Asked whether Wiratraman himself has encountered threats related to his work on academic freedom, he smiles meaningfully. ‘Let’s say I put myself at risk.’
Independent research is at stake
Academic freedom has everything to do with environmental issues, Wiratraman explains. ‘We face excessive exploitation of natural resources in Indonesia. This is not just about the environment itself, but about the destruction of human kind.’ Recently Science reported on the case of Dutch environmental scholar challenging the Indonesian government’s notion that “the orangutan populations in the country are thriving”. The government’s response: banning the researcher from the country. Wiratraman: ‘What is at stake is the independence of Indonesian science in general and conservation science more specifically.’
He continues: ‘It happens even more outside of Java. The case of Erik Meijaard is instructive. He did over 15 years of research on rhino’s and orangutans and the problem of deforestation and land burning. But his conclusions were inconvenient.’ According to Wiratraman the Indonesian government should at least have exchanged views with the critical scholar. In stead Meijaard was expelled from the country. ‘For me this is not surprising’, Wiratraman adds. ‘Under this regime the attitude and the narrative has become “anti-science”.’
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