Indonesia’s militaristic president Prabowo Subianto is seizing books which undermine his political agenda. Duncan Graham interviews author and historian Peter Carey.
America’s vengeful President Donald Trump has been ruthlessly pursuing the Democrats, institutions and individuals he imagines have criticised him and ought to become enemies to be persecuted.
Although he has tried to quash journalists and their outlets, as far as we know he hasn’t seized books carrying ideas that he thinks 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 scholar living in Indonesia. His expertise is the Dutch colonial era and the life of independence fighter and national hero Prince Diponegoro, 1785-1855.
His research has linked two of Prabowo’s distant forebears with the guerrilla leader credited with the start of Indonesian nationalism.
Carey lectures on Indonesian history, speaks the difficult multi-tiered Javanese language, and has several books to his name. These assembled qualities should earn him applause, not suspicion.
Right is right mood on rise
But the right-is-right mood in our neighbour and the world’s fourth most populous nation is growing. After the first year of Prabowo’s militarist rule and confessed hostility to robust democracy, the cashiered former general is pushing against civilian influences.
So far, the cops haven’t won fame for their love of literature, but rather for their ability to extract money from real or imagined offenders.
Now they’ve proved they can read, particularly Carey’s co-authored book —Corruption in the Perspective of Indonesian History from Daendels (Dutch Governor-General 1805-1811) to the Reformation era. It’s been in bookshops since 2016.
Carey told Michael West Media that “the bulk of my book dealt with how the British government got a handle on systemic and massive corruption in government and public life in the late 18th and early 20th century.”
Irrespective of the era, it seems the word corruption – korupsi in Indonesian – was enough to fire the police into action. In early September they seized books by Carey and other writers in a raid on the home and office of lawyer and human rights activist Delpedro Marhaen.
He’s the director of the Lokataru Foundation (‘local’ in Javanese). It describes itself verbosely as ” a non-profit organisation that works for the realisation of a collaborative and meaningful positive engagement among the state, communities and the private sector based on the values of human rights and the rule of law.
Delpedro has reportedly been charged with incitement of violence under the Criminal Code and the Electronic Information and Transactions legislation.
Corruption protests & book seizures
This followed widespread riots in late August triggered by politicians awarding themselves generous allowances while the populace struggles with high prices and low incomes.
News of the arrest of almost 1,000 alleged demonstrators, including 295 children, has dominated the media, shunting aside the raid on Lokataru.
Apart from Carey’s book, other works snatched from shelves included Pemikiran Karl Marx (The Thoughts of Karl Marx) by Jesuit Dr Franz Magnis-Suseno.
The 89-year-old professor emeritus at Jakarta’s Driyarkara School of Philosophy and its former rector was born in Nuremberg; he came to Indonesia in 1961 and has been an Indonesian citizen since 1977.
He’s one of the Republic’s leading intellectuals, a public commentator on social issues and a private advisor to former presidents. He’s a prolific writer, an opponent of Communism and an expert on Javanese ethics.
Another book on police desks being scrutinised line by line for its encouragement of subversion is a translation of Oscar Wilde’s The Soul of Man Under Socialism, first published in 1891.
As Javanese are hooked on black magic and prophecies, it’s a pity the uniformed bookworms didn’t find The Picture of Dorian Gray.
A separate police raid in the East Java city of Kediri netted more reading material, which the cops said promoted “anarchism”. They offered no evidence that the minds of rock-chuckers and tyre-burners had been encouraged by the words of long-dead wordsmiths.
Lawman logic
In lawman logic – possibly a tautology – a bright teen who reads Carey’s tales of a national hero fighting colonialism two centuries ago could use the model to threaten Prabowo’s autocracy.
Indonesia has a 95 per cent plus literacy level according to the World Bank, but this doesn’t get translated into readership. A UNESCO report claimed that only one in every thousand citizens “read books regularly or for leisure.”
That ranks Indonesia 60th out of 61 countries for reading. (Oz holds the twelfth position, Finland the first).
The most internationally famous local writer is the late Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who has come closer than any other Indonesian to winning a Nobel Prize.
Although jailed for a decade on a remote island by the second president, Soeharto, for allegedly being a covert Communist, which he always denied, he continued writing. He was released only after pressure from Australia and other Western nations.
His once-banned books are now openly on sale in mainstream bookshops but still grabbed in the police sweep. His translator was Australian one-time diplomat and now a left-wing academic, Dr Max Lane.
Police Commander Widiatmoko was quoted as saying: “As evidence, we secured 11 books on anarchist ideology, 42 rocks, 10 hoodie jackets, 18 cell phones, nine motorbikes, as well as stolen vests and shields.”
He stressed that the books were seized and not banned, so the public can still read – if they dare.
A chilling message
Albert Wirya, director of the Legal Aid Institute for Society called the confiscations “a suppression of free speech and expression” enabled by weak criminal procedure safeguards, as well as the police’s overarching authority.
“Not only does the book confiscation set a dangerous precedent for law enforcement in the country, but it also sends a chilling message to society, warning people to be careful what they read; a mindset that could further discourage reading”
Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono told MWM: “The police, when arresting these protesters, argued that they wanted to know whether these books had influenced these activists to act.
“Reading about Marxism, anarchism or religion does not automatically make people communists, anarchists or religious believers. The police should not charge people for their ideas.”
Like Trump, Prabowo rarely holds media conferences or talks to independent journos, so we can’t tell whether the book grabs are his ideas or those of ambitious cops, but we do know he wants to nuzzle up to the US leadership.
At an Egypt summit on Gaza he was caught on a hot mic asking Trump for an intro to his son Eric. Trump allegedly replied:
“I’ll have Eric call. Should I do that? He’s such a good boy.”
For what purpose –Trump golf courses in Indonesia or tips on media control? If the latter watch for more ways to empty libraries of unauthorised books.
“Sit down, shut up, get money”. Indonesia’s Prabowo shifts back to the right
Duncan Graham has a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He now lives in Indonesia.