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It was not until the fall of president Soeharto that bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and the Netherlands in the education sector entered its progressive phase. Through the Netherlands Education Center (NEC), a nonprofit organization funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, such a cooperation has been established to cement closer relations between the two nations. NEC director Ad de Leeuw shared his views with The Jakarta Post’s Rendi Akhmad Witular and Tony Hotland on the issue. The following are excerpts from the interview:

Question: How is the relationship faring, between the Netherlands and Indonesia in the higher education sector?

Answer: Yes. In 1992 Soeharto once said "go to hell with your aid", and everything (cooperation and assistance schemes from the Netherlands) were stopped after that. This is because the Dutch minister for the development of cooperation at that time, Jan Pronk, was critical on human rights issue.

Soeharto got angry, and said he had not wanted any help from the Dutch. After that many programs that were already running had to stop. Many Indonesian students in Holland had to go back to Indonesia because the (bilateral) programs were stopped.

Eventually, all kinds of cooperation were forbidden. But within the sector of higher education people from the two countries still have several programs.

A lot of Dutch universities later reestablished their own activities here (around 1995) but were not coordinated.

There was then this idea to orchestrate, organize and synchronize all of these programs, which were run separately by different Dutch universities. So the idea was translated into the setting up of an office that would represent the world of higher education in the Netherlands, and became a bridge between the Indonesian higher education system and those of the Dutch.

We then started the NEC to fulfill that function in 1996. Pak Wardiman Djojonegoro (the Indonesian education minister at that time) was not very much in favor, and said the government would not facilitate it.

But we did it anyway, and decided to continue. It was difficult at the beginning because the cooperation with the ministry was not so good.

The atmosphere eventually changed, and Wardiman started to support us. The ministry then regularly invited us. When Soeharto stepped down everything got easier.

How’s the current cooperation then?

The NEC has three main tasks: to provide information about the Dutch education system so that people in Indonesia are interested in studying there; initiate cooperation between institutions and between Indonesian and Dutch universities in all kind of fields including student and lecturer exchange and joint programs; and arranging scholarship programs for the Dutch government.

Two or three days after the inauguration of former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, the Dutch delegation of senior officials visited Indonesia and met Indonesian coordinating minister for the economy Kwik Kian Gie.

Kwik urged the delegation to provide scholarships. In those days, there was a lot of money coming from the Dutch government to Indonesia for development projects, but not for scholarships. And the money could go through the World Bank.

Kwik insisted the delegation provide direct assistance to Indonesia. Three months later when Gus Dur visited Holland in February 2000, the Dutch government agreed to provide a scholarship program.

In 2000, we started with 3 million euros (for the scholarship), a year after it had already doubled. Last year, 4.5 million euros were spent, and we keep trying to get more out of the system.

We are now the second biggest scholarship provider for Indonesia. In numbers, only Australia is bigger than us. This year we sent about 170-180 people for masters and 100 people for other programs.

How effective is this scholarship program for the development of Indonesia?

There are now around 6,000 to 7,000 Indonesian Dutch Alumni (between 2000-2006, the NEC had sent more than 800 Indonesian students to the Netherlands under the recent scholarship programs). Most of them are in the government, probably between 70 and 80 percent. The vast majority go to people in certain groups; government officials, lecturers, non-governmental organization workers and journalists.

It will take a longer time to measure the extent to which this program can contribute to the development of Indonesia. Several students joining earlier programs in the 1960s and the 1970s are now ministers here.

We want to see how far we think they can be role models or agents of change. There is no point sending someone to Holland, and when he or she returns back home they only close their office door, sitting there doing nothing.

Are there any changes in the way the Dutch provide their aid to Indonesia?

Dutch development aid in the early 1960s and 1970s was all based on infrastructure programs such as roads and hospitals. Later we realized that this was not the way to do it. You put something there, you walked away and you came back after three years and there was no maintenance — it was all gone.

We realize we must have different programs. What happened then was we channeled the money to the WB and the Asian Development Bank.

Then we realized we should do it based on bilateral cooperation. And education is the right thing to do. We are giving Indonesians the tools and showing them how to solve problems. For the long term this is a much better approach.

Everybody realizes they have to give aid. For the very simple reason that the world is more and more becoming a global village.

Hundred of years ago, traveling to Indonesia took two or three months, today it’s only 24 hours. You become neighbors. But you don’t want poor neighbors because it will cause you a headache. You want developed and rich neighbors. That is why we feel responsible about assisting our neighbors.

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