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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies
ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20
HERB FEITH
Chris Manning , Harold Crouch & John Maxwell
To cite this article: Chris Manning , Harold Crouch & John Maxwell (2002) HERB FEITH, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 38:1, 39-41, DOI: 10.1080/000749102753620266
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/000749102753620266
Published online: 17 Jun 2010.
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ISSN 0007-4918 print/ISSN 1472-7234 online/02/010039-3 © 2002 Indonesia Project ANU
BulletinofIndonesianEconomicStudies,Vol.38,No.1,2002:39–41
HERB
FEITH
ChrisManning,HaroldCrouchandJohnMaxwell
AustralianNationalUniversity
RenownedIndonesiascholarandpeace
activist Herbert Feith was tragically
killedon15November2001while
push-inghisbicycleacrossthetrainlinenear
hishomeinGlenIris,Melbourne.Herb
was71yearsold.Heissurvivedbyhis
wifeBetty,threechildren,David,Annie
andRobby,andseveralgrandchildren.
Herbhadjustreturnedfrom
Indone-sia where he had spenta month with
friends atYogyakarta’s Gadjah Mada
Universityandattendedtheopeningin
Jakartaofaphotographic exhibition
cel-ebrating 50 years of the Volunteer
GraduateScheme,ofwhichhehadbeen
thefirstvolunteer.
Herb was bo rn in Vie nna on 3
November1930.Hisfamily,Jewish
po-liticalrefugeesfromfascismandHitler,
movedtoAustraliawhilehewasstilla
child.HerbgrewupinMelbourneand
waseducatedatMelbourneBoysHigh
School wherehe excelled in language
andhistory.HewenttoMelbourne
Uni-versity where he studied political
sci-enceunder Professor MacMahonBall,
oneoftheearlyAustralianadvocatesof
adeeperunderstandingofAsia.
Following graduation Herb’s
ideal-ism contributed tothefounding ofthe
Volunteer Graduate Scheme, under
which young Australiansworked for
Indonesiangovernmentinstitutions on
Indonesiansalaries andunder
Indone-sianconditions.Asthefirstofalongline
ofvolunteers, hewasthebapakofwhat
laterbecameAustralianVolunteers
In-ternational.
Herb’searlyinterestinIndonesiawas
sparkedbyMollyBondan,ayoungNew
Zealander who, with her Indonesian
husband, had joined the Republican
cause in Yogyakartain thelate 1940s,
andafterindependencehadbecomean
Indonesiancitizen working as a
trans-latorin the government service. With
Molly’shelp,ontwooccasionsbetween
1951and1956,Herbobtainedvoluntary
positionsintheIndonesianMinistryof
Information, fromwherehewasableto
witnessdirectlytheearly,excitingyears
ofthenew republic’spolitical
consoli-dation.During theseyears he formed
closefriendships with several
influen-tialmembersoftheIndonesianpolitical
andintellectualelite,including
Soedjat-moko,Roeslan Abdulgani,Abubakar
LubisandAliandMiriamBudiardjo.He
becameabsorbedinattempting to
un-derstandIndonesianpoliticallifeandits
evolution,andwroteanimportantstudy
ofthefirstgeneralelectionsheldin1955.
ItwasatthistimethathemarriedBetty
Evans,a fellow volunteer who shared
Herb’slifelongfascination with
Indone-siaandtaughtEnglishatvarioustimes
duringtheirIndonesianvisits.
In1957,Herbembarkedongraduate
studiesatCornellUniversityunderthe
guidanceofProfessorGeorgeKahin.He
ChrisManning,HaroldCrouchandJohnMaxwell 40
joined a gifted circle of graduate
stu-dents—amongthemBenAnderson,Dan
Lev and Ruth McVey—who were to
make significant contributions to the
study of Indonesianpolitics. Hecom
-pletedhisdoctoratein1961andreturned
to Australia, first taking up a
post-doctoral positionattheAustralian
Na-tional University, wherehe turnedhis
doctoral dissertation into a book. The
DeclineofConstitutional DemocracyinIn
-donesia,published in1962, became the
classic studyof Indonesia’s ultimately
unsuccessful attempttoestablisha
lib-eraldemocracyinthe1950s.Hislengthy
essay‘DynamicsofGuidedDemocracy’,
whichappearedinRuthMcVey’sIndo
-nesia (1963),and severalotherseminal
articles written aroundthesame time,
werecrucialtoanunderstandingofthe
politicsofSukarno’sGuidedDemocracy
regime. Later, Herb collaborated with
LanceCastlesincollecting andediting
abookofdocumentsentitledIndonesian
PoliticalThinking,1945–1965.
In 1962 Herb Feith joined the
aca-demic staff ofthe Departmentof
Poli-tics at Monash University, where he
remained until his early retirement in
1990. Appointed professor in 1968, he
soon found he had little taste for
aca-demic administration, and stepped
downfromthechairin1975toresume
the rank ofreader. During this period
hewasstronglyopposedtoAustralia’s
military participation in the Vietnam
warandbecameaprominentcriticofthe
human rightsrecord and growing
au-thoritarianism oftheSoehartoregimein
Indonesia.Hewasdeeplydisturbedby
theabuseofhumanrightsinEastTimor
after Indonesia’sinvasionin1975and,
atatimewhenIndonesianwithdrawal
wasscarcelyconsidered, proposed
sev-eralsolutionstoendIndonesiancontrol.
Although Herb always maintained a
keeninterestinIndonesianpolitics,his
concern about the Vietnamwar,
espe-cially in the 1970s, drew him toward
broader issues of international peace
andreconciliation, issuesthatremained
lifelongconcernsinhiswork.
During his long period at Monash
University, Herb taught and inspired
countless undergraduate and
post-graduatestudentsattractedtothestudy
ofIndonesia,SoutheastAsiaand
devel-oping countries in general. Together
with John Legge and Jamie Mackie,
HerbwasadrivingforceintheCentre
ofSoutheastAsian Studies, established
as a research centre to attract
post-graduatestudentstoMonash.The
Cen-tre achieved worldrenown in thelate
1960sand1970s,whenanumberofwell
knownscholars—RexMortimer,Charles
Coppel,KenWardandUlfSundhausen—
completeddissertationsandbooksona
rangeofIndonesianpoliticaltopics.In
addition,Herbinspired many
Indone-sian students to study at M onash,
amongthemformerPresidentHabibie’s
foreign policy adviser, Dewi Fortuna
Anwar,GadjahMadaUniversityRector
IchlasulAmal, prominent
anthropolo-gist and government administrator,
Budhisantoso, andthecurrenthead of
theElectoralCommission, Nazaruddin
Syamsuddin.
FollowingHerb’sretirement,heand
Bettyyearnedtoreturntotheirlife of
the1950s.Fortyyearslatertheybecame
volunteers again, thistime with
Aus-tralianVolunteersInternational.While
HerbtaughtintheFacultyofSocial
Sci-enceandPoliticsatGadjahMada
Uni-versity,andforsix monthsatAndalas
University in West Sum atra, Betty
taughtEnglish.Herbunsteadilyriding
hisbicycletolecturesormeetingswith
students and friends was a familiar
sightontheBulakSumurcampusinthe
late1990s.
Herb had an extraordinarily broad
interest in Indonesianpolitical, social,
culturaland economic affairs,and his
HerbFeith 41
knowledge of individuals and events
related to Indonesian political affairs
wasencyclopaedic. Hewillinglyshared
hisideasinexciting andpacked
semi-nars at university venues in Australia
andinIndonesia,especiallyYogyakarta.
Herbalwayshadatremendousinterest
in, and enthusiasm for, the work of
youngerscholars,andofferedmanyof
themgreatencouragement.
Inlaterlife,Herbdidnotseehimself
asa conventional academicproducing
scholarly studies. Rather he preferred
the role of activist. Instead of major
scholarly articles and books, he wrote
countlessshortopinionpieces
address-ing current abuses perpetrated by the
powers that be.Forever seeking
solu-tionstotheidentifiedinjustices, he
tire-lessly produced proposals he hoped
would be adopted by governments,
though he was usually disappointed.
Moral imperatives drove his life and
much ofhis incomewasgiven to
peo-pleinneed.
Before enteringhis simple house in
GlenIris,notafewvisitorscheckedthat
itwasindeedoccupiedbytherenowned
HerbertFeith.Heoftenseemed
uncom-fortableinformalacademiccontextsand
wasmostathomeinearnest,warm
semi-nars ordiscussions with studentsand
friends.Hisdedicationtothesearchfor
justice,hissympathyforthosewho
suf-feredinjustice,andhistransparent
integ-rity and goodwill won not only the
respectbutindeedtheloveofthosewho
knewhimwell.
