senstvt

    R E S E A R C H   &   H I G H E R   E D U C A T I O N |  Decolonizing Research (Op-ed, The Jakarta Post, 2022) |  2020: a Year of Historical Significance (Op-ed, The Jakarta Post, 2020) |  1920-2020: Satu Abad Pendidikan Tinggi Teknik di Indonesia (2020) |  Speech delivered on the Otto Soemarwoto Award ceremony (2017) |  Menyetarakan Kemitraan (2010) |  ITB Rector and Presidential Elections (Op-ed, The Jakarta Post, 2009) |  Triple Helix in Indonesia: Mission impossible? (Op-ed, The Jakarta Post, 2009) |  New Education Bill: A Blank Check? (Op-ed, The Jakarta Post, 2009) |  When Education Fails to Cultivate Curiosity (by Karina Soemarwoto, op-ed, The Jakarta Post 2008) back to contents

 I am honored to have received diverse responses to my previous post , which made me realized that it may need some elaboration. My intention was to shed light on a persistent (favorable view towards) colonialism in NL. The first-hand accounts were presented in the context of a person originating from ID living in NL. In a general sense, it is the same context as a person from the global south living in the global north , where in the past there was a colonial racial domination by the latter over the former in the land of the former , with racial slavery being one of its pronounced characteristics. The responses can be grouped into: 1.    Anticipative response: it may also happen to me or my family members (children). 2.   Confirmative “me too” response: it also happened to me (in NL). 3.   Out of context “me too” response: it also happened to me (as a minority) in ID. 4.   Suggestive response: no, it never happened to me, maybe it’s an “integr...

I have always been skeptical about using a public channel to contact the government, any government. With the ease of internet, augmented by the exploding social media, the contact form and display of social platform logos look just cosmetical. But the issue below was so disturbing that I decided to give a shot. On 29 November 2020, I sent a message to the Dutch government using this contact form  (see the letter below). A response to this letter a couple of days later was more than a pleasant surprise: I am glad that such a small step of sending an email has resulted in a concrete action that resolved the issue. This offending text is no longer to be found in their website: The Chinese minority If you are setting up a business in Indonesia, it can be an advantage to have a Chinese relationship. The Chinese in Indonesia are still very important in the economy. Commercial cooperation with the Chinese minority is often more efficient than doing business with the indigenous population...

image credit: Rosa Parks I must have a privileged life being a scientist in the Netherlands and have never been confronted by any verbal harassment related to my ethnicity, origin and/or belief. Only just recently I learned to know what my daughter has been through during her secondary school and university stage. The kind of experiences that I never had because (a) I grew up in Indonesia in a homogeneous system of norms and values, and (b) in the Netherlands I live my daily life in a highly educated community that highly upholds professional ethics and collegiality, pretty much a filtered society. I feel now guilty that I did not recognize her experiences. I simply thought that everything was fine and smooth. Apparently, she dealt with it all along independently, overcoming the emotional burden without bothering her dad. However with such a challenge, her academic achievement and her thought for the society make her dad very proud of: Karina's theses @ Universiteit Leiden Clinical...