A little over seven weeks from now, our 2025 Festival officially kicks off, so we wanted to awaken the festival magic with a series of Q&As introducing some of the moderators who have been with us since our humble beginnings and will be returning once again this year.
Get to know Michael Vatikiotis, writer and private diplomat, who has lived in Asia for the best part of forty years, as he shares what we can expect from his upcoming sessions, his reading, and the events he's most looking forward to at this year’s Festival.
You’ve been coming to UWRF for years now as a regular moderator. What makes you want to come back?
I was fortunate and honoured to be a participant in the very first Ubud Writers Festival, and have attended almost every single year since, both as a moderator and an author presenting my books. Authors are obliged to attend book events to sell their books, but what makes Ubud extra special for me is the privilege of moderating panels, steering discussions, helping to shape narratives, and forging relationships.
You mentioned Revolusi as a majestic and wonderful new history of Indonesia’s struggle for independence. Now you will be leading a panel with David van Reybrouck and other speakers on how Indonesia set a precedent for rapid decolonisation by being the first country to declare independence. What do you hope attendees will take away from this conversation?
I hope the audience and the panel comes away recognising the contemporary resonance of the Indonesian revolutionary struggle. The sub-title of Van Reybrouck’s book is Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World, highlighting the role the new nation played in forging the post-colonial world. Many countries in what we call today the Global South were inspired by Indonesia’s determined struggle for self-determination, for enshrining pluralism at the heart of the new state. Well, in today’s broken, post-modern world, these values need rescuing and reinforcing: Indonesia’s idealism could once again come to the rescue.
