Welsh Journals

Indonesia. Problems and Prospects. B.Lynch. Sorrett, Heinemann Hong Kong (1977). pp. 185. ISBN 0 435 34560 5. Price (hardback) £ 3.60. The first impression this book gives the reader is that it is yet another American-style college regional geography abounding in illustration and superficial in treatment. Such fears soon evaporate. Lynch neg- lects neither human nor physical factors, avoids the pitfall which traps many regional geographers: the staid progression from climate to geology to soils and thence to man etc. Lynch manages to blend physical, cultural, historical and economic background. He then guides the reader in observing, interpreting and asking questions about the material he presents so that the readers arrive at their own value judgements. In short the author's aim is "to encourage readers to study major issues facing modern Indonesia, the world's fifth most populous nation." He encourages and guides in no passive fashion the approach is enquiry orientated to the extent that the reader faces set-tasks by the twelfth line of the first page of text. The present- ation is vivid; maps, block diagrams, graphs, tables and excellent colour photographs. Each chapter has good explanatory footnotes including some references, and there is a two page glossary. After a short introductory chapter, Lynch introduces the Indones- ian landscape, including concise well-presented treatments of tropi- cal forest, shifting cultivation and climate. He then introduces man as the modifier of the landscape considering rice cultivation and semi- permanent dry land cultivation. Chapter three deals with agriculture, and four with Indonesian villages. The latter chapter includes a case study of a typical Indonesian hamlet which features interviews with the headman of the settlement and with an agricultural extension officer and social worker. The chapter also includes a study of trans- migration. An excellent case study on natural rubber production is included in the fifth chapter which is devoted to resources; the sixth chapter deals with urbanization and manufacture. The abundant set-tasks and simulation exercises suit a wide range of age, ability and interest groups. The book appears to be aimed at the Australian or English-speaking South-East Asian secondary school or college student. The book would also give an excellent introduction to Indonesia (many of that nations problems are typical of other tropical Third world countries) for the traveller or first year undergraduate with an interest in South-East Asia. School teachers in UK secondary schools should find the book of interest especially if involved in teaching geography, economics or general studies/social sciences. At times Lynch gives the reader penetrating even poignant insights into the life-styles of the rural or urban poor of Indonesia, a table of typical peasant diet or a passage noting a farmer may con- sume only six or seven eggs and 100 gms of meat a year in addition to rice has a far more powerful and subtle impact that pictures of children with malnutrition. C. Barrow