Peter Gallagher

First, the deep­en­ing of the nor­mal demo­c­ra­tic process in Indonesia—completing only it’s fourth demo­c­ra­tic elec­tion since WWII (1955, 1999, 2004 and 2009)—is excel­lent strate­gic news for Aus­tralia, despite the con­tin­u­ing pol­icy tur­moil that minor­ity gov­ern­ment seems to guar­an­tee. But, sec­ond, the events in Fiji this week­end are a reminder that polit­i­cal and social unrest in sev­eral of our clos­est neigh­bors could destroy their pros­per­ity, under­min­ing ours.

Solomons, which is head­ing for eco­nomic ruin, and pos­si­bly PNG—by far the largest of the Pacific states—belong on the list men­tioned in The Aus­tralian arti­cle. Van­u­atu? Not so much.