I am still grateful for the Foundation’s beneficence more than 50 years ago
Sediono Tjondronegoro, born in 1928 as grandson of Kartini’s elder brother Sosrokartono, is probably the oldest living VDMS alumnus. During the Indonesian revolution he joined the Student Brigade Tentara Pelajar, and was wounded by shrapnel during a Dutch mortar attack in East Java. He arrived in Amsterdam in August 1949, with 50 other Indonesian students, all privately funded. A Dutch doctor, a friend of his father, arranged for treatment for his wounded hand, and in 1950 he began his studies in the new Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. He remained in Amsterdam, as student and later Assistant (to Professor W. F. Wertheim), until 1963.
The thinker’: S. M. P. Tjondronegoro as a student at the University of Amsterdam, 1955. In 1961 the VDMS provided him with a scholarship enabling him to com- plete his studies in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences.
Sang pemikir: S. M. P. Tjondronegoro saat kuliah di Universitas Amsterdam, tahun 1955. Pada tahun 1961 ia meneri- ma beasiswa VDMS sehingga ia bisa menyelesaikan kuliahnya di Fakultas Ilmu Politik dan Sosial.
He lived in rented rooms in the houses of various Dutch families, and recalls that he had no problems adapting to Dutch food and customs. One of his landladies in Amsterdam was Mrs. Gruber, a Jewish widow whose family had died in the Nazi death camps, and he also for a time lived in the house of a lo- cal Rabbi. These experiences provided him with a principled tolerance towards all religions and cultures, which he retains till the present day. As part of the Round Table agreements, Indonesia’s new Ministry of Education and Culture provided scholarships for a number of Indonesians to study in Dutch universi- ties. Tjondronegoro was awarded one of these scholarships in 1952, and was able to supplement this with a small salary as part-time ‘candidaats-assistent’. In 1957 however, when diplomatic relations with The Netherlands broke down, the Indonesian embassy in Bonn instructed all students receiving Indonesian government support to transfer to universities in other European countries. Tjondronegoro’s choice of the London School of Economics (LSE) was rejected, since the Embassy found the tuition fees too high. He was left with only the half-salary from his part-time position as Assistant which he supplemented with various odd jobs, including walking the streets of Amsterdam with a hand-cart, collecting used paper and clothing for recycling. In 1961 the VDMS provided him with a scholarship enabling him to complete his studies for the Doctorandus Degree. Tjondronegoro was active in the Netherlands branch of the Indonesian Students’ Association PPI and travelled widely throughout Western Europe and the Soviet Union, where he was introduced to President Kruschev and Bulganin. Returning to Indonesia in 1963 he began teaching in the Bogor Agricultural University, and made his career there until his retirement as Professor of Rural Sociology. He was involved in several major research projects, interspersed with a further period of study abroad at the University of Wisconsin (1966-68). In 1977 he was awarded the PhD cum laude at the University of Indonesia, and in 1981 he held the Tinbergen Professorship at Erasmus University Rotterdam. From 1992-1997 he was a member of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), representing the academic professions. At age 85, he still holds the office of Vice-President for the Social Sciences of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences.
Professor S M P Tjondronegoro re-‐united with his former Professor and mentor, W F Wertheim, at the 50th Anniversary of the Faculty of PoliOcal and Social-‐ Cultural Science, University of Amsterdam, 1998.
Profesor S M P Tjondronegoro bergabung kembali dengan mantan guru dan pembimbingnya Professor W F Wertheim, pada acara HUT ke-‐50 Fakultas Ilmu-‐Ilmi PoliQk dan Sosial-‐Budaya, Universitas Amsterdam, 1998
Professor S.M.P.Tjondronegoro VDMS scholar, 1961
Vice-‐President,
Indonesian Academy of Sciences
2008-‐2013
Van Deventer – Maas Foundation / Jubilee Book 2013
Written by Ben White
Interviewed by Annisa Ika Tiwi