On Monday, December 5, 2010, the event of 2010 World Conference on Culture, Education and Science (WISDOM) was officially held at Universitas Gadjah Mada. In the conference attended by participants from 35 countries and representatives from 18 universities throughout Indonesia, a colloquium was held as a form of tribute to the late Prof. Dr. Mubyarto and Dr. Ann Dunham, the mother of United States President Barack Obama.
The award presentation to Dr. Ann Dunham and Prof. Mubyarto was intended to commemorate and honor their intellectual contribution in the field of social economic development. Both are focal figures who focused on the issue of micro-finance and social economy.
Prof. Mubyarto was an UGM economist who had developed the concept of Pancasila Economics and gave major contribution to the development of social economy.
Dr. Ann Dunham had a good relationship with UGM during her research on the micro-finance in Yogyakarta and Central Java. Her work entitled "Peasant Blacksmithing in Indonesia" was presented in a dissertation examination at the University of Hawaii. Ann Dunham, also an expert on economic anthropology, died in 1995.
Prof. Alice Dewey, Professor Emeritus of Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Science University of Hawaii, in the opening ceremony delivered that Ann Dunham and she were friends during their research in Indonesia. Ann Dunham conducted research in 25 villages. Some of the villages visited were Torso, a village in which the villagers predominately work as ikat makers, Kasongan, a village whose inhabitants mostly work in pottery industry, as well as Kajar village that is well-known for blacksmithing that was the subject of her dissertation.
Told by Dewey, Ann Dunham’s research focused on the modernization issues and their effect on women’s role in the production process of small and medium industries. The results showed the increasing role of women in the modern era.
In the mean time, Prof. Sri Edi Swasono, Chairman of Bappenas (National Development Planning Agency), reviewed the ideas of Prof. Mubyarto who had personal connection with him when drafting the Pancasila Economics. Mentioned by Sri Edi, Presidential Instruction Program of Disadvantaged Villages (IDT) is a government program launched by Mubyarto in 1993 during his service as Assistant Minister for National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas. Poverty alleviation program indeed had been stopped, but the concept of a revolving grants fund developed by Mubyarto is still applied in other forms in various development sectors throughout Indonesia.
According to Sri Edi, Prof. Mubyarto rejected the economic idea that oriented on the market policy as supremacy in Indonesia’s economic policy, because it is quasi-assumed of economic actors as homo economicus. Meanwhile, Ann Dunham, as said by Endang Purwaningsih, did not agree with market fundamentalism. Her disagreement was seen when she found out and saw the reality when she was conducting the research in 24 villages in Indonesia. Social justice for all Indonesian people can not be realized if market fundamentalism doctrine is freely applied.