University of Tasmania, Australia

Mr Peter Doelle

Postgraduate

Contact Details

Research Interests

PhD working title - A Socio-cultural Analysis of Population Transfer and Mobility in the Wake of Indonesia's Transmigration Program

The postcolonial Indonesian Transmigrasi program of moving people from the 'overcrowded' central islands of Bali, Java and Madura to the less populated outer islands of Kalimantan, Papua or Sumatra has received a negative press especially in the field of environmental impact. Whilst material outcomes for the six to seven million transmigrants have been mixed, it is the socio-cultural dimension of transmigration that is the basis for this project. Peter's interest in socio-cultural fluidity in Indonesia and the wider Malay World arose out of his research for an Honours thesis, Maphilindo, The Conceptualising, Reality and Thwarting of Malay Irredentism, which showed conclusively that population mobility in the Archipelago has been an age-old phenomenon. For example, during the Sriwijaya, Melaka and Majaphahit eras, and the later sixteenth to twentieth century colonial period, the people of the Archipelago have been on the move, both voluntarily and forcibly. Notwithstanding the mid-twentieth century formation of archipelagic nation-states - predicated on artificial colonial-era boundaries - the complexity of ethnicities, languages and cultures has continued. According to Tirtosudarmo (2005 : 16)... "the first generation of Indonesian leaders moved toward a more trans-ethnic nationalism -Indonesian civic nationalism..." where ethnic differences were subsumed in favour of the Indonesian citizen. The thrust of research for this thesis will determine to what degree ethnicities, cultures and languages have survived the transmigrant / population mobility experience and whether a new 'civic Indonesian' citizen has indeed emerged.

Tirtosudarmo, R. 'The Orang Melayu and Orang Jawa in the 'Lands Below the Winds', CRISE Working Paper 14 (March 2005)