Indonesia Council Digest - October 2022
The tragedy at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang earlier this month brought the need for police reform in Indonesia to the world’s attention. Our previous President, Dr Jacqui Baker, has been doing important work on this issue, and she shared her insights into the institutional context behind the tragedy, and need for radical reform, here. It remains to be seen what will change as a result of this tragedy, but as Jacqui says – whoever controls the police, controls the nature of political competition.
I’m writing this from Cornell University in upstate New York, where I have had the privilege of being a visiting scholar for the past couple of weeks. Cornell is known for its Southeast Asian Studies Program, and for its massive holdings of Asian – especially Southeast Asian, and especially Indonesian! – holdings. I had heard rumours that there were eight floors of Indonesian material in the stacks, which the (brilliant, knowledgeable, passionate) Southeast Asian librarians quickly corrected. Nevertheless, the resources are phenomenal, and it has been such a privilege to spend some time with the Kroch Library Asia Collections and in the reading room. Much of the collection is online and I encourage you to take some time to browse their resources on Indonesia.
Send through your publications, news, ideas and questions to iclistdata@gmail.com.
Until next month,
Natali
What's happening...
#BahasaSesh
ACICIS has challenged all Australian citizens aged 18 years and over to share their favourite word in Bahasa Indonesia through the “Bahasa Sesh Challenge”. Participating in this challenge will be a great opportunity to win one free ACICIS Indonesian Language Short Course session in Central Java, valued at over $3,000 AUD! Additionally, all submissions will be considered as a collective effort to learn Bahasa Indonesia, for everyone, in an exciting yet modern way. The challenge will be open from 1 to 26 October 2022. The winner will be announced on 28 October 2022. You can find out more here, but for the really fun stuff head to sosmed to see ACICIS alum like Ele Williamsand Luke Arnoldsharing their favourite words. Luke’s post garnered a retweet from ABC foreign affairs journalist, Stephen Dziedzic, and 3,500+ views and counting as of time of writing. Gauntlet thus thrown: get your word recorded and posted by 26 October for your chance at similar amounts of fame and notoriety.
Visiting Researcher Program @ BRIN
Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN, has opened applications for its Visiting Researcher Program. Successful applicants are expected to spend one to six months conducting research, and will receive funding to cover their living allowances. Applications are open until 18 November 2022, for research starting in February–May 2023. More information here: https://manajementalenta.brin.go.id/program/26.
Other cool stuff
Plantation modernities and beyond-human imaginaries: insights from the West Papuan oil palm frontier
Members of the La Trobe University Anthropology program are thrilled to announce that the 2022 Joel Kahn Lecture will be delivered at 10:00am AEST on Thursday 27 October by Dr. Sophie Chao, Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DECRA) Fellow and Lecturer in Anthropology at University of Sydney. Register for Sophie’s lecture, to be delivered in-person and online, here.
Indonesia Council Open Conference
In case you missed it, the call for papers is now open! You have until 15 February 2023 to submit your abstract. The conference theme is Indonesia 25 years on (that’s 25 years since Soeharto stepped down, in case your maths is as dodgy as mine). Check out the list of themes get in touch with your Disciplinary Champion (full list on the website) if you’re keen to put together, or contribute to, a themed panel.
Related to ICOC 2023… the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre is running a workshop on “The art and science of writing a great abstract” on 17 November 2022. It is open to academics and Higher Degree by Research students focusing on Southeast Asia at a tertiary institution, and will be held online for accessibility. In particular, please note that HDRs, and Early Career Researchers (up to 5 years post-PhD conferral) based outside of Sydney in Australia or Southeast Asia who successfully complete this workshop and submit a high quality abstract for the Indonesia Council Open Conference 2023 may be awarded a 500 AUD bursary to attend the conference in person. Apply by 7 November – for more information,visit the SSEAC website.
Screenings Ideas 2022: Democracy in Indonesia
Join Monica Winarnita, Edwin Jurriens and Ken Setiawan for the screenings and discussions of three Indonesian movies held at the Faculty of Arts, The University of Melbourne. The movies:'Yuni': gender and sexuality in Indonesia, 'Our Mothers' Land': environmental resistance in Indonesia,and'Lukas' Moment: human rights and social justice in Indonesia.
IS4 Webinar | The solidarity economy experiments of Indonesia's peasant and fisher movements
Join Iqra Anugrah from Kyoto University to reflect on Indonesia's rural political economy and learn about the achievements and limits of solidarity economy projects carried out by farming and fishing communities.
Indonesia Study Group | To remain myself: the history of Onghokham
Join David Reeve online or in-person to discuss his new book, a biography of Onghokham, the hedonist historian and eccentric public intellectual (1933-2007).David will discuss the process of writing the biography, as well as what it tells us, not only about Onghokham's personal and professional life, but about Indonesian history writ large.
ACICIS update
Read on for some important visa updates from Liam Prince, Director of ACICIS:
Having raised the alarm back in May regarding changes to visa and immigration requirements for short duration educational visits to Indonesia, last week ACICIS obtained a copy o fa new ministerial decree (Keputusan Menteri) dated 12 September 2022, which appears to reinstate use of the B211A visa for short duration (up to 60 days initially) visits to Indonesia for educational purposes.
This seems to be the formalisation of the breakthrough ACICIS had been pushing for and a reversion to the pre-pandemic status quo ante.
The ministerial decree doesn't appear to be available online in either Indonesian or English yet. (ACICIS received it via one of the consortium's Indonesian partner universities, who in turn received it from the Central Java immigration office). And the Indonesian Directorate General of Immigration has yet to update their website to reflect these changes. However, the ACICIS Secretariat has now received third-party verification of this new ministerial decree and confirmation of these changes via the Indonesian Consulate in Perth and the Directorate General of Immigration's liaison officer (Pak Majid) at the Indonesian Consulate in Sydney.
ACICIS is not sure what or who ultimately prevailed upon the Indonesian immigration authorities, but it is a timely development that provides much welcome clarity for any Australian university planning to send students up to Indonesia on New Colombo Plan projects over the upcoming summer.
Publications
Yanuar Nugroho wrote about how the government faces unprecedented pressure to get Indonesia's new Personal Data Protection (PDP) law right from the get-go, lest a notorious hacker exposes more weaknesses in governance in The #Bjorka case and ratification of Indonesia's PDP law: confronting digitalisation.
Following the Bali bomb, raids by Australian security forces (ASIO) and armed police on Indonesian migrant households in October 2002 were truly shocking for members of this community. Kathryn Robinson revisits the story of families traumatised by their experiences in Australia after the tragic events in Bali. Indonesian Muslims living in Australia: how did the Bali Bomb impact them?
Indonesia at Melbourne published a podcast where Dave McRae speaks to Usman Hamid and Yogi Setya Permana and articles by Sharyn Davies and Andy Fuller in the wake of Kanjuruhan Tragedy.
Widespread protests over Jokowi's decision to cut fuel subsidies show that Indonesians are unwilling to part with protectionist policies, Charlie Barnes and Rania Teguh write.