6 - Mohammad Sadli

Summary

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

I was born in Sumedang, West Java on 10 June 1922. After attending a Dutch primary school I studied at the Hogere Burgerschool, HBS (Dutch secondary school) in Semarang, graduating in 1940. I then enrolled in civil engineering at the School of Engineering (Technische Hogeschool) in Bandung. The best part of my Dutch education was the five-year HBS, which was thorough and broad. I am thus a product of Dutch prewar education, which has been an important influence on my career.

I did not continue my engineering studies during the Japanese occupation, but went to Yogyakarta to become a teacher. Those years were another important influence in my life: through my contacts with other young people such as Sarbini Sumawinata I became interested in politics and economics. Because the Japanese had banned the use of Dutch, my friends and I for the first time had to converse in Indonesian; during the Dutch colonial period, we had spoken either Dutch or Javanese.

Even though I had never been a political activist during my student days in Bandung, I and my friends in Yogyakarta were immediately drawn into the fight for Indonesia's Independence in 1945. During the revolutionary period after Independence, I resumed my studies in the School of Engineering at the newly established Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, and graduated in 1952. I taught theoretical mechanics at this School for one year, and in 1953 went to Jakarta at the invitation of Professor Sumitro, who was then Dean of the new Faculty of Economics of the University of Indonesia (FEUI).

EARLY CAREER AND ECONOMICS EDUCATION

I wondered how Professor Sumitro had come to know about me. Perhaps it was through friends, and because in Yogyakarta, as my interest in economics developed, I had begun writing articles about economic problems in student magazines.

After I had joined FEUI, I was given a chance to participate in the Harvard Summer Seminar Program organised by Dr Henry Kissinger, then a young assistant professor.