RANSACKING THE FIELD?

Abstract

After the end of almost thirty years of armed conflict in 2005 and following a devastating tsunami in 2004, Aceh has become a “social laboratory” for foreign researchers who study Indonesia's northern-most province from every angle. Over the last five years, this effort has resulted in the publication of a considerable number of articles in major journals. For some foreign researchers, Aceh became a fast track accelerating their careers. Yet, how much did local Acehnese researchers benefit from being at the center of this scholarly attention, and how much were they able to participate in academic debates? To answer these questions, this article examines the involvement of Acehnese scholars in the process of knowledge production in and about contemporary Aceh. One of the key findings is that local researchers are often involved in data collection, but left out from its analysis and interpretation due to a general lack of structural conditions for publishing, such as under-funding, lack of access to major academic literature, and language barriers. Embedding this inquiry about research cooperation and competition in wider debates about representation and academic development support, this article stresses critical evaluations of current academic ventures. Moreover, Aceh as a post-conflict/tsunami site illustrates the enormous difficulties that developing countries such as Indonesia face in tertiary education and academic research. Long-standing structural imbalances responsible for uneven research outcomes cannot disappear overnight or only as a result of foreign educational initiatives. Nevertheless, this article introduces a specific example of short-term academic collaboration named Aceh Research Training Institute (ARTI)—a flicker of hope in an otherwise rather unpromising situation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

I would like to acknowledge Barbara Leigh, Michael Leigh, EveWarburton, Leena Avonius, Harold Crouch, and Arskal Salimfor sharing valuable information on ARTI with me. I am also grateful to Anne Looker, Eric Anton Heuser, Gunnar Stange, Kristina Großmann, Erik Engel, and Robert Cribb, as well as the anonymous reviewers of Critical Asian Studies for their constructive, critical comments.

Notes

^1. My doctoral research concerned the Acehnese diaspora and its long-distance impacts on local politics in Aceh. Although my main fieldwork sites were in Malaysia and in Scandinavia, I spent about five months altogether in Aceh between 2007 and 2010. I interviewed Acehnese who had lived overseas for a long time and then returned after the end of the conflict and I evaluated the homelanders' perceptions of diasporic impacts on local politics exercised by those who remained in diaspora.

^2. Interview, 9 March 2010, Banda Aceh.

^3. See also: “Aceh governor wants ICAIOS followed up,” Antara, 24 February 2010; “International conference aims to connect Aceh with world,” The Jakarta Post, 26 February 2007; “Aceh may host int'l research center on Indian Ocean disasters,” The Jakarta Post, 1 March 2007; and “Gubernur NAD, Irwandi Yusuf Minta Sejarah Aceh Ditulis Ulang Harian,” Analisa, 28 February 2007.

^4. None of the local newspapers reported on that critical dinner reception, but Irwandi's earlier remarks about his hopes that the conference would mark the “beginning of a rewriting of Acehnese history, this time by the Acehnese themselves” were quoted (The Jakarta Post, 26 February 2007) and also his strong wish for the joint research center to be based in Aceh in order to avoid outside domination (Analisa, 28 February 2007).

^5. Asad 1973; Bremen and Shimizu 1999.

^6. Fox 2008, 335.

^7. Brettell 1993; Scheper-Hughes 2000.

^8. Yankah 1995, 18.

^9. Rather than speaking of native researchers or indigenous scholars, as many anthropologists do (e.g., Smith 1999; Sluka 2007; Kuwayama 2004), I prefer to use the more neutral term local researchers, which to me seems less ideologically charged.

^10. With the rather unfortunate umbrella term “Western” or “foreign” researcher I refer to all those researchers who are primarily attached to a university outside Aceh. The majority of researchers with an interest in Aceh whom I met were from Australia, Europe, and the United States. Only a few were based in Singapore and Malaysia. Although I encountered some publications on Aceh written by Japanese, Sri Lankan, and Thai authors, I did not come across any such publications by Chinese or Indian scholars.

^11. Bauman 2003, 135.

^12. World Bank 2006, 76ff. For a general evaluation on Indonesian higher education, see Welch 2007 and Buchori and Malik 2004.

^13. Asia Research Training Institute 2010 (Progress), 7.

^14. Sidaway 1992, 406.

^15. Antweiler 1998, 237.

^16. Bennoune 1985, 360.

^17. Nourse 2002, 29.

^18. Galtung (1967, 13) defined “scientific colonialism” as a process whereby “data about another country [is exported] to one's own home country to have it processed there and turned out as ‘manufactured goods,’ as books and articles.” Moreover, he also included the so-called brain drain, the export of talented people to the “First World.”

^19. Fox 2008, 345.

^20. Foley 2002, 474.

^21. Sluka 2007, 178.

^22. Nourse 2002, 27.

^23. Sultana 2007, 380.

^24. Kuwayama 2004, 1.

^25. For example, Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999, 1) chooses to open her introduction with the statement: “[T]he term ‘research’ is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism. The word itself, ‘research,’ is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world's vocabulary.”

^29. Ibid., 9.

^26. Marcus and Fischer 1986, 7ff. James Clifford (1998, 23) applied the term “crise de conscience” in order to depict the European and American anthropologists' loss of authority in regard to producing textual knowledge about the “others.” Meanwhile, other critics took the criticism even further, claiming that anthropology was not only facing a crisis of representation but more so a crisis of relevance (Antweiler 1998, 216).

^27. Altbach 2003, 20.

^28. Yankah 1995, 8.

^31. Yankah 1995, 18.

^30. Bennoune 1985, 363.

^32. Clifford 1998, 491.

^37. Ibid., 470.

^33. For a detailed analysis of the development of these schools of thought, see Bennett 1996. For an analysis of development anthropology and anthropology of development, see Escobar 1997. Following Francesca Cancian's views (1993, 93), “activist research” can be defined as, first, emphasizing major changes in equalizing power rather than just improving existing power structures, and second, incorporating collective action into research rather than restricting oneself to academic circles only.

^34. Kobayashi 1994, 76.

^35. Cancian 1993, 92.

^36. Foley 2002, 484.

^38. Ferguson 1996, 154.

^39. Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois (2004, 7–8), quoted in Rylko-Bauer et al. 2006, 178.

^40. Ferguson 1996; Escobar 1997.

^41. Bennett 1996, 32.

^42. Hoben 1982, 351–55.

^43. Gow 2002, 300.

^44. Ibid., 301.

^45. Silitoe 1998, 204.

^46. Kuwayama 2004, 15.

^47. Galtung 1967; Cancian 1993.

^48. During my fieldwork I found that Acehnese academics often expected Western researchers to have far more research funding than was actually the case. For example, Kamaruzzaman (2009), stated in one of his writings: “Western researchers have so much funding for their research projects, that after having conducted a couple of projects they could buy a whole village here in Aceh.”

^49. Elwert 1996, 71.

^50. Indonesia is an extraordinary example for extremely time-consuming and bureaucratic applications to obtain official research permission. When reading the manifold requirements and procedures of the State Ministry of Research and Technology (Ristek) (www.ristek.go.id/file/upload/lain_lain/frp/frp3.html; accessed 13 March 2011), one cannot help but think that the hyper-bureaucracy might not have any other purpose than holding offWestern researchers from abiding by the proper modus operandi and seeking their own way into the field and out.

^53. Interview, 8 March 2010, Banda Aceh.

^54. Interview, 8 March 2010, Banda Aceh.

^51. During my fieldwork I myself faced a number of such expectations in regard to how I should become of use to the Acehnese people. The following quotation is an extract from a personal email I received from an informant: “I believe that you received a lot of information about Aceh in the last years. Especially you had the opportunity to be there and to see the reality in Aceh after the end of the conflict. I am of the opinion that you are able to become a draftsperson and provide a good contribution for Aceh's future development.”

^52. Since a number of Acehnese and international scholars concerned with Aceh established the Aceh Institute in October 2003, it has striven to achieve critical analyses of local political, social, and cultural developments (www.acehinstitute.org/profil.htm). Besides vivid cyberspace discussions, to which more than one hundred writers contribute with their columns and comments, the Aceh Institute regularly organizes seminars and conducts a number of research projects. Keeping Aceh's relatively small population of about 4.2 million in mind, in 2010 about fifty researchers were attached to the Aceh Institute, six of them foreigners. (Interview with Lukman Age, executive director of the Aceh Institute, 8 March 2010, Banda Aceh).

^56. Shadiqin 2009 (Wajah).

^55. This is true for the majority of research topics, except for issues having to do with the compatibility of democratization and human rights vis-à-vis the introduction of physical punishment for moral demeanors and the application of Islamic law (sharia), on which opinions differed drastically. (Interview with Iskandar Zulkarnain, 12 March 2010, Banda Aceh).

^57. Ibid.

^58. Interview, 9 March 2010, Banda Aceh.

^59. Aspinall 2009, 1–34.

^60. Kamaruzzaman 2009.

^61. Ilyas 2010. This was certainly not the first appeal. Even Governor Irwandi had stressed this point during the very first Icaios Conference back in 2007. He was quoted saying: “I want a rewriting of Acehnese history and for the results of the conference to be followed up by concrete actions” (The Jakarta Post, 1 March 2007).

^62. In some cases, the organizers of these conferences invited very high-profile presenters, e.g., Mahatir Muhammad, the former Malaysian prime minister, who delivered a keynote speech in March 2010. See adic2010.yolasite.com/accepted-paper.php; accessed 21 March 2011.

^63. Interview, 9 March 2010, Banda Aceh.

^64. From a more historical perspective, it has to be acknowledged that there have been some examples of Western and Acehnese research collaboration. First and foremost in both its prominence and relevance was the Pusat Latihan Penelitian Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial (Social Science Research Training Centre, PLPIIS), established at Universitas Syiah Kuala in Banda Aceh in 1974, following the recommendations of the prominent anthropologist and Indonesia expert Clifford Geertz, who addressed the critical need to raise the national standards in social science within Indonesia. Sponsored by the Ford Foundation and supported by a number of Western scholars, this center aimed at training Indonesian scholars in the latest theories and methodologies. Due to the limited scope of this article I cannot delve further into that aspect.

^65. At present, over 1,200 files are available in digital form via this website(www.acehbooks.org/).

^66. For more details see www.acehresearch.org/index.htm.

^67. Haugen 2009, 9.

^68. Most instructors were senior scholars who agreed to teach for limited remuneration, basically stipends that covered traveling costs and a daily allowance. In addition, a number of PhD students from overseas who were based in Aceh for several months agreed to tutor.

^69. In addition to teaching at state universities, from which they earn most of their income, many scholars also teach in private universities or give private lessons in order to make ends meet. Many thanks to Leena Avonius, who pointed this out to me.

^70. Shadiqin 2009 (Sebuah).

^71. Interview with Sehat Ihsan Shadiqin, 12 March 2010, Banda Aceh.

^72. Hasan 2010.

^73. For example, one book entitled “Women in Aceh: Understanding contemporary issues” was based on a seminar organized by ARTI that was held at IAIN Ar-Raniry and involved researchers and stakeholders from a range of universities. Another publication was Arskal Salim and Adlin Sila, eds., Serambi Mekkah yang Berubah (Jakarta: Pustaka Alvabet, 2010).

^74. During the First International Conference of Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies, organized by the Asia Research Institute of Singapore, only eight Acehnese scholars participated compared to twenty-eight international scholars. At the Second International Conference of Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies, jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (Icaios), Institut Agama Islam Negeri Ar-Raniry, and Syiah Kuala University, twelve Acehnese scholars presented their work compared to thirty-five international and Indonesian scholars.

^75. Asia Research Training Institute 2010 (Strengthening), 10.

^76. Personal correspondence with Harold Crouch, former ARTI team leader, 10 April 2010.

^77. Gaillard 1991, 56.

^78. Interview with Lukman Age, 8 March 2010, Banda Aceh.