Dr. Agus Suwignyo, a lecturer in the Department of History at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FIB UGM), was officially inaugurated as a professor of history of education on Thursday, Apr. 24, 2025, at the UGM Senate Hall.
During the inauguration ceremony, he delivered a professorial address titled Has Political Independence Changed the Concept of Colonization and Decolonization of Knowledge in Higher Education?
In his address, Professor Suwignyo stated that while the essence of education is to develop human beings in all dimensions to become more humane, it often manifests inhumanely.
“Education, though guided by noble goals, is often implemented through oppressive methods filled with violence,” he explained.
He emphasized that education’s goal, to enlighten the nation, is both an end and a means.
Political independence seeks to realize this enlightenment but to achieve true independence, it must be pursued through sovereign means, or in other words, through sovereign intelligence.
“Now, 80 years since the gateway to independence was opened through the Proclamation, we might ask, ‘Have our efforts to enlighten the nation truly been sovereign? Have these efforts led to genuine independence?” he said.
In the context of education, Professor Suwignyo argued that pursuing national enlightenment through sovereign means entails decolonizing colonial knowledge.
He also raised the question of whether intellectual activities in knowledge production in Indonesia are genuinely free from the lingering influence of colonial power politics.
According to Professor Suwignyo, education is often narrowly understood as being limited to formal institutions such as schools and universities.
While not incorrect, he noted that this view is incomplete.
He stressed that education should be viewed more broadly as a process of formation and growth, often expressed as maturation, achieved through the development of knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes.
He also underlined the close relationship between true independence and sovereignty.
He argued that True education produces sovereign individuals, personally and collectively.
“Sovereign independence is born from liberating education. Perhaps this is why, in 1953, the Director of Community Education, M. Sadarjoen Siswamartaja, stated that the problem arising from independence is the problem of education,” he concluded.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Post-editor: Lintang Andwyna
Photographer: Donnie