Baca EPUB: the-development-of-science-and-natural-science-from-century-to-century

(Introduction)

President Soekarno outlined the role played by physics, mathematics and related sciences from the period when the pyramids were built in Egypt, and successively during the reign of King Hamurabbi of Babbylon, among the seafaring Greeks, the reawakened Arab world since the eight century, in West European Countries giving rise to the Commercial Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and Capitalism, and finally in the two opposing world blocs of the Jeffersonian and Marxist states.

In Indonesia where the government adheres to an independent and active foreign policy, science and knowledge are welcome from whatever side they come. However, only the good things are made use of while rejecting the bad.

Science should bring happiness to society and be useful to the people. This is the essence of the message of President Soekarno in particular to the Indonesian students and intelligentsia in general.

Djakarta, February 1959.

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My friends,

When I heard only this morning—I also read it in the local newspapers—that I am expected today to give a lecture to the students of this university on the development of Physics at present, I was rather doubtful what to do. Indeed I am very well aware of the vital importance of physics, and also of mathematics, and I have advocated to study these subjects well. This is especially true in our period of development and reconstruction at the present time; we must have a profound knowledge of mathematics and physics, of technology in general. We all know that very well. But it is rather difficult for me to lecture on the development of Physics at present. It is of course true that I was educated in what I call “the Halls of science”. I was born in a simple little house and was then brought up in the “Halls of science”, among others in Bandung. But after that I have practically never entered any “Halls of science”, I was flung right into the middle of life. I was taken up by the strong current of life, I landed in the huts of the poor people, in the markets, among the farmers, mass meetings, revolutionary underground movements, in short I was plunged into the turbulence and the struggle of society. For this very reason, however—because I have made this headlong plunge into life,—I do fully realise the vital importance of Mathematics and Physics, especially in our period of development at present, as was so rightly pointed out by the Prime Minister in his speech just now.

Physics and Mathematics are both a “conditio sine qua non’”, an absolute pre-requisite, for the development of the country. Without these we would not be able to work hard and to achieve much for the interest of the community. But as the Minister of Education so rightly said, science must he dedicated to and must he used for the interest of the people and society.

My friends, I have said in one of my speeches that our struggle has reached the stage of conquering nature. Between 1908 and 1950 we were struggling in order to wipe out all the misconceptions and wrong ideas which nestled in the heads and hearts of the colonialists and imperialists. For 42 years we had been doing just that. However after 1950, after our independence and our sovereignty have been recognised, our struggle has reached a higher level. It was not only to fight wrong ideas and misconceptions, but it has become a fight to conquer nature; to conquer nature in order to make it our friend and ally. Nature as such is not as a rule a friend, on the contrary, it is usually hostile to man: the rivers with their floods are against us; the seas with their high waves are no friends of man, they divide one island from the other; the volcanoes with their eruptions bring havoc and disaster; the clouds with their thunders and storms and rains are hostile towards us. Therefore, we must conquer nature, in order to make it our friend and ally. We must check the rivers to make them useful for agriculture, communications, recreation and many other things. The seas must become our friends, they should not separate us from each other, on the contrary, they should become a means of communication for us. The seas must assist us in our efforts for building a nation, they must help us to weld us together into a strong nation. At the same time the seas must yield to us all the riches which are contained in her depths. We must do the same with the volcanoes. We must prevent; them from causing havoc and disaster with their eruptions. We must conquer them and stop them from doing us any harm. We have done this with the Kelud volcano in East Java. Formerly it was a dangerous volcano, but with the help of mathematics, physics and technology, we have conquered the Kelud. We have built a tunnel which carries off the water of the crater lake and thus stops the danger of eruptions, but at the same time we still benefit from the ashes which emanate from the crater, which form natural fertilizers for our ricefields.

That, my friends, is the stage which we have reached in our struggle. Indeed if we look back into the history of man, we will find that mankind has repeatedly gone through similar struggles and efforts. Take for instance the history of Babylon, the period of King Hamurabbi. When you visit Bagdad, you will find in the museum a document chiseled on a heavy stone, containing a decree by King Hamurabbi, the King of Kings, ordering that water must bring happiness to man. It meant that King Hamurabbi, during his time, with the assistance of mathematics and physics, had succeeded in establishing irrigation and in bridling the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris, thus making them useful, instead of disastrous, for the people in his Kingdom.

Let us now look back in our own history. Now I am giving a lecture to the students of the Padjadjaran University in Bandung. There is another university we have in Surabaya, called Airlangga University. What does Airlangga mean? It means “the Water-gulper”, “the One who gulps or swallows water”. King Airlangga, son of Udayana of Bali—you may remember that I talked about Udayana when I inaugurated the Udayana School of Literature in Den Pasar recently—was given the name Airlangga because he succeeded in bridling the Brantas river; he conquered the wild Brantas river, which was notorious for its disastrous floods. Even now we read once in a while in the newspaper that the Brantas river causes floods in Tulungagung, Kediri, Purwosari, Papar and in Minggiran. King Airlangga conquered this big river, established irrigation systems and thus made the river useful and brought happiness to the people. As a consequence the latter gave him the name of Airlangga = The Water-gulper.

My friends, our people at that time were already engaged in the struggle for the conquest of nature, the same sort of struggle waged by King Hamurabbi of Babylon during his time. We have now reached a stage in our struggle where we have to conquer nature too, apart of course from continuing the fight against wrong ideas and misconceptions which are still prevailing occasionally in the hearts of some people. In our efforts to conquer nature, physics and mathematics are an absolute necessity. It is, therefore, so very true what Education Minister Dr. Prijono said earlier in his speech, namely that knowledge and science must have very close connections with society and the struggles waged by society. Have we not observed this close connection between science and society in the course of world history?

Not only have we observed in world history that there have always been a close connection between science and religion, or science and philosophy, but there are many instances of a close tie between science and the struggle of society, especially the struggle of society to provide for the daily necessities of people. I said the other day that these necessities are what I call the five P’s, Perut = stomach, food; Pakaian = clothing; Perumahan = housing; Pengetahuan = knowledge, and Pergaulan = social intercourse. The realisation of those five basic requirements is actually the aim of any struggle of any society. As I said earlier, in the history of man we often observe very clearly the link which exists between this struggle and science.

Let us again dig deep into history and go back to the old history of Egypt, to the time of the Pharaohs. I have visited Egypt several times, not only on the ground, but I have seen Egypt also from the air. To see Egypt from the air means to see the green, cultivated valley of the Nile river sharply separated from the vast expanses of the desert. That is the picture of Egypt, my friends. When you fly over Indonesia by plane you will see green, nothing else but green. The famous Dutch writer Multatuli was very right in comparing the Indonesian islands to “a girdle of emerald winded around the equator”. Java is green, Sumatra is green, Borneo is green, Sulawesi is green, the other islands are green, they are very beautiful indeed. But Egypt is not like that, my friends. There are vast deserts there and there is a sharp dividing line between green and desert. You see the valley of the Nile and beyond that there is only desert. And it is in the Nile valley that people are waging a struggle for the attainment of the five basic requirements of existence; the five P’s, food, clothing, housing, knowledge and social intercourse. As a result of this difficult struggle for existence the people in the Nile valley in olden times had dug deep into the mysteries of science. From the old history books of Egypt we learn that the sciences, physics, mathematics, astronomy, reached a very high level in Egypt at that time. Even now we still can admire the magnificent structures of the pyramids, built in a period when bulldozers and other heavy construction equipment were still unknown. Still, the old Egyptians succeeded in building those pyramids with mathematical exactness. In the pyramid of Cheops there is for instance a room with a hole in its wall through which one can see a star, the Cheops star. To be able to perform such exact work, one must have a thorough knowledge of astronomy, mathematics and physics!

The struggle for life of the Egyptian people makes it absolutely necessary for them to know the behaviour of the Nile river. You may have read from books that the floods of the Nile river come and go with the regularity of a clock. It is known exactly in which months and on approximately what dates the floods are coming. The mud deposited by these floods in the Nile valley makes this strip of land very fertile and keeps it green all year round, “as green as newly weds”, the Javanese would say. The peasant in Egypt must know exactly when to work his land, when to plant and when to harvest, because the floods will come to inundate the whole valley and deposit its fertile mud: he must be prepared for any eventuality. The stars in the skies are his guide and his main calendar as is the case with our own farmers who still consult the stars before starting to work their fields. When the Plough (bintang Waluku) appears on the firmament, our farmers start to plough their land. That was how the Egyptians came to make a thorough study of mathematics, physics and subsequently also philosophy and other sciences.

My friends, the knowledge of mathematics and physics which had reached such a high degree in Egypt later became known to people who were also engaged in the struggle for the realisation of the five P’s, namely the Greeks. The people of Greece are island people and their main concern was to cross the seas; for navigation they needed a thorough knowledge of the stars; astronomy. Next to that, as I said, physics and mathematics which reached a high degree in Egypt, started to expand in Greece. Students of physics and mathematics amongst you surely know such names like Archimedes and Pythagoras. Geometry became a special science. It was fair to say that the struggle for life of the Greeks had made it necessary for them to study physics, mathematics and the other sciences.

From Greece the exact sciences became also known in the newly awakened Arab countries. You will find that in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th century the knowledge of physics and mathematics in the Arab countries reached unprecedented heights; the study of algebra deepened considerably. The same could be said of the medical sciences and astronomy.

The Arabs, inhabitants of vast deserts, turn their faces to the stars in the skies in the night, and as devout Moslems they need them as a guide to determine the exact hours of the daily prayers required by Islam; the beginning of the fasting month of Ramadhan is also fixed by consulting the moon and the stars. A nation like the Arabs often turn their faces to the sky to consult the stars, and inideed, my friends, the stars in the dark Arab nights sparkle like millions of diamonds in the cloudless sky, the more so because the air in the deserts is very dry. The Arabs made a study of the stars and the planets which they needed in their daily lives.

From the Arab countries the exact sciences were also studied in Spain, from where they reached the west European countries. Thus the sciences originated from Egypt, were continued in Greece, enriched and deepened by the Arabs and finally reached Western Europe. It was also the struggle for life which formed an incentive for the Europeans to study physics and mathematics. At that time the Europeans were leaving behind a closed door economy and were gradually opening their walled-in towns for overseas trade. At the end of the 15th century the European people, who until that time lived in their walled cities, showed an increasing desire to go beyond their closed walls and to establish trade relations everywhere.

Europe at that time traded mainly in spices which came from the east, for instance from Indonesia. The merchants, mostly Chinese brought these spices from countries of origin to China, from where they wete transported by caravans through Central Asia to the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean. They were brought by boats across the Mediterranean to Venice in Italy. Venice became a bustling and prosperous business town, the seat of many rich merchants who bought up the spices which came from China, Central Asia and the east coast of the Mediterranean. You might be interested to read Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, or if you have enough money, go and Visit Venice, hire a gondola and see the marble buildings which are standing on the left and right of the waters in Venice. Ask the gondolier what buildings these are and he will answer you that they date back from hundreds of years when they were owned by the rich Venetian merchants. However, Venice of today is merely a tourist centrum and has long ago been finished as a trade centre. But the marble palaces from those golden days of the Venice merchants are still there.

During those days the spices found their way all over Europe from Venice. The destribution of these spices was the beginning of the struggle for life of the European people. The West Europeans were not at all happy to be just receivers of goods from Venice, receivers of cloves, nutmegs, silk from China, dyes and many other things, all through Venice. They wanted to go to Venice themselves to get those goods. They emerged from behind the walls of their cities, they left behind their closed door economy. They went to Venice themselves, got the goods, brought them to their own countries and sold them to their own people. Later on they were not even satisfied with getting the goods from Venice, they wanted to get them from the East directly and they decided to fetch them there themselves. The West Europeans wished to cross the seas; they asked the Venetian merchants where they got the spices from? From the East, was the answer. Which east? This the Venetians did not want to say, they kept it a secret. The West Europeans could not accept that, they decided to cross the oceans themselves, but to do this they needed a thorough knowledge of mathematics, physics and navigation. They had to find out the shape of the earth, whether it was round or as flat as a cake. At that time people believed—and this belief was supported by the Church—that the earth was as flat as a pancake, until it was proved with the assistance of mathematics, physics and astronomy, that the world is round. People also found out that the sun did not circle the earth, but that the earth circled around the sun. They discovered the planets, the planet-system and the sun-system. The names of Galileo Galilei, Christiaan Huygens, Descartes became well known throughout the world.

The Commercial Revolution took place in Europe. This revolution found its basis in the development of mathematics, physics and astronomy. These three sciences were studied more thoroughly because they were needed for the struggle for life, the struggle for the realisation of the 5 P’s, the five basic requirements of the people. In turn the knowledge of those exact sciences had brought about the Commercial Revolution. People left their closed cities. They had one objective in mind: Let us go to the east, let us trade, let us look for the way leading to the east and let us not just sit at home. Let us find the east!

Columbus sailed to the west, came upon the American Continent, and it was said that is was Columbus who discovered America! It is slightly ridiculous to say that one discovers a country. No, my friends. It was not Columbus who discovered America; America had been there for a long time, but Columbus came upon it later on!

Another theory said that before Columbus came to America, there was a man called Amerigo Vespucci, who came there, and subsequently the continent was called America, a name derived from the name Amerigo Vespucci.

In this connection I have an amusing story to tell you. I visited Bone in South Sulawesi one day, my friends, and talked to Andi Mappanjuki; the Radja of Bone. Andi Mappanjuki told me that the name America actually originated not from elsewhere, but from Bone. I expressed my surprise and urged him to tell the story. The Radja then said that since olden times the people of Bone had been crossing the seas as far as America. Maybe you have heard of another theory, the socalled Kontikitheory which said that there is a sea current from the America Continent going in western direction. If you go on a raft and let the raft be carried west by this sea current, you will come to the Polynesian islands. That is the Kontiki theory, my friends. But the Radja of Bone disagreed with it. The people from Bone had been crossing the Pacific ocean for a long time, and whenever they wanted to sail they called the wind—just as children now wistle for the wind to come when they want to fly a kite—the word they used to call the wind was: ameriki!, ameriki!, ameriki! And thus the country from where the wind came was called America, the Radja of Bone concluded his story.

You all know, my friends, what the Commercial Revolution has brought about. Many people from the west came to the east, you have heard of names like Vasco da Gama, Bartholomeus Diaz, Albuquerque, Cornelis de Houtman, Jan Pieterszoon Coen and many others.

I have explained before, that as a consequence of the Commercial Revolution we in the east have lost our political independence. This happened to our country too, mainly because our country is the origin of many of the spices. In this connection I would like to tell you an anecdote; I like to tell anecdotes.

During the coronation ceremonies of the present Queen of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth, as President of the Republic of Indonesia I sent a delegation to represent Indonesia during those ceremonies. The members of the delegation were Prince Pakualam of Jogjakarta; the late Hadji Agus Salim and our Ambassador to Great Britain at that time. Hadji Agus Salim, who had always been rather indifferent about his surroundings, smoked his usual kréték cigarette during the ceremony. He walked around, smoking his kréték, until he came face to face with the Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of the Queen. The Duke of Edinburgh smelled the kréték cigarette and obviously did not like it too much. He asked some people where the smell came from. Then Hadji Agus Salim answered: “Your Highness, it is the smell of my kréték cigarette, made of tobacco and cloves. You may not like the smell now, Your Highness, hut it was this same smell which attracted the European people to go to my country!”

Indeed the European people came to Indonesia to look for cloves. That, my friends, was one of the consequences of the Commercial Revolution. You all know that it brought disaster to us, we lost our political independence, you are all familiar with the history of the East Indies Company, the story of the notorious Hongi expeditions when the Company exterminated the population of the Banda Islands and completely destroyed all the cloves and nutmeg trees. The same happened to the islands of Ceram and Saparua. I leave it to our historians to find a suitable term in Indonesian for the Dutch expression “Hongi tochten”.

I have just come back from a trip to the Maluku islands. When we were sailing from Ambon to Saumlaki, I gave the Captain of the ship instructions to call for a while on Banda. What did I see on Banda, my friends? The sight of that beautiful island was marred by the sight of an old Dutch fortress, which was already visible from a great distance. A similar fortress one can find also on the island of Saparua. Those fortresses were used by the Dutch colonialists at that time to dominate the islands. The one in Saparua was called Duurstede; at one time it was attacked and taken over by our hero Pattimura (Thomas Matulessy).

Thus, my friends, the Commercial Revolution had deprived the greater part of our country of our independence, we became a subjugated people. I suppose you know the foul practices during the Commercial Revolution of the East Indies Company in Java, Sumatra and the other islands?

Thus we have seen that as a result of the Commercial Revolution, which was also based on the knowledge of physics and mathematics, fabulous fortunes were brought to Europe, and these riches which flowed to Europe became in turn the seeds for what we call the Industrial Revolution.

Mathematics and physics, astronomy and navigation became more and more known to the people at that time, and they went even further with the study of the behaviour of matter; this led to the discovery for instance of the capacity of steam to produce energy. Newton, during a cold winter evening in Europe was sitting in front of a fire watching a kettle with boiling water. He noticed that the lid of the kettle went up and down, up and down. This made him think and this simple phenomenon led to the construction of the steam engine. Later on James Watt perfected the system and invented the piston. The discovery of steam power led to many inventions including weaving machines. All this has paved the way to the Industrial Revolution.

The fortunes brought to Europe after the Commercial Revolution, the sciences and the Industrial Revolution had all led to one direction, the coming into being of Capitalism. Factories were established making use of the steam power, textile and many other kinds of factories. They all produced; at a certain point these products could not all be sold within their own countries and this made the industrialists look for markets. They looked for markets in the east, the manufactured goods were sold there; with the money they bought raw material from the east, which was transported to Europe and sold there, the products had to be sent again to the east etc. “This selling, buying and manufacture of goods, as you all know, resulted in what we call “modern imperialism”. The fortunes earned by the Europeans in the east could not all be invested in Europe, thus creating surplus capital. This capital was “exported” to the east, it was invested there and was used for the exploitation of the east. I have often said before that the result of the Industrial Revolution was not only the loss of our political independence, but more important still we also lost our economic independence.

I pointed out the other day that in the 18th century Indonesia was still self supporting in textiles; this was contained in the book by G. P. Rouffaer. We still planted our own cotton, wove our own cotton into fabrics which were sufficient to cover the needs of the whole of Indonesia. As a consequence of the Industrial Revolution, however, which brought textile to Indonesia ready made in Europe and sold in Indonesia for low prizes—the quality was also much better than the Indonesian woven cotton, because it was made with superior machines— the domestic textile industry did not have a chance to survive. We thus lost our economic independence, not only in the field of textiles, but also in other thigs, we see now that we have even lost our economic independence in the matter of rice. Too much land, for intance in Central Java, is being used for planting sugar and tobacco—a consequence again of the Industrial Revolution—thus decreasing our capacity for the production of rice; that is why we had a shortage of rice for years. But as was said by Prime Minister Djuanda, we are now catching-up and we have hopes that we will be able to overcome this rice shortage within five years.

We are now indeed faced with a huge task of development of building up our country. Please read the preamble of our Provisional Constitution carefully. You will find there that we did not establish a state just for its own sake. No, my friends. We have created a state to use it as a tool for establishing a just and prosperous society, to realise the five P’s I mentioned before, to realise the people’s need for food, clothing, housing, knowledge and social intercourse. I said that we cannot perform this task properly, if we do not have a thorough knowledge of physics and mathematics. That is why I advised the students of the Hasanuddin University in Makassar the other day to keep an open mind when learning sciences.

Do not he prejudiced. Do not study the science for their own sake, but study them to dedicate them to society; we study the sciences to apply them, so as to make them useful for mankind. What is the use of studying just to fill your head with knowledge? It may be useful for yourself alone, you may then become a very learned scientist with a head crammed with knowledge. But as a member of society you would not be of much use. That is why I advise the universities and their students first of all to study sciences which can bring happiness to society and which are useful to people. Let us apply science to this purpose. And in studying science, let us not be prejudiced, my friends. Pak Prijono (Education Minister) just now has quoted what I said in Makassar in my lecture to the students of the Hasanuddin University. Indeed we are still often prejudiced and allow ourselves to be influenced too easily by what other people think, we sometimes are not independent enough in our judgement. People who only like the Soviet Union say that one should not go to the United States of America to study science in America. On the other hand those who like the U.S.A. tell you not to go to the Soviet Union and not to study sciences there. This sort of attitude is entirely wrong, my friends. As a nation which is engaged in building up the country we should not be prejudiced and we must welcome knowledge and science from wherever they come and take from them whatever is useful to us. That is the attitude we must adopt.

I have said so often that in this world where we are facing two conflicting blocs, we must not only stand in the middle, but we must also pick out what is good for us. I am going to quote Bertrand Russell on this subject. I have quoted him very often this year; because his opinion on this matter is so very correct. Bertrand Russell said that the world at present is divided into two groups, the one is the group of people who follow the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson of America, and the other group follow the philosophy of Karl Marx. These two groups, each having hundreds of millions of followers, are facing each other like enemies and are trying to settle their quarrels and justify their standpoints on the battlefield. Bertrand Russell said that this attitude was wrong. He told them not to settle their difference by means of warfare on the battlefields, but to do this by friendly competition. Those who follow Thomas Jefferson’s ideas, please show the world that these ideas are the best means to bring prosperity and happiness to mankind. Those who believe in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifest, please do the same. Please, show the world that to bring prosperity to mankind the Communist Manifest is much better than the theories of Jefferson. I would like to ask the students a question: Knowing that Thomas Jefferson and the Communist Manifest have split the world into two camps—indeed in my last 17th of August speech I pointed out the existence of a third group in the world, but those two camps are a reality—knowing of their existence I would like to ask the students: Have you ever read tthe Communist Manifest or Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and the commentaries on those two documents?

Look here, my friends, you are studying in universities, the Padjadjaran University, the Gadjah Mada University, the University of Indonesia, the Airlangga University, the Hasanuddin Universityt but often I find to my great disappointment that the students have not even bothered to try to understand Jeffersonism and Marxism.

After all, you know that these two ideals have split the world into two worlds of thought. That is why I advise you to read, and read, and read, and do not be prejudiced. Read Thomas Jeferson’s Declaration of Independence, study the philosophy of American Democracy, read it till the finest details. But also read the Communist Manifest, read Marxism, read Bernstein, read Stalin, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg. Do not be prejudiced, my friends, do not let yourself be influenced by prejudice. We are sons and daughters of a country which is going through a period of development, we must plunge deep into the sources of knowledge and drink from it, whether it is American or Soviet.

My friends, do not fill your hearts with prejudice, especially about development and reconstruction, let us heed Bertrand Russell’s advice in this matter. Compete, and show the people which philosophy can achieve most in bringing prosperity to mankind. Which ideology yields the best results in practice, the American or the Soviet ideology? We develop, we build up, we take good ideas from here and from there. That is why I do not hesitate to say that I have seen very good things in America, we will take what is good for us; but I do not hesitate either to say that I have found good things also in the Soviet Union and in the Chinese People’s Republic, which we must use for our own benefit. Let us take all that is good for us.

We want to develop as quickly as possible, the people are demanding the realisation of the five P’s: food, clothing, housing, knowledge and social intercourse. They demand it from Bung Karno, from Pak Djuanda. If they demanded it from you, students, would you know what answer to give? My friends, you students study at a university. Do you know what a university is for? The answer from the people would have been: the university is established so that the students afterwalds can bring happiness to the Indonesian people. Now, I ask all of you: have you tried to acquire knowledge from everywhere? Have you read this hook and that book? My words are not only meant for the students, but they are also meant for the professors and lecturers.

I myself must apologize for something. As I told you before, I was educated in the halls of science, the West European halls of science, I am a qualified engineer. The books I used for my studies were from western Europe. I read for myself books on laws, administration, sociology etc. Most of the hooks were from West Europe.

Actually our inheritance is mainly from West Europe. The same can be said of the honourable professors and lecturers of our universities. I have once talked frankly to one of our Indonesian professors. I asked him: Now you have to teach the students. Have you ever read the Communist Manifest? “No.” Have you read about Marxism? “No.” Have you read the comments on the Communist Manifest by Stalin? “No.” Have you heard of Rosa Luxemburg? “No.” Wilhelm Liebknecht? ’”No.” But I have read Kranenburg, the professor said! Yes, of course, I know that you have studied Kranenburg. But again I call on you: do not be prejudiced, read everything, look around you, take what is good for you, we are building up our country.

When I stand in front of students, espedally when I see girl students around, I am reminded of what a woman writer, Henriette Roland Holst van der Schalk, once said. That the present generation, especially the generation which has as an ideal a just and prosperous society, is the fertilizer of the future. No, we are not merely the fertilizer of the future, for within us the seed also germinates. (“Wij zijn het mest der toekomst”. Neen, we zijn niet enkel mest, ook in ons ontkiemt het zaad!). My friends, do not, therefore, just consider yourself as fertilizers of the future, but you are also the seeds of the future! Yon are the seeds. for a prosperous future and just society.

’I said earlier that in this period of reconstruction and development we are faced with many problems and difficulties which have to he overcome.

People have called me communist, only because I never hestitate to say that there are not only good things in America, but also in the Chinese People’s Republic and in the Soviet Union, good things which we can use in our own country. I have advised the Indonesian people to use what is good from both sides, and because of this I have often been called communist! I am not a communist, but I am open minded, I am not prejudiced.

I use what is good for us, and that is why I openly advocated democracy with leadership, or guided democracy!

I have urged the people in Indonesia to leave behind all the inheritance from former times, including liberal democracy. We must get rid of liberal democracy, because it does not suit the mentality of the Indonesian people. I have said repeatedly that our Proclamation of Independence was not merely the proclamation of a new state called the Republic of Indonesia, with a territory stretching from Sabang till Merauke. No! The 17th of August Proclamation was also the proclamation of our own identity, we must rediscover our own identity, we must have our own democracy, not a democracy à la Montesquieu, Voltiaire, Thomas Jefferson, or Marx as it is applied in the Soviet Union. No, our democracy is an Indonesian democracy, and Indonesian democracy is democracy with leadership or guided democracy.

When I was in Makassar speaking to the students of the Hasanuddin University, I saw several students originating from Minangkabau. I said there that democracy in Minangkabau is cleary guided democracy. If a decision has to be made, the people and the leaders are called together. Then they discuss the problem together under guidance of a leader. After long discussions, which are called “musjawarah”, an agreement=mufakat is reached. Musjawarah=discussion and mufakat=agreement are the pillars of our democracy. Musjawarah and mufakat we can find very clearly in Minangkabau. Discussion brings with it agreement, and the democracy which is based on musjawarah and mufakat is democracy with leadership or guided democracy. It is, therefore, nonsense to say that guided democracy is communistic. It is absolutely not true; guided democracy is Indonesian democracy. We return to our own identity. Also in the field of development and reconstruction, we must return to our own personality; we must develop without prejudices. We take the sciences, whether physics or mathematics, from any country, as long as it is useful to us.

It is now almost one o’clock, my friends, I think I have spoken long enough now. I said that we are living in a period where we have to try to make nature our friend and ally. Let us march forward, let us not spare any effort to realize what is written in our Constitution, and by doing so we also realize the aims of our struggle!

Thank you.

Kuliah umum Presiden Sukarno dalam acara peresmian Fakultas Ilmu Pasti dan Ilmu Alam Universitas Padjadjaran pada 17 November 1958. Kemungkinan, kuliah umum ini bertempat di Grha Sanusi Hardjadinata Kampus Unpad Iwa Kusumasumantri yang terletak di Jalan Dipatiukur No. 35, Kota Bandung.