Old Man, Tekka Centre, Singapore

Although a form of compromise has been reached in the NLB pulping controversy, the issue remains what type of society does Singapore wish to be? A Singapore open to alternatives, tolerant and inclusive, a place where the majority respects the right of minorities to co-exist and the rule of law prevails? Or a community where the wishes of an 'offended', militant, populist mob determine the agenda and squash any deviation from 'community norms'. Cherian George discusses these issues here.

These type of questions face many countries in the world today (see the treatment of asylum seekers & Islamophobic attitudes in Australia). 

The tendency towards nationalism and a rigid, authoritarian vision for society will increase as economic challenges arise and the gap between rich and poor widens. This will lead to reactionary forces importing more culture wars - with governments continuing to demonstrate they have neither the ability, nor the desire, to hold in check such conflicts arising from alternative visions of society. 

Suchen Christine Lim's speech at the Asia Pacific Writers Translators conference on 17 July 2014 is important in this context. Her wonderful speech covers the NLB book pulping issue and the important role of literature in a multicultural society. You can read the speech here.

The Family Votes

On or around 22 July, the Indonesian Presidential election winner will be officially announced. Initial polls and pundits say Jokowi will win but Prabowo is also claiming victory. It's likely Prabowo will appeal to the Courts and a period of increased uncertainty and turmoil may begin in Indonesia.

Bob Lowry in The Strategist, The Jokowi Presidency on some of the key challenges facing Joko - not least what to do with both Jusuf Kalla & Prabowo:

"The anticipated election of Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi) is a John Fitzgerald Kennedy moment in Indonesian history—a change of generations and a herald of hope that Indonesia can take a great leap forward in reforming its sclerotic state apparatus and unshackling its economy."

"The closeness of the vote demonstrates that there were considerable doubts about Jokowi’s readiness for the presidency so he’ll need to move quickly on forming his cabinet, creating a workable parliamentary coalition, and use executive powers to set his program in motion. He’s unlikely to be challenged in the way Kennedy was over Cuba but he could find some of his domestic opponents and vested interests just as tough."

A more pessimistic tone is taken by Ed Aspinall & Marcus Mietzner in New Mandala, Prabowo's Game Plan:

"...the confusion is part of Prabowo Subianto’s strategy to steal the election, a strategy that evidently has been long in the making. Reportedly, one of Prabowo’s chief campaign strategists, Rob Allyn, has been known not only for his expertise in negative campaigning but also for producing surveys which create the impression that an electorally weak candidate is competitive, and using the subsequent confusion among the electorate to manoeuvre this candidate into a more favourable position. Allyn has been known for this strategy in Mexican elections. It seems Indonesia is fertile ground for the same method."

"We think that it is likely that Prabowo will fail in his efforts. The scale of Jokowi’s victory is such that too many votes would need to be shifted to Prabowo’s side of the ledger in order to steal the result. However, we cannot be fully confident about this prediction: what we know about Prabowo’s ruthlessness, past experiences of widespread fraud in vote counting, the weakness of the PDI-P’s monitoring apparatus, the strength of the Prabowo’s political networks in the regions, and the vast material resources they have at their disposal all suggest that the Prabowo camp will be able to make a concerted effort to overturn the result. Doing so, however, will not be easy. The scale of the manipulation required means it will be relatively easy to detect, and it will invite massive resistance from Jokowi’s supporters. A major escalation of political conflict is possible."

This is the start of a fascinating period in Indonesian history.

We'll be back in Jakarta from 25 July for Hari Raya Idul Fitri and it will be good to hear Papa Eko's experiences working for the KPU (National Electoral Commission).

Let People Think For Themselves

Say No to Censorship

Allow children to experience and read about different lives, different ways and different worlds, allow children to ask questions. They are more intelligent than you think. Allow people to think for themselves. If you want a creative, entrepreneurial, dynamic, pluralistic, knowledge based society don’t ban books. If you want a society that is kinder and tolerant and diverse and is sensitive to its weakest members then don’t ban books.

Be inclusive, respect differences, don't ban these books:

• And Tango Makes Three
• The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption

The thing is words have power and if you start pulling books from library shelves and banning books, you then feel it’s ok to impose your own ideas on others by regulating and policing “acceptable ideology”, then you move on to excluding and marginalising people with ideas and behavior you don’t like - telling people unless you conform to majority norms then you are nothing - until finally you end up normalizing the persecution and brutality of minorities, and you end up with an intolerant, static, authoritarian society.

By all means disagree and bring your children up the way you want, but please don't ban books for other more tolerant, less judgmental people and think you are protecting them in any way.

Fascism doesn’t announce itself with the bang of jackboots on the streets outside, it starts with a whimper from those who should know better, who acquiesce in demonizing a minority and perform such a seemingly petty act as pulling a few books from a library shelf.

But it’s not petty to ban books and pulp them.

It’s an attack on knowledge. It’s an act of bigotry and it’s wrong.

Relevant Links:

• Singapore Writers Not Happy Over NLB Controversy
• Singapore Review of Books: The End of Innocence
• Pulping Penguins: the NLB and a space that used to be ours
• Preserve Common Space Or Regress To A Feuding Society

Election, Jakarta Selatan

The news on twitter is #Jokowi is declaring victory based on the early quick counts.

Live blogging at New Mandala

Why the Indonesian Presidential election matters

Man at the Burning Ghats, Kolkata

Asylum seekers: my country, my shame

"As a young person I had never thought, as I do now, that I would be ashamed to be an Australian. One of the main reasons for that shame, but not the only one, is our policies towards asylum seekers and Aboriginal people. Both issues directly affected me in my former role as Chief Justice of the Family Court, but today I will discuss asylum seekers."

..

"It seems that what both parties really want is to appeal to xenophobic views rejecting the arrival of these people in Australia when the solution of receiving them in a humane fashion and processing their applications quickly and efficiently, where necessary after their arrival in Australia is so obvious. The calumnies heaped on the Greens in relation to their immigration policy are pure exercises in hypocrisy because they are the only party with a decent and humane policy towards refugees."

"I believe that we must continue to oppose the government and opposition policies which, taken together or separately, are the real reason that people find it necessary to expose themselves to the horrible risks associated with travelling by boat to Australia."

"It is also time that we put the "problem" in proportion. As The Age columnist Tim Soutphommasane noted in a 2011 St James Ethics Centre paper, Australia received 15,226 boat arrivals, compared with Greece's 56,180, Italy's 91,821 and Spain's 74,317. These are European countries in dire economic circumstances in sharp contrast to ours."

"It is more than time that we got rid of such pejorative and inappropriate terms such as "queue jumping" and "border protection" and brought some humanity to bear on this issue. These are human beings, many of them families with children who are affected so let us stop talking nonsense about "stopping the boats", and "processing" people and get on with helping them."

"How did we get ourselves into this state? Australia is rapidly becoming an international pariah, riding roughshod over solemn treaty obligations into which it has entered like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Refugee Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child."

Alistair Nicholson, The Age, 4 July 2014

Children Eating Popsicles, Jakarta Selatan

Elizabeth Pisani in the New Mandala has an optimistic take (pity about the click bait headline: Indonesians Are Not Idiots) on the upcoming Presidential elections.

Today, my wife proudly filled in her postal vote. Democracy is a wonderful thing.