European education

European education

I must sympathize with Mrs. Sumarsono, who says she was
deprived of the European education she feels she was entitled to
and qualified for (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 8, 1994). Allow me to
make a few observations for those expat readers who may not be
familiar with the matter.

During the Dutch Colonial Administration there were two
education systems: one for native Indonesians and one for
Europeans. If we substitute "international" for "European" it is
easy to see the factual situation for the average Indonesian has
hardly changed. At present Indonesians are barred, by Indonesian
law, from entering international schools in Indonesia. However,
in the old colonial days not only European children but also
children of high Indonesian civil servants and those who were
gelijkgesteld (i.e. honorary Europeans) had access to European
schools. Those MULO and (especially) HBS institutes were of an
unusually high caliber and entry to those schools was seen as an
absolute prerequisite for successful professional and business
careers and as a token of high, social prestige. Children from
other Indonesian families went to Inlandsche Scholen (Native
Schools), which were of considerably lower quality, and in
general had no access to European schools.

However, exceptions were made for those Indonesian students
who were considered bright and ambitious. Soekarno, for instance,
was such a case. His father (a school teacher) pleaded with the
headmaster of the local European elementary school at Mojokerto
and Soekarno was accepted. Later he became a HBS student in
Surabaya (there were other such schools in Batavia and Bandung)
and went on to graduate from what is now ITB in Bandung.

In his autobiography, Soekarno deals with this part of his
life in great detail and gives the reader a fascinating insight
in the position of a young Inlandsche student in the 1920's. It
should be noted that not only Soekarno but also Hatta, Sjahrir
and most (if not all) other prominent Indonesians of the first
hour had top-notch Dutch education. I should also like to point
out the Dutch-trained Indonesian diplomats, who in the 1940's
managed to corner and totally isolate The Netherlands in the UN
and mobilize American public opinion, which, seen from a
diplomat's point of view, was a sheer masterpiece and in the end
tipped the balance in favor of the Republic. The Dutch were done
in by their own trainees.

Another crucial aspect is the numerical and logistical side of
things. In the 1930's there were 70 million people in the
Netherlands Indies and eight million in The Netherlands. In
principle, Kartini was right when she said that the high quality
European education she enjoyed should be extended to all
Indonesians instead of being restricted to a lucky few. But how
could The Netherlands have supplied the enormous numbers of
qualified teachers required for such a mega-project? Where should
they have come from? Although (seen through today's eyes) the
whole thing smacks of favoritism, it is difficult to see how the
Netherlands Indies Government could have dealt with the situation
otherwise.

BERT DE KORT

Jakarta