The Volunteer Graduate Scheme for Indonesia in Historical Perspective Fletcher O’Leary For the degree of Master of Philosophy Department of History School of Humanities University of Adelaide February 2017 Table of Contents Abstract HDR Thesis Declaration Preface and Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 1. The Formation of the Volunteer Graduate Scheme 16 2. The Volunteer Graduate Scheme and Australian-Indonesian Relations 32 3. The Cold War and the Volunteer Graduate Scheme 53 4. Identity, White Australia, and the Volunteer Graduate Scheme 86 Conclusion 117 Bibliography 122 Abstract This thesis examines the Volunteer Graduate Scheme for Indonesia (VGS), a student-run initiative of the 1950s that sent idealistic and young Australian university graduates – including doctors, teachers, engineers, and scientific researchers – to work for the Indonesian Republic. Although less than fifty volunteers ended up serving in Indonesia through the Scheme, its cultural impact was profound: many ex-volunteers became leaders in their professions thanks in part to their experiences in Indonesia, the pool of experts who founded the academic discipline of Southeast Asian Studies in Australian universities were drawn heavily from the alumni of the VGS, and cultural organisations such as the Australian-Indonesian Association of Victoria were founded and run for decades by individuals who went through the VGS. The VGS also served as a precursor and model to other voluntary aid programs, such as the United States Peace Corps and British Voluntary Service Overseas, and is the ancestor of Australian Volunteers International. More than this, through examining the VGS and placing it in its historical context, new perspectives can be added to the historiographies of Australian-Indonesian relations, the Cold War, and post-war conceptions of Australian identity. The thesis divides into four substantive chapters. ‘Background to the Formation of the Volunteer Graduate Scheme’ traces the developments within Australian society that made something akin to the VGS feasible and, to the individuals who founded it, desirable. ‘The Volunteer Graduate Scheme and Australian-Indonesian Relations’ provides a short history of the VGS as it operated, and shows how the VGS represents a less-familiar perspective in the history of Australian-Indonesians relations than is normally presented, in which ‘world minded’ Australians rather than diplomats or experts spearhead interactions with Indonesian society. ‘The Cold War and the Volunteer Graduate Scheme’ examines the ways in which the Cold War – and anti-communism – influenced the development of the VGS and, by extension, the ways that Australians engaged with Indonesia and understood Indonesian society and their own actions. This chapter shows that although the Cold War is fundamental to understanding the events of this period, the driving force of actions were often more complicated than a simplistic communist / anti- communist dichotomy. ‘Identity, White Australia, and the Volunteer Graduate Scheme’ provides two new perspectives on the formation of Australian national identity in its relationship with Asia in the Menzies era. The first section of this chapter looks at the impact of mass migration of non-English speaking European countries, and the ways in which the changes occurring within Australian society influenced the understanding Australians had of their own identity and place in the world. The second section looks at the roles that gender played in the VGS. Gender served as a complicating factor to the Scheme’s pursuit of intercultural friendship, with mixed-race intimate relationships a source of anxiety and pride, at different points. This section also shows how female volunteers themselves used gender and their experiences in Indonesia to offer a critique of the position of women in Australian society. HDR Thesis Declaration I certify that this work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in my name in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. In addition, I certify that no part of this work will, in the future, be used in a submission in my name for any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution without the prior approval of the University of Adelaide and where applicable, any partner institution responsible for the joint award of this degree. I give consent to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the University Library, being made available for loan and photocopying, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I also give permission for the digital version of my thesis to be made available on the web, via the University's digital research repository, the Library Search and through web search engines, unless permission has been granted by the University to restrict access for a period of time. As of 1 January 2017, all research funded through the Research Training Program is required to contain the following statement: I acknowledge the support I have received for my research through the provision of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. ______________________________________ Fletcher O’Leary / / 2017 Preface and Acknowledgements In the time that I have spent researching and working on this thesis, a period which included nearly a year’s worth of extended leave, I have received very generous help, encouragement, and guidance from many people. My principal supervisor, A/Prof. G. R. Knight, offered me significant support, material and immaterial, and took great pains to read and critique my successive drafts despite not being physically present in the country for a large part of the writing up stage. Dr. Pritchard, who was co-supervisor for this project, was able to guide me at crucial stages and provide options and perspectives on how to frame this research, for which I am eternally grateful. I am also grateful that he hounded me on my use of split infinitives proposition-ending sentences (although I maintain a genial scepticism towards his hard-line approach to grammar). I would like to thank Laurie Wesley, who generously provided a copy of his self-published history of the New Zealand Volunteer Graduate Scheme that was unavailable in Australia, and Ailsa Zainudd’in, who permitted me access to oral history recordings and transcriptions held by the National Library of Australia before the end of a 10 year embargo due to expire in late 2016. Final thanks go to Nicholas, who proofread the final draft (despite confessing that he thought the subject matter was ‘a bit esoteric’). And, of course, thanks to L, for pretty much everything. List of abbreviations ALP Australian Labor Party ASCM Australian Student Christian Movement ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Organization NUAUS National Union of Australian University Students VGS The Volunteer Graduate Scheme for Indonesia NAA National Archives of Australia NLA National Library of Australia Introduction A conference, dedicated to surveying the previous fifty years of ‘Indonesia-Australian interactions’, was held at Flinders University in South Australia in 1995. Professor Herbert ‘Herb’ Feith, for decades a recognised authority on post-revolutionary Indonesian politics, focused his address to the conference on his recently deceased mentor and friend, Molly Bondan. Brilliant and passionate, she had served as President Sukarno’s chief English-language speechwriter and translator. Bondan had also served as a guide to the young Feith in his first forays into Indonesian politics. Even though their differences became quickly apparent – starting with their divergent views on Sukarno’s version of Indonesian nationalism – her impact on Feith was profound. But Feith’s address was more than a retelling of Molly Bondan’s unique impact on his life’s work. It was also an exploration of his own earlier idealism as seen from the distance of decades. Feith had served as documentarian, analyst, and participant- observer as Indonesia moved from the democratic kaleidoscope of its National Revolution through to the authoritarianism of Sukarno’s Guided Democracy and Suharto’s New Order military regime. He had dedicated his life to furthering cross- cultural understanding, working with the world’s leading research centre on Southeast Asia at Cornell University before helping to establish the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Monash University, and later the magazine Inside Indonesia. Feith stressed that he and Molly Bondan shared similar backgrounds, in so far as they were both members of a ‘Chifley-admiring intellectual sub-culture of worldmindedness and political renewal’ that had sprung up in Australia after World War Two.1 This was especially true of Feith who, as a student, had helped to establish 1 Herbert Feith, “Molly Bondan: Pioneer, Mentor and Role Model,” in Half a Century of Indonesian- Australian Interaction, ed. Anton Lucas, Flinders University Asian Studies Monograph 6 (Adelaide: 1 an ALP Club at the University of Melbourne in opposition to the anti-Chifley, pro- communist Labour Club already in existence. It was less true, though, of Bondan, who had significant difficulties with the Labor administration due to her marriage to the Indonesian nationalist, Mohammed Bondan, at a time when White Australia was still an orthodoxy harshly enforced.2 Feith also