Prof. Sardjito deserved and had met the requirement to be named as a national hero. This was said by law professor of Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII), Prof. Dr. Mahfud, M.D., in a national seminar to propose the granting of national hero status to Prof. Dr. M. Sardjito, MPH., in Indonesia Kempinski Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday (27/2).
Mahfud said in terms of politics, the important role of Sardjito was his inspirational political role, which was ideas and concepts to generate human resource that can serve and sustain the nation by producing excellent graduates that are physicists.
“He made Pancasila state ideology as the basis for the development of education and he did science development in higher education at UGM. This role was not simple because the sustainability of Indonesia was also built on Pancasila,”said Mahfud.
Similarly, former Chairman of National Intelligence Agency (BIN), A.M. Hendropriyono, assessed that Sardjito was an excellent physician as well as researcher during the hard times who dedicated each of his scientific achievements to support and sustain the country against colonialism. This opinion was read out by Chairman of Medical Committee of RSPAD Gatot Subroto Hospital, Brig. Gen. TNI Dr.dr Tugas Ratmono, Sp.S., MARS.
“He was an organic intellectual that went directly to the war zone, fighting for and sustaining independence. That is why it’s appropriate for us to honour him with the national hero status,” he said.
Historian, Prof. Taufik Abdullah, said Sardjito’s attention was not only limited to research and teaching of medicine, but also international academic ties and national higher education development.
“Prof. Sardjito was, in fact, a national hero that had made great contributions to the development of science,” said Taufik.
Director General for Culture, Hilmar Farid, emphasised that the proposal to name Prof. Sardjito as a national hero was an effort to nurture nationhood imagination. The narratives on the nationalist doctor that tried to build the Indonesian human beings with identity, said Hilmar, had to be made the mainstream.
“The efforts to nurture the nationhood imagination will never stop at just mere slogans and socialisation. This has to involve as many as possible societal elements to re-identify the historical grounds that had made Indonesia where it is now,” said Hilmar.
As is known, Prof. Dr. M. Sardjito was born on 13 August 1889 in Purwodadi village, Magetan city, East Java. After completing his primary school at Sekolah Rakyat, he continued at the STOVIA in Jakarta. Due to his diligence and intelligence, he passed as the best student and earned scholarships to study further in Leiden. His doctoral degree was earned in Leiden in year 1923 after defending his dissertation on warm climate diseases.
He once led the Pasteur Institute in Bandung, becoming Rector of UGM for 11 years and Rector of Universitas Islam Indonesia between 1964-1970. The research of Sardjito that is very popular is on Calcusol to treat kidney stones.