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Thomas Reuter: Friendship and Fascination
(JP/Dina Indrasafitri)Amid talk of the urgency for Australia to engage with its neighbor Indonesia and Asia in general if it is not to be left behind in the region, anthropologist and author Thomas Reuter has his own view
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(JP/Dina Indrasafitri) (JP/Dina Indrasafitri)
(JP/Dina Indrasafitri)
Amid talk of the urgency for Australia to engage with its neighbor Indonesia and Asia in general if it is not to be left behind in the region, anthropologist and author Thomas Reuter has his own view.
'The general perspective here is: 'Oh we can't ignore Asia ' It's very important indeed. There's a lot of money to be made and we will be economically disadvantaged, our security might be compromised if we don't pay proper attention to Asia,' but the motive is entirely self interest,' he said, smiling.
Instead of making a profit, Australia should, according to Reuter, look to 'make friends' in Asia, and especially in Indonesia, especially because after spending decades of studying the country he still finds it a very amicable neighbor with no military ambitions toward Australia.
'The most important conclusion is just how lucky Australia is that Indonesia is their neighbor and how little we appreciate our good fortune because I see that Indonesians are generally very easy to get along with ['¦] it is quite a safe neighborhood ['¦] unless we cause trouble ourselves,' he elaborated.
He went so far as to say that Australia is, in fact, 'part of Asia'.
The friendship-before-profit attitude might have a lot to do with Reuter's discipline. For an anthropologist in particular, a mere profit-seeking motive is not so clever and pretty obvious.
His fascination with anthropology and Asia began over 30 years ago, when he was still living as a teenager in a rural part of Germany. It was, he recalls, the late 1970s and an interest in 'the East' had been sweeping many parts of the world, including his.
Having an eagerness to explore and experience many things, he embarked on a 10-year road-trip, mostly across Asia 'with short interruptions to work a little and learn a little'.
'I like the idea of stepping out of familiar circumstance or seeing the world in a different way ' to understand to what extent our perception of things depends on our culture ['¦] It turns out that cultural diversity is one of the fundamental features of being human,' Reuter said.
His first encounter with Indonesia was in 1982, when he traveled overland from Jakarta to Lake Toba in North Sumatra.
Eventually, he decided that he did not want to spend the rest of his life in Europe. Due to a number of factors including its proximity to Asia, Australia became his choice as a place of residence and work.
Reuter now holds dual nationality ' Australian and German ' and has written eight books as well as over 60 articles about various subjects, including religion, politics, climate change, land and, of course, anthropology itself.
The professor is currently working at the University of Melbourne and recently launched his new book, entitled Faith in the Future: Understanding the Revitalization of Religions and Cultural Traditions in Asia.
He also finished his first documentary this year, entitled The Java Spirit ' Religion and Spirituality in Contemporary Indonesia, which explores the many ways through which the Javanese explore their spiritual side, be it through widely practiced monotheistic religions such as Islam or Christianity, or
personal pilgrimages.
The film's colorful subjects, including a man who walked across Java before falling into a deep hole in which he saw a vision of the prophet Muhammad, and a guardian of a forest considered sacred, reflects the rich array of characters Reuter has encountered during his now 12-year-long research into religious tradition, diversity and change in Java.
He claimed he deliberately left groups seen as fundamentalist and aggressive in voicing their religious views out of the shot, because, according to him, the media has already splashed enough attention on these groups, who are actually in a minority.
'What strikes me is that people in Jawa [sic] tend to have very sophisticated views about religion. They think about it a lot. They are not radical and simplistic ' that's not my experience. Most people have fairly sophisticated and balanced views,' Reuter said.
Another reason behind the making of the movie is that spirituality in Indonesia and Java in particular has been left largely unnoticed compared to its counterparts such as Tibetan Buddhism or Zen.
Aside from the ongoing project about spirituality in Java, as well as plans to make another documentary, he is currently conducting research into Indonesia's political, economic and cultural elites.
Reuter's office in Melbourne University is almost devoid of the Indonesian decorative artifacts or bric-a-brac usually spotted in the quarters of people whose work heavily involves Indonesia, but the bookshelf is filled with books about the country and Asia in general, including India.
Decades after, he has explored a wide range of regions in Indonesia, but most of his work focuses on Bali, where he conducted research into the Aga community, and on Java, which he constantly pronounces 'Jawa'.
'Anthropologists tend to have a special approach to study other cultures and peoples ['¦] they immerse themselves in the culture until they acquire, eventually, a kind of mastery of the culture. They understand it from the inside and it becomes a part of who they are as an individual,' he said of his relationship with Indonesia and its assortment of cultures.
And up to this day, the country still fascinates him with all its changes and constants. His principles of friendship and his curiosity toward the many aspects of Indonesia helped fuel this relationship and this has proven to be quite useful in his research on the national elites.
'My own position is very much as a lover of Indonesia, and I can talk with Indonesian politicians, corporate leaders in a way that is perhaps more than just strategic talk. I can understand their perspective,' Reuter said.
While friendship is clearly beneficial for an anthropologist digging up the richness of Indonesia's culture, in the context of the Australia-Indonesia relationship its perks can extend even to the financial.
Just because one is looking to make friends in Asia 'doesn't mean that you can't profit', Reuter said.
'It's easy to make money when we have a lot of friends. If people around you trust you and have reason to trust you and you are honest about past mistakes, It's easy to do business.'
