The Darkness that Remains: Between Kartini’s past aspirations and Indonesia Now

April 25, 2025

Written by Robertus Andika PRADATA

I recently read Kartini’s letters ‘Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang’ from a book made and compiled by J.H. Abendanon and while I have not fully finished reading it, I had much to say about the state of Indonesia in comparison to Kartini’s experiences between the late 1800s and early 1900s in the Dutch East-Indies. Being one of my favourite national figures, her letters uncovered a side I never knew before; the sweet & caring, curious, and progressive character that is often lost in translation for those that left Indonesia at a young age like me. However, the letters made me realise how important education is for Indonesia and how many things it can affect in every aspect of a person’s life. Kartini touched on poverty, issues of religion, identity, women’s rights, hierarchical conformity, and the importance of education for Indonesians living in the Dutch-East Indies at the time, especially for women. In parallel with Kartini’s issues were the issues that Indonesia is facing now: poverty, clashes in national identities, radicalism, and the issue of religious literacy which are all intertwined by a struggle of access to education.

Being of the Javanese aristocracy, Kartini was supposed to be bound by the social hierarchy from ever interacting with ordinary peoples of Jepara, but she still broke that boundary and was able to talk with those less fortunate than her. When it comes to poverty she wrote:

“As if the air was vibrating with the wails, moans, and groans of the people around me. And even louder than those moans and groans, whooshed and roared in my ears: Work! Work! Work! Fight for your freedom! Only when you have freed yourself through work can you help others! Work! Work! I hear it so clearly; it seems written before my eyes”

To me, her thoughts on the impoverished peoples of Java at the time are no different to those in Indonesia now. Those who are in poverty, on whichever island they may be, are always working themselves to death until they can gain just enough to feed themselves and their family; and even going as far as forcing their children to contribute to their income. To this day, child labour is still at a high rate in Indonesia, many are still struggling to make ends meet to even feed themselves, let alone providing themselves with education. Even if one were to provide education with child labour, the child would still have to work to maintain the financial stability of the family, and thus would take those children out of the classrooms and still work in their, usually dangerous, work environments - Children are then burdened with as much work and toll as their parents, if not more, and so they drop-out early.

Drop-out rates in the junior & senior levels of highschool are still high in Indonesia, leaving many unable to attain a high education and employment in the future. However, there are many facets to the high drop-out rate as even low-income families that are still able to maintain their children’s education are threatened by criminal activities. It was found that, in most cases, those families of low-income usually live in areas ridden with criminal activities. While schools should be a safe haven for said children to stay out of criminal activities, those exact behaviours permeate through the school gates, resulting in students being attracted to gang activity. One such example of this is the gang culture of Klitih in Jogjakarta, where students affiliate themselves with gang groups and harm anyone in public spaces. It can also be said that these sorts of criminal activities distract the student’s time for learning within the classroom and therefore have a higher rate of dropping-out, which eventually contributes to unemployment in the long-run.

Parents also have the additional burden of having to provide for the transportation of their children to go to their educational institutions. While Kartini has not explicitly spoken about the state of infrastructure in her time, modern day Indonesia still lacks the infrastructure necessary to make education accessible. Everytime I go through the mountains of Temanggung in Central Java, I find myself asking how children are able to go to school in an area so rugged, secluded, and devoid of transportational infrastructure? And whether they gain any quality education upon reaching there at all? These are the people of Indonesia that are often overlooked, such are the people in much more underdeveloped regions of Papua, Maluku, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, and to some extent Sumatra and Kalimantan. Without proper roads and safe means of transportation, children of low-income households will find themselves uneducated and lose an opportunity to climb the social ladder.

Kartini’s efforts in breaking traditional norms is also marvellously advanced for her epoch, this effort of hers is also an ongoing process in the current Indonesia we live in today. The notion that one must unquestioningly respect their superiors within the social hierarchy was broken by Kartini starting with her siblings and the people she wrote to. She wanted to speak Dutch with her Dutch friends and officials (which was prohibited during her time) and she allowed her siblings to speak at the same level of Javanese Ngoko with her (a sign of lower formality than the Javanese Krama Inggil). In Indonesia, we recently found ourselves questioning the authority that we were supposed to respect - namely the Prabowo-Gibran administration. Demonstrations regarding the Regional Elections in 2024 and the current trends of #IndonesiaGelap & #KaburAjaDulu are evident of this fact, but in its rise comes the aggressive response of those at the very top.

While the demonstrations succeeded in preventing the ratification of a draconian bill, officials such as Binsar Pandjaitan, the head of the Ministry of the National Economy, responded that it is instead those exact same people using the #IndonesiaGelap that are “Gelap” (in darkness) themselves. This only infuriated the Indonesian people, however divided they may be on the matter. But to me and many Indonesian nationals around the world, there was an existential question of national identity that was so personal. I was then reminded of when Kartini pleaded with a yearning sensation that she would like to interact with those outside of her Kaboepaten, how lonely she must have been - recognised as nothing but a woman, a part of the aristocracy and disparate from the wider nation of her own peoples. While I am proud that there are many Indonesians there and abroad fighting against the aggressiveness of such an administration, there is also another facet of fear that emerged in me - religious radicalism.

Indonesia is one of the most, if not the most, religious countries in the world adhering to the islamic religion, and Kartini has also spoken much about religion. Kartini failed to understand the Islamic religion within Indonesia as the Quran was not able to be translatable at all at the time, most did not know what much of the text meant but still recited its verses, but Kartini questioned why she should follow such a religion if she did not fully understand it at all? Even going as far as asking Stella (her Dutch penmate) whether she’s still able to be good without being a pious muslim. In the increasingly multicultural and multi-religious Indonesia today, such sentiments are still present. There are still centres that focus on only remembering and memorising the Quran that does not increase its understanding at all.

In Indonesia, religious schools are focused on strengthening the faith of one’s religion rather than understanding it inside and out, which leaves room for a lot of conflicts. While half the reason lies within not fully understanding one’s own religion, the other half lies in the lack of understanding of other religions. This is increasingly important as when the wider population is unable to understand their supposed religious values and beliefs in relation to other religions, then it not only leaves room to be swayed by hardline religious radicalism, but it also encourages prejudice to happen across the archipelago. If Indonesia were to instill the belief systems and values of other religions in, not only the religious but the overall education system, then it would allow understanding to be built between peoples of different races and religions. This factor of understanding is critical as without it there can be no concept of tolerance. Even a concept as simple as tolerance can be misunderstood as simply allowing those of different religions and backgrounds to do whatever and however they please, but this is wrong when understanding is excluded from the equation. One can be tolerant in that sense without understanding other religions, but one would still harbour feelings of resentment when there are conflicts of interests. The understanding of one’s own religion and others are not only the keys to tolerance, but also religious literacy.

Without religious literacy, many places of worship may be desecrated, people will be mentally and physically harmed, and many faiths become distanced and severed of their relations to one another. Hardline religious groups such as Front Pembela Islam (FPI) and Hizbut Tahrir have had influences within academic institutions, one of them being the National Islamic University (UIN). How these influential radical religious groups gain influence is in the students’ own actions as the universities are unable to control their membership to these organizations. Most find themselves wanting to know more about the Islamic religion whilst others are blatantly swayed by misinformation and radical thinking. It is factors such as these that break away the Indonesian spirit of unity, and the Indonesia that Kartini once fought and struggled for.

Without education, the people of Indonesia would, at every turn, be oppressed; by the elite, by men, by radical religious leaders, and between ourselves. We would be more divided than ever. Kartini has taught us not only to question the existing norm of society but also the injustice of it all; how unjust it is to find many unable to attain education and gain opportunities, how unjust it is to be treated as the pariah by your own flesh and blood, and how unjust it is that a lack of religious understanding can lead to desecration and hatred. As Kartini has written, we must “turn not away, you who are old of days, from everything that is new. Consider all that is now old has once been new.”