Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Thu, 13 Aug 1992 12:29:53 EDT
From:         mulliner@OUVAXA.UCLS.OHIOU.EDU
Subject:      IN Review: A Dictionary Hijack
X-To:         SEASIA-L@MSU.EDU

                   Ohio University Electronic Communication


   Date:  13-Aug-1992 11:50am EST

     To:  Southeast Asia Listers               ( _MX%"SEASIA-L@MSU.EDU" )

   From:  Kent Mulliner                              Dept:  Library
          MULLINER                                 Tel No:  614-593-2707

Subject:  IN Review: A Dictionary Hijack


     In the dog days of August, a little controversy may spice the list.
As a "dropout" from academic politics, I've always appreciated the
observation [the source for which escapes me] that academic politics are
so bitter because the stakes are so minuscule.  Which brings me to the
 case in point, a new publication, A DICTIONARY HIJACK, by Hassan Shadily
([Jakarta]: CV Antarkarya,  1992--"$4, also payable in Rp.").  Since the
volume is unlikely to be widely available (except on ILL from major
Southeast Asia Center libraries),  this note aims at presenting a few of
the controversies.

     In broader perspective, the core is what has been called the
"sociology of knowledge"--the social determination of which ideas and
intellectual pursuits are accepted and which rejected.  Betraying a
personal prejudice, I prefer the "political economy" of knowledge, for we
are talking of the roylties, contracts, grants, and tenure, which
accompany the acceptance of intellectual work within the academic
community or the larger society.  While theoretical discussions are fine,
consideration of specific cases usually means hanging one's private dirty
linen in public.  For Southeast Asian Studies, this has more often been
the substance of faculty lounge and conference corridor gossip than
public debate.  An exception, dating from 1970, has recently been
examined in Eric Wakin, ANTHROPOLOGY GOES TO WAR: PROFESSIONAL ETHICS &
COUNTERINSURGENCY IN THAILAND (University of Wisconsin Center for
Southeast Asian Studies Monograph No. 7; Madison, 1992).  That volume and
A DICTIONARY HIJACK bare the tragedy such public airings bring and
demythologize intellectual pretensions to nobility.  True, the issues are
quite different:  the former volumes deals with questions of
collaboration with and cooptation by the government and the latter with
ownership of intellectual property.  But the payoff, the WHO GETS WHAT,
WHEN, HOW, AND WHY [sub-title of Harold D. Lasswell, POLITICS (NY: McGraw
Hill, 1936)], brings both into the realm of political economy.

     As with many disagreements, especially in academia, A DICTIONARY
HIJACK is based on major misunderstandings and disagreements and petty
misconceptions, with the latter often outweighing the former.  For
example, the "book," primarily a compilation of letters to and from
Hassan Shadily--identified as "composer and publisher," begins with a
reprinting of entries from BOOKS IN PRINT, 1991-92 (BIP; R.R. Bowker
Co.).

     Before I get ahead of myself, Hassan Shadily was the co-author of
the volume at issue, AN INDONESIAN-ENGLISH DICTIONARY (IED; Cornell
Univ. Press) with the late, lamented Professor John M. Echols.  They also
collaborated on AN ENGLISH-INDONESIAN DICTIONARY (Cornell: Cornell
University Press) and Shadily authored SOSIOLOGI UNTUK MASYRAKAT
INDONESIA (not in its 10th ed.) and was Chief General Editor of
ENSIKLOPEDI INDONESIA (Jakarta: Ichtiar Baru-Van Hoeve, 1980).

     Pak Shadily is offended by the BIP entry for the recent (1989) 3rd
edition of IED, which carries the following note on the title page,
"Revised and edited by John U. Wolff and James T. Collins, in cooperation
with Hassan Shadily."   In brief, the two BIP entries are:
     Echols, John M. & Shadily, Hassan.  An English-. . . .
               and
     --An Indonesian-English Dictionary.  3rd Rev. & enl. ed.  Wolff,
          John U & Collins, James T., eds. . . . .

     Pak Shadily's complaint (repeated again later in the volume) is that
he disappears as author of the 3rd edition, apparently from not
understanding that the "--" is a BIP device to indicate the same authors
as the previous entry.

     But there are real and large issues treated as well.  The first
concerns intellectual property rights.  Pak Shadily feels that his [and
Professor Echols'] intellectual labors have been "Hijack," the source of
the title of this book, by Professors Wolff and Collins.  He presents at
least some of the letters exchanged between himself, the editors, and the
Cornell University Press. While Pak Shadily's conclusion is that his work
has been "hijack" and the letters reprinted intend to support this
argument, they do provide primary source material on some of the less
illustrious aspects of academic life.

     I do not pretend here to judge the merits of the issues, Shadily
indicates that they may well end up in court.  But there are other issues
of interest raised as well.  One of the more important is an observation
attributed by Shadily to Professor George Kahin at Cornell [in a letter
to Professors Kahin], to the effect that only linguists are qualified to
write dictionaries.  Leaving the ad hominem elements aside, this idea
seems to me, at best, debatable.  I'm not sure what a good lexicographer
requires, but I doubt that linguistics training is either necessary or
sufficient.  This in no way disparages the wonderful role that linguists
and informants have provided in helping many of us with IFL (Indonesian
as a foreign language).

     Beyond the petty and the soaring issues addressed in the book, there
are also examples of the intellectual process of lexicography.  There is
a great debate over whether AIR BOR is well water or boric acid and
others, but my favorite is a debate over CINGUR.  Shadily contended that
this referred on to meat from the snouts of cattle (a response consistent
with my brief encounter with the delicacy in East Java and my wife's East
Java upbringing) while Wolff contended that it was meat from the snout
and ears of cattle.  The issue remains unresolved as the IED 3rd edition
entry for cingur is: "cartilage and meat of the nostrils and ears of
cattle (often used in salads);" but under Rujak cingur, the entry is
"vegetable or fruit salad with slices of beef snout."

     As evident, the dispute is hardly one for an outsider to stick
his/her nose in.  Still, Shadily's book offers one view of the
intellectual process.  It is largely in English but ends with two
articles in Indonesian, "kerjasama Menyusun Kamus Indonesia-Inggris,
Inggris-Indonesia" and "John M. Echols dalam Ingatan"--sadly reminding us
that this is the tenth anniversary of Professor Echols' passing.

     There is a final incongruity.  The Echols-Shadily collaborations
produced what are probably the most widely used and authoritative sets of
Indonesian-English, English-Indonesian dictionaries.  They were also
widely pirated inIndonesia (a crime not unremarked by Pak Shadily).  This
volume, A DICTIONARY HIJACK, carries a notice of coverage under
Indonesian, U.S., and international copyright laws on the cover/title
page, followed by a red "chop" to guard against photocopy piracy.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU