Miriam gets highest honor from UI
JAKARTA (JP): Miriam Budiardjo, one of the country's most respected political scientists, was presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Indonesia yesterday, becoming the first woman to receive such a prestigious distinction.
Miriam, 74, joins the ranks of Indonesia's first president Sukarno, first vice president Muhammad Hatta, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk, former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos and former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung as recipients of the award which was first presented in 1956.
"I am very happy with this title, because for me it was simply unimaginable before," Miriam told The Jakarta Post yesterday. "Since 1956 the title has only been given to 25 people, mostly outsiders," she remarked.
The title was conferred in a solemn ceremony at the University of Indonesia campus in Depok, West Java, by the rector, M.K. Tadjudin.
Fellow senior political scientist Nazaruddin Samsudin hailed Miriam's career. "She is a great pioneer in introducing and developing political science in Indonesia," he said.
Born in Kediri, East Java, Miriam graduated from the College of Law and Literature in Jakarta in 1947. She obtained a masters degree from Georgetown University in the United States in 1955.
Upon her return, Miriam was appointed a lecturer at the University of Indonesia and became one of the founders of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences a few years later.
She studied at Harvard University between 1959 and 1961 while accompanying her husband, Ali Budiardjo, who was pursuing a masters degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"I could not finish my studies because I had to take care of my small baby," she said yesterday.
Miriam's most enduring work remains her book Dasar-dasar Ilmu Politik (The Basics of Political Science) which is still used as a primary textbook and has been reprinted 18 times since first being published in 1972.
In 1973 she was promoted to a professorship in political science, and one year later became the faculty's dean.
She was coordinator for social and political sciences at the postgraduate faculty of the university from 1981 to 1989.
Despite her age she still displayed a strong sense of academic analysis in her oration yesterday, titled Accountability in Political Science.
Her most recent activities have seen her delve into more practical politics; she was appointed a member of the National Commission on Human Rights in 1993.
Miriam remains happily married to Ali Budiardjo, and their only child, daughter Gitayana, is married to Imam Prasodjo and has two children. (10/prb)