Indonesian Diary Entry

Oct. 21, 2001 Travel week.

This week has seen me at Bandara Sukarno-Hatta (the airport) a number of times. Monday was the trip to Palembang, Wednesday the return, and Sunday to Solo.

As I write (3:30 PM) this I am sitting in the waiting area, hoping that the technical problem that has been announced gets fixed pretty quickly. There is a reason for optimism, but also for pessimism. The optimism stems from the presence of a number of people on the tarmac in white shirts milling about the front of the plane. A white shirt definitely conveys authority, as does an unwillingness to squat on the ground. The pessimism is associated with one of the white shirts who came on the scene with a book or manual. He seems to be consulting the manual fairly often before doing anything. Oh well. The trips to Palembang (and back) were smooth so I’ll stay on the optimistic side. [Read further, however.]

I went to Palembang to give a guest lecture and also to check out the university (Sriwijaya) in case things didn’t improve at/in Solo. It was an interesting couple of days. The visit began inauspiciously. Due to a mix-up I was not met at the airport, and due to my own lack of foresight I had no telephone numbers with me. Since it was a national holiday (a Muslim holiday) the level of confusion multiplied quickly and by the time someone arrived I was out of sorts. But a nice lunch smoothed the rough edges and things did return to normal. [The delay just got extended to 6:30 PM. Chits were offered for dinner, and I accepted. Rice and green beans were my fare.]

The visit was instructive in a couple of respects. It did serve the intended purposes, so I gave the lectures and got a glimpse of another Indonesian university for comparison. In addition I got a little better understanding of the university system here. It is not a bright picture. First, a few comments about the system.

The Indonesian universities seem to be facing a few different problems. The one I was already aware of is the resource problem. That is quite serious and it may get worse due to “regional autonomy.” (A similar movement in the US was known as devolution.) As regions gain autonomy it seems that universities will on net lose funds. They are supposed to develop new sources of funds, but surely that is a hope without a foundation. So the facilities will deteriorate, equipment will not be replaced or acquired, and libraries will remain where they are now – ouch. As for computers and networks, maybe someone will discover a source of funds to acquire the hardware, but it is a pretty scary future as well. Beyond the resources, there seems to be very little energy among the faculty. Pay is determined by a scale, a merit system exists but it has little to spur research or creative work, so everyone spends as little time as possible at the university, and moonlighting is rampant. [The delay has now been extended to 8:00. I think the manual didn’t have the right chapter.] People joke about the lack of commitment, but it is black humor. The jobs also seem to be sinecures. There is virtually no movement across universities, so no motivation for achievement other than personal pride. Given that the future of the country depends on its human resources, and that going abroad is difficult at best for a very large percentage of the population, it looks like a condemnation to mediocrity.

Now about Palembang. The people I was with could not have been nicer and more considerate. I was with about four or five people in the main, and they were fun to be with. The one guest lecture turned out to be three, on two campuses. The campus situation is one of the more interesting things. The main campus is about an hour away from Palembang (a ride so horrible I won’t even try to describe). This is a product of the Suharto era, wherein he decided that if the university students were away from the population centers they were less likely to cause trouble. (University students were a force in the 1945 revolution, and in many later periods of change.) So now every morning thousands of students board busses, faculty and staff get in cars (often with drivers provided by the university), and all head for Indralaya. At the end of the day they all commute the other direction. The cost is substantial. So I went there (Indralaya) to give one lecture, and two in Palembang. It was done by the organizer partly to spread the Fulbrighter (me) around, but I had the feeling it was also to give the lecturers a break. [8 PM. We are transferred to a different part of the airport, a new plane, and we depart very quickly. It is good that I wasn’t in the bathroom when the announcement was made. I would not have stood a chance of making it. The rest of the entry was done the next day. Successful arrival.] I actually did one topic twice and one other one once.

Palembang itself was rather different from Solo and Yogya. It is somewhat quiet (by Indonesian standards) and it seems to have a pretty slow pace. The land around the city is very swampy, and as an accommodation to this the houses are often built on stilts. Some of the structures appeared unable to stand up to a stiff wind, and I was amazed to see that a few were inhabited. The only point of reference I have is the structures in Now Let Us Praise Famous Men.

My hosts were very nice, and I had a series of good meals always accompanied by interesting talk.

As noted, I have now returned to Solo. I hope that this is the last move. Dragging all of my belongings around has been trying and tiring. I have never traveled with so much stuff in the first place, and did so with the idea that I would quickly settle. Of course I haven’t done so. The excess baggage charges are reasonable, but dealing with the various transfers has really taken it out of me. Instead of buying things for people here I should just give them some of my own possessions. The only successful downsizing, though, has been a donation of a Red Sox hat to someone, and a trashing of a pair of running shoes. (I didn’t mind getting rid of the hat, but not because I had given up on the team. I had, but that’s incidental. During these times, a white person going around with an emblem of the United States may be courageous, but not particularly wise. I’m trying to keep my unwise activity to a minimum – such as running in the morning.) I really am going to cull some lecture notes, and may ditch some clothing. It is a little embarrassing to leave clothes in the trash, as one sees many people wearing things that are in incredibly bad condition. The idea of ditching things for style, or because of a stain, is a little much. So, in the case of the shoes I left them next to the waste can on the day I checked out of one of the hotels with the hope that they would make it to a suitable customer. (Actually, since people eschew foot cover most of the time, my efforts were probably for naught.)

Someone here asked what I had done in Jakarta. It was a little difficult to remember. It’s a good thing I am keeping this diary.