Australian Research on Asia by Region

INDONESIA and SOUTHEAST ASIA

Australia has had significant research strengths in Indonesian studies since the early 1960s. Indonesianists such as John Legge and Jamie Mackie were among the founders of the Asian Studies Association of Australia. Indonesianists still constitute the largest single grouping within the ASAA. In international terms, Indonesianists represent a much larger proportion of Asia research expertise in Australia than in the United States, the other major centre for research on Indonesia.

The quality of this scholarship, and its diversity, is demonstrated primarily by the published output of Australian or Australia-based scholars.

Herbert Feith’s The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, published in 1962, and John Legge’s Indonesia (1964) set the pattern for subsequent work by Australian scholars, especially by those associated with Monash University, including Elson, Hatley, Blackwood, Coppel, Ingleson, Sen and Hill. Richard Robison’s Indonesia: The Rise of Capital set the parameters for discussions of the New Order state.

Australian scholars have been pre-eminent in studies of the Indonesian economy since the foundation of the Indonesia Project at the ANU by Heinz Arndt in the mid 1960s. Scholars associated with the project, including Hill, Mackie, Booth, Manning, McCawley and Arndt himself, are internationally-respected for their work; the project’s Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies is the leading international journal for scholarly studies of the Indonesian economy. James Fox at the ANU was responsible for a core group of anthropological researchers who have focused on the ethnography on eastern Indonesia including Bali: Robinson, Lewis, Acciaioli, Graham, McWilliam, Stuart-Fox, Parker and Reuter.

Historical studies by scholars including Ricklefs, Elson, Legge, Cribb, Dick, Knight and Reid; studies of Indonesian literature and theatre by Johns, Hooker and Hatley and of the media by Sen and Hill; studies of Indonesian demography by Hugo, Manning and Jones; Coppel’s work on the ethnic Chinese and Crouch’s on the Indonesian military all command similar international respect. Australian scholars have also been internationally prominent in studies of Islam: Ricklefs, Fox, Barton, Fealy.

The quality of Australian research on Indonesia, and of the research training available in Australian universities, is also demonstrated by the large number of Indonesians choosing to come to Australian universities to undertake postgraduate research on Indonesia. Significant amongst these scholars are Masri Singarimbun (demography), Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Ichlasul Amal, Ikrar Nusa Bhakti (politics), Yulfita Raharjo, Raharjo Suwandi, Kusnaka Adimiharja, Makruf Jamhari, and I Gde Pitana (anthropology).

Many of these Indonesian graduates from Australia exert a significant influence when their PhD theses are translated and published in Indonesian. The Indonesian translation of Zamakhsyari Dhofier’s thesis, Tradisi Pesantren (The Pesantren Tradition) sold over 80,000 copies. Australian researchers have had similar impact through the translation of their writings in Indonesia (including Pembangunan Yang Berimbang: Jawa Timur dalam Era Orde Baru; Panen Lontar).

Five of the 20 chapters in the definitive Cambridge History of Southeast Asia were authored by Indonesianists based in Australia.

International recognition of Australian scholarship is further reflected in the number of Australian scholars who have recently been recruited to overseas universities and research institutes: Reid by UCLA, Reid and Jones by NUS, Booth by SOAS, Robison by ISS (the Hague), Stuart-Fox by the Rijksmuseum (Leiden), MacIntyre by UCSD, Cribb by NIAS (Copenhagen), Reuter by Heidelberg. The latter three have returned to Australia but the others are likely to be long-term losses to Australian scholarship.

This scholarship is regionally dispersed. Although the ANU has the greatest concentration of Indonesianist scholars, and of research resources, research expertise on Indonesia is to be found in all states.