Right is right shift in Indonesia as president Prabowo channels Donald Trump

Indonesia’s militarist president Prabowo Subianto confiscates books that undermine his political agenda. Duncan Graham Interviews with author and historian Peter Carey.

America’s vengeful President, Donald Trump, is relentlessly pursuing to persecute Democrats, institutions, and individuals whom he deems critical of him and should be his enemies.

Although he tried to suppress journalists and their media outlets, as far as we know, he did not confiscate books containing ideas that he thought could infect dissidents. Leave that tactic to the Nazis in Europe in 1933 and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in 2025.

Dr Peter Carey, 77, is an Oxford University academic living in Indonesia. His area of ​​expertise is the Dutch colonial period and the life of the independence fighter and national hero Prince Diponegoro (1785-1855).

His research linked two of Prabowo’s distant ancestors to the guerrilla leader credited with the beginning of Indonesian nationalism.

Carey lectures on Indonesian history, speaks the difficult multi-layered Javanese language, and has several books to her name. These combined qualities should earn him applause, not suspicion.

The right mood is on the rise

However, in our neighbor and the world’s fourth most populous country, the “Truth is True” approach is developing. Confessed after first year of Prabowo’s militaristic rule hostility For a strong democracy, the deposed former general is pushing against civilian influences.

So far, cops have become famous not for their love of literature, but for their ability to extort money from criminals, real or imagined.

Now they’ve proven they can read, especially the book Carey co-wrote –Corruption in Indonesian Historical Perspective from Daendels (Governor-General of the Netherlands 1805-1811) Until the Reformation period. It has been in bookstores since 2016.

Carey said Michael West Media “A large part of my book was about how the British government dealt with systemic and mass corruption in government and public life in the late 18th and early 20th centuries.”

Regardless of the era, the word corruption seems to be – corpsi Indonesian – was enough for the police to take action. In early September, books by Carey and other authors were seized during a raid on the home and office of lawyer and human rights defender Delpedro Marhaen.

He is the director of the Lokataru Foundation (‘local’ in Javanese). IT speaks for itself In short, it is “a non-profit organization working to achieve collaborative and meaningful positive engagement between the state, communities and the private sector, based on the values ​​of human rights and the rule of law.”

It was reported that Delpedro charged For inciting violence under the Criminal Code and Electronic Information and Transactions legislation.

Corruption protests and book confiscations

This followed widespread riots in late August, triggered by politicians giving themselves generous allowances as people struggled with high prices and low incomes.

News of the arrest of nearly 1,000 demonstrators, including 295 children, dominated the media and pushed aside the raid on Lokataru.

Apart from Carey’s book, other works were also stolen from the shelves. Pemikiran Karl Marx (Thoughts of Karl Marx) Jesuit Dr. Franz Magnis-Suseno.

The 89-year-old retired professor and former rector of Jakarta’s Driyarkara School of Philosophy was born in Nuremberg; He came to Indonesia in 1961 and has been an Indonesian citizen since 1977.

He is one of the Republic’s leading intellectuals, a public commentator on social issues and a special advisor to former presidents. A prolific writer, anti-Communist and expert on Javanese ethics.

Another book about police desks that has been scrutinized line by line for encouraging subversion is a translation by Oscar Wilde. The Spirit of Man Under Socialism, It was first published in 1891.

It’s a shame that the uniformed bookworms can’t find it, as the Javanese are addicted to black magic and prophecies. The Picture of Dorian Gray.

A separate police raid in the East Java city of Kediri led to the seizure of more reading material that cops said promoted “anarchism”. They offered no evidence that the minds of stonemasons and tire burners were encouraged by the words of long-dead wordsmiths.

lawman logic

According to lawman logic – possibly a tautology – a bright young man who reads Carey’s stories about a national hero who fought colonialism two centuries ago could use this model to threaten Prabowo’s autocracy.

Literacy rate in Indonesia is over 95 percent based on I send it to the World Bank, but it does not turn into a readership. UNESCO report He claimed that only one in every thousand citizens “reads books regularly or in his spare time.”

This puts Indonesia 60th out of 61 countries in terms of reading. (Oz is in twelfth place, Finland is in first place).

The most internationally famous local writer is the late Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who is closer to him than any other Indonesian. winning a Nobel Prize.

He continued to write even though he was sentenced to ten years in prison on a remote island by the second president, Soeharto, for allegedly being a secret communist, which he always denied. He was released only after pressure from Australia and other Western countries.

His once-banned books are now openly sold in mainstream bookstores but are still seized in police sweeps. His translator was Dr., a one-time Australian diplomat and now a left-wing academic. It was Max Lane.

Police Commander Widiatmoko was quoted as saying: “We seized 11 books on anarchist ideology, 42 rocks, 10 hooded jackets, 18 mobile phones, nine motorcycles as well as stolen vests and shields as evidence.”

He emphasized that the books were confiscated and not banned, so the public could continue reading – if they dared.

A chilling message

Albert Wirya, director of the Institute of Legal Aid for Society, described the seizures as “suppression of freedom of speech and expression” enabled by weak criminal procedure safeguards as well as the overarching authority of the police.

“Not only does seizing books set a dangerous precedent for law enforcement in the country, it also sends a chilling message to society, warning people to be careful about what they read, a mindset that could further encourage reading.”

Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono said: MWM: “The police argued that when arresting these protesters, they wanted to know whether these books had influenced these activists to take action.

“Reading about Marxism, anarchism or religion does not automatically make people communists, anarchists or religious people. Police should not charge people for their opinions.”

Like Trump, Prabowo rarely holds media conferences or speaks to independent magazines, so we don’t know whether the seized books are his ideas or the ideas of ambitious cops, but we do know he wants to sneak up on the US leadership.

Gaza was at its peak in Egypt caught On a hot mic, he asks Trump to meet his son Eric. Trump allegedly responded as follows:

“I’m going to call Eric. Should I do that? He’s such a good kid.”

To what end – Trump golf courses in Indonesia or hints of media control? Second, if he pursues more ways to empty libraries of unauthorized books.

“Sit down, shut up, take the money.” Prabowo moves right again in Indonesia