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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20
REMEMBERING DAYAN DAWOOD
R. William Liddle
To cite this article: R. William Liddle (2001) REMEMBERING DAYAN DAWOOD, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 37:3, 305-307, DOI: 10.1080/00074910152669136
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074910152669136
Published online: 17 Jun 2010.
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BulletinofIndonesianEconomicStudies,Vol.37,No.3,2001:305–7
ISSN0007-4918print/ISSN1472-7234online/01/030305-3 ©2001IndonesiaProjectANU
Dayan Dawood was the first modern Acehnesethat Iknew. For two years, from1985to1987,Dayanwassimulta
-neouslymybossandmycolleagueatthe CentreforSocialScienceResearchTrain
-ing (PLPIIS, PusatLatihan Penelitian Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial), which was then lo
-cated on the campus of Syiah Kuala UniversityinDarussalam, a suburbof theAcehneseprovincialcapital,Banda Aceh. He was the director and I the
tenaga ahli utama, principal expert in chargeoftrainingandfieldsupervision. Ourjob was totrain social science re
-searchers,12peryear,whohadbeense
-lected in a nation al competition of universitygraduatesfromalloverIndo
-nesia,exceptforAcehitself(successful Acehneseapplicants were sent to an
-other centre). From that time on we maintainedafriendshipandwereinfre
-quentcommunication, untilhewasshot dead by unknownassailants in broad daylightonabusystreetintheheartof BandaAcehon6September.
Dayan’smodernitywasrootedinpart inhisprofessionasaneconomist.1Eco
-nomics,comparedtosociology,anthro
-pology, or my own field of political science,isthesocialsciencethathasbeen mostsuccessfulasscience,inthesense thatitsexplanatoryandpredictivepow
-ersareclosesttothoseofthenaturalsci
-ences.Itsproponentsbelievethatthey haveaconceptualframeworkandtools
that, if applied properly, can create a modern society with a high material standardofliving.
Dayan, who earned his PhD at the UniversityofHawaii,helpedmegreatly tounderstandeconomics,inparticular economicdevelopment theory,andthe social and political obstaclesto its ap
-plicationinIndonesia.Fortwoyearsin BandaAceh, during the national eco
-nomic crisis that nearly overwhelmed Indonesiainthe late 1980s,Ibenefited from a continuing seminarin applied development theory.
Perhapsthemostvaluablelessonthat Ilearned,borrowingDayan’s ownvo
-cabularyfromthatperiod,wasthat‘Pak WidjojoandOomLiemweremoreen
-emiesthanallies’.Hewasreferring,of course,toProfessorWidjojoNitisastro, aprofessional economistandtheleader formanyyearsofPresidentSoeharto’s advisoryteam,andLiemSioeLiong,a wealthy businessman personally close to thepresident. Dayan himself sided withWidjojo.Thatis,hebelievedwith Widjojo that the national interest in achieving arelatively egalitarian pros
-peritywasbestservedbyafreemarket. That interest was frequently under
-mined, orat leastthreatened, by busi
-nesspeoplewhoseindividualandgroup interestwasinprotectionism, lawsand regulations that would limit both do
-mesticandforeigncompetition anden
-REMEMBERING
D AYAN
DAWOOD *
R.WilliamLiddle
TheOhioStateUniversity
RWilliamLiddle 306
ablethemtocontrolmarketsandcharge higherprices.
Dayan’sview,whilecommonamong economists, rancounter tothe widely held belief of Indonesian intellectuals thatPakWidjojowastheservantofOom Liem;thatis,thathewastheshaperof statepoliciesthatenabledthestrongto dominate theweak, and in particular helpedthewealthy(oftenSino-Indone
-sianorforeign) businesspeopletoop
-press smaller business people and workers.Thisdebatecontinuestoday,in themuchmoreopenpoliticalclimateof thepost-Soeharto period, withpower
-ful forces on both sides. My sense, though,isthattheapproachofWidjojo andDayanhasbeguntowinoutinthe Megawatiera,atleastatthelevelofna
-tionalgovernmentpolicy makers,who havebecomeincreasinglysophisticated promotersofthepublicinterest.
Dayan’s commitment to his profes
-sionandtosciencedidnotconflictwith hisreligiousbeliefsasadevoutMuslim. Quitetheopposite:faithwasaninsepa
-rablepartofhismodernlife. Hisdaily activities,asauniversitylecturerandthe directorofthePLPIISduringmyyears, laterasdeanofthefacultyofeconom
-ics,andasrectorofSyiahKualaUniver
-sityatthetimeofhisdeath,displayeda deep humanitarianism. From 1985 to 1987, Iwasa dailywitnesstothathu
-manitarianism,demonstratedinhisre
-lationships with his staffin theBanda Acehofficeandwithourstudents,aswe spentweekstravelling to isolated vil
-lagestovisitthemattheirfieldsites. Behind Dayan’s humanitarianism wasafirmlyheldbutquietlyexpressed religiousfaith.Anexample:inJakarta, ina lift ina simplehotel at about one o’clock in the morning, wewereonce surrounded by sex workers who had perhapsbeencalledbyguestsinanother room onourfloor.Afterwegottoour room,Iaskedifheeverfelttemptedin
situationslikethat.Hesaidnever.When I asked why, he smiled softly and pointedupwards.
Atamoreintellectual level,weoften discussedtheroleofreligioninmodern life.Iwasattractedtothistopic,among other things because according to the modernisation and development theo
-ries thatI had studied as a university student, themoredeveloped a society becamethemorereligiousbelieftended todisappear. Dayan,like many young Indonesians whomIknow,Muslimand non-Muslim, represented living proof
thatthistheorywasnottrue.Morethan that,DayanwasanAcehnesewhowas alsoadevoutMuslim,butdidnotinthe leastreflectthestereotypesoffanaticism and backwardness that are still often held byothersoftheAcehnese.Atthe veryleast,heprovedthatanotherAceh hadbeenbornandmightgrowtoma
-turityinthehandsofits bestsonsand daughters.
Finally,Dayan Dawoodwas amod
-ernpoliticianwhotriedthroughouthis lifetobridgeadeepchasmbetweentwo worlds, Aceh and Indonesia, that for decadeshadnotbeenintouchwitheach other. HelovedAceh,even thoughhe complainedaboutitspeople’srebellious streakthatsometimesgotoutofcontrol. Andhehatedthepoliciesandactionsof the New Ordergovernment that had from the 1960s forced itselfon the re
-gions,includingAceh,insomanyways. Imyselfdidnotexperiencetheworst period of army repression, afterAceh wasdeclaredaMilitaryOperationsRe
-gion(DOM,DaerahOperasiMiliter)in theearly1990s,butIknew,inpartfrom many conversations with Dayan, how the Acehnese people suffered during thatperiod.Whathe mostregretted—
ofcourse,afterthebrutalityofthearmy towardhispeople—wasthelostoppor
-tunitytodevelopAcehtothesamelevel asotherprovinces.Businesspeoplein
Remembering DayanDawood 307
vested their capital in Java, or in the neighbo uring prov ince o f North Sumatra,buttheycontinually avoided Aceh,whichduringtheSoehartoperiod wasnever considered safe.In fact,the mainproblem,saidDayan,wasnotthe Acehnese Independence Movement (GAM,GerakanAcehMerdeka),butthe atmosphereofinsecuritycreatedbythe governmentitself.
Dayanwasa politician inthebroad sense.Hedidn’tlivelongenoughtobe
-comegovernor,andasfarasIknowhe neverwantedtobeapoliticalpartyac
-tivistorsitinparliamentortheprovin
-ciallegislature. Nonetheless, hehad a politicalvisionthathehadalready be
-guntoformulatewhenIfirstknewhim. Untiltheendofhislife,inthemanyof
-ficesthatheheldandinformalrolesthat heplayed,hecontinuedtodevelopthat vision.
Ourresearch training centre, which hadbeen conceived in theearly1970s byCliffordGeertzandSeloSoemardjan inJakarta attheSocial Sciences Foun
-dation (Yayasan Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial),
Dayansawasafirstbridge,smalland fragile but real. It connected those Acehnese whowanted to be modern, includingthosewholivedintheisolated regions where many of our students
worked,withthemostup-to-datetheo
-riesandpracticesofdevelopment inthe restoftheworld.Anditdemonstrated totheworld,throughthesuccessofits programandtheactivitiesofitsformer students,spreadthroughoutthearchi
-pelago,thatAcehcouldstillplayarole inthefrontlines,asithadinthe1945–
49RevolutionagainsttheDutch. DuringtheNewOrder,modernpoli
-ticians likeDayanwho livedinthe re
-gionswerenotgivenanopportunity to build bigger and more solid bridges. Theirroomtomaneouvrewasnarrowed bytheexcessivehierarchyofstatestruc
-ture andtheoverwhelming concentra
-tion ofpolitical resourcesinthehands ofcentralgovernmentofficials.Modern politicians inAcehandIrianJayafaced thegreatestchallenge,becausethecen
-tresuspectedthattheywereseparatists. Nonetheless,withseveralexceptions, theywerenotkilled.WhileIwaswrit
-ingthisremembrance, Iwastelephoned byanoldAcehnesefriend,ahousewife andownerofasmallshopwholivesin BandaAceh.ShealsohadknownDayan for a long time. ‘It’s like they wantto killallthecleverpeople,’shesaidina tremulous voice. ‘Whocan save us?’I didn’tgiveherananswer,becauseItoo donotknowwhatcanbedone.
NOTES
* Thisremembrancewasfirstpublishedas
‘MengenangDayanDawood’,Kompas,9
September2001.
1 PakDayan hadcloseassociations with
TheAustralianNationalUniversity.He
co-authored(withSjafrizal) thechapter
onAcehinHalHill(ed.)(1989),Unityin
Diversity:RegionalEconomicDevelopment inIndonesiasince1970(OxfordUniversity
Press,Singapore),thatgrewoutofasemi
-naronregionaldevelopment heldatthe
ANU. His son Taufiq ispresently en
-rolledintheuniversity’sMastersinEco
-nomicDevelopment Program.
