WMG / The Tomorrow Series

The Enemy is Indonesia

This one's been mentioned once or twice on the main page, but it's worth enunciating why this is probably the most likely candidate. Indonesia and Australia have actually traded blows before, during the Malaysian-Indonesian Confrontation in the 1960s, and their relations struck an all-time low during the Timor-Leste crisis in the late 1990s, just about when the series begins. An invasion might have been justified on the grounds of grabbing resources and capital in the wake of the devastating Asian Financial Crisis. The brutal treatment of the local population and guerillas may be cross-referenced from their similar treatment of Acehnese and Papuan separatists. As regards the criteria given for the invaders:

• They speak a guttural language, with a sort of wailing music to it, and isn't French, Greek, Thai or Vietnamese.
  • Bahasa Indonesia can be a very musical and fast-paced language, with Malaysian Malays sometimes being stumped by what their Indonesian friends are saying. Dutch is no longer spoken in Indonesia.
• They are ruled by a general - likely a military dictatorship
  • Indonesia was a military dictatorship under Sukarno and Suharto, providing precedent. While Indonesia is now the most democratic country in the region at all administrative levels, their last presidential election had a majority candidate who was formerly a lieutenant general in the army.
• They have a large population, several times that of Australia's, a criterion necessary for an occupation.
  • Indonesia's population was ten times that of Australia's in 2000.
• They do not use the Latin alphabet, as seen on a wrapper.
  • Although Indonesian language for the most part use ordinary Latin alphabet, but the Jawi alphabet (which is essentially Arabic) and the Javanese script are still occasionally used by regional ethnic groups there.
• Their colonel's insignia has three crowns on it.
  • The Indonesian colonel epaulette has three jasmine buds◊, which vaguely resemble traditional Indonesian crowns◊, on it.
• They have at least one aircraft carrier.
  • While the Indonesian Navy does not operate any aircraft carriers, it is entirely within the realm of plausibility, especially if they militarized to the point of launching an invasion of Australia, that they could purchase a Kiev-class aircraft cruiser, as they were all sold during the mid-90s. Indonesia was a regular buyer of Soviet equipment throughout the Cold War following their disenchantment with the Western powers during the Confrontation.
• They have a base nearby to Victoria, as that's their first point of invasion.
  • This is the only criterion that Indonesia fails, as the entire country is contained between the 6th parallel north and 11th parallel south.