HEBERT Feith, an enthusiast of Indonesia and prominent political scientist and professor, has a special interest in the modern history of Indonesia.
He believed that through youth and intellectuals, nationalism discussion in Indonesia in the early twentieth century became more practical. The background was none other than because of changes experienced by countries in Southeast Asia.
The twentieth century is a century where new ideas relating to education, industrialization, urbanization, the disintegration of ancient societies, and technological developments, began to enter the joints of social life, both socially and governance (Wibowo, 2016).
In Indonesia, of course, we also feel the same thing, the failure or disability of old communities disintegration to adjust to all kinds of changes existing. As a result, there is a social shock that creates a generation gap between the old and new communities. Wibowo (2016) said that in general such condition caused the emergence of youth political role in the twentieth century.
In simple terms, the generation gap can be interpreted as a difference in the way of view between the younger generation and the older generation. So, when the seed of the struggle for independence among young people began to grow with accompaniment of various forms of change, it was then what is concluded by Herbert Feith was very natural.
At that time, young people were able to bring new views of nationalism which became the pioneers of the struggle to drive the colonials out of the archipelago. Herbert Feith noticed the spread of ideologies in the world into Indonesia and then synchronized with traditional values, giving birth to a map of modern Indonesian political idea (Wibowo, 2016).
Then the youth, in the view of historian Onghokham, who were generally under the age of 30, plays an important role only at certain moments, such as war and revolution. This view was true, but the truth was not absolute.
Sticking to Herbert Feith’s opinion, the important role of youth was not only in certain moments, such as war and revolution. The importance of the youth roles, in his opinion, was also very influential on the stagnant conditions experienced by political entities in terms of statehood.
In John Ingleson’s opinion, we could see how youth took and played a vital role for the future of a nation as a group of Indonesian students studying in the Netherlands established the Indonesian Association (PI).
PI then rekindled the spirit and the conception of nationalism, especially on the perspective of the Indonesian nation in the future. Even according to John Ingleson, they (the youth) were able to become the political power of young people (students) and acknowledged by colonial government in the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands.
This belief is further strengthened by the opinion of George Mc T.Kahin in his book “Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia” . George also saw the enormous role of youth and students in running and organizing the revolution in 1945-1949.
Based on the above studies, the author believes that the role of youth will always exist in every breath of the struggle of Indonesia, both from the era of colonialism, the beginning of independence, the fall of the Old Order, the success of the 1998 reformation that successfully stopped the New Order, and even to this day and will always have a “golden hand” in every turmoil of nationality in this beloved country. (*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
Source: Wibowo, Ari. (2016) “Gerakan Mahasiswa” in Seminar lecture Social Movement and Political Identity, FISIP UNAIR.
