It's all started with an epidemic

Matheos Viktor Messakh ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 05/27/2008 9:36 PM  |  Travel

(JP/Matheos Viktor Messakh)

It was around 1847 when a Dutch health officer in Batavia, Dr. W. Bosch, received reports of several deadly diseases in Banyumas. The response of the Dutch government was to provide every community head in Banyumas with Malay-Javanese bilingual health guidelines.

But the policy did not work well, so the government came up with another idea.

They wanted to educate local indigenous youngsters to become health counselors or vaccinators.

During a meeting on Nov. 9, 1847 the colonial government decided to recruit literate young people from around Java to be trained as vaccinators, who were then expected to return to their
home villages after completing their studies.

(JP/Matheos Viktor Messakh)

The government decreed on Jan. 2, 1849 that 30 young Javanese be educated at the Weltevreden military hospital (now the Army Central Hospital Gatot Soebroto) as vaccinators.

The education was for free and soon after graduating the vaccinators received 15 gulden each month as well as housing.

Twelve students were accepted to Weltevreden in 1849, six people were accepted in 1850 and 12 more were accepted in Semarang and Surabaya to form a total of 30 students.

They were trained under Dutch health officers, with support from health officers at the military hospital.

Their education formally started on January 1851 and Dr. P. Bleeker, the first class health officer at the military hospital in Weltevreden, was chosen to be director of training. He held
the position until 1860.

(JP/Matheos Viktor Messakh)

On June 5, 1853 the government decided to extend education to three years. The three-year education started in 1856 and the school for the first time accepted six students from outside
Java. Two students were selected from Sumatra, two from Minahasa and two from other islands. The three-year education was known as Sekolah Dokter Jawa, or Java Doctor School.

From 1867 onwards, several lecturers repeatedly proposed ideas on how to improve the quality of the school in terms of the length of study, curriculum and facilities. They were Dr. Fles (1867), J.J.W.E. van Riemsdijk (1868), Dr. C. Eijkman (1889). They thought three years was not enough for a medical school as it merely trained people to become vaccinators.

In 1898 Java Doctor School director Dr. H.F. Roll came up with the idea to upgrade the school to become the School tot Opleiding Van Inlandsche Artsen, or Stovia.

Roll's proposals were accepted and in 1899 the Dutch government started to build a new building for Stovia on 15,742 square meters of land in gang Manjangan in Weltevreden area, now Senen.

But the construction was interrupted due to a lack of funds. It only continued after Dr. H.F. Roll collected 178,000 gulden from three businessmen in Batavia, P.W. Janssen, J. Nienhuys and
H.C. van den Honert.

(JP/Matheos Viktor Messakh)

The building was finished in 1901 and was formally open for Stovia on March 1, 1902.

Students accepted to study at Stovia graduated from the Europese Legere School (ELS), the Dutch primary school, or its equivalent. They had to spend two to three years studying a preparation curriculum and then continued studying a college medical curriculum for another 5-6 years. They graduated with the title Inlandsch Arts.

The students were obliged to live in the boarding house located in the same building until they completed their studies.

It was in the anatomy classroom of Stovia on May 20, 1908 that nine medical students formed Boedi Oetomo, the first modern organization that led to the national movement against the colonial rule.

(JP/R. Berto Wedhatama)

Boedi Oetomo was established by class IV and V students, after a meeting Dr. Wahidin Soedirhoesoedo a year earlier. Wahidin was perceived as the instigator of Boedi Oetomo.

The building was not only where Boedi Oetomo was established, but where two other youth organizations formed, namely Tri Koro Darmo in March 7, 1915, which later became Jong Java and Jong Sumatranen Bond on Dec. 9, 1917.

The curriculum of Stovia improved during 1913-1914, with the duration of study extended to seven years. It also started to receive students from any background, but only received students from the Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO), which was the Dutch middle school.

At the same time another similar school, the Nederlands Indische Artsen School (NIAS), was established in Surabaya. The graduates from the two schools received the title Indische Arts,
or indigenous doctor.

On Aug. 16, 1927, the colonial government established a medical academy, the Geneeskundige Hogeschool, with a similar level of education to the medical academy in the Netherlands.

In 1919, the construction of a new building in Salemba began and some activities, including clinic classes, were moved to the Centrale Burgerlijk Ziekenhuis (CBZ), now the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital.

Picture of the founders of the first girl scout in Indonesia: (JP/Matheos Viktor Messakh)

On July 5, 1920 classes were moved to Salemba and the building in Weltevreden was only used as a dormitory. The construction of the building in Salemba was finished in 1926 and in 1927 started being used for the Geneeskundige Hogeschool.

From 1926 onwards, the Stovia building in Hospitalweg was used by the Algemeene Middlebare School (AMS) high school, the MULO, and the pharmacist assistant school.

During Japanese colonial rule (1942-1945) the building was used to house prisoners of war from the Dutch battalion V, with most of its members from Ambon.

As many as 196 Ambonese households continued to occupy the building until March 1973, before the Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin relocated them in a new housing complex in Pedongkelan, Cengkareng.

The Jakarta government began renovating the building on April 1973 and on May 20, 1974 it was formally opened by President Soeharto as the National Awakening Building.

As the National Awakening Building, it became the host to four museums: the National Awakening Museum, the Health Museum, National Press Museum and Women Movement Museum.

On Sept. 27, 1982, the Jakarta government handed the building over to the central government. All collections became the building's collection. The building became the National Awakening Museum in February 1984.

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