(First published in THE JAKARTA POST, February 12, 2014.) It would appear that at least three times in recent weeks, the Australian navy and also the customs service has detained Indonesian and other foreign citizens traveling on boats heading for Christmas Island, a territory under Australian sovereignty. They were people intending to claim refugee status […]
COMMENT: Refugees, burned hands and not making compromises – by Max Lane
On January 22 the Australian Broadcasting Commission radio, TV and website as well as the Sydney morning Herald and The Age published reports that refugees that had been intercepted on the sea by Australian navy vessels had been tortured by navy personnel. According to the refugees, they had been forced to hold on to hot […]
NEW ARTICLE: Indonesia: trade unions and the regeneration of radical politics – by Max Lane
A major thesis of Unfinished Nation[1](written between 2007 and 2008), was that the fall of Suharto was not the simple product of objective conditions, such as the 1997 Asian economic crisis, nor of some kind of automatic rot from within the regime due to corrupt “sultanisation”, contradictions within an oligarchy or similar phenomena.[2] The crucial factor in […]
POEM: TRAVELLING HOME FROM FLINDERS STREET, MELBOURNE NEW YEARS EVE WITH FAIZA MARDZOEKI
The trains are the chariots of the peopleCarriages ripple with tired tongues of many landsA lonely man sick with nostalgia for fireworks in the darksits across from us and talks intenselyA head on my shoulder whispers new year love talkThe train jerks forwards, happy new year chattily announces the driverHands squeezeYoung people hugWorkers sleepy, gazeStations […]
Article: Who Will be Indonesian President in 2014? article by Max Lane
Originally posted on MAX LANE ONLINE:
ISEAS, Singapore | 18 Jul 2013 INTRODUCTION The usual path to become a presidential candidate in Indonesia is to be nominated by a political party or combination of parties that have either won 20% of the national vote in the parliamentary elections or control 25% of the seats in the…
ARTICLE: Indonesian labor movement stirs by Max Lane
Widespread strikes and worker protests took place in many Indonesian town and cities on 31 October and 1 November. On the first day of the strike, the Indonesian police stated that they had noted actions in 50 towns and cities in 15 provinces. The protesters had three main demands: a 50 percent increase in […]
SHORT COMMENT: On funding the Humanities and Indonesia Studies in the universities by Max Lane
Despite the academe’s now long acquiescence in the corporatisation of the universities, the commodification of education and the subjugation of university activity to the ideology and policies of the governments of the day, I still continue to be shocked by so-called academic leaders praising government decisions that further embed this destructive trend. Following the visit […]
INDONESIA 1965: A forgotten massacre on our doorstep – by Max Lane
INDONESIA 1965: A forgotten massacre on our doorstep – by Max Lane The systematic political murder of around 1 million people in Indonesia began on 1 October 1965 and lasted around three years. The violence was accompanied by mass arrests, probably hundreds of thousands going in and out of ad hoc prisons between 1965 and […]
ARTICLE – After THE ACT OF THE KILLING: Indonesia, 1965: rehabilitating victims, rehabilitating revolution by Max Lane
Indonesia and 1965: rehabilitating victims, rehabilitating revolution under a counter-revolutionary state. Max Lane Text of notes used for talk delivered at Conference: “After The Act of Killing: Historical Justice and the 1965-66 Mass Killings in Indonesia”, University of Melbourne and Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat, Jakarta, August 30, 2013. It is very heartening to see the increased and more open […]
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