CAPI provides a platform for visiting scholars

CAPI provides a platform for visiting scholars

By Dewi Anggraeni

VICTORIA, Canada (JP): Victoria, the pretty and neat capital
of British Columbia in Canada, is not a place one would expect to
see a reunion of Indonesians. Yet it was there, last month, when
well-known artist Semsaar Siahaan and author-journalist Seno
Gumira Ajidarma were seen among the invitees.

Behind this small reunion was the University of Victoria, a
36-year-old center of learning with 18,000 students, 12 faculties
and 13 centers. Mainly responsible for the occasional Indonesian
presence is the Center for Asia Pacific Initiatives (CAPI).

Since its establishment in 1988, CAPI has been a proactive
body, running conferences, training programs and workshops. It
acts as a nexus to the university with Asia Pacific, research
institutes, university colleges and government. "The idea of a
center in the university is to get over inhibitions of
disciplines. To get outside the normal structural framework of
the university, which ties back into subjects they recognize,
such as anthropology, language, law and business," said CAPI
director Bill Neilson, an Asia-Pacific law professor.

"Over the years universities have been built on the idea that
you are a collection of disciplines. Like in any other
organization, each discipline usually does its best to guard its
turf, making cross-disciplinary works difficult. A center bridges
this distance, bringing together people of common interests, in a
wider sense, and have them work together. It also works directly
with graduate students and deals with the general community,"
Neilson continued.

Neilson is one of the three professors working for the center.
The other two, in the fields of China Economy and Japanese
Organization respectively, like Neilson, also work half time at
the center.

While CAPI is not involved in teaching programs, it provides a
platform for visiting scholars to the university. It arranges for
them to give lectures. These are in the forms of formal evening
lectures or informal "brownbags" lectures (thus named because
attendants bring their own lunches in brown bags). Brownbag
lectures are indeed very popular. There are 20 each year, spread
out over eight months.

The conferences run by CAPI are high profile and extremely
topical. Last December's conference for instance, featured Mari
Pangestu, executive director of Indonesia's Centre for Strategic
and International Studies, delivering a lecture titled, "Asia's
Road to Recovery: A Balancing Act." And in March this year, Tim
Lindsey, a visiting associate professor from the University of
Melbourne's Asia Law Center, ran a major colloquium, "Back to the
Future? Prospects for Reform in Post-Soeharto Indonesia."

While the University of Victoria itself was represented by
Bill Neilson and Michael Bodden of the Department of Pacific and
Asian Studies, there were also speakers from other countries and
universities. For instance, from Indonesian Legal Aid Institute
was Bambang Widjojanto, from Washington was Dan Lev and Saraswati
Sunindyo.

Pop culture conferences, run annually, are also very much de
rigueur among students and academics. The first one, three years
ago, was on Japan, then on Asia-Pacific in general, and the
third, this year, it is on South Asia.

CAPI has at least one senior research fellow each year.
Currently the fellowship is held by a geography professor working
on an environmental project, nature conservancy, mainly in
Thailand and Vietnam. It is a coveted position for which each
faculty competes each year.

"The applicants will have to be very far along the major
research projects. CAPI will then buy their time from their
faculty so they can finish their major works or projects. There
have been linguists, geographers, fine art practitioners," Bill
Neilson explained.

Academics of various fields also compete for CAPI research
grants. "We have a minimum of three per year," Neilson said,
"This year there are recipients from seven different
disciplines."

With CAPI funding they have been able to do fieldwork, in
Indonesia, China, Thailand and other Asia-Pacific countries.

Students who need funding for language study can also apply
for CAPI grants. One such successful applicant is indeed studying
in Jakarta.

Another important link to Indonesia, on the board of CAPI
directors is Astri Wright, whose enthusiasm in introducing
Indonesian artists to the community has put Indonesian art
definitely on the map, at least the map of the University of
Victoria.

While it appears that CAPI has well endowed coffers, they have
not been presented on a silver platter to the center. Apart from
a kick-start funding from the government 12 years ago, CAPI has
had to raise its own money. It has to go bidding for projects.
Its clients are usually foundations, such as Asian foundations,
Japanese foundations, Korea foundations, or aid agencies and
government departments.

CAPI also sponsors seminars, sometimes acting as a partner
organizer. Six years ago, Neilson joined forces with the
University of Indonesia's School of Law, and they went to the
International Development Research Center's headquarters in
Singapore. They succeeded in obtaining the necessary funds to run
workshops on modernizing the law curriculum for the Association
of Indonesian Law Schools. Neilson has since done similar works
in Thailand and Vietnam.

This has been a trend in universities in North America: being
simultaneously academic, organizer and entrepreneur. The concept
seems to be that if you cannot raise any more money for future
works, it means that your present works have not been fully
appreciated. In this highly competitive environment, CAPI and
other university centers are reviewed externally every five
years, where their achievements, priorities and future paths are
scrupulously evaluated.

CAPI has been working very well for almost 12 years, and there
does not seem to be any reason for it to fail any reviews.
Certainly not now, when Neilson will be one of the major speakers
at the Conference on Reform of Bankruptcy Law in Indonesia, to
take place on April 29 and April 30, at the Regent hotel in
Jakarta. Asia Law Center's Tim Lindsey, the convener of the
conference, named the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank
and AusAID, as joint-sponsors.