Sharman Sinaga's granddaughter looks bored as her grandfather demonstrates for the camera his favoured technique of market liberalisation: holding union activists upside down in flooded fields. He mimics their gargles as they choke in the mud. He could hold down two or three at a time he boasts; he seems faintly nostalgic in the dim light and the smoke; his only regret, that his arms and knees aren't what they used to be.
The orders to hold people upside-down came from the top, he…