You are cordially invited to our online seminar on Indonesia. The topics are the Indonesian new research institute, BRIN, and drug issues.
Time and Date: 16:30 to 18:00 (Japan Time) or 14:30 to 16:00 (Indonesia Time) on December 22, 2021
Access to the Seminar: Register through the URL
http://bit.ly/CSEASIndonesia_4
1st Presentation: The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN): A New Arrangement for Research in Indonesia
Speaker: Ahmad Najib Burhani, Lilis Mulyani and Cahyo Pamungkas (BRIN)
Commentator: Kono Yasuyuki (CSEAS, Kyoto University)
Moderator: Yamaguchi Motoki (ASAFAS, Kyoto University)
2nd Presentation: The Issues Surrounding the People with Drug Addiction in Indonesia and a Public Health-centric Research Effort to Support Them
Speaker: Yamada Chika (CSEAS, Kyoto University)
Commentator: Kristiana Siste (University of Indonesia)
Moderator: Sakamoto Ryota (CSEAS, Kyoto University)
The presentations’ abstracts and the presenters’ bio are as follows:
Abstract of 1st Presentation:
On 28 April 2021, under President Joko Widodo, the Indonesian government dissolved the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education (Kemenristek-Dikti). Since then, the management of higher education was taken over by the Ministry of Education and Culture. At the same time, research and innovation have become the responsibility of a new institution, namely the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). Based on Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 33 and 78 of 2021, different research institutes such as LIPI, BATAN, LAPAN, BPPT, and research agencies in the ministries have been and will be merged into BRIN. BRIN will have quite a large number of researchers. BRIN will become a “super-government agency” for research and innovation. The government shows its strong interest in strengthening Indonesia’s research capacity by allocating 26 trillion rupiahs for research per year. The government expects BRIN to boost national research and innovation and help the country catch up with neighboring developed countries like Singapore and South Korea. BRIN has some severe challenges to achieving its goals. It is not related to budget, infrastructure, or human resources, but the research ecosystem and culture. Technocratism, which has been restricting research in the country since its inception, will be the first challenge. Politicization of research institutions, as indicated by the involvement of political parties in research supervision, will be the next issue. Thirdly, academic infrastructure such as the funding system and award and academic community should be improved to create excellent and healthy research. If BRIN could overcome these challenges, it will probably enhance the capacity and competence of Indonesian researchers in producing inventions and innovations as the foundation for an advanced Indonesia in 2045.
Abstract of 2nd Presentation:
Substance use disorder (SUD) is a leading contributor to the global burden of disease. In Indonesia, evidence for psychotherapy for SUD with the promise of widespread implementation is scarce. Even now, there is no standardized psychotherapy for SUD in Indonesia. This fact suggests that policymakers in Indonesia don’t pay much attention to the treatment of drug users. They tend to incarcerate and criminalize them under the ‘War on Drugs’—a populist policy propagated and implemented by leaders in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.
In collaboration with the University of Indonesia, our team developed a community-based psychotherapy approach termed Indo-DARPP—Indonesia Drug Addiction Relapse Prevention Program—a scalable and provider-friendly behavioral therapy through 12-week group meetings guided by a workbook. The sessions are conducted by peer counselors—people with lived experience of addiction—with optional facilitation by psychiatrists or general practitioners via online telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. With eight hospitals, community health centers (puskesmas), and rehabilitation services, we are conducting a nationwide randomized controlled trial (n=220) to investigate the effectiveness of tele-Indo-DARPP vs. treatment as usual.
I will first discuss the precarious condition of people who use drugs in Indonesia under punitive policies. I will touch briefly on the cultural, historical, and legal background of drug use. Then, I will address the medical views regarding drug addiction and available therapies. Lastly, I will present the interim report of our Indo-DARPP trial, discuss the acceptability and feasibility, and deliberate on challenges in implementing the program in actual healthcare and rehabilitation services.
Bio of the 1st Presenters:
Ahmad Najib Burhani (najib27[at]yahoo.com) is a research professor and acting Head of the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities (ISSH) at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). He received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California-Santa Barbara, the USA, in 2013. During the last year of his study, he won the Professor Charles Wendell Memorial Award from UCSB for academic achievement in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. Burhani has been active in publishing articles in top academic journals such as Asian Journal of Social Science (NUS/Brill), Indonesia and the Malay World (SOAS/Routledge), Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Birmingham/ Routledge), Sojourn (ISEAS), Contemporary Islam (Springer), TRaNS (Cambridge), Asian Politics & Policy (Wiley-Blackwell), and Muslim World (Wiley-Blackwell). His monograph includes Sufisme Kota [Urban Sufism] (2001), Islam Dinamis [Dynamics of Islam] (2001), Tarekat Tanpa Tarekat [Non-Conventional Sufi Orders] (2002), Muhammadiyah Jawa [Javanese Muhammadiyah] (2010), Muhammadiyah Berkemajuan [Progressive Muhammadiyah] (2016), Menemani Minoritas [Becoming a Friend of Minorities] (2019), Dilema Minoritas di Indonesia [Dilemma of Minorities in Indonesia] (2020), Heresy and Politics (2020), and The New Santri: Fragmentation of Religious Authority in Indonesia (2020).
Lilis Mulyani (lilis.mulyani[at]lipi.go.id) is a researcher at ISSH, BRIN. She obtained a Ph.D. in legal studies from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 2021. Her research interest is the law and legal studies. She wrote various papers in academic journals such as World Development, Asian Journal of Law and Society, Masyarakat Indonesia. She wrote books and reports such as Strategy for Agrarian Reform: Legal and Institutional Analysis (2012) and Settling Agrarian Conflict in Indonesia (2013). The most recent work is Unrelenting games: Multiple negotiations and landscape transformations in the tropical peatlands of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia (co-authored with Anna Sanders, Rebecca M Ford, Rut Dini Prasti H, Anne M Larson, Yusurum Jagua, Rodney J Keenan) in World Development in 2019. Cahyo Pamungkas is a research professor in sociology at BRIN. He is also a lecturer in the Anthropology Department, the University of Indonesia (UI) since 2021, teaching the subject ‘ethnic groups, ethnicity, and ethnic conflict. In 2015, Cahyo finished his Ph.D. in Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands, under Ethno-religious Conflict in Indonesia and the Philippines Programme supported by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).In BRIN, he conducted and developed studies on the relationship between ethnoreligious groups in Maluku, Papua, and Southeast Asia. Since 2005, he was assigned by LIPI to study on separatist conflict of West Papua and became co-author in the book Papua Road Map in 2009.
Bio of the 2nd Presenter:
Yamada Chika (chika128[at]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center of Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University. She earned her Ph.D. in Kobe University, Japan, in the field of global health. For the past six years, her research work has focused on mental health, stigma reduction with peer involvement, and drug addiction, especially in the East and Southeast Asia region, including Japan, the Philippines, and most recently in Indonesia. Her published books concerned advocation and psychotherapy for people with addiction, and her papers in public health were published in academic journals (BMJ Open, International Journal of Drug Policy, BMC Psychiatry). At CSEAS, she is currently developing and testing community-based psychotherapy for substance use disorders in Indonesia. In the short term, she hopes that the clinical trial may provide a positive outcome, thus paving a way toward formal adoption by the Ministry of Health and nationwide dissemination of psychotherapy for drug addiction. The long-term aspiration is to promote meaningful involvement of people who use drugs themselves in health programs and policymaking regarding drug use in Indonesia—’nothing about us without us’—and encourage policymakers to steer away from criminalization-centric practices via incarceration and punitive policies.
Contact: Okamoto Masaaki (okamoto[at]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp)(CSEAS, Kyoto Univeristy, Japan)