Hello buddy! Of the many extracurriculars at school, surely you are already familiar with one of these extracurriculars. Yes, Scouts! The scouting movement which is very closely related to discipline and cohesiveness is always celebrated on August 14. So how is the gait of Scouting in Indonesia? Let’s see the full article!
The international scouting movement was initiated by a member of the British army named Robert Baden-Powell. He wrote a book entitled Scouting For Boys in 1906-1907. This book has very interesting content for teenagers, namely training skills and dexterity, teaching how to survive, to the development of moral basics for teenagers.
Baden-Powell’s thoughts slowly spread throughout the world. In the international world, this movement is called the Scouting or Scout Movement .
This scouting movement has started to take shape in several countries (including Indonesia), and its members have reached 50 million people in more than 200 countries.
In Indonesia itself, the scouting movement has existed since the era before independence. The Dutch East Indies government brought a branch of the scouting movement to Indonesia called the Nederlandsche Padvinders Organisatie (NPO) in 1912. Later, this movement changed its name to Nederlands Indische Padvinders Vereeniging (NIVP) in 1916.
In the same year, the first Indonesian scouting movement was initiated by Mangkunegara VII in Surakarta under the name Javaansche Padvinders Organisatie. After that, other scouting movements that were managed by national movement organizations emerged. Some of them are Hizbul Wathan belonging to Muhammadiyah, Nationale Padvinderij belonging to Boedi Oetomo, Sarekat Islam Afdeling Padvinderij belonging to Sarekat Islam, Nationale Islamietische Padvinderij belonging to Jong Islamieten Bond, and others.
The unification of the scouting movements took place in 1923. The scouting movement on a national scale was marked by the founding of the Nationale Padvinderij Organisatie (NPO) in Bandung and the Jong Indonesische Padvinderij Organisatie (JIPO) in Batavia. The two were later merged into one, namely the Indonesische Nationale Padvinderij Organisatie (INPO) in 1926.
Over time, the scouting movement became more and more popular. This made the Dutch East Indies government worried and banned all Bumiputera scouting movements from using the term padvinder . OIeh because of that, KH Agus Salim began to introduce the term “scout” or “scouting” for scouting organizations in the country.
In the course of his journey, the scouting organizations that numbered in the hundreds were divided into several federations. Aware of the weaknesses of these federations, the Indonesian Scout Association was formed or abbreviated as PERKINDO. However, there are still obstacles due to the lack of cohesiveness between the members who are members of it.
The government is starting to realize the importance of revamping the scouting movement in the country. Therefore, on March 9, 1961 President Soekarno gathered figures from the Indonesian scouting movement to unite all existing scouting movements into one strong organizational unit.
On August 14, 1961, MAPINAS (National Leadership Council) was conducted, chaired by President Soekarno, deputy chairman I Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX and deputy chairman II Brigadier General Dr. A. Azis Saleh to inaugurate the Scout movement.
On this occasion also the term Scout was introduced by Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX. Scouts come from the word poromoko which means the front troops in war. However, the word Scout is manifested into Praja Muda Karana which means “a young soul who likes to work”.
This inauguration was marked by the handing over of Scouting banners by President Soekarno to Scout leaders. This event was also attended by thousands of Scout members to introduce the Scout movement to the public. So this historic event is known as the Scout’s birthday which is still celebrated every August 14th.
Let’s do dharma, let’s dedicate dharma, so that Indonesia will be victorious. Happy Boy Scouts Day!