Jakarta Post / What Media Says
Feb 01, 2025
Konde.co / As Seen On
Jan 31, 2025
Hindu / All Things Books
Jan 27, 2025
Story / All Things Books
Jan 19, 2025
Max Lane
Writer / See Indonesianist
A writer and researcher and translator, editor and consultant with 36 years of experience in and with Indonesia, as well as with Singapore and the Philippines and with the East Timorese community in Australia. He is an Honorary Associate in Indonesian Studies, School of Languages and Cultures, University of Sydney.
Max Lane introduced the English-speaking world to the revolutionary that is Pramoedya Ananta Toer, often speculated to be Indonesia’s best candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Lane, now a lecturer of international politics at Victoria University, was a mid-level officer working at the Australian embassy in Jakarta when he began translating Pramoedya’s Bumi Manusia in 1980. At this time, Indonesian president Suharto’s New Order Regime (the Partai Golongan Karya [Party of the Functional Groups, also known as Golkar]) was in power, propped up by foreign investment and backed by the army. It was also when heavy-handed repression was the norm in Southeast Asia, and Suharto’s New Order government was no exception. In the early 1980s, corpses began surfacing in public places as a result of extrajudicial killings. These ‘Petrus’ (Penembak Misterius, or mysterious shooter) killings were undertaken by the army to reduce the crime rate, which President Suharto openly admitted in his biography. The Indonesian government was also involved in a bloody conflict in East Timor as guerrillas resisted the Indonesian occupation beginning in 1975.
Book(s)

Indonesia Out of Exile
Biography
240 page(s), Penguin Random House SEA

Unfinished Nation: Indonesia Before and After Suharto
Non Fiction
312 page(s), Verso Books
Other Book(s)
In the Headlines

Nikkei Asia / All Things Books
Jul 13, 2023
Crafted by Max Lane

Personal Blog / What Media Says
May 20, 2016

Indonesia Southeast Asia And International Affairs, USYD / What Media Says
Sep 14, 2006

Indonesia Southeast Asia And International Affairs, USYD / What Media Says
Aug 08, 2006

Green Left Weekly / What Media Says
May 10, 2006
At a Glance
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