Fulbright: An advocate and activist of world peace

Fulbright: An advocate and activist of world peace

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): Shortly after the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, freshman Arkansas Senator James William Fulbright called for the creation of an international program for educational exchange. The program was intended to help foster world peace by increasing mutual understanding between the United States and other countries. In August 1946, U.S. President Harry Truman signed what would later become known as the Fulbright Act.

Interestingly, although intended for peace, the program was initiated using military credit. The act stipulated that "foreign credits earned overseas by the sales of U.S. wartime property could be used to finance studies, research, instruction and other educational activities of Americans in institutions of higher learning abroad." However, funding for the scholarship later came from other sources, such as universities in the States, foreign governments, foreign and U.S. corporations, and individual contributions.

Well before becoming a senator, Fulbright was known as an ardent peace advocate. Supporting William Allen White's Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, he made efforts to stop Nazi advances in Europe in 1940. In 1943, his first year in the U.S. Congress, in the midst of World War II he fought passionately for the approval of resolution that would lead to the establishment of the United Nations.

From 1959 to 1974, Fulbright led the foreign relations committee of the U.S. Senate. Personally he disapproved of the presence of the United States in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. The Arrogance of Power (1967) -- his critique of U.S. foreign policy -- was the main reason behind his country's insistence in continuing the war in Southeast Asia.

For a long time, he opposed the United States government -- most of whom were Israel supporters -- on the way peace in the Middle East should be achieved. Finally in 1973 he accused the Senate as being dominated by Israeli interests. His critique cost him the following year's elections. He asserted that "Palestinians have as much right to a homeland as do the Jewish people." In his last speech, he cautioned about the emergence of war in the Middle East threatening the economic stability of the West.

To date, approximately 200,000 scholars from 130 countries around the world including the United States, have benefited from the Fulbright scholarships. Many national leaders are "Fulbrighters", including a former prime minister, a number of ministers, as well as many university professors. Eleven are Nobel Prize recipients.

In Indonesia, the Fulbright program has existed since 1952. The scholarships have focused on select college graduates who are interested in continuing their formal education in a U.S. university. To date, the program has provided higher education and academic experiences for around 700 scholars from a wide range of fields, from the arts to the sciences.

The first Indonesian "Fulbrighter", Hassan Shadily, helped foster mutual understanding through the English-Indonesian dictionaries he co-authored with John Echols. In 1953, the late Haj Agus Salim became lecturer of Islamic Studies at Cornell University under the auspices of the Fulbright scholarship. With the scholarship funds, the "Father" of Indonesian anthropology, Koentjaraningrat, obtained his master's from Yale in 1954, then returned to the States as a lecturer at Berkeley and a researcher at Wisconsin.

Other Fulbrighters from Indonesia include towering literary figures H.B. Jassin, Putu Wijaya, Subagio Sastrowardoyo, the late film star Tuti Indra Malaon and political scientist Juwono Soedarsono. In return, the program has also brought 300 American scholars to Indonesia.

Last Thursday, Feb. 9, 1995, due to complications from a stroke he suffered a few weeks before, former Senator Fulbright passed away at the age of 89, leaving his wife Harriet, and two daughters. In addition he also left behind thousands of "Fulbrighters", alumni of his scholarship program. Through the abilities they developed through the scholarships, Fulbrighters have and will continue his plight for peace. UN Secretary General Boutrous Boutrous-Ghali is a "Fulbrighter," as are Indonesian Ambassador Hasyim Djalal, and Hamid Alhadad, a member of expert staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Fulbright acknowledged that the scholarship program was "designed to influence political matters through intelligent leadership". As a result, mutual understanding in the international world has advanced progressively, in which Indonesia has played a significant role. Former Indonesian minister of foreign affairs Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, a "Fulbrighter," succeeded in getting his Wawasan Nusantara or the nation's "archipelagic concept" of naval law ratified at the United Nations, putting Indonesia on the map of international law.

The program has also succeeded in developing education, as most returning Fulbrighters become university lecturers. Directly or indirectly, Fulbright has also played an important role in fostering culture, the economy, industries, and technology in Indonesia. As a result the nation has appeared as one of the most rapidly advancing countries in the world.

However, within the nation, the Fulbright program has been less successful in developing open and intelligent expression. The thinking of certain Fulbrighters are still considered unacceptable by the Indonesian government. Leading journalist Aristides Katoppo accepted an offer to take on the Fulbright scholarship in 1973 as an "exile" punishment for writings that were considered undermining national stability. The Sinar Harapan afternoon daily he led upon his return was later banned in 1978 and finally completely shut down in 1986. Similarly, the efforts of "Fulbrighter" Arief Budiman to foster campus democracy at Salatiga-based Universitas Satya Wacana was not supported by the government. Instead, the noted scholar was expelled from the institution where he taught.

The Fulbright scholarship program certainly has a lot of room for improvement. Whereas it has managed "to stimulate the free exchange of ideas between free nations" around the globe and thereby nurturing peace, the program could improve mutual understanding and an exchange of ideas among citizens of this nation to a cooperative way of life in a democratic environment.