ACICIS Marks 20 Years in Indonesia by Thanking Host Communities
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Jumat, 19 Oktober 2018 13:55 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) marked its 20th anniversary with a conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Yogyakarta starting Friday and running through the weekend.
Talking to the press ahead of panel discussions, consortium director and Monash University professor David Hill reflected on how the anniversary lands at a time of tenser government relations between Australia and Indonesia.
“The bedrock of any bilateral relationship has nothing to do with government or business relationships,” he said “but rather depends on people to people relationship – a relationship based on knowing and appreciation of sitting in class together.”
Since the program started in 1995, ACICIS has brought 2,000 Australian students to Indonesia from 22 different universities for a year of study abroad. Their alumni work at the Australian embassy in Indonesia, in academia teaching Australians about Indonesian culture and sociology, and some older graduates hold senior positions in Australian companies operating in Indonesia.
ACICIS Indonesia Resident Director Elaine Williams said that the program has so far not been affected by recent tensions. Hill added a note of thanks to the communities in Yogyakarta, Jakarta and Bandung who hosted ACICIS students in boarding houses and family homes.
“Tensions over East Timor and the Bali bombing created an unfavorable atmosphere for government relations,” he said. “But what we at ACICIS remember from these times is not the tension but how the students in our program were supported, safe and cared for. The communities they lived in did not turn against students or regard them as responsible for tension between governments.”
MELATI KAYE