Australia's relationship with Indonesia is one of its most important and contentious bilateral relationships, characterized by sharply differing social and cultural mores and by periodic crises and mutual distrust, but also by significant person-to-person contacts in many fields. Recent developments, including the tsunami tragedy, the policies of a new Indonesian president and the Corby affair, have demonstrated both the best and the worst in the relationship. The Corby affair revealed high levels of ignorance and prejudice about Indonesia in some quarters in Australia. On the other hand, the tsunami that wrecked Indonesia's Aceh province led to an outpouring of sympathy and support from Australia. Following President Yudhoyono's visit to Australia in early 2005, official relations, though fragile, were better than they had been for many years. Australia's management of its most important regional relationship also has implications for its relations with other countries in the region, through issues such as Australia's presence and role in regional organizations, and policy responses to the rise of China. This book examines the wide range of factors and approaches that are involved in meeting the bilateral and regional challenges, including government links, public images and mutual perceptions, regional organizations, the role of Islam, the aid relationship, security and counterterrorism, economic and business relations, and the student market. The articles by the authors in this book reflect a complex, many-sided relationship that is not susceptible to simplistic formulas or stereotypes. Contributors include former Australian ambassador to Indonesia Richard Woolcott; former Indonesianambassador to Australia S. Wiryono; Noke Kiroyan, president of the Indonesia-Australia Business Council; K. Kesavapany, director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies; Paul Kelly of The Australian newspaper; Scott Dawson of the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development; Hugh White and Jamie Mackie of the Australian National University; and David Reeve of the University of New South Wales.

Hamengku Buwono IX, the late Sultan of Yogyakarta Special Province, is revered by Indonesians as one of the great founders of the modern Indonesian state. He leaves a positive but in some ways ambiguous legacy in political terms. His most conspicuous achievement was the survival of hereditary Yogyakartan kingship, and he provided rare stability and continuity in Indonesia's highly fractured modern history. Under the New Order, Hamengku Buwono also helped to launch the Indonesian economy on a much stronger growth path. Although remembered as the epitome of ""political decency"", he faded from power and influence as Vice President in the 1970s, and the repressive and anti-democratic features of Suharto's New Order seemed to contradict much of what Hamengku Buwono originally stood for. This biography seeks to explain his political standpoint, motivations, and achievements, and set his career in the context of his times.