ABBEYS BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Like many Australians, my knowledge of Indonesia was next to nil. When it did cross my mind, the picture ranged from that of a mythical tropical land of exotic and mystical delights, to a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism. With the recent elections in one of the largest democracies in the world, my interest was piqued with this book by Hamish McDonald, a Walkley Award-winning journalist with a long association within Asia. McDonald brings a fairly straight reportage to his prose. The facts are presented without embellishment, but those facts are spice enough as the details of the ebb and flow of power and cronyism are revealed. The structure is well thought-out as each chapter focuses on a key facet of the society or history. The disguised coup from which Major-General Suharto assumed power from Sukarno is the subject of The Crocodile Hole. The embedded nature of the military within the fabric of civil, economic and political life is covered in Beyond Dwifungsi (Dual Function). Capital takes us through the development of the economy and the strained relations with non-indigenous tycoons and nepotism. The peppering of Indonesian words throughout also provides a strong sense of the culture. We learn of preman (gangster-thug-enforcers for hire) and cukong (roughly meaning boss but which evolved to also imply a Chinese businessman who had thrived under military patronage). All-in-all we get a strong picture of emergence. Indonesia is on the rise but it is certainly not a straight line. Key reforms in education, welfare, anti-corruption and democracy run alongside brutal suppressions and entrenched corruption. The dust is still settling on the election and it appears that the triumph of Joko Widodo is a lucky escape for the nation, with his defeat of the former general Prabowo Subianto representing a further break from the military regimes of the past. Craig
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 03:16:13 +0000
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