RI awards American scholar

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government has awarded noted American scholar John Bresnan, a senior research associate at the East Asia Institute of Columbia University, New York, with the Bintang Jasa Pratama medal.

A state secretariat official said on Tuesday that the presidential decree for the award was signed by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Aug. 12.

The decree says Bresnan is honored for his "outstanding contribution to the advancement of the teaching, education and research of the social sciences in Indonesia during his assignment at the Ford Foundation in Jakarta (1961-1965, 1969- 1974).

Bresnan is the third American after George Kahin of Cornell and Clifford Geertz of Princeton to have been awarded the medal.

Indonesian Ambassador to the U.S. Sumadi Brotodiningrat may confer the medal to Bresnan, the state secretariat official said. --JP