Reflection on Indonesia’s Colonial Science
On August 10th 2024, I was able to participate in “History Tour: Three Centuries of Indonesian Science and Scientists” held by Komunitas Bambu (Bamboo Community), where I had the pleasure of listening to Prof. Sangkot Marzuki (former director of Eijkman Institute) guided the tour. We went to the Eijkman Institute building, The Museum of National Awakening, Kempeitai Headquarters and Ereveld Ancol, a Dutch cemetery. Prof. Sangkot, with J. Kevin Baird wrote a book on the experiment of vaccinations done by the Japanese army during its occupation on Indonesia, and the defamation against Achmad Mochtar, a STOVIA and Eijkman Institute scholar, who was wrongly accused of sabotaging the vaccine which resulted in hundreds of forced-workers’ deaths. I haven’t had the chance to finish Prof. Sangkot’s book, but I gained some insight after conversing with him, during the tour and also on the discussion that was held one week beforehand, with the same topic.
After conversing with Prof. Sangkot on separate occasions, I began to think more about Indonesia’s colonial science, and how it differs with other colonized countries. First and foremost, on my readings on the global history of science it became apparent that a lot of scientific advancement was a result of colonization, especially with the Spaniards colonization of America. The production of knowledge in the newly found America was pushed by Indigenous people’s effort, and helped shape the vision for medicine as an experimental and practical science. Before colonization, European scientists studied science by repeating ancient texts. The efforts to conquer and colonize the Americas sparked a transformation in how science was done. The colonizer subsequently usurped the indigenous knowledge as their own, and gave way to what we understand as modern natural science as of now. On the other hand, the development of astronomy and mathematics was expedited with the rise of four empires, the Ottomans, the Songhay, the Ming and the Mughal. These empires were connected to Europe through trade, and pilgrimage routes. It is the encounters between these different cultures that explained why the scientific revolution happened as it did. Science does not originate from Europe, but rather through a network of merchants, missionaries that traveled and connected with other cultures that spread new ideas, texts and instruments. It wasn’t just Europe that had a renaissance, but rather, a global intellectual movement.
It’s interesting to see how different cultures develop their own science and later interact with other cultures to create a fuller understanding of science; from the way it’s conducted, to new concepts that complement each other even if they were developed in different parts of the world. Nevertheless, these differing cultures have their own approach to what we call as science, so I ask myself, what is the Indonesian approach? Is there a traditional epistemology that existed before Indonesia became a country, or even before Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch in the 1600s? During the discussion with Prof. Sangkot, one of the main figures he talked about, was G.E. Rumphius, a 17th century Dutch East Indies soldier turned merchant who did expeditions and mapped the natural history, and plant diversity in Ambon to help aid the Dutch East Indies. It is important to note that Indonesia was first colonized by the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), which is strikingly different from other colonization. The VOC was in Indonesia for exploitation of its natural resources and trade. So, it can be said that the arrival of science came with VOC, with its adventurers who are perplexed with the tropical nature, and had the means and resources from the company to explore Indonesia’s nature. I ask myself, is there not a traditional science that existed before Indonesia’s colonization? To which I could surmise that G.E. Rumphius, who one can also say to be an Ambonese because he resided there long, had helped to write down the traditional knowledge and science that was known to the locals but they have no means to pass it down. It reminded me of Bernadino de Sahagún, who, along with the Indigenous people of Aztec, wrote The Florentine Codex, which described plants and animals of America, along with Aztec medicine and history. At this point in history, in the Americas there were already universities where indigenous people could learn Latin and write down their language, Nahuatl, and teach them to the Spanish. I can’t help but wonder, was there a collaborative effort that happened when Rumphius wrote down (amongst other works) Amboinsche Rariteitkamer? Was there traditional science that was entrusted to be passed down by Rumphius from the locals in Ambon? I’d believe there is to be. Perhaps, the history of Indonesia’s science was too badly preserved to know which part of the knowledge was passed down by the locals. Or maybe we should accept the possibility that there is no earlier written knowledge of traditional knowledge that can be regarded as ‘science’. I can, perhaps, gain a better understanding of this matter once I’ve read Rumphius’ works.
After the abolition of VOC in 1796, Indonesia fell to the reign of the Dutch government. During this time, European scientists came to Indonesia and conducted exploration and research here. Among them were German-born botanist Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn who was involved in the debate regarding the effectiveness of the plant Cinchona to cure malaria, a tropical disease. Junghuhn was an important person in the cultivation of Kina (Cinchona bark) in Indonesia. The controversy was a result of the overinvolvement of Dutch East Indies bureaucrats. The colonial government set restraint on ‘local knowledge’, demanding for it not to be ‘too local’ and for the gained knowledge to be mediated and reviewed as a national matter, sifted smoothly through the ear of Dutch people and reassembled as useful knowledge. I am refraining myself from talking about this matter too much, as it is greatly discussed in Andrew Goss’ book, The Floracrats. Besides Junghuhn, around the same era there was also Alfred Russell Wallace, the father of biogeography who mapped the islands of Nusantara and coined the theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Darwin, and proposed the ‘Wallace line’ that separate the spread of faunas in Indonesia islands. There was also Eugene Dubois who found Pithecanthropus erectus, and of course, Christiaan Eijkman who won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of antineuritic vitamins from his demonstration that beriberi is a disease caused by poor diet. These scientists marked a different, second phase of science in Indonesia post-Dutch East Indies Company, where there were multiple important scientific discoveries that were made in Indonesian soil. This marked the entrance of modern science to Indonesia.
The third phase began with the creation of scientific institutions in Indonesia, beginning with Eijkman Institute in 1888 and later STOVIA, a Javanese medical school. The students in STOVIA are from noble-born or children of high-ranking local government personnel. Up until 1913, all the students there were funded by the Dutch government, and later they admitted students who were self-funded. Students in STOVIA engaged in European standard education with textbooks that of Eijkman that were ahead of its time. This, to me, posits an interesting dynamic between the Dutch (as colonizer) to the local population (I refrain from calling the people Indonesian as the national identity hadn’t been shaped yet). The Dutch provide education (albeit it being elite to particular groups only), even training to the local people. This dynamic is unlike the Spaniards who took over the local knowledge, the Dutch, in turn improved, systemized the local knowledge, and gave means for locals to gain knowledge. In the 20th century, in the Salemba area, there was STOVIA (medical school), research center and hospital in the same vicinity which were a modern concept that’s only practiced now. One of STOVIA’s graduates, Achmad Mochtar went as far as doing his doctorate (now PhD) in the Netherlands, and later worked in the Eijkman Institute.
At the beginning, although I made a point about how colonization paved the way to connect new knowledge, in other parts of the world colonization also led to the possession of Indigenous knowledge. On the other hand, in Indonesia’s case, science and the production of knowledge improved with the existence of colonization. This dynamic of colonization is not present in neighboring Southeast Asian countries, as shown by the fact that there is no colonial heritage such as the National Awakening Museum/STOVIA building in, say, Malaysia or the Philippines. Snouck Hurgronje, a Dutch scholar who served as an Advisor on Indigenous Matter for the Dutch East Indies, as well as the figure who conquered Aceh said that if Indigenous people were to be educated properly, then they are not different from European scholars. Some questions arise in my head. Will the science in Indonesian soil develop in a wholly different manner had the Dutch hadn’t colonized Indonesia? Is it time to see science past its segregation (western science, eastern science) of origins? From my readings on global history of science I took note that the idea of “modern science originated from the west” is part of a propaganda so that citizens would side with western countries during the war. After reading on global history of science it is apparent to me that science is a global, collective effort on firstly understanding nature and the world that we live in, and that science was subsequently branded to be a product of western civilization because of colonization. I am sure that a lot of Indonesian local knowledge made its way to the ear of Dutch scholars, but due to the power imbalance, they are not regarded as science. I remember the story of an indigenous gardener who knew every species of plants in Lands Plantentuin at Buitenzorg (now Kebun Raya Bogor). Had these people been given the chance and access to knowledge similar to those received by European scholars, could there have been earlier Indonesian scholars?
In 1942, Japan landed in Indonesia and took over the power from the Dutch. During its settlement Japan was exceedingly cruel, enlisting people to be forced workers, even using them as experiment subjects for vaccines. Because the colonial scientists had to flee from Indonesian soil to other countries, they wrote ‘Science And Scientists In The Netherlands Indies’ in 1945, to preserve the knowledge that had been accumulated in Indonesia. On August 17, 1945, Indonesia declared its independence. The territory of Indonesia reigns over thousands of islands with different cultures. Even after my basic history lesson, I always wondered as to what unites Indonesia as a country? Is it a shared fate? Borrowing Benedict Anderson’s argument, that nations are not ancient communities united by history, blood, language, culture and/or territory, as nationalists often claim, but the distinctly modern imagination of a given state’s population as constituting such an originary community produced by nationalism. I feel like this argument of nationality fits really well with Indonesia. Anderson explained that nations must be understood as imagined communities because they are simply too large for all of their members to actually know one another. It is only possible for its members to imagine that they have a relationship with all other members of the nation across time and space.
After independence, came the fourth phase: decolonizing science that started from 1950. Newborn Indonesia’s government needs to construct a scientific environment in which Indonesia’s scientists could grow with their own authority and also serve the nation’s needs. During the 1950s, under Sukarno’s Guided Democracy, the scientific environment came under threat, as scientific works must only be aligned with the ideology, and unsuitable scientific works deemed as “reactionary”. In Guided Democracy, colonial science was pushed aside and Sukarno tried to set forth Indonesian science. During the colonial government, science development was hindered by colonial government’s needs, and after independence, Indonesian science and scientists were hindered by political needs. Science in Indonesia just moved from one restraint to another. Guided Democracy pushed science back to its bureaucratic roots. The government expected science to make a direct contribution to the development of the Indonesian nation, and participating in international research was no longer sufficient or even appropriate.
Colonization is not a good thing, every nation deserves independence. The interaction between civilizations and cultures moved science forward, but must it happen at the cost of one civilization’s people? I can’t help but wonder about the alternate history. A history where Indonesia wasn’t colonized, where European/western countries do not declare its supremacy over other countries. Maybe, just maybe, that the colonization of Indonesia brought science forward to its place now, but does the acclimation of knowledge only happen at the expense of a nation’s freedom? If we look at the good side of colonization (if there is any) then maybe the development of science through institutions such as Eijkman Institute, and STOVIA could be regarded as a good thing. However, were it to occur without the repression of Indonesia’s citizens, could it yield better results for the development of science? I can’t help but wonder how the political aspect of science plays a part in all of this. I think that despite the apparent unique dynamic of Dutch colonials in Indonesia, at the end of the day they did it for the benefit of their country, perhaps they thought that Indonesia would be a part of them, along with its science. What arises from the anti-colonization sentiment? The fatalist view of Guided Democracy bears Indonesia’s science at its expense. How can we improve a nation’s science and its scientists post-colonization? Should we throw anything colonial out and forget the previous development? As I said, despite having colonial products plastered all over them, we may not know which part of them has local contribution as the power imbalance may skew the perspective and regard scientific development in colonial government Indonesia to be part of the western culture.
We now arrive at the fifth phase of Indonesian science, the current days. Are we better now in terms of science development with respect to the other phases? Nowadays, we have a lot of scholars and thinkers that could potentially bring Indonesia’s science forward. But without the collective effort by scholars, government and citizens along with deep appreciation towards science, the chances of moving forward depletes a little. Prof. Sangkot argues that there should be a way or we should try to compare our nation’s recognition of science to the one we had during colonial government. Sure, right now more people have access to education and science in general, but is there a deep understanding and appreciation towards science? Is science, in the current perspective, only a starting point for industries? Have we only selectively applied our anti-colonization sentiment towards science and in turn become victims of neocolonialism in the economic, political sector? How can we improve our nation’s science after centuries of colonial history? There seems to be a discontinuity of science development in Indonesia. With its scientific potential, and current economic condition, Indonesia barely has the national recognition of science. Rendering hundreds if not thousands of Indonesian scholars that were sent to study abroad to not reach their potential and improve Indonesia’s science once they go back to the country.
I may have said stupid things in regard to history, I’m no expert in history, I am only trying to weave Indonesia’s history and its science. This writing is by no means a comprehensive essay or academic work, this is merely an expression of my curiosity and the questions that arise from the tour, and my discussion with Prof. Sangkot. In conclusion, I have noticed an interesting dynamic between the Dutch colonial government and Indonesia with respect to science, though I can’t take it at face-value and regard it as a good thing, it is important to note that medical sciences in Indonesia were ahead of its time, albeit the fact that we were still colonized back then. There are many questions I pose here in this brief writing, but I’m very eager to learn more, especially how the dynamic and anti-colonization sentiment manifests and is realized in Indonesia’s development of science and scientific institutions. Thus, end my reflection in regard to Indonesia’s colonial science. With this history in mind, I hope that I can learn and perhaps answer the questions I posed during my upcoming study in the Science and Technology Studies PhD program at UCL this September.
