Revolusi

Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World. By David Van Reybrouck English translation by David Colmer and David McKay Published by Bodley Head in 2024 Review by Anton Alifandi ’Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World’ is a remarkable book that combines meticulous ac…

Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World. By David Van Reybrouck English translation by David Colmer and David McKay Published by Bodley Head in 2024 Review by Anton Alifandi ’Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World’ is a remarkable book that combines meticulous academic research, vivid journalistic reportage, and the snarrative of a novel. Revolusi brings to life Indonesia’s epic struggle for independence between 1945-1949 and convincingly argues the case for its catalytic impact on post World War II decolonization in Asia and Africa. It also claims plausibly that the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, the brainchild of President Sukarno, influenced black American leaders such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Revolusi is a history book that’s as exciting to those already familiar with Indonesia’s history and those who have minimal knowledge of the country. The author, David Van Reybrouck, is a Belgian Dutch-speaking historian who gained international acclaim for his book on the colonial history the Congo. He is not an Indonesia specialist and his book shows a freshness and enthusiasm for the subject that makes the book a page-turner. The freshness comes through from Van Reybrouck’s 158 interviews with nonagenarians and centenarians who witnessed the birth of Indonesia and its troubled early years. He tracked eyewitnesses in the Netherlands, Indonesia, Nepal, and Japan; most of whom astonishingly still had clear memories of events they experienced seven decades earlier. One of the most impressive people Van Reybrouck met was Djajeng Pratomo, who was 102 when he was interviewed and who has subsequently died. Djajeng wrote and printed pamphlets for the independence movement as a student in the Netherlands in the 1930s, was arrested by the Dutch authorities, and ended up in the Dachau concentration camp after the Netherlands fell to Nazi Germany. Another remarkable figure was Herawati Diah, a pioneering female Indonesian journalist who recounted her stories of the early independence period and her meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in India in 1947. Van Reybrouck tracked Gurkha soldiers in their mountain villages in Nepal who fought for the British in Indonesia. He also spoke to Dutch soldiers who were conscripted to fight in Indonesia after the end of World War II. He interviewed figures who I thought had long passed away such as Sumarsono, a youth leader during the 1945 Battle of Surabaya who fought on the side of the Communists in Madiun rebellion against Sukarno in 1948. The most shocking aspect of the eyewitness interviews - and the archive material quoted in the book - was the brutality and violence of the independence war. Most people are probably more familiar with images of bombings and battles during the Vietnam War. The Indonesian war of independence was less intense, but there were many gruesome incidents of violence, and alleged war crimes, many of which were unacknowledged until many years later, and few of which have been investigated or led to prosecutions. Van Reybrouck’s research focused on violence committed by the Dutch side, but also pointed to violence from the Indonesian side. On the political side, Van Reybrouck paints pictures of impressive Indonesian leaders from Tjipto Mangunkusumo, Husni Thamrin, to the more familiar names such as Sukarno, Muhammad Hatta, and Sutan Sjahrir. Sjahrir particularly came across as a man of great intellect, an astute observer of world affairs even in exile in remote Banda, and an astute negotiator. Van Reybrouck found the Indonesian side to be generally more reasonable and justified in their demands, compared with the intransigence of various Dutch governments and political figures from the 1930s and 1940s. From the vantage point of the 21st century, I sometimes wonder whether Sukarno and other leaders could have handled the transition to independence better and made Indonesia more welcoming to Dutch and Indo (Eurasian) people who wished to remain in the new republic. After reading this book, I came away with the impression that it probably was not possible given the fraught relations between successive Dutch governments and the Indonesian side from the 1930s, and the condescension that many Indonesians felt from the Dutch and Indos at the time. Early in the book, Van Reybrouck wondered why Indonesia wasn’t better known globally given that it’s the fourth most populous country in the world, has the world’s biggest Muslim population, and covers an area that stretches from Ireland to somewhere in Kazakhstan. (My theory is that it is partly due to Indonesia’s unique colonial history. Even under Dutch rule, only a very small proportion of Indonesians spoke Dutch. Indonesia’s elite and middle class population do not speak a European language to anywhere near the extent of the middle class of many other ex European colonies in Asia, Africa and Latin America. I think this has historically made Indonesians less familiar to the wider world. Its war of independence was against a small European country, unlike Vietnam’s. Indonesia’s literature is not written in a European language. Its economic progress is steady rather than spectacular like other Asian countries. Indonesian politics is not an adaptation of British or American politics, making it difficult to understand for outsiders.) By writing this book, Van Reybrouck has demonstrated that Indonesia has a compelling story that deserves to make it better known globally. I was so engrossed by this book that I finished reading all 521 pages in one weekend. An edited version ocf my review can be foound in the Jakarta Post https://www.thejakartapost.com/culture/2024/03/04/revolusi-a-look-at-indonesias-fight-for-freedom.html