Saturday, July 13, 2013

An Indonesian strategy in search of a commitment

By Michele Ford 

WHILE in Jakarta last week, Kevin Rudd launched the Department of 
Foreign Affairs and Trade's new Indonesia Country Strategy, intended 
as a blueprint for the Australia-Indonesia relationship to 2025. 

According to this slim document, by 2025 Australia will have "the 
capabilities necessary to support a comprehensive strategic 
partnership with Indonesia". This will not be achieved unless 
universities are resourced to develop the Indonesia literacy that is 
the cornerstone of a closer relationship between our two nations. 

The Australian government recognises the importance of developing "new 
skills relevant to Indonesia", including language but also "greater 
appreciation of Indonesia's culture, society, businesses and economy". 
This aim is entirely sensible. Already a major player in the 
geopolitics of the region, our nearest neighbour is set to become the 
world's 10th largest economy by 2025. 

However, the development of new skills and knowledge is only 
achievable if universities have the resources to develop and maintain 
the Indonesia expertise needed to make the strategy work. 

The document emphasises the importance of "experts in both countries 
who can explain and interpret developments in the other country". The 
bulk of those experts reside in universities. A privileged few have 
the luxury of devoting their full attention to maintaining their 
Indonesia expertise, but the lack of support for country 
specialisation means that most are forced to squeeze their study of 
Indonesia into a much broader program of research. 

The government also wants to "maintain a cross-agency group of 
'Indonesia-literate' officials". Real Indonesia literacy requires 
degree programs that go beyond language to in-depth study of 
Indonesia's rapidly changing social, political and economic context. 
In a situation where departmental resources depend on bums on seats, a 
return to the glory days of this level of specialisation is only 
possible with targeted funding. 

Broad-based Indonesia literacy, meanwhile, depends on exposure to all 
things Indonesia through public discourse and the education system. 
The capacity (and willingness) of journalists, politicians, teachers 
and business leaders to foster such Indonesia literacy needs to start 
somewhere. A logical place is during their time at university. 

Universities also provide strategic ballast to the Australia-Indonesia 
relationship in their own right. By 2025, the government wants 
Australia to be "a natural first choice" for Indonesian students going 
overseas. In order to achieve this, universities "must look to 
establish presences in Indonesia", developing partnerships with local 
counterparts. 

Scholarships are an important part of this equation. So is Australian 
student mobility. Time spent in-country as a student is a strong 
predictor of ongoing engagement with Indonesia, whether graduates go 
on to work in government, business or the community sector. 

But it's collaborative research that provides the long-term edge to 
the educational relationship. Australian universities can and should 
connect more productively with Indonesian institutions. The problem is 
that real collaboration is hard to establish, let alone maintain, in 
the face of different academic standards and expectations. 

Collaborative research is even harder to fund. Schemes like those run 
by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research 
provide strong support for some kinds of collaborative research. Other 
interesting models of research funding have been trialled, like the 
Australia-Indonesia Governance Research Partnership. But they, too, 
have funded a narrow range of research topics on a short-term basis. 

Meanwhile, few Indonesian researchers have the kind of track records 
needed to add to the competitiveness of an Australian Research Council 
grant application. Those who do are over-committed, and therefore are 
unlikely to make an equal contribution to a research project. Despite 
Indonesian government pressure for academics to collaborate with 
researchers overseas, there are currently no incentives for Australian 
researchers to mentor their Indonesian colleagues. 

What is needed is a large-scale, purpose-specific scheme to fund 
long-term collaborations. These grants would need to be both 
substantial and long-term enough to be worthwhile for both sides. They 
would also need to go beyond traditional areas of collaboration to 
foster broad research engagement. 

It is only with this kind of long-term investment in research and in 
teaching about Indonesia that the aims of the Indonesia Country 
Strategy can be achieved. The question is, then, whether there is 
enough political will to bite the bullet and make the decision to fund 
it. 

Michele Ford is an ARC Future Fellow in the Sydney Southeast Asia 
Centre, the University of Sydney. July 2013.
 
 
 
 
 
 
This article was originally published in The Australain newspaper in July 2013

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