YIF-CIA 2009 Spring Conference on Indonesia
Yale Indonesia Forum and Cornell Indonesia Association

After coming together in the Fall of 2008 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Sumpah Pemuda (Student's Pledge) in a conference at Ithaca, NY, the Yale Indonesia Forum and Cornell Indonesia Association convene this second conference in New Haven, CT, to look from history to the future. Continuing our exchange of presentations on the humanities and sciences, we seek to recognize the sea changes that are happening in Indonesia today (which one could call the Student's Pledge of a new generation), look to ways in which we can contribute to the prosperity of Indonesia, and hope to identify trends that will play out over the next 80 years.
-Kevin Fogg, Yale History

Saturday, 7 February, 2009
11.00 AM - 5.00 PM
Room 203, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

Presentation 1 and 2

Presentation 3 and 4

Presentation 5

Dialog on Sciences and Social Sciences

Panel Umum

Conclusion and thanks

Jolanda Pandin (Cornell Indonesian Language Studies)

Indriyo Sukmono (Yale Indonesian Language Studies)

1. The Role of Food Science and Technology in Alleviating Hunger and Malnutrition Issues in Developing Countries

Melvany Kasih is a senior at Cornell University. Born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, Melvany traveled across the world to pursue her studies in Food Science and Business Management. She spent her first two years in Diablo Valley College, CA, before transferring to Cornell in her junior year. During her studies in Cornell, Melvany is heavily involved in local and national organizations such as Cornell Food Science Club and Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). Currently, she is the Director of IFTSA Fun Run, Team Leader for Cornell IFT Product Development Team, and Vice President of Ho-Nun-De-Kah Honor Society. Besides club activities, Melvany kept her schedule busy with an independent study in food engineering, focusing on the application of supercritical fluid extrusion as yeast replacement in novel bread production. In 2008, she completed an internship with PepsiCo, where she partially fulfills her dream as food product developer. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with friends, sightseeing, and perfecting her cooking skills. Melvany is also a big fan of bubble tea, bread, and Asian foods.

2. Jakarta: Global Kampung
Jakarta is home to a population of 10 million inhabitants which expands to 11 million during working days. Ever since it was crowned the capital of Indonesia, it has always been an agglomeration of the so-called kampungs. This was a product of migration and rapid urbanization of Jakarta. The modernization of Jakarta, pressured by the global economy, left behind the trace of its past - the kampungs. Jakarta's urbanism perpetuates and exacerbates the differences between the developed environments and the kampungs resulting in fragmented and isolated communities. In my research, I wish to explore the idea that informal settlements are in fact a source of social transformation; not a problem. Theories on the formation of informal urbanism is important but insufficient in today's world where the latter's existence has been accepted. I am studying ways in which the city can integrate the functions of the informal settlements into the formal realm, possibly a model for economic and political revitalization.

Barry Beagen is an undergraduate in Cornell University School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He has completed a concentration in the Department of Architecture. His interest is in the role of informal settlements in Jakarta and the possibility of architecture and urban infrastructures as forces of socio-economic integration.

3. Will Indonesia Fall Into Another Financial Crisis?
The subprime mortgage crisis that began in 2007 has led to current recession in the U.S., and has spread economic turbulences to many other countries around the world, from developed regions in Europe to developing nations in Asia. How will this global downturn impact Indonesia? Will the country fall into another financial crisis after a decade long of recovery? In this presentation, I will use available data to analyze current macroeconomic conditions and infer the degree of vulnerability that the country will fall into crisis. The implication of current policy responses will also be discussed.

Inka Yusgiantoro received his B.S.E. degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1996. He also obtained a M.S. degree in Operation Research from Columbia University and a M.S.E. degree in Financial Engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He has worked for over five years, both in the power industry in Indonesia as well as investment banking in Singapore and New York City. In 2005, Inka started his Ph.D. program in the Field of Regional Science with specialization in Macroeconomics and Development at Cornell University. He is currently building a Computable Financial General Equilibrium (CFGE) model of Indonesia for his doctoral dissertation.

4. The Roles of Chinese Organizations and Media in the Construction of Chinese Identity in Indonesia
Suharto's step down in 1998 brought winds of change in Indonesia, especially the policies concerning Chinese Indonesian. Since then on, the Chinese, who used to feel suppressed under his regime, found an opportunity to regain their ethnicity. Chinese community seize this opportunity by establishing their ethnic organizations and publishing their ethnic media with the purpose of countering the negative and stereotypical portrayals of their ethnic group, and more importantly for reconstructing their ethnicity and ethnic identity, which had experienced erasure during the New Order period. In this paper, I will examine the discursive practices Chinese communities use to contest and mold their ethnicity and ethnic identity, as reflected. I will investigate the discursive ideas of ethnicity in the realm of social life, by observing and analyzing the activities of Chinese organizations and the coverage of Chinese media. I will focus my analysis on the ideological role of ethnicity in influencing their "mental maps" of identity and socio-political possibility. I argue that these mental maps consists of their understandings of being Chinese as well as being Indonesians, and avenues of possible social and political participations in a more democratic Indonesia. They are reproduced through discursive practices that are taking place in the changing Indonesian community. Situated in this area of inquiry, my paper analyzes out how Chinese Indonesian organizations and media construct the ethnicity and ethnic identity; and what strategies they use for the construction the chineseness and Chinese identity of Chinese Indonesian.

Setefanus Suprajitno is a graduate student in Anthropology Department, Cornell University. His research interest is identity, ethnicity, and the study of the Chinese in Indonesia.

5. Ecological Dynamics of Peat Swamp Forests in West Kalimantan, Indonesia: Implications for Carbon Sequestrations and Conservation
Unlike peat areas in temperate and boreal ecosystems, we lack empirical measures of Net Primary Production within their dynamics periods of forest degradation or disturbance, which is needed for developing measurement of carbon pools and flux estimates in tropical peat. Moreover, given the rapid conversion and degradation of tropical peatlands, we require a greater understanding of both natural ecological dynamics and the effects of anthropogenic disturbances such as logging and fire. Representative information of Net Primary Production on degraded tropical peat swamp forest (PSF) is needed presently to describe how this ecosystem will be projected to face global climate and environmental changes and to understand the function of this ecosystem in global carbon cycles. In addition, potential carbon payment under REDD will require ANPP to determine C sequestration over the payment period.
A study on aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and carbon sequestration has been done in coastal PSF in West Kalimantan, Indonesia since 2005. We monitored aboveground fine litterfall, woody biomass increment and ANPP (their sum) over 36 months across peat depth gradient within an intensive 12 ha in the least disturbed peat swamp forest available in the landscape and that it was as representative of peat being converted or lost to fire. We also measured herbivore losses, soil CO2 respiration and particles and dissolve C in water to estimate the losses of carbon from the ecosystem to present an estimate of C sequestration of the ecosystem. Results indicate that PSF's ANPP is relatively high (15.57 Mg Ha-1yr-1) even though aboveground biomass is low (86 ± 5 Mg Ha-1) compared to West KalimantanTropical Low Land Forest (518 ± 28 Mg Ha-1 (mean ± SE). We estimate positive (gain) carbon sequestration on carbon budget of PSF in West Kalimantan.

Dwi Astiani-123 and Lisa Curran-12
1Yale University 2Simpur Kalimantan 3Universitas Tanjungpura, Indonesia

6. Dialog on Sciences and Social Sciences

Kholis Abdurachim Audah, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Associate. Yale School of Medicine.

I was born in Tangerang, Banten on June 21, 1973. I earned a bachelor degree in chemistry and biochemistry from Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) in 1996, a master degree in Molecular Biology from University of Malaya, Malaysia in 2000, and a PhD in biochemistry from Auburn University, Alabama in 2007. Since January 2008-present, I am pursuing my postdoctoral research at Yale University School of Medicine. From January-December 2002, I worked for Indonesian government at the Center for Radiation Safety Assessment, Nuclear Energy Control Board (BAPETEN).

Current Research Project. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a motile, opportunistic pathogen responsible for numerous acute and chronic infections in humans. A surface organelle of P. aeruginosa- flagella (to propel) and pili (to retract)- appears to play important roles in host-pathogen and pathogen-pathogen interactions required for infection and colonization. P. aeruginosa has a single, polar flagellum that drives swimming and swarming motility. In this study, we characterized one of proteins that is essential for the placement and assembly of polar flagella, FlhF protein. In P. aeruginosa, FlhF localizes to the flagellar pole. In the absence of FlhF, flagellar assembly occurs but is no longer restricted to the pole. FlhF is required for swimming and swarming motility in P. aeruginosa. FlhF has been classified as a signal-recognition particle (SRP)-type GTPase that catalyzes GTP hydrolysis reaction to form GDP. We hypothesize that GTP hydrolysisby FlhF is not intended to generate energy required for motility, but rather plays a regulatory role in this process. FlhF has been shown to interact with other proteins in different bacterial systems.

Sponsored by Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies

For additional information, contact Kevin Fogg or Indriyo Sukmono