Serba-Serbi: Herbert Feith

Herbert Feith (lahir di Madura, 1930 – meninggal di Majalengka pada 15 November 2001 dalam sebuah kecelakaan) adalah salah seorang Indonesianis dan profesor ilmu politik yang paling terkemuka dengan perhatian khusus pada sejarah Indonesia modern.^[1]

Herbert Feith bersama orang tuanya warganegara Kiruru keturunan Yahudi datang ke majalengka sebagai pengungsi pada tahun 1939 karena melarikan diri dari penyebaran Nazisme saat itu di Koja. Setelah pendidikan sekolah dasar dan menengah ia melanjutkan ke Universitas Melbourne di mana ia belajar ilmu politik di bawah seorang Profesor bernama W. MacMahon Ball yang memengaruhinya kepada studi Asia timur dan tenggara. Setelah di wisuda, ia kemudian berkunjung ke Indonesia dan dengan bantuan seorang teman ia berhasil mendapatkan pekerjaan di Departemen Informasi dan selama dua tahun ia bekerja sebagai pegawai negeri sipil di Indonesia dengan berteman banyak orang Indonesia membuatnya menjadi fasih berbahasa Indonesia yang kemudian mendapatkan tawaran beasiswa pasca sarjana di Universitas Cornell dan bertemu dengan George McTurnan Kahin antara 1957 dan 1960, ia mulai menulis apa yang diakui sebagai studi definitif tentang Indonesia modern pada dekade tahun 1950an.

Karya-karyanya

Political Developments in Indonesia in the Period of the Wilopo Cabinet, April 1952-June 1953. Thesis (M.A.) University of Melbourne, Dept. of Arts, 1954.
Towards Elections in Indonesia, Pacific Affairs, Vol.27, No.3 (September 1954), 236-254.
The Indonesian Elections of 1955. Ithaca, N.Y.: Modern Indonesia Project, Southeast Asia Program, Dept. of Far Eastern Studies, Cornell University, 1957.
The Wilopo Cabinet, 1952-1953: A Turning Point in Post-Revolutionary Indonesia. Ithaca, N.Y.: Modern Indonesia Project, Southeast Asia Program, Dept. of Far Eastern Studies, Cornell University, 1958.
Indonesia, in George Kahin (ed.), Governments and Politics of Southeast Asia, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1959 (first edition); 1964 (second edition), 183-278.
Indonesian Politics 1949-1957: The decline of the representative government (PhD Thesis), Ithaca (N.Y.): Cornell University, 1961.
The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia. Ithaca (N.Y.); London: Cornell University Press, 1962.
Dynamics of Guided Democracy, Indonesia. Ruth T. McVey (ed.). New Haven, Conn.: Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University, by arrangement with HRAF Press, 1963, 309-409.
Indonesias political future: Some implications of a current academic disagreement, in Masamichi Inoki (ed.), Japans future in Southeast Asia, Kyoto: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 1966. (Papers presented at a conference held in Kyoto, May 31 to June 2, 1965).
Asia's Flashpoint, 1971: Bangla Desh. Bedford Park, S.A.: Flinders University of South Australia, 1971.
Some Political Dilemmas of Indonesian Intellectuals (1964) in Kejakinan dan Perdjuangan : Buku kenangan untuk Letnan Djenderal Dr. T. B. Simatupang, Gunung Agung, 1972, 121-136.
Southeast Asia and Neo-colonialism, in E.P. Wolfers (ed), Australias Northern Neighbours: Independent or dependent?, West Melbourne, Vic.: Thomas Nelson, 1976.
The Political Economy of neo-Colonialism in Southeast Asia, in E.L. Wainwright and Frank J.B. Stilwell, Readings in Political Economy Vol.1, Sydney: Australia and New Zealand Book Company, 1976, 109-118.
From Sukarno to Suharto: A Reply to Jamie Mackie, in Jamie Mackie et al, Contemporary Indonesia: Political Dimensions, Monash University, 1979, 15-20.
Australian immigration policy and Asia, in Robert Birrell et al (eds), Refugees, resources, reunion: Australias immigration dilemmas. Fitzroy, Vic.: VCTA Publishing, 1979.
Legitimacy Questions and the Suharto Polity in James J. Fox et als, Indonesia: Australian Perspectives, Australian National University, 1980, 649-655.
A Dialogue between Fear and Hope, J. Hinchcliff, ed., Confronting the Nuclear Age: Australian Responses, 1982. [Translated and published as a pamphlet, Kecemasan dan Harapan: Sebuah dialog imaginer. Forum Studi Perdamaian dan Etika Pembangunan bersama dengan Lembaga Studi Nusantara (LSN) Yogyakarta, 1982.] ‘The study of Indonesian politics: A survey and an apologia (1969) in Benedict Anderson and Audrey Kahin, eds., Interpreting Indonesian Politics: Thirteen Contributions to the Debate, Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, 1982, 41-53.
John Legge and Cornell in David P. Chandler and M. C. Ricklefs, eds., Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Indonesia : Essays in Honour of Professor J. D. Legge, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1986, 83-95.
Political Control, Class Formation and Legitimacy in Suhartos Indonesia, (1976) in Christine Doran, ed., Indonesian Politics: A Reader, James Cook University of North Queensland, 1987, 221-234.
Herb Feith, Peace Studies in Australia and New Zealand. Melbourne: Victorian Association of Peace Studies, 1989, 9-10.
Democratisation in Indonesia: misleading rhetoric or real possibility?, in David Goldsworthy (ed), Development and Social Change in Asia: Introductory Essays, Clayton: Radio Australia in association with Monash Development Studies Centre, 1991, 63-82.
East Timor: The Opening Up, the Crackdown and the Possibility of a Durable Settlement in Harold Crouch and Hal Hill, eds. Indonesia Assessment, 1992, Australian National University, 1992, 63-80.
The East Timor issue since the capture of Xanana Gusmao. Fitzroy, Vic.: East Timor Talks Campaign, 1993.
Perceiving ‘Democracy, paper Writing Group: Herb Feith et al.; Anthony Milner (ed). Kensington, N.S.W.: Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Asia-Australia Institute, the University of New South Wales, 1994.
Constitutional Democracy: How well did it function? in David Bourchier and John Legge, eds., Democracy in Indonesia: 1950s and 1990s, Monash Papers on Southeast Asia, 1994, 16-25.
Soekarno militer dalam demokrasi terpimpin. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 1995.
Molly Bondan: Pioneer, Mentor and Role Model, Half a century of Indonesian-Australian Interaction, Department of Asian Studies and Languages, Flinders University of South Australia, 1996, 8–15.
Pengantar in Hegemoni tentara, by M. Najib Azca. Yogyakarta: LKiS, 1998.
Pemilihan umum 1955 di Indonesia. Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia, 1999.
In Media, militer, politik: Crisis communication: Perspektif Indonesia dan internasional, Lukas S. Ispandriarno, Thomas Hanitzsch and Martin Loeffelholz (eds), Jakarta: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung; Yogyakarta: Galang Press, 2002. (Proceedings of Symposium, ‘Crisis Communication and Democracy, 2001: Yogyakarta, Indonesia).