Articles by Jan Breman

While the reform movement may have put a stop to the hegemonic position of Golkar as the ruling party, it would be an exaggeration to see the election results as a manifestation of successful resistance against the restrictions on civic rights. The leaders of the reformasi campaign in the villages were not, after all, representatives of the landpoor, but the local elite who were articulating their own interests. Real reformasi has not yet even begun in the villages.

While the Indonesian government reports an increase in poverty to get foreign loans, the World Bank tries to push down the estimates. The truth is that poverty has increased to 30 to 35 per cent since the economic crisis. Migrant labourers suffer bitter poverty. The situation requires a redistribution of economic and political power.

Hong Kong Big Brother Is Eagerly Waiting for You Jan Breman The western press emphasises the anxiety and uncertainty with which the people of Hong Kong await their future, but what preparations for the transfer are being made by the Chinese? The party mandarins in Beijing appeal to nationalist sentiments while pursuing a political- economic regime that derives its inspiration from the example of Singapore. It remains to be seen however, whether what has been a success for an autocratically-led city state will also be a feasible model for an enormous subcontinent with numerous centrifugal forces.

Jan Breman Thirty years ago, the myth of Bali's harmonious and spiritual community, inherited from the colonial era, seemed to have been destroyed for alt time. That was when Bali fell victim to the explosion of violence that brought death to between 5,00,000 and a million Indonesians. The number of people killed on the island is uncertain, but it cannot have been far less than 80,000. Within the space of a few weeks, one in every 20 Balinese had been killed. And if the perpetrators are added to the number of their victims, and taking into consideration the many more who were detained secretly and indefinitely, one in every three households became involved in this 'purge' of what was said to he a paradise on earth. And then the curtain of silence was drawn.

Anti-Muslim Pogrom in Surat Surat is basically one big transit camp of labour. These footloose proletarians are subject to repression and exploitation in a capitalist framework remarkable for its nakedness and rawness. The orgy of violence which broke out in the second week of December last has to be seen against this backdrop.