? The invasion and 24-year occupation took the lives of up to 300,000 people in a population of 650,000 living on a wretchedly poor leftover from European colonisation…. Continue reading »
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The comeback kid heads to Washington
Champions of Donald Trump’s style of politics will warm to Prabowo Subianto. They’ll understand why Washington is forgetting Indonesia’s Defence Minister was once banned from the US and Australia for alleged human rights abuses, and get onside with another tough…. Continue reading »
