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.
Duncan's recent articles
19 January 2024
Why Indonesia is more monarchy than democracy
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.
16 January 2024
Our leading lady in Jakarta is not leading
So much for Australias engagement with Asia, wrote 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 Indonesias.
3 January 2024
Goodish guy in bad company
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?
17 December 2023
Equality is risky - best stay with blokes
Indonesians have just witnessed a messy, badly produced TV debate between the politicians jostling to run the worlds fourth largest democracy facing a national election in less than two months.
28 November 2023
Facism - the fear that's near
Could Australia face a fascist leader next door after the Indonesian Presidential election in February? Thats getting more likely as the polls harden, hoaxes flourish and slanders stir.
17 November 2023
Indonesia's soldiers: Back where they don't belong
In Indonesia old soldiers never die; they just infiltrate civic affairs, then grab jobs from the worthy and talented young, slowing the economy.
13 November 2023
The ghosts in the vote machine in Indonesia
Indonesian politics is about personalities, not policy. Some among the 20,000 candidates for national and regional office at the globes biggest one-day ballot next year must be driven by altruism. But how to vote? Who do the dead recommend?
31 October 2023
In the beginning was the word - and the word was UWRF
Indonesias expanding dark side was hardly noticed by festival audiences at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF). But for all his domestic popularity, Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo is no reformist liberal.
25 October 2023
How to choke EV use - car first, service later
Governments across the nation claim they want to reduce pollution. On their list are electric cars. Consumers are encouraged with rebates, tax breaks and blarney, but discouraged by inaction on infrastructure.
23 August 2023
Tomahawk missiles over Indonesia? No worries, they're only passing by
In the early 1960s, the then USSR started building missile sites in Cuba, near enough to Florida forendurance swimmers. This almost led to the Cold War turning flaming hot. Now Australia is to buy more than 200 US missiles and stage them close to Indonesia.
15 August 2023
Indonesia has what we lack - a day of unity
Its banners and bunting season in Southeast Asia as our neighbours celebrate independence. Singapore finished its wavings on 9 August and Malaysias moments of pomp will come on 16 September. Like Australia, both won sovereignty through diplomacy.
3 August 2023
Unlike Indonesia we are outsourcing our defence to a foreign power
Did colonialism ever die? Distant major powers are making life-and-death decisions that will impact Indonesia, ironically on the eve of the Republics 17 August national day celebrating Soekarnos 1945 proclamation of independence from three centuries of Dutch rule.
12 July 2023
Barbie makes a dash in ASEAN
Geo-politics is played on a world chessboard often by sad oldies in sober suits. To keep membership exclusive the polymath gamers use polysyllables and foreign tongues. Clearly not the place for a perky American doll.
3 July 2023
A genocide howling for an apology gets regrets
Before he left for a brief trip to Sydney, Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo took a stab at reconciliation. Its unlikely to succeed.
19 June 2023
Hawks only become doves in election season
Any plan to try and end the Ukraine war needs to be welcomed if sincere, well-considered, unencumbered, and authored by a respected source. None of those criteria applies to the peaceproposal from Prabowo Subianto at the 20th Asia Security Summit this month.
5 June 2023
Be a man, consume till it kills. It will
The World Health Organisations No Tobacco Day last month had Australia announcing tough new ways to get smokers to quit. Next door the fag makers were doing the opposite.
29 May 2023
Compromise worked in Aceh - why not Papua?
There are parallels between Indonesias Aceh where an Ozzie surfer faced a flogging, and Papua where a Kiwi pilot is facing death. Both provinces have fought brutal guerrilla wars for independence. One has been settled through foreign peacekeepers. The other still rages as outsiders fear intervention.
17 May 2023
Indonesian's embrace democracy - but do its leaders?
More Indonesians than Americans are likely to vote in key presidential elections next year. But Australia is focusing on distant North America, not adjacent Southeast Asia, the zone where the Titans could clash.
4 May 2023
The 'Ugly Aussies' rubbishing our reputation in Indonesia
Heres a rough guide to Westerners visiting Indonesia.
12 April 2023
Indonesian politics scores an own goal
Its the biggest story next door but barged offside by the Australian media for the Trump indictment and the No. Theres another factor: Soccers not our national game.
1 April 2023
Wake in fright but fear not; Ramadans here
Its 1444 on the Islamic calendar and the holy month of Ramadan is well advanced with four weeks of fasting, prayer, introspection and goodwill. All commendable - though in the land next door the noise spoils the values.
23 March 2023
Indonesias untouchables stay that way
The outcome of a massive police-caused tragedy on Indonesias Java Island got less media coverage than a silly white womans argument with a brown cop in Bali.
18 March 2023
Blasts from the past
Wellington 26 January 2035: Ten years ago this week the first nuclear-armed missile landed on Australian soil, remembered as Invasion Day. Duncan Graham recalls what happened.
11 March 2023
Lock up your resources, the Aussies are coming
Ignorance and fear can be effective weapons in a manipulative politicians arsenal. Theyre guaranteed to pierce the armour of those least protected by doubt and most susceptible to flannel.
12 February 2023
Indonesia seeks Myanmar peace talks
Indonesia is chair of ASEAN this year and using its position to try and end the two-year crisis in Myanmar thats already cost more than 3,000 lives.
29 January 2023
Whats in a name? Ardern's pledge
In the applause showered on Jacinda Ardern at the close of her term theres one credit missing: The NZ PM swore to never mention the name of the 2019 Christchurch mass murderer.
19 January 2023
Killing Times: Indonesia grapples with legacy of government-organised mass murder
When is a purge a genocide? When a young Australian researcher finds solid evidence thats long eluded international scholars, proving the minds of millions have been poisoned with lies.
20 December 2022
Seasons fearings in Indonesia this Christmas
Will it be safe for Christians this Saturday night in Indonesia? The signs of the festive season used to be plastic mistletoe and corflute Santas in shopping malls. Now in East Javas second biggest city its armoured cars outside churches.
15 December 2022
Indonesian sex ban: One law for us, another for them?
It seems Indonesias new bonk-ban laws are discriminatory and racist. Bad news if you believe legal systems should be impartial, but good tidings for bule (white skin foreigners). So sayeth a governor.
8 December 2022
Indonesia bans sex outside marriage amid sweeping law changes
Lock your bedroom: The state is perving. The G20 in Bali last month was a splendid success and not just because world leaders talked to each other proving differences can sometimes be understood, if not always accepted.
5 December 2022
Infatuated with US politics, does the media remember the third-largest democracy in the world: Indonesia?
Americans will get to the ballot box in late 2024. Such is our infatuation with US politics that by Guy Fawkes night well have absorbed enough minutia to know more about their electoral system than ours. Does anyone in the media remember Indonesia?
19 November 2022
Sending a 13-year-old Indonesian child to an Australian adult prison
Sentencing 13 year old children to adult jail is injustice of the highest order. On some lists Australians are world leaders in shame. Like locking up and brutalising children as Four Corners has shown and not only our own. Weve treated Indonesian kiddies just as badly.
11 November 2022
How did Dag Hammarskjld die? The CIA and Indonesian connection
More than six decades after his plane crashed it remains the great Cold War mystery: Was UN secretary-general (1953-61) Dag Hammarskjld killed by sabotage, a technical fault, pilot error or air attack? If he was assassinated who was the mastermind?
7 November 2022
G20 forecast: Bleak outlook, chances of thunder
Its the meeting season in Indonesia, but the chances of viable offspring are slim. Too much hate, too little harmony. Thats bad news for all.
4 November 2022
Sex, drugs and confusion: Sharia law in Bali?
Bali tourism is slowly picking up as Covid apparently retreats. The new threats are laws on drugs, religion and sex.
12 October 2022
Kanjuruhan tragedy: Malang seethes with fury at police
The most widespread slogan stencilled on the Indonesian citys walls, scrawled on posters, splashed on bedsheets in red and draped from powerlines and bridges is Usut Tuntas.
9 October 2022
Bali Bombings: The blasts that blew neighbours apart
The Bali bombings of two decades ago, remembered with anger and sadness, did much more than kill 202 partygoers, wound 209 and scar families for years. The blasts also ripped apart an Indonesia-Australia relationship that has now slumped into indifference.
6 October 2022
Indonesia suppresses data on critically endangered Orangutan habitat threats
Outsiders doing business in Indonesia are urged to be polite and follow cultural norms. That also goes for academics, and the ones in this story have been exemplars of courtesy. But that hasnt stopped their findings from getting rubbished and motives trashed.
14 September 2022
China is muscling Indonesia but not with war threats
Unlike Australians, Indonesians dont fear war with China. Their concerns are more prosaic debt, work and the virus of atheism.
4 September 2022
Getting away with mid-air murder
Studying in Europe was to be a highlight of Munir Said Thalibs career. The voice of the Indonesian activist and forceful critic of the armys human rights record was being heard internationally. His opponents hoped a spell abroad might silence the censure. Instead, it was amplified. Now itll be turned off as time for action expires.
30 August 2022
Suffer the little children
The plains are polluted. On a windless day and theyre common theres no need for a sniff-o-meter to count the particles just stand in a high place and scan the smogscape below.
18 August 2022
Sex, lies but no videotape
Governments love distractions and theres a doozy gripping the people next door: A lurid tabloid tale running for five weeks and counting is keeping electors focussed on spice rather than the erosion of democracy and corruption controls.
13 August 2022
Indonesias unfinished business
Acknowledgements of Aboriginal land as preludes to formal events are now rarely contested, a belated acceptance that Australia has a bloody history that needs to be publicly discussed as a move towards reconciliation. Indonesia also has a grim past, but still shies from recognition and healing.
10 August 2022
A hodge-podge is not an international service
As Opposition Leader touring overseas, Anthony Albanese probably clicked on ABC Australia TV to kill time. If so his claim that its a matter of national security that the ABC makes more content that projects Australian values and interests to the Indo-Pacific region sounds like despair driving action.
1 August 2022
Hush loose lips on foot and mouth scare biz
Legini and Gimah have foot and mouth. Theyve just been vaccinated privately for Rp 100,000 ($10) each. Had an Indonesian government vet wielded the syringe the cost would have been Rp 40,000, but Ibu Bambang fears officials might seize her precious charges and give no compensation.
19 July 2022
The Wong position on ASEAN
What are Southeast Asiansattitudes towards Australia? Distrust, bewilderment, admiration, contempt, indifference pick your prejudice. How about disbelief? The best and latest indicator came with reaction to Foreign Minister Penny Wongs introducing the new Australian government to the people next door in Indonesian.
10 July 2022
Asylum seekers in Indonesia-alive, but not living
In one of its nastier theological fabrications seemingly driven by schadenfreude, the Catholic Church invented purgatory - heavens waiting room where sins were cleansed oftentimes by fire. The medieval idea has been largely smothered by modern church teachings more in line with Christs compassion, but the worldly equivalent thrives next door through Australian indifference.
9 June 2022
Tolerance of intolerance threatens Indonesias image
The LGBTIQA+ community in Australia is cautiously expecting an acceleration of acceptance now the Albanese government has the steering wheel. But in the nation next door which boasts it runs with moderation, human rights is going in reverse.
2 June 2022
'Mutual respect and genuine partnership': how a Labor government could revamp our relationship with Indonesia
Dear Albo: Get to know the people next door. On ABC TVs The Insiders, the then opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said he planned to visit Indonesia as soon as possible a statement rapidly drowned in the mainstream medias trite election coverage. In 1994 when the then PM Paul Keating said no country is more important to Australia than Indonesia, the response was intense.