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Study of decolonization won't benefit us
The Indonesian researchers must be honest about their nation’s experience when the direction of this research could interfere with their academic integrity.
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The Indonesian researchers must be honest about their nation’s experience when the direction of this research could interfere with their academic integrity. (Shutterstock/File)
A
s an Indonesian graduate lawyer living in Australia with academic interest in Indonesian postcolonial society, I signed the Open Letter sent to the government of the Netherlands in November 2017.
Recently in The Jakarta Post, Bambang Purwanto, head of the history department at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, defended the questions raised in the Open Letter regarding the research project titled “Decolonization, Violence and War in Indonesia, 19451950.” The research, which the government of the Netherlands has decided to fund, has sparked controversy among historians, academics, journalists, researchers and activists from both Indonesia and the Netherlands.
Read also: Dutch war study raises questions
One of Bambang’s arguments is that the research benefits Indonesia as it will produce new insights into the nation’s history. Yet it remains unclear who will benefit and in what way. The Dutch government’s funding is likely to benefit recognized research institutions such as UGM. However, I do not see how this study will produce historical relief for the average Indonesian who still experiences the ongoing impact of Dutch colonization.
Normally, research funded by foreign governments is met with skepticism from Indonesian nationalists who argue that such sponsorship only serves the sponsors’ own interests, which is the Dutch in this case.
Hence, the objective of the research should be made crystal clear and the approach transparent. We still do not know how the money will be spent or who will be the recipients. While not covered in the Open Letter, an additional issue concerning transparency is whether the research outcomes will be accessible to the public, specifically key stakeholders such as historians, journalists, lawyers and students.
The direct link between with the Dutch Defense Ministry, including the involvement in the project of the National Institute for Military History, and the political pressure of the court cases against the Netherlands, makes it difficult to see this as independent research. The Dutch government first rejected the research project until it was convinced by a Dutch study on the Indonesian National Revolution and a number of civil lawsuits seeking compensation for Indonesian victims of crimes perpetrated by the Dutch East Indies. Bambang claimed that “the independence and authority of the Indonesian researchers [to use their own perspectives] is 1,000 percent.” However, his Dutch counterparts had reportedly developed the outline before he was invited to join.
