22 December 1948.
51. Moh. Padang, as reported by Harry Poeze to me in Jakarta, September 1980.
52. Aneta, 24 December 1948.
53. Aneta, 27 December 1948 (English original).
54. Aneta, 15 January 1949 (English original).
55. Aneta, 27 December 1948.
56. Blimbing is an extremely common place name in East Java. The kabupaten of Kediri has four villages with this name within its boundaries. It seems likely that the site of the headquarters was the Blimbing located in the Gurah subdistrict of Kediri (Daftar nama2 pedukuhan kotamadya). However, Gringging is given in some sources as the location of Sabaruddin’s headquarters, e.g., Sam Karya, p. 178.
57. Interview with Subadio Sastrosatomo, Jakarta, 24 October 1972; Abu Hanifah, Tales, pp. 299-300.
58. Nasution (Sekitar, vol. 10, pp. 137-38) has reproduced the text of two orders issued by Colonel Sungkono, military governor of East Java, on 17 February 1948, relieving Sabaruddin of his command and dissolving Battalion 38 due to “refusal to carry out orders.”
59. Tamim, “Dua puluh satu tahun,” part 1, p. 10; Tamim, “Kematian Tan Malaka,” p. 21.
60. Tamim, “Dua puluh satu tahun,” part 1, p. 12; Tamim, “Kematian,” p. 21.
61. Tamim, “Dua puluh satu tahun,” part 1, p. 12.
62. “De terechtstelling van Tan Malaka,” p. 2.
63. C.M.I. document no. 5743, p. 4. This source alleges that Tan Malaka was detained in Kediri before the Dutch attack, escaped during the attack, and was then re-arrested.
64. C.M.I. document no. 6995, p. 2.
65. C.M.I. document no. 6995, p. 2; Star Weekly, 25 May 1949, reports rumors of Tan Malaka’s having been shot by Colonel Sungkono.
66. I have been unable to obtain this issue of the paper and so have had to rely on the account given by Tamim in “Kematian,” pp. 20-21.
67. Interview with Abdurrachman, Jakarta, 24 October 1972.
68. Interview with General Sungkono, Jakarta, November 1972.
69. Interview with Mohammad Hatta, Jakarta, 29 November 1972.
70. Peringatan, p. 22; Tamim, “Kematian,” p. 22.
71. Interview with Sukatma, Jakarta, 2 December 1972.
72. Interview with Djalaluddin Nasution, Jakarta, 30 November 1972.
73. According to David Anderson (letter, 21 May 1974), the Terpedo Berjiwa (Living Torpedo) was described by Kretarto (one of Sungkono’s commanders) “as part of the tidying up of irregular forces” after Madiun.
74. However, Tamim (“Dua puluh satu tahun,” part 1, pp. 1-2) refers to Sukatma as being among the thirty-five who went from Yogya to Kediri with him.
75. The official history of the East Java Brawijaya Division records this role of the Macan Kerah company in “cleaning up the Gringging area, specifically catching and detaining Sabaruddin and his friends” (Sam Karya, p. 178). Nasution (Sekitar, vol. 10, p. 138) gives the name as Macan Merah.
76. Bapak (father) is a term of respect used generally for a man of greater age or status than the speaker.
FROM JAIL TO JAIL
by
Tan Malaka
Volume I
Be warned!
“My voice will be louder from the grave than it ever was while I walked the earth!”
(Tan Malaka to British police in Hong Kong, 1932)
INTRODUCTION
[3] Many of my comrades in the struggle, both inside and outside of jail, have long suggested that I write the story of my life. They say that my experiences can be instructive for the present and future heroes of our struggle for independence.
It was only a month or two ago that I agreed to this suggestion. Previously I had seen no possibility to do it. First of all, there was so much other work of far greater importance than portraying my own life, and that work had to be done quickly and with all my attention. Secondly, to write the story of my life spanning over a half a century—a life full of up and down and containing much more down than up—was not a part-time job.1 The final difficulty, of no less importance, was my own situation. My present certain loss of freedom, and my resultant uncertain future, was made even more difficult by my random transfers from place to place, sometimes to places that did not allow me to write at all. Furthermore, I was faced with the possibility that what I wrote later would be seized upon and used against me as the basis of a slander campaign by my enemies, who would not play fair. Considerations such as these initially made me want to leave my own history to history itself.
[4] But when I was assigned a quiet cell in Magelang prison, apart from the other prisoners, and I obtained a pencil, paper, and a table to write on, I thought of writing, if only to fill the time.2 At first I wanted to continue my work on ASLIA, which I had begun in 1942 in Jakarta.3 However, since I had neither a copy of the manuscript itself nor the important statistical material on economic and other matters that was attached to it, I was forced to delay even further this five-year-old project. That is how I was forced into writing these reminiscences.
This is not a life history in the strict sense of the usual chronology from childhood to adulthood, from schooldays to the time of social employment, such as is generally indicated in the title Life and Work. But I write nothing that is not based on fact and not part of the history of my life.
What I write here can later be compared with reality, and historians can see if anything was left out or added. Some of those people whose names I mention can be traced and questioned by those who wish to do so. If my story doesn’t tally exactly with the truth, it is the result of human error or memory rather than design.
What I write here is only a part of my life story. But it is a part I consider not to be less important because of its close connection with my efforts to realize the desire for independence in both the political and economic sense. I focus this story on several prisons, and so I shall describe the events surrounding each of these prison episodes.
Thus I tell the story of what happened before, during, and after my imprisonment in the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and the Republic of Indonesia. Perhaps this work will be divided into two volumes. If so, then the first volume will deal only with the prisons of the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.4
It is obvious that my efforts to fulfill the duty of demanding independence—both for the people of Indonesia as a whole and for myself—were opposed by Dutch, American, and British imperialism. This neither surprised nor disappointed me. On the contrary, I felt happy to see that international imperialism regarded the struggles of the Indonesian people as significant. I believe that once all these obstacles are overturned and 100 percent independence is achieved, the security, prosperity, and happiness of the independent Indonesian people will be guaranteed. All the physical and spiritual forces awakened and used in overcoming these obstacles will take new forms and become forces of development and preservation. The more these forces are required and utilized, the firmer will be the future of the Indonesian people.
[5] I have entitled this book From Jail to Jail, and I believe that there is a relationship between jail and genuine freedom. Those who really want freedom for all must be ready and willing at every moment to suffer “the loss of their own freedom.”
Whoever wishes to be free must be ready to be jailed.5
Tan Malaka
Ponorogo prison6
September