PROFILE: Forum for Sulawesi Studies

On April 2, 2003, some future members the MKS gathering to establish an organization which put its aim on local communities empowerment. The meeting attended by Prof. W.I.M Poli, DR. Agnes Rampisela, Matsui Kazuhisa, Okamato Masaaki, Motoko Shimagami, Ida Gosal, Hasriadi and Nurhady Sirimorok. It was also in the meeting that the members talk about the Mission, Vision and Goal of the organization.

Mission

To participate in helping the local communities discover their own identities in the process of development towards increased self-reliance within a dignified global community.

Vision

To become a trusted media of information, which collects and disseminate information concerning the formation of self-identity of local communities in the process of development towards increased relf-reliance within a dignified global community.

Goal

Collected and disseminated qualified information to concerned partners, concerning self-identity of local communities in the process of dvelopment towards increased self-reliance within a dignified global community..

Derived from the above statements are the following statements concerning the products, the object of study, and the work partners of MKS.

Expected Products

The products produced by MKS are information concerning self-identity of chosen local communities in the process of development towards higher self-reliance within a dignified global community. The products consist of information collected by other reliable parties as well as what is produced by MKS from its own research activities, within and outside of Sulawesi.

Object of Study

The object of study is local communities, within and outside of Sulawesi.

Work Partners

The work partners of MKS are the chosen local communities and other partners who have similar Mission, Vision, and Goal Statements as those of MKS.

Experiences

FASID Fieldwork Program In cooperation with Foundation for Advance Studies on International Development (FASID). It is a fieldwork training program for graduate students and young community workers from Japan or those who study in Japan and Indonesia. It brought some 30 participants to study in villages in South Sulawesi for three weeks. The program not only intended help to build skill on fieldwork design but also to grasp issues from multi-disciplinary approach, to work in team, and to build empathy towards the rural life.

Youth Camp 2004 Fieldwork training program for high school students from various high schools in South Sulawesi. It was held in cooperation with Yayasan Rumah Kamu, carried on around the beginning of the last January in a remote village in Gowa, and attended by 23 selected students. The program is mainly to encourage students to experience rural life so that they could rethink about ‘village’ images they had and to have more empathy to the rural people.

Publishing Book In cooperation with Ininnawa Foundation publishing books on South Sulawesi studies. Recetly, working on to publish ‘Warisan Arung Palakka, Sejarah Sulawesi Selatan Abad ke-17’ translated from ‘The Heritage of Arung Palakka, History of South Sulawesi in The Seventeenth Century’ written by Leonard Y. Andaya. The program expected to stimulate and encourage more, in quantity and quality, studies and writings on South Sulawesi from various points of view.

(For further information about our programs see Annual Report)