My interest in Southeast Asia began in 1999, in a class on comparative politics of Myanmar and Indonesia, where I became fascinated by the Indonesian student movement of 1998, and in the SEASREP Foundation’s first “Traveling Classroom,” in which I participated along with other undergraduate students from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. After I obtained my BA history degree at Thammasat University (TU), I went on to my master’s and wrote about—you guessed it— the Indonesian student movement and the fall of Suharto. In 2001, with a language training grant from SEASREP, I went to Jakarta to learn bahasa Indonesia. I took the beginner’s class, passed an exam to skip the intermediate level, and moved straight to advanced language classes, obtaining the best score that year. But better than that, a new world opened! I was able to read primary sources in Indonesian and conduct interviews for my thesis. Without the language ability, I would not have been able to finish my master’s. I also received a scholarship for my thesis research from SEASREP.
I took my graduate studies at the right time. The beginning of 2000s happened to be the dawn of Southeast Asian studies programs in Thailand. Thammasat opened its program in 2001, about the same time that Walailak University in southern Thailand started its Regional Studies Program. Other universities in Thailand followed suit. Before completing my MA, I received an offer of a position in Walailak’s Regional Studies Program, which focused on Indonesian and Malay Studies. I then started my career there in 2003 and taught courses on Indonesia and the Indonesian language, worked on an Indonesian-Thai dictionary project and several translations, and availed of interesting international seminars about Southeast Asia.
After four years at Walailak I moved to the History Department at TU (where I still am). A colleague from political science and I worked in a research project on Aceh after the peace agreement. I was able to visit Aceh in 2009 for the first time. In 2012, I began my PhD in History at the University of Queensland with a thesis titled “A History of Shariah Law in Aceh: Debates among Acehnese Ulama.” I did research in both the Netherlands and Indonesia: archival research in Amsterdam, Leiden, and the Hague, and archival research and fieldwork in Jakarta and Aceh. My informants in Aceh gave me deep and valuable information for my thesis.
I relate my story to show that my interest in the region was intentional from the start, and I had the fortune of enjoying grants from within the region to study another country in the region. I think my strength is that I am both an outsider and an insider with regard to studying Aceh and Indonesia: the first because I am a Thai scholar working on Indonesia, which from a narrow, nation-framed perspective would make me an outsider; and the second because I am also a Southeast Asian who is comfortable in bahasa Indonesia in addition to Thai, my mother tongue. Today in Thailand I am recognized as an Indonesianist (one of a handful in the country) and am often invited to comment or speak as an expert on topics about Indonesia. I also chair the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Thammasat’s Institute of East Asian Studies.
I must say, though, that it was rather lonely when I first began to specialize on Indonesia. Although many Thai know Indonesia from Cerita Panji, an ancient folk story whose popularity among the Thai dates back to the early Rattanakosin era, and recognize Java because King Chulalongkorn once visited the place, contemporary Indonesia does not hold much sway over Thai public attention. But the situation has changed since, and positively. The number of Thai students who have graduated from Southeast Asian Studies programs has increased and they work in government, academe, news, business and tourism. At least 19 universities in the country offer full degree programs in Southeast Asian studies (undergraduate and graduate). Numerous other courses are taught by departments that do not have full-degree programs in the field. All these can only mean that there is a considerable number of Thai lecturers who know the region well enough to teach it.
It would be a pity to let the growing competence in the field go to waste because of the challenges we face. And the challenges are many. University and government funds for research in Southeast Asian studies (like the humanities and social sciences) have paled in comparison to the support for science and technology and, after Covid-19, public health. Southeast Asian studies’ additional demands are daunting: language training (universities with Southeast Asian studies programs cannot teach all of the region’s major languages); research in another country (international and inland travel, etc.); and limited collaboration among Southeast Asian scholars in the region.
But there are things we can do. First, Southeast Asian studies could connect more purposefully with other area studies here in the region and outside. Joint academic ventures in the broader field of area studies bring in new and comparative knowledge and help sustain the field. Second, Southeast Asian studies programs across the region could start working with one another. Here in Thailand we know little about each one’s programs. How much more at the regional level? Lastly, translating works written in a Southeast Asian language into other languages of the region is expensive (each would have to be translated into at least six Southeast Asian languages). But suppose we translate selected Southeast Asian works into just English, that would be a less expensive start.
As you can see, I am committed to Indonesian and Southeast Asian studies. I know I have been fortunate to enjoy the opportunities of language and graduate training, of working in a prestigious Thai university, and researching on topics of my choice. But I also know I am not the only one in the region with these advantages. Put together, we all could make the field stronger and better.