To celebrate Indonesia’s 72nd birthday, I post a talk I gave at TED Global in 2014, musing about why the country was so invisible internationally. I reasoned that successful multi-cultural democracies don’t make the headlines. Would I give the same talk now?
Is the furore over a Chinese religious statue in Java really another example of Islamist intolerance in Indonesia? Or does it reflect a Javanese aversion to an oversized statue of gopping vulgarity?
What is it with Indonesians and the law? It seems to me the country is beset with enthusiasm for purely symbolic laws, coupled with an utter disdain for the actual law. The photo above, taken in the Maduran town of Sumenep by my friend and colleague Michael Buehler, provides a delightful, home-made example of the first. Here’s a closer look: “Forbidden to have a traffic accident here!” it declares, above a gaping hole in the road. And then it gives…
Let’s for once leave politics and the perfidy of men behind, and revel in the beauty of the earth and the ingenuity of mankind. The photo of the volcanoes of East Java and beyond comes from the International Space Station, courtesy of NASA (and the US taxpayer). You can download a bigger version without the text labels here (jpg, 6kb) and find the source here. But I’m copying the text in full, because, well, because I find it fascinating. Thanks…
On Wednesday, we saw once again that Indonesian voters are more grown up than the people they are voting for. Though the Jakarta elections were repeatedly presented as a test of strength of political Islam, I’ve always thought the white-robed mobs were more a throw-back to the everyday tactics of the Old Guard, as I argue in this commentary in Nikkei Asian Review. But as the capital faces a second round of voting, we can certainly expect the FPI to…
Two years ago, I gave this short TED Talk about imaginary husbands, telling lies, and the mass killings that slashed across Indonesia in 1965. I know many people will hate it, and will disagree most violently when I say that the long silence that followed the killings was probably a good thing. But we mustn’t forget for ever. I post the unedited version of the 5 minute talk now, to remind us all what can happen in Indonesia (what HAS…
Though the common sense of most Indonesians gives me hope, I’m more disappointed than ever by politicians, who pander to thuggish interest groups, and technocrats, who can’t seem to cope with honest criticism.
It’s PISA time again, when the competence of Indonesian 15 year-olds in science, maths and reading is compared with that of kids in other countries. They continue to under-perform quite shockingly — over four in ten are functionally incompetent in all three areas. Other ASEAN neighbours, who can soon vie for jobs in the ASEAN Economic Community, are much better equipped.
Earlier this month, tens of thousands of white-robed protesters stomped through the streets of Jakarta, baying for the blood of Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, aka Ahok. To simplify a complex story, Ahok stood accused of the sin of quoting the Quran while being Christian. In the best Indonesian tradition of rent-a-crowd politics, many of the “protesters” were there for the promise of money and a packed lunch; one told TV reporters that, though he came for the cash, he…
