Dr. Meuthia Ganie-Rochman, lecturer and expert on sociology from the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Universitas Indonesia (FISIP UI), has recently been awarded the Kompas Dedicated Scholar Award.
Dr. Meuthia is an expert on organisational sociology and development sociology who professes particular interest in issues surrounding corruption. She has been holding a chair in the Selection Committee of KPK, a governmental commission dedicated to the eradication of corruption in Indonesia, for two periods: 2015-2019 and 2019-2023.
Meuthia currently acts as the Chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors of YAPPIKA, a non-profit organisation which has taken an active part in policy advocation and improvement of public services in Indonesia for 30 years. YAPPIKA is a part of ActionAid International, a federation of non-profit organisations spread over 45 countries. YAPPIKA and ActionAid have an overlapping mission in common, that is to fight poverty and injustice together with the community.
Meuthia plans to focus on research in institutional changes and organisations in a digital society, as well as develop new approaches towards the post-pandemic recovery of society. She highlighted the emergence of a centrifugal force in society which she links to developments in internet use, in particular the use of social media. Meuthia claimed that society is too focused on finding information on various matters, but does not knmow how to reconstruct it in order to solve problems that may become relevant in the future.
“We need to pause for a moment. Not in [matters of] technology, but in a serious, profound, and systematic manner; not randomly discussed and promoted so as to be popular. We ought to pay attention to how Information Technology should be handled so as to be accountable towards the welfare of society at large and not create novel inequalities.”
