Herb's World View
Herb Feith identified himself as an Internationalist, an Indonesia-person and a Peace-person. These three terms encapsulate the themes of his work and activism throughout his life. He lived by a strong moral code that whilst ever-present and obvious in the way he lived and worked, was never forced upon others.
‘Doing Good’
As Herb described it, the drive to work for good was instilled in him from a very early age by his parents and as a consequence of his experience as a Jew in Nazi-occupied Vienna and then as refugee in Australia. He explained this to an audience of fellow scholars of Asia in 1984,
"(i)t was also the kind of childhood that led me to feel that a terrible lot was expected of me. Basically I was expected to make the world into a better place. As Betty, my wife said to me this morning, they hadn’t gone to all that trouble just so I could be a successful doctor or a successful lawyer. In other words, I grew up thinking that it was important to learn things and search out the truth but also and really more importantly, it was important to do practical things with the knowledge one got."
The compulsion to ‘do good’ and to ‘be useful’ are phrases that apply to Herb Feith and his approach to his work and life as a whole. His work – academic scholarship and teaching – was always considered a means towards improving the world for others. In many ways Herb Feith dedicated his academic career to teaching his students, Australians and Indonesians, about Indonesia, the Third World and possibilities for peace.
Crossing Cultures
What was it about Herb Feith that meant that he left behind an image, impression and affection from others which was timeless, culturally neutral and spanned generations? Herb Feith had an extraordinary capacity for building relationships across cultures. Through his experiences as an ‘outsider’ in Nazi-Vienna in the 1930s, and having to be culturally flexible and adaptive in 1940s Australia and 1950s Indonesia, Herb learnt to blend in whilst retaining a strong sense of himself. These cross-cultural experiences provided Herb with a set of what he referred to as ‘craft skills’, which gave him the ability to cross or transcend cultural and social divisions. These skills were in his interpersonal style of engagement – a style which was open, genuine, respectful and generous. Herb had the skill and inclination to gauge or judge from his interactions with individuals, what was important to them, what they strive for in their lives – and to respect those things. This was his key point of contact and it left enduring impressions on those he met, particularly Indonesians. It was also a main tool in his set of ‘skills’ towards his lifelong quest for ‘moral-scholarship’ and engaged intellectualism in Indonesian studies.
His long engagement with Indonesia led to a deep connection with this place and people. It was a spiritual tie that ran deep and was recognised in memorials celebrated for him in Jakarta and Yogyakarta in Indonesia and Dili, Timor Leste, after his death.
Spreading Peace
After his sudden death in November 2001, Goenawan Mohamad, an Indonesian journalist, publisher and poet reflected that the manner of Herb Feith’s dying in such a violent manner, in a collision between modern machine and simple pedal-power, was in extreme contrast to the way Herb had lived his life. Mohammad wrote of Herb, “he who would never disturb those around him with ambition or coercion, nor quarrel with anything or anyone”.
Those who knew Herb Feith remember his generosity, sharp intellect and above all his radiating warmth. He inspired people to believe, as he did, in the capacity of all people to make a difference, to spread peace. His dedication to Peace Studies and studies of the Third or Developing World was enhanced by his activism on peace and human rights issues. Herb lived what he taught.
As an eighteen year old youth in Melbourne at the end of World War II, upon his own initiative and inspired by the writings of Victor Gollanz and Arthur Koestler, Herb took up a collection for relief for German victims of war. Herb wrote about the motive for this, one of his first activist roles, “That was part of a humanitarian thing, but it was also a reconciliation thing and I remember arguing with my father about the importance of Jews doing things in relation to Germans at that time”.
Herb would return to the theme of peace and reconciliation again and again throughout his life. He saw all his interests – Indonesia, peace and human rights – as inextricably bound together. Herb outlined this convergence in a letter to Indonesian human rights lawyer, Yap Thiam Hien in the 1980s,
"While I was in Indonesia I was spending most of my time talking to people about the new peace movement and peace consciousness that has been developing, albeit mainly just in First World countries (and few Second World ones) so far. But I am also trying to work on East Timor and Irian Jaya, as it seems to me that ‘peaceniks’ have a real obligation to work towards long-term answers to the problem of those two unhappy areas."
The independence of East Timor and the ongoing struggle in West Papua (Irian Jaya) were foci for Herb’s activism and work in the last decade of his life. His involvement in the establishment of the Graduate School of Peace and Conflict Resolution at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta in 2000, was the culmination of Herb’s passions for Indonesia, teaching, human rights and peace studies. After his death, his family’s decision to bequeath Herb’s library to the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR) was in line with his hopes for the future of this fledgling nation and its efforts to come to terms with its violent and divided past.
