THE TRIUMPH OF WILL

Kick-starting a robot venture                             

Life has given Muhammad ‘Fahmi’ Husaen a cruel punt.

Now he’s booting back with an invention best described as a robot physiotherapist, so smart it knows when leg muscles need a rub and roll to ward off paralysis. 

Fahmi, 21, a computer program and information systems student at the University of Gadjah Mada Vocational School, has already won awards for an electric car design, but his latest concept is far more significant.
It’s called AVEO (Achilles Physiotherapy Orthosis) and will get its first public showing at an inventors’ fair in South Korea this month (dec). 

Joints which don’t get regular exercise shrink and harden, eventually deforming.  The lower limbs are particularly susceptible, including the Achilles tendon, the fibrous cord that connects the calf to the heel. This can lead to plantarflexion when the foot starts to arch, much like a ballet dancer on en pointe. 

Before entering primary school Fahmi, 21, was told he had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). The rare and so far incurable genetic disorder leads to progressive muscle degeneration and weakness.
Life expectancy seldom went beyond the teens but new treatment is prolonging survival, though not dramatically. DMD affects around one in 5,000 boys.  Girls rarely suffer. Two of Fahmid’s three brothers have similar disorders.

If Fahmi had less spirit and more anger he’d be raging at the world from the wheelchair he’s used since he was ten. Fury erupted when reality hit, then subsided when he realised “this is part of my life.”

“I refused to go to high school for a year because I was so upset,” he said.  “But my mother (high school science teacher Anik Marwati)  (right) asked: ‘If you don’t go to school, what will you do?’ And I had so many ideas.”

Whatever time he has left Fahmi is using every moment positively.

He got his Mom’s message, ignored the schoolyard taunts and excelled.  He saw a video of General Electric Indonesia CEO  Handry Satriago, now 49, who has been in a wheelchair since contracting lymph cancer as a teen.

Apart from his achievements with the US manufacturing conglomerate, Satriago is famous for urging youngsters to adapt, overcome hurdles and create a better world.

“He inspired me with his determination and confidence,” said Fahmi.  “Everyone has strengths and weakneses.  It’s important to stay optimistic, to not give up, to ignore snide comments about handicaps as a divine punishment for sins.

“No religion teaches that sort of thinking.”

Another hero is Stephen Hawking.  The British theoretical physicist and cosmologist died earlier this year aged 76 after spending most of his life in a wheelchair suffering from motor neurone disease – but continued writing and lecturing.

Now Fahmi is turning his personal experiences to benefit humanity by inventing AVEO with two fellow students, Danar Aulia Hasan and Widiyanto.

“I know well that it’s difficult for people in wheelchairs to get out and see a physiotherapist – and they’re not easy to find,” Fahmi said.  “Advances in technology have created new opportunities to help give the handicapped choices and independence.”

Fahmi is one of six Indonesians to be invited to the Seoul International Invention Fair to show AVEO.  He’ll be accompanied by his mother and two classmates.
The fair, first held in 2002, is the largest international invention exhibition in Asia. It is hosted by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and organized by the Korea Invention Promotion Association.
“We are working on our third prototype, “ Fahmi said. “Battery weight is a problem and the flexible shoe needs to be lighter – it’s presently around two kilos. Eventually it will  be linked to the users smartphone so progress can be monitored.


“I don’t know how much AVEO will cost as further development is needed – maybe about Rp 2.5 million (US $175) a unit, though costs will fall with mass production.
“Society needs to do more to help the disabled.  Access to many buildings, and the services they offer, is limited.  Fortunately public attitudes are changing – as they say in Australia, ‘see the person, not the problem’.”

Although UGM is one of the nation’s leading universities its facilities for physically impaired students are far below international standards.  There’s no lift in the building where Fahmi studies so he has to rely on colleagues to carry him up and down stairs.
Having a handicapped child can put huge burdens on a family, often resulting in marriage splits as parents play the blame game.  Marwati said she told her husband Murtandlo (a teacher of religion) he could leave and find another wife when they learned their sons were disabled.
“He refused,” she said.  “He told me: ‘This is something we must handle together as a family’.”
 (breakout)
Kiwi support
Fahmi is one of ten young disabled Indonesians supported with education scholarships from the New Zealand Rehabilim Trust, a NGO based in the capital Wellington.
It was started in 1982 by the late Colin McLennan, a Kiwi social activist. Outraged when he saw crippled beggars in Yogyakarta streets he set up the Yakkum rehabilitation centre, now backed by European charities.

“Designing AVEO  is a tremendous achievement,” said Trust chair Bill Russell.  “We are very proud of Fahmi who is fast becoming an inspiration and role-model.
“Most importantly, he's showing that he can make a valuable contribution to society and help others struggling to deal with their own handicaps.

“This is exactly what the Rehabilim Trust is all about – providing young people in Indonesia with physical disabilities the opportunity and support to receive tertiary education and qualifications to become independent.” 

(First published in The Jakarta Post 4 December 2018)

CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS

Life is like a question    

                                            

We all make snap decisions about those we meet.  Are they hostile, or friendly? Trying to cheat or help?  Should we get close, or avoid?

Mukhanif Yasin Yusuf is a master interpreter of reactions, a skilled catcher of the flickering doubt.  A top student and activist from Yogyakarta’s Universitas Gadjah Mada Hanif knows   not all offer the respect he liberally gives to others.

For although polite and humble his behavior can be a mite disarming. A tad too earnest?  He talks loudly, though not brashly, and stares intently.  Is he dangerous? 

No, he’s deaf, and this is his message:

“There can be stigmas attached to being disabled.  Some see us as weak as pitiful, as objects for rehabilitation, or even as the sources of social problems and diseases, on the margin, maybe even criminal.

“When people sit around in cafes do they discuss what it must be like as a disabled person?  Do you wonder how we feel and what we do?

“Just close your eyes for at least 15 seconds; focus on imagining yourself as disabled and denied work because of your condition.  You are refused entry to school and university as you do not meet the criteria of being physically and mentally healthy.

“You cannot climb the stairs of a multi- storey building for your legs are paralyzed. Or maybe you're scorned and regarded as mad, thought fit for a mental hospital.

“Ponder these issues and remember that unlike you, we cannot open our eyes after 15 seconds and let our imagination fade.  Do you think we can be returned to ‘normal’ as determined by community consensus? 

“If a blind person is trained as a masseur should we say this is an honor when that person could be a scientist?

“Are the disabled not part of the community?  Under God’s Law all are human beings.  Sometimes this is forgotten. Should we be shunned, put in a separate environment, deemed unfit to mingle with others?  We have minds to feel, think and act. We belong to society too, and we contribute.”

Hanif remembers swimming in the Yellow River as an 11 year old. Taking a dip was no big deal for the kids of the Central Java village of Jambudesa and the little lad wanted to be with his mates.

His Mom had told him and his five siblings to keep away for good reason. The river’s name alone gave warning enough, but who wants to hear a carping elder?

 “Everything was done in the river,” he recalled.  “It was used for washing, bathing and as a toilet by people and cattle.”

A few days later he noticed a ringing in his left ear.  His hearing had never been good, but this was something different. 

Perhaps because he’d disobeyed his mother he didn’t tell about his problem.  When it got worse and his parents noticed they assumed tonsillitis.

But a medical check showed this was no simple example of the infection otitis externa, better known as swimmer’s ear, common, painful but treatable

This was a more serious bacterial infection and by the time it was diagnosed his hearing had been irreparably damaged. Now he was totally deaf. On the cusp of adolescence, quivering with life’s possibilities is not the best time to make a balanced assessment of the future.

“I felt as though I had died,” he said. ‘I wanted to kill myself.  I left school, came back, and left again.  For two years I stayed away. I didn’t know what to do except hide myself. 

“I was so angry with God.  What had happened was unfair. I was good at school, particularly mathematics. I wanted to go to university, a journey that was rare for students from Jambudesa.  Now it seemed I’d lost everything.

“My mother said: ‘Life is like a question which we have to answer.  How do we face the future?  If you don’t go to school how will you ever succeed?’

“My father was a teacher in the pesantren (Islamic boarding school) so I knew the importance of education.  I understood what Mom said and followed her advice.”

Indonesia is the better for his decision because Hanif, now 25, has become a leading advocate for disabled students at UGM where he has just completed his first degree in less than four years, ahead of his colleagues.

Instead of maths he turned to the pen to express his emotions.  At school he wrote short stories, screenplays, poems and even scientific articles, winning prizes and getting published locally and provincially.

His first partly-biographical novel Jejak Pejalan Sunyi (Walking Quietly) has been published by Grasindo.  How he wants to pursue higher degrees and an academic career.

Hanif described his hopes in a poem:

            I wanted to explore the world through words on this green campus...

Words that have been made can still breathe...

Coming late to deafness meant he never formally learned signing but has developed lip-reading skills. When these fail he asks for questions to be written.

Hanif talks eloquently and passionately about the plight of the disabled in Indonesia, sometimes reducing his listeners to tears.

 “It takes time to get to know others and find my confidence,” he said.  “I need people to look at me directly when they speak.  Some find that difficult.”

Once on campus he set about founding the Students with Disabilities Forum, lobbying for recognition and access to all facilities, writing and speaking about the issues he and his friends faced:.

Rector Dr Dwikorita Karnawati told The Jakarta Post that UGM had now removed all restrictions against enrolment.

“We must find special ways to help the disabled study and reach their full potential for their benefit and for the good of society,” she said.

“I don’t know the best ways but we can study what is happening globally, improve our wisdom and listen to advocates like Hanif, an exceptional student helping bring about real change.”

(First published in The Jakarta Post 16 January 2017)

##

EULOGY FOR NOEL TRUSTRUM

Kia Ora, shalom.

 Scientists and journalists mix like acid and water.

Both must publish or perish but approach the task from different vantages.  Scientists think they occupy the high intellectual ground, the custodians of all knowledge which they occasionally drip feed to those below.

Journalists dwell in the lower levels but know this is where true wisdom resides.  We hear the voice of the people.  It is not polysyllabic jargon. It’s blunt and direct.  It resonates.

Scientists keyboard 100 word sentences.  We use ten.  They have discourse.  We talk. They elucidate – we tell. They juxtapose, we mix. 

Noel got down and dirty and not just because he was a soil scientist.  He could  communicate and to do that you have to relate.

Indonesia is not for all. It can delight but it’s also discomforting. For some it’s magic – for others menacing.

If discipline and order rule your life then stay away.  If organisation is the measure of your being then remain in the Anglosphere.

For our nearest Asian neighbour is different from Aotearoa on almost every compass  point from religion to cuisine, history, language, culture and all degrees between.

Though not in geology, landforms and the troubled, trembling land we stand upon. When Noel and the GNS and MFAT teams went to Aceh after the Indian Ocean tsunami they witnessed the awful devastation and anguish close up.

So did the scores of other international recovery teams. Though their mission was mercy some saw the answer  as telling  damaged people to move away.

Kiwis don’t do that. Noel didn’t fly in and out – he returned and was welcomed back – and that’s the mark of the man.

Indonesians are canny folk.  Though protocols are important they don’t trump relationships.  Journal paper may dazzle and intimidate fellow professionals here - but they have no clout in Indonesia where people are measured by their warmth, sincerity and personal concern.

Noel showed through his humour and compassion that although he came from a different world he understood the pain and concerns of ordinary folk of Aceh.  His efforts on their behalf were genuine and not a career advancement. 

The proof is in his book on the recovery of Aceh, a work that could not have been written without the support of the victims and some  key Indonesians.

People like Dr Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the Aceh recovery programme, Susi Pudjastuti, now Minister for Fisheries and Dr Dwikorita Karnawati, rector of Universitas Gadjah Mada who sees Noel as a hero.

That’s because Noel had mana on all levels.  Few Indonesians know the word but they understood here was a man who carried the knowledge and authority but never flaunted those qualities.  He handled influence with humility.

As a result he and his colleagues from GNS Science, MFAT, UGM and others have showed that the future doesn’t have to be a photocopy of the past, that systems can be installed to warn of dangers to come and survival lessons can be learned.

Because of Noel and his colleagues millions will survive in future disasters.  Noel made a difference because he came down from the academic heights and spoke the language of ordinary people. 

He related.  He communicated.

In our grief we should be proud.  Proud that we knew a man who had a rare and special quality – the ability to show that science can make lives better.

(Delivered at the funeral of Dr Noel Trustrum in Kilbirnie, Wellington, on 26 April 2016.  Noel died five days earlier after battling cancer for five years.  His last weeks were spent with his wife Helen in Bali.)

SHARING DISASTER MITIGATION STORIES

A supermall of disasters      
    

                                  

There’s a simple way to slash the death and injury toll from the natural disasters that brutalise Indonesia’s most vulnerable:  Stop people farming in danger zones, like banks of rivers prone to flood, and the slopes of grumbling volcanoes.

However policing such bans would be almost impossible in modern democratic Indonesia, according to Medi Herlianto (right), director of preparedness in Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana BNPB – the national office for disaster management.

“Floodplains and the lower levels of volcanoes are fertile areas where people grow crops and raise stock essential to their livelihood,” he said. “They’ve been there for generations.  It’s their right.

“What we can do is encourage citizens to be aware of the risks, understand what’s going on and have the ability to escape. We don’t want everyone to rely on central government.”

Herlianto was speaking in Wellington on the sidelines of a New Zealand government aid program study tour run by the research institute GNS Science.  It’s been designed to help Indonesians prepare for the next big horror show that a fickle universe can throw up.

The BNPB was formed in 2008, four years after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.  The policy is to develop district agencies known as BPBD (Badan Penanggulangan Bencana Daerah (district) so communities can handle smaller emergencies themselves

That includes ensuring villagers take responsibility for early warning systems.  This year 22 tsunami sensor buoys installed off the West Sumatra coast failed because they’d been plundered for parts or stolen for scrap.

A new system is being developed. “We will change the technology,” Herlianto said. “We’re still working to help people realise the importance of these devices.”

In the past natural disasters came ‘out of the blue’ as the idiom suggests, or as insurance companies still say, ‘an Act of God’.

In the scientific and rational age it is clear many catastrophes are predictable, like heavy mountain rains ripping out treeless hillsides causing landslips and flooded fields below. 

Some precautions are common sense; tertiary training isn’t necessary to know that forest trash set alight during a drought is certain to cause down-wind smoke. In other situations technology can help with automated weather-change stations.

Not every disaster sends alerts.  The 2004 tsunami that killed around 250,000 (the majority Indonesians in Aceh), was triggered by an undersea megathrust earthquake which hit without warning.

One thing could have saved lives – an understanding of natural events.  Before the waters hit coastal communities the ocean inhaled leaving exposed beaches.

Unaware this extreme low tide was the prelude to the tsunami, thousands ran onto the suddenly bare sands to collect stranded fish and marvel at the rare phenomenon.  They were the frontline victims when the tide reversed like a cavalry charge.

Disaster mitigation and management is a growing business dominated by engineers like Herlianto who studied in France.  But the industry needs multi-task experts willing to cooperate with other professionals.

When Teuku Faisal Fathani (left) enrolled at the prestigious Universitas Gadjah Mada he was asked to number the Yogyakarta campus faculties. “Eighteen,” replied the sharp young undergraduate who’d done his homework.

“Wrong,” said the lecturer.  “There are only two:  Engineering and non engineering.”

Faisal, as he’s best known, tells the story to illustrate the arrogance of closed-mind academics contemptuous of the trendy ‘soft’ courses luring students from the traditional ‘hard’ sciences.

Times change. In one of life’s many curious twists and turns, the student from Aceh is now an associate professor of geotechnical engineering at UGM.  This suggests his habitat is a factory load-testing concrete girders.

Instead he’s directing a disaster preparedness project that embraces many of the courses despised by his superior decades ago – like sociology, psychology, political science and anthropology.

“It’s fascinating and I’ve learned so much,” he said. “Engineering is measurable.  It has a beginning and end.  It deals with known materials with limits.  That can lead to thinking in terms of black and white.  That’s not how things work with tsunamis, earthquakes and other calamities.”

In the NZ capital Faisal, along with 28 public servants and academics from four Indonesian provinces, visited seaside suburbs most likely to drown should a tsunami hit.

Knowing that in the chaos and confusion of a major natural disaster people often panic, blue signs and lines have been painted on roads leading to safe zones.  It’s an example of a low cost initiative that’s been copied by Indonesia and other countries.

After the 2010 eruption of Central Java’s Mount Merapi, Faisal co-authored a self-evacuation program including maps of danger spots. Leaders were chosen and groups assigned to take care of the old and vulnerable while fleeing in orderly fashion.

“The village of Glagaharjo was wiped out, but all residents survived because they’d rehearsed an exit plan,” he said. “They knew what to do and where to go.”

Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown told the Indonesians that her city had been built on a major earthquake fault so it was important for citizens to be regularly reminded of the dangers that could suddenly strike. 

Pavement plaques remind that the central business district is now several hundred meters from the ocean.  Before a 19^th century earthquake which tilted the harbor, shops and offices were on the waterfront.

“Disaster awareness must be part of the school curriculum – continuously educating generations of the dangers even when nothing has happened for years,” said Yunelimeta Asman Djannas (right) , who also studied in France.

She’s the second in charge of a 78-strong BPBD, opened in 2010 in Agam. The West Sumatra regency was an early acceptor of the need to establish local agencies.  It’s also the site of floods and landslips.

“Unfortunately not everyone is easily convinced that disasters will strike, or that if they do anything can be done,” she said. “There’s a lot of conservative thinking and resistance to new ideas. We need time to change mindsets.  It’s a slow process.

“In my religion (Islam) it’s taught that we have a duty to take care of ourselves, our families and neighbors.   That’s a priority.”

In his stay alert-be aware campaign Faisal and his colleagues have designed posters and teaching materials, including some that only use pictures.  “In isolated mountain settlements we’ve found people over 50 who can’t read Indonesian,” he said.

“Getting over fatalism is our biggest hurdle.  That’s why we need experts from other disciplines who understand the best ways to convince people that they can save their lives in an emergency.”

In another curious twist Faisal was in Japan studying for a doctorate when the tsunami struck Aceh.  Member of his family, including his parents, were seriously hurt though none perished.

Back in Indonesia he saw the psychological damage to victims of the catastrophe. “Survivors can often suffer long-term emotional problems,” he said. “They are alive, but no longer the same people.”

 Faisal has now built a tsunami-resistant home for his relatives who remain in the North Sumatra province.

By the numbers

Indonesia has 127 active volcanoes.

Thirty per cent of the population lives within 30 kilometers of a volcano.

Of all volcanic eruptions worldwide last century, Indonesia ranked among the top ten in deaths, injuries and home destruction.

The 2010 Mount Merapi eruption killed 302 and impacted more than 100,000.

In 2015 there were 1,685 disasters.

Most were caused by floods, fires, droughts and landslips.

Disasters cause knock-on economic damage to the nation through closed transport hubs, school shut-downs and business disruptions – seven times the cost of the original event.

BNPB says the capacity to respond effectively to disasters is still limited. It wants to reduce risks by 30 per cent within three years

 (First published in The Jakarta Post 10 April 2016) 

INSIDE THE RING OF FIRE

Natural disasters: Are we prepared?   

                                           

The warm up included boisterous singing of Indonesia Raya led by an unstoppable  cheerleader, a loop of videos showing rescue workers in Hi-Viz vests scrambling through rubble – and one unusual addition.

The MC told the 1,000 delegates that should an earthquake or other awful event strike the Solo hotel ballroom, we should get outside to the evacuation area.

Such warnings are standard at public gatherings in New Zealand, though rare in Indonesia.  The instructions in the equally quake-prone South Pacific nation, learned like the national anthem by all school kids, are ‘drop, cover and hold’.  This means getting under something solid when the masonry hails down.

However in the Solo venue there were no sturdy tables – just plush chairs packed as tight as a cattle-class flight.  For this was to be a grand event graced by President Joko Widodo and tickets were hot.

To the great disappointment of the crowd he didn’t front, leaving the big speech to Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo.  He spent time praising NZ’s determination to share knowledge with its giant near neighbor.

Locally known as the Shaky Isles, miniscule NZ has one resident to every 60 Indonesians.  Its economy is based on exporting milk and meat, and importing tourists.

So not much in common with a massive Asian republic except this: Both countries have front-row seats at the intermittent thunder and flame show called The Pacific Ring of Fire.  Three-quarters of the world’s volcanoes roar and rumble here; the grinding tectonic plates show how eggshell fragile we humans are when Atlas shrugs.

In 2006 the nearby city of Yogyakarta was hit by a magnitude 6.4 quake that killed 5,700.  In 2011 a magnitude 6.3 quake killed 185 in the NZ South Island city of Christchurch.

In both cases the damage was caused by previously unknown faults, underpinning the need for more research to map danger areas and alert citizens to the risks.

"This isn't Russia"

“The difficulty is keeping people aware and prepared for natural disasters,” Dody Ruswandi (right) told The Jakarta Post at the sidelines of the three-day Disaster Risk Reduction – Resilience for Life Conference in mid October.  “We’re all alert after an eruption, landslip or earthquake, but concerns tend to relax when nothing more happens.

“Overall we are getting better at understanding that natural disasters can happen anywhere and anytime, that climate change is creating new problems, and that we are living in a high-risk country.

“We may not have much equipment, but we do have an agreement to call on the Army for help.  In some overseas countries the military doesn’t want to accept a civilian role. I’m not interested in building an empire – this is not Russia.

“I congratulate the media for helping raise awareness – almost every newspaper and TV bulletin features a crisis somewhere in the world.  Although we still have far to go we are improving.  We’re no longer managing disasters – we’re now managing risks.”

Ruswandi is secretary general of Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana [BNPB – the National Disaster Management Authority] set up in 2008 in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the Yogya quake. It’s directly responsible to the President.

The quakes have shaken up Indonesian administration, literally and metaphorically.  Apart from BNPB there’s also a Consortium for Disaster Education which trains front line responders and publishes safety messages.

Dr Dwikorita Karnawati, the Rector of Yogya’s Gadjah Mada University [UGM] and a British-trained engineering geologist with expertise in landslips, agreed with Ruswandi’s upbeat assessment. 

“We are now treating these things seriously,” she said.  “However the budgets for coping after the event also need to be used for training when there’s no disaster.

“Awareness is one thing; willingness to allocate funds is another.”

UGM has a deal with NZ’s Geological and Nuclear Science agency now known as GNS Science, to share technology, research and training.  The NZ invention of base isolators, where the pillars of major buildings sit on rubber blocks allowing the construction to shake but not collapse, is available in Indonesia, though apparently not yet used.

Further proof of attitude change was in an exhibition where more than 100 government and non-government agencies and commercial companies showcased their products. 

Hard hats and big boots, hazard-protection gear in colors so shrill they could even be seen through the haze of Riau peat fires, crackling walkie-talkies, loud hailers and tools to dig out survivors.  There’ll still be a need for citizens to claw away shattered bricks seeking trapped neighbors when walls tumble; but after the professionals move in they need the world’s best equipment.

Four-wheel drive vehicles with satellite dishes and gen sets, drones to map the disaster zone and pin-point problems, first-aid kits and when these are too late, body bags.

Disasters are now big business.

Pick of the bunch was a low-cost early warning device developed by a UGM team headed by Japan-trained civil engineer Dr Faisal Fathani (below, left with Rector Dwikorita).  They’ve patented a solar-powered system which collects rainfall and measure tremors.

If the downpours are heavy and likely to cause flooding, or the ground shakes at an alarming rate, the device triggers a siren to alert residents and flashes data to emergency headquarters.  The system is now being manufactured in bulk and distributed across the provinces.  It has also been exported to China.

 “Emergencies can happen very quickly, so early warnings are critical,” said Fathani. “There were problems with people stealing tsunami alerts dropped in the ocean by the government, so we’ve given local communities the responsibility of caring for the terrestrial systems.

“Vandalism is unlikely because villagers own the system – they realize their lives depend on knowing of dangers in advance.”

Also back to basics was the Yakkum Emergency Unit, a NGO based on the slopes of Yogya’s temperamental Mount Merapi.  Their contribution was a simple kit collecting rain to grow hydroponic vegetables and using the waste to raise fish.

Survivors of the initial shock can die later for want of food and drink.  But with a few shards of rescued plastic, wood, aluminium and ingenuity life can go on.

The thin blue line

New Zealanders can’t stand visual pollution.  That means most outdoor advertising is banned and essential signs, such as traffic controls have to be approved. 

The forests of banners and billboards that shield motorists from the stunning scenery of Indonesia are absent in NZ; tourists can feast on the environment rather than be urged to buy smokes.

NZ Ambassador Dr Trevor Matheson

So when it was proposed that big notices should be erected around the Wellington seaside suburb of Island Bay warning that this was a tsunami danger area many of the 7,000 residents objected.

“Yet signage was essential,” said GNS Science’s Michele Daly.  “We had meetings where someone came up with the idea of painting blue lines on the roads.  These mark the likely high-water mark in case of a tsunami when you’d need to get on the right side.

“Some feared this might reduce home values, but that hasn’t happened. People seem to appreciate that this is a community that cares.”

(First published in The Jakarta Post 1 November 2015)

NOBLE DEAL, NOBEL PRIZE

BTW

Anything’s better than bullets         

EXCLUSIVE:  Rio de Janeiro, today, 2017:  President Joko [Jokowi] Widodo is to be nominated for the Nobel Prize for international leadership in developing new ways to handle the drug scourge.

The recommendation, which has yet to be officially announced, has been unanimously endorsed by the 22 heads of the Brazil-based Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP)

The Jakarta Post has obtained the statement which will accompany the announcement. This says that two years ago when President Jokowi opened his campaign to kill the drug trade, few believed he could persuade other nations that capital punishment was not the answer to trafficking and pushers.

The fact that more than 50 countries have since followed Indonesia makes President Jokowi an appropriate recipient, the statement continues.

Palace insiders claim the President’s epiphany followed a meeting with Virgin Airlines founder Sir Richard Branson.

Earlier appeals by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to stay the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran had apparently hardened the President’s resolve.

“The pleas angered the President,” said a senior aide speaking on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to comment.

“He reckoned Mr Abbott cared only for his two citizens, and not all those on death row or our 4.5 million addicts – that’s about the population of Sydney.

“With scores dying every day the electorate demanded decisive action. Mr Abbott offered no solutions. When he linked mercy to the 2004 tsunami aid Mr Jokowi turned off his phone. He’s a man who reacts to reason, not pressure.

“Sir Richard is a tough businessman, not a parochial politician.  He thinks laterally and invited the President to lead the world by finding new ways to tackle drugs.”

Palace sources confirmed a secret meeting had been held where the mega millionaire, who is a board member of the GCDP, offered well-researched facts from Commission archives.

Contacts present at the two-hour closed-door forum revealed that Sir Richard said that shortly before the Bali Nine smugglers were caught Indonesia had already executed three foreign drug traffickers.  This was widely known yet the Australians still went ahead; this fact made nonsense of the deterrent theory.

GCDP analysts had shown that addicts and mules are damaged people in hopeless financial and personal situations, unable to make sane choices.  They take risks whatever the punishment because every option is dreadful.  All believe they’re too smart to get caught.

The GCDP offered to fund a review led by Indonesian criminologists into the effectiveness of capital punishment as a deterrent and the government agreed to a moratorium.

The 178 page document is expected to be presented at a glittering event in the Presidential Palace next month. The buzz says Oprah Winfrey may be a guest.

Last night in London Sir Richard praised the Indonesian President as a man of courage and foresight. “I remember way back in 2015 thinking he was a stubborn guy, a foreigner to facts,” Sir Richard said.

 “What some considered intransigence was, in fact, a mask for the admirable Javanese traits of compassion and deep thinking. I told him ‘let’s kill the trade, not the traders’.  Anything’s better than bullets.”

The entrepreneur stayed tight-lipped on the report’s 17 recommendations. These are expected to include substituting long jail time for the death penalty and shorter spells for reformers who’ve expressed real remorse.

It’s no secret that there’ll be an International Center for the Prevention of Drug Trading at the University of Gadjah Mada; modern clinics in every province will help rehabilitate users.

A No Demand – No Supply social media campaign targeting drugs using teenspeak and. featuring celebs rather than uniformed government bosses will be launched.

Cash for these initiatives will come from a ten per cent levy on every packet of smokes sold.

A Palace spokesman refused to confirm or deny the report. “Let’s just wait and see,” he said.

However former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that if the story was true a Nobel Prize nomination was a great privilege.  He added:

“However the real honor belongs to the Indonesian people who have backed the President’s noble journey to make Indonesia a world leader in stamping out the drug trade while protecting human rights.” Duncan Graham

(First published in The Jakarta Post 12 April 2015)

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ZAINAL ABIDIN BAGIR

The Happy Theologian 

                              

Studying other religions hasn’t led to a dilution of Zainal Abidin Bagir’s faith.

“My experiences and reading of concepts from Buddhism and Christianity have enriched my understanding of Islam,” said the Director of the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies [CRCS] at Yogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada University [UGM].

“Many religious leaders fear that people will change their beliefs if they learn about other faiths. They are suspicious and fear competition.  They make everything political.

“It’s probably a cliché, but dialogue dispels concerns. It’s unfortunate that our education system puts children in boxes based on faith.  When we group students on the basis of their interests and not their religion they are motivated to understand more.

“We don’t need to preach pluralism.  When there’s open space it becomes natural.”

This year Dr Bagir has been a visiting lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington.  It’s the second time he’s been in New Zealand, having been involved in an inter-faith conference several years ago.

He’s been running two undergraduate units – Islam in the Contemporary World and Political Islam. An earlier unit on Democracy and Pluralism raised questions like: ‘When religion is said to be compatible with democracy, does it refer only to the liberal kind? Can democracy live with a conservative religion? If diversity is a mark of today’s democracy, what kind of pluralism is required by a pluralist democratic polity?’

Back at UGM he teaches postgraduates in the academic study of religion, and the philosophy of science and religion and contemporary issues.  He said there were no restrictions on class discussions because his students knew what to expect and were attracted by inquiry.

However In 2012 the university banned Canadian liberal Muslim author Irshad Manji from speaking at the CRCS after threats of violence from extremists.

The prohibition angered Dr Bagir and others who condemned the decision. “Better some shattered glass than our broken integrity,” he said.  “We should not give leeway to people who claim to represent certain religious views.  If it’s a crime, it’s a crime. [Since then a new rector has been elected.]

“If I could give a message to president elect Joko Widodo then it’s to re-establish the rule of law and give equality to all citizens, to support their human rights regardless of religion.  By not acting against intolerance we privilege intolerance.”

Dr Bagir’s early interest was mathematics, a subject he studied for his first degree before switching to religious studies.  “I thought I needed to learn about other things,” he said. “I was more interested in intellectual issues. Moving from maths to philosophy was not so big a jump as people imagine.”

He was born in Solo, Central Java, to “well-off, though not rich” parents with a batik factory. It was a liberal family where his father, a writer on faith issues who later opened a free school, encouraged broad discussion of religion among his eight children. 

This upbringing nurtured an inquiring mind, which led the young man away from calculus and into philosophy.  As a teenager he started to wrestle with the troubling ‘what’s it all about?’ and ‘why am I here?’ questions of life.

He moved to the West Java capital so he could study at the prestigious Institut Teknologi Bandung [ITB] – a tertiary educator with “a better intellectual atmosphere and the opportunity to be critical.” 

That was in 1984 when he was 18 and General Soeharto’s Orde Baru [New Order] government exercised total control.  In that year the military opened fire on anti-government protestors at Tanjung Priok in Jakarta, officially killing 24, though this figure is disputed. 

There were allegations that a Christian soldier entering a mosque while wearing boots had triggered rioting. At the time the media was strictly controlled but the ITB students were getting information about the incident through underground publications.  It was a disturbing discovery about the reality of religion and politics.

At ITB Dr Bagir came across the work of British philosopher and Nobel prizewinner Bertrand Russell.  He also started out as a mathematician, publishing the classic Principles of Mathematics when he was 31.  Later he became a famous leader of anti-war protests.

Like Russell Dr Bagir was drawn to logic.  He won a scholarship to study for a master’s degree at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization in Kuala Lumpur, and then went to the US, taking a doctorate at Indiana University.

In 2005 his book Science and Religion in the Post Colonial World: Interfaith Perspectives was published in English, though most of his writings are in Indonesian.  Four years later he was appointed Indonesian associate for an UNESCO Chair in Inter-religious and Intercultural Relations.

One of the major differences between Indonesia and the West is the separation of faith and state. Dr Bagir said he recognized the difficulty in changing government policy on matters like the inclusion of religion on citizens’ identification cards but said the option to put ‘other’ on the cards was already available. 

However he acknowledged this was not always easy in small communities where officials made Islam the default religion for the non-religious. The assumption that a person who didn’t follow a religion was a communist, or had no morality, still persisted.

“This is the result of more than 30 years of government propaganda and the indoctrination of generations of schoolchildren,” he said.

“I’m a pluralist, though not in the MUI [Indonesian Ulema Council] sense.”  In 2005 the MUI issued a fatwa, or prohibition, against pluralism defined as seeing all religions as equal.

“Not all religions are the same, but we need to respect diversity.  It contributes to the richness of life.  All the major religions accept submission to the will of God.

“My father once asked me to do ‘what makes you happy’.  Religion should be about doing good to others, how you deal with other people.  That’s more important than faith as a personal issue.”  

(First published in The Jakarta Post 5 November 2014)

THE MAN AT THE TOP OF THE TOP

The war UGM has to win                                        

Next month (August) along with millions of other Indonesians, Pratikno will return to his roots in the mudik ritual that concludes the Ramadhan fasting month.

In Dolok Gede, an isolated village west of Surabaya, he’ll pay respects to his relatives, catch up with old friends and neighbors, and bring news from the outside world. 

In Pratikno’s case it’s a local-lad-makes-good classic. Once he worked picking worms from tobacco leaves. Now his hands mould future generations of the nation’s best and brightest.

He’s rocketed from dirt floor cottage to panelled executive suite, a stellar journey. Yet his conscience remains troubled.

“I feel guilty because others may not have the same chances,” he said. “I experienced the equality of poverty and broke through.  Now the barrier is the inequality of prosperity.”

Last year political scientist Professor Pratikno was elected Rector of Yogyakarta’s internationally renowned Universitas Gadjah Mada.  This year he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Adelaide’s Flinders University. Next year he may reprise his 2009 performance as TV moderator for the presidential candidates’ national debate.

So how does a boy whose family had little money and less influence scale the academic summit?  Having schoolteacher parents committed to learning was critical.

“Unlike our neighbors we had no land and no stock,” he said. “There was only one way out – through education.”

That was limited. Classes with 13 kids were in a joglo (traditional wall-free building) with no place for books. So they were stored in the family home of knowledge-famished Pratikno. 

Despite decades of reading texts and writing theses he still recalls a short story called Nimba air, mandi sendiri.  It was about a child drawing water from a well to wash alone. 

“We didn’t even have a well in our house,” he said, “Electricity wasn’t connected until I was studying for my PhD. My father hoped I’d return home to teach – but I wanted to keep going.”

Skip the years of boarding alone far from family, selling books with Chinese friends to make ends meet, excelling in maths, winning scholarships, studying overseas – at first in Britain then Australia.

Later setting up an NGO, the Asosiasi untuk Demokrasi dan Kesejahteraan Sosial (Association for Democracy and Social Welfare), pushing for transparency and accountability in politics and public administration.

Now the question: This man has lived struggle. For him it’s not a political slogan. So how will Professor Pratikno, 51, improve Indonesia’s oldest and largest public university and the lives of its 54,000 students?

“In the past student selection was biased towards candidates from Western Indonesia, urban areas and elite families,” he said.  “This is changing. Fortunately gender bias has gone; 55 per cent are women and they’re our top students.

“I’m worried about ensuring the bright poor from remote areas have entry.  We tried affirmative action.  It failed. We need other solutions.

“At UGM I want an egalitarian campus, a closeness between professors and students. We’re promoting an inter-disciplinary approach so students are mixed in different faculties and better facilities.

“The learning environment should be quiet and humble – there’s no place for arrogance.  Yogya is friendly, particularly when compared with Jakarta.  We are multicultural.

“On their first day a student should find a friend from another faculty and religion. We are building a dormitory where the boarders will be from all faiths. We must promote tolerance.”

That may not be so easy. Last year, Pratikno’s predecessor banned a book discussion by Canadian liberal Muslim Irshad Manji following threats from fundamentalists.

More recently Professor Pratikno ignored the advice of his security section and allowed a debate on West Papua.  Violence followed.

 “Today’s student generation is so much better than in the past,” he said. “They are clever, ambitious and much more confident.

“Yet student organizations can be training grounds for radicals. I tell my staff that in the contest of ideas we are competing with other ways of thinking.

“It will be ridiculous if we fail when we have the capacity to make our values acceptable. This is our challenge. We have to win this war.”

UGM wants to attract overseas students. Australia is encouraging young people to study in Asia to build regional knowledge.  It should be a win-win.  However Indonesian study visas are hard to obtain, another example of the gap between initiators and bureaucrats.

UGM is a major research university and Professor Pratikno wants more partnerships with industry, to ensure practical developments of campus scholars’ work.  Like Jakarta transport ticketing systems, new batik dyes, landslip alerts and flexible timbers for earthquake zone homes.

In other areas there’ll be an emphasis on publishing academic papers, marketing expertise and patenting inventions.

As part of UGM’s role in society it will send a ‘White Paper’ to presidential candidates asking questions about their vision for Indonesia.  “It will be an invitation with empathy,” said Professor Pratikno.

“UGM is the most neutral place to debate national issues and bring people together on serious matters like governance and corruption. 

“We are not seeing consistency in Indonesian political leadership. Academics, scientists and technologists have been excluded from the decision making – that has to change.  Too many departments operate apart and don’t coordinate.

“Indonesia has made a peaceful transition to democracy.  We are not Egypt.  But we still have a problem at the local level where there’s sometimes violence and a refusal to accept the democratic process.

 “How can we optimize our knowledge?” he asked. “How can we link not just with business but also with ordinary people, to help improve their lives, pioneering new ways of using technology?  Hi tech, but high touch.”

Emphasising the need for cross disciplinary approach is the promise of geo-thermal technology using the nation’s natural resources.  This is being hampered not by failings of science but community resistance and political divisions.

“We have the expertise to confront these challenges,” Professor Pratikno said.  “I see UGM as a tree offering shade and fruits to benefit all.”

And deep roots, right down to Dolok Gede.

(First published in The Jakarta Post 29 July 13)

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