Introductory Comment. The above general observation can be seen as the main feature of this particular webpage. The many varied addendums that now follow - which one supposes is much like a social media thread both in information and especially in wildly assorted display (especially one notes in the liberal use of different fonts) like the different patterns and colours of fireworks in the night sky – is perhaps also akin to the long tail of a comet which one may which to peruse at one's leisure if time allows & if one is actually interested. Most of the immediate following links directly relate to transmigration. However, such is my wont due to the manner in which my ever ceasing wayward mind thinks I cannot help but diverge & splinter off in a multi-dimensional way to other various matters such as the distinct parallel I see between extractive economies & their negative effects on indigenous human/land rights as is the case in Australia of which I am a little more familiar with being the country I reside in. However, underpinning everything presented is the theme of human/endangered species/environmental justice of which, of course, is the general theme of the whole website, with palm oil hopefully, in the main, to remain the starting point for further discussions/presentations/musings etcetera.  

  Technical comment: each link has been checked at least once to see if it has been applied properly to work but have since noticed there is the occasional one which no longer does and will check but maybe the case it is sometimes only a temporary issue. Such is the circumstantial case of this 'home-made' website).

  Footnotes it should be admitted often flow 'off topic' into other other subjects as the website occasionally randomly wanders off like a social media thread due to the effervescent 'free thinking' of the author of the website. No need to read the 'free thinking' yet apologies anyway. Well, enough said. Thank you for your patience & understanding. NN.

13 May 2020 by Eric Toussaint.  From this link one may wish to explore other links that follow on from it. One notes this post is particularly scathing of the World Bank).

 Transmigration, Oil Palm Plantations Partnership Schemes, and Human Rights.  Norwegian Centre for Human Rights. January. 2018.

https://www.jus.uio.no/smr/english/about/id/news/report-launch-jakarta.html

  West Papua: Indonesian Transmigration Program Further Marginalises the Indigenous Population. November. 2014. (This article argues that the demographics at the time it had been written may have already swayed too far against the local population).*

https://unpo.org/article/17676

  TRANSMIGRATION. DOWN TO EARTH.

https://www.downtoearth-indonesia.org/campaign/results/taxonomy-47_

    Indonesian Colonisation, Resource Plunder and West Papuan Grievances. 2019

  https://apjjf.org/2011/9/12/David-Adam-Stott/3499/article.html

  Papuan tribes fear sacrifice of sago forests that stave off hunger . Reuters. August. 2020.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-forests-palmoil-indigenous-idUSKCN25G067

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  So as to not have this webpage be a total echo chamber (although some unfortunately may see it that way...) have here an even handed article regarding palm oil looking at what is seen as both good and bad about this cash crop especially provides some good historical background. I actually think in such papers although may not wholly agree with positive value judgements when it points out what needs to be done to resolve some of the negative aspects of the palm oil industry actually carry a lot of moral weight. Often it is not an actual technical short falling per se that cannot be fixed up but rather a lack of political or corporate will to genuinely deal with many troublesome social and environmental issues which thus reflects poorly on the palm oil industry. 

Oil Palm Plantations in Indonesia: The Implications for Migration, Settlement/Resettlement and Local Economic Development. 

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/42203

Review of the diversity of palm oil production systems in Indonesia Case study of two provinces: Riau and Jambi.

https://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/WP219Baudoin.pdf

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________      COMMENT. Power to First Nations People.

    For me to have real structural transformation it has to go back to having real power and indigenous groups for instance should be given real agency by way for instance from legislation that helps them to protect their communal lands. In Australia, although in many respects ‘White Australia’ still ultimately holds the upper hand regarding land tenure the introduction of native title laws have given First Nations people a legal reference point within the overarching colonial framework of their occupied country/ies from which to further extend their admirable but almost Sisyphus-like efforts to legitimately reclaim stolen lands. In Sydney I have been to black deaths in custody/land rights rallies where outspoken speakers have called for the establishment of Aboriginal political parties to be a real independent voice in the political system so as to not have to succour political accomodation with any of the white establishment major parties. I am increasingly seeing the political sense in this recommendation.   

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UNITED NATIONS.GENOCIDE. Definition.

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

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   A performance art piece by DADANG CHRISTIANO (Indonesia) to bring to public attention the Indonesia massacres of 1965/1966 in which it is estimated that up to 500,000 so called communists were murdered. This performance art piece was part of the 48HR INCIDENT happening at the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Haymarket. Sydney. Held from 6 PM 29. 2015 to Sun. May31. 2015. (Filmed by the author of this website).

48 HOUR INCIDENT. 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Haymarket. Sydney. Australia.

 http://www.4a.com.au/48hr-incident-2/#!prettyPhoto

    OFI. Palm Oil.

    https://orangutanfoundation.org.au/palm-oil/

      firstly this 'global north' traveller offers up a disclaimer...

   Yes, ideologically I recognise that being in Australia one is still a citizen of the privileged Global North...anyhow, I should begin at the very outset of this so called 'personal reflection' - which gives me even more literary latitude to be ever more humanly subjective with my opinions - that there is a ‘moral danger’ of turning this website into a ‘vanity project’ by yet another 'fly in-fly out' overseas foreigner commenting on a wholly different region that one does not actually live in. One is acutely  aware of the imperial pitfalls of such 'cultural orientalism' which has been a real bane when the ‘hubris West’ has methodically scientifically, economically, religiously, culturally as well as anthropologically hovered its colonial lens over every region of the world which it simply paternalistically views as ‘developing’ when in many cases despite the many negative colonial legacies that still prevail -  from colonially cultivated-compliant corrupt elites through to multi-corporate economic extractive/invasiveness -  it is actually a case of 'resurrecting' after many centuries of outright exploitation by the Global North. 

 *As yet another aside: one cynically notes over the years how a handful of people have used human rights etcetera  as a sort of business model to succour celebrity favour'.  

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  GLOBAL NORTH/GLOBAL SOUTH links interlude...please scroll by to peruse the rest of the piece...

 ‘Moral evil, economic good’: Whitewashing the sins of colonialism. How war, violence and extractivism defined the legacy of the empire in Africa, and why recent attempts to explore the ‘ethical’ contributions of colonialism risk rewriting history and undermining progress.' - Al Jezeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/2/26/colonialism-in-africa-empire-was-not-ethical

   Another article of interest:

Rich countries drained $152tn from the global South since 1960. Imperialism never ended, it just changed form.  Al Jezeera.

  However, with that said one supposes I should not go on any further with this present discourse; yet, hypocritical as it may then be to do so to actually go on I nevertheless thought it may be of some use to mention in passing on this particular webpage that amongst the many overseas journeys of my wandering youth I also travelled through Indonesia for a few months at the tail end of the Suharto regime in the late 1990s. (As West Papua is also mentioned I should add I once also visited in bordering PNG the Eastern Highlands Province whose capital is Goroka for the month of January. 1985).  As it is such so called personal reflections will probably become less a feature in other webpages expected to be posted in the future. Anyhow, see how it goes...

   A First Impression

  I travelled with another friend also from Australia and her and I ventured through Indonesia as typical first world privileged backpackers on what would be the first part of a long, varied overland journey to Europe through many islands of the Indonesian archipelago such as to Flores, Bali, Lombok, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Sulawesi and so forth one could not help but subtly feel - and speaking wholly subjectively now - a sense of Jakarta’s central dominance seemingly to prevail over these other regions. 

   Human Cost of Regional Stability

   As it was as one a little aware of the political realities of the region one must admit my above summation was also very much affected by the knowledge that at the time of travelling through Indonesia that Timor Leste was still under occupation. The political situation rather than the environmental one would have been my interest but have now gradually realised that environmental and political issues are often entwined together when analysing any national circumstance. Thus the focus on the political for now. One knew that if one moved east through the islands (as it was went only as far as Flores and to Rinca the island of the 'komodo dragons' ) that it would probably be impossible to go to Timor which always made it feel that the freedom of movement throughout the rest of Indonesia was truly arbitrary to state permission. (Not that such 'no go zone limits' do not exist even in liberal democracies  - for instance it is restrictive for Australian journalists to gain entry to Nauru to visit and review the offshore detention centre there which enables Australia to not properly meet its signatory international commitments to refugees - but am speaking only of Indonesia for the moment). As it was there was also the separatist movement in Aceh, Sumatra which also in a way made one view - whether rightly or wrongly - that the nationalist notion of 'Indonesia' had come about from the previous 'colonial administrative architecture' of Dutch rule over the East Indies. Of course, there was also West Papua which Australia has dishonourably chosen in diplomatic terms to coyly turn a blind eye to the human rights violations that have been occurring there. Australia does not want to offend Indonesia whose relationship matters to them much more to maintain regional stability. Here's some dark humour by way of some Australian satire in a short video that sums up this ignoble situation...if the reader has time to view:  

     Hollowmen - Indonesia Season 1. Episode 3. ‘A Time for Talk’.

     https://youtu.be/9WjEmi49d0A

   Aceh. Timor Leste. West Papua. Jakarta had 'good reason' to feel that it needed to 'keep in check' - with the use of martial force whether by the police or military if need be to enforce its will - any internal separatist inclination in this vast island archipelago. Since my visit the tensions in Aceh subsided after the widespread, destructive tragedy of the 2004 tsunami which led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives throughout the region. Timor Leste gained its independence in 1999 from Indonesia but still with an overwhelming number of lives lost to Indonesian backed militias from West Timor who had intimidated the populous before the August 30 1999 ballot and in retribution afterwards when it was democratically made clear that there was a desire to break free from Indonesian sovereignty. It was a ballot which could only occur in the immediacy of the post-Suharto era whereby under President Habibe there was a popularly driven mood for democratic reform much to the chagrin of those in the security services who were still strongly committed to Suharto's hardline approach to governance. Unlike President Habibe under Suharto the Indonesia state had taken no real heed over the years of international qualms of the 'Timor-Leste question'. Nevertheless, it was still hoped that in the referendum by which the East Timorese would vote either for 'special autonomy' or for independence that Timor-Leste would dutifully choose to stay in the 'Indonesian family'  so as to have an diplomatic international resolution in Indonesia's favour. It is worthwhile to focus on the referendum as there had been the 'political theatre' of 1969 whereby the United Nations as major stage prop gave validation to the Suharto take over of West Papua. [See footnote below for further comment].

  Imperial Parallel

  Thus the notion of a sort of 'internal colonialism' in my mind distinctly developed for as one became aware of the various local cultural distinctions of each place visited also at the same time an overriding 'nationalist gravitational pull' of Jakarta could also be sensed, for instance, in terms of government regulation...general infrastructure development which varied in quality and of course there being one state-sanctioned official language through which all transactions were to be communicated...in terms of Jakarta driven symbolism there was of course the Garuda which visually represents the five principles of Pancasila a secular ideology upon which Soeharto ceremonially validated his all encompassing rule of Indonesia. (Sukarno also highlighted Pancasila yet it was Soeharto in his 'New Order' who more firmly integrated its principles into the nation's sense of self...perhaps will speak more explicitly of this later...yet as for now...what I say has a little bit of stabbing in the dark to make the right point but alas somewhat always 'missing the mark'...for a traveller in a foreign land can traverse through it with general stereotypical-like assumptions which even if 'close-to-accurate' often have a high level of cultural, social and political ignorance about them if one due to a lack of in-depth learning is not actually well versed in the complex intricacies of the society one has chosen to be briefly be submerged in...so...well...yes...to be perfectly honest...after so many years it is actually very hard to describe what I felt more acutely at the time through mere 'instinctive observation' thus an 'imperial parallel' may be of some help to give some inkling of what I am ineptly trying to communicate. As Indonesia is many ways a 'maritime nation' due to the very geographical fact it is a nation composed of many islands perhaps the present day British Commonwealth - being representative of a former maritime empire that apparently 'the sun did not set on' throughout the globe - is perhaps in these terms a reasonable enough comparing example.

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  At this point before I go on I want to make brief mention of another section far below which is somewhat relevant to the present topic of discussion which looks at a few weblinks relating to the Dutch Colonial Period as is mentioned the existence of various cultures that exist in the Indonesian archipelago.  

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   Paternalism of Empire

  To have become a ‘family member’ of the Commonwealth one usually would have been invaded by the English in the past although in the case of Cyprus it was the case that Great Britain took possession of the island from the Ottomans in the latter half of the nineteenth century (insolently treated like a captive maiden between two feuding alpha-males in a drunken tavern fight). Within the Commonwealth one will still find the insignia of the empire still ingrained in public life as for instance here in Australia - a nation which very much typifies as a clear example of colonially inspired mass transmigration of people of 'like racial qualities' (although so often of not like class which would be perhaps a sort of policy 'Achilles heel' styming any initial social cohesion until more 'gentry' free settlers arrived) from a 'source country' to wholly 'biologically cement' the invasive occupation of newly claimed territory for the English Crown - the national flag has the Union Jack overbearingly juxtaposed with the Southern Cross in a top corner as if hovering over the rest of the southern hemisphere cosmology of the whole flag design like an all encompassing exploding multi-coloured starry supernova...and of course in most 'former colonies' there is the overarching albeit pragmatic use of the English language which is 'naturally' the lingua franca of the former empire. 

    London Calling

  The Commonwealth of Nations so that the historical imperial relic known as the British Empire can from its 'zenith point of view' feel it still has some relevance and maintain an ideological ‘after-life’ in its many former colonies with its diverse cultures until perhaps there is a new epoch in global power relations which no longer has Europe as its nominal central axis. 

  Although it should be made clear that one readily presumes that many former colonies would certainly not see themselves as passive vessels of any ongoing imperial 'soft diplomacy' from the former coloniser; for these now independent entities would venture to initiate political cultures that would be sufficiently resistant to any presumption that they are 'second class nations'; thus to actually be perceived on par with first world nations of which many are also former colonisers. Yet, with that said to still have the public call from London and other capitals of the Global North which although they will proclaim from the lectern of say the UN General Assembly a call for 'international unity and cooperation' between coloniser and coloniser so as to now be ‘friends’ or ‘partners’ as ‘equals’ (so the universal rhetoric goes) even though despite there still being many economic and social inequities that are intrinsically prolonged by what some political observers would see as a yet to be overturned ingrained sense of a 'natural right' to be 'higher privilege' world citizens; a Global North elitism of sorts as a direct cultural/social/psychological legacy of five centuries of the severest colonisation and exploitation of the Global South.* 

     Australia and Oceania: A Local Colonial Domestic Violence Relationship 

  Locally speaking one sees its in Australia's paternalistic relationship with its closest neighbours such as in the Pacific Islands as well as perhaps also with PNG which for a while was directly administered by Australia (up to 1975) whereby I once listened to a Pacific Islander female artist state it was akin to the emotional to and fro of a domestic violence relationship; this artist astutely made the point that while Australia was perceived as generous in being ready to come to the aid of Pacific islands after a weather catastrophe such as a cyclone etcetera it was unwilling to accept the responsibility that it may have played a part in accentuating such a catastrophic climate event in the first place by being unwilling to have a responsible climate policy that would take in a 'duty of care' as the largest carbon emitter in the region which would be of benefit of the smaller Oceanic nations. Ultimately, Australia - or more particularly those irresponsible, morally coward self-centred, narrow thinking politicians in both major parties whose political fortunes were tied to the fossil fuels industries - would place its own national interests first in full knowledge that there would be a devastating, lethal negative effect to its less powerful neighbours which will only bring more climate violence to their territories. No climate disaster in the Pacific can be directly attributed to Australia's delinquent non-action on climate change but its singular belligerent attitude underlies its 'rightful' 'white fella' sense of hegemony in the region which it refuses to accept and which it can rationalise by way of willing to provide emergency aid to Pacific nations in times of crisis as if that can excuse it's own inept structural deficiencies in relation to climate policy. 

  By-the-by one sees in Indonesia the same pattern of colonial paternalism with a Javanese centred political hierarchy whereby in strife torn West Papua one notes news items of the Indonesian military working to help vaccinate indigenous Papuans from the coronavirus pandemic although. Yet one also notes there has been a reluctance on the part of many Papuans to trust the Indonesian military.      

   Elite Homogeneity

  The Commonwealth proclaiming a 'common bond' through ‘one language’ and ‘shared values’ so as to highlight homogeneity as a positive element of any social or civic transference between the Commonwealth nations so that a person such as myself who in global terms is relatively well off coming from well-off Anglo-centric Australia where only English is predominantly spoken finds it so much easier to go from one country to another without the need of learning another language or new customs as the case after spending months in Indonesia of then going into Malaysia where it was possible to come across people who readily spoke English whereby one minor pleasure was to have recognisable bus tickets so as to not worry anymore about the many frustrating cultural misunderstandings I had recently due to my inept knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia - which if I knew fluently would have also helped open up my insipid mind from its 'white fella' mental straight-jacket - despite all my ‘precious’ elevated idealism that we could all live in a human world where we could all more or less be equivalent sisters and brothers in social and economic status graciously holding hands singing John Lennon’s Imagine whilst also presenting or waving in the limitless blue sky air our olive branches in an outpouring of inspired affection and peace towards all humanity. Human illusion can be a powerful thing and to think a first world human soul can in this insidious ubiquitous era of globalisation be cheaply bought for the relatively inexpensive set price of a third world bus ticket.    

   Colonial Meritocracy

  For to speak only ‘one language’ and to have ‘shared values’ that are modelled on those privileged cultural norms of the ‘civilised colonist’ – who after all had the ‘advanced technology’ of now ‘globally meritocratic-minded’ aristocratic nation-states with ships and guns to take over vast expanses of territories with huge populations with only a few of their own ‘superior-minded’ people but well equipped with great military and self-promoting propaganda skills to bring about a global economic restructuring of the Earth for its own enormous material gains. 

   Once Colonised Elites Often Learn Well From Their Previous Colonial Masters

   Thus in the name of a utilitarian homogeneity which suits the inheritors of such colonisation in the post-colonial era and which includes so often the opportunistic elites of former colonies who have masterfully learnt how to forcefully gain and maintain power from their former rulers what is often kept suppressed in this ‘human mono-culture’ is the many heterogeneous human variants of particular local cultures that must stay submerged along with their languages so alternative human values and alternative human cultures no longer have an equal voice in a monoculture-nationalist setting that is clearly skewed to serve those elites which benefit most from it and who so obviously belong to the one human tribal grouping that has ordained what the prescribed national values must be and which must be earnestly observed for the ‘good of the nation’.     

   Bahasa Indonesia  for National Unity

  Thus even though Bahasa Indonesia is not a Javanese language (it actually has Malay origins) it's overriding role as the national language over all other local dialects still served its politicized 'cultural purpose' of helping to uniformly inculcate a national perspective orientated by Jakarta whereby a Javanese elite held most prominent positions in the national government. Of course it makes sense that such a vast archipelago has one language so people from one end of it to another can more easily communicate with each other but both Sukarno and Suharto were aware to promote its use with far reaching mass literacy programs (which in themselves are a positive education development ) so as to further reinforce the new country's 'national sense' which distinctly served the political purpose of a 'Jakarta-centric' national view. After all, to try to explain what I am trying to say in another way: it is hard to imagine that Jakarta would ever tolerate the linguistic quirk which exists in Canada where one province Quebec has French as the first language; for being able to openly identify as a 'French speaking Canadian' has obviously made it easier to stir up separatist inclinations to split away from the rest of this English speaking country which has actually been attempted by way of referendum.** If there is one thing that the 'early fathers' of the national entity known as 'Indonesia' did not want was the rise of internal separatist movements within it and language certainly serves as one way to universalise the notion of nationhood for such an extensive multi-cultured/multi-linguistic/multi-identity archipelago which it seems only really took on a truly observable national sense in opposition to overarching Dutch rule towards the end of the nineteenth century. Peculiarly, the Dutch presence was easily erased after independence as even the Dutch had used it as the 'language of administration' seeing it was already in wide use as a 'second language' for most of the East Indies. Certainly the independence movement would have observed this and saw how well Dutch rule functioned without the need to usurp its use with Javanese which perhaps would have most probably only had a polarizing counter-productive social effect to their mastery.*** 

  Anyhow, here is a brief historical overview of the use of Bahasa Indonesia for Indonesia:

  https://www.purpledivepenida.com/post/a-brief-history-of-bahasa-indonesia

   Extreme Illusion

  A political environment can be tested perhaps not so much by focusing on the usual promotional rhetoric of ‘national unity for all’ and so forth which may also perhaps insinuate an acceptance of the state willing to be open to a multiplicity of views in any national dialogue but rather in evaluating the differing levels of ‘state pushback’ that can occur when such well-crafted public rhetoric is actually taken on its literal word by citizens who make it clear that other national directions or national solutions should come into play. A point of difference that may lead to a referendum in Canada may lead to a military crackdown in West Papua where there is much resentment to the perceived 'Islamisation of the province due to transmigrants from other islands while many Papuans are apparently Catholic. 

  It's important to realise Indonesian independence from Dutch colonialism would eventually in the long term not guarantee democracy for all and in 1967 the 'pushback' against the internal 'Red threat' which led to hundreds of thousands of state sanctioned murders was a clear regime marker at the start of the Suharto period; so that any state rhetoric regarding a commitment to upholding democratic principles was only to be perceived as political magic realism. 

  Transition of the Narrative of Power from the Cold War Period to the Neoliberal Age 

  It could be argued that such a top-down state inspired illusion exists to this day although both the Suharto dictatorship and the polarising historical period of the Cold War in which Suharto violently came to power are now long gone. Nevertheless, in Indonesia oligarchic power still remains leading to all sorts of political tensions in the many-patterned social fabric of the nation and chameleon like any strongman hold of the country that once justified itself in Cold War security terms has to in a new post-Suharto 'democratic age' must now publicly do so with a 'replacement ideological justification': to be the aspirant neoliberal guarantors of the nation's ongoing economic 'development'.

   Power can draw strength from being monolithic in scale so as to inspire awe from any onlooker much like being beside a tall skyscraper that stretches skywards. Yet, a political structure despite its apparent strength can be brittle if its foundation can be undermined so as to bring it down such can be the case for a building in an earthquake. A political crisis is akin to an earthquake and in 1997 there was the Asian Financial Crisis and the political inflexibility of Suharto who was really a man of power for the Cold War would meet his demise. Yet, the crony political environment which he had built up around him would survive him but a new ideological validity had to be procured so it could effectively linger on after absorbing the shock waves that occurred soon after the beginning of a new post-Cold War era that was no longer 'two-tone' in its political hues but rather now 'multi-tone'. Black & white was re-orientated by the many greys in between whose wide range could now find more open political expression. 

  Yet, in terms of the theme of this website what the focus shall be is that while the radical idea of 'revolution' was co-opted in the Cold War era to ironically validate a political dictatorship another previous radical notion would be co-opted to advocate for an 'agribusiness dictatorship' equally monolith in both its monoculture structure and enormous ever expanding scale which had come into existence in the Suharto years but now had to recalibrate its ideological justification away from the old semantics of 'national security' to the new semantics of 'national prosperity' which befitted the full flowering of this new neoliberal age which, with some bitter irony, had found its first 'real world' embryonic manifestation in the Pinochet dictatorship of Chile where the ideas of the so called 'Chicago School' were tested out in this privatising gestation period for the free market and then fully prostelyzed into global life most infamously at birth as the 'love child' of Reagan and Thatcher.    .            

   Need for Ideological Homogeneity in the Cold War

 The accomplishment of Indonesian independence can be domestically perceived as a revolutionary liberating moment whose 'righteous legacy' can later be co-opted by a state that has itself politically devolved into an autocracy. In the case of Suharto he could draw upon Pancasila which as a secular movement could be utilized to help accomplish his desire to ingrain throughout the Indonesian archipelago a national consciousness which also incorporated a centralised loyalty to Jakarta. It is interesting to read that there was tension between the State and Islam regarding Pancasila. However, when Suharto's authoritarianism took on an ever tighter grip over all of the political space and by which anyone who was critical of the Suharto regime was daubed as being 'anti-Pancasila' and thus arrested and so forth the only space where Suharto could be more or less safely critiqued was in an alternative space such as the mosque and by which there occurred an inadvertent rise in Islamisation which would lead in turn to a rise in ideological radicalisation with violent results as witnessed in the so called Age of Terror.

  In Concept of a Hero in Malay Society by Shaharuddin b. Maaruf. (1984) - which I now wonder if I purchased in Kuala Lumpur in 1989 - in which it is critically supposed a feudal, materialistic idea of the hero is accentuated amongst what are termed the 'underdeveloped elites' which came to power after Malaysian independence (September, 1963) from British rule one sees negative characteristics that can be identified with the neighbouring 'elite class' in Indonesia. It is only a presumption but one senses it is an adequate one. However, within the book mention is made of an Indonesian general - General Sudirman (1915-1950; an admirable self-sacrificing brave resistance fighter who greatly did much to bring about the success of the independence movement and who if he had lived would perhaps been a worthy President)  who sacrificed his life for the cause of Indonesian independence against the Dutch (which incidentally also involved initially fighting the British) upon whom - and again one only speculates - it can be imagined that a later authoritarian ruler such as Suharto could build upon by way of the heroic actions that occurred in resistance times to garner moral legitimacy in the justification of his singular political hegemony. After all, Suharto also capably fought in the independence movement rising through the ranks and so the notion of the 'leader as heroic fighter' becomes an applicable 'ideological window' through which to frame a ruler in regards to their 'authentic' claim to leadership - to have been prepared to sacrifice for the state so in turn a grateful populous should be prepared to sacrifice for the leader who only wishes progress not for his (her) self but for the state/people. Yet, again, what is further co-opted is the radical notion of revolution by which everything that President Suharto claims to be doing is for the 'benefit' of the Indonesian peoples who have been freed from the colonial oppressor and in this 'doing' includes diligently working against those who threaten the security of the revolution - of course a common ideological trope used by all in power which in modern times can trace all the way back to Napoleon who as a lowly artillery officer would notably - as well as meteorically - make his brilliant reputation during the revolutionary period; yet thought still worth pointing out mainly in relation that in the post-Suharto era another idea originally radical when it was first proposed in the 1970s - sustainability - would be used in the ensuing neoliberal era for the benefit of those with oligarchy corporate power. Specifically for Indonesia  the five main principles of Pancasila that were extolled by the likes of Suharto happen to be the following:

PANCASILA: The Five Principles

1. Belief in one supreme God

2. Justice and civility among peoples

3.Unity of Indonesia

4. Democracy through deliberation and consensus among representatives

5. Social justice for all the people of Indonesia  

  It is interesting for a moment to look over at George Orwell's notion of nationalism in his essay Notes on Nationalism which in general summary more or less covered any modern tribe's sense of mutual belonging from not just of a nation-state but through to political party members, religious groups, social classes, sports teams supporters etcetera and basically involved a 'habit of mind' that can involve a psychological, culturally ingrained, somewhat uncritical loyalty to what is deemed worthy of support and one can say that Suharto was especially proficient in developing a loyal ‘habit of mind’ towards this nationalist artifice known as Indonesia which 'naturally' emerged from the geographically expansive Dutch colonial rule of the East Indies.   

 In terms of the Cold War Suharto's firm ability to maintain the complex cultural tapestry that was Indonesia stringently as a whole national entity was a strategic positive to the so called Free World especially when it was feared under Sukarno there was a chance that the Soviet Union would finally sway Sukarno to align with Moscow even though it has to be said that Sukarno as a leading figure in the non-alignment movement saw himself as a nationalist first and an ideologue second. Nevertheless, under Suharto his brutal approach to internal opposition forces - both ideological and national - could be 'excused' as a 'regrettable' 'lesser evil' when there was so acutely and clearly the 'greater evil' of communism to forcefully deal with. Thus Suharto's authoritarian regime could exist as it did - which had involved the 'ideological cleansing' murders of hundreds and thousands at its inception - as long as it stayed loyally aligned with the United States for it served an important strategic geographical role and its democratic veneer as extrapolated by way of Pancasila also suited not only its own interests but the interests of the West which despite its own colonial cruelties saw itself after the enormous bestialities of the Second World War as the civilizing inheritors of a new global order which during the Bretton-Woods period of international regulation could be one of bringing on some semblance of social and economic equality and stability to some parts of the world but any promising start for the world as a whole would all go by the wayside with the breakdown of Bretton Woods due to stagflation and the Oil Crisis in the 1970s. Yet in that economically tumultuous period - and despite the interventionist military take over of Timor Leste - Suharto could still offer the Free World a strategic sense of stability in the South East Asian region which presumably was especially appreciated after the U.S. defeat in Vietnam which had just recently occured. Furthermore, a global multinational corporate system craves overall stability in order to guarantee for itself a good return on any low risk investment undertaken; and during the Cold War and for a little while afterwards nearing up to the time of the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s Suharto certainly well played his part as a good 'store manager' for the foreign investment he was able to attract - as was certainly the case in an annexed West Papua  - and for the economic oligarchy that he also domestically installed which palm oil also played its sullied part with transmigration thus by which the politics must also be examined in any in depth study of this cash crop.    

  Stability is associated with homogeneity which means less diversity and so allows for uniformity and this is what Suharto was able to provide which on the surface at least allowed for predictability which was appreciated in a static world with only two major forces working against each other but also paradoxically giving the world clear definition which would splinter apart in the post-Cold War era.  

 The Political Economy of Oligarchy and the Reorganization of Power in Indonesia

 https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/54629/INDO_96_0_1381338354_35_58.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Editorial: Indonesia Backslides Into Feudalism

https://jakartaglobe.id/opinion/editorial-indonesia-backslides-feudalism/

Feudalism in Indonesian Democracy

https://www.scitepress.org/Papers/2019/100021/100021.pdf

 Need for Ideological Homogeneity in the Post-Cold War Neoliberal Global Age. 

 It will prove worthwhile to look at the link directly below which I came across when it crossed my mind when after the ousting of Suharto at the time of the Asian Financial Crisis it was a time when the world had emerged from the nuclear war psyche of Mutual Assured Destruction (M.A.D) as envisaged by the two superpowers to now shifting to an new psychological perception of global catastrophe which would involve global warming. Environmental damage was linked to this new threatening nemesis to the planet which would envelop the mindset of the human race in the same way as the previous nuclear age. In the past, the many sins of any authoritarian and corporate regime could be excused if it was perceived as ultimately serving the interests of the so called 'free world' but now there had to be a new ideological framing to excuse the excesses of corporate ambition especially and sustainability would play that role perhaps best in disguising or 'greenwashing' its many obvious environmental sins in the single-minded pursuit of maximizing profit. In short in the same way 'revolution' has been co-opted as a 'social good' when associated with 'change for the better' which is an 'ideological mirage' modern industrial societies like to promote in order to paradoxically maintain a hierarchical triangular pattern whereby the elites maintain both their power and their wealth as the 'avant-garde' leaders of human progress which a 'drone' induced humanity cannot do without it is recognised that such Captains of Industry must now re-calibrate their corporate rhetoric so as to appear to be seriously re-orientating their business practices in a responsible way so as to be working towards overcoming this new existential threat and doing so as vigorously as when the world faced the previous existential threat of worldwide totalitarianism; to do so to keep justifying their 'natural' high economic position which also allows them to deal with possible threat or argument that will challenge them. Sustainability was such a challenge as extractive industries can only be seen as a threat to the ecology of the planet in the same way previously an actual revolution to the top-down hierarchical order was also a genuine threat. Yet, corporate moguls became corporate pioneers blazing the way for a new material world that would benefit humanity and so the corporate world now 'leads the way' to develop new and revolutionary business practices so as to sustain not only high levels of economic growth which also means high levels of profits but to also sustain the health of the planet at the same time its resources are being exploited. Thus in the free market neoliberal age once again power uses the rhetoric of a 'moral imagination' which accents towards a positive reformist position in regards to human behaviour in order to immorally blind humanity while pragmatically getting on with 'business as usual' which will lead to human and planetary calamity. 

Sustainability was originally a challenge to a world of unprincipled economic growth without serious care to the inequities that occurred on both a social and environmental level along the way in the unbridled pursuit of wealth  - and worse  - of wealth for the few. Extractive industries have always destroyed the environment but in recent decades such economic vandalism has become a serious threat unheralded in scale and so new moral determinants have to be put in place to stop it and which have been resisted and one way is by stealth so as to be able to proceed unhindered with any brutal ongoing negligence of the planet's health. Suffice to say that the many well known environmental inequities associated with palm oil went on in the Suharto era but  oligarchies did not have to be held accountable under his regime in much the same way that those companies devastating the Amazon in Brazil are not being held accountable with the Bolsonaro presidency who has given carte blanche to free market capitalism. Nevertheless, while there was the rhetoric of democracy in the Suharto era there is now a new rhetoric of democracy in the neoliberal era which oscillates around a word such as 'sustainability while in the past it oscillated around the word 'independence' which with liberation from Dutch rule in mind was a perceived radical word by Jakarta to use.  Thus to deal with the environmental criticisms dealt out against the palm oil industry with its annual fires, rampant deforestation, wildlife deaths, carbon release, human rights violations, indigenous suffering, land grabs - the 'full catastrophe' of ecocide - it came up with a neoliberal reflex response to incorporate the environmental notion of 'sustainability' in its practices to nullify such deserved criticism so the palm oil industry could still pursue its aims which has not involved any real structural re-formation thus there is the veneer of environmental accountability to actually allow ''business as usual' persists; such is the ideological window dressing in this positive corporate reframing in the post-Suharto 'reform era.' Well, one can pursue this discussion but it maybe best to leave what I have just said as enough for now and I am sure it is open to debate and I must admit what I state is opinion but heartfelt and feels substantially correct from what I have studied regarding the ongoing environmental damage associated with the palm oil industry since officially utilizing the label 'sustainability'  and one adds that although it is a polarizing topic one believes the push for sustainability has not been wholly cynical and there are those  who have a sincere belief in the possibility of sustainability but after two decades only one fifth of palm oil has been certified and it is very much disputed by many major environmental watch dog organisations as to how much of it is actually environmentally sound. yet, in dealing with this industry its political shaping as well as its corporate structure must also be looked at for Suharto's transmigration policy with its underlying nationalist intent has helped to play a key role in the expansion of the palm oil industry and this has to be taken into account when resolving to suit out real solutions which both guarantee the security of indigenous rights, the rights of the planet and wildlife as well as the rights of those who are within the palm oil industry and need to have a pathway to 'just transition' in the same way just transition is mooted for thos e who work in the coal industry and would like to transfer to renewables. Anyhow strongly suggest looking at the following paper:                 

 The Neoliberalisation of Sustainability

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/csee.2014.13.1.26

  Neoliberal Ebola: palm oil, logging, land grabs, ecological havoc and disease. ECOLOGIST. 2015.

https://theecologist.org/2015/jul/27/neoliberal-ebola-palm-oil-logging-land-grabs-ecological-havoc-and-disease

  Should we really aim for sustainable development? FUTURE TENSE. Radio National. ABC Australia. 

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/should-we-really-aim-for-sustainable-development/13540946

   From the above radio program/podcast came across this unexpected video link which I thought was kinda interesting as an example of lateral thinking in approaching different future directions. One may not agree with all of the proposals and so forth but I think it is worthwhile to suggest other possibilities to bring on a useful 'many mind sparks' debate to help envisage some positive 'next step' which hopefully will be of human/non-human/ecological/planetary benefit but maybe quite rather unpredictable from what we imagine at the present moment. The five principles of the new narrative mentioned seem reasonable enough as a general inclusive framework to work with and which I must admit similar notions have also crossed my mind especially the notion of the local over the global as the baseline of a different structural economic outlook that maybe more genuinely sustainable and equitable for humans, non-humans and the planet as a whole: 

• Demand Less / Value more
• Repair rather than Replace
• Localisation over Globalisation
• Technology only where appropriate
• Community and Crowdsourcing over Competition & Economics

(Source: from The New Narrative. Christopher Barnett).

The New Narrative. 2012. From the website: ExplainingTheFuture.com .Christopher Barnett. 

https://youtu.be/Ipnh55jILdM

      _________________________________________________________________________________________

    One also recalls some of the basic principles of Social Ecology as were espoused by Murray Bookchin (1921-2006): 

          (1) ecological problems are not separate from social problems (one would also add political and economic issues which Murray Bookchin also makes clear in his writings);

         (2) understanding how humans relate to each other as social beings is critical in addressing current and future ecological issues.

            (3) the ecological future of the planet is clearly a social one.     

  Indonesian Forests and Palm OIl. The Gecko Project/Mongabay.

   (i) Gecko Project with Mongabay. Links relating to politics and palm oil in Kalimantan (Borneo). 2017.

  The Palm Oil Fiefdom - Mongabay

https://news.mongabay.com/2017/10/the-palm-oil-fiefdom/

The making of a palm oil fiefdom - The Gecko Project. [Is actually the same article as directly above but thought to acknowledge that both organisations posted this long article].

https://thegeckoproject.org/the-making-of-a-palm-oil-fiefdom-7e1014e8c342

https://thegeckoproject.org/comment-its-time-to-confront-the-collusion-between-the-palm-oil-industry-and-politicians-that-is-6149ae12636f

https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/curb-deforestation-long-term-break-link-between-politics-and-palm-oil

 (ii) Gecko Project with Mongabay. Link relating to investigation regarding palm oil in West Papua. (2020).

The Consultant: Why did a palm oil conglomerate pay $22m to an unnamed ‘expert’ in Papua?. Mongabay/ The Gecko Project.

https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-consultant-why-did-a-palm-oil-conglomerate-pay-22m-to-an-unnamed-expert-in-papua/

 FOOTNOTE. Further comment on West Papua as well as Timor Leste in relation mainly to the intertwining of colonial policy and extractive industries.

  The actuality was that Papuans were militarily intimidated by Indonesia thus they had no real choice when after the Dutch nominally let go of their administration of 'West New Guinea' in 1963 after intermediary negotiations with Indonesia were set up by the United States. JFK wanted to return to favour with Indonesia which it was feared was drifting towards the Soviet camp especially when during the Eisenhower era the CIA provided material support of an outer islands rebellion against Jakarta. Arthur Dulles who led the CIA at the time of this rebellion - which interestingly enough came about because of a perceived lack of equitable distribution of both economic and political benefits with the new regime being so Java orientated - it was hoped by Dulles that the rebellion would succeed just enough so there would be a general destabilisation which would lead to the ousting of Sukarno who as a non-aligned nationalist was not readily compliant to U.S. interests in the Cold War. (Interestingly enough one has read that there were two competing visions in the U.S. administration whereby Arthur Dulles believed in maintaining U.S. hegemony through a security principle which called for supporting authoritarian regimes; while JFK wanted to work with the Third World by initiating a developmental program approach to build up its strategic position...yet even if this is the case it does seem to me that JFK was still willing to 'hand over' West Papua to Indonesia if need be although to be fair if he lived JFK it would have been interesting to see what he would have thought of the virtual annexation of West Papua by Indonesia which so clearly went against the will of Papuans).There was also deep US concern that the Indonesian Communist Party's (PKI) ever growing strength was not being seriously challenged and its strong presence would surely prove to provide fertile ground for the Soviet Union to do some further 'strategic gardening' of its own in in South East Asia. As it was the Dutch hoped that West Papua would eventually become an independent state by 1972 which would serve its own interest of maintaining its long centuries standing economic posture in the former East Indies especially when it had gold deposits that would turn out to bring about the largest gold mine in the world. As it was when Suharto came to power he would allow the U.S mining company Freeport to access this so called 'El Dorado' which clearly signalled Indonesia's shift to align with the 'Free World' under the welcoming stewardship of the United States. Much wealth would come from this mine but little of it would go directly to West Papua and worse what was 'given' to local communities was an array of environmental disasters while employment at the mine targeted mainly the transmigrants coming into this occupied province.  

  Papuans would have known how marginalised they could become in their own country so in the eventual vote to decide their own future they would certainly not have freely chosen to take on a new colonial master.  

  As it is it is hoped that there can be a new referendum so West Papuans can choose to be independent. The high numbers of Indonesian transmigrants who may still see their 'first loyalty' to Indonesia as a whole may make that result more difficult to achieve which is what suits Jakarta in case an independence vote was held; yet that would partly result on international pressure which is not exactly forthcoming because global strategic interests are well served by having Indonesia effectively maintain itself as a singular regional entity. 

 One line of critical argument may go that all diverse 'national aspirations' within Indonesia need to be 'down played' for it to stay strong and preferably - especially for that powerful political and corporate section of an international audience that wants Indonesia to maintain its present status quo - by stage managing these internal actors in a way that they can be appeased without the need to resort to state violence - which is better diplomatically for world-wide optics - but when killings occur and receive a public airing they can be ideologically framed in a way whereby those who are liquidated can themselves be seen dismissively by the state as 'fringe extremists' in a national security-apologist framework whereby such state murders can also 'understandably' be viewed as a 'regrettable' 'defence measure' against what has 'to be recognised' is that in the 'long term' there is the 'hope' that 'democratic' reform which are still presently a 'work-in-progress' will with sufficient 'good intent' will 'finally' 'take root' in civil society so as to make any ongoing 'antiquated' secessionist impulse not only impotent and unnecessary but even unpopular to the many local indigenous who are supposedly meant to see the nationalist paternalism being forcefully thrust upon them and wholly against their will is actually for 'their good' which is also for the good of the 'whole nation'.  To publicly inculcate a 'progressive' belief that 'full democracy' is what Indonesia 'truly' aspires too can help spuriously facilitate an international neighbour such as Australia to maintain its intolerable position that 'bad' state behaviour within West Papua is simply a 'passing feature' - due also to cultural 'misunderstandings' - rather than an integral aspect of ongoing knowable colonial internal rule. To play devil's advocate as a partial counterbalance it should be said that there have been outright killings by West Papuan insurgents of both civilians and military personnel and every such human rights violation should also be independently investigated and it deemed appropriate with justice in turn judicially meted out in a court of law as should also be the case when the Indonesian military also commit atrocities. Yet under colonial rule the law is invariably always weighted towards the colonist and so while the state will readily denounce acts of violence committed by its opponents and in a region which endures military occupation a structural 'moral correction' should also be made by the state to also be readily forthcoming in bringing to justice all of those of its 'own kind' who have caused and who keep predominantly 'energising' a ruthless cycle of violence which from the human rights reports one has read are proportionally initiated more so by the military; which in turn has brought on 'revenge killings' etcetera from those associated with the victims by which more innocent life is also lost. As it is I have been reminded during such readings of the frontier violence so prevalent in nineteenth and early twentieth century Australia where whites as well as blacks were killed but which such widespread violence was first brought into horrific existence by the forced takeover of lands by an occupier who 'naturally' saw the original inhabitants as inferior beings who could 'justly' to be exterminated 'if need be' if they deliberately chose to 'savagely' oppose the occupation of 'empty lands' by the 'right-thinking' pioneers of 'modern civilisation'. 

 One has also read that the claims of genocide in West Papua have been exaggerated in order to pull the heart-strings - as well as perhaps the purse-strings - of 'naive' independence activist supporters in the West (interestingly others in the West also state that the claims of genocide occurring against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province by the Chinese Communist Party - CCP - government are also exaggerated). Although the actual numbers of lives lost may be debated there is enough evidence based reportage to suggest that there is without dispute a very serious human rights situation in what was once also known as Irian Jaya and it must also be remembered that genocide can also include not only by way of outright mass biological death but also by any state effort to suppress cultural identity itself - which can be argued is the case in West Papua (as also is the case in Xinjiang and Tibet). 

  An acute example of this aspect in the internationally accepted legal definition of genocide is the Stolen Generations in Australia. Half caste children were taken from their mothers with the view that along with becoming unpaid domestic labour they would also eventually assimilate with Anglo Australians so the Aboriginal race will 'naturally' die out thus 'resolving' the Aboriginal issue (and presumably as well any possible associated problems relating to land tenure in the future...) once and for all. In West Papua along with national emblems such as the West Papua flag being made illegal there is a worry that with Indonesian transmigration that local identity and culture will also be wholly eliminated over time or at the very least be so marginalised as to parallel what happened to dispossessed First Nations peoples in Australia after 1788. In Australia it is clear that colonial law still works disproportionately against indigenous peoples with high rates of incarceration still occurring to this day along with high rates of deaths in custody. It is said there are second generation Indonesians born in Papua who are identifying themselves as Papuan and one hopes this will be an increasingly social development yet as is the case in Australia there are many who identify themselves as 'Australian' but psychologically still feel a strong cultural link to England and so believe in maintaining a constitutional loyalty to the Crown. (As yet another aside what one may also like to keep in mind while there are also many Australians who prefer to have a republic with an Australian head of state one wonders how many would agree to the idea that perhaps a First Australian of indigenous heritage should lead the country...to perhaps sublimely usurp the whole colonial project...? ).      

  Although Australia would lead INTERFET to come to the military rescue of Timor Leste's terrorized citizens it should be known that in Bernard Collaery's Oil Under Troubled Water. Australia's Timor Sea Intrigue. (2020) it was actually a reluctant move as Australia did not want to upset Indonesia and it was actually Clinton that suggested a military intervention on behalf of the East Timorese. Australia suggested the United States carry out the operation but this was rebuffed as Australia should take responsibility. I've seen it lately suggested that the United States was asked to 'help' Australia as if to infer that it had always been Australia's intention to militarily help Timor Leste yet from what I have read it seems more the case that the US call was a circuit breaker in overcoming Australian government paralysis to act on Timor Leste as well as give impetus to President Habibe to pushback on his own security forces who did not want Timor Leste to become independent in case it started a domino effect to embolden other separatist movements such as in Aceh and West Papua. From the United States point of view Australia as a main regional player should be involved to initiate the humanitarian intervention and it was not a case of the US 'abandoning' Australia but rather was 'motivating' it to do the right thing. It should be noted that although Australian diplomatic behaviour comes across as questionable there has only been appreciation from the Timor Leste population for the military assistance provided by INTERFET. An international case of a humanitarian military intervention actually being that. Historical truth does matter on one's point of view which can be further discussed the other day whilst the historical dimension one wants to focus on is how Australian motivation in its foreign policy in Timor Leste was based on resource acquisition and not on any principled stand for human rights. Australia wanted to deal solely with Indonesia rather than with ain independent Timor Leste whereby this former Portuguese colony would have a greater moral right as well as geographical international legality to the share of oil underwater resources off its shores. The same immoral, unseemingly 'business real politik attitude Australia had to Timor Leste can also be said about West Papua where Australian mining has also profited and where maintaining an 'onside' relationship with Indonesia remains paramount as a 'first principle' strategic regional goal. It also displays the one-dimensional inclination of a  'mono diplomatic culture'  whereby it is simply seen as 'simpler' to deal with 'one nation' rather than with the reality that there are many peoples in the region which all deserve their own national representation but it does not suit the 'greater powers' in the region in much the same way that greater agricultural powers prefer to suppress biological ecological systems in the interest of profiting from the 'easier managing of immense monoculture cash crops such as palm oil which is also not even a local plant being brought in historically from West Africa). Australian foreign policy had diplomatically betrayed a people who had lost at least 10,000 lives when helping Australian commandoes while the island was occupied by the Japanese military during WWII. It is seen as a moral travesty by all right thinking Australians including the surviving grateful veterans who fought in Timor Leste that basically nothing was done to help the cause of the East Timorese people during the long decades of an equally ruthless Indonesian occupation. Guaranteeing access to oil and gas reserves in the waters between Timor Leste and Australia were seen as far important to Australia and dealing directly with Indonesia rather than an independent Timor Leste was seen as the best way to achieve this economic gain. What is startling is that when independence was achieved an LNP Australian government was actually hopeful to negotiate with the hardline authoritarian Marxist faction of Timor Leste's Fretilin rather than with Xanano Gusmao of FALANTIL who was the popular ex-guerilla leader and who had been imprisoned by the Indonesians and who truly democratically had the best interest of all East Timorese at heart. Xanano Gusmao during the time of the resistance against the Indonesians had broken away from Fretilin due partly to the ideological inflexible intransigence of its authoritarian leadership; (for the LNP democratic principles went to the wayside when it came to realising corporate-orientated goals...market freedom not democratic freedom...). It should be noted that just before the invasion of East Timor in 1975 there was a civil war in the country and so nothing is monolithic and one should also mention that five Australian sponsored journalists were deliberately killed by Indonesian militia at Balibo (one more would later be killed in Dili) which the Australian government has never really been forward enough to seek out justice for all these men; they have obscenely become 'sacrificial lambs' for the diplomatic expediencies of both Australia and Indonesia. Yet one should not be too surprised as one recently heard the celebrated Australian lawyer Geoffrey Robertson recently remark in drafts of the Australian version of the Magnitsky Act that there was an ideological flaw in it whereby foreign policy is mentioned but not human rights; as if to say foreign policy was more important especially when that foreign policy was aligned to U.S. interests as if that would be best for Australian interests.  

 Regional stability to assure long term predictability can come at the expense of human and environmental rights is too often seen as an 'acceptable' price to pay to assure business investment and the economic 'benefits' it supposedly to the nation (when in actuality much wealth goes mainly to investors) is realised. Yet, the bitter irony is by being duplicitous towards Timor Leste Australia may have actually now weakened its defence posture as regional mistrust towards a parochial Australia has only been accentuated when it needs to be strengthened if the fear of possible hostilities from further north are ever actually realised and strong regional alliances are needed both on a practical as well as strategic level.   

Noam Chomsky Embarrassed by George Monbiot. Huffpost. Ben Cohen. 2012.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/noam-chomsky-george-monbiot_b_1544407

https://www.gale.com/binaries/content/assets/gale-us-en/primary-sources/archives-unbound/primary-sources_-archives-unbound_european-colonialism-in-the-early-20th-century_-colonialism-and-nationalism-in-the-dutch-east-indies-1910-1930.pdf

 National consciousness emerged gradually in the archipelago during the first decades of the twentieth century, developed rapidly during the contentious 1930s, and flourished, both ideologically and institutionally, during the tumultuous Japanese occupation in the early 1940s, which shattered Dutch colonial authority. As in other parts of colonial Southeast Asia, nationalism was preceded by traditional-style rural resistance. The Java War, joining discontented elites and peasants, was a precursor. Around 1900 the followers of Surantika Samin, a rural messiah who espoused his own religion, the Science of the Prophet Adam, organized passive resistance on Java that included refusal to pay taxes or perform labor service. Militant Islam was another focus of traditional resistance, especially in Sumatra.

 Native nationalism reflected trends in other parts of Asia and Europe. Pilgrims and students returning from the Middle East brought modernist Islamic ideas that attempted to adapt the faith to changing times. Other influences included the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885; the Philippine struggle for independence against both Spain and the United States in 1898-1902; Japan’s victory over Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), a major challenge to the myth of white European supremacy; and the success of Kemal Ataturk in creating a modern, secularized Turkey after World War I on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Revolution of 1917 also had a profound impact, reflected in the growth of a strong communist movement by the late 1920s. National consciousness was not homogeneous but reflected the diversity of Indonesian society. Dutch repression and the shock of war from 1942 to 1945, however, forged diverse groups into something resembling a unified whole.