2012 Indonesia Study Group
12 December. Jacqui Baker (University of Wollongong). The Parman Economy
Financing the security sector has been an issue of central importance in the history of the Indonesian state but how has the issue translated into the democratic era? This seminar examined the effectiveness of recent reforms to allocation and distribution of security sector financing and argues that despite some significant improvement to the system, critical reforms have yet to be initiated.
28 November. Chris Manning (ANU). Increased Labour Activism in 2011-12: Wage, Employment and Equity Issues
During the recent quite good economic times, trade unions have intensified their demands for improved labour conditions, and the government has acquiesced to regulating improved labour standards in 2011-2012. Indications are that an even more active union campaign in 2012 to erradicate low wages (hapuskan upah murah) and outsourcing will bring about larger increases in minimum wages than in the previous year. A more strategic and united approach on the part of national union bodies is driving this pro-labour policy agenda, against a backdrop of increasing inequality and a rapidly growing middle class. Calls for greater wage justice have grown in popularity in regional electoral policies and are likely to feature more prominently in the strategies for the 2014 elections. They occur at a time when unemployment has been declining and the number of modern sector jobs has expanded. These developments appear to have confirmed a growing popular belief that Indonesia no longer needs to follow an ‘East Asian’ route that focuses on expanding employment of unskilled workers through the export of labour-intensive goods. For several East Asian countries, this has been one of the main pathways out of poverty. An alternative strategy of moving towards higher value-added production at home and abroad, and at the same time pushing up wages, may create problems for jobs and equity in the future. Such a policy is likely to create a cleavage between workers protected by labour regulations, on the one hand, and a much larger group who earn much lower labour incomes and are more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the market, on the other.
21 November. Harun Harun (Tadulako University, Palu). Obstacles to Public Sector Accounting Reform as an Anti-Corruption Measure
Public sector financial accounting—the careful recording and verification of all transactions undertaken by government departments and other agencies—is one approach to controlling and minimising corruption in the form of misuse of public monies by officials of the state at all levels. Indonesia embarked on a radical program of public sector accounting reform from 2003. This presentation looked at the nature of the reforms and the obstacles to their successful implementation in the ensuing period, with particular attention to the local government level.
1 November. Melani Budianta (University of Indonesia, Depok). People's Voices: Media, Popular Culture and Democratization Process in Post-Reformasi Indonesia
Fourteen years after the Reformasi movement in Indonesia, the democratization process is facing a number of challenges. With the exposure of corruption in the House of Representatives and money politics in the political parties, people’s trust in structural democracy is declining. The lack of new figures in the political parties, and President Bambang Yudhoyono’s tendency to avoid responsibility on the grounds of democratic procedures aggravate the matter. On the other hand, a different atmosphere of democratic rigor can be seen in another arena: the media – especially the social media, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook – and popular culture. In this arena, artistic creativity blends in with political campaign to push democratic agenda in Indonesia. Using the cases of the Yogyakarta special status campaign and the Jakarta Gubernatorial election, the paper argues that people’s voice in this new arena show resilience against divisive racial, ethnic and religious politics, which still colored political representation in formal democratic structures. Reaching people from different backgrounds – especially the youth – popular culture and social media serves as new force in channeling people’s political participation in Indonesian democratic process.
24 October. Eben Kirksey (UNSW, Sydney). From Rhizome to Banyan
The dominant political party of Suharto’s Indonesia, Golkar, used the banyan—a dominant forest tree with a chaotic network of roots and branches—as its symbol. As West Papua’s independence movement transitioned from being underground, to emerging in broad daylight, elite leaders appropriated the banyan as a political form. The banyan serves as a model of subversion, replication, and domination. This mode of subversive engagement is an alternative to another botanical figure, the rhizome, an underground stem. Rhizomes ceaselessly establish connections among organizations of power, social struggles, and other heterogeneous forms. This paper will explore the unexpected collaborations of two Papuan activists with different tactics of struggle. Theys Eluay, who had been a Golkar parliamentarian, a trusted member of the banyan party for years, suddenly emerged in the year 1998 as the leader of West Papua’s movement for merdeka (freedom). As Theys Eluay made public statements challenging the status quo, he secretly strengthened his ties to Indonesia’s old guard–including former President Suharto. Antonius Wamang, a guerrilla fighter who was convicted for killing two American teachers, and one Indonesian, was drawn into unexpected collaborations with Indonesian military agents. Wamang’s struggle embodied a principle of the rhizome, which “can be connected to anything other, and must be.”
10 October. John Monfries (ANU). What can Wikileaks tell us about Indonesia?
In late 2010, Wikileaks published an extraordinary cache of 250,000 United States diplomatic cables, from a range of US diplomatic missions around the world, covering a time frame of several decades up to early 2010.
At the time, the Fairfax press reported on the most revealing cables involving Australia, including several relating to Australia’s relations with Indonesia. The cables also include some interesting detail on developments in US relations with Indonesia and on Indonesia’s domestic politics, such as SBY’s character and performance, major human rights cases like the Munir murder, religious tensions, corruption cases, and regional problems like Aceh, Papua and East Timor. The cables include highly negative assessments of former generals Wiranto (‘the well-known human rights violator’) and Prabowo. Examination of the cables from the embassies in Jakarta, Surabaya, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Canberra and Port Moresby also provides details of US diplomatic operations and attitudes in Southeast Asia more widely, notably terrorism issues.
Needless to say, because of its random nature the material needs to be checked against the context of what else we know about the matters revealed here. Nevertheless, the material provides useful confirmation and additional detail on a number of significant events in Indonesia in recent years.
In sum, this material provides a rare – if incomplete – insight into near-contemporary US diplomacy in Asia, and into American assessments of Indonesian domestic politics and foreign policy, as well as the pursuit of US priorities like terrorism, TNI reform and Middle East issues. In general, the Jakarta cables convey a tempered optimism about Indonesia’s progress and development in the reformasi period, including on human rights and political reform. The cables however also reinforce perceptions of the odd coexistence of persistent widespread corruption with substantial progress in democratisation, of the Jakarta political elite’s resilience in adjusting to the Reformasi era, and of relative indifference among the elite and the Muslim mainstream to certain human rights abuses and especially to religious intolerance.
19 September. Thee Kian Wie (LIPI, Jakarta). State and Economy in Indonesia's Transition to Sovereignty: A Comparison with the Phillipines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan
This paper discusses the role of the state in the transition from colonial rule to sovereignty in Indonesia and compares it with four other East Asian countries, i.e. the Philippines and Singapore in Southeast Asia and South Korea and Taiwan in Northeast Asia.
17 September. Paul J Burke (ANU) and Budy Resosudarmo (ANU). Survey of Recent Developments in Indonesia
The Indonesian economy is maintaining its momentum at a time of ongoing uncertainty in the global economy and slowing economic growth in China. Strong investment and domestic demand saw the economy grow at 6.4% for the year to June 2012, despite a large fall in net exports. Inflation is safely within Bank Indonesia’s target range, although food prices have increased relatively quickly. The current account deficit widened to 3.1% of GDP in the June quarter on strong imports growth and falling prices for commodity exports. The overall trade environment has deteriorated in 2012, and new divestment and domestic processing requirements are likely to reduce investor interest in the mining sector.
President Yudhoyono has recently made several speeches calling for a ‘green growth agenda’, including at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June. Yet in most respects the business-as-usual trajectory of the Indonesian economy is unlikely to be particularly green. Some progress has been made in slowing deforestation and establishing mechanisms to facilitate payments to reduce deforestation emissions, but loss of natural forests remains high. The proposed 2013 budget continues to be heavily burdened by energy subsidies, which encourage overconsumption of fossil fuels. We carried out a survey of Jakarta-based university students and found majority support for the removal of fuel subsidies.
Indonesia has experienced strong growth in the coal and palm oil sectors over recent years and has become the world’s largest exporter of both commodities. We reviewed the boom for these two commodities, its impact on living standards, and the tension between the development of these sectors and environmental goals. We also review the tourism sector, which remains relatively underdeveloped outside Bali. Tourism is a potential source of long-run growth that may be aligned with a green economy, and would be aided by infrastructure improvements and a renewed focus on the conservation of natural assets.
5 September. Elan Satriawan (Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta). Poverty Alleviation Policy in Indonesia under SBY: Challenges and Reforms
After two decades effort that was considered successful by any international standard during New Order regime, in the mid 1990s the poverty alleviation effort in Indonesia started to reach rough and mounting roads with several bumpy spots including 1997/98 Asian Financial Crisis, international oil price crisis in the mid of 2000s and 2008/09 global crisis. Those external shocks were also coupled by domestic fiscal pressures that tightened budget space for administration to spur the economy and improve social welfare. These events drove some reforms on social policy. First wave of the reform started in 2005 when government cut the fuel subsidy –then in 2008—and use the saving to finance new and more targeted poverty reduction programs including unconditional cash transfer, health insurance for the poor and rice for the poor. The programs uniquely characterized social policy under first President SBY administration. Further reforms were made in SBY second term. In 2010, SBY established National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (Tim Nasional Percepatan Penanggulangan Kemiskinan, TNP2K) which is chaired directly by the Vice President. The team is designed as coordinating agency in poverty alleviation policy and social policy sectors knowing that lack of coordination and synergy among relevant cabinet members and stakeholders as one of main problems for social policies to be effective. During the first two years, the team has been formulating some reforms with regard of the design of poverty alleviation programs. The team also sets some guidance for relevant technical minister to work together and ensures it to happen. Under these coordinated efforts, poverty rate is expected to reach 8-10 percent by 2014.
29 August. Kevin W Fogg (Oxford University). Green, Local, and Political: Indonesian Traditionalist Islamic Groups beyond NU
Domestic and foreign scholars continually talk about and study the Java-based Nahdlatul Ulama as the representative for traditionalist Islam in Indonesia. Although the power and influence of NU are great, locally-founded groups are more important in many regions– and sometimes achieve greater influence in their territory than NU has achieved anywhere in Indonesia. This talk provided an overview of a nascent project studying several such groups. Jamiatul Washliyah was formed by a group of students in Medan in the 1930s, and continues to dominate Islamic education in coastal North Sumatra. Nahdlatul Wathan on Lombok was led for sixty-five years by its charismatic founder and now dominates all politics in West Nusa Tenggara province. Alkhairaat in Central Sulawesi has centered around one Arab-Indonesian family since their arrival in the region eighty years ago, but prefers to stay out of direct limelight. The talk also touched on other groups, both current and historical, such as Darul Da’wah wal Irsyad in South Sulawesi, Musjawarattuthalibin in South Kalimantan, Persatuan Tarbiyah Islamiyah in West Sumatra and Aceh, and Persatuan Nurul Falah in South Sumatra, to postulate why some groups achieve great local power and influence while others do not. Finally, a few observations were made about the relationships of these organizations with NU.
Kevin W. Fogg completed the requirements for his PhD at Yale University, USA, in 2012, with a dissertation on the social and political history of the Islamic movement in Indonesia from 1945 to 1965. He is the incoming Al-Bukhari Fellow for the History of Islam in Southeast Asia at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and a Lecturer in the Oxford Faculty of History.
27 August. Menno Pradhan (VU University Amsterdam), Sally Brinkman (South Australian Centre for Children’s Education, Health and Development) & Amer Hasan (World Bank). Early Childhood Development in Indonesia
The speakers are Menno Pradhan, Sally Brinkman, and Amer Hasan and they talked about early childhood problems in Indonesia
22 August. Bill Liddle (Ohio State University). Indonesian Democracy: From Transition to Consolidation
The scholarly literature in comparative politics distinguishes between democratic transitions and consolidations. In the Indonesian case, most scholars agree that the transition occurred between 1998 and 2004. A preponderance of evidence suggests that democracy has now consolidated, both behaviorally and attitudinally, but there are reasons to conclude tentatively. These include: some victories by anti-democratic forces; the dependence of popular support for democracy on popular evaluations of governmental policy performance; slower GDP growth than during the New Order; unstabilised electoral and legislative-executive systems; weak rule of law institutions; a high level of state intervention in the economy.
15 August. Andrew Elek. Indonesia's international economic interests
The long-term prospects for sustainable and inclusive growth in Indonesia will depend, above all, on the quality of domestic economic policy-making in a complex and vibrant democratic setting. Constant structural adjustment will be needed to promote productivity and an equitable distribution of income.
Policy-making in Indonesia will also need to take account of a rapidly changing international environment. Indonesia can take advantage of many new international opportunities to improve Indonesia’s economic prospects. These include the emergence of new g economic giants in Asia and the opportunity to become more deeply engaged in international production networks.
Looking ahead, Indonesia needs to go beyond anticipating and responding to external events. Indonesia is already among the world’s significant economies. It is the largest economy of ASEAN and member of the G20 steering group for the global economy. A significant part of Indonesia’s international interests is to use its growing influence to help shape the international system for managing the global economy.
It will be hard to sustain an international environment that can sustain the recent trend of rapidly improving productivity and prosperity. Indonesia will need to cooperate effectively with others to deal with serious problems, including climate change, which need global solutions. Regional cooperation and regional economic integration will need to take growing account of Indonesia’s global interests.
An issues paper, being prepared for the Policy Analysis Team of BAPPENAS aims to set out these points in some detail. I hoped to receive some helpful feedback from the presentation to the Indonesia Project.
8 August. Stephen Sherlock (ANU). Surprise result in Jakarta Governor’s election: what does it mean for local and national politics in Indonesia?
The provincial governor’s election (Pemilukada) for the Special Region of Jakarta (DKI) on 11 July produced a surprising result that contradicted every poll and survey conducted in the weeks before polling day. Notwithstanding predictions that incumbent Governor, Fauzi Bowo, would be comfortably re-elected, he was defeated by the candidate who is the current Mayor of Solo, Joko Widodo (usually known as ‘Jokowi’). Jokowi received 41 per cent of the vote to Fauzi’s 37 per cent. Because neither candidate achieved an absolute majority, there will be a second round election on 22 September.
This paper will examine the process and the outcome of the 11 July first-round election. It will discuss the highly-publicised problems with the administration of the election, especially alleged massive inaccuracies in the voters list and disenfranchisement of voters, and examine their implications for future electoral processes in Indonesia. The paper will look at the background of all six candidate pairs who contested the election, including relations with the political parties who backed them. It will pose a series of questions about what the results might mean for local and national politics, including: Are problems with election administration undermining the political process and providing openings for manipulation? What is the role and influence of parties in regional elections? What developments are occurring in the kind of candidates and the style of campaigns that are succeeding in Pemilukada? What are the implications for the positioning of candidates for the 2014 presidential elections?
25 July. I Made Andi Arsana (Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta). Mending imaginary wall: understanding border incidents in Indonesia and proposals for solution
Incidents around maritime borders are by no mean new for Indonesia. Cases between Indonesia and Malaysia seems to be one of the most frequent, while Indonesia in fact shares maritime borders with at least ten countries. Due to its geographical location, Indonesia has to determine maritime boundaries with India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Timor Leste. While, Indonesia has started the establishment of its maritime boundaries as early as the 1960s, a number maritime boundary segments have yet to be resolved.
The pending of maritime boundary settlement is one of the main reasons of disputes and incidents between Indonesia and its neighbours. The case of Ambalat Block (2005, 2009), incident in Tanjung Berakit involving Indonesian officers and Malaysian fishermen (2010) and incident in the Strait of Malacca involving Malaysia-flagged fishing vessels, Indonesian officers and Malaysia Helicopter team (2011) are three biggest cases in relation to border disputes. Similarly, fishing activities conducted by Indonesian fishermen around Indonesia-Australia maritime boundary area also often causes tension. Apart from the completion issue, unlike land borders, which are usually represented by physical markers, maritime boundaries are imaginary in nature. This, to an extent, adds further complexity.
This presentation aimed at explaining border incidents around Indonesian maritime borders with emphasis on their legal (law of the sea) and technical (geospatial) aspects. Borders incidents involving Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia was analysed to represent typical cases Indonesia have been facing. Eventually, options of solutions for border disputes through maritime boundary delimitation were presented.
18 July. Lydia Napitupulu (University of Indonesia, Depok). Indonesia at the center of the Coral Triangle: mere posturing or an opportunity for action?
There is an area in the world spanning only 1.6% of its oceans but comprising 53 per cent of the extent of its coral reefs (hosting 76 per cent of all known coral species and 37 per cent of all known coral reef fish species), the largest extent of mangrove forests, and some of the most important spawning and juvenile growth areas of its major commercial fish species. This is the Coral Triangle, the ‘epicenter of the world’s global marine biodiversity’. Indonesia is arguably at the center of the Coral Triangle, in economic, ecological and, recently through the Coral Triangle Initiative, political terms. How does Indonesia compare with its neighbors in the Coral Triangle? What are the challenges and strategic opportunities for regional collaboration that can lead to improved well-being of the people in the region? What role can Indonesia play? The presentation critically discussed these issues.
9 July 2012. Hugh White (Professor of Strategic Studies, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies, ANU). Book Launch Indonesia Rising: The Repositioning of Asia's Third Giant edited by Anthony Reid, published by ISEAS, 2012
Book Launch - Indonesia Rising: The Repositioning of Asia’s Third Giant, edited by Anthony Reid, published by ISEAS, 2012
The book was be launched by Hugh White (Professor of Strategic Studies, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies, ANU)
Copies of the book were available for purchase at the Book Launch. Further information about the book is available on the publisher’s website, at http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/
27 June. Erik Olbrei (ANU). A very real and practical contribution? Lessons from the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership
On 9 September 2007, Australian Ministers and the Indonesian President announced a $100 million Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP). This would involve protecting 70,000 hectares of peat forests, re-flooding 200,000 hectares of dried peatland, and planting 100 million trees in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Since then, the ambitions of KFCP have been quietly but drastically scaled back. The area expected to be re-flooded by the project is now just over 10 per cent of the original target. And little progress has been made on the ground. Four years on, blocking of the large canals required for re-flooding has yet to commence, and only 50,000 trees have been planted against the initial target of 100 million. What has happened to what was labelled at its launch as ‘a very real and very practical contribution’, one which would yield ‘immediate and tangible results’? We analyse KFCP both as an aid ‘announceable’ and as a REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) demonstration project, and reach two main conclusions. First, KFCP illustrates the damage that an emphasis on announcing new projects and a lack of attention to reporting on project progress can cause aid. Not enough has been done to publicly reposition KFCP as a much smaller, demonstration project. Second, slow progress made in implementing KFCP (and other REDD projects), when juxtaposed against the continued rapid rate of land conversion in Indonesia, suggests that the current approach is not working. There is no easy solution. Reducing deforestation in Indonesia is a difficult task because the drivers of deforestation – which range from weak governance to a strong industry lobby and the attractive economics of palm oil – are strong and difficult to tackle. If it is worth continuing, then the focus on pilots and processes which has characterised Australia’s engagement in Indonesia’s forestry sector in recent years should be re-oriented towards a more ambitious engagement. This should be supported by a vigorous high-level policy dialogue and at least the realistic prospect of a large amount of public funds.
1 June 2012. Susan Olivia (Monash University). Survey of Recent Developments
It is evident that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the party he leads are becoming increasingly unpopular. Several senior party figures are embroiled in corruption scandals. Moreover, the president was forced into a humiliating reversal on the proposed decrease in oil subsidies when the government’s coalition partners refused to support it.
Economic growth slowed moderately in the first quarter of 2012 as export and import growth decelerated, but the overall economic growth rate nevertheless remained robust at 6.3 per cent. Inflation has been rising since February but is still within Bank Indonesia’s target range. While the current account remains in deficit, capital inflows are growing. The rupiah has come under pressure since the beginning of the year. Although macroeconomic indicators suggest that the economy is in good shape, recent policy initiatives could deter investment and curb economic growth. With income growth pushing up demand for fuel and the likelihood of fuel subsidy cuts fading, energy subsidies are likely to continue to weigh heavily on the budget. Expenditure on fuel subsidies is likely to come at the expense of other compelling public expenditure items such as social assistance and health. For Indonesia to reach its objective of higher yet inclusive growth, the government will need to find a way to reduce subsidies and to increase the allocation of government spending for poverty reduction.
The government has put a range of social assistance programs in place to protect the poor and vulnerable. However, current methods of beneficiary selection and resource delivery suggest that targeting could be improved. The government is attempting to address this issue through the establishment of a national targeting system based on a recently completed, unified database of poor households. For the system to be effective, implementation issues must be addressed carefully.
The health system is likely to undergo major changes as Indonesia moves towards universal health insurance coverage. While the health status of Indonesians continues to improve, several challenges remain, such as the inadequate supply of health services in remote areas and the low quality of health care. Among the changes that are needed are better systems to train and deploy health workers; an increase in public investment in health; a clearer definition of the responsibilities of the central and local governments with regard to the deployment of health workers; and more effective incentive schemes to attract health care workers to remote areas.
30 May. Nadirsyah Hosen (University of Wollongong, Wollongong). Hilal and Halal: How to manage Islamic pluralism in Indonesia?
The main aim of my presentation was to examine the tension amongst the Indonesian government and Islamic organisations in dealing with the plurality of interpretation within Islamic tradition and at the same time maintaining the unity and harmony of the Muslim ummah. I provided two case studies here: first, the issue of determining the first and the end of Ramadan and also 10 Zul Hijjah (for Ied al-Adha). Due to different methods of hisab (astronomical calculation) and ru’yah (sighting a new crescent), Islamic organisations (Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama and Majelis Ulama Indonesia) have produced different fatwas. At the same time, the Government should make announcement on which dates to begin or to end fasting. The questions are: which fatwas the Government should choose? What are the reactions of Islamic organisations that have different views with the Government decision? There is also tension in the society in celebrating different dates of Ied al-fitri and Ied al-adha. Second, in the case of halal certificate, Department of Health, Department of Religious Affairs, Department of Industry and the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI) together with the Parliament are still examining who has the authority to investigate all the ingredients, to issue the fatwa, and to put halal label in the product. Currently, MUI issues a halal certificate based on the voluntarily application from the company. This might be considered as an unofficial law. Once the Parliament passed the bill, the practice might become compulsory. This will give effect that a particular interpretation of the halalness of meat and non-meat products will become the official law. How about other non-official interpretations? There is also a competition between Department of Religious Affairs and the MUI as the first thinks it falls into its authority, whereas the latter insists that a halal certificate is a written fatwa which falls into its ‘jurisdiction’. This question of authority reflects the tension and dilemma of the role of the Government, particularly the Department of Religious Affairs, in trying to regulate and facilitate Muslims affairs.
16 May. Ronit Ricci (ANU). From Java to Jaffna: Indonesian exiles, soldiers and scribes in Sri Lanka
The community known today (in somewhat of a misnomer) as the Sri Lankan Malays, whose ancestors came to the island predominantly from across present-day Indonesia beginning in the late 17th century, has a fascinating yet little-studied past and a challenging present.
Thinking about the Malays of Sri Lanka means going beyond some conventional spatial and temporal categorizations and considering a range of interactions and crossings: Malay exiles and soldiers crossed the Indian ocean to arrive at an unfamiliar land; they ‘crossed’ from Dutch to British rule; they were Muslims in a predominantly Buddhist and Hindu region, preserving their Austronesian language, the lingua franca of Southeast Muslims while living in South Asia and interacting in Tamil, Sinhala and English in their daily lives. As soldiers in colonial armies they lived and fought in Sri Lanka and South India while looking to the Indonesian/Malay ‘heartlands’ and the Middle East for historical and religious inspiration.
In this paper I present some thoughts and findings based on research conducted in Indonesia and Sri Lanka over the past two years. In particular I focus on my British Library-funded project to survey and document surviving Malay manuscripts and books in Sri Lanka, materials that hold a wealth of information about a remarkable diasporic Indonesian community.
2 May. Emma Baulch (ANU). Longing Band play at Beautiful Hope
‘Keep going forward Kangen Band, just believe in yourself, like me.’ On the cover of a book that recounts the rise to fame of the provincial boy band, Kangen (Longing) Band, Tukul Arwana is thus quoted. Arwana is a highly successful comedian and talk show host whose character is an ugly man of humble, village origins with a wicked sense of humour. By citing Tukul, the book’s publishers advance the production of Kangen Band as a narrative of upward mobility, one of many such narratives that now populate Indonesian popular culture in a context of heightened consumerism.
The paper is prompted by my curiosity about the contextual features of an evolving ideology of consumerism in Indonesia. I posit that a study of pop music, which has not only become digitalized, but also expanded in volume and proliferated since the turn of the century, extending Western-style pop to the masses, is productive for exploring questions of consumer agency and industrial regulation. Western-style pop may be more available to the masses than ever before, but just how open to interpretation is it?
I explore this question by comparing and contrasting three distinct fields of ‘Kangen Banding’: the field of unofficial (or pirated) exchange and distribution, official productions of Kangen Band, and the field of Kangen Band fandom. The study suggests, Indonesian consumerism entails new ways of heralding the masses that are generative of a new kind of mass public, but rely and play on old generic terms, kampungan (hick-ish) and ‘Melayu’. Active participation in this public is performed by fans at live, televised shows, such as the one featuring Kangen Band at the Harapan Indah (Beautiful Hope) luxury housing complex on Jakarta’s outskirts in 2010, detailed in the paper. Conversations with fans reveal the terms employed to herald them, kampungan and Melayu, to be relatively fixed and closed. But the study also suggests that this new mass public co-exists with a more ghostly counter-public that adheres to an increased volume of unofficial (pirate) sounds and images resulting from the advent of digitality. The paper details Kangen Band’s beginnings as a sonic commodity within this pirate economy, prior to their rise to national fame, and posits that the band’s early meanings were more open, less fixed in character, entailing greater possibilities for consumer agency.
26 April. Salut Muhidin (Macquarie University, Sydney). The Dynamics of Internal Migration in Indonesia
As one of the most populous countries in the world, migration in Indonesia has been indicated as the pre-eminent cause of the recent complex shifts in the pattern of human settlement in this country. In general, migration is closely linked to the development process, both as a result and a cause of changes in characteristics of social and economic life of the nation and its regions. The past policy on transmigration and the recent decentralization policy, for example, may influence regional economic development, which then would be expected to exert a significant impact on population distribution through migration and urbanization. This presentation outlined a detailed analysis of changes in Indonesian internal migration over the past 30 years. Selected measures from the battery of indicators proposed by Bell et al. (2002) was used in the analysis; which include migration intensities, age selectivity, the effect of migration on settlement patterns, and temporal trends. The attention was focused upon the implication of this situation for some social and economic issues.
2 April. Alexander Irwan (Ford Foundation, Jakarta), Aris Mundayat (Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta), Yauri Tetanel (SAPA Secretariat, Yogyakarta). The Effectiveness of Poverty Reduction Program in Fifteen Districts/Cities in Indonesia
The seminar presented the preliminary result of the research on ‘The Effectiveness of Poverty Reduction Program in Fifteen Districts/Cities in Indonesia’ which is being carried out by the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) and Center for Rural and Regional Development Studies, University of Gajah Mada on behalf of Ford Foundation. We also presented the newly developed People’s Welfare Index (IKRAR, Indeks Kesejahteraan Rakyat), which has been constructed by the Coordinating Ministry of People’s Welfare and the Central Bureau of Statistics, in collaboration with Ford Foundation and civil society organizations. IKRAR has three main indicators to capture the dimension of Economic Justice, Social Justice and Democracy. The performance of the fifteen districts/cities for the period of 2007-2010, as measured by the IKRAR, was also presented and discussed.
21 March. Robert Sparrow (ANU). Health Equity and Financial Protection in Indonesia
Indonesia has experienced far reaching health care financing reforms since 2005, starting with the introduction of subsidised social health insurance for the informal sector (Askeskin and later Jamkesmas). At national level the policy debate is now focussed on formulating strategies for scaling up to universal health insurance, while at district and province level a myriad of local health financing initiatives has developed, varying greatly in scope, cover and financial resources.
I presented the research agenda and preliminary findings of an on-going research project that investigates the potential impacts of these health care reforms in terms of eliminating existing barriers to health care in Indonesia and providing effective social risk management. This project involves researchers from ANU, the SMERU Research Institute in Jakarta, and the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and focuses on three related topics: - The financial risk of illness and health shocks for households, and the role of informal coping strategies; - The impact of subsidised social health insurance on health care utilization and out-of-pocket health care spending; - The effectiveness of alternative local health financing schemes for improving access to health care and financial protection from illness.
7 March. Jean-Luc Maurer (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) Question about the Indonesian Development Experience
I am preparing a book on the Indonesian development experience from the time of Independence through the present day. It will be a synthesis essay addressing the research question that has been at the core of my preoccupations since the early 70’s, i.e. the linkages between economic development, social transformation and political change. Given the abundance of material about Indonesian development existing in English, I will be preparing the work in French and will publish it in France. My objective is that this will be a key reference book for francophone students wanting to work on contemporary Indonesia. I do not need to do a lot of new research work to write this book, but I would like to discuss some of my views and opinions with prominent specialists of Indonesia currently resident in Canberra. After my visit to the ANU I will be going on to Indonesia from April to June. On my return to Europe I will be meeting with colleagues in France, UK and the Netherlands. I am especially keen to learn of new work that can be cited in the book to introduce the wide range of Indonesianists to a rising generation of francophone scholars.
22 February. Asvi Warman Adam (the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Jakarta). Jakarta History and Controversies Regarding the Designation of National Heroes from 1959 to 2011
Until 2011, 156 National Heroes had been appointed. How many does Indonesia actually need? Does General Soeharto deserve to be a National Hero? Is Gus Dur’s nomination being held ‘hostage’ by Soeharto? Why was Syafruddin Prawiranegara, allegedly involved in PRRI, finally appointed as hero in 2011? From the Catholics, why was Frans Seda’s nomination ‘crucified’ by I. J. Kasimo? There are ethnic Chinese heroes, but why are there no Arab descendants? Why was West Java province very enthusiastic in nominating Soekarno’s wife, Inggit Garnasih, as a National Hero, although Fatmawati, another of Soekarno’s wives, was already one?
What does this ‘race’ to national designation mean for Indonesian history and the current political contestation?
8 February. Suahasil Nazara and Raksaka Mahi (University of Indonesia, Depok). Survey of Recent Development
Despite a turbulent global economy and expectations that declining exports would cause an economic slowdown, the Indonesian economy grew at 6.5 per cent in 2011. The growth rate was supported by high consumer confidence – the result of lower inflation of just 3.8 per cent in 2011. Nevertheless, there were indications that the global financial crisis had had an impact on Indonesia in the last quarter of 2011, notably on the growth of exports and imports.
In October 2011, President Yudhoyono reshuffled his cabinet, citing a need to improve its performance in the administration’s remaining three years. The reshuffle showed that the president is still subject to political party pressures. Moreover, the governing coalition of parties remains weak. Agreements made within coalition meetings are often broken in the parliament, and coalition parties are frequently distracted by media polemics. The case of former Democrat Party treasurer Nazaruddin, arrested in Colombia following a two-month manhunt, has revealed the magnitude of the money politics surrounding the Democrat Party, whose ratings are declining rapidly.
Indonesia enters 2012 bolstered by the restoration of its investment-grade credit rating. This will expose Indonesia to increased capital flows, since many funds are permitted to invest only in investment-grade countries. The effects on foreign direct investment (FDI) are not automatic, however. These investors evaluate the wider business climate and economic governance in making their investment decisions.
The fuel subsidy remains a challenge for Indonesia in 2011/12. Parliament rejected a proposal to limit fuel consumption from April 2012 over doubts about the government’s readiness to handle the policy’s technical complexity. Now the government is again considering a fuel price increase, and will have to seek parliamentary approval soon. Indonesia faces a long-term problem of regional inequality. After four decades of economic development there is little variation in the shares of GDP across regions, but GDP per capita in some regions is slipping behind that of Java. Regional development policy needs to generate more economic activities in the outer islands, and to learn from the mistakes of past initiatives to promote economic development and growth centres in the regions. It is important to align policies with the current decentralisation arrangements.
The government is revising Law 33/2004 on Intergovernmental Finance with the aim of improving some dimensions of decentralisation in Indonesia. Revenue certainty is to be enhanced in part through changes to the general allocation grant (DAU) formula and the disbursement mechanism for intergovernmental transfers. The planned revision has not, however, addressed sufficiently the problem of inefficiency in regional spending. In fact, some of the proposed solutions may well create further spending inefficiency. The main barrier to increased FDI is infrastructure development, whose progress has been slowed by land procurement problems. Unfortunately, Law 2/2012 on Land Procurement for Public Purposes seems unlikely to deliver a clear solution to the key problem of determining fair prices for land compensation. What is needed is the creation of more independent price-setting committees, with sufficient capacity to disentangle the problems of land acquisition.