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A PhD student at the UWA Business School has been awarded the prestigious 2015 Australia Awards Hadi Soesastro Prize.

Rumayya, an Indonesian research student, is working under the supervision of Professor Anu Rammohan to investigate the impact of Indonesia’s decentralisation on regional development at the district level.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop congratulated Rumayya at a recent awards ceremony in Canberra.

“I am delighted to announce that Mrs Wenny Sunarharum [co-recipient based at The University of Queensland] and Mr Rumayya have been awarded the 2015 Australia Awards Hadi Soesastro Prize,” Ms Bishop said.

“The annual prize supports the work of Indonesian academics completing their doctorates in Australia with the aim of developing young leaders and promoting people-to-people and educational links between our two countries.

“Rumayya is studying the dynamic between politics and economics in decentralised Indonesia at The University of Western Australia – which by the way is in my electorate of Curtin.

“Indonesia’s decentralisation policy has changed the landscape of regional development in Indonesia and is an important field of study for him. Rumayya’s studies into the relationship between economic development and politics will no doubt improve understanding of governance at the district level.”

In undertaking his research, Rumayya hopes to build a national database of political economics for local governments in Indonesia covering the period of 1999-2014 (post decentralisation). The database will include party composition in local parliaments, as well as policies which were drafted and legislated.

Rumayya will then examine which parties have been best at promoting particular development objectives (e.g. economic growth, reducing unemployment, reducing income inequality).

In the relatively new Indonesian democracy, Rumayya hopes his findings will help create a more effective political framework.

“Indonesia’s decentralisation is still evolving,” Rumayya explained. “This project will provide information that could be used in designing the future model of Indonesia’s political decentralisation in a manner which is beneficial for development at the local level.”

Media references

Karen Della Torre (UWA Business School)                                             (+61 8) 6488 8538
Verity Chia (UWA Business School)                                                      (+61 8) 6488 1346