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). He is now writing for the English language media in Indonesia from within Indonesia. Duncan Graham 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.
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Sound the alarm: ABC at risk
The Federal Parliament has yet to pass a law ensuring five-year funding for the ABC. If it doesn’t get passed, it leaves the national broadcaster open to cuts and threats should the government change. Continue reading »
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Yesterday’s man is stuffing up
Trump Two is the world’s big story – will he fly high and take the dollar aloft – or crash and fry? Whatever, he’s shading the sun from the right-wing blusterer next door who isn’t doing well after three months. Duncan Graham reports. Continue reading »
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Jakarta pips Dutton in nuclear race
Peter Dutton’s hopes for Australia to be the first nation in the Southern Hemisphere to pioneer the use of small-to-medium nuclear reactors seem dashed. Continue reading »
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Debunking deforestation
Indonesia’s new president, former disgraced general Prabowo Subianto, is making an awkward discovery: gaining respect in the international community as head of a nation of 280 million civilians is not the same as ordering a special squad to intimidate. Continue reading »
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Farewell fair go, hello despair
It’s true. The night fears have come to pass. The evidence is too great to ignore any longer. My country, our nation, is racist. Continue reading »
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War games? Let’s play peace
Why volunteer for the military? Academics have some answers. Continue reading »
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One word fouls straits settlement – “Overlapping”
It was supposed to be the Tour Triumphant, showing that Indonesia – the globe’s fourth-most populous nation – has a cosmopolitan new boss who can stride the world stage with panache. But cashiered former general Prabowo Subianto has tripped badly. Continue reading »
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Moderates begone: ‘TIS THE AGE OF THE DESPOT
Prabowo Subianto has got his diary right: First overseas handshake from the new President of Indonesia is for his bankers in Beijing, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. Trump can wait. Continue reading »
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Come in now Indonesian democracy, your time is up
It took less than a week for the reality to be exposed. Even Deputy PM Richard Marles must now acknowledge that the nation next door he praises for its moderation and democracy is now a military dictatorship and a serious threat. Continue reading »
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Gender equality? – Not our culture
Half the 280 million people in Indonesia are women, though not in the 48-member ministry; just five were drafted this week by the fresh president Prabowo Subianto. It’s a Cabinet fuelled more by testosterone than talent. Continue reading »
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Small, smart and struggling
Where’s the torrent of cash expected to flow from Google, Meta and other overseas behemoths plundering Ozzie journalism? Here’s the latest handwringing. Continue reading »
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Can this Odd Couple survive?
Before debating with Democrat VP candidate Tim Walz, the Republican
nominee JD Vance said the contestants’ views matter little because voters go for the top of the ticket, not the bottom. Continue reading » -
Looming now in Indonesia: The age of uncertainty
There’ll soon be a new leader next door – ageing hardliner Prabowo Subianto. He’s Indonesia’s dark lord with a worrying past of alleged human rights abuses, yet overwhelmingly elected in the February national poll. He’ll take over on 20 October. Continue reading »
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The cursed stone resists return
In an age of logic and evidence-based reasoning, modern research has revealed a thousand-year curse. It could be stopping the superstitious and spiritually-conscious Javanese from vigorously striving to return a thieved “emblem of Indonesian cultural heritage”. Continue reading »
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Never mind the quality, feel the words
The paperwork signing late last month by Defence Minister Richard Marles and his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto in Magelang (Central Java) is being paraded as an extraordinary advance in relationships. It’s not. Continue reading »
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Father knows best? Not this time
How comfy the throne, how rapid the change; a humble Republican from a riverbank shack is plotting to be King of Indonesia surrounded by his regal family of political courtiers. Continue reading »
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The ABC of telling tales
ABC chair Kim Williams reckons the Corporation should focus more on hard news than lifestyle fillers. While purging the pap, he might also look at how some stories get told, particularly to international audiences. Continue reading »
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Neither treaty nor pact, just troubling facts
ABC foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic’s ’exclusive’ claim that “Australia and Indonesia are on the brink of sealing an upgraded defence pact” hasn’t been refuted by Defence so is probably right. Continue reading »
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How to get good publicity? Ban journos
A tip for politicians worried about bothersome journos upsetting talking points with probing questions: Don’t invite peskies to your pressies. Continue reading »
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Street charity – Thank Allah it’s friday
Following the 7 October Hamas outrage Australia has been suffering an outburst of race and religious hate. Lawyer Jillian Segal has been made a “special envoy” to counter antisemitism. A similar appointment is expected to confront Islamophobia and challenge the alleged linkage of Muslims with extremism and terror. Continue reading »
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When will we treat Indonesia seriously?
The title question deserves a cynic’s response: Only when the country next door becomes a military dictatorship and mates with China. Then we might wake up. Continue reading »
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Facts sacred, pacts not
It’s a hoary oldie publicity hook: Imagine something improbable, then feed off the controversy. Continue reading »
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SOS – Save our scribes
As legacy media dies we seek its phoenix. Continue reading »
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Control the past – then the future. Thus spoke Orwell
It’s been argued that Indonesia’s next President may be good for Australian interests; for domestic progressives that’s doubtful. Continue reading »
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What ye sow ye reap
There’s nothing profound about the Biblical quote; variations are embedded in many religions and cultures. Continue reading »
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Indonesia’s carbon crisis: will Islam get dirty hands?
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)(revival of the scholars) is Indonesia and the world’s largest Islamic organisation claiming almost 100 million members. If it digs coal it could become mega-rich. How dirty work marries with sending souls to paradise only Allah knows. Continue reading »
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Tyranny of proximity
The pundits are already in a tizz: What’ll happen to defence, AUKUS, trade and other relationships should Trump win in November? More pressing and certain is how we’ll cope when Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto takes office in October. Continue reading »
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A better service may be transmitted
The Indonesian government’s TVRI channel is supposed to have negotiated an MOU with the ABC to swap programmes. A great idea – benefits all. That’s the initial reaction. Continue reading »
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The militarist as milkman
ABC TV’s Landline programme has declared that “Australia’s dairy industry is licking its lips at the prospect of increased demand from Indonesia.” Continue reading »
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Rules show how not to win friends and influence people
The ABC is running jolly programmes on and for the Pacific as part of a government policy to counter Chinese influence. But in a closer, bigger and more important region already eyed by Beijing the national broadcaster and its paymaster offer indifference and ignorance. Or is that arrogance? Continue reading »