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Indonesian Matters and Political Issues
Sep. 1st, 2009 01:57 pmOver the past fortnight I've written or presented on three different topics related to my recent visit to Indonesia. Firstly, is an article on isocracy on The Future of the Malay States in which I give a guarded positive to Indonesia for its largely successful democratic transition from the reformsi period, but argue for greater regional autonomy in the style of Malaysia. Of course, Malayia is doing very poorly in the democracy and human rights stakes with an abhorrently racist constitution and extremely poor separation between church and state.
On a related matter my presentation to the Melbourne Unitarian Church on The Religion and Culture of the Malay Archipelago last Sunday was very well received with quite a number expressing surprise that the topic was so interesting. Connections with the Unitarians in Indonesia is continuing; I have set up a domain and hosting for their website and, as a first piece of content, have put up a much-elaborated version of the presentation I gave there on The Historical Contribution of Unitarians and Universalists (recent discovery of mine; Gary Gygax was a unitarian!).
Last week attended a talk by old friend Dr. Clinton Fernandes who was recently a historical consultant to the movie Balibo and made significant effort to ensure historical authenticity. The UNSW/ADFA website goes into quite a lot of detail on this matter.
On a somewhat different note, afterwards I made may way down the road for the celebratory drinks for the registration of the Australian Sex Party. There is an excellent opinion article (PDF) from The Canberra Times explaining why a party of this interest has had to form. For my part I've written a length analysis of the seat of Bradfield for the ASP which has been duly received by Party leader, Fiona Patten.
On a related matter my presentation to the Melbourne Unitarian Church on The Religion and Culture of the Malay Archipelago last Sunday was very well received with quite a number expressing surprise that the topic was so interesting. Connections with the Unitarians in Indonesia is continuing; I have set up a domain and hosting for their website and, as a first piece of content, have put up a much-elaborated version of the presentation I gave there on The Historical Contribution of Unitarians and Universalists (recent discovery of mine; Gary Gygax was a unitarian!).
Last week attended a talk by old friend Dr. Clinton Fernandes who was recently a historical consultant to the movie Balibo and made significant effort to ensure historical authenticity. The UNSW/ADFA website goes into quite a lot of detail on this matter.
On a somewhat different note, afterwards I made may way down the road for the celebratory drinks for the registration of the Australian Sex Party. There is an excellent opinion article (PDF) from The Canberra Times explaining why a party of this interest has had to form. For my part I've written a length analysis of the seat of Bradfield for the ASP which has been duly received by Party leader, Fiona Patten.