Indonesia: An Eyewitness Account. (Book Reviews).

INDONESIA: AN EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT by Michael Maher Melbourne, 2000: Viking, pages 274.

Michael Maher was sent to Jakarta as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Indonesian correspondent in 1993. This book is his account of the next six tumultuous years.

Maher states in the introduction that his aim was to write an "accessible" book that was not intended to be exhaustive and which would go some way towards "lifting the veil" on Indonesia. He succeeds, with a perceptive and entertaining narrative style, in conveying the feelings, moods and the reality of the people and situations behind the stark headlines. Through his sympathetic and compassionate view we are privy to what is, ultimately, a sad story of lives and cultures, and of opportunities destroyed in this vibrant country through corruption, fragmentation and lack of leadership.

Maher is taken early with the "irrepressible nature and dynamism" of the peoples who make up the Indonesian archipelago. "It was the good humour in the face of severe hardship and the quiet eloquence of many Indonesians that I found most striking." But he notes that in 1993, "the scales had begun to tip." Indonesia was President Suharto's kingdom: he had achieved a great turnaround in the economy since coming to power in 1967, so much so that the World Bank had declared Indonesia to be an "East Asian Miracle". However, nepotism and the circles of corruption and mismanagement that entwined the Suharto clan were starting to have their negative consequences.

The author devotes a chapter to the Suharto "First Family". He secured interviews with three of its key members and his lively writing quickly gives us illuminating pen-portraits: the youngest son and the favourite, brash Hutomo Mandal Putra (Tommy); the eldest, daughter Tutut -- intelligent and politically astute; and the smooth and infamous son-in-law, Brigadier-General Prabowo Subianto.

Readers also obtain an insight into the eccentric B. J. Habibie (later to be, briefly, Indonesia's third president) and the influential Muslim leader Dr. Amien Rais in a chapter that also covers the history of Islam and describes its two main "strains" within Indonesia -- the world's largest nation of Muslims.

Maher's final three chapters depict the increasing "Balkanisation" of the world's fourth most populous nation. We follow chronologically through the short reign of B. J. Habibie and on to Abdurrahman Wahid, the first democratically elected President. The momentous move to independence of East Timor and the cruel slaughter afterwards, which led to the mobilisation and deployment of an Australian-led peace-keeping force to restore order, will remain long in the memories of most Australians, and Maher provides a unique view from within Indonesia and East Timor of these events.

Maher concludes by arguing that, despite all this upheaval, the outlook for the nation of Indonesia is "not all bleak". We must hope that Indonesia and its peoples can succeed in completing the journey from dictatorship to a peaceful and open society.

M. K. Brown