Death in Balibo, lies in Canberra

Desmond Ball & Hamish McDonald

An Australian intelligence agency learned from an intercepted Indonesian army radio message that Australian television crews were in danger and would be targeted, hours before the October 16, 1975, attack at Balibo in East Timor. But the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) withheld the radio intercept from Canberra to avoid alerting the Indonesian military that its secret signals were being routinely broken by Australia. Five TV newsmen were deliberately killed several hours later by Indonesian special forces. The authors call for the opening of all Balibo records. 'The Australian-Indonesian relationship has been more damaged by the widespread feeling among the general public that the official relations are enmeshed in lies and deceit,' they write. Ball is professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Canberra; McDonald is foreign editor for the Sydney Morning Herald. (Sydney Morning Herald).

Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2000, ISBN 1865083690 (paper), US$22.50

Rethinking Indonesia

Simon Philpott

Subtitled 'Postcolonial theory, authoritarianism and identity', this book examines political scientists' work on Indonesia as a distinct element of postwar American social scientific thought. Drawing on the thought of Edward Said and Michel Foucault, he argues that the liberal basis of American social science profoundly shapes contemporary understandings of Indonesian culture, tradition, ethnicity and modernity. Following Said, he argues that postwar American social science is a form of orientalist knowledge, and explores this suggestion with close textual analysis of some of the most important English language scholarship on Indonesian politics. 'Philpott radically re-orients conventional approaches to area studies and ensures that the idea of "region" will never be the same again. Given the upheavals in Indonesia, it is a timely intervention at the all-important intersection of postcolonial theory and politics.' (David Campbell).

Basingstoke (UK): Macmillan (ISBN 0333761111) & New York: St Martin's Press (ISBN 0312236425), 2000, 272pp, hard, Great Britain Pounds 45.

The Irian Jaya biodiversity conservation priority-setting workshop, final report

Jatna Supriatna (ed)

Botanists now estimate that Irian Jaya may harbour an astonishing 25,000 species of vascular plants. A huge index of mammal, bird, insect and marine species as well as other taxonomic groups was created through the workshop. Indonesia now appears to rank among the most diverse countries in the world along with Brazil and Colombia. Irian Jaya alone contains nearly half of Indonesia's known biodiversity. This report highlights the incredible uniqueness of Irian Jaya in the world context, the little existing knowledge of it and the challenges presented by its conservation needs. The bi-lingual English/ Bahasa Indonesia publication is free through CI. A map will be sent with reports, but specific requests should be made for the CD-ROM, which contains all the data compiled through the workshop process.

Conservation International, 1999, 71pp, ISBN 1 881173-28-3, email inside Indonesia: ci-indonesia@conservation.org, outside: p.gleason@conservation.org); web www.conservation.org

Trial by fire - Forest fires and forestry policy in Indonesia's era of crisis and reform

James Schweithelm & Charles Victor Barber

Nearly 10 million hectares were burned by fires that engulfed areas of Indonesia in 1997 and 1998. The fires were mostly ignited by plantation companies and others eager to clear forestland as rapidly and cheaply as possible. Economic damages from the fires have been estimated at US$10 billion. The fires were only one symptom of a far greater disaster - the systematic destruction of Southeast Asia's greatest rainforests over the past three decades. The fires of 1997-98 were the direct outcome of forest and land-use policies unleashed by the Suharto regime and perpetuated by a corrupt culture of 'crony capitalism'. And so far nothing has changed. 'Current Indonesian forest policies have provided powerful legal incentives for "cut-and-run" resource extraction', says Charles Barber.

World Resources Institute, May 2000, 84pp, ISBN 1569734089 (paper), US$20

Silenced voices - New writing from Indonesia

Frank Steward & John McGlynn (eds)

'In Indonesia, silence often speaks louder than wordsYou have a nation of silenced voices and muted expressions.' So writes John McGlynn in a collection of writings by former political prisoners, alleged communists and intellectuals. Hidden among the poetry, photographs and even a libretto are items such as I, the accused, part of the defence statement of former colonel Abdul Latief, an insider during the 1965 coup attempt that brought former president Suharto to power. There are grueling first-hand accounts of the Dili massacre in East Timor, and a dramatisation of the rape and murder of Javanese labour activist Marsinah. Many of these writers believe that only when all sides can freely discuss past traumas will the country be able to even consider democracy. (Vaudine England, SCMP).

Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, May 2000, 280pp, ISBN 0824823214 (paper), US$16

Indonesia in transition - Social aspects of reformasi and crisis

Chris Manning & Peter van Diermen (eds)

Proceedings of the September 1999 Indonesia Update conference held in Canberra, Australia. The book highlights the curtailment of military power in politics, the challenges of building a stronger civil society, the strengthening of institutions to promote equity and protect the environment, and tensions in centre-periphery relations. Includes papers by many well-known scholars of Indonesia from both inside and outside the country, delivered at a time of great strain in the Indonesia-Australia relationship during the East Timor crisis.

Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2000, 379pp, ISBN 981-230-093-7 (paper), ISBN 981-230-094-5 (hard), email publish@iseas.edu.sg, web www.iseas.edu.sg/pub.html.

Indonesia and China - The politics of a troubled relationship

Rizal Sukma

The first major study of Indonesian and Chinese relations under the New Order government. Indonesia broke off relations with China in 1967 and resumed them only in 1990. Rizal Sukma asks why. He argues that the matter is best understood in terms of the efforts made by the military-based New Order government to sustain its legitimacy. As the guardian of the state against communist threats, normalisation of relations would have reduced its credibility.

Routledge, 1999, 296pp, ISBN 0415205522 (hard), US $90.00