2016 Indonesia Study Group
30 November. Bivitri Susanti (Indonesia Jentera School of Law). Indonesia’s rule of law under Joko Widodo
23 November. Jonatan Lassa (Charles Darwin University). Sustaining climate risk governance in Indonesian cities
The recording can be listened to here.
26 October. Denny Indrayana (The University of Melbourne and Gadjah Mada University). Combating corruption in Yudhoyono’s Indonesia: an insider’s perspective
Combating corruption in Indonesia is a monumental task, even for a president. In this lecture, Professor Denny Indrayana, Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights (2011-2014) and President Yudhoyono’s Special Advisor for Legal Affairs, Human Rights and Anti-Corruption (2008-2011), shares his personal experiences of the fight against corruption. He will analyse the Yudhoyono government’s efforts to protect the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) from attack by its enemies, including many forces within the political system. The Yudhoyono government had a mixed record on anti-corruption, with some successes but also failures in addressing more structural problems that contribute to and perpetuate systemic corruption. Political opposition, in particular, presents immense difficulties for any government seeking to substantially reduce Indonesia’s endemic corruption.
Denny Indrayana is an internationally recognised anti-corruption campaigner who has played a leading role in law reform in Indonesia. He is currently a Visiting Professor at Melbourne Law School and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne, and Professor of Constitutional Law at Gadjah Mada University. Before being sworn in as Vice Minister of Law and Human Rights, Denny was Special Advisor for Legal Affairs, Human Rights and Anticorruption to President Yudhoyono, Chair of the Centre for the Study of Anti-Corruption at Gadjah Mada University, and Director of the Indonesian Court Monitoring NGO. Denny has a PhD from the Melbourne Law School and won the prestigious Australian Alumni Award in 2009. He has written hundreds of articles and books.
The recording can be listened to here.
14 September. Chris Manning (ANU). Regional development and labour markets since decentralisation: What has changed?
17 August. Amalinda Savirani (Gadjah Mada University & ANU). United we stand: pribumi politics in an Indonesian provincial town. The case of the batik and construction sectors in Pekalongan, Central Java
The last half century has seen dramatic changes in the place of native (pribumi) entrepreneurs in Indonesia’s political economy. After independence, in the 1950s under the short-lived ‘Benteng’ Program, small-scale pribumi businesses in sectors like textiles, particularly batik, enjoyed protection. The Soeharto regime lifted most privileges for pribumi entrepreneurs, with one exception being the construction sector, which became populated by firms linked to Golkar. In the post Soeharto era, remaining protections for pribumi enterprises have been removed, and these firms have entered an environment of open competition.
How have small-scale enterprises in provincial towns, who are predominantly pribumi, reacted to this new environment? How have political changes, such as decentralisation, as well as increased integration of Indonesia into the global economy, shaped the way business is conducted at this level? What kinds of instruments and strategies do such businesses employ in order to survive and prosper?
This presentation addressed these questions, using the cases of the batik and construction sectors in the provincial town of Pekalongan, Central Java. It showed that small-scale businesses in these sectors employ political instruments in order to defend their positions. In both sectors, businesses mobilise political networks bridging state and society, and they draw upon native identity and narratives of cultural nationalism to advance their interests. They do so in response to distinct political and economic challenges: in the construction sector, companies must deal with procurement reforms designed to promote competitiveness; in the batik sector, they confront new technologies which advantage bigger businesses, most of which are Chinese Indonesian. The resilience and adaptiveness of these pribumi firms is related to social embeddedness of economic activity in friendship and family networks, typical of provincial towns. Attempts to promote economic reform and greater transparency find it hard to penetrate these social networks.
8 July. Thomas Pepinsky (Cornell University) & Sebastian Dettman (Cornell University). Resource shocks and local public goods: a tale of two districts
5 July. Muhamad Chatib Basri (former Indonesian Finance Minister and ANU Indonesia Project Thee Kian Wie Professor). The Fed’s tapering talk: a short statement’s long impact on Indonesia
This was a joint seminar between Indonesia Study Group and the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
The tapering talk in 2013 had serious impacts on some emerging market countries i.e. Indonesia, India, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey (the so-called fragile five). To face pressures in the financial market, these countries each undertook a series of macroeconomic policy efforts. Interestingly, Indonesia and India were able to handle the problem in the shortest time and succeeded in macroeconomic stabilisation, evidenced by the decrease in their current account deficit and the stabilisation of their financial markets.
This lead us into questions of why was Indonesia relatively successful in facing the Taper Tantrum and breaking out from the Fragile Five? What policies were undertaken and why were they chosen? Equally important is to understand the political economy process behind these policies. These questions are the focus of this paper.
29 June. Onno Purbo (STKIP Surya). Bridging the ‘digital divide’ in Indonesia
15 June. Andrey Damaledo (ANU). Transforming politics: East Timorese political activism in West Timor
8 June. M Halley Yudhistira (University of Indonesia). Jakarta’s traffic jams: an opportunity for road-sector reform
This is a joint seminar with the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
Jakarta Metropolitan Area has a population of 28 million, and one that is growing quite quickly. More and more people are living further from the central business district (CBD), and traffic jams are worsening. This seminar first reviewed the role of transport infrastructure in explaining the residential location of people in this spreading metropolis. The speaker showed that expansion of transport infrastructure is one of the keys to understanding the nature of Jakarta’s suburbanisation process. The seminar then discussed the potential benefits of economic reforms, with a focus on an electronic road pricing scheme for entry into the CBD. Simulation results suggest that the reforms could deliver welfare gains of around one per cent of gross income as a result of reductions in traffic jams. Interestingly, the largest gains could be from a system that charges private cars but not motorcycles. The seminar will also review recent work into how fuel pricing reform could help to reduce Jakarta’s traffic jams.
7 June. Riatu Qibthiyyah (University of Indonesia) & Ariane Utomo (ANU). Survey of recent developments: family matters
This seminar previewed the authors’ forthcoming article in the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies.
The year 2016 was expected to be a take-off period for Indonesia, but so far the country’s economic performance has followed last year’s pattern of slow growth. Whether the government can generate faster growth in the remaining months may depend on to what extent its programs champion productive spending. The consolidation of family-based social programs continues, with TNP2K, the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction, recently launching an updated Unified Database, which contains information on 96 million of Indonesia’s poorest people. Meanwhile, more than 166 million Indonesians have registered for the National Health Insurance scheme. Against the background of President Jokowi’s continued push towards welfare reforms, we shift our attention to the changing nature of the household and of the family in Indonesia. First, we explore how trends in family formation, and dissolution, both reflect recent debates around religious moralities and point to wider tensions over the emergence of non-conventional family structures. Second, we examine how changing patterns in household structures, family functioning, and norms might affect the demand for state welfare.
18 May. James Castle (Castle Asia). Indonesia’s political economy: a change in direction?
Indonesia’s remarkable political and economic recovery from the Asian Financial Crisis at the end of the 20th century was fueled by nearly a decade of rising commodity prices that ended in 2010. The success of the period brought with it increasingly inward looking, defensive economic policy responses featuring the proliferation of non-tariff barriers to trade, an expanding role for state-owned enterprises and a narrowing of space for private sector investment, particularly foreign direct investment. These policies led to slow but steady decline in growth and increasing unemployment over the past five years. The Jokowi administration is now showing clear signs wanting to reverse course and create a more open, transparent and competitive business environment, well integrated into the global economy.
The seminar discussed the depth of the government’s commitment to a new course, the political, social and bureaucratic obstacles to change and the prospects for success.
4 May. Joel Kuipers. Religion, language and piety: the case of Arabic names in Java
20 April. Iwan Jaya Azis (ANU Indonesia Project Thee Kian Wie Professor and the University of Indonesia). Regional integration and cooperation in Asia: quo vadis?
The benefits and risks of regional integration are highlighted, in particular how they affect the ultimate goal of welfare through deepening and broadening the benefits of human development, narrowing the development gap between and within countries, and advancing common interests in a regional-rule setting. By virtue of the goal that potential benefits are to be capitalised and risks minimised, regional cooperation has great merit. Has the experience of Asia vindicated the conjecture? This seminar discussed the trends and challenges of regional integration and cooperation in Asia. The potential benefits to be discussed include market access, risk-sharing, and pressuring domestic vested interest, and the risks include within-country inequality, and contagion and spillovers.
13 April. James B Hoesterey (Emory University). Sincerity and scandal: the cultural politics of aspal piety in Indonesia
Scholars have provided insightful accounts of the cultural politics of public piety during late-New Order and post-reformasi Indonesia. Whether in campus dakwah movements, Islamic banking, or aspirational forms of piety, Islam acquired cultural capital and political prominence–despite the fact that Islamist parties have not fared well at the ballot box. More recently, however, such optimism and aspirations of reformasi have given way to cynicism about the new political and religious elite. Indeed, many Indonesians have reveled in reports of sex, scandal, and corruption among the religious elite, especially among prominent politicians of the Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS). Moral scandal and political crises are important insofar as they cast the cultural politics of public piety in sharp relief.
Drawing from the playful Indonesian acronym as-pal (the authentic fake), this presentation explored mediated efforts to shame and discipline such politicians who have parlayed their self-proclaimed piety into political gain. In doing so, I argued that scholars must also look to social media and popular culture – not just political economy, electoral politics, or state institutions – to better understand political Islam in contemporary Indonesia.
Jim Hoesterey is a cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Emory University. His research focuses on Islam, media, and politics. Hoesterey’s recent book – Rebranding Islam: Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-help Guru – chronicles the rise, fall, and re-branding of celebrity televangelist Aa Gym. His current research examines public diplomacy, soft power, and the making of ‘moderate Islam’ in Indonesia. Hoesterey serves as Secretary for the American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS), is a board member for the Commission for Visual Anthropology (CVA), and has worked on several documentary films in West Papua and Africa that have been broadcast worldwide on Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the BBC.
The recording can be listened to here.
6 April. Edwin Jurriens (The University of Melbourne). Art markets, communities and cultures of the digital revolution in Indonesia
This presentation focused on digital art as a creative expression of major socio-cultural and technological developments in contemporary Indonesia. It is meant as an early inquiry into the much flagged idea of ‘the digital revolution’ by putting both the ‘digital’ and the ‘revolution’ into critical perspective. Edwin Jurriens discussed how the contemporary art market, as an essential part of Indonesia’s creative economy, is slowly shifting interest from traditional media such as painting and sculpture to new media such as digital art. At the same time, some artists and art collectives have remained under the commercial radar due to the nature of their works, ideas and interests. Many of them engage in collaborative projects with local communities to creatively and critically address urgent social issues such as health care and food security. Edwin Jurriens wanted to argue that their ideas and practices are not a product of the digital only, but have been shaped by a long history of Indonesian cultural development.
5 April. Iwan Jaya Azis (ANU Indonesia Project Thee Kian Wie Professor and the University of Indonesia). The 14th HW Arndt Memorial Lecture: Managing elevated risks
After going through ‘Great Moderation’ and interrupted by ‘Global Imbalances’ that subsequently led to the ‘Great Recession’, external conditions are becoming more difficult for emerging markets. With the up-and-coming ‘Great Divergence’, the uncertainty grows further. The elevated risks for emerging Asia can be traced back to the period of massive capital inflows to the region associated with changing global liquidity since mid-2000s, following the ultra-easy money policy and the unprecedented quantitative easing (QE) in advanced economies. Three phases of capital flows are identified, and the implications of each for emerging Asia are to be discussed in the lecture.
Professor Iwan Azis is currently at ANU as the Thee Kian Wie Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Indonesia Project. He has been teaching economics at the University of Indonesia since 1977 and at Cornell University since 1992. He was the chairman of department of economics (1984-1992), and the director of Inter-University Center for Economics (1986-1992) at the University of Indonesia. During 2005-2010 he was the director of graduate study at the Regional Science Program, Cornell University. His latest publications are: Managing Elevated Risk (Springer, 2015), ‘ASEAN’s Need to Rebalance: More Regional than Global?’ in Transpacific Rebalancing (Brookings Institution Press, 2015), and How Capital Flows in the Midst of Excess Savings Affect Macrofinancial Vulnerability (Asian Development Review, 2015).
30 March. Rumayya Batubara (The University of Western Australia). District head’s political party and local development: observing the results of Indonesia’s 2005-2013 direct local elections
The system of electing bupati changed in 2005 from a parliamentarian one where the bupati was elected by members of parliament to a direct election system (PILKADA) whereby the people in a district elect him directly. This new electoral system complemented the fiscal decentralization system implemented in 2001. The new governance system should empower local governments with increased fiscal authority and political accountability to tackle the challenge of development in their regions. PILKADA establishes an important role for political parties to shape and direct development in their regions, since, according to Law No. 32/2004, PILKADA candidates must be selected and endorsed by one of the major political parties or a coalition of small political parties which have gained a minimum of 15 percent of the votes/seats in the local parliament. However, in 2007, the Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) passed a verdict which opened up the opportunity for candidates to run in elections without a political party nomination. The process of non-party side nominations later became known as the independent pathway (jalur independen).
This presentation, using a local election dataset from KPUD (The Local General Elections Commission) and nine local development indicators from INDO-DAPOER-World Bank for the period of 2005-2013, aimed to observe whether or not there is enough evidence that the party a bupati belong to matters for local development; i.e. whether there are enough variations in local development performance due to the fact their bupatis were nominated by different political parties. This study also explored whether the performance of independently nominated bupati had been different from that of bupati nominated by political parties.
The recording can be listened to here.
24 March. His Excellency Professor Bambang Brodjonegoro (the then Minister of Finance, Government of the Republic of Indonesia). Indonesia: sustaining economic development in a volatile world
His Excellency Professor Bambang Brodjonegoro, Indonesian Minister of Finance, delivered a Public Lecture on laying the groundwork for sustainable development in a highly uncertain world.
Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has served as Indonesia’s Minister of Finance since October 2014. Previously, he was Vice Minister of Finance. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Indonesia in 1990, having majored in economic development and regional economy. He received his master’s degree in 1995 and his PhD in 1997, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, in the United States. In 2002, he became a guest lecturer in that university’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, before returning to Indonesia and serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia (2005–9) and the Director General of the Islamic Research and Training Institute at the Islamic Development Bank (2009–10). In January 2011, he was named Chair of the Fiscal Policy Office in Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance.
23 March. Jenny Jung (The University of Sydney), Sarah Mourney (The University of Sydney) & Shanti Omodei-James (The University of Adelaide). Presentations from Research Travel Grants recipients
Regional pluralism in Indonesia and the significance of interfaith dialogue for justice and peace building: a case study of Interfidei by Shanti Omodei-James
The loosening up of state control over dissent since the fall of Suharto has enabled the emergence of new, more diverse and more vocal religious groups. As part of this post New Order democratisation process, Indonesia has faced an ongoing battle to maintain peace and unity across the archipelago. Despite the state motto of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, or ‘Unity in Diversity’ and the country’s foundation upon Pancasila values, numerous religious conflicts have erupted. With religious intolerance seemingly on the rise, the state of religious pluralism in Indonesia is under threat. The different and highly varied understandings of religious pluralism in Indonesia further compound this problem. Along with constructing an Indonesian understanding of religious pluralism, Shanti attempts to understand some of the deeper religious and cultural explanations for the increased intolerance.
Institute DIAN/Interfidei, a Yogyakarta based non-government organisation has sought to use interfaith dialogue as a way to spread the values of religious pluralism and promote peace within the country. With organisations such as this and individual Indonesians working at the grassroots level it seems not all hope is lost. However interfaith dialogue, a key component to achieving religious pluralism, is still treated with caution and even suspicion. By assessing the impact of Interfidei, the potential roles for other interfaith organisations or simply individual Indonesians working at the grassroots level, will be discussed.
The causes of hospital admission and in-hospital death among children in Sumba Island of rural Indonesia by Jenny Jung
Indonesia has shown significant promise in improving child health and has met the Millennium Development Goal to reduce infant and under-five mortality rate by two-third in 2015. However, 8.8 million children continue to die annually and disparities in child health care exist between inter-provincial, rural-urban and wealth groups. As Indonesia ranks as the third country with the highest number of child population worldwide, further efforts to improve health in all children is essential to improve work productivity, quality of life and learning ability. In this study, we defined the causes of hospital admission and in-hospital deaths among children in Sumba Island, a rural island with majority of the population living below the poverty line. By retrospectively reviewing patient records at Karitas General Hospital in 2014, our study quantitatively assessed the most common causes of child morbidity and mortality using children of Sumba as an example of disadvantaged population groups. Our results confirm that infectious and vaccine-preventable diseases, most of which are perpetuated by poverty, were the leading causes of hospital admission and in-hospital mortality. These findings affirm the importance of collaborative approaches of public health programs and interventions targeting factors to break the cycle of poverty for maximum effectiveness and sustainability.
Competing food discourses in Indonesia by Sarah Mourney
This thesis uses a case study of Indonesia to examine the conflict between the food security and food sovereignty discourses at the national and local levels in order to understand how food policy is justified and criticised. Policymakers in Indonesia have tended to gravitate toward ‘food security’ as a basis for policy-design, to which many peasants and activists express direct opposition. They call, instead, for the government to adopt ‘food sovereignty’ as the main policy approach to food. Drawing on primary fieldwork in Indonesia, this thesis conducts a discourse analysis of food security and sovereignty, examining the power relations at the core of this conflict and explaining how and why peasants try to influence policy. It adapts the ‘discourse coalition’ literature to examine who ‘speaks’ discourse at the global, national and local levels. In doing so, it makes two key arguments. Firstly, food security is the dominant discourse, as it serves the interests of powerful actors by promoting neoliberal policies. Secondly, food sovereignty emerges in resistance to food security, and peasants re-articulate the discourse to suit their local contexts.
The recording can be listened to here.
8 March. Edward Aspinall (ANU). Inducement or entry ticket? Broker network and vote buying in Indonesia
This paper presents preliminary findings of a study of vote buying in several districts in Java during Indonesia’s 2014 legislative elections. Using a combination of interviews and observational research, analysis of candidates’ vote-buying lists, surveys of voters and brokers on those lists, and focus group discussions, we analyse the organisation, targeting, effectiveness and meanings of vote-buying efforts. We argue that Indonesian elections are broker-centered rather than party-centered affairs. Even so, brokers are not particularly effective and candidates often receive a high ‘margin error’ — i.e. a gap between the number of payments they distribute and the number of votes they obtain. Contrary to some expectations, there is very little evidence of monitoring and/or enforcement of vote-buying exchanges. We conclude that money politics is about credibility and broker mobilisation, and that the money candidates distribute can be likened to an ‘entry ticket’ that is purchased by candidates, after which they are evaluated by voters on other grounds.
The paper upon which this presentation is based was co-authored with Michael Davidson, Allen Hicken and Meredith Weiss and was produced as part of the Australian Research Council-funded project, ‘Money Politics: Patronage, Political Networks and Electoral Dynamics in Southeast Asia.’
The recording can be listened to here.
25 February. Riefqi Muna (Indonesia Academy of Science, Visiting Fellow ANU). Indonesia and Indian Ocean in the wake of the Indian Ocean Rim Association
Indonesia is currently chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), a 21-member organisation which includes Australia, South Africa and India. IORA has assumed greater significance for Indonesia following the announcement of President Jokowi’s Poros Maritim Dunia or ‘Maritime Fulcrum’. Indonesia is an archipelagic state that geopolitically connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans the United Nations’ sea lines of communication convention that underline the importance of the Indian Ocean. IORA has existed for almost 20 years, but its diverse membership has meant that regional initiatives have been slow to implement. In this situation, Indonesia is seeking to use its chairmanship to make IORA more active and dynamic in responding to regional strategic issues and economic opportunities. The growth of major powers in the region is one such challenge for IORA. In this seminar, Riefqi will discuss the role and prospects for IORA and Indonesia’s plans as Association chair.
24 February. Chris Manning (ANU). Whither Indonesian labour migration? Developments in the past decade
The presentation dealt with recent developments area of international migration and the impact that government policy and international negotiations had on migration flows and the welfare of migrants. While showing how migration from Indonesia followed patterns similar to those experienced by neighbouring countries, we argue that the high proportion of female domestic workers and dependence on two main countries of destination, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, made many Indonesian migrants particularly vulnerable to abuse.
It was argued that overseas migration has been a very mixed blessing. National and household benefits in terms of remittances have been substantial and a significant number of much higher paying jobs than at home are being provided to migrants. There was also an improvement in the management and conditions of work among Indonesian migrant workers during the SBY years. These advantages need to be counterbalanced against the abuse of human rights inherent in the main forms and patterns of migration.
Implementation has been weak and the National Law on Migration (2004) is badly in need of revision. The suspension of new flows of domestic workers to major receiving countries in the Middle East in 2011 meant a welcome rebalancing of migration in favour of more skilled male workers. However, failure to provide the quasi-independent placement and protection agency with greater influence over policy (akin to the Philippines Overseas Employment Agency) has been a major shortcoming.
17 February. Tri Mulyaningsih (Sebelas Maret University), Anne Daly (University of Canberra), Riyana Miranti (University of Canberra) and Chris Manning (ANU). Wage inequality in Indonesia: does skill premium matter?
Growing inequality has become an important policy issue over the past decade, both internationally and in Indonesia. One of the features of the current widening of the income distribution in a number of countries has been the rising earnings from employment at the top end of the distribution. The aim of this seminar was to present some preliminary results on the relationship between the skill differential (defined in various ways) and wage inequality using provincial level data in Indonesia. Our data show that regions with high skill premium tend to have more unequal wages distribution.
Our empirical estimations show that sharply rising tertiary qualifications of job seekers have contributed to wage inequality and this was observed in most regions. The estimations also show that the skill differentials for both male and female workers have explained widen inequality. The significant contribution of skill premium between those with tertiary degree and primary school education or lower among female workers on inequality is observed. However, regardless of gender, the earnings differentials within skilled labour with tertiary degree and secondary high school diploma is significant in explaining widen inequality.