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ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 40 | August 1999


The collections

Regional Office covers the Indonesian elections

Indonsia 1999 elections

The mood during the 1999 elections in Indonesia was peaceful and positive


As part of its assistance to the elections in Indonesia, the Australian Government sent 25 monitors, including 12 Members of Parliament, who went in teams to various parts of the country—Balikpapan (Kalimantan), Mataram (Lombok), Kupang (Timor), and Malang and Surabaya (East Java.)

The Australian Embassy in Jakarta requested assistance from other agencies in connection with this large contingent of visitors for such a landmark event. Oliver Mann, the National Library’s Regional Officer based in the Embassy in Jakarta, volunteered his services and was sent to Surabaya to help with the visit by three senators and one Member of the House of Representatives. Despite the fact that no sooner had they arrived than they were caught for an hour in the midst of a massive rally of Megawati Sukarnoputri followers, their week-long visit and monitoring was judged to be very successful. Oliver’s tasks ranged from arranging meetings with political parties and Indonesian election monitoring groups, to interpreting at a press briefing.

As well as commercial publications, the Library’s Regional Office has acquired a comprehensive selection of the main political parties’ policy documents and flags, government posters advising people how to vote, official election monitoring handbooks, and newsletters put out by the United Nations and domestic monitoring bodies. In sum, this year’s historic election process will be well documented in the National Library’s collections.

It was announced recently that Oliver Mann’s term as regional officer had been extended. Having collected publications reflecting great social change during his first term, he says that the extension ‘will give me the opportunity to also witness the beginnings of Indonesia’s political and economic recovery from the sudden and traumatic events of the past two years’.

Oliver Mann can be contacted at oliver.mann@dfat.gov.au

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