One of the milestones of national revival came from STOVIA. The Javanese medical school became important in the Indonesian nationalist movement. The reason was based on the emergence of Boedi Utomo on May 20, 1908, whose initiators were mostly STOVIA students. This was stated by Prof. Hans Pols from the University of Sidney in a public lecture themed “The Indonesians Medical Profession in the Dutch East Indies: Medicine, Nationalism and Decolonization” by the Department of History UGM on Monday (10/4) at FIB UGM. According to Hans, the medical student at STOVIA at the same time not only learned about health but also about nationalism and the importance of independence. “At that point, then the medical profession had a vital role at that time,” Hans said.
Hans noticed that medical students at STOVIA had a hybrid identity. They come from the natives but at the same time have European attributes such as coats, bags, and maybe even thoughts. But on the other hand, European attributes are mixed with Javanese attributes, such as blangkon and batik. Getting a European education changed their frame of mind. “What’s interesting is why these doctors think politically and revolutionary,” said Hans. He then explained several reasons. One of them is because they are actors who have direct contact with patients (rich or poor). They knew the real conditions of the people, especially the social conditions in the Dutch East Indies. Then their knowledge can be used to find out the evolutionary process of society.
Furthermore, Hans also explained that doctors during the Indies had stratification. The first is a Dutch doctor. They are elite doctors. Their positions occupy the highest strata and have the best salaries. Second, the Indian doctor who graduated from STOVIA. Their salaries and positions are lower than Dutch doctors. According to Hans, then there was anger over the stratification issue. “They protested because what matters in Science is all the same. It doesn’t matter skin color or race,” he explained. Hans explained that doctors who graduated from STOVIA have the capacity and intelligence. On the other hand, they were also very much needed, but there were efforts to get rid of them by the Dutch. “It was only in the second generation that elite doctors from the natives emerged to fight back,” said Hans.
After 1920, the doctors moved when the colonial government became repressive. The native doctors saw that the colonial government would not cooperate with the ideas of independence. So they fought back by ‘shaking’ the colonial establishment. Medical journals began to be written and published by indigenous doctors. By there, the Indonesian medical elite began to emerge. They begin to graduate with the same honors as Europeans. In subsequent developments, they received the same salary and position as European doctors. “That generation then uses health as a tool for struggle and social progress,” he concluded. (Sej/Bagus)