Australia’s long term strategic interest in Indonesian stability has transformed into a genuinely warm strategic partnership, with a growing sense of Australian ownership of the problems of the huge sprawling nation as its own problems, and reciprocation by Indonesia, as witnessed in its willingness to help Australia manage the current of boat people from Sri Lanka. SBY will follow up the discussions in Jakarta last week with a quick working visit to Canberra in the middle of November. Diamond notes the measures by which Indonesia can be judged to have consolidated its democracy and, in particular, the growth of public support for democracy in a world in which the trend has gone the other way. Yet democracy in Indonesia will not stand or fall on how well it is doing relative to other democracies in the world. It will stand or fall in terms of how well it is doing in itself, and Diamond cautions that democracy in Indonesia will be secure for all time only when there has been more progress toward better governance. None of Diamond’s professional caution diminishes the proud achievements of Indonesia’s democracy over the past ten years.

Sunny Tanuwidjaja’s analysis of SBY’s new cabinet is a reminder of two things. It touches on the complications and fragility of grand coalition politics in an emerging democracy, an issue that underlies Diamond’s questioning commentary. It is also a reminder of the close professional connections with Australia and the ANU of the key technocratic ministers on whom SBY will rely to shape his agenda of reform. Indonesia’s new Foreign Minister, Dr Marty Natalegawa, took his doctorate in international relations from the ANU. Dr Mari Pangestu, re-appointed as Trade Minister, completed her undergraduate as well as her initial graduate education at the ANU. And Vice President Dr Boediono took his masters from Monash University and was a research fellow in what is now the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. Others, like Sri Mulyani Indrawati, the Finance Minister, have had similarly long professional associations with colleagues in Australia.