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.

Bu and her contributors illustrate the complexity of tensions and negotiations in the development of different types of public health systems in Asia during the early Cold War. Competing models of development with different political ideologies and economic enterprises increasingly influenced Asian countries in their efforts to build modern nations after World War II. Looking at examples from China, Japan, South and North Korea, India, and Indonesia, the contributors to this volume look at how a range of Asian countries handled this postcolonial challenge. Health became a pivotal area that sustained the political discourse of differentiating one type of society from the other and promoting each system’s advantages over the other’s during the Cold War. Central to the discourse of a just society and the well-being of citizens was the promotion of public health and welfare for the people. The right to health was considered a fundamental human right as well as an essential social justice. A healthy population was also a prerequisite for national economic prosperity. Public health in postwar Asia was, therefore, a sociopolitical matter as well as a concern for the well-being of individuals. The health of the people demonstrated the advancement of a nation and provided the insurance for economic productivity and national prosperity. An essential read for historians and policymakers of public health and historians of Asia during the Cold War.

Health and development require one another: there can be no development without a critical mass of people who are sufficiently healthy to do whatever it takes for development to occur, and people cannot be healthy without societal developments that enable standards of health to be maintained or improved. However, the ways in which health and development interact are complex and contested. This volume unites eleven case studies from nine countries in three continents and two international organizations since the late-nineteenth century. Collectively, they show how different actors have struggled to reconcile the sometimes contradictory nature of health and development policies, and the subordination of these policies to a range of political objectives.

This examination of the formation of the Indonesian medical profession reveals the relationship between medicine and decolonisation, and its importance to understanding Asian history.

This book analyses the complexity of South and Southeast Asia in international health, taking into account the impact of the geopolitics of the Cold War on the development of public health and development in the regions. In light of the recent health pandemic, which has mobilized experts and governments and led to a securitized approach to global health, this book offers a regional approach to global health histories. The chapters provide case studies ranging from the Cold War to the present time and covering countries from across South and Southeast Asia. Contributors analyse issues related to disease control, an adjunct to wider Cold War geopolitics. They also examine the responses of regional organizations, particularly the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), towards COVID-19. Collectively, the book illustrates how narrowly-conceived global health programs implemented by aid agencies failed to account for the local, national or regional contexts. Situating health in South and Southeast Asia in broader global contexts, the book will be a valuable contribution to the History of Medicine and Health and Political Economy of South and Southeast Asia.

Collection of speeches, addresses, etc. of Soekarno, first President of Republic of Indonesia, from 1965 to 1967.

This book traces the beginning of the process of nation-formation, the struggle for independence, the hopeful beginning of the new nation-state of Indonesia only to be followed by hard and difficult ways to remain true to the ideals of independence. In the process Indonesia with its sprawling archipelago and its multi-ethnic and multi-religious nation has to undergo various types of crisis and internal conflicts, but the ideals that have been nurtured since the beginning when a new nation began to be visualized remain intact. Some changes in the interpretation may have taken place and some deviations here and there can be noticed but the literal meaning of the ideals continues to be the guiding light. In short this is a history of a nation in the continuing effort to retain the ideals of its existence.