The LPDP Dwi Controversy and the Urgency of Revisiting Tan Malaka's Counsel
The conduct of Dwi Sasetyaningtyas, an alumna and recipient of an LPDP (Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education) scholarship, is deeply regrettable. Her social media video flaunting a foreign passport for her child, accompanied by remarks that failed to reflect the nationalism expected of an Indonesian citizen, has — like it or not — wounded the sentiments of the Indonesian public who watched it.
Criticism and condemnation erupted across the nation, effectively forcing her to issue a public apology, also uploaded to social media. The matter did not end there; her husband, likewise an LPDP scholarship recipient, was also caught up in the fallout and was summoned by the Indonesian government regarding his unfulfilled obligations as a scholarship beneficiary.
In truth, the phenomenon surrounding Dwi is already commonplace among Indonesian students pursuing education abroad. The difference is that Dwi acted without restraint and seemingly without considering the consequences of her words and actions.
Many Indonesian students who study overseas, particularly in the United States and Europe, tend to be reluctant to return to Indonesia, citing career opportunities abroad, better income, and a more favourable political and socio-cultural climate. More extreme still is the decision by some to change their citizenship. Indonesia itself firmly rejects the practice of dual citizenship, in contrast to the majority of European countries.
The Root of the Problem
Dwi’s attitude, along with that of other Indonesian students pursuing education abroad, warrants careful scrutiny by the government. Cases such as this are not isolated or temporary in nature but could snowball into a ticking time bomb that may detonate at any moment.
From a socio-economic perspective, cases like this reflect the unpreparedness of Indonesian citizens intending to study abroad — particularly in developed nations — to confront the cultural and economic divide.
With an average GDP per capita of approximately 40,000 USD, European countries are indeed able to provide high-quality education and employment with highly liveable wages, complete with advanced facilities and meritocratic systems. This stands in stark contrast to Indonesia, whose GDP per capita of 5,000 USD is roughly eight times smaller than that of European nations.
Given such economic disparities, it is virtually inevitable that Indonesian students become dazzled by the prowess and sophistication of the Western world. Directly or indirectly, the various advantages of the West — which become part of their daily routine — will be compared with the difficulties at home: limited job opportunities mismatched with their expertise, a work culture that has not fully embraced meritocratic principles, a government bureaucracy that has yet to fully implement good and clean governance, and a policy-making process that has not adequately accommodated the educated and learned.
This gap in cultural values and prosperity becomes the catalyst for their decision not to return to Indonesia, or even to switch citizenship — not to mention additional variables such as meeting a partner and deciding to marry a local foreign national.
From a political perspective, the Dwi Sasetyaningtyas case reflects the fading of nationalism among Indonesia’s younger generation. Nationalism has become a rare commodity, nearly extinct, replaced by pragmatic thinking and materialistic motivations.
The nationalism of the physical revolution era — built and shaped by the principle of shared fate owing to the colonialism and imperialism of occupying powers, the desire to live together as citizens of the Dutch East Indies, and the imagined community that transcended differences, as described by Indonesianist Benedict Anderson — is difficult to replicate in modern Indonesia today. The massive tide of globalisation and the influx of foreign cultural values misaligned with Pancasila and the constitution are the principal causes of weakened Indonesian nationalism at present.
Tan Malaka’s Message
As Indonesians, it would serve us well to revisit the thinking of one of the nation’s founding figures, Tan Malaka. At one point during the era of physical struggle, Tan Malaka conveyed the importance of learning from the West (that is, America and Europe) — to acquire their knowledge and rationality. However, Tan Malaka firmly rejected the idea of becoming blind followers of the West.
He urged Indonesian students to become intelligent pupils of the East who would absorb the West’s strengths in knowledge and science, then harness them for the Indonesian nation’s struggle against the occupiers — at that time shackled by the colonialism and imperialism of the Netherlands and Japan.
Two key points from Tan Malaka’s counsel deserve emphasis. First, learning from the West can be interpreted as adopting the West’s strengths in knowledge and science, which tends to be more progressive there. He did not even prohibit Indonesian students from synthesising modernity with local traditions, with the aim of enriching perspectives and combining the best of both worlds to modernise Indonesia without losing its identity.
Second, what should be taken from the West is its knowledge, not its culture. As a fighter and revolutionary who moved from one country to another, he understood that a vast chasm existed between European culture and the noble values of the Indonesian nation. If cultural aspects were adopted wholesale, Indonesians could lose their identity and forget their Indonesian nationalism.
The warning and counsel delivered by Tan Malaka has come to pass in Dwi’s case, and perhaps also among other Indonesian students currently pursuing their studies abroad.