6 - The Great Depression: Rockefeller Initiatives and Medical Nationalism

Summary

The Depression decimated the economy of the Dutch East Indies, causing hardship for Europeans and Indonesians alike. Since the majority of Indies physicians were employed by the Public Health Service, they suffered economic hardship. The political climate became ruthlessly oppressive and authoritarian. The Association of Indies Physicians lay dormant until the late 1930s when it was revived by Indies physician and Volksraad delegate Abdul Rasjid. In 1935, Rasjid visited a health demonstration project of the Rockefeller Foundation which aimed to demonstrate how the health of poor and rural populations could be improved through health education and the provision of basic medical care in modest clinics. Rasjid enthusiastically adopted its principles as the foundation of his own medical nationalism. Rasjid’s leadership transformed the political orientation and professional outlook of Indonesian physicians. He encouraged his colleagues to focus on the plight of the Indonesian population and to see medicine as a vital means of nation building.