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.