Sydney Morning Herald Book Review
“Rockefeller & the Demise of Ibu Pertiwi
review: Mystery and politics in W Papua”
- Cameron Woodhead
Rockefeller
& the Demise of Ibu Pertiwi
Kerry B.
Collison
Sid Harta,
$24.95
Kerry B.
Collison brings a deep knowledge of Indonesian history and politics to his
latest novel. Using as a hook the mysterious disappearance of Michael C.
Rockefeller in 1961, the novel soon immerses us in a multi-faceted history
of West Papua (Irian Jaya), a former Dutch colony annexed by Indonesia in the
1960s. It's a geopolitical thriller that includes every conceivable perspective
and stakeholder, from remote mountain villages to the United Nation, from
international mining companies and the Indonesian military to the Papuan
independence movement. Rockefeller's vanishing gets an imaginative explanation,
as events conspire to ignite the possibility of war between Australia and
Indonesia (in a case of East Timor revisited on a larger scale) over the
question of self-determination. Perhaps a touch scattered as fiction, but sure
to intrigue anyone interested in geopolitical strategy and the history of our
region
Available on Kindle, Amazon and all good bookstores
ReplyDelete