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Fadjar I. Thufail

(2003-2004, 2004 - 2005)

Contact Information:
fithufail@wisc.edu

 

 

Bio

Fadjar Thufail is a Research Associate at the Research Center for Regional Resources, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jakarta and was the editor of Sejarah, Journal of the Association of Indonesian Historians. Also a member of the Indonesian Fulbright Society and the Association of Indonesian Historians, Thufail has received a variety of fellowships, scholarships, and grants, including a Fulbright Scholarship, a MacArthur Global Studies Fellowship, a Social Science Research Council Program on Global Security and Cooperation's Fellowship and a Wenner-Gren Foundation's Research Fellowship. Currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he holds an M.A. in Cultural/Social Anthropology from Rutgers University and a B.A. in Archaeology from Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.

His project is on the anti-Chinese violence at the end of the New Order regime in 1998, with a focus on the rapes and attacks on the Indonesian Chinese that companied the fall of the New Order. He also explores how the politics of religion affects the work of memory by examining how the politics of religion with its violent repercussion informs the construction of meaning related to traumatic memory of 1965-66 communist massacres and its contemporary narration. Other project that he has been working on includes the ninja killings which had many connections with the violence of the mid-1990s in Indonesia.

 

 

Research Narrative

The few years at the end of the twentieth century have transformed what one has learned about Indonesia. When ethnic and religious violence erupted in Kalimantan, Java, and the Moluccas, in the scale and magnitude that surprises everyone, Indonesians are left perplexed in trying to make sense of how our “peace-loving” society can commit such atrocity. Almost everyday over the few years I witnessed the most horrible and blatant use of “culture” to justify killing and other acts of barbarity, perpetrated by conflicting parties to further their political and religious agenda. I become anxious over recognizing that the episodes of violence have created prolonged suffering and violated the most basic human rights of those affected. Then in May 1998 I was unexpectedly caught in the most horrifying urban riots I have ever seen. The shocking violence I experienced in Jakarta has led me to a different and deeper understanding about human suffering. Watching people scavenging amidst piles of burned bodies to look for their missing relatives has enraged me. At the same time, we had to protect our neighborhood from rioting masses. The experience awakens me to the fact that fear, terror, and suffering have appeared as the blatant realities of everyday life in Indonesia, and the tradition of social science theory and research in Indonesia had paid little attention on violence. The reality of everyday violence I have witnessed has driven me to learn more in what ways culture can mediate violence. This appeal converges with the growing interest in Indonesia to begin investigating past violence committed by Soeharto’s regime and to give better and fair treatment to those who have suffered from the violence, terror, and discrimination. Drawing from my personal experience and responding to the current human rights concern in Indonesia, I developed a particular interest in hearing the stories and testimonies from victims, perpetrators, and witnesses who have been traumatized by recent explosion of violence. I also give special attention to cultural processes which mediate the stories and testimonies in the public sphere. These concerns are not merely academic. They help to give voices to those who have been manipulated and discriminated against by Soeharto and his military regime.

 

 

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