Visions and Heat: Making of an Indonesian Revolution

363 Pages·1988·46.412 MB·English

by  William H. Frederick

• Visions and Heat:
The Making of
the Indonesian Revolution
William H. Frederick
Library of C.Ongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frederick, William H.
Visions and heat.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
I. Surabaya (lndonesia)-History. 2. Surabaya (lndonesia)
Social conditions. 3. Indonesia-History-Revolution, 1945-
1949-Social aspects. I. Title.
DS646.29.S8F74 1988 959.8'2 88-25339
ISBN ().8214-0905-0
ISBN ().8214-0906-9 (pbk.)
Ohio University Press books are printed
on acid-free paper. oo
@C.Opyright 1989 by William H. Frederick.
Printed in the United States of America.
All rights reserved.
For Muriel,
Anita and Jason
Kian jauh aku pergi,
Kian banyak yang kulihat
Kian tinggi kuhargai milik sendiri
Yang tersia-sia tak dirawat.
Ajip Rosidi

• Contents
Preface ................................................... ix
Spelling and Citation ..................................... xv
Abbreviations and Acronyms in the Text and Notes .......... xvii
Maps .. ............................................ ...... xx
Glossary ................................................ xxii
Chapter 1: Surabayans in the Late Colonial Setting ............. 1
Origins and structure of colonial Surabaya
The arek Surabaya and the gemeente
The nature of kampung society
Kampung society and its middle class
Chapter 2: New Priyayi and the Question of Change ........... 34
A new class of leaders
Varieties of new priyayi
New priyayi and arek Surabaya in politics
and education
New priyayi influence on urban society:
the kampung view
New priyayi. youth, and social drift
Chapter !!: Colonial Transition and the Urban Response .......8 1
The dissolution of Dutch rule
Transition to Japanese rule
Administrative and economic changes
Urban society and the growth of discontent
..
VII
Chapter 4: New Priyayi and Youth in the Japanese Order ...... 133
The new priyayi and the New Order
The solidification of new priyayi leadership
The Japanese and Surabaya·s youth
The new priyayi and the younger generation
Pemuda and the waning of Japanese rule
Chapter 5: Independence and Changing Leadership ... .. .... .. 182
First reactions to independence
The emerging structure of new priyayi authority
The reemergence of Europeans
Urban tensions and the flag incident
Creating a pemuda order
Linking new priyayi and pemuda leadership
Chapter 6: Youth and the Urban Masses in Revolt ........ .... 230
The pemuda and new priyayi authority
The rakyat phenomenon
Mass violence and the pemuda response
Sutomo and the birth of the BPRI
The BPRI and the pemuda-rakyat relationship
The arek Surabaya and the defense of Surabaya
Epilogue ......................................... ... .. ... 278
CA::>nclusion . .............................................. 291
Bibliography ............................................ . 297
Jndt'X ..... ...... ..... ..... ... ... . .... .. ... . .... ..... ..... 325
Vlll
• Preface
How do we seize the past1 How do we seize the for
eign past1 We read, we learn, we ask, we remember,
we are humble; and then a casual detail shifts
everything.
Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot
The Indonesian national revolution (August 1945 to December
1949) is one of the contemporary world's great revolutions, and as
such has yet to receive its scholarly due. The diversity of the archipel
ago and its responses to revolutionary times, the competition for at
tention between the s1.ruggle with the Dutch and the struggle for a
new internal order, and the extraordinary political and social intrica
cies of this revolution have made both access and interpretation diffi
cult. These attributes have also contributed to the revolution's repu
tation as having been less than successful, despite the fact that
freedom from colonial rule was won, and a remarkable degree of na
tional unity achieved, in the comparatively short period of slightl·y
more than four years.
The dominant Western view of the Indonesian revolution may be
fairly described as heavily focused on politics at the national and in
ternational levels, on the separation between what have been termed
the "national" and "social" revolutions nestled within the larger
phenomenon, on the events of the first year of the period (the "physi
cal revolution"), and on the rise and role of Indonesian youth-the
pemuda-in giving birth to the revolution and the spirit of a new age.
Understandably, heavy emphasis has been placed on the sharp break
which the revolution appears to have represented in Indonesian life,
and on the general sense that the nature and pace of an originally
pemuda-generated change were killed, or at least curbed, by an op·
IX
PREFACE
posing older generation, to whom eventually fell the responsibility
for guiding the independent Indonesian nation.
When, as a graduate student, I began the research on which this
book is based, my intent was to carry this view or something very
much like it forward in a study of the revolution as it was played out
in a single locale. This was to be the city of Surabaya, which many
spoke of as the birthplace of the revolution, and which I had had the
opportunity to visit in early 1964. I recall being impressed with the
story of Heroes' Day, commemorating the baule of I 0 November 1945
which had brought Surabaya and the Indonesian struggle for inde
pendence to the auention of the world, and seeing many ways in
which that event could support the son of local history gradually
taking shape in my mind. At the time, students of Southeast Asia
evinced great interest in what was loosely referred to as "social his
tory." Partly as a result of my meeting with several Surabayans who
played significant roles in the revolution, including Ruslan Abdul
gani, I came to believe that it might also be possible to emphasize this
aspect of the story by tracing the personal histories of some principal
characters in such a way as to shed light on the shifting social ideas
and relationships of the period. The project grew as I discovered that
no study of Surabaya in 1945 in the son of depth I thought desirable
yet existed. The discovery of rich archival and newspaper sources on
Surabaya in the Netherlands and Indonesia seemed to confirm the
rightness of my choice.
Rather early in my reading I came to understand what perhaps
should have been obvious from the start: that Heroes' Day was in
many respects an anticlimax to events of late October 1945, not only
because of the Indonesian victory over British troops at that time, but
because of the dramatic coalescence of Indonesian social and political
forces which appeared to produce it. Accordingly, l turned to this
turbulent earlier period as the one of greatest interest and clearest
potential for illustrating the points l had planned. Only after leafing
through a great many Dutch diaries and Indonesian newspapers cov
ering Surabayan affairs from close up did l become aware of what
seemed at first a trivial piece of information: the public transporta
tion, electrical, and water supply systems of the city did not cease
functioning during even the most critical days before November JO,
and stopped only when the British auack and the Indonesian re
sponse to it proved so destructive that city life came to a virtual
standstill.
This detail brought me to look at my material in a rather different
light. My tendency to emphasize change gave way to a search for
x
PREFACE
1hreads of con1inui1y, my highlighling of upheaval faded as 1he per
sis1ence of order and of se1s of ideas s1ubbornly shone 1hrough, and
1he chronological limits I had se1 for myself soon broadened consid
erably. Was i1possible1hat the pemuda could mos1 accurately be seen
in some way other 1han as the products of a sudden transfonna1ion, or
as the primary authors of 1he new age of Indonesian independence?
Could i1be1ha1 1he convenient periodiza1ion schemes which empha
sized defini1ive breaks in Indonesian history al 1942 and 1945 hid sig
nificant social and intellec1ual continuities? Was lhe 1umuhuous,
even ca1aclysmic, characteriza1ion of 1he Japanese occupation of
Indonesia-found in Indonesian as wel I as Wes1em works-accura1e?
And if it was not, then wha1 could be said about 1he significance of
that period as a prelude 10 1he Indonesian revolulion? From 1he per
spective of social history, if earlier in1erpreta1ions were in one way or
ano1her unsatisfactory, how migh1 the birth of Indonesia's struggle
for independence be more accura1ely described? Answering 1hese and
similar ques1ions became 1he principal objective of my research and
writing, which quickly took on a revisionist poin1 of view.
This book presen1s for 1he first 1ime a de1ailed descrip1ion of 1he
nature of several levels of Indonesian socie1y in a single urban locale
during not only the all-importan1 early months of 1he revolu1ion, but
the ex1ended period from 1he las1 decade of Du1ch rule 10 the sur
render of Japanese power. Drawing heavily on oral sources, I have
anemp1ed 10 outline the ways rela1ionships among 1hese levels of so
ciety changed over twenty years. The particularly careful examina-
1ion of pemuda leaders and groups in Surabaya is founded upon,
among 01her ma1erials, a unique run of newspapers for 1he city in
Oc1ober 1945, as well as extensive in1erviews (one set ob1ained only by
chance many years afler 1he main research was comple1ed) wi1h all
1hree of 1he principal youth leaders involved. Finally. the importanl
role of the urban masses-no! only in 1he early days o{ 1he revolu1ion
but in the long period preceding them as well-is drawn as fully as
oral sources and the limited number of prin1ed sources allow; 10 my
knowledge 1his is 1he firs1 study to offer such a portrait. Out of these
perspectives and the information which, I believe, brings them to life,
the goal has been 10 fashion a coherenl, local his1ory of 1he social
aspects of 1he birth of 1he Indonesian Revolu1ion.
The prevailing historiographical winds suggest that it migh1 also
be wise 10 no1e briefly wha1 1his s1udy is not. h is no1 an urban
history-1ha1 is, no1 a his1ory of 1he ci1y of for 1he
Surabaya~ven
brief period of 1ime under examina1ion. Such a history very much
needs to be wrinen, bu1 I have no1 anempted 10 do so here, as anyone
.
XI
PREFACE
acquainted with the richness of both the precolonial and colonial
periods will recognize immediately. It is also not a political history; I
have sought from the beginning to stt what lay under and behind
political activity, which a number of skillful authors have already
discussed. An approach of this sort is, in my view, necessary if the
social reality of the politics of the early revolution is to be grasped.
It is perhaps especially important to note that I am fully aware that
the material presented here does not adequately represent the politi
cal left in Surabayan politics. For reasons which surely can be under
stood by anyone familiar with contemporary Indonesia, interviewees
particularly lcampung residents-in that country could not be asked
to discuss communism or topics connected with politics of the left
without arousing suspicion and even hostility. As a result this study
admiuedly lacks oral material on these subjects. However, neither
archival nor published sources appear to me to offer sufficient
grounds (for example, detailed examination of ideas and social back
ground of individuals) on which to discuss communists apart from
other urban intellectuals and kampung residents in the larger picture
of social change. The "social realities" were much the same for all,
and they produced-at least at the time and under the conditions co
vered here-similar ideas, ideologies notwithstanding. Furthermore,
discussions (held after the main body of research for this book was
completed) with several persons knowledgeable about and sympa
thetic to the left in Swabaya appeared to me to support the same view.
I am persuaded that for this particular kind of study the comparative
lack of specific auention to communism and communists does not
constitute a serious flaw; I am also convinced, however, that much
serious work on the question of the relative importance of commu
nism and communists-however these may be defined-to Indone
sian social history of the 1930s and 1940s remains, and needs, to be
done.
Finally, this study is not intended as a microcosmic treatment of the
Indonesian Revolution as a whole. It began as and remains an ex
ample of local history, the wider context of which is deliberately ne
glected (and is readily available in general works on the revolution),
and the application of which to a broader understanding of the rev
olution will require much further investigation. If reading these
pages brings others to examine once more, and perhaps in a slightly
different fashion, the tapestry of Indonesia's revolutionary history,
they will have achieved their pwpose.
In the long cowse of preparation through which this book has
passed, I have been helped by a great many people and institutions; it
..
XII