CSEAS Seminar Programme
The Centre of Southeast Asian Studies was established in 1964, soon after the founding of Monash University, in recognition of the importance of the Southeast Asian region to the university and the expertise of Monash staff in this field.
The weekly seminar series has been a vital part of the Centre’s activities across the years, facilitating the exchange of research findings between new and established scholars working on the region.
Unless otherwise indicated, seminars are held on:
Thursdays 11.00 am - 12.30 pm Manton Room SG02, Ground Floor, Menzies Building (11) South, Monash University Clayton campus
---
Current Series
Semester 1, 2009
The Centre of Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) invites you to attend a seminar
Indonesia Towards Elections 2009
Professor Bob Hadiwinata, Parahyangan University, Bandung, Indonesia.
Tuesday 24 February, 4:00-6:00 pm
Room H5.101 (Building H Level 5, Room 101 Eastern end of Bld H) Monash University Caulfield campus
Bob S. Hadiwinata is Professor in International Relations at the University of Parahyangan, Bandung, Indonesia. He is author of The Politics of NGOs in Indonesia: Developing Democracy and Managing a Movement, London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. His most recent publications include ‘From Heroes to Trouble Makers: Civil Society and Democratization in Indonesia’ in Marco Bunte and Andreas Uffen (eds.) Democracy in Post Suharto Indonesia, London: Routledge, 2009.
Prof Hadiwinata is visiting Monash University as a Visiting Scholar under the Australian Academy of the Humanities fellowship grant scheme.
ALL WELCOME
---
Launch Event
26 February 2009, 11am-12.30pm
Room 363, Level 3, East Wing, Menzies Building, Clayton campus,
[Please note one off change of venue]
Ways of Knowing Indonesia: Contending perspectives of Australian scholars’ views on Indonesia
Professor Bob Hadiwinata, School of International Relations, University of Parahyangan, Bandung
The scholarly works performed by Australian academics and researchers on Indonesia have been extensive for many years. Prompted by the desire to gain a better understanding of their neighbouring country, Australian scholars from different backgrounds conducted research on various topics. In the area of social science, which will be the focus of the discussion, first generation scholars such as John Legge, Jamie Mackie and Herbert Feith put more attention on historical and comparative approaches in trying to unravel Indonesian political institutions. The next generation such as Harold Crouch and Richard Robison developed more critical approaches towards Indonesia, which sometimes raised concerns from Indonesia.
In this seminar Professor Hadiwinata will discuss the changing dynamics of Australian scholars’ debates on Indonesia as seen from Indonesia. He will argue that different perspectives in the debate also reflect the dynamics of Australian political scientists. While the older generations carried out their debates within what David Goldsworthy termed an Australian intellectual tradition of being impartial, non-partisan, politically detached, and avoiding prescriptive stances on contested public issues, younger generations of Australian political scientists engage in debates that move beyond the tradition set by their predecessors. They instead become involved in political debates to the extent that they sometimes accuse one another.
The seminar will limit the exchange of views on Indonesia between scholars with political science and/or history background. To illustrate the dynamics of changing perspectives on the way in which Australian scholars view Indonesia it will focus on two intensive discussions – one among Indonesianists on the failure of parliamentary democracy in the 1950s, and another between political scientists pitting the non-Indonesia specialists against Indonesianists on the Papua issue. This is by no means a comparative study, rather it will try to show how changes in Australian political science in the past few decades affect the ways in which they view particular political issues in Indonesia.
Bob S. Hadiwinata is professor in International Relations at the University of Parahyangan, Bandung, Indonesia. He obtained his first degree from Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia; Masters degree from Monash University, Australia; and Ph.D. from Cambridge University, United Kingdom. He is author of The Politics of NGOs in Indonesia: Developing Democracy and Managing a Movement. London: Routledge-Curzon, 2003. His most recent publications is ‘From Heroes to Trouble Makers: Civil Society and Democratization in Indonesia’. In Marco Bunte and Andreas Uffen (eds.) Democracy in Post Suharto Indonesia. London: Routledge, 2009; and ‘International Relations in Indonesia: Historical Legacy, Political Intrusion and Commercialization’. International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Vol.9, No.1, February 2009.
Prof Hadiwinata is visiting Monash University as a Visiting Scholar under the Australian Academy of the Humanities Fellowship Grant Scheme.
---
5 Mar 2009
The great rumour mill: Gossip, mass media, and the ninja fear
Nicholas Herriman, Postdoctoral Fellow, CSEAS, Monash University
Different methods of communication are associated with different kinds of human interaction and have different political implications. Generally, face-to-face communications spread through contact between people, predominate in pre-literate or semi-literate societies, and can have a strong subversive potential. The mass media spread through centralised broadcast stations or presses, predominate in industrialized or post-industrialised societies, and tend to be controlled by elites. In this presentation, I analyse the interaction of face-to-face communications and the press. I focus on a phenomenon that occurred in East Java province, Indonesia during October-November 1998. According to newspaper reports and rumours, conspirators and ninjas who had been responsible killing of hundreds of alleged sorcerers were now persecuting the traditionalist Muslim majority. Local residents established guards against, attacked, and even killed suspected ninjas. One fascinating feature of the rumours and newspaper reports was that suspicion was directed against the government, elites, and the armed forces. I attribute this inversion of authority to particularities of this historical period—‘Reformasi’—and also to the preponderance of face-to-face communication in East Javanese society.
Nicholas Herriman is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Monash Asia Institute, and is currently teaching anthropology at Monash University. He undertook over a year’s fieldwork in rural East Java studying killings of ‘sorcerers’ and what they tells us about state-community relations in Indonesia. His doctoral thesis was passed with ‘Distinction’ and was awarded Best Thesis by the Australian Anthropological Society last year. He has recently published articles in Review of Indonesian and Malayan Affairs, Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Asian Studies Review. The latter was awarded a research prize at the University of Western Australia.
---
12 Mar 2009
Failure of the Bangsamoro right to self-determination: Separatism and sovereignty in contemporary Philippines
Charles Donnelly, PhD Candidate, Monash Asia Institute
Eleven years on, the Mindanao peace process is in tatters. Declared unconstitutional by the Philippine Supreme Court in October 2008, the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) was intended to pave the way for a comprehensive peace pact between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Looking to examples of newly independent states such as East Timor and Kosovo, the MILF Peace Negotiating Panel enthusiastically adopted the right to self-determination - as understood in international law - as the best means to overcome restrictive constitutional provisions on autonomy. The Government panel, on the other hand, though agreeing to the legal norm in deliberations, was ultimately overruled by judicial review. This discussion assesses the failure of the Bangsamoro right to self-determination I contemporary Philippines.
Charles Donnelly is a PhD candidate with the Monash Asia Institute where he is producing a thesis on elite perceptions of the Mindanao Problem. In 2007 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic and Development Studies in Manila. His most recent publication is ‘Counter-terrorism legislation in the Philippines’ in Marika Vicziany’s (ed.) Controlling Arms and Terror in the Asia Pacific: After Bali and Baghdad. Charles will join the Manila-based Asian Institute of Management in mid-2009 to undertake a postdoctoral project on development effectiveness in the context of clan feuding and separatism in Muslim Mindanao.
---
Jointly hosted by the Centre for Malaysian Studies and Centre of Southeast Asian Studies
19 Mar 2009
‘The Malays’
Professor Anthony Milner, Australian National University
Just who are ‘the Malays’? What it is to be ‘a Malay’ seems to have differed from one era or one regional context to another. It is also far from certain that people called ‘Malay’ by Europeans and other outsiders generally defined themselves in this way. Ought we to speak of a ‘Malay race’ or ‘Malay ethnicity’? Or are such concepts products of a particular phase of European thinking about human classification? Another intriguing question is why ‘the Malays’ have so often expressed the fear that they might ‘disappear from this world’.
The paper will discuss the history of Malayness, reaching back to Melaka and earlier, and then considering briefly the fate of the Malay idea in the nation and region building of the last century.
Tony Milner is Basham Professor of Asian History at ANU, and a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. His most recent book, The Malays, has just been published in the Blackwell series on ‘The Peoples of South-East Asia and the Pacific’.
---
26 Mar 2009
Angkor Imaged, Angkor Imagined
Tom Chandler, PhD candidate, Monash University
The increasing popular acceptance of virtual three-dimensional (3D) technologies in games, animations and online collaborative spaces are a last beginning to deliver on some of the promises of ‘virtual reality made some years ago. However, in comparison to the media heavyweights of Rome, Greece and Egypt, the virtual image of Angkor remains largely unexplored. How this image might be conveyed to the popular imagination in the coming years, in Cambodia and elsewhere, poses interesting questions.
This largely visual presentation will outline some of these possibilities and overview ongoing research into the computer-generated 3D visualization of landscapes, people, architecture and daily life in ancient Angkor.
---
2 April 2009
Has gender analysis been mainstreamed in the study of Southeast Asian politics?
Susan Blackburn, PSI, Monash University
About twenty years ago some of us feminist scholars became exasperated at the neglect of gender in writing on Southeast Asian politics and held a conference at Monash University to discuss the matter. As women, we were offended by the invisibility of our sex in political science. The conference in 1987 gave rise to a book edited by Maila Stivens entitled Why Gender Matters in Southeast Asian Politics in which I analysed a number of scholarly books on Southeast Asian politics.
Two decades later I am revisiting my earlier analysis to see what, if anything, has changed. When we held our earlier conference, feminism had only just begun to influence the study of Southeast Asia. Many feminist works relevant to Southeast Asian politics have now been written. Can we now see their impact on mainstream politics writing?
The paper will examine several scholarly books that cover Southeast Asian politics in a general and comparative way, and some that are more specifically about Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam in order to get the picture at the level of individual countries. I will hazard some explanations as to the differences and similarities we find in these works, and what they tell us about the state of gender analysis in political science.
Susan Blackburn is Associate Professor in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University, where she lectures in Southeast Asian Politics. Her publications have dealt with international development and Indonesian history and politics. Her latest books are Women and the State in Modern Indonesia (Cambridge University Press, 2004) and The First Indonesian Women’s Congress Revisited (Monash University Press, 2008).
---
Jointly hosted by the Centre for Malaysian Studies and Centre of Southeast Asian Studies
9 Apr 2009
A theology of progress: Mahathir’s engagement with Islam*
Sven Schottman, PhD Candidate, Monash Asia Institute
Malaysia’s long-ruling Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed (b. 1925) is largely remembered for the transformative effects of his economic policies. His engagement with Islam, however, is equally momentous for Malaysians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike. He assumed office in the early 1980s by stating that he desired to “infuse Islamic values into government,” and ended two decades later by declaring Malaysia an “Islamic State.” Under the Mahathir premiership (1981-2003), Malaysian Islam underwent a significant socio-political transfiguration. This paper proposes that Dr Mahathir’s engagement with the religion falls into three distinct and distinctive phases. It will identity the core themes in each of these phases, the external dynamics that influenced Mahathir’s changing stances, and examine the former prime minister’s continuous objective of articulating an Islamic “theology of progress.”
Sven Alexander Schottmann is a PhD candidate at the Monash Asia Institute. His dissertation examines Tun Dr Mahathir’s engagement with Islam, seeking to account for the continuity and the change that can be observed in a sixty year-long public record of speeches, writings and interviews, as well as the range of intellectual influences that seem reflected in Mahathir’s engagement with his faith.
---
Easter Break
---
23 Apr 2009
Anticipating an oil boom: The ‘resource curse’ thesis in the play of Cambodian politics
Andrew Cock, Postdoctoral Fellow, CSEAS, Monash University
In around 2010, Cambodia will begin production of offshore oil fields containing an estimated 700 million to two billion barrels of oil. This long anticipated event has prompted considerable discussion of whether oil derived wealth will be a blessing or a curse. Much of the discussion has been framed through the lens of the resource curse thesis. The purpose of this paper is to consider how notions of a resource curse have entered the play of Cambodian politics. What questions has it led Cambodia’s elites and external actors to ask concerning the management of oil resources? What questions have been neglected? How will this notion, now almost a cliché, likely shape transparency in relation to the extraction of oil and the capture of rents that the sale of oil will generate?
Andrew Cock is a postdoctoral fellow in the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies at Monash University. He obtained a PhD in political science from La Trobe University in 2007 for a dissertation on the interaction between Cambodia’s ruling elite and forestry reform promoting external actors. From 1999-2004 he worked on forestry and natural resource management issues in Cambodia, for much of the period employed as forestry policy advisor with the NGO Forum on Cambodia. Interested in the linkages between energy, agriculture, and climate change, he has more recently embarked on a new project on the political dimensions of agrarian change in mainland Southeast Asia.
---
30 Apr 2009
Writing a history of the Pamona of Central Sulawesi 1880 – 2000
Joost Cote, Deakin University
The recent spate of inter-communal violence as well as local interest in regional history and heritage in Indonesia over the last decade (as reported for instance in van Klinken, Small Town Wars, 2007 on the one hand, and Davidson and Henley, (eds), The Revival of Tradition in Indonesian Politics, 2007 on the other) indicates a new interest in defining and defending local regional identities. Hastened by political decentralisation legislation, it follows that some of the boundaries which an earlier generation had sought to expunge in constructing the modern postcolonial nation (often the consequence of colonial intervention) are in the process of being redrawn at the same time as nation states themselves are undergoing change. Similar processes are apparent throughout SE Asia. These developments imply a crucial role for history, in particular the need for ‘post-national’ local and institutional histories to supplement extensive, but typically more anthropologically-oriented, studies of local communities.
In this seminar presentation I will outline a proposed history of the Pamona of kabupaten Poso, Central Sulawesi, (the community recent events have suddenly dragged into the spot light of international attention). The central theme of my projected book (building on earlier research and publications) is a narrative of the history of the development of this Christian community and its political structures, and its integration into the Indonesian state in the course of the longue durée that was the twentieth century (1880 - 2000). If narrative structuralist history is somewhat out of fashion these days, I nevertheless want to suggest that an understanding of recent events in Poso needs to be viewed from a broader historical perspective of the political and community structures that were imposed or evolved in response to outside intervention. In this sense, certain identifiable historical periods – late ‘pre-colonial’, colonial, WW2, Pemesta, New Order – can be seen to have been instrumental in shaping events, social institutions and self-identities.
The presentation will outline planned book chapters and discuss the problems of historical sources when it comes to local and regional history writing – availability, nature, sources and more broadly how these have been determined by the broader processes associated with definable historical periods.
Joost Coté is senior lecturer in the School of History, Heritage and Society, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University at Burwood. He teaches World history and Southeast Asian history in the undergraduate history program and in units in the Cultural Heritage Centre. Joost's research focuses on early 20th century colonial Indonesian history, exploring issues of colonial policy and cultures, urban development and the emergence of modern Indonesian discourse. He has translated and edited several volumes of letters by RA Kartini, most recently the letters of Kartini’s sisters (Realizing the Dream of Kartini: Her sisters letters from colonial Java, Ohio University Press/KITLV Press 2008), co-edited a book on Indisch migrants to Australia (Recalling the Indies: Colonial memories & Postcolonial identities, Aksant, Amsterdam 2005), as well as a number of articles on colonial policy and discourse. He is currently working on a study of the colonial architect and town planner, Thomas Karsten.
---
7 May 2009
Counter-insurgency and the early New Order period: South Blitar and the 1968 Trisula Operation
Vanessa Hearmann, PhD candidate, Melbourne University
In the period following the 1965 coup attempt, Indonesian newspapers reported attacks on army and police installations, theft of weapons and munitions, and assassinations of suspected anti-communists. The government blamed these attacks on remaining members and supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI) as part of a communist resurgence. Scholars writing at that time such as van der Kroef and Brackman seemed to have largely accepted the government version. In this context, this paper examines the question of how the post-coup period played out in East Java.
In particular, the paper analyses the PKI’s establishment of bases in the South Blitar area in East Java following the coup attempt until the end of the Trisula Operation, an operation led by the army’s Brawijaya Division in mid-1968. The New Order regime’s construction of history portrayed the Trisula Operation as an important military victory, supported by the local people and which succeeded in smashing the last communist bases in South Blitar.
Drawing on interviews with former political prisoners and villagers in South Blitar, as well as on official government and military sources about Trisula and its aftermath, this paper will examine the conduct and impact of the Operation on South Blitar and how it laid down the foundation for future counter-insurgency operations carried out by the New Order regime.
Vannessa Hearman is a PhD candidate in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She is researching the political history of East Java in the period between 1965-1968 with a focus on the mass killings and imprisonment in that region of Indonesia.
---
14 May 2009
The role of religious leadership in peace-building and dispute resolution processes in Lombok, Indonesia
Jeremy Kingsley, PhD candidate, Asia Law Centre, Melbourne University
This paper, based on 15 months of fieldwork, evaluates peace-building strategies and dispute resolution processes on the eastern Indonesian island of Lombok. Over the past decade, communal conflicts have emerged across the Indonesian archipelago as a result of economic and political instability. My research has considered both the formal and informal legal, religious and social institutions that influence peace-building and dispute resolution processes in Lombok. Lombok was affected by this violence, although it did not suffer to the same extent as other parts of Indonesia. The containment of violence occurred, in many regards, due to the significant role of the religious leadership of Tuan Guru (similar to kiyai in Java). This paper will consider why they have taken this position. These issues will be reviewed by considering the provincial authorities peace-building strategy preceding the 2008 Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) Gubernatorial elections in Lombok. The strategy involved the provincial authorities coordinating their activities with community and religious groups. It was developed in response to ethnic and political tensions that arose during previous elections. I will investigate this ‘dispute resolution partnership' and explore what it means for NTB, and potentially, Indonesia.
Jeremy Kingsley joined the Asian Law Centre in 2003 as a research assistant to Professor Tim Lindsey and editorial assistant to the Australian Journal of Asian Law. He is a graduate of Deakin University, having completed a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws in 2001. Jeremy has recently completed the Master of Laws at the University of Melbourne (focusing on Asian Law and Comparative Legal Studies). Prior to this he practiced as a lawyer at a major city law firm. Jeremy is currently a PhD Candidate in the Melbourne Law School, under the supervision of Professor Tim Lindsey and Professor Abdullah Saeed. During 2007-2008, he undertook fieldwork in Lombok, Indonesia, as part of his doctoral research. This research is supported by an Endeavour Australia Cheung Kong Award and an ARC Federation Fellowship doctoral scholarship.
---
21 May 2009 (Seminar postponed to Semester 2, 2009)
Filming Ambiguity: To be 'Chinese' through the eyes of young Chinese Indonesian filmmakers
Charlotte Setijadi-Dunn, PhD Candidate, La Trobe University
After more than three decades of suppression under the New Order, Chinese Indonesians can now express Chinese traditions and cultures in public spaces without official prohibition. However, despite recent improvements in their legal and social status, many Chinese Indonesians still feel anxious of the fact that a lot of past injustices have remained unquestioned. Recently, some young Chinese Indonesian film-makers have attempted to engage these issues of trauma and former oppressions through an array of cinematic explorations.
In this paper, I look at this new breed of young Chinese Indonesian film directors who explore timely issues concerning what it means to be Chinese in contemporary Indonesia through their filmmaking. In particular, I examine three feature and short films: Sugiharti Halim (a film based on a fictional character of the same name by Ariani Darmawan, 2008), Babi Buta Yang Ingin Terbang ('The Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly' by Edwin, 2008), and Letter of Unprotected Memories (by Lucky Kuswandi, 2008). I discuss the ways in which these young Chinese filmmakers describe the challenges and stigmas associated with growing up as 'Chinese' in New Order and post-Suharto Indonesia. I argue that through their films, we gain valuable insights into rarely exposed viewpoints, namely how younger generation Chinese negotiate their ethnic identity, their history, and their place in a rapidly changing Indonesia.
Charlotte Setijadi-Dunn is a Ph.D. Candidate from the School of Social Sciences (Anthropology) at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. Her dissertation project looks at historical memory and identity construction among young Chinese Indonesians in post-Suharto Indonesia. Charlotte has just completed fieldwork research for her dissertation in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she was also a visiting fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Her latest publication is titled 'Filming Ambiguity: To be ‘Chinese’ through the eyes of young Chinese Indonesian filmmakers’ in The International Journal of the Humanities, Volume 6 (2008).Negotiating Chineseness: Young Chinese in post-Suharto Indonesia.
---
28 May 2009
Public relations and Indonesia’s mining industry: A case study in the use of the personal influence model
Gregoria Arum Yudarwati, PhD candidate, School of Applied Communication, RMIT
During the Suharto’s dictatorship, which had ruled Indonesia for 32 years, the mining industry had a kind of privilege to communicate only with the government through their official reports. The government used the military forces to secure the mining area. After Suharto’s resignation in May 1998, however, there are more public movements demanding greater transparency, accountability, reliability, responsibility and fairness. This democratic atmosphere has challenged mining companies to manage better their relationships with stakeholders.
This paper describes the implementation of the personal influence model of public relations carried out by mining industry in the Post Suharto era. This paper is based on a case study of two mining companies in Indonesia. The study affirms the personal influence model of public relations when companies manage relationships with media, government, and community. In media relations, practitioners try to establish personal relationships and even friendships with key individuals in the media by giving gifts, hosting lunches or dinners, and attending family celebrations such as marriages. Companies also maintain personal relationships with key persons in the local government due to the policy of decentralised government, which leads to the significant influence of the local government to the company. This study also found that the personal influence model is used to manage good community relations. After Suharto’s resignation, communities are demanding companies to be more socially responsible and to fulfill their needs. To get social licence from community to operate, the companies approach and build good personal relationships with formal and informal leaders, including religious, cultural, and opinion leaders.
Gregoria Arum Yudarwati is a lecturer in the Communication Department, University of Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She has a Masters in Marketing Communication from the University of Canberra and is currently a PhD Candidate in the School of Applied Communication, RMIT.
---
4 June 2009
Affairs outside the state: Women negotiating divorce beyond the courts in Lombok, Indonesia
Maria Platt, PhD Candidate, Australian Research Centre in Sex Health and Society, La Trobe University.
While marriage has always been part of the life cycle of Muslims, so too has divorce. Unlike some streams of Christianity that officially view marriage as a permanent contract ‘til death do us part’, divorce in Islam, while not encouraged, is an accepted practice. Until recently Indonesia, has had one of the highest rates of divorce in the Muslim world. It has been argued that the introduction of the 1974 Marriage Law was partly responsible for reducing official divorce rates. Despite this ‘official’ decrease, the majority of divorces in Indonesia are enacted outside the court system and therefore are not officially reported.
This paper draws upon 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lombok, Indonesia, where 18 Muslim women living in poverty in the remote village of Teduk reflected on their experiences of courtship, marriage and divorce. Most of these women had been divorced, some multiple times. Divorce in Teduk is commonly unilateral in nature, enacted by men through the pronouncement of ‘talak’. In my discussion of women’s experiences of divorce I will reflect upon the roles of normative gender relations, local Islam, adat (or custom) and state processes in mediating divorce in Teduk. I also explore how, despite a high degree of gender asymmetry in divorce practices, Sasak women can and do exercise agency in the individual negotiations of divorce.
Maria's research focuses on the marital rights of women and the intersection of adat, Islam and state law in Indonesia. Her PhD fieldwork, conducted in Lombok, Indonesia in 2007-2008 was supported by an Endeavour Australia Research Fellowship.
---
Rescheduled to Monday 8 June 2009 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground Floor, Menzies Building (11) South, Monash University Clayton campus
The airmen and the headhunters: A true story of lost soldiers, heroic tribesmen and the unlikeliest rescue of World War II
Judith Heimann, US Foreign Service Officer & Author
Judith Heimann, a retired but still part-time US Foreign Service Officer, accompanied her late husband, also a Foreign Service Officer, to posts in Malaysia and Indonesia in the 1950s and 1960s and lived two years in Borneo. Since retirement in 1992, she has been working as a part-time diplomat in Luxembourg, Belgium and at the Department of State in Washington, DC, and has written two non-fiction books. Her first book, The Most Offending Soul Alive: Tom Harrisson and His Remarkable Life, (University of Hawaii Press, 1999) formed the basis for the 2007 BBC documentary, The Barefoot Anthropologist, presented by Sir David Attenborough.
Her second book, The Airmen and the Headhunters, based chiefly on her interviews of the surviving American airmen and Bornean headhunters, came out from Harcourt in October 2007 and in paper in January 2009 and is about to become the basis for another TV documentary, commissioned by BBC4, National Geographic International and Channel Thirteen (the Public Broadcasting Station in New York City). Ms. Heimann is now working on a third book, a multi-voice memoir of Java in the Sukarno period. She divides her time between Washington D.C. and Western Europe.
Judith will present the story of her book and answer questions about it in a talk illustrated by power point.
---
CSEAS 2nd Semester, Seminar Series
---
Special OUT OF SERIES SESSION
21 July 2009 *(TUESDAY), 3.30-5pm*
SGO2 (Manton Rooms), Ground Floor, Menzies Building
The Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM): Challenges and Relevance
Ken Setiawan, Ph.D. Candidate, Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University
When the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) was established in 1993, it was met with skepticism. Against all expectations, Komnas HAM became one of the New Order’s most critical commentators, although it was not able to change state policies or behaviour towards human rights.
After the fall of Suharto in 1998 significant legal reforms were introduced, many of them related to human rights and some of them directly concerning Komnas HAM. Combined with a strengthened civil society and popular attention for human rights, many observers expected Komnas HAM would develop a key role in implementing human rights in Indonesia.
However, in recent years Komnas HAM has faced increasing criticism and its legitimacy has declined. Why did this happen? This seminar attempts to answer this question by discussing the development of Komnas HAM, considering the Commission as an organisation as well as an entity within a particular socio-political context. In doing so, this seminar presents the factors influencing Komnas HAM’s functioning and its challenges. Finally, attention will be paid to Komnas HAM’s relevance in contributing to the promotion and protection of human rights in Indonesia.
Ken Setiawan is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Van Vollenhoven Institute, Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her research concerns the National Human Rights Commissions of Indonesia and Malaysia, and which internal and external factors influence the functioning and effectiveness of these organisations.
---
23 July 2009
Candi Prambanan as a holy water sanctuary (continued)
Roy Jordaan, Independent scholar, The Netherlands
The presentation will elaborate on my hypothesis — launched in 1989, in the journal of the Indonesian Archaeological Service, Amerta — that the central courtyard of the ninth-century Prambanan temple complex was designed as an artificial tank or pool for the production and storage of ‘holy water’ (amrta).
In the first part of the presentation I will briefly summarize the different kinds of evidence (textual, inscriptional, architectural and technical) in support of the hypothesis, whereas in the second part the discussion is focussed on the art-historical evidence that was recently presented at an international workshop on the Old Javanese Ramayana in Jakarta, 26-28 May 2009. The art-historical data were derived from a re-examination of the causeway relief on the Siva temple which depicts Rama’s crossing over to Langka. Depending on the circumstances and the time remaining, an art-historical excursion will be made to the Khmer temple of Prasat Phimai, in north-east Thailand.
Roy Jordaan is author of Imagine Buddha in Prambanan: reconsidering the Buddhist background of the Loro Jonggrang temple complex. Leiden: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuidoost-Azie en Oceanie, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, 1993; and the CSEAS Working Paper, ‘Exploring the Role of the Sailendras in Early Eastern Javanese History’, CSEAS, Monash Asia Institute Press, 2007.
---
30 July 2009
Effects of the Civil Conflict, the Tsunami, and the Peace Accord on the Musical Arts in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, 2003–2009
Margaret Kartomi, School of Music - Conservatorium, Monash University
Individuals and governments, the former resistance force, and non-government organisations have used particular genres of traditional and popular music, dance, storytelling and theatre as remedies to respond to the effects of the civil conflict (1953-57, 1976-2005), the tsunami (2004), and the Helsinki peace agreement (2005) in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Focussing on 2005 to 2008, this paper examines changes in these genres and the general state of the arts with each change of socio-political circumstance. Particular focus is placed on the roles that local and professional artists and music-instrument-makers have played, and continue to play, in their communities’ recovery from trauma and the obstacles they have overcome to counter the threat to the survival of particular musical genres. Examination of the sorts of musical genres banned during the civil conflict and of those resurrected, promoted and altered after the conflict, the tsunami and the peace accord illustrates the degree to which the musical arts are assisting in both the material reconstruction of Aceh and the means of expression and psychological healing of the people affected.
Margaret Kartomi is Professor of Music and Coordinator of Research in Monash University’s School of Music - Conservatorium. Her latest book (in press), entitled Musical Journeys in Sumatra, is based on her annual ethnomusicological fieldtrips with Mas Kartomi throughout Sumatra over the past 36 years. The first book to be written on the music cultures of Sumatra will be published by University of Illinois Press.
---
Yunita Winarto, Professor, University of Indonesia, Anthropology Department
Professor Winarto will introduce and present her ethnographic films (in Indonesian and Javanese with English subtitles): Bisa Dewek (2007), the story of rice farmers’ seed groups in Indramayu; and Lelakone Menur (2009), the story of a women farmers’ group in Gunungkidul. The films are productions of the Collaborative Research & Film Production and Dissemination Program, The Undergraduate Program, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Indonesia in collaboration with The Indonesian Integrated Pest Management Farmers’ Alliance (IPPHTI) of the Regency of Indrama.
Professor Yunita Winarto, University of Indonesia, Anthropology Department 2009 and Academy Professor KITLV appointment for University of Gadjah Mada 2008. Professor Winarto has a PhD from the Australian National University, Department of Anthropology, Research School of Asia Pacific. She is author of Seeds of Knowledge: The Beginning of Integrated Pest Management in Java, New Haven, Conn., Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 2004.
---
A Day at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Notes of an Expert Witness
David Chandler, Professor, Fellow, CSEAS, MAI
On 6 August 2009, Professor David Chandler will testify as an expert witness at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Phnom Penh. On trial at present is Kang Khek Ieu (Duch) the former head of the infamous Khmer Rouge prison known by its code-name, S-21. David has written about the prison in his book Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot’s Secret Prison (University of California Press 1999) and has been asked to testify about what he wrote. In his talk to CSEAS, he will provide some background information about the tribunal, as well as an account of his day in court.
David Chandler is a Fellow in the CSEAS and MAI and a former director of CSEAS.
---
The state in Indonesian villages: Authority, autonomy and apparatus
Nicholas Herriman, Postdoctoral Fellow, CSEAS
Studies of Indonesia have characterised the state as all-powerful and overbearing, and as dominating society. This paper offers a critique of the idea that local representatives are simply agents of their state superiors by viewing interactions between the state and the local community from ‘below’. Drawing on research into the killings of alleged sorcerers in Banyuwangi District, East Java, Herriman demonstrates that state power in Banyuwangi is negotiated and that local state officials negotiate with, and are influenced by, local residents.
Nicholas Herriman is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the CSEAS, MAI.
---
Dancing to ‘Unity in Diversity’ in Perth
Monika Winarnita, Adjunct Research Associate, Monash Asia Institute and
PhD Candidate Anthropology, RSPAS, Australian National University
In Perth, members of an Indonesian women’s dance group created a patriotic dance called “Unity in Diversity”. It was intended to provide a new sense of patriotism and Indonesian identity in migration. However, its 2007 performance created controversy in Perth’s Indonesian community. Controversy centred on aesthetics (whether the dance was tasteful) and identity (whether it represented Indonesians accurately). Nevertheless, the group found an appreciative audience at multicultural festivals. In this context, the dancers construed themselves as cultural ambassadors. However, they did not achieve the cultural and social status they craved within the Indonesian migrant community and, particularly, within the consulate and an Indonesian state-sponsored women’s group. Although being ‘cultural ambassadors’ provides alternative identity and status, paradoxically, migrants seek acceptance within the very social structure that subordinates them.
Monika Winarnita is concurrently Adjunct Research Associate, Monash Asia Institute and PhD Candidate RSPAS ANU. Her research focuses on Indonesian women migrants (“Motherhood as Cultural Citizenship” in TAPJA; “Dancing the Nation in Migration” Inside Indonesia) and representations of violence against Indonesian Chinese (“Commemoration: Mass Rapes of Chinese Indonesian Women” ASAA 2008 Proceedings; “The Tragedy of May 1998: Glodok photo essay” Inside Indonesia). Her latest fieldwork involved living and dancing with Indonesian dancers in Perth (2006-8).
---
3 September 2009
Smail’s ‘autonomous history’ revisited: Reflections on Southeast Asian contributions to coping with the ‘problem of development’
Adam Fforde, Asia Instiute, Melbourne University
A key assumption in development literature is that development is a predictable process with knowable solutions. As a result, the literature is characterized by a combination of great uncertainty and great difference of opinion. It is no surprise then, that students and practitioners confronting the mass of competing assertions about development ‘truths’ become confused and frustrated. Fforde’s recent book Coping with Facts: A Skeptic’s guide to the problem of development (2009) offers guidance for the perplexed through a penetrating critique of development studies literature. Fforde develops coping strategies that help readers evaluate the contending solutions to problems of development. Fforde cements his analysis with detailed case studies of development projects in Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam
Adam Fforde is best known for his work on contemporary Vietnam, where he has published extensively (most recently – ‘Economics, History, and the Origins of Vietnam’s Post-War Economic Success’, Asian Survey Vol. XLIX, No. 3, May/June 2009). He has formal qualifications in natural science (engineering), economics and development economics and has spent about two-thirds of his career as a development practitioner. His published academic work has addressed issues of transition theory and economic method as well as aspects of contemporary Vietnam. Recently his interests have increasingly been to do with the nature and practice of policy and policy analysis. His recent book Coping with facts: a skeptic’s guide to the problem of development (2009, Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press) uses three countries of SEA as case studies - Vietnam, Thailand and The Philippines. He is currently working on a study of Vietnamese Capitalism and in 2010 will publish a monograph cum textbook on development economics (Understanding development economics: its place within development studies, Boulder CO: Rowman & Littlefield).
---
Jointly hosted by the Centre for Malaysian Studies and Centre of Southeast Asian Studies
10 September 2009
Civility, ‘Double life’ and Interethnic Relations: Orang Asli (Malaysian Aborigines) and Malays in Malaysia
Alberto Gomes, Associate Professor, Sociology and Anthropology Program, Latrobe University
Drawing from ethnographic work on the Orang Asli (Malaysian Aborigines), this paper addresses the question: what sort of strategies do people employ to sustain peaceful, harmonious, and civil social relations with people they perceive to be different? The Orang Asli, like many other tribal communities in Southeast Asia observe what Sellato (1994: 210) in the context of his study on the Punan, a hunting-gathering people of Borneo, called ‘double life’. The people adhere to a set of rules and norms in their intra-community interactions but present a different face to outsiders. Gomes will discuss how ‘double life’ or ‘sly civility’ (Bhabha 1994) operate as strategies that thwart conflict and abate tensions between Orang Asli and Malays.
Alberto Gomes is associate professor and program convenor of the sociology and anthropology program at La Trobe University (Australia). He has conducted anthropological research on the Orang Asli since 1975 and has written many papers and books based on this research. His books include Malaysia and the Original People (with R. Dentan, K. Endicott, and M. B. Hooker, Allyn and Bacon, 1997), Looking for Money (COAC and Trans Pacific Press, 2004) and Modernity and Malaysia: Settling the Menraq Forest Nomads (Routledge, 2007). His current research is on civility and communal relations in Goa, India which attempts to explain how some people living in multicultural communities are able to avert and avoid conflict that may arise out of cultural differences (ethnic, religious and communal).
---
17 September 2009
Language for education in Timor Leste: Policy and practice
Marie Quinn, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne
Timor-Leste, newly independent in 1999, identified through its constitution two official languages, two working languages and recognized the place of the approximately 24 first languages of the country. The first 10 years has seen a shift in language use across all domains, generally along generational, geographical and employment lines. In the case of formal education, the policy on the language of instruction has changed over this time, yet teacher practice at all levels of education is influenced by factors outside adherence to the state policy.
This presentation will give a general overview of how language is used in the country and present research data from Timorese primary school classrooms and observations from across other education settings to describe the way language policy is played out in the performance of teaching in Timor Leste.
Marie Quinn is PhD candidate from The University of Melbourne, investigating how teachers in Timor Leste use language switching to deliver the curriculum. She is an educator, based in Timor Leste, and currently working as adviser to the Australian Federal Police in their program to support training of the National Police of Timor Leste (PNTL). She has worked with many educational organizations in Timor Leste since 2001, including the Ministry of Education as a teacher training specialist, and is interested in working to produce effective curriculum and teaching methodology.
---
24 September 2009
A King in Communist China: The exile of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia in China 1970-1975
Julio A. Jeldres, Honorary Ambassador of Cambodia, Former senior private secretary to King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and the King’s official biographer
Ambassador Jeldres became interested in Cambodia and Sihanouk back in 1967 when he read an article about Jacqueline Kennedy’s visit to Cambodia. He was then 16 years old, and spoke no foreign language, except his native Spanish in Chile. After he wrote to the Cambodian Mission to the United Nations he received a reply from King Sihanouk himself and learned French to communicate with the King. After the King’s overthrow in March 1970, he remained in touch with King Sihanouk, who took up exile in China and Julio eventually became the King’s Senior Private Secretary.
Ambassador Jeldres has authored three books on the history of Cambodia’s monarchy, translated the memoirs of King Sihanouk from French into English and published numerous articles about Cambodian politics, human rights, democracy development, relations with China and the monarchy. He has also worked as a consultant with several UN agencies in Bangkok, mostly on human rights issues
Ambassador Jeldres was Senior Private Secretary to King Sihanouk from 1983 to 1991 and since 1993 he has been the King’s Official Biographer. He was made an Honorary Ambassador of Cambodia by the King in 1991.
---
SEMESTER BREAK
---
Thailand's strange southern war: Insurgency, disorder and the fragile state
Marc Askew, Anthropology Program, University of Melbourne
With the violence in its sixth year, opinion in Thailand is divided about the prospects of substantial reduction in current levels of violence, the driving force of which is deemed an “insurgency.” Evaluations of government policy and counter-insurgency strategy continue to be shaped around various competing discourses about the “southern problem” and the causal premises implicit in these. In short, the meaning and causes of (and solutions to) the “fire in the south” are highly contested among key actors and opinion makers, and the blame game continues about who is at fault. Meanwhile, on the ground, in the villages and communities of the borderland, the situation is more complex than most press reports would suggest. In this talk the speaker addresses both the broad discursive environment of debate and highlights a number of key encounters and observations in his ongoing research in the field.
Dr. Marc Askew is Senior Fellow in the Anthropology Program, University of Melbourne, and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Conflict Studies and Cultural Diversity, Prince of Songkhla University, Pattani. He has been undertaking research in Thailand for over eighteen years. He has conducted fieldwork in southern Thailand since 2001 on various topics, and on the current unrest in particular for the past four years. His publications on the current violence in the Deep South include Conspiracy, Politics and a Disorderly Border: The Struggle to Comprehend Insurgency in Thailand’s Deep South (East-West Center, 2007) and research-based articles published in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Security, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Jane’s Islamic Affairs, and the Bangkok Post.
---
US-Indonesian Relations in the Age of Obama: The Case for Optimism
Chris Friese, PhD Candidate, School of Political and Social Sciences, University of Melbourne
Throughout the world, Barack Obama’s 2008 election was greeted with considerable enthusiasm. This was particularly true in Indonesia, due to the presumed break with the Bush Administration’s unpopular foreign policy as well as Obama’s personal connection to Indonesia. The importance of both factors have been overemphasized, reflecting a misunderstanding of the continuities represented by Bush’s approach to East Asian security and an overvaluing of the President’s role in setting national foreign policy. As such, the transformation expected by many has thus far proven illusory, with differences largely of emphasis rather than substance.
Nonetheless, considerable cause for optimism exists, as the gains made in US-Indonesian relations and the growth of Indonesia’s strategic relevance to the US over the past decade are increasingly consolidated. Both related trends are likely to continue for reasons both intrinsic and extrinsic to the bilateral relationship itself, including Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s re-election and the United States’ ongoing geopolitical “rediscovery” of Southeast Asia. Though not without substantial challenges and potentially significant obstacles, on balance the relationship between Washington and Jakarta is likely to strengthen over the coming years, potentially yielding significant benefits for both countries.
Christopher Freise is a PhD candidate in the School of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Melbourne. A graduate of the University of Virginia, he has previously served as a research fellow at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include American foreign policy and grand strategy, Southeast Asian security, and the role of domestic political factors in foreign policy formulation. A native of the Washington, DC area, Christopher worked for the United States Congress for several years before commencing his postgraduate studies at Melbourne.
---
Jointly hosted by the Centre for Malaysian Studies and Centre of Southeast Asian Studies
22 October 2009
Arabic-Medium Intellectualism in Malaysia in the 21st Century
Dennis Walker, Research Fellow, Monash Asia Institute
The Arabic quarterly al-Tajdid of the International Islamic University of Malaysia carries articles written by Malay and Arab staff, and from Arabs in the Middle East. After 50 years of independence, the sovereign Muslim state of Malaysia has the educational superstructure that has produced several thousand Malays able to understand a complex journal that aims to stand with the best that the academias of the Arab world can offer. The classical and modern Arabs are flooding into the minds of the Malays in more diversity and depth than ever before. In the other direction, Malay contributors to the journal will make the Malay people’s issues and Islamic thought better understood in the Arab states.
Arab and Malay high intellectuals, then, are responding to the new chances and challenges of globalization and post-modernity together. Many Arabic articles in al-Tajdid develop at a higher level the acute sense of post-modern Islamic magazines in Malay of the tightening of the community of disparate civilizations around the globe. Like the Malay magazines, the Arabic journal sees chances in globalization more than challenges.
al-Tajdid blends the high rationalisms of (a) classical Islamic philosophy and (b) motifs from the post-Enlightenment West. It has been an open forum for “innovative liberal independent thought”. This paper tries to measure how seriously the journal attempts to apply the Islamic scriptures and the West’s post-Copernican physics to interpretation of each other. How far could these trends to liberal Islamist analysis restore enough flexibility in Islamic law to apply it and the issues of our globalizing world to each other?
Dennis is currently researching Muslims in Thailand.
---
ALL WELCOME
---
DOWNLOAD full programme for Semester 1, 2009 in pdf format.
DOWNLOAD full programme for Semester 2, 2009 in pdf format.
---
CSEAS Seminar Organiser
Dr Jemma Purdey
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University
Email: Jemma.Purdey@adm.monash.edu.au
---
To receive email notification of all Centre activities, join our mailing list by sending an email with the subject heading "MAI Mailing List" to monash.asia.institute@ adm. monash.edu.au. Include in the message, your name, Institution or Company, contact details (email, business address, postcode, country and phone no.), and a short description of your research expertise or interests.
---
Archives of previous years' series