Short Personal Statement School of Oriental and African Studies

I have decided to apply master of arts in Department of History, SOAS because of my

interest to study Islamic public administration. I am interested with study of Islamic public
administration since the second year of my bachelor study in Department of Administraion,
University of Indonesia. Some public administration scientists like Wolfgang Drechsler sees
that Islamic public administration can be alternative paradigms to public administration
thought which is dominated by western perspective. Islamic public administration can be
defined as a public administration that practice in countries whose Islamic view as its major
view. I believe that Islamic values that drive Islamic public administration was an important
legacy from Islamic caliphate. So that, SOAS is the perfect university for me to shape my
curiosity about Islamic public administration in Islamic caliphate.

SOAS is the best university which is offering history research that focused on Asia and
Africa history.The SOAS’ core modules also provide interesting courses, such as Research
Methods in History With Special Reference to Asia and Africa and Reading Classical Arabic
Historians. The university also gives opportunity to their student to learn other langguages
which are interrelated with their special subject. I believe my idea about Islamic public
administration will develop under guidance and supervision from experience scholars in
SOAS, toward significance practical and theoritical contribution to Public Administration and
Islamic studies. I am sure my research on Islamic public administration will give benefit for
Indonesia Government which is doing administrative reform in its governance. The value in
Islamic public administration will shape this reform because Indonesian government as main
object of administrative reform has similiar value than Islamic public administration.

During my bachelor study in Department of Administration, I get some conceptual

framework about public administration like decentralization, public policy, state financial
mangement, etc. This concepts help me to analyze some issues about implementation of
Islamic public adminitration. For example, public policy concept help me to understand how
is the relation between Arabization policy and the development of Islamic science and
technology in Abbasid dynasty. Beside that, I also joined some some intra and extra
organization in campus such Al Hikmah Resarch Center (ARC) and Indonesia Islamic
Student Movement (PMII). The former gave me oppurtunity to discuss with some scholar
from Insitute for the Study of Islamic Thought & Civilizations (INSIST) about the concept
of Islamization of science which is introduced by Syed Muhammad Naquib Al Attas. In PMII,
I joined discussion on historical approach and method of Islamic studies. From that
experience, Two of my research papers were accepted at International Conference on World
Islamic Studies 2013 In Malaysia and The Asian Conference On Cultural Studies 2014 In
Osaka, Japan.