The Australia-Netherlands Research Collaboration (ANRC)

8 February-12 February 2010
Melanesian languages on the edge of Asia: past, present and future
location: Manokwari
Workshop convened by Prof Nicholas Evans from The Australian National University, Dr Marian Klamer from Leiden University and Dr Wayan Arka from Universitas Udayana.
Outcome Summary
COMING SOON

Further details...

20 January-22 January 2010
Indonesian urban kampongs: targets of state policy or abandoned zones: an anthropological-historical enquiry into the state, social inequality, and urban space
location: Surabaya
Workshop convened by Dr Freek Colombijn from VU University Amsterdam, Dr Joost Coté from Deakin University and Mr Purnawan Basundoro from Universitas Airlangga.
Outcome Summary
COMING SOON

15 January-17 January 2010
Human security and religious certainty in Southeast Asia
location: Chiang Mai
Workshop convened by Prof Oscar Salemink from VU University Amsterdam, Dr Philip Taylor from The Australian National University and Dr Chayan Vaddhanaphuti from Chiang Mai University
Outcome Summary
COMING SOON

Further details...

5 October-7 October 2009
Culture and the Nation: Arts in the shadow of Lekra 1950 – 1965
location: Jakarta
Workshop convened by Prof Henk Schulte Nordholt from KITLV & University of Amsterdam and Dr Jennifer Lindsay from The Australian National University
Outcome Summary
COMING SOON

28 September-30 September 2009
Growing Up in Indonesia: Experience and Diversity in Youth Transitions
location: The Australian National University, Canberra
Workshop convened by Prof Kathryn Robinson from The Australian National University, Prof Patricia Spyer from Leiden University and Dr Pujo Semedi Hargo Yuwono from Gadjah Mada University
Outcome Summary
COMING SOON

1 - 3 August 2009
Workshop convened by Prof Lenore Lyons from University of Western Australia, Dr Michele Ford from University of Sydney, Prof Willem van Schendel from University of Amsterdam and Dr Riwanto Tirtosudarmo from Research Center for Society and Culture, Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Labour Migration and Trafficking: Policy Making at the Border
held at Universitas Kebangsaan Malaysia
Outcome Summary
This workshop explored the tangled connection between international labour migration and the global concern with the trafficking of people. There were 41 participants. Since the signing of the UN Trafficking Protocol in 2000, countries of origin and destination alike have faced increasing pressure to ratify the Trafficking Protocol and to demonstrate that they comply with minimum standards outlined in the annual ‘Trafficking in Persons Report’ prepared by the US State Department. Countries that do not comply are subject to sanctions, including the termination of non-humanitarian aid, non trade-related assistance and US opposition to assistance from international financial institutions. At the same time, trafficking and smuggling, as core issues identified in the UN Convention on Transnational Crime, are linked with measures to address ‘global terrorism’ in the heightened security environment post 9/11 and governments are encouraged to take a strong stance on irregular migration through tighter border controls.

The workshop examined the way in which the anti-trafficking framework has been taken up and translated by different stakeholders for different purposes, giving close attention to the micro-practices of state and non-state agents at the local level, or the way in which international policy becomes translated and enacted locally. Papers showed that the anti-trafficking framework has become influential – and even over-determining – in some border sites and yet remains almost irrelevant in others. Many papers found a closer relationship between anti- trafficking and state concerns with border security than between anti-trafficking and its supposed humanitarian foundations. At the same time, the state does not act as a single coherent unit; rather different elements within the state may pursue different, sometimes conflicting agendas. In particular it was noted that the criminal justice system (and that data that it generates), although frequently used as evidence that something is being done to address trafficking, may work in practice to allow more thorough exploitation of migrants.

25 & 26 June 2009
A special ANRC mid project workshop convened by Prof Robert Cribb from The Australian National University
Transmission of Academic Values in Asian Studies
held in Canberra
Outcome Summary
The workshop examined issues surrounding the transmission of scholarly values in Asian Studies. It drew upon the views of scholars from a range of life-stages in order to seek a clearer picture of the values that scholars see as important to preserve and of the techniques for achieving transmission between the generations. A feature of the workshop was attention to differences in values and practice between Australia and other countries. There were 27 presenters and a further 37 participants.

26 - 28 May 2009
Workshop convened by Prof Arlo Griffiths from Leiden University, A/Prof Helen Creese from University of Queensland, and Dr Titik Pudjiastuti from Universitas Indonesia
The Old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa. Text, History, Culture
held at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Jakarta.

Outcome Summary
This workshop brought specialists on early Javanese literature, history and culture together with Sanskritists to consider the Old Javanese Rāmāyaṇa text. There were 21 participants. The discussions in the workshop ranged from highly technical issues arising from the editing of Old Javanese texts and their translation. It emerged that, while editions of Sanskrit texts are prepared on the basis of manuscripts from different (and often distant) geographical areas of the Indian Subcontinent, editions of Old Javanese texts often keep separate the manuscripts from the Javanese and Balinese traditions on account of the great degree of variation existing between sources from the two areas. There was extensive discussion of whether it was worthwhile to refer to Sanskrit source texts such as the Bhaṭṭikāvya, when editing the Old Javanese poem, at the risk of creating an ‘artificial’ text.

There was also considerable discussion of the issue of the religiosity in the Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin. Sanskritists pointed that ‘Hinduism’ is no longer regarded as a unitary religion, and that focussing on specific traditions such as Śaivism may be more fruitful when identifying Indic religious influences in the Rāmāyaṇa Kakawin and other Old Javanese texts. Several presentations focussed on art-historical themes, resulting in a multi- and inter-disciplinary debate of a level rarely seen during this kind of event.

14 May 2009
Policy Lecture presented by Professor Henk Schulte Nordholt, Acting Director of the Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden and Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Democracy and citizenship in Indonesia [mp3 recording]
held at The Australian National University, Canberra and supported by the Australian Institute of International Affairs, ACT Branch.

Abstract
Since 1998 Indonesia has witnessed a successful transition to electoral democracy. Whether democracy will take root in a more substantial way depends on the extent to which a notion of citizenship can be reinforced. Such a notion can only be maintained though the strengthening of the rule of law. In this respect it is important to focus on the uneasy relationship between electoral democracy and ethnic and religious sentiments that tend to emphasize exclusive group interests while excluding a shared sense of citizenship. In this context it is also important to investigate why many NGOs failed to move into politics. Finally it is argued that, contrary to neo liberal ideas, democracy and citizenship can only be achieved by strengthening the administrative and law-enforcing capacity of the state.

22 - 24 September 2008
Workshop convened by Dr Edward Aspinall from The Australian National University and Dr Gerry van Klinken from the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies
The state and illegality in Indonesia
held at The Australian National University, Canberra

Outcome summary
There were 21 participants including researchers and postgraduate students from three Dutch, four Australian and four Asian universities or institutions. The conference set out to explore the phenomenon of state officials who undertake illegal actions, that is, those prohibited by their own organisation. The basic premise of the workshop was that illegal activities by state officials cannot be understood without exploring the ways in which they are a part of the logic of the functioning of the state. They are not simply an aberration external to the normal workings of the state, the work of evil or weak officials who manage to evade detection or prosecution. Following this line of reasoning produced two almost revelatory experiences during the workshop. First, better contextualising of what we observed led to a better understanding of the social and political pressures which can drive otherwise well-meaning and moral officials into corrupt activities. Second, reflecting on these socially embedded practices led, here and there, to fresh insights into the nature of the state itself.

The papers were divided into four groups. The first concerned historical and theoretical questions. The papers in this group examined the history of illegality within the state, and the theoretical problems it raises for our understanding of the state. The second focused on concrete case studies, showing exactly how corruption works in various sectors of the economy, from the construction industry to emigration. The third looked at the relationship between illegal practices and physical insecurity - a topic that is too often missing from the rather abstract literature on good governance. The fourth and final section took up the meeting between Indonesian and international anti-corruption discourses, and the misperceptions and unintended consequences that often flow out of this encounter.

7 & 8 July 2008
Workshop convened by Prof Martin van Bruinessen from Utrecht University and the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) and Dr Greg Fealy from The Australian National University
Studying Islam in Southeast Asia: state of the art and new approaches
held at Snouck Hurgronjehuis, Leiden

Outcome summary
There were 25 participants including researchers and postgraduate students from four Australian, four Dutch and two Southeast Asian Universities or institutions. The aim of the workshop was to reflect critically on the current state of scholarship on Southeast Asian Islam and consider new approaches and possible collaborations to understanding Islamic politics, culture, society and law in a regional context. The workshop was divided into three broad themes: (1) governance and bureaucratic administration of Islam; (2) transnational Islamic networks in Southeast Asia; and (3) Islam, media and performance.

Most presenters not only discussed their current research but also critiqued the existing literature on regional Islam, considering in particular methodological and epistemological shortcomings. On historical matters, various speakers remarked that the historiography of Indonesian Islam continued to be influenced by colonial assumptions and that new approaches which looked more critically at Dutch policy preoccupations were needed. Discussions on the issue of Islam and state dwelt on the contested interpretations of ideal religion-state relations, both in Indonesia and Malaysia, and the ways in which states are encroaching more extensively into the religious lives of citizens. Close attention was given to the modalities of incorporating elements of the sharia in national legislation and local regulations in both countries, with participants putting forward different interpretations of data to support arguments about the extent of the impact of Islamic law.

The transnational Islam session looked at the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafism, Hizbut Tahrir and Tablighi Jamaat as well as more liberal currents of Islamic thought in various parts of Southeast Asia. Papers analysed the reasons for the growth in popularity of these movements and need for new multi-disciplinary methodological approaches in order to illuminate different facets of the Islamist ideology and life. The final sessions considered a variety of Islamic cultural expressions in Indonesia and Malaysia, including dance and musical forms, as well as the rhetorical styles and doctrinal content of popular preaching. Presenters looked at how political, religious and commercial forces shape these popular cultural forms.

16 April 2008
Policy Forum presented by Dr Robert Cribb from The Australian National University
Myths about mass violence: lessons from Indonesia
held at Campus Den Haag, Leiden University, The Hague and co-sponsored by the Australian Embassy, The Hague

Abstract
The sudden outbreak of mass violence remains an urgent but perplexing problem in international affairs.  Seemingly peaceful societies can descend suddenly into internecine conflict, suggesting deep undercurrents of conflict and hatred that need to be identified and remedied in order to forestall future violent outbreaks.  Indonesia unfortunately has a rich history of mass violence.  Although the targets of this violence have been sometimes ethnic, sometimes religious and sometimes political, close examination suggests that  deep conflicts and hatreds have been less important in sparking mass violence than the periodic weakness of the state, the withdrawal of state protection from specific groups and the dynamics by which violence escalates.  This conclusion in turn suggests, against conventional wisdom, that managing the early stages of violence is of greater importance in preventing human disaster than broader preventive measures.

12 December 2007
Policy Forum presented by Dr Greg Fealy from The Australian National University
Islamisation in Indonesia: A Critical Analysis of Trends
held at Campus Den Haag, Leiden University, The Hague and co-sponsored by the Australian Embassy, The Hague

Abstract
A common theme in recent media coverage and some academic writings is that Indonesia is undergoing rapid Islamisation and that this is making Indonesian Muslims more conservative and exclusivist, if not radical.  References are made to the emergence of the terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah, to the proliferation of Islamist vigilante and paramilitary groups such as FPI, AGAP and Laskar Jihad, to the implementation of sharia-derived bylaws in many districts, and to the seeming growing community intolerance of ‘deviant’ Muslim sects, such as Ahmadiyah and Wahidiyah.

This presentation will critically examine the evidence regarding Islamisation.  It will draw on recent election results, public opinion surveys, and studies of trends in radical activity and local sharia-isation to argue that claims of growing Islamic militancy and conservatism are greatly exaggerated.  Moreover, it will critique the media and scholarly discourse on Indonesian Islam and analyse the reasons for the popularity of this ‘radical Indonesia’ interpretation.

4 September 2007
Preliminary workshop convened by Dr Greg Fealy from The Australian National University
International Dimensions of Indonesian Islam
held at The Australian National University, Canberra

Outcome summary
There were 22 participants including postgraduate students and representatives from five AustralianUniversities and two Indonesian Islamic universities. The main research priorities that emerged from the discussions were:

1. the need to trace the personal ‘life histories’ of Muslims who move across different streams of thought and doctrine as this illuminates broader trends in Islamic religiosity;
2. the desirability of considering the contribution of Indonesian Islamic thought and practice for the wider Islamic world;
3. greater attention to regional cultural and literary contexts in studying Indonesian literature; and
4. the importance of studying Islamic artistic expression in Indonesia in order to explore the relative impact of foreign and domestic forces.

The workshop also noted the need for workshop participants to make available their expertise to policy makers and government analysts, as a way of ensuring that a nuanced view of regional Islamic dynamics was informing government responses.