Who reads books anymore? Let alone magazines crammed with undisclosed and unreadable advertorials generated by ChatGPT.
With global stupidity soaring (evidenced by recent election outcomes) and attention spans plummeting thanks to smartphone addiction, it’s high time to start getting more cerebral. Here’s a look at some of the best recent publications on Indonesia.
- The Last Whalers (2019)
By Doug Bock Clark
Subtitle: Three Years in the Far Pacific with a Courageous Tribe and a Vanishing Way of Life
Some foreigners can spend years in Indonesia and never experience much beyond the confines of urban Java and over-developed tourist traps. Doug Bock Clark, an American investigative journalist, takes readers off the beaten track to the coastal village of Lamalera on Lembata Island, part of East Nusa Tenggara province. Here, he immerses them in the struggles and resilience of a community whose whaling traditions and unique way of life are being eroded by modernity and development. There’s very little sermonizing or editorializing, as Clark wisely keeps himself out of the narrative.
- We Have Tired of Violence (2022)
By Matt Easton
Subtitle: A True Story of Murder, Memory, and the Fight for Justice in Indonesia
Munir, one of Indonesia’s top human rights activists, came to prominence in 1998 by exposing the Indonesian Army Special Forces’ policy of abducting and torturing pro-democracy activists during the final year of the Soeharto regime. Some of the victims never reappeared. Munir himself was murdered in September 2004, just before the second round of a presidential election that pitted the incumbent, Megawati Soekarnoputri, against former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The product of 10 years of research, Matt Easton’s book shows how human rights abusers try to recast themselves as heroes, and how a culture of institutional cowardice and intimidation shields the masterminds from punishment.
- The Coalitions Presidents Make (2023)
By Marcus Mietzner
Subtitle: Presidential Power and Its Limits in Democratic Indonesia
German-born Marcus Mietzner first visited Indonesia as a teenager and later moved to Australia, becoming a leading academic on Indonesian politics. With access to high-level sources, he tells the juicy inside stories behind the transactional nature of Indonesian political power. He contends that the two decades of coalitional presidencies under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Joko Widodo maintained stability while weakening democracy. It will be interesting to see if this theory holds under Indonesia’s newest president and whether coalition-building or other factors will further challenge democracy.
- Bandit Saints of Java (2019)
By George Quinn
Subtitle: How Java’s eccentric saints are challenging fundamentalist Islam in modern Indonesia
George Quinn, whose indispensable The Learner’s Dictionary of Today’s Indonesian (1999) has been a mainstay on my desk for over a decade, retired from leading Asian Studies at an Australian university in 2008. He later travelled across Java and Madura islands, gathering material for this insightful blend of travelogue and history. Although conservative Islam frowns upon ancestor worship and the veneration of saints’ shrines as idolatry, Quinn shows that these traditions are flourishing. His narrative spotlights the people and places invariably overlooked by tourists, while also covering how Islam spread in Java, fusing with local traditions and beliefs.
- Majapahit (2024)
By Herald van der Linde
Subtitle: Intrigue, Betrayal and War in Indonesia’s Greatest Empire
Amid Indonesia’s unfolding political alliances and dynastic ambitions, Herald van der Linde’s Majapahit provides an illuminating perspective from the past. This book is no dry academic tome. Van der Linde, whose day job is an investment banker, has an infectious ebullience that comes across in his humorous and accessible prose. Spanning the many legends, historical facts and characters of the mighty Majapahit empire – at its peak ruling much of present-day Indonesia and parts of southeast Asia – this book reads like a captivating script of sex, violence and betrayal, ripe for a screen adaption. Netflix and Amazon Prime, take note.
- Young Soeharto (2021)
By David Jenkins
Subtitle: The Making of a Soldier, 1921-1945
In 1969, Australian journalist David Jenkins secured his first and last interview with Indonesia’s second president, Soeharto, who had taken power a few years earlier. Jenkins later interviewed Soeharto’s generals, resulting in a 1984 “warts and all” book on Indonesian military politics. In 1986, he was expelled and banned from Indonesia after writing an article about the Soeharto family’s corruption. Young Soeharto, the first of a planned three-volume biography, examines Soeharto’s early life and times from his 1921 birth to the eve of Indonesia’s 1945 independence declaration. Jenkins explores Soeharto’s uncertain paternity, his challenging upbringing, and his ascent within the Dutch and Japanese security forces – all factors that would shape his future rule.
- Judicial Dysfunction in Indonesia (2023)
By Simon Butt
Indonesia’s judiciary has long been blighted by corruption. How has the Supreme Court responded? By issuing guidelines, including instructions on how to smile and tidy up after use. Beyond such gems, Simon Butt illustrates how bribes are made and examines flawed judgments. This book is a timely follow-up to Sebastiaan Pompe’s The Indonesian Supreme Court: A Study of Institutional Collapse (2005). While judges recently secured a pay raise, Butt shows that higher salaries don’t always deter corruption. This book will be an invaluable resource to Indonesia’s new president, who has vowed to fight corruption.
- Revolusi (2024)
By David Van Reybrouck
Subtitle: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World
Originally published in the Netherlands in 2020, Revolusi starts out by covering the iniquities of the Dutch colonial era and the more brutal Japanese occupation. The narrative then shifts to Indonesia’s 1945-49 war for independence and its global impact on anticolonial movements. Belgian author David Van Reybrouck conducted 185 formal interviews with Indonesians, Japanese and Dutch who witnessed the revolution. These firsthand recollections highlight Indonesia’s suffering – where more civilians died than in any other country during World War II, totalling 6% of the population. Violence saturates the pages, from Japanese forces to the ‘pemuda’ revolutionaries and Dutch reprisals led by tyrannical figures like Raymond ‘the Turk’ Westerling.
- Plantation Life
By Tania Murray Li and Pujo Semedi
Subtitle: Corporate Occupation in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone
Indonesia’s Constitution and Land Law mandate state control of land for the maximum prosperity of the people. Yet powerful tycoons dominate the palm oil industry, marginalizing indigenous communities as rainforests become rat-infested plantations. Countering the rosy picture of prosperity promoted by the world’s top palm oil producer, Plantation Life uncovers a different reality in West Kalimantan. The authors show how plantations disrupt communities, enrich corporations, and leave some villagers with little recourse beyond theft or struggling as out-growers or even as prostitutes. For a look at mono-crop misery in Papua, read In the Shadow of the Palms: More- Than-Human Becomings in West Papua (2022) by Sophie Chao.
- Buried Histories (2020)
By John Roosa
Subtitle: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia
Political leaders boast of making their countries smarter, yet infantilize their subjects by withholding the truth. This cowardice in confronting sensitive issues, justified by threats of “spontaneous” violence, inhibits critical thinking. John Roosa’s book examines the propaganda that fueled Indonesia’s 1965-66 massacres, where Army-led violence killed hundreds of thousands of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) supporters. His case studies from Surakarta, Bali, South Sumatra and Riau confront the silence surrounding Indonesia’s violent past. Two excellent companion books are The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66 (2018) by Geoffrey B. Robinson and The Army and the Indonesian Genocide: Mechanics of Mass Murder (2018) by Jess Melvin.
Disclaimer – The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indonesia Expat.
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