2011 Indonesia Study Group
13 December. (Gavin Jones, Asia Research Institute, NUS). Population and Human Development: Indonesia in Comparative Perspective
The world now falls into three demographic camps ’ the very high fertility countries, the very low fertility countries, and those in between. Indonesia is in the “in between” group. As far as economic development and human development are concerned, Indonesia is again in an “in between” group. Is this a good place to be, and will Indonesia remain in this group? This seminar was a rather discursive discussion of demographic and human development trends in Indonesia in a broader Asian context. There were some discussion of a new comparative research project at the National University of Singapore on China, India and Indonesia.
7 December. Julie Chernov Hwang (Department of Political Science and International Relations, Goucher College, Baltimore). Relationships, Rational Analysis and Random Acts of Kindness: The Disengagement of Jihadis in Central Sulawesi
Disengagement is the process via which a member of a terror group, radical movement or gang ceases participation in acts of violence. While disengagement has been occurring widely within the mainstream JI community, it is also taking place in Poso among the former and current members of Tanah Runtuh, JI’s Poso affiliate. This begs the question of why. After the Densus 88 raids on the Tanah Runtuh compound in January 2007, the number of terror attacks steeply declined. One might then assume that the Densus raids caused Poso jihadis to realize that the costs of continued terror actions were too high. However, in detailed interviews with 15 former Tanah Runtuh and Kayamanya members, many of whom had been involved in major terror actions, this sort of cost-benefit reasoning was just one part of their disengagement narrative and often not the dominant one. Instead, for most of these individuals, their disengagement was a gradual reflective process, driven by a combination of relational, psychological and rational factors. Employing original fieldwork, this presentation addressed the pathways and processes that are leading many Poso jihadis to disengage from violence and address the implications of that disengagement for stability in Poso.
30 November. Catherine Smith (School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU). Fatimah and the Struggle Against History: Trauma as Paradox in Acehnese Women's Life Histories
This paper is part of a broader project that examines the various ways that Acehnese people take up the loanword trauma in the post-conflict period.
One of the key ways in which my interlocutors use the term ‘trauma’ is in their reflections on the nature of history. This paper takes the life histories of four Acehnese women, and looks at the ways in which they narrate their own life experiences in relation to a broader imaginary of history. The loanword trauma signifies what they recognise as the paradoxical nature of history: namely that history causes suffering while also forming the bravery necessary to withstand suffering.
By approaching ‘trauma’ as an idiom of distress, my research moves away from anthropological debates about the universality of trauma. Rather, these Acehnese women illustrate how people take up globalised and vernacularised tropes from medicine to comprehend and organise responses to violence.
This event was cancelled.
16 November. John McCarthy (Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU). A Land Grab Scenario for Indonesia? Food Security and the Logic of Land Transformation in the Outer Islands
The magnitude and speculative nature of land transactions following the emergence of food security and climate change as serious issues has surprised observers. Investors seeking to exploit new market opportunities for food crops, industrial cash crops and bio-energy production and carbon sequestration have inflated a ‘new bubble’ involving large scale land acquisitions (or ‘land grabs’). Some analyses have suggested that up to 80 million hectares globally are subject to such land transactions. The paper considers the tenurial, governance and political-economic complexities shaping extensive food, industrial and biofuel, and carbon sequestration projects that now encompass millions of hectares of land in ‘outer island’ Indonesia. The paper finds similarities between outer island Indonesia and countries that a recent World Bank report identified as facing the threat of high risk land acquisitions. Finally, the paper reflects on how land acquisitions are changing patterns of land use and property relations and considers the implications for food security in contexts where livelihood patterns are rapidly changing.
2 November. Phillip Winn (School of Culture, History & Language, ANU). Women‘s majelis taklim Groups in Northern Ambon: New Piety or New Public?
The phenomenal growth of majelis taklim (religious study groups) throughout Indonesia has been linked to ideas of an “Islamic revival”, generally conceived as involving locally innovative forms of Muslim piety in which scripturalist or theologico-legal concerns often predominate. This paper argues for greater attention to the specific terms in which global and national trends in Muslim religiosity find expression locally. I suggested that the emergence of women’s majelis taklim on the north coast of Ambon Island acts primarily to reaffirm forms of devotional performance that are longstanding among Ambonese Muslims. While there is some evidence to suggest majelis taklim have a role also in reshaping aspects of local religious practice, this process is as rooted in local concerns as it reflects new intersections of religious and political discourse.
19 October. George Quinn (School of Culture, History and Language, ANU). The Female Saints of Java
There are at least a dozen significant pilgrimage sites in Java where female saints are venerated by Indonesian Muslims. The stories told at these sites depict many of the saints as opponents of political oppression and critics of Java’s patriarchal religious establishment. This talk sketched the dimensions of female saint veneration in Java, repeats some of the stories of female saints and describes the participation of Muslim women in local pilgrimage. Illustrated with Powerpoint slides.
12 October. Tirta N. Mursitama (University of Indonesia). Evolving Practices of Corporate Social Responsibility in Indonesia‘s Pulp and Paper Industry
This research focuses on how corporate social responsibility practices (CSR) have evolved over time in one of big companies in Indonesia’s pulp and paper industry. It underlines the transformation of CSR practices particularly community development since the establishment to the position which the company has been growing rapidly. As most companies in emerging economy context especially emphasize only for maximizing profits as business reason, this company shows different direction by also practicing community development programs in quite massive ways and producing better impact to the society. Through in-depth case study, we argue that the company has been successfully created organizational trajectory to support their CSR practices since their establishment up to 2008. This research contributes in some ways as follows. First, by analyzing path-trajectory of CSR practices, it will enrich our understanding on how a big company as part of its global network develops its CSR practices, particularly in emerging economies context. Second, it provides the clearer evidences, milestones, and challenges of the importance of creating so-called CSR practices reflected local needs where the company exists. Third, in the end, it proposes further inquiry whether the company should continue make, buy or decide to collaborate in future CSR practices while the growth of its activities becomes mature and or changed rapidly.
5 October. Katy Cornwell (Monash University). Child Health and Early-Life Rainfall
The link between early childhood experiences and well-being in both childhood and adulthood has been reasonably well evidenced. Amongst the early childhood experiences, some developing country studies include weather shocks or seasonal variability as causal factors. We argued that such studies do not adequately capture shocks within seasons, or the intricate timing between agricultural harvests and milestones in early childhood development. Concentrating on the height-for-age z-scores of young Indonesian children, our model allows us to examine more closely the way in which rainfall variability, the timing of the rice harvest and infant weaning are linked. Our results suggested that children who are weaned at the end of the rice harvest in rural areas continue to be much healthier in childhood than those weaned at other times of the year, while in urban areas children are less healthy if they reach crawling age during the monsoon period. Contrary to other studies on Indonesia, we did not find any differences in health outcomes due to weather shocks by gender of the child.
21 September. M. Zulfan Tadjoeddin (School of Social Sciences, University of Western Sydney). Electoral Conflict and the Maturity of Local Democracy: Testing the Modernisation Hypothesis
There has been a rapid rise in the use of electoral processes to legitimise governments and Indonesia is not an exception. It is expected that elections provide a predictable and rule-bound method for channelling conflict constructively, reducing the need for political stakeholders to opt for violent alternatives. Ironically, widespread electoral violence has recently occurred in electoral processes in countries such as East Timor, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. Indonesia could be added to the list, albeit with a lower scale of violence mainly found at the local level elections. It has been argued that electoral violence, to a large extent, remains a relatively under-researched field.
This paper constructs an electoral hostility index for 282 local direct elections (Pilkada) of district heads during 2005’07 and examines the socio-economic determinants of local democratic maturity in Indonesia. There are 67 Pilkada (out of 282) categorised as having medium, high or very high levels of electoral hostility. The picture is dominated by hostilities directed towards the local elections commission after voting day. The large sample quantitative analysis employs ordered logistic regression. The results show some evidence in support of the modernisation hypothesis in the context of Indonesia’s local democracies. Higher Pilkada hostility or less mature local democracy tends to be experienced by districts with lower income, higher poverty incidence and less urbanised. The results also imply that democracy cannot be deepened in the absence of economic development.
7 September. Sonja van Wichelen (Centre for Cultural Research, University of Western Sydney). Disputing the Muslim Body: Religion, Politics and Gender in Indonesia
In the past few decades Indonesia has been under the process of Islamization. The emergence of Muslim intellectuals, Muslim media, the dissemination of new Islamic knowledge, and the donning of Muslim attire and veiling all attain to new manifestations of “public Islam”. My sociological study, conducted in Jakarta between 2003-2005, focused on debates of “Islam and gender” that have been at the core of this process. By analyzing public discussions on sexuality, veiling, polygamy, and women’s political representation, I argued that public events on “Islam and gender” not only relate to Islam or religious piety as such. Rather, they also indicate paradigmatic shifts in perceptions of politics and identity, such as new class dynamics, shifting ideas of femininity and masculinity, the production of ethnicity, global consumerism, and political power relations. Rather than simplifying these debates into a “problem” of religion and women’s emancipation, I have sought to complicate the events by approaching them from a sociology of public phenomena. The outcomes of my research suggest that the public phenomena around Islam and gender point to reconfigurations of the public sphere and renegotiations of the citizen-subject in political transition. Issues of identity and belonging appeared essential to these reconfigurations and have included the intricate ways in which Indonesian citizenship is defined in the complex relationship between self, civic cultures, and the state.
24 August. Daniel Suryadarma (Indonesia Project, ANU). Economic Factors Underpinning Policy Research in Indonesia
The quality of policy research in Indonesia is considered to be low compared to other developing countries. As such, many public policies in the country are put in place without sufficient background studies. This presentation will provide the results of a recent study that attempts to understand whether economic incentives play a significant role in explaining the low quality of Indonesian policy research. The study includes both the demand and supply sides of the market for policy research. In addition to economic constraints, the study also identifies several non-economic constraints.
23 August. Sri Mulyani Indrawati (World Bank). Public Lecture: G20: Issues of Importance for Developing Countries and Indonesia's role
Sri Mulyani Indrawati is Managing Director, The World Bank. She is responsible for the Bank’s operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to joining the World Bank in June 2010, Sri Mulyani served as Indonesia’s Minister of Finance. In this capacity she guided the economic policy of one of the largest countries in Southeast Asia, and one of the biggest states in the world, successfully navigating through the global economic crisis, implementing key reforms and earning the respect of her peers internationally.
The Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Economics and Government, in association with the Australia Indonesia Institute and the Crawford School’s Indonesia Project were honored to host this noted reformer and economist. Sri Mulyani has earned a reputation as a campaigner against corruption and for the success of her economic policy during her time as Indonesian Finance Minster, for which she was named best finance minister in Asia by Emerging Market Forum.
Emeritus Professor Peter Drysdale of the Crawford School was in a discussion with Sri Mulyani of the role of the G20, the key issues of importance for developing countries and Indonesia’s role in addressing them.
21 July. Indonesian Studies Postgraduate Workshop
The Australian National University hosted postgraduate students conducting research on many aspects of Indonesia in varied disciplines, including economics, political science, linguistics, literary studies, anthropology and history. The College of Asia and the Pacific organised a workshop to bring together this diverse body of students for the first time. All postgraduate and honours students at ANU who were conducting research on Indonesia attended the event. This was a unique opportunity to share your research in a supportive environment, to learn about research on Indonesia being conducted by other students, and to network with students with similar interests from across the campus and further afield. The focus of this two-day event was presentations by students. Staff members who were Indonesia specialists were also in attendance, and there was a presentation by a senior academic on the shape of the Indonesian studies field.
20 July. Thomas Pepinsky (Cornell University, Ithaca, NY). Varieties of Cosmopolitanism and Indonesia's Global Identity
Cosmopolitanism refers to the idea that one’s ethnic or national identity is complementary or subordinate to a global community that transcends the nation-state. But the terms of cosmopolitanism are contested, and Indonesians (like others in the Global South) can think of their “global identity” in many different ways. Should Indonesians look to the West? To the Muslim world? To Southeast or East Asia? This presentation explored the varieties of cosmopolitanism in contemporary Indonesia, introducing conceptual and methodological tools through which to study how socioeconomic transformation shapes Indonesians’ global identity.
29 June. Edward Aspinall (School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, ANU). Politics in Aceh: Pre-Election Tensions
Later this year elections will be held for the positions of governor and other heads of local government in Aceh. At this stage, the main contenders look set to be two former members of GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka): Irwandi Yusuf, the incumbent, and Zaini Abdullah, the nominee of Partai Aceh (the GAM successor party). This competition sets the scene for significant conflict between followers of the former separatist movement. This presentation reviewed recent political developments in Aceh in the lead up to these elections, looking especially at implementation of the 2005 Helsinki peace accord and the 2006 Law for the Governing of Aceh.
8 June. Ross Tapsell (Asian Studies, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU). The Enduring Legacy of Self-Censorship in Indonesian Journalism
Despite Indonesia’s ‘new era’ of democracy and press freedom, self-censorship is still an essential professional practice of an Indonesian newspaper journalist. Indonesia has a long history of government censorship, in particular governmental pressure to encourage journalists to self-censor their work. As such, self-censorship has been encouraged and promoted through the institutionalised and internalised values of many Indonesian newspaper publications. This paper will explain how the practice has evolved in Indonesia, and how it persists in many newsrooms. While the main agent of pressure during Indonesia’s New Order regime was the government, today it is mostly the owners of newspapers who exert their influence and hinder the autonomy of Indonesian journalists.
25 May. John Monfries (School of Culture, History and Language, ANU). Will Jogjakarta Survive as "Kingdom" in the Republic of Indonesia? (Or: The Right not to Vote)
The Jogjakarta Special District, now the only province of Indonesia with an unelected traditional political leadership, has its special status for mainly historical reasons. These stem from the role in the Indonesian independence struggle of Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX, and the Special District is his political monument. Following Suharto’s fall, the twin demands of the new democratic order and the new impetus for regional autonomy led inevitably to direct elections of almost all local officials. As this process has broadened and strengthened, the unusual status of Jogjakarta, as the only remaining province with a non-elected head and deputy head, has become increasingly anomalous.
The issue has burst into fevered public controversy in recent months involving both President SBY and current Sultan, Hamengku Buwono X, as a new draft Bill on Jogjakarta’s Keistimewaan (Specialness) is now before the national parliament. Many Jogjakartans, including the Sultan, believe the current Bill aims at doing away with the province’s special status, and there have been angry public statements, rallies, banners, and a multitude of slogans, with almost ritualistic references to the historical background. On the other hand, the Jakarta government argues that Jogjakarta should now move to a much more democratic system, in accordance with Indonesia’s new reformist identity.
11 May. Melissa Crouch (Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne). The Ahmadiyah Controversy: Recent Legal Developments in Indonesia
Ahmadiyah, a minority religious community that identifies with Islam, has existed in relative peace in Indonesia for over 80 years. Since the Indonesian Ulama Council reissued a fatwa against the group in 2005, however, Ahmadiyah has experienced increasing tension and hostility from radical and conservative Islamic groups in Indonesia. On 1 June 2008, this culminated in a violent attack on supporters of Ahmadiyah by militant Islamic groups at the National Monument (known as ‘Monas’) in Jakarta. Shortly after this incident, the Indonesian government issued Joint Decree 3/2008 as a ‘warning’ to followers of Ahmadiyah, though stopping short of an outright ban.
Recently, in February 2011, disturbing footage circulated of an incident in which at least three Ahmadi followers were killed and five injured in an attack on the Ahmadiyah community in a village in Banten. In addition to other incidents of violence, many local and provincial governments have taken legal action by passing regulations that ban Ahmadiyah in the area. This presentation examined these bans as the latest attempts by local governments to manage religious pluralism, and maintain political power, by promoting a particular interpretation of orthodox Islam. I compared and contrasted the regulations issued against Ahmadiyah by the provincial governments of South Sumatra (2008), East Java and West Java (2011). I analysed how government officials and religious leaders justify these regulations. Through a critical examination of these regulations, I explored how these regulations present a significant challenge to the rights and legal position of religious minorities such as Ahmadiyah in democratic Indonesia.
27 April. James Fox (Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program (RMAP), ANU and The ANU Korea Institute). Threats to Indonesia's Current Rice Crop
In November, 1986, in response to serious pest infestation that threatened 70% of Java’s rice, President Soeharto issued a directive (Inpres 3/1986) that put into place a set of practices that provided Indonesia with relative food security and continuing high production for nearly a quarter century. These practices have been gradually undermined and similar pest problems to those of the mid-1980s have begun to recur. This presentation looked at previous pest infestations and compares them with the current situation and prospects for the future.
13 April. David Ray (Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative - IndII). Infrastructure Problems in Indonesia: Key Lessons from Phase I of the Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative (IndII)
David Ray is the Director of the Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative (IndII), an AusAID-funded facility to promote economic growth through improvements in both the quality and quantity of Infrastructure in Indonesia, particularly in urban areas. To date, IndII has focussed on the water/ sanitation sector and the roads/transport sector as well as a number of cross-sectoral issues, such as infrastructure finance. This presentation outlined key lessons learned from the first phase of IndII, highlighting the main infrastructure problems and constraints; and their potential remedies, from both a policy and donor-action perspective. Central to the presentation, was the argument that institutional problems, rather than resource constraints, is the primary reason for infrastructure failures. Various examples were drawn from the watsan and transport sectors to show how poor institutional coordination, capacity and commitment have undermined infrastructure delivery and outcomes. Time permitting; the discussion also considered a new, innovative and promising mechanism for donors in the infrastructure sector known as results-based financing, covering output and performance based aid. The first phase of IndII is scheduled for completion in June 2011. It is expected that IndII will be extended beyond this date for a period of four years.
31 March. Noor Huda Ismail (Yayasan Prasasti Perdamaian - Institute of International Peacebuilding). Challenges in Terrorist Rehabilitation in Indonesia
In recent years I have been closely involved in a major program of terrorist rehabilitation. In this seminar, I discussed the successes and shortcomings of this program and use a number of individual case studies to consider the validity of various concepts of terrorist behaviour. These include Fathali Mogadham’s theory on the ‘staircase to terrorism’ and John Horgan’s ideas of how a normal individual become involved in violent activity.
23 March. Aris Ananta (Senior Research Fellow, ISEAS Singapore). Changing Faces of Indonesia's Population
Demographically, Indonesia has changed a lot. Its fertility and mortality levels have been around replacement level-some even estimate that Indonesia has achieved below replacement level fertility such as found in many advanced countries. Indeed, population in some provinces and districts in Indonesia have been below replacement level since early 1990s. Not only experiencing rapid changes in fertility and mortality, Indonesia is also witnessing important changes in trend and pattern of population mobility. The population issues in today Indonesia have been very different from those in the 1970s and even 1980s.
Furthermore, the rapid changes in the three components of population dynamics have resulted in a very different age and sex structure of Indonesia’s population, including the regional distribution within Indonesia. These changes imply very different faces of Indonesia’s population. Coupled with the political changes, from an authoritarian to a democratizing era, and globalization, these changing faces of Indonesia’s population have many interesting social, economic, and political implications for Indonesia and other countries.
The seminar touched issues on this rapid demographic changes and some of social, economic, and political implications.
9 March. Ari Kuncoro (University of Indonesia, Jakarta). Indonesia's Regulatory, Institutional and Governance Structure of the Indonesian Cross-Border Labor Migration: A Look at Indonesian TKI (Indonesians who work abroad)
The purpose of the paper is to examine the rationale of current institutional and governance structure and the roles of various public and private agencies involved in this process. The paper found that drawn by lucrative profits the industry has attracted many entrants which intensify competition among sending firms. The most obvious change brought by this development is the increase of recruitment costs. This has also affected the supply-demand imbalances which in turn has profound impacts on the distribution of values (rents) in the industry. Some of the increase in recruitment costs can also be attributed to the introduction of the law 39/2004 which formalizes the role of local recruiters (brokers) though it also provides some protection to workers. But the net benefits may not be great since sending firms can always shift the burdens to workers through salary deductions in the first few months of working contracts. The effort to create a new independent agency as mandated by the new law to provide implementing service, coordination and monitoring of international migrant workers has yet to bear fruit. The immediate effect however is dualism which adds more costs and uncertainty to the industry. A clear division of labor is needed, but due to the huge rents involved this may need political intervention from the highest level of government.
3 March. H. E. Professor Armida Alisjahbana (Indonesia's State Minister for National Development Planning/Head of BAPPENAS). Public Lecture: Indonesia's Development Strategy: Challenges and Opportunities
Dr Armida Alisjhabana was the State Minister of National Development Planning and Chairperson of National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Indonesia. She was a professor and was the Chairperson on the Department of Economics and Development Studies at the Faculty of Economics, Padjadjaran University, Bandung. She obtained her BA in Economics from University of Indonesia, an MA in Economics from Northwestern University, and a PhD in Economics from University of Washington. She has been involved in numerous research projects funded by, among others, UNDP, the World Bank and AusAID, both at home and overseas. She was the president of Indonesian Regional Science Association.
23 February. Ross McLeod (Indonesia Project, ANU). Survey of Recent Developments
The general public is becoming increasingly concerned about the gap between policy rhetoric and action. A strong contributor to this has been a long-running corruption saga involving a tax official, Gayus Tambunan, whose activities have helped confirm the public’s worst fears about the ineffectiveness of the anti-corruption campaign. Claims of progress in this and other fields usually are typically grossly overstated, and opinion polls suggest that they have become unconvincing.
Nevertheless, the most recent data reveal a surprising surge of GDP growth, driven by investment spending. Inflation has been quite steady for the last six months, albeit a little above the target range; this is a disappointing outcome rather than a major problem. In response to surging food prices the government has temporarily removed tariffs on rice, wheat and soybeans, and ordered increased rice imports. Energy subsidies continue to weigh heavily on the budget; the plan to remove the subsidy from petrol used in private cars but not from that used in motorcycles makes good political sense, since there are about five times more motorcycle owners than car owners. The budget is unlikely to have a stimulatory impact in 2011.
The composition of exports has altered quite dramatically over the last two decades, albeit in unanticipated directions. The country shares of exports have also undergone significant change, reflecting the growing relative importance of Asia to the global economy. The decision to establish a single authority to supervise the entire financial sector has now been delayed for almost 11 years. But the draft law now under discussion would result in a wasteful and confusing duplication of the role of bank supervision in the new authority. In any case, it remains unclear exactly what establishing the new authority is supposed to achieve.
16 February. George Quinn (School of Culture, History and Language, ANU). Islamic Pilgrimage in Bali
Muslims make up about 10% of the population of Bali. Over the last decade the increasing number of Muslims settling in Bali, the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the recently enacted anti-pornography law have given rise to disquiet among some Balinese Hindus that has triggered a modest conversative backlash against Muslims. Despite this, over the same period of time a network of Islamic pilgrimage sites has evolved in Bali, attracting increasing numbers of Muslims pilgrims mostly from Java, and from Muslim communities in Bali itself. There are seven main sites, known as the graves of the Seven Saints (Wali Pitu). This seminar described five of the seven sites, sketches the stories behind them and examined the place of Islamic pilgrimage in the wider context of Balinese society.
28 January. Sofie Arjon Schütte (Dept. Management & Marketing/Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne). The Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK): Enforcement and Resistance
Since 2004, Indonesia’s new Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has spearheaded the country’s fight against corruption. It has done so much more effectively than previous attempts and more successfully than comparative studies about anti-corruption agencies would lead one to expect. This presentation focused on the most prominent element of this success, enforcement, and resistance to it. What distinguishes the KPK’s performance from that of Indonesia’s other law enforcement agencies, in particular the Attorney General’s Office?
In a context of endemic corruption, and in the absence of any general amnesty for past offences, there are also interests to rein in the KPK. The presentation thus focused on two further questions: What have been the main forms of resistance towards the KPK and to what effect? It will be argued that the petitions brought to the Constitutional Court and consequent legislative changes pose a bigger long-term challenge for the KPK than the recent attacks on its leadership.