Tale of Indonesian studies in Melbourne University

By Dewi Anggraeni

MELBOURNE (JP): When Indonesian academic Arief Budiman arrived earlier this year to take up the position of Chair of the Indonesian Language Program at the University of Melbourne, colleagues and friends saw the event as the coming of age of the university's Indonesian studies.

It was also timely evidence that the university's proposed cultural diversity policy is not mere rhetoric.

At his inaugural lecture in October, Arief reminded the audience that he was only continuing a journey that others before him had embarked on over 40 years ago.

And it was during an informal gathering after the lecture that Associate Professor Charles Coppel -- currently of the History Department -- one of the program's forerunners, gave an historical account of the program since its inception on March 1, 1956.

Despite the seriousness of the topic, Coppel's presentation drew a lot of laughter.

It was probably the entertaining way he recounted the chronological events, or it could have been the fact that seen in the context of today's political atmosphere, the earlier events sounded quaint and slightly patronizing.

The year 1956 saw the humble birth of an Indonesian Program at the University of Melbourne.

It had been conceived, it appears, during discussions -- very likely informal, between the then vice chancellor George Paton, who later became Sir George Paton, and the director of the Commonwealth Office of Education, J. Weeden. Correspondence between the two gentlemen bears this out.

On June 24, 1955 Weeden wrote two letters to Paton. The informal one reads: "Dear Paton, You will remember our recent discussions about the possibility of providing courses in Indonesian and Malayan Studies at your University. The Commonwealth government has decided that if the University of Melbourne is willing to make provision for such studies it will be prepared to meet the costs .... you will recall you mentioned a staff of two, a senior lecturer (European) supported by a junior (native speaker)..."

The formal one reads: "Dear Professor Paton, The Commonwealth Government is interested in the possibility of providing teaching in Indonesian and Malayan Studies in Australia, and I have been asked to enquire whether the University of Melbourne could provide teaching in this field. The Government recognizes that the form which courses in Indonesian and Malayan studies would take is a matter for the University to decide. It is hoped, however, that if a course can be provided they might be such as would form part of a degree course in Arts, or in other faculties in which Arts courses may be included. While the language of Indonesia might be the major study, possibly provision could be made for teaching something of the culture of the region. If a sufficient number of students enroll for the course it might be possible in later years to provide for wider and more advanced studies..."

In his reply dated July 12, 1955, Paton wrote, "I welcome the offer of a Commonwealth grant for Indonesian and Malayan studies. We have already begun to develop these at Melbourne and the grant will enable us to make definite progress just where it is needed most. We definitely need to appoint a qualified lecturer forthwith and are confident that a trained linguist could handle the languages of Indonesia and Malaya simultaneously. If we can get one from the beginning of 1956, we should require him first to introduce a basic language course into the existing seminar for graduates and students preparing for work in Indonesia where the immediate need is most urgent..."

Suspicion

The interest in Indonesian and Malay Studies then may have been related to the government's suspicion that Indonesia was becoming expansionist.

It was then that the "recover Irian Barat" campaign was at its peak, and Indonesia's active role in hosting the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, and the growing support in Indonesia for the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party did not help.

All this development was making Australia very uncomfortable. It was considered wise therefore for Australians to "know their enemy" in order to "subdue it".

The "junior" native speaker lecturer subsequently appointed on March 1, 1956 was Zainu'ddin who held the position for five years.

He pioneered the language program, run at this stage as an external studies' and summer school course.

His efforts let to the establishment of an Indonesian Department, with the appointment of Jamie Mackie (later Professor) in 1958 to fill the position of Senior Lecturer in Charge.

Indonesian grew in status and in volume. Under Mackie the Department of Indonesian and Malayan Studies was established and in 1961 (the late) Pieter Sarumpet -- who later became head of Indonesian -- was appointed. Mohamad Slamet was appointed in 1967.

As a growing program, it was reasonable to assume that a Chair in Indonesian be appointed. But a 7 percent cut in the Commonwealth Office of Education budget for the university and reduced funding for the Indonesia Program threw the department into damage control mode.

While program expansion was constricted, the university did influence the development of Indonesian in Victorian schools and tertiary institutions.

Having no Chair also may have contributed to the relative ease with which the Indonesian Program was uprooted, then "housed" in a different department, merged with another existing one, or "spread out" over several departments.

Charles Coppel led the Program from 1979 to 1987, and from 1973 to 1987, he, Pieter Sarumpaet and Mohamad Slamet taught in the same program, from three different departments.

East Timor

In 1959, the Indonesian Department began with a modest six students, increased to seven (first year) and two (second year) in 1960. The number of students peaked in 1966 at 75 (first year), 30 (second year) and 12 (third year), to ease off -- and then drop dramatically in 1976.

Since the drop occurred in other universities Australia-wide, the most likely explanation is the widespread negative reaction to what happened in East Timor.

Indeed the most strident opposition to East Timor's integration into Indonesia at that time was among university students.

While the program now has solidified with the appointment of a 'native' Chair, Charles Coppel points out that its previous fluid nature had positive effects.

From the late 1970s the Indonesian Program moved away from its original combination of Indonesian language and "area study" by introducing expanded self-standing language subjects and orienting its "area study" subjects toward the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, history and political science.

After Slamet's retirement in 1987, the language program and staff were regrouped with other Asian languages, while the discipline subjects and staff moved to the mainstream discipline departments.

The elimination of the then Department of Indian and Indonesian Studies at the end of 1987 had the paradoxical effect of encouraging the study of Indonesia in mainstream departments elsewhere in the University.

It now has Indonesian specialists in History (Charles Coppel), Linguistics (Mark Durie), Anthropology (Douglas Lewis), Women's Studies (Maila Stivens), Law (Tim Lindsey), Economics (Howard Dick) and Music (Cathy Falk) among others.

Interest in Indonesia is now widespread on the campus, fostered by the active networking of the Indonesia Interest Group.

Arief Budiman was right.

While his appointment brings status to the Indonesian Program, he has in fact walked into a world already shaped by colleagues before him.

The strength of this world will be an important asset in this era of competitiveness in the tertiary education business.