The triple threat: ignorance, fear and prejudice

We journos record landscapes of loveliness, but no professional would overlook the foreground plastic trash and background haze from illegal fires.  When praising ancient temples we must also mention indifference towards pre-Islamic heritage.

Indonesia is a land of fermenting contradictions, its make-up fecund and tangled like the aerial roots of the banyan tree on the Garuda Pancasila national emblem  It’s so much more complex than a nation of ‘good Muslims’ in a ‘wonderful and beautiful country’ as Mitchell told ABC Radio

The AIC says it will ‘create a knowledge base on Australia-Indonesia attitudes and perceptions that makes a positive and long-lasting impact’. 

 Reviving Indonesian Studies in schools and universities would provide the most enduring hit.  Then perception research would be newsworthy no longer.