Tuna karya,jilbab and cow-boy hat: Youth in Suharto's Indonesia as reflected in the works of Remy Sylado and Emha Ainun Nadjib∗

The construction of social coherence out of cultural and ethnic diversity is one of the major challenges faced by Indonesia. It is necessary to work in harmony like musicians in a gamelan group. Two Indonesian cult figures, Remy Sylado and Emha Ainun Nadjib have tackled this dilemma when addressing their audience. During the Suharto period, these two figures, despite their different backgrounds, came to be known as iconoclasts or mbeling. Their unconventional expression enabled them to harmonise the various strands of Indonesian youth and to direct them towards projects which united them in the ideal of one and the same Indonesia. Like all gamelan players, they settled into a shared rhythm, before setting the tone for change.     

Recent trends and issues in Australia‐Indonesia relations

THIS ARTICLE concentrates particularly on bilateral relations between Australia and Indonesia.* While it is necessary to see relations between the two countries in their broader regional and global context, there has also been some tendency to underestimate the impact of domestic political and economic factors.     

Progress and Populism in Tongan Politics∗

Media fascination with and misrepresentation of Tongan politics continues, but there is better reason than usual for taking a close look at 2005. The government had suffered a series of reverses and embarrassments in the previous few years, including the dismissal of five ministers. Public controversy had arisen over attempts to control the media, over royalty's business interests, and finally over the price of electricity. These matters were bound to be exploited in the 2005 election, but the manner in which that happened was unexpected because of the new roles in politics for an old radical and one of the dismissed ministers. Moreover, the government had announced a minor but significant reform involving popular representation in cabinet. The general election of March 2005 confirmed the grip that critics of the government have on popular politics but the events of the next few months showed the government's run of bad luck continuing, so much so that it suffered a serious loss of respect. The government has had to make concessions unprecedented in constitutional times.     

Is Green Islam going to support environmentalism in Indonesia?

Various newspaper and scholarly articles have appeared in the past few years which enthusiastically claim that a Green Islam is emerging in Indonesia. This movement is supposedly going to have a major positive impact on pro-environmental behaviour. In contrast to this optimism, on the basis of our observations of daily life in Indonesia, we question the belief that such a powerful Green Islam is emerging. We argue that, in the cases we have studied, contrary to the scholars and journalists writing about Green Islam, Muslim religious frameworks do not lead to an activist environmentalism. There is no reason to assume that Islam is a major force for pro-environmental behaviour, and we are therefore doubtful about the potential of Green Islam. Many people, however, interpret their diverse interactions with the environment in religious terms, and Islam does certainly support and legitimize behaviour which is good for the environment, albeit more in the form of unforeseen side-effects.     

Patterns and Laughter in Euripides’ Helen ∗

An examination of Euripides’ use of traditional stories in composing two remarkably similar plays of his, IT and Helena. In the first he draws on that of Troas and Hypsipyle, in the second on that of Odysseus’ return to Penelope. I suggest that the two plays, along with the now fragmentary Andromeda, formed a single trilogy, produced in 412 BC, just after the Athenian defeat at Syracuse, which seems to have influenced the mood of the two surviving plays.