I sent this email to a group of initiators and participants of democratizingwork.org webinar, which was just concluded a few hours ago.
You would notice that the term ‘democratization’ is forever associated with jon in my mind. How i wish he is still with us here in this world so he could continue spearheading the effort of democratizing knowledge.
I am reminded of this song’s lyric. Rufus wainwright’s version was the first i heard of it. Fitting, don"t you think?
"The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where?
Who knows where?
But I’m strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
So on we go
His welfare is my concern
No burden is he to bear
We’ll get there
For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
If I’m laden at all
I’m laden with sadness
That everyone’s heart
Isn’t filled with the gladness
Of love for one another
It’s a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we’re on the way to there
Why not share?
And the load
Doesn’t weigh me down at all
He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother"
Source: https://genius.com/The-hollies-he-aint-heavy-hes-my-brother-lyrics
Surya
Ps: i redact the ‘to’ part of the email below as i have not asked the recipients’ permission to share their email addresses.
Hide quoted text
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Surya Dalimunthe <surya@alumni.nus.edu.sg>
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020, 03:48
Subject: three cheers for democratization
To:
hi all (breakout room 1 discussants, democratizingwork initiators,
respected scholars and activists),
peace be with us,
first cheer: knowledge.
when i first got to know the democratizing work initiative through
prof. fadhel kaboub’s post which showed up on my facebook wall, i was
instantly reminded by another initiative titled similarly.
the late jon tennant, a close friend and an open science scholar and
activist, was commissioned by education international, the largest
sectoral global union federation in the world, to write a report with
the main title ‘democratizing knowledge’. (1)
a group of us from the indonesian open science team translated the
report’s summary into indonesian. several of us wrote an op-ed with
the same main title for jakarta post. (2)
at the moment, cooperating internationally but working at the national
level, we are advocating for open science policies in our respective
countries. (3)
second cheer: work.
this democratizing work initiative comes just at the right moment for
another group of us in indonesia, who have been advocating for a
national job guarantee and basic income policy (both enshrined in
indonesian constitution), very actively during last year’s indonesian
presidential election, and currently during the pandemic. (4)
unfortunately, i know at least 2 well-known mainstream indonesian
economists who retweeted the initiative’s guardian op-ed, but neither
sign nor participate in the follow-up, despite my sharing the
indonesian translation with them (note: their english is fluent).
i am at a loss to explain this show of support-but-no-support,
especially given the very large financial stimulus provided to
indonesian enterprises, from small to large, from private to public,
from financial-sector to real-sector. i’ve also sent the translated
op-ed to an influential indonesian online media, to no response.
this is one reason why we are planning to travel to the capital city,
jakarta, despite the pandemic-related travel restriction, to conduct
somewhat of a ‘guerilla’ dialogues/discussions/debates regarding this
policy with indonesian elites, whom almost if not all mostly resides
there.
third cheer: money.
i mentioned in the given form during the webinar that the
democratizing work initiative should be linked to the larger framework
of economics (macro and micro). one such framework for macroeconomics
is modern monetary theory (mmt).
in a moment of reflection after the webinar, i was reminded of the
‘democratizing money’ conference (5), held two years ago, with a broad
participation across academic disciplines and ideological orientation,
including a number of mmt scholars and activists.
at this very moment in indonesia, the fight is actually on this front,
with the president having stated in his recent ‘national economic
recovery’ (pemulihan ekonomi nasional) speech that mass-jobs (padat
karya) provision must be a priority. this, along with other stimulus
allocation, necessitates an even larger national debt and budget
deficit.
the next day, the president’s very influential minister (indonesians
or those who follow indonesia would know him) even issued a public
challenge for those who dispute the debt and deficit to stop
criticizing it on social media or television and come debate him in
person.
so it is very ironic that the current government who is populated by
economists and elites who before the pandemic adhered to
debt-and-deficit discipline, is now seen as undisciplined, while the
rest of indonesians (including almost all respected critical voices)
are advocating the debt-and-deficit discipline.
i think a way to break this impasse rhetorically is to call for
democratizing money in indonesia. it must be said that almost all
indonesians, inside and outside the government mentioned above, still
hold on to the idea that money is a ‘scarce, limited, and necessarily
non-democratic’ ‘thing’.
towards the end of this email, i realize that i am sharing a lot of
information about indonesia. i hope you don’t mind and i beg for your
indulgence.
with best wishes
surya
numbered links:
(1) https://www.norrag.org/democratising-knowledge-a-report-on-the-scholarly-publisher-elsevier-by-dr-jonathan-tennant/
(2) https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2019/02/27/democratizing-knowledge-for-our-dream.html
or https://mhs.blog.ui.ac.id/juneman/2019/02/28/democratizing-knowledge-for-our-dream/
(3) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L6q8hE12a7_KIH7jq8gAoWqfdg7M4_054_gLaxRj0AQ/edit?usp=drivesdk
and Let's start democratisingknowledge... :)
(4) s.id/2020petition
(5) https://sites.google.com/view/hls-money-as-democratic-medium/home