ABSTRACT
The recognition of the strategic contribution education has made to Indonesia’s nationhood can be traced to the period long before the country’s declaration of independence in 1945. Learning from the failed armed struggles that were mounted by the regional rulers dating back to the East India Company, the preindependence leaders turned to education, which, among other things, had contributed to sowing the seeds of national awareness and pride. That is, the comparatively small number of higher education students who had been exposed to the outside world through education and who had been ideologically nurtured by the underground nationalist leaders of the time, comprised the small but very dedicated cadre of future national leaders.
