CSEAS Seminar Programme, 2003
Wednesday 12 March 2003, 1.00 pm
Burchill Room, Performing Arts Complex
(Bld.68), Monash University Clayton campus.
Please note change from usual day, time and place.
Seminar sponsored by Global Terrorism Research Unit, School
of Political
& Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts.
"Terrorism in South-East Asia: Who are the Jemaah Islamiyah and what should we do?"
Speaker: Assistant Professor Kumar Ramakrishna , Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Assistant Professor Ramakrishna received his Masters in Defence Studies from the Australian Defence Force Academy in 1992 and his Doctor of Philosophy in History from the University of London in 1999. Before joining Nanyang Technological University, he lectured in the Department of Strategic Studies at the Singapore Armed Forces Military Institute. Assistant Professor Ramakrishna has published extensively on terrorism in Southeast Asia, US counter-terrorist policy, international security, humanitarian intervention and the politico-military histories of Singapore and Malaya. He is co-editor of "The New Terrorism: Anatomy, Trends and Counter-Strategies" (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2002). Assistant Professor Ramakrishna has also delivered conference papers to the United Nations Disarmament Conference in Kyoto and the National Defence University in Washington, D.C.
Thursday 20 March 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Burchill Room, Performing Arts Complex
(Bld.68), Monash University Clayton campus.
"The Peace Process in Aceh: Prospects and Problems"
Speakers: Mr Nurdin Abdul Rahman and Dr Lesley McCulloch
Mr Nurdin
Abdul Rahman , an Acehnese born in Bireuen, North
Aceh, is a human rights activist, a former political prisoner and
an advocate for torture victims. From 1999-July 2002 he was Director
of the NGO
RATA (Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims in Aceh), one of
more than 200 rehabilitation centres in 84 countries around the world
sponsored by IRCT a Denmark-based umbrella organisation. He is also
a TEFL teacher of
English and Lecturer in English Literature,
English Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Educational Sciences,
Syiah Kuala University, Darussalam-Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Nurdin's
visit to Australia was
organised by Indonesian Solidarity
(
indonesian_solidarity@yahoo.com.au )
Dr Lesley McCulloch, a Scottish-born academic recently released after 5 months detention in Aceh, has lectured in Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania. She has written on the human cost of the pursuit of a military solution to the conflict in Aceh. She is currently researching and writing a book on the business interests of the Indonesian military in Aceh.
Thursday 27 March 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton Campus.
Seminar presented jointly with Centre for Malaysian Studies, Monash Asia Institute.
Chair: Dr Wendy Smith
"Social Challenges of Globalisation and Economic Restructuring in Malaysia: Indications of Anomie."
Speaker:
Professor Jamilah Ariffin , Senior Research
Fellow and Director, Centre of Socio-Economic Research and Humanistic
Development, Institute Sultan Iskandar University of Technology,
Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Prof Jamilah has a BA in Social Sciences (Sociology and
Economics) from La Trobe University and an MA and PhD in Sociology
from the University of Queensland. She has a keen interest in the
fields of Social Change and Economic Development, Gender Studies,
Labour Migration and Family Studies. Prof Jamilah has
published 30 articles in refereed international journals and is
the author of "Women and Development in Malaysia", Pelanduk
Publications, 1992. Prof Jamilah has also edited a number of academic
books, including "Poverty
Amidst Plenty: Research
Findings and the Gender Dimension in Malaysia", Pelanduk Publications,
1994, "From Kampung to Urban Factories", University of
Malaya Press, 1994 and "Readings on Women and Development in
Malaysia", Population Studies Unit, University of Malaya, 1994.
Abstract:
In the space of a few
years, the Malaysian economy has undergone rapid restructuring. While
it took three centuries (300 years) for England and countries of
the West to be transformed from an agrarian to urban-industrial society,
Malaysian society was pressured to change in this direction within
a span of only 30 years (1970-2000). This change was propelled by
socio-economic engineering process fostered by the Malaysian government
through a series of deliberate economic policies, which notwithstanding
have also successfully implemented Economic Growth with considerable
Economic Equity.
It must be noted that the changes in Malaysia, as engineered by endogenous measures, are also influenced by globalization forces which further aggravates and complicates the whole process of social transformation.
Due to these trends, many Malaysians are experiencing wide-spread changes in their midst. The nation as a whole has witnessed an expanding middle class and rising standards of living for the majority. However, there are also signs of growing income-inequalities, social disparity and relative deprivation within each ethnic group of this multi-racial society. Due to this industrialization, rural-urban migration, rapid urbanisation and new facilities, more than half of the population are considered to be living in urban areas, but have they become an urban society?
Within this scenario of socioeconomic change, it is often overlooked that the equally important aspects namely changes in attitudes, norms and mediating values, changes in mindsets and psychological "world views" are the least studied and understood. Yet, many are alarmed by the rise in reported rates of child and wife abuse, incest, violent crime and drug-addiction etc.
What are the impact and implications of all these changes for Malaysia? Are there indications of "anomie"? What would be the significant possible future social scenarios in Malaysia in the wake of rising Muslim fundamentalist movements in the world in general and within Malaysia in particular? These are some of the issues and questions that will be deliberated in this public seminar by Professor Jamilah Ariffin.
Thursday 3 April 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Old myths and new realities: Developing a new statistical system for decentralised government in outer island Indonesia"
Speaker:
Dr
Tuti Gunawan, Director, Indonesian Translation Bureau,
and Research Associate in Anthropology, School of Political and Social
Inquiry, Monash University.
Thursday 10 April 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Feminism and a Muslim women's organization in Indonesia: the dynamics of the development of gender discourse in Nasyiatul Aisyiyah 1965-2005."
Speaker:
Siti Syamsiyatun , PhD candidate
in Politics, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University.
Thursday 17 April 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Angkor in the 10th Century: the Khmer temples of East Mebon and Pre Rup and their significance"
Speaker:
Alexandra Haendel is a PhD candidate
in History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, and a research fellow at the Centre
for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Alexandra's PhD
focuses on Khmer temples, particularly the legacy of King Rajendravarman
in 10th century Angkor. Her MA
thesis was on "Jayavarman VII and the spiritual background
of the re-founding of the Khmer empire". As a student of Southeast
Asian history and art history, she has worked and travelled widely
in Southeast and South Asia.
Abstract
Although the Khmer temples of East Mebon and Pre Rup have
been described before and their inscriptions translated, no detailed
analysis of the two temples has ever been undertaken. The aim of
Alexandra's PhD research is to shed new
light on the architecture and hence the use of these two temples.
This presentation will introduce Alexandra's research results
drawing on her analysis of the architecture and the epigraphy. Crucial
insight into the original purpose and the use of these temples is
given in the layout of the various buildings within the compounds.
Neither of the temples was conceived in a single planning programme,
so alterations and additions can be traced through changes in the
architecture. A close examination of the architectural evidence establishes
a building sequence for both temples. The second part of the research
deals with the inscriptions, which are the longest in Khmer epigraphy.
These contain a wealth of information about the religions of the
time, as well as about the buildings themselves. Hence studying the
inscriptions together with the architectural remains enables a very
detailed interpretation of the purpose of the temples to emerge.
24 April 2003 Mid-semester break: No seminar
Thursday 1 May 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Imagining Chineseness in recent Indonesian film and literature"
Speaker:
Paul Tickell , Lecturer in Indonesian, School of
Language, Literature and Communication, University of New South Wales
at The Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra ACT.
Thursday 8 May 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"A democratic Constitution and a sustainable Development Plan! Was this goal too ambitious for the Timorese or did they have too many advisors?"
Speaker:
Dr Helen Hill , Department of Social Inquiry
and Community Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne. Helen Hill
was a Master's Student of Herb Feith at Monash from 1974 to 1978.
For three months early in 1975, she carried out fieldwork in Portuguese
Timor and, following the Indonesian invasion, lobbied early in 1976
at the UN Security Council on behalf of self-determination in East
Timor. Her MA
thesis, a study of FRETILIN, was belatedly published last year
by Oxford Press as Stirrings of Nationalism in East Timor: Fretilin
1974-1978: the origins, ideologies and strategies of a nationalist
movement. Following a PhD at the ANU on Non-formal
education and development in Fiji, New Caledonia and the US Trust Territory
of the Pacific, Helen worked for the Commonwealth Youth Program in
the Pacific for two years, then returned to Melbourne and took up
a position at Victoria University, St Albans Campus teaching Asian
and Pacific Sociology, mainly to students of Community Development.
In 2000, she spent six months research leave at the University of
Timor Loro Sa'e. She has been back several times since, as she
works on a book about the transition to independence in Timor-Leste.
Abstract
When East Timor emerged
from 24 years of occupation by its neighbouring country, it was clear
that a strong sense of Timorese identity had energised the protracted
struggle for self-determination. This sense of identity, together
with their achieving success in an apparently unwinnable enterprise,
led Timorese to set themselves high aspirations for the type of state
they wanted to create, both in terms of democracy and material support
for citizens. Yet the Timorese people's limited experience of
state and governmental forms, other than those of Indonesia and Portugal,
made it difficult for them to imagine many options. Nevertheless,
a huge amount of effort and expense went in to electing Constituent
Assembly members, and drafting, debating and voting on a Constitution
between September 2001 and April 2002 - an extraordinarily short
period of time for such an important task. A Development Plan was
being discussed at the same time, but without equivalent intellectual
effort, similar democratic debate, nor the attention to alternatives
to which the Constitution was subjected. Considerable parts of the
Development Plan, unlike the Constitution, were written by advisors,
not by Timorese, and it can be argued that the Plan's priorities
seem to arise from the needs of donors, both bilateral and multilateral.
This seminar will examine the implications of this separation between the Constitution and the Development Plan and look at some important ways in which the two documents fail to connect with each other. It will also examine political structures and policies in the light of the considerable role of development assistance (aid) in East Timor's reconstruction and its propensity to undermine policy-making by the Timorese.
Thursday 15 May 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"The promotion of the idea of the 'threat' of the extreme right or 'extreme' Islam in Indonesia: New Order historical themes and legacies."
Speaker:
Dr
Kate McGregor, Lecturer, Department of History, University
of Melbourne.
Thursday 22 May 2003, 11.00 am -12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Land rights and wrongs in Indonesia"
Speaker:
Dr
Craig Thorburn, Co-ordinator, Masters Program in International
Development and Environmental Analysis (M.IDEA), School of Geography
and Environmental Science, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.
Thursday 29 May 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Water for Lombok? Examining the Impacts of Australian Aid on Rural Indonesia."
Speaker:
Ms Simone Alesich , PhD candidate
in Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The
Australian National University.
Thursday 5 June 2003, 11.00 am -12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Calling the spirit of rice: ceremonial practice among the Tai of Northeast India."
Abstract
The Tai language
family includes not only the Thai people of Thailand and the Lao
of Laos but also communities in China, Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia and
India. In each of these communities there is an important cultural
concept of an element of vitality, making for vigour and strength.
Among the Tai of Northeast India, this concept is labelled khon,
a word which does not readily translate into English but might be
rendered as 'spirit' or 'soul'.
When undertaking research for his PhD on the Tai languages of Assam, Northeast India, Stephen Morey witnessed and recorded the ceremony called Lik Hong Khon Khau, literally 'Calling the Spirit of Rice'. The ceremony was lead by the senior elder of the Tai Khamyang, Chaw Sa Myat Chowlik, and was performed because of a poor rice harvest that one of the villagers had experienced in the previous year.
Part of the video recording of the ceremony will be presented during this talk, and the texts used will be discussed and placed in the wider context of ceremonial practices of the Tai people in Northeast India.
Speaker:
Dr Stephen Morey
, who will take up a two-year Fellowship at the Research Centre
for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University in mid June 2003.
Stephen completed his PhD on "The Tai Languages
of Assam" in the Department of Linguistics, Monash University,
in 2002, presenting his thesis in two media - a printed book and
a CD . The
CD version
contained sound files of all the language examples referred to in
the thesis, as well as around eight hours of text, including sound,
full transcription, linguistic analysis and translation.
SEMESTER 2, 2003
Thursday 31 July 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"The 1928 Indonesian Women's Congress"
Dr Susan Blackburn , Politics, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University.
Thursday 7 August 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"There are two routes from Bandung to Jakarta; they pass through different territory, but both have the same destination."
Mr Julian Millie , PhD researcher, Leiden University
Abstract
This is often stated by participants in the two customs known in West Java as 'Pangaosan Wawacan Layang Seh' and 'Manakiban'. The statement describes the similarities between the two traditions. The destination referred to is the intercession of Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Jaelani. This paper explores the accuracy of this statement, examining the contrasting subjectivities of the two traditions.
Speaker
Julian Millie, who completed his Bachelors and Masters degrees at Monash University, is now a PhD researcher at Leiden University. He is currently completing a year of fieldwork in Bandung, researching customs in which participants seek the intercession of Sheikh Abdulqadir.
Thursday 14 August 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Spheres of Speculation and Middling Transnational Migrants: Chinese Indonesians in Australia."
Prof Don Nonini,
Faculty of Arts Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Monash University,
and Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill
e-mail: dnonini@email.unc.edu
This Public Lecture is presented with the assistance of the Faculty of Arts Visiting Scholar Scheme.
About the speaker
Monash Faculty of Arts Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Prof Don Nonini joined Anthropology in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, 23rd July to 26th August. He hopes to conduct research while in Melbourne.
Donald Nonini is Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is the author and editor of three books and numerous journal articles and book chapters in the anthropology of transnationalism and globalization, and in the anthropology of ethnic and racial relations and of local politics. In general, his approach is that of a critical, ethnographically based, interpretive political economy.
Prof Don Nonini's ethnographic and historical research has focused on Malaysia, the U.S., and most recently Australia. His recent research in Australia is an investigation of experiences of migration between Australia and Indonesia by ethnic Chinese Indonesians, who relocated to Australia in the wake of the anti-Chinese violence occurring in Indonesia during 1997-1998. His research while at Monash in 2003 will follow up prior research in 2000 by focusing on Chinese Indonesians' migration networks based in Melbourne.
Further information is available on Prof Nonini's personal wepage at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:
http://www.unc.edu/depts/anthro/faculty/fac_pages/nonini.html
Thursday 21 August 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Note change of location to Elizabeth Burchill Room in Performing Arts Complex, Building 67, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Genocide and Resistance in East Timor and Cambodia."
Prof Ben Kiernan, Monash alumnus, Director of the Genocide Studies Program at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) and the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History.
Thursday 28 August 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Critical Chatter: Women and Social Activism in Southeast Asia."
Dr Sharon Pickering, Criminal Justice & Criminology, School of Political & Social Inquiry, Monash.
Abstract
Critical Chatter is the politicized conversation by which women activists in South East Asia negotiate the possibilities and pitfalls of human rights in their activism for social change. Based on conversations with women activists in Malaysia, the Phillippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and women from Burma living along the Thai Burma border, we argue that critical chatter reflects the challenges of universality in human rights and feminism. But rather than outright reject, through critical chatter women activists produce a form of strategic universality. This enables the women activists to tap into a universal framework of human rights while simultaneously acknowledging its failure to resonate among women in the community and its failure to recognize the experiences of women in the articulation of human rights standards.
Thursday 4 September 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"The Village of the Poor Confronts the State: A Geography of Protest in the Assembly of the Poor."
Dr Bruce Missingham , Co-coordinator, International Development & Environmental Analysis Program, Faculty of Arts, Monash University
Abstract
Based on ethnographic research, this paper describes the strategic use of space and construction of place by the Assembly of the Poor protest in Thailand in 1997. The Assembly of the Poor occupied the streets outside Government House in Bangkok and transformed them into an eye-catching and highly symbolic place of protest, the "Village of the Poor". The Village of the Poor symbolically brought the rural village into the heart of the city. In doing so, the protesters disrupted conventional representations and stereotypes of the "village" and rural life as an enduring source of Thai culture and national identity. This village represented a community in crisis, threatened by the very development and economic growth the city symbolises and depends upon. The demonstration endured for over three months, and within the Village of the Poor the signs and symbols of protest were strikingly combined with the everyday, domestic activities of the villagers. On the streets and footpaths even seemingly simple, intimate activities, such as eating, bathing and sleeping, became symbolic, signifying the protesters' persistence and resistance to inequitable development in their petition to the state.
Thursday 11 September 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"The effect of donor dependence on Human Rights Non-Governmental Organisations in Yogyakarta."
Joel Backwell, Honours student in the Indonesian Program, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash.
Joel has recently returned from 12 months study and fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Thursday 18 September 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Contextualising the Makhampom Theatre Group of Thailand."
Richard Barber , PhD student in the Centre for Theatre and Drama Studies, School of Literary, Visual and Performance Studies, Monash.
Richard conducted field research in Thailand during 2002.
Thursday 25 September 2002, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"'If you can kill a buffalo in one blow, you can play a rapai Pase.' How Aceh's dominant musical instrument provides insights into its cultural identity."
Prof. Margaret Kartomi, Professor of Music, School of Music - Conservatorium, Monash University.
Thursday 9 October 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Issues of Women and Development in Cambodia."
Petre Santry , PhD candidate, Victoria University of Technology.
Abstract
Figures for 1999-2000 reveal Cambodia as having the lowest human development and poverty indices in Asia, second only to Bangladesh. Cambodian women have the lowest literacy levels and the highest infant and maternity death rates in the region. They continue to suffer trauma, exhaustion, and a wide variety of related problems and diseases including increased domestic violence, human trafficking and HIV/AIDS. These figures belie the huge amount of Western aid poured into the country in the 1990s, following the opening up of a free economy and the end of fifteen years of communist rule and international isolation.
Funding NGOs see reasons for failure to end poverty and empower women in Cambodia as due to an unwillingness of the government to adequately fund the Ministries of Women's Affairs, Health and Education, preferring to pour funds into a corrupt army, judiciary and police force. This tendency to hang on to power is mirrored in the general population where men at all levels are unwilling to let go and share their power with women and the vulnerable.
Analysis of NGO and funding agency policies on gender mainstreaming in Cambodia reveals a lack of cultural awareness and a lack of willingness to listen to the women's wants. This results in inappropriate 'one size fits all' approaches to development, with Western models of WID/GAD and community development dominating a large proportion of NGO activities. To fit the changing policies of their funding agencies, NGOs are unable pursue long-term goals to bring about gender equity.
Research into Cambodian women reveals a lack of comprehension of such terms as 'women's empowerment' and 'gender equity'. Their shyness is a barrier to accessing information about health and hygiene, and poverty a barrier to affording birth control and health care. Women understand their world in terms of their place and responsibility within the family system. Their ideals of behaviour originate in highly restrictive traditional Buddhist 'women's laws'(ccbab Srey) which are widely taught at home and school. These remain the code of behaviour for women in spite of socio-economic changes where substantial numbers of women constitute household heads, and the vast majority of women have become income earners. Their lack of empowerment is reflected in the widely held belief of women's position as being the result of their present and past behaviour (karma). Culturally repressed and traumatised women are unable to act on their own behalf, barely having enough energy to do minimal chores and care for children. They need to be listened to if healing is to take place.
Lessons learned in the Cambodian case include development practitioners letting go of pre-conceived ideas about the needs and wants of women. They need to start by addressing the practical realities and developing a broad understanding of the culture. They need to have realistic goals and exhibit patience in building up trust with the people. They also need to demand a greater accountability of government funds. Gender specific policies and development models need to be formulated to respect traditional community support systems, and local culture, knowledge and experience to help ruptured societies restore self-esteem and dignity.
This seminar is postponed
due to industrial action on Thursday 16 October 2003. Date to be
advised.
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor
Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Media coverage of Cambodia 1975-1991."
Walter Burgess , PhD candidate, RMIT University.
Thursday 23 October 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Cambodia Shadowed by its Past"
Emeritus Prof. David Chandler, Honorary Research Fellow, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies
Thursday 30 October 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
" AIDS and Public Education in Indonesia "
Wendy Miller , Monash alumnus and former Ausaid consultant on AIDS prevention in eastern Indonesia.
Thursday 6 November 2003, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Manton Room SG02, Ground floor Menzies Building South, Monash University, Clayton campus.
"Old traditions, New Ways: Village Midwives and Safe Motherhood in rural Cambodia."
Dr Elizabeth Hoban , Research Fellow, School of Health Sciences, Deakin University.