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Duncan GrahamPearls and Irritations |
Are you well-armed, fired up, pitchfork to hand? The quarry is elusive, his background suspect but we know his name – DV. Are we getting closer? ...
As predicted in Pearls & Irritations earlier this month, an appeal by the two losing candidates in the 14 February Indonesian presidential election...
There are five major and hundreds of minor religions in the world. But don’t worry – yours is the right one. – Anon After Christianity the...
A tip to take a wee shot at understanding the way of doing politics in Indonesia: Suspend rationality. Now imagine PM Anthony Albanese offering Scott...
This week Prabowo Subianto has been in Beijing at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. It’s the Indonesian president-elect’s first major...
The nightmare sprung to life: A gang. Worse, an Asian teen gang. An hour before dawn. I’m alone. With a bike. A dozen or more boys fired up with...
The irony was thick as lard. What an indigestible image for International Women’s Day. What an appalling advertisement for the Melbourne ASEAN...
A reason for Indonesians overwhelmingly supporting cashiered general Prabowo Subianto and a likely military dictatorship is because the electorate...
ASEAN has been around for so long media outlets rarely spell the full name – Association of Southeast Asian Nations. That sounds significant and...
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear. ― George Orwell (Eric Blair) Later this year...
Why did well over half the 200-plus million Indonesian registered electors choose disgraced general Prabowo Subianto as their next President? Duncan...
There’ll be a good indicator – if not a firm result – by the time most Australians go to bed tonight. Then we’ll know if the ferociously...
Just a fortnight to Indonesia’s big 14 February election and the mood is shifting as more than 200 million electors realise the reality –...
General Soeharto who ruled Indonesia for 32 years last century used to stage a ‘Festival of Democracy’ every five years. This was export quality...
“So much for Australia’s engagement with Asia,” wrote former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer this month, punctuating a claim that the...
Gibran Rakabuming Raka is smarter than his stolid Dad Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, President of our huge neighbour since 2014. As Vice President Gibran...
Indonesians have just witnessed a messy, badly produced TV ‘debate’ between the politicians jostling to run the world’s fourth largest democracy...
Could Australia face a fascist leader next door after the Indonesian Presidential election in February? That’s getting more likely as the polls...
In Indonesia old soldiers never die; they just infiltrate civic affairs, then grab jobs from the worthy and talented young, slowing the economy. ...
Indonesian politics is about personalities, not policy. Some among the 20,000 candidates for national and regional office at the globe’s biggest...
Indonesia’s expanding dark side was hardly noticed by festival audiences at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF). But for all his domestic...
Governments across the nation claim they want to reduce pollution. On their list are electric cars. Consumers are encouraged with rebates, tax breaks...