No, it’s not in the University of Indonesia, or in any of Indonesia’s state Islamic universities. It’s not even in one of so many Muhammadiyah’s universities where an event like this was supposed to take place. Instead, it’s right at the heart of Singapore’s intellectual establishment that Muhammad Syafi’i Maarif was glorified almost one year after he passed away.
As a group of alumni of National University of Singapore’s Malay Studies Department initiated and formed the department’s alumni networking association with the department head, Prof. Maznah Mohamad, officially launching it on Saturday (February 18), it becomes apparent how much Singaporean academics and intellectuals appreciate Indonesia’s figures, thinkers, poets and writers.
The people attending the launch allocated moment of silence to remember and pray for Syafi’i and other Malay Singaporean intellectuals who have passed away just recently.
For Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib, an interfaith activist, writer and alumni of the department, Syafi’i is a huge inspiration, and meeting him was a life-changing experience, expressing his surprise how humble the former chairman of Muhammadiyah was, considering his stature as a towering Muslim intellectual, scholar and thinker for many people within the region.
Syafi’s teaching of moderation, theology of life and free thinking – rather than theology of death as practiced by radical groups and suicide bombers – have assured Imran and many young Malays to believe there is a light by the end of the tunnel.
But Syafi’i is hardly alone in getting the nod. Almost every speaker in the meeting expressed their awe and respect to Indonesia’s giants – from Amir Hamzah to Chairil Anwar to W.S. Rendra, and from Mochtar Lubis to Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
The alumni meeting even listened to the recital of “Aku”, Chairil’s legendary piece which is apparently a must-read poem for Malaysians and Malay Singaporeans.
These intellectuals don’t just read the works of these Indonesian figures, they appear to not only believe in them but internalize the teachings within themselves, while making them their own, and applying them within their own academic works.
Indonesia’s giant figures have also been studied in depth in Malaysia and several other parts across Southeast Asia.
The formation of the alumni group of the NUS’ Malay Studies Department could never take place in a better time as Indonesia, and possibly other nations in this part of the world, have gradually forgotten their own nation’s figures others consider as heroes and heroines.
While some people in Indonesia will miss Syafi’i, few of them really understand the wisdom of his thoughts, let alone taking it seriously as foundation for their works. Most Indonesian intellectuals apparently have forgotten him. Also, who really reads and studies Mochtar Lubis, Rendra or even Pramoedya in Indonesia nowadays?
This trend becomes more ironic by a seemingly calculated attempt to erase B.J. Habibie from the history of Indonesia’s science and knowledge production when the newly-formed National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), a powerful body established by Indonesia’s current ruling elites to monopolize scientific truths as well as creating and recreate new truths and new narratives, appears to exclude the third Indonesian president from its narrative about the journey of the country’s science and knowledge as we know it now. In a big display of such a narrative at the agency’s office, it only features two figures: Soekarno, the country’s first president and none other than BRIN Chairman Laksana Tri Handoko himself, a move many seen as not only showing chronic narcissism on Handoko’s part but also an attempt of silencing.
But the rise of new technologies, digitalization of the world, the addiction of social media, and now the fascination towards the artificial intelligence with its opportunities and threats it poses have all proven that B.J. Habibie’s conviction and prediction have been right all along.
Forget the thick of his patented theories within the aviation industry, his obsession about producing aircrafts, his cockiness of lamenting Singapore as a mere “red dot” (which actually boosted the island state’s motivation to prove him wrong), and his miscalculation in high-tech industries, his push to send Indonesia’s best minds to study abroad and his vision of creating as many scientists and innovators as possible to equip Indonesia to compete within the globalized world, allowing it to be a producer rather than merely a consumer and user of technology should place him among biggest figures in the nation’s history of knowledge and science production.
It will be hard-press for anybody to argue otherwise as most of the prominent scientists currently work in Indonesia, including the current BRIN chairman Handoko, are the products of Habibie’s program. Without him, what Indonesia has today should have been only a few young scientists.
In fact, the current program of LPDP (Indonesian endowment fund for education) which sends Indonesian students abroad on a scholarship is just a copy of Habibie’s BPPT scholarships 30-40 years ago.
If only Indonesia at that time were a more democratic country, and had more advanced social sciences on par with its natural sciences that could have been assimilated with Habibie’s programs and his drive for scientific and technology innovation, the country would have been in a better place to face this era of endless technological revolution.
But the nature and persistence of National University of Singapore’s Malay Studies Department to encourage free and critical minds and push forwards solution from within Malay world to solve its own unique problems, and now the establishment of this alumni interest group, should provide hope for the region to better place itself within the global competition.
One of the goals of the establishment of the Malay Studies’ alumni group, as Idris Surattee, the chairman, puts it, is that it wants to penetrate into every corner of Nusantara (part of Southeast Asia considered as Malay world) and gather like-minded intellectuals to form a networking of ideas that can crystallize into theories and frameworks which Prof. Syed Farid Alatas, who spoke at the launching, called “a solution from within.”
A set of ideas and proposed policies, he said, “that will not only serve as critics against and an alternative to those pushed by the Western world but also can offer a solution to the unique problems – from chronic corruption, massive poverty and wealth gap to inability to innovate — the region are facing.”
So, what the region needs now is supporting an endeavor of comprehensive studying and compiling original thoughts and ideas proposed by the region’s giants – from instance Lee Kuan Yew, Habibie, Jose Rizal, Soekarno, Ho Chi Minh, Hatta, Syahrir, Syed Hussein Alatas, Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana and Soedjatmoko – and assimilate them, then use them as a foundation to policy and strategy makings, while still being open minded to utilize and synthesize any good aspects of sciences and technologies from other regions.
After all, what Deng Xiaoping said decades ago still rings true now: “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches the mice”.
