Indonesia’s anti-pornography bill : A Case study of decision making in the Indonesian Parliament (DPR)

The question is as old as the nation: What role is Islam supposed to play in society and, more importantly, in governing Muslim Indonesia. While having a paramount Muslim majority, the country is, after all, a multi-cultural and multi-religious country. Its Muslim majority traditionally embraces values of tolerance and understanding towards those who practice another faith. The authors of Indonesia’s constitution saw this as a constitutive principle of the Indonesian society as well as a prerequisite for the unity of the nation. They intended to protect the legitimate interests of all faiths through article 29 of the constitution which stipulates that “the state guarantees the freedom of all residents to embrace their own religion and to worship according to the own religion and beliefs”

Alliances of Instrumental Advantage: Supporting Women’s Agency in Civil Society Organisations in Indonesia

This article examines how Indonesian civil society organisations (CSOs) working for women’s empowerment and gender equality have worked together with members of parliament (MPs) to support processes of developmental change. Examples are taken from initiatives supported by MAMPU, an Australian government funded project that promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment in Indonesia, describing ways in which gender-focused organisations have engaged with, and had an impact upon, the actions of political leaders in parliament. The article focuses on interaction between institutions and the agency exercised by individuals within institutions. MPs act within a structure of institutional and political incentives, but they also have the power to make choices about how they respond to incentives. Moreover, the leaders of outside actors such as CSOs can modify the structure of incentives by both applying pressure on MPs and providing opportunities for legislators to make different choices. One of MAMPU’s tools for targeting MPs has been political economy analysis. Having correctly understood the pressures and incentives facing MPs, CSOs can target their actions to bring about outcomes favourable to both sides in what the article calls ‘alliances of instrumental advantage.’ Organisations supported by MAMPU achieved success where relationships were forged between the organisations and politicians based on the identification of mutual advantage

Research for better aid: an evaluation of DFAT’s investments

Assesses the degree to which the investment by the Australian aid program into research has been appropriate, effective and efficient, and provides recommendations for improving DFAT’s future management of research investment. Foreword Explores how research investment can be best managed to ensure DFAT supports aid innovation and high-quality aid program and policy decision-making. The evaluation focuses on whether the management of DFAT’s considerable development research investment has been appropriate, effective and efficient. Employing a multi-dimensional evaluation method, it draws on the experiences of DFAT staff and stakeholders, as well as the available expenditure data, in arriving at a set of well-supported findings and recommendations. The report makes several important points about the need for DFAT to have a clear sense about why and how it funds research. The department’s managers and officers need especially to be conscious of the effectiveness and efficiency risks implicit in their highly devolved form of research investment management. These risks will be reduced if robust knowledge management systems and a strong culture of research use are embedded in the department. The experience of other aid donors indicates that achieving this will be a significant challenge. The evaluation also makes a finding with clear implications for the way the department engages with research institutions in partner countries. It shows that, while the department’s research funding to Australian institutions increased significantly from 2005 to 2013, the level of direct funding to partner country institutions did not increase to the same extent and was, indeed, flat over the last five years of that period. There are clear benefits to be had in building research capacity in those institutions, either directly or through partnerships with Australian and international researchers. Given Australia’s ongoing investment in the Pacific, this may be a region in which future research funding can be focused.   &nbsp

Self-organising Roles in Agile Globally Distributed Teams

The ability to self-organise is posited to be a fundamental requirement for successful agile teams. In particular, self-organising teams are said to be crucial in agile globally distributed software development (AGSD) settings, where distance exacerbates team issues. We used contextual analysis to study the specific interaction behaviours and enacted roles of practitioners working in multiple AGSD teams. Our results show that the teams studied were extremely task focussed, and those who occupied team lead or programmer roles were central to their teams’ self-organisation. These findings have implications for AGSD teams, and particularly for instances when programmers – or those occupying similar non-leadership positions – may not be willing to accept such responsibilities. We discuss the implications of our findings for information system development (ISD) practice

Is UV laser ablation a suitable tool for geochemical analysis of organic rich source materials?

Abstract not available

Potential of short wavelength laser ablation of organic materials

Although the literature contains several articles on UV laser ablation of synthetic polymers [1] and human tissue for surgical applications, to our knowledge there is no published record on organic geochemical applications for UV laser pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (LA-GC-MS). In this study we have demonstrated the use of a 213 nm UV laser beam for ablating kerogens and organic rich rocks to liberate and analyse hydrocarbon signatures and compared the results against IR laser pyrolysis and traditional Py-GC-MS. It is possible to equate laser wavelength to electron volts where 1064 nm (IR) = 1.2 eV and 213 nm (UV) = 5.8 eV. Most chemical bonds have an energy between 2-4 eV and C-C bonds are ~3.6 eV. Organic materials can absorb radiation from a UV laser and chemical bonds can be cleaved cleanly by complex photochemical pathways by a single photon [2]. Ablation occurs with almost no heating of the sample and hence the term laser ablation instead of pyrolysis. Visible or IR lasers have insufficient energy to break bonds with a single photon this results in the heating of sample by the absobtion of energy into the vibrational modes of the molecule which can then result in pyrolysis. A solvent-extracted kerogen consisting mainly of higher plant material (Brownie Butte, Montanna, ~ 70 Ma) was used for initial experiments. A number of other samples have also been analysed. Laser ablation work was performed off-line in a static helium cell followed by solvent extraction of the laser cell. Separate analysis of the same samples using a more traditional flash pyrolysis approach was performed with a CDS pyroprobe and IR laser pyrolysis [3] for comparative purposes. As can be seen in Fig 1 UV laser ablation is able to liberate relatively high molecular weight fragments with no alkenes or other pyrolysis artefacts detected. SEM images of ablation pits indicate there is no obvious thermal alteration of the sample. The results of the pyrolysis techniques (on-line and IR laser pyrolysis) are similar and display a number of artefacts related to the pyrolysis process. Laser ablation of a number of samples has also shown that the distributions of biomarkers are comparable with the solvent extracts. Product yields although not quantified appear to be much higher than traditional pyrolysis technique