Antony Loewenstein

Two leading, Acehnese intellectuals and writers at a popular Banda Aceh cafe
17 October

A fruit-seller at a market in Banda Aceh, Indonesia
15 October

I’m in Aceh, Indonesia, a strongly Muslim area with strict views on gender, politics and religion (ie. here). I’ll be conducting a number of public events and media interviews during my time here, engaging with local Indonesians on issues related to sharia law, the Middle East conflict, gender and resistance to Islamisation. I’ve already been amazed with the number of young girls, in their final year at school, telling me how they love The Simpsons, believe Aceh should be independent (along with West Papua) and why they adore Palestine.

Much more in the coming days and weeks.

Near Borobudur, Indonesia
12 October

Post the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, that finished last night in wonderful fashion, I’m now here for this tomorrow night:

“Global Voices in Borobudur” will bring ten writers from around the world and five Indonesian writers to the world’s largest Buddhist temple at Borobudur to present their work on October 13, 2009, as an extension of the 2009 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. The readings and spoken word performances will commence at Manohara at 6:00 p.m., on the Borobudur temple grounds. The presentation will be free of charge and open to the public.

The writers’ performance at Borobudur marks the first time that the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival’s organisers have expanded this international literary festival’s events beyond Bali. Borobudur lies near Yogyakarta in Central Java, the neighboring island west of Bali. The theme of the Festival is Suka Duka: Solidarity and Compassion.

“It is a big leap and really exciting to extend the Ubud Writers Festival from Bali to Borobudur in Java,” said Festival founder Janet DeNeefe. “Buddha’s spirit of compassion and his timeless teachings can help us to navigate the many global problems we face today. It is fitting that the festival, with its theme of ‘Compassion & Solidarity’ culminates at Borobudur.”

Writers presenting their works at Borobudur include the following:

Fatima Bhutto, a journalist and writer, is from Pakistan. Her father was Murtaza Bhutto, who was killed by police in 1996 in Karachi during the premiership of his sister, Benazir Bhutto. Fatima’s third book, a history of the Bhutto family, will be published in the UK by Jonathan Cape in 2010.

Michelle Cahill edited the transnational anthology Poetry Without Borders (Picaro, 2008). Her forthcoming collection Vishvarupa is themed around Hindu deities. Michelle has sojourned in monasteries and ashrams in Thailand, Laos, India, Nepal and Bali, to practice yoga and vipassana meditation.

Tom Cho

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Tom Cho is the author of the fiction collection Look Who’s Morphing, published by Giramondo in April this year.

In addition to writing fiction, Tom works as a freelance writer/editor. He has also worked in programming roles for various arts organisations in Australia, including Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne Fringe and National Young Writers’ Festival.

Andrew McMillan
Andrew’s close contact with the people of East Arnhem Land has resulted in essential reading for those with an interest in Aboriginal history. His award winning book An Intruders Guide to East Arnhem Land tells of a moving and exciting story of warfare, loss, social and cultural struggle, and renewal.

Sophie Hackford is an academic, writer and consultant with a special interest in migration and diaspora. She now works at the innovative James Martin School of the 21st Century at the University of Oxford.

Angelo R. Lacuesta has won the Palanca, Philippine Graphic and NVM Gonzalez Awards for his short fiction. His first book Life Before X and Other Stories won the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award and the National Book Award in 2000. His second collection White Elephants: stories won the National Book Award in 2005. He has recently published a third collection Flames and other stories and is at work on his first novel.

Sosiawan Leak was born in Solo in 1967. His published poetry includes Umpatan (1995), Cermin Buram (1996), and Dunia Bogambola (2007). He is also playwright, director and performer. In 2006 and 2008, together with two other poets – Martin Jankowski from Berlin and Dorothea Rosa Helriany from Magelang – he has toured Indonesia giving poetry readings.

Antony Loewenstein’s best-selling book on the Israel/Palestine conflict My Israel Question was short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier’s Literary Award. His second book The Blogging Revolution on the Internet in repressive regimes, was released in 2008. He is the co-founder of advocacy group Independent Australian Jewish Voices and contributed to Amnesty International Australia’s 2008 campaign about Chinese Internet repression and the Beijing Olympic Games.

Gunawan Maryanto was born in Jogya in 1976. He is director and writer in Garasi Theater, Jogja. His books include Waktu Batu (a play story written with Andre Nur Latif and Ugoran Prasad, 2004), Bon Suwung (an anthology of short stories, 2005), Galigi (an anthology of short stories, 2007), Perasaan-perasaan yang Menyusun Sendiri Petualangannya (a poetry book, 2008) and Usaha Menjadi Sakti (an anthology of short stories, 2008). He won a “Sih” award in 2007 and a poetry award from Indonesia’s Education and Tourism Ministry in 2007.

Dyah Merta was born in Ponorogo, East Java, in 1978. Her writing has won the Short Story Contest (Jakarta, 2003 and Lampung 2004). She has published two books – Hetaira, an anthology of short stories, in 2005 and Peri Kecil di Sungai Nipah, a novel, in 2007.

Omar Musa was the 2008 Australian Poetry Slam champion, who has swum with piranhas and alligators in Bolivia and taught Aboriginal children in outback Australia. The 25-year-old Malaysian-Australian baritone has backpacked almost every continent and has a treasure-trove of stories to tell. Musa was a winner of the British Council’s Realise Your Dream award in 2007.

Ugoran Prasad was born in Tanjungkarang, Sumatra, in 1978. He is coordinator at Garasi Theater in Jogya and manager of programs for the Indonesian Performing Art Society. In 2008 he was a visiting scholar in the Performance Studies Department, Tisch School of The Arts, New York University.

Triyanto Triwikromo was born in Salatiga, Central Java, 1964. He is editor of Suara Merdeka daily and lecturer of Creative Writing at Universitas Diponegoro Semarang. His anthologies of short stories include Rezim Seks (1987), Ragaula (2002), Sayap Anjing (2003), Anak-anak Mengasah Pisau-Children Sharpening the Knives (bilingual, 2003), Malam Sepasang Lampion (2004) and Ular Di Mangkuk Nabi (2009).

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
10 October

Leading Australian journalist Sally Neighbour investigates the presumed mastermind behind last week’s hotel bombings in Jakarta, Noordin Mohammed Top:

Top is known not only as a master of disguise and skilled escape artist who has eluded an Indonesian police dragnet for seven years. He is also a logistical and technical mastermind and, even more troubling, a charismatic recruiter of young would-be martyrs who is known to have volunteers in the wings waiting to set off more bombs.

He also harbours a visceral hatred of Australia, which he has pinpointed repeatedly in his diatribes and is bound to target again in future attacks unless he is captured or killed.

So who is the ruthless technocrat who has defied the leadership of his organisation, Jemaah Islamiah, to carry on the murderous campaign for an Indonesian Islamic state?

…

Top mesmerises his young acolytes with tales of the suffering and death of Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan and the heroic struggle being waged on their behalf.

The forthcoming Australian film, Balibo, may finally force the general public to acknowledge successive government’s complicity in the attempted genocide of the East Timorese from 1975 onwards:

BALIBO Official Film Trailer from Footprint Films on Vimeo.

A few months ago I spoke in Ubud, Bali about the Middle East crisis and Jewish responsibility for the chaos. I’ll be returning in October as a guest of the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. Here’s the latest news about the wonderfully diverse guest list, a unique opportunity to share stories and be inspired:

The literary goddess of Ubud has announced a tentative line-up of some 70 writers, poets and artists from all corners of the world for 2009, including Adelaide-based Booker Prize-winner and Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee (Disgrace, Life & Times of Michael K); Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka (You Must Set Forth at Dawn), the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature; Uwem Akpan (Say You’re One of Them); Vikas Swarup (Slumdog Millionaire, Six Suspects); Mexican author Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate); Hari Kunzru (My Revolutions, Transmission, The Impressionist); Mohammed Hanif (A Case of Exploding Mangoes); Ed Husain (The Islamist); Kate Grenville (The Lieutenant, The Secret River, The Idea of Perfection, Dark Places); Lloyd Jones (Mister Pip, Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance); Wena Poon (Lions in Winter); Alice Pung (Unpolished Gem); Mo Zhi Hong (The Year of the Shanghai Shark); Antony Loewenstein (My Israel Question, The Blogging Revolution); literary agent extraordinaire David Godwin; Tash Aw (The Harmony Silk Factory, Map of the Invisible World); Rana Dasgupta (Tokyo Cancelled, Solo); Sonya Hartnett (Butterfly, Surrender, Thursday’s Child); Julia Leigh (The Disquiet, The Hunter); Alison Lester (Clive Eats Alligators, Tessa Snaps Snakes, Rosie Sips Spiders); and Tara June Winch (Swallow the Air).

Also appearing are Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Usha Akella, Asitha Ameresekere, Nigel Barley, Fatima Bhutto, Michelle Cahill, Tom Cho, Diana Darling, N.H. Dini, Gamal Al Ghitany, Riaz Hassan, Dany Laferriere, Lee Su Kim, Bejan Matur, James McBride, Ng Yi-Sheng, John O’Sullivan, Omar Musa, W.S. Rendra, Thando Sibanda, Thant Myint-U, Jeet Thayil, Abdourahman Waberi, and others.

Now in its sixth year, the festival will run from October 7-11, 2009, with the theme Suka Duka: Compassion & Solidarity, an Indonesian philosophy that defines the essence of shared support that communities in Indonesia offer in times of joy and sorrow.

Being in Indonesia it’s been interesting to read the Jakarta Post every day. This week’s visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has resulted in column after column about her trip and its meaning (example one.)

Like so many nations around the world, the Indonesian political and media elite crave Washington’s embrace and acceptance (many reader comments back this up.)

I’ve just arrived in Indonesia for a combination of work and play. More info about this soon, but posting may be a little light over the coming 12 days.

Some interesting reading in the meantime here, here, here, here, here and here.

This story from today’s Jakarta Post signals the optimism felt by Indonesia towards the Obama administration. Let’s see how long it lasts.

More shortly.