This is an announcement to invite you to the CSEAS Colloquium for June 2014.

Date & Time: 26 June (Thu) 2014, 16:00~

Place: Middle-sized Meeting Room (No. 332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Foundation Building, Kyoto University

Speaker: Dr. Ehito Kimura, Associate Professor at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Guest Scholar at CSEAS

Title: The Politics of National and Local Apologies in Contemporary Indonesia

Abstract:
In summer of 2012, the President of Indonesia seemed to be on the verge of issuing an historic official apology for the country’s past violations of human rights. After months of lobbying by NGOs and the Indonesian Human Rights Commission (KOMNAS-HAM), representatives of the President announced that he would be making a national apology for the government’s role in the events of September 30 1965, the Tanjung Priok Massacres, and the riots of 1998. However, the apology never came.
On the other hand, in March 2012, Rusdi Mastura, the Mayor of Palu in Sulawesi issued an official apology to the victims of 1965 and offered to provide victims in the area assistance in the form of welfare programs, scholarships, and also building historical memorials.
How can we understand this contrast between national refusal and local apology?
This presentation will explore the emergence of political apologies as a way to deal with the past, their varied and contested meanings, and the way in which they have emerged in the context of Indonesia’s post-authoritarian politics.

Ehito Kimura is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and currently a guest scholar at Kyoto University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies. His research interests are in Indonesian and Southeast Asian politics and comparative political change. His most recent book, Provincial Proliferation: Political Change and Territoriality in Indonesia explores territorial politics in post-authoritarian Indonesia. He has also published articles in Asian Survey, Southeast Asia Research, Indonesia, and Asia Pacific Viewpoint. Professor Kimura obtained his BA from Georgetown University, an MA from Yale University, and a PhD in Political Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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