Risking Life Principles for “Bung Kecil”

It seems that I am reminded of my own people… reminded of everything that binds me to the fate and sorrow of my people

(Sutan Sjahrir in his letter to Maria Duchateau before he was exiled to Boven Digoel, 1934)

That day, the streets on Nagari Koto Gadang in Agam regency, West Sumatra, were relatively empty. Lines of modern houses stand side-by-side with rumah  gadang (traditional Minangkabau houses) in narrow alleyways. A plank in front of Koto Gadang traditional community hall bears the name: Sutan  Sjahrir.

"Sjahrir? You have his phone number? Why don’t you try calling him first,” said a group of locals in an alleyway when asked about the location of Sjahrir’s family home one day in late February.

Following that suggestion was clearly out of the question, as Sjahrir  died half a century ago in Zurich, Switzerland, on April 9, 1966 to be precise. Nevertheless, the answer brought things into perspective. Do people no longer remember who Sjahrir was? Has Indonesia’s first prime minister (serving from November 15, 1945, to June 26, 1947) nearly been forgotten?

Koto Gadang was the hometown of Sjahrir’s father, Mohammad Rasad Gelar Maharaja Soetan. Some 50 percent of the population in the village of around 2,600 people has migrated to other cities. Even the village elders and customary leaders, of which there are 24, are out of town most days.

The wooden house believed to be Sjahrir’s family home was finally located. It is in an alleyway on Jl. Rohana Kudus. The house, which stands on the spot where a previous building had burnt to the ground several years ago, looked new but deserted.

JD Legge, in his book Kaum Intelektual dan Perjuangan Kemerdekaan (The Intellectuals and the Struggle for Independence), wrote that people often do not hold Sjahrir in high regard. This is despite his huge role in the national independence movement and in fighting for international recognition for Indonesia’s independence.

At the end of his political career  in 1962, allegations of opposing Soekarno saw him become a political prisoner. He was detained in Madiun and Jakarta, before he was taken to Switzerland for medical treatment. He traveled to Switzerland as a political prisoner and, when he died there, the government named him a national hero.

Rational

Bung Kecil (Little Man) was a common nickname for Sjahrir due to his height of only 1.60 meters. He was born in Padang Panjang, where his father served as prosecutor, on March 5, 1909. His family then moved to Medan, North Sumatra, when his father took up a job there. In Medan, Sjahrir went to the Europese   Lagere School (ELS)    and  the Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO). He pursued further education at the Algemeen  Middlebare School (AMS) in Bandung in 1926 and then at University of Amsterdam’s school of law in 1929.

His involvement in the national independence movement   became more public when he became one of the ten co-founders of the Jong Indonesie (Indonesian Youth) in Bandung in 1927. At that time, Soekarno was already a huge name in the Dutch Indies.

On Sjahrir’s first meeting with Soekarno, Sjahrir biographer Rudolf Mrazek wrote of Sjahrir’s exceptional character in his book Politik dan Pengasingan di Indonesia (Politics and Exile in Indonesia). In an Indonesian Youth event where Sjahrir served as chair, he openly criticized Soekarno.

“Sjahrir slammed his hammer down and sharply reminded Soekarno not to use Dutch so much in a meeting of nationalists and not to speak rudely to the ladies who were present,” Mrazek wrote.

Sjahrir’s character also left a lasting impression on Salomon Tas, the chair of the Social-Democrat Students Club in the Netherlands, who was Sjahrir’s friend in learning about socialism. “Sjahrir is open and direct. His temperament matures naturally in the Netherlands. I have never found in him the stereotypes of Eastern mentality. He is direct, dislikes talking in circles and is open in facing other people’s ideas,” Tas reminisced as quoted by Mrazek.

His open and democratic character, brimming with anti-feudalism, anti-imperialism and anti-fascism, had been fostered since his days at the AMS, when he wrote many fierce polemics for the Pemoeda Indonesia magazine. He often criticized the local aristocrats as being overly ambitious, power-crazed and useless.

Sjahrir’s character has deep roots in Minangkabau traditions. Like most Minangkabau people who migrate    away from their homelands, Sjahrir easily adapted to new environments. Padang State University historian Mestika Zed said that Sjahrir’s character was a proof of his openness towards new things he found in his travels.

“The Minangkabau people have a saying of ‘wherever you step on the land, you have to hold up the sky’ [meaning ‘you have to uphold the local traditions of the land where you are living’]. The Minangkabau people are highly inclusive. Upon encountering a crossroads, they will consider which road will be most beneficial,” Mestika said.

KOMPAS/RINI KUSTIASIH

A new house was built in the location of the old house of the Sutan Sjahrir family in Nagari Koto Gadang, Agam regency, West Sumatra. Sjahrir\'s father, named Mohamad Rasad, was a native of Koto Gadang. He was a Dutch prosecutor who was assigned to work in Medan, North Sumatra. Sjahrir was a young intellectual in the national movement era.

Principles of struggle

In the Netherlands, Sjahrir befriended many socialist democrat students and he even became a labor activist. He read Karl Hautsky, Otto Bauer, Hendrik de Man and of course Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

After two years in the Netherlands, in 1931, Sjahrir was asked by Hatta to return home to Indonesia. There were rumors that Soekarno had been arrested by the Dutch. Back then, both Hatta and Sjahrir were members of Perhimpunan Indonesia (Indonesian Association) in the Netherlands.

Back in Indonesia, Sjahrir organized the New Indonesian National Education (PNI Baru) to differentiate the organization with Soekarno’s PNI. He led an underground movement to gather youth cadres. He was focused on mass education as he disliked agitation and mass mobilization.

Sjahrir enlivened the PNI Baru by holding underground political courses for students, the youth and former PNI members. In order to speed up dissemination of his political ideas, he distributed a collection of 150 simple questions on politics along with their answers.

In 1932, Hatta graduated from college and returned to Indonesia. Sjahrir handed over PNI Baru to Hatta and planned to return to the Netherlands to continue his study. However, as the colonial government began to find out about their movement, Hatta and Sjahrir were arrested in 1934. They were first detained in Cipinang and then in BovenDigoel in 1035. They were then transferred to Banda Neira, where they lived between 1936 and 1942, or until Japan forces came to Indonesia.

Japan’s arrival brought forth new struggles for anti-fascist Sjahrir. He refused to collaborate with the imperial colonial force. In his political pamphlet titled Perdjoangan Kita (Our Struggle) in 1945, Sjahrir criticized revolutionary leaders who collaborated with Japan. He said that independence could not properly be achieved because of two things. The first was because the leaders are weak.

“The second is the fact that many of them felt indebted to the Japanese for giving them the promise of an independent Indonesia. They believe that they are leaders just because they are cooperating with the Japanese,” Sjahrir said.

A few months after the nation’s independence, Sjahrir strengthened the role of the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP) by giving it parliamentary powers under the Makloemat X (Decree X) that Hatta signed on October 16, 1945.

As a follow-up, Soekarno was urged to issue a decree on November 3, 1945, to give the opportunity for people to establish political parties. The system of government was then shifted to a parliamentary one and Sjahrir served as prime minister. In 1952, when he was no longer involved in the government, he established the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI).

Sjahrir was married to Siti Wahyunah Saleh in 1951 and, together, the couple has two children: Kriya Arsjah and Siti Rabyah Parvati or Upik Sjahrir.

In late February, in her house in Cipete, South Jakarta, Upik said, “My father struggled for neither power nor wealth. He had such a great soul. Even when he was a political prisoner, he never hated or held a grudge toward people on the opposite side of the debate. Looking upon our political elites nowadays, such an exemplary character and a great soul are almost nowhere to be found.”