The Origin of Scouting in Indonesia

Indonesia recalls a significant strand in her pre-and post-independence history, the founding and growth of Gerakan Pramuka, the National Scout Organization.

Indonesia joined the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) in 1953 but it was on Aug. 14, 1961, that president Sukarno signed a decree to officiate the banner of the Gerakan Pramuka and ceremonially handed over it to Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX, the founding chairman of Indonesia’s scout movement. Currently, with over eight million members, Gerakan Pramuka comprises the largest national scout organization in the world.

With Indonesia’s educators searching for a curriculum that makes learning enjoyable and meaningful for children and to develop sustainable schools, it seems appropriate to look at the beginning of the scout movement and its focus on many of the life skills integral to the growth of independence, responsibility and creativity of today’s young Indonesians. Scouting, with its motto, “Be prepared” and slogan “Do a good turn daily”, demonstrates that young people can and must be a part of the solution to the world’s big challenges.

Scouting began in 1907, when Robert Baden-Powell, a retired lieutenant general in the British Army held the first scouting encampment in England. Baden-Powell’s distinguished career took him to India and Africa where he developed patrolling, reconnaissance and knowledge of the natural environment as key aspects of army life. In 1899 he wrote Aids to Scouting, a manual for young soldiers and volunteers, which was rewritten in 1908 as Scouting for Boys.

Designed for youth leadership, it was enthusiastically received not only by young people in England but rapidly spread to Europe. In 1910, advised by the British King, Edward VII, Baden-Powell accepted retirement from the army so that he could promote scouting.

A brief look at Baden-Powell’s family and school life shows the kindling of scouting skills, which were later to catch the imagination of young people around the world, just as the skillful rubbing of sticks together produces small sparks, which when carefully tended, can be coaxed to become the glorious blaze of a camp fire. Losing his father at the age of three and the member of a large family in meager financial circumstances, he won a scholarship to Charterhouse school where he developed many of the arts and craft skills later so useful to him professionally. His activities were often not in the school curriculum and his end-of-term reports proved that some teachers were not too impressed; one record said caustically, “Mathematics — has to all intents given up the study”.

The woods nearby the school were out of bounds for students but it was there that Baden-Powells experimented with stalking, camp fires and cooking, being careful to avoid the telltale smoke that would give away his whereabouts. His woodcraft activities aside, Baden-Powells had the courage, creativity and capacity for the risk-taking necessary for a future leader. A writer, musician, artist, actor and bricklayer, Baden-Powell’s holidays were spent on yachting or canoeing expeditions with his brothers, such as the trip to trace the source of the river Thames. It seems that Howard Gardner’s Smart Pizza of Multiple Intelligences was truly embodied in this remarkable person.

Regional and local influences have always played an important part in scouting and it is through the adapting of local ideologies that scouting has been embraced by a wide variety of cultures. In America scouting has drawn from the knowledge and wisdom of the American Indian people. In contrast, British scouting sources much of its imagery from the Indian subcontinent, a region of particular significance during the movement’s early development.

Introduced in 1912 by the Dutch, Scouting flourished in Indonesia, surmounting the difficulties of a country struggling with colonial occupation and world war. By 1945, there were more than 60 boy scout and girl guide organizations.

These were unified within Gerakan Pramuka and Sri Sultan was himself presented with the WOSM’s Bronze Wolf award, for exceptional services to world scouting.

Scouting principles are based on four key elements, the Scout Law and Promise, which embody the values and bind together associations of the scouting movement from all over the world, “Learning by doing” which provides a practical approach to learning and builds self esteem, the development of small groups to nurture the understanding and practice of character excellences such as unity, responsibility, reliability and readiness, and progressive, varied activities which nurture a love of the outdoors. Outdoor activities are at the heart of scouting, with camping, woodcraft, hiking, backpacking and aquatics considered essential.

So many of the values that schools and families strive to nurture in our children are at the heart of scouting. The tenets of scout law, Dasadarma Pramuka, call upon all scouts, from the cubs who join at the age of seven to the adult members — 26 years old and above — to believe in God, respect their parents, be truthful, honorable, disciplined, brave, helpful, cheerful, loyal, love their nation and to strive for purity in mind, word and action.

These are the age-old keys to a meaningful life and proclaim the spirit of those great heroes who strove to bring about Indonesia’s independence and who were themselves great scouts, among them, Bung Tomo, H.O.S. Tjokroaminoto, Agus Salim, Soerjopranoto and Gen. Soedirman. Just as these heroes believed, let us now believe that we and our children can make a difference to Indonesia and her future. Let’s “Be prepared” and as Baden-Powell himself requested, do our best to leave this world a little better than we found it.

The writer is a founder and executive principal of the Central and Sevilla Schools.

Susan J. Natih