Scholarship / AAS - Political Science - How will the proposed study contribute to your career? [2]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for feedback on my AAS personal statement

How will the proposed study contribute to your career*?

I am a political-corruption researcher in the local anti-corruption NGO (i put the name). I am responsible for analyzing Indonesia's policy and regulations that and published monthly, quarterly and annual reports on Indonesia's corruption case. After completing my study in Australia, I plan to return to the NGO and continue the organization's research.

In upcoming years, political corruption in mining sectors, especially in coal energy, will be my focus of research. The contributions of the study are to systematically record the money politics in coal mining industries and explore the impact of politically exposed persons to the policy related to mining and energy sectors. In the broader perspective, the study also provides new lights on Indonesia democratic decline scholarships, especially to the understudied business actors' role. In this research, I was assigned to trace and identify the policy makers affiliated with coal industries; either as beneficial ownership or corruption-related cases. I was also assigned to investigate the decision-making process of the recently passed Mining Bill and Job Creation Bill.

Considering political parties are the responsible actors for money politics in Indonesia, I need to gain in-depth theoretical and conceptual understanding of the political party system and in comparative perspectives. Therefore, I will be able to identify the shortcomings of Indonesian political party; its weakness and strength, comparing political party regimes across third-wave democracy, and the role, nature and characteristics of informal actors in money politics settings. Furthermore, I also need to explore the political financing regime and system to detect the shortcoming in Indonesia's political party system that is implicated in pervasive corruption.

Following the study in Australia, I would also aspire to improve the organizational and mobilizational capacity of Indonesia's pro-democracy movement, starting from the NGO. The 2019's and 2020's mass rally exposed the civil society movement's inability to frame the agenda in an appropriate perspective. Therefore, my goal is to implement and operationalize the political and social change concept and theory into the movement, strategically and tactically. Using my NGO Anti-Corruption Academy I also able to introduce, promote, and reproduce the works of Indonesianist in order to explain the situation in Indonesia and improve the ability to analyze the political trajectories.

Scholarship / Political science - [AAS] Why did you choose your proposed course and institution? [5]

Hello, I am applying for AAS in the class of 2021. It would be a pleasure to get my essay reviewed.

QUESTION: Why did you choose your proposed course and institution?

In recent years, Indonesia experienced democratic decline. Scholars have been analyzed various shortcomings such as the quality of political institutions, the strength of civil society movement, and potential polarization leading to the 2024's national elections. However, few have been systematically paying attention to the impact of businesses to policy outcomes and their interplay with formal actors. Furthermore, obtaining conceptual and theoretical frameworks of Indonesia's democratization process will be beneficial with my current role as researcher in Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW). Therefore, I am interested in pursuing a graduate study in the Political Science department of Australia National University.

Compared to the dominant oligarchic thesis that neglect the significance of social forces and values in Indonesia's democratization, the pluralist approach applied by the Coral Bell School of Pacific Affairs proved to be more accurate in explaining the development in Indonesia. As a middle ground approach, the perspective assessed both popular and elite agency as well as analyzing the quality of democratic institutions such as political parties, legislative bodies, and rule of law. The pluralist approach therefore able to answer the questions of why corruption occurred and civil society movement unable to resist and mobilize the anti-corruption movement.

The faculties in Coral Bell School have a long established commitment to the Indonesia democratization process and developed recent interest in inquiring money politics. As a former student activist and human rights defender, I also have familiarity with the works of Coral Bell's scholars and look forward to closely learning from them. In regards to sources of political corruption, Marcus Mietzner has contributed by analyzing the political party system and funding regime. During my time as a student activist, I had the opportunity to invite Mietzner to my Indonesian Political History classes. Moreover, Professor Edward Aspinall works on money politics providing theoretical contributions and methodology to analyze the day-to-day informal politics in Indonesia.

Finally, the Coral Bell School's commitment on the development of Indonesian politics highlighted in the annually Indonesian Update conference. For more than twenty years, the interdisciplinary conferences have monitored, analyzed, and developed theoretical and conceptual frameworks on dynamics of Indonesian politics since the New Order era. Moreover, the Indonesia Project has invited prominent scholars on Indonesian Politics and has contributed to the study of Indonesia's democratization and working with the government, civil society, and business network to improve Indonesia's democracy quality.