Five Journeys from Jakarta: Inside Sukarno's Indonesia

Australasia has long been the professional beat of author-journalist Maslyn Williams, and this book is a direct product of that expert knowledge, reinforced by four months of travel in Indonesia in 1964 [during a period of economic troubles just before the coup of 1965]. It is one of the few thoroughgoing yet popular profiles of that yeasty, sprawling, disturbing land available to American readers. In Mr. Williams' journeys, Jakarta, the capital, was always the point of departure. The first was to Sulawesi, formerly Celebes; the second to Bali, by repute the most exotic of all the Indonesian islands. The third journey was to Sumatra; the fourth, in and about the Javanese hinterlands. Finally, Mr. Williams traveled to West Irian, newest acquisition of the Republic, on New Guinea. Wherever Mr. Williams traveled he lived with the people as they live. Accordingly his book is not solely a consideration of politicos and generals, though these are here. It is even more an interpretation of Indonesia from the viewpoint of ordinary folk and their normal human aspirations--their history, their religion, their changing life, and their view of the world outside. In its humanity, its grace of language, its close identification with the land and the people, this book resembles Laurens van der Post's A View of All the Russias. The belief that genuine understanding is a prerequisite to effective policy is implicit in it. Because it documents that belief vividly and cogently, it is essential reading -- Adapted from book jacket.