Overview

In 1949, the newly-independent Indonesia inherited a health system that was devastated by three-and-a-half years of Japanese occupation and four years of revolutionary struggle against the Dutch. Additionally, the country had to cope with the resurgence of epidemic and endemic diseases. The Ministry of Health had initiated a number of symbolic public health initiatives - both during the Indonesian Revolution (1945 to 1949) and the early 1950s - resulting in a noticeable decline of mortality. These initiatives fuelled the newly-independent nation's confidence because they demonstrated to the international community that Indonesia was capable of standing on its own feet. Unfortunately, by the mid-1950s, Indonesia's public health program faltered due to a constellation of factors attributed to the political tensions between Java and the Outer Islands, administrative problems, corruption, and rampant inflation. The optimism that characterised the early years of independence gave way to despair. The Soekarno era could, therefore, be interpreted as the era of bold plans but unfulfilled aspirations in Indonesian public health. Based on extensive archival research and a close reading of Indonesian primary sources, this book provides a nuanced account of the inner tensions in Indonesian public health during the twentieth century - between a narrow biomedical approach that emphasised disease eradication, and a holistic approach that linked public health to practical concerns of nation-building.

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9781443886543

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It is rare that one comes across a book on public health that integrates politics, nationbuilding, society and economy in a historical context. This monograph is an important contribution to the history of medicine and pertinent for scholars interested in history, politics and health policies in post-war independent nation states. Neelakantan has based his research on extensive use of archives from several libraries across four continents for his doctoral work, from which this monograph has been developed [...] the monograph is immensely important for comparative study, especially of the development of health policies, health systems, medicine and science in postcolonial nation states. Madhurima Nundy, Institute of Chinese Studies,DelhiChina Report 54/2 (2018)

Author Information

Vivek Neelakantan received a PhD in History of Medicine from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2014. His PhD thesis - based extensively on archival research at the WHO and in Indonesia - critically examined Indonesia's relations with the WHO during the Cold War and the appropriation and transformation of social medicine by nationalist physicians. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM). His current research, supported by a Rockefeller Foundation Grant-In-Aid, and a grant from the Truman Library, examines the centrality of medicine to postcolonial science in Indonesia and the Philippines.

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