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    Tjokroaminoto, Freedom’s Leading Light
    Tjokroaminoto, Freedom’s Leading Light
    Tjokroaminoto, Freedom’s Leading Light
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    Tjokroaminoto, Freedom’s Leading Light

    By Budi Setyarso et al.

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    About this ebook

    OVER the past two months, many of us at Proklamasi 72 were immersed in history books and documents. A number of the publications are originals, others photocopies. The titles vary, but all the books relate to Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto, known as the ‘mentor’ to the Republic’s founders.

    The books are part of the Tempo library collection, some newly purchased. A good number resulted from the ‘hunting expeditions’ of Philipus Parera, Tempo Bureau Chief in Yogyakarta, who visited the library of Cokroaminoto University there.
    As in previous issues, while still working on our regular assignments, we also prepared a special Independence Day edition for August 17. This year we chose Tjokroaminoto as the figure to focus on, because of his central role as the vanguard of democracy movements at the start of our struggle to become a republic. This magazine has written a series of special editions on the Fathers of the Nation, such as Sukarno, Moh. Hatta, Sjahrir and Tan Malaka, which have been republished by the Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia. This special edition on Tjokroaminoto is aimed at enhancing those series.

    A meeting to plan for this issue at Citarik, West Java last year decided that we would take no more than two months to come up with this special edition. Budi Setyarso, managing editor of the political section, was the lead person, ably assisted by Sunudyantoro, Yandhrie Arvian and Oktamanjaya Wiguna. They collected books, contacted resource persons and coordinated the assignments of our regional reporters.

    Sunudyantoro, a journalist from Trenggalek, East Java and graduate of International Relations at Gadjah Mada University, was so engrossed in this special edition, that he quoted often from Tjokroaminoto’s speeches on his Twitter account.
    We invited a few descendents of Tjokro for discussions at the Tempo office, among them Haryono Sigit, former rector of the November 11 Institute of Technology in Surabaya. Sigit is the son of Oetari, the daughter and second child of Tjokro. Present at the discussions was also Anie Hidayat, daughter of Anwar Tjokro and wife of the current Industry Minister.

    Surrounded by a forest of teak trees, the house where Tjokro once lived is only 500 meters from a station through which the Surabaya-Solo-Yogya trains pass. He lived there with his second wife, a former stage performer from Solo. Our reporters traced his movements in Surabaya and Solo, the two cities which fostered his development. Illustrator Kiagus Aliansyah was assigned to Solo so he could breathe in the history of Tjokroaminoto and his era, better to create credible but readable infographics.

    Dear readers, this special report is not intended to supplant a history book. We have used a journalistic approach so that the Tjokroaminoto story makes for ‘essential easy-reading’ in line with the motto of this magazine. The short bibliography below lists some of the publications we relied on to prepare this issue. Happy reading!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTempo Publishing
    Release dateAug 26, 2013
    ISBN9781301700769
    Tjokroaminoto, Freedom’s Leading Light

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      Book preview

      Tjokroaminoto, Freedom’s Leading Light - Budi Setyarso et al.

      TJOKROAMINOTO

      FREEDOM’S LEADING LIGHT

      By Budi Setyarso et al.

      Published by Tempo Publishing at Smashwords

      Copyrights Tempo 2013

      ISBN: 9781301700769

      Illustration on Cover: Kendra Paramita

      SUKARNO, the nation’s first president, acknowledged that Haji Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto changed his life around. He was not only Sukarno’s father-in-law, he was also his political guru and of other independence movement leaders, such as Semaoen, Musso, Alimin and Kartosoewirjo. But in the end, the mentor of our founding fathers stood alone, when his pupils and protégés chose to go their separate—and often, opposing—ways. Tempo traces the life and times of Tjokroaminoto, whom the Dutch colonial authorities dubbed the local ‘king without a crown.’

      *

      TJOKROAMINOTO SPECIAL EDITION TEAM OF TEMPO AUGUST 23, 2011:

      Team Leader: Budi Setyarso Coordinator: Sunudyantoro, Oktamandjaya Wiguna, Yandhrie Arvian

      Editors: Arif Zulkifli, Budi Setyarso, Wahyu Muryadi, Amarzan Loebis, Putu Setia, Hermien Y. Kleden, Nugroho Dewanto, Bina Bektiati, Purwanto Setiadi, Seno Joko Suyono, L.R. Baskoro, Setri Yasra Writers: Budi Setyarso, Sunudyantoro, Oktamandjaya Wiguna, Yandhrie Arvian, Anton Septian, Anton Aprianto, Wahyu Dhyatmika, Dwidjo U. Maksum, Pramono, Tomi Aryanto, Sapto Pradityo, Philipus Parera, Bagja Hidayat, Yandi M. Rofiyandi, Yuliawati, Erwin Daryanto, Ninin Damayanti, Purwani Diyah Prabandari, Widiarsi Agustina, Muchamad Nafi Contributors: Ishomuddin (Madiun), Kukuh S. Wibowo (Surabaya), Sohirin (Semarang), Aris Andrianto (Wonosobo), Addi Mawahibun Idhom (Yogyakarta), Ukky Primartantyo (Solo) Design and Layout: Eko Punto Pambudi, Ehwan Kurniawan, Kendra H. Paramita, Kiagus Auliansyah, Aji Yuliarto, M. Rizky Lazuardi, Agus Darmawan Setiadi, Tri Watno Widodo Language Editors: Uu Suhardi, Sapto Nugroho, Habib Rifa’i Photography: Donang Wahyu (coordinator), Andry Prasetyo, M. Syaifullah, Fully Syafii, Ishomuddin, Muhammad Fadli, Wahyu Risyanto, Bismo Agung Documentation and Research: Dina Andriani, Danny Muhadiyansah, Astri Pirantiwi

      * * *

      Table of Content

      The Freedom Fighter’s Guru

      Tjokro Fever

      The Laweyan Rebellion

      The Twilight of Boedi Oetomo

      From Humble, Noble Roots

      Keeping Faith with Leftist Islam

      Savior of the Sarekat Islam

      Losing to the Lure of Guldens

      The Life and Times of a Guru

      Among Friends and Foes

      The Rebel from Bakur

      The Struggle and Oetoesan Hindia

      The Rise to the Top

      Tjokro’s Tracks in Ahmadiyah

      The Man in Black

      A Political School at Peneleh

      Deference and Defiance

      The Zigzag Path

      Takashi Shiraishi: Tjokro created the standard for movements

      * * *

      The Freedom Fighter’s Guru

      During his relatively short life, Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto laid the groundwork of building the Republic, initiating a movement towards equality and abandoning the established order of his own aristocratic family. He is revered as the ‘father’ of the nation’s independence movement leaders.

      In Oemar Said Tjokroaminoto, one finds rebellion and compromise, at the same time. He repudiated the attributes of feudalism: putting aside the title of ‘raden’, protesting against laku dodok or kowtowing before an aristocrat—and demanding equality for the people of the Indies. He then urged his followers to wear ‘European clothes,’ as a symbol that the native people are human beings like the Dutch.

      The struggle for equality can clearly be found in the speeches and writings of Tjokro. In 1914, in Doenia Bergerak (The World Awakens), he wrote this poem:

      You sleep soundly, praised as the gentlest nation on earth.

      Your blood is sucked and your meat eaten, so all that remains is skin.

      Who does not praise the cow and buffalo?

      People can order them to work, and people eat their meat.

      Yet if you demand your rights, people think you arrogant, but you refuse to be oppressed.

      Your language is praised as polite and refined the world over.

      You address other nations in a high language, yet others address you in a lowly manner.

      And wanting to turn that around, would make you insolent

      Then, in a loud, baritone voice so he could be heard by thousands of listeners without a microphone, Tjokroaminoto sowed the seeds of a movement for equality. It is not right for Indonesia to be fed only for its milk, he exhorted in a 1916 speech in Bandung. It is not right to exploit this country without being accountable to its people, particularly its indigenous people who are given no right to participate in political issues which affect their lives…

      Yet, unlike other radical leaders of the movement, Tjokro acted ‘under the protection’ of the Dutch government in motivating his movement. He chose to ‘cooperate’ in developing Sarekat Islam, the organization founded by Samanhoedi, a Batik entrepreneur from Laweyan, Solo, in 1912. Together with Douwe Adolf Rinkes, advisor to the Dutch Governor-General on indigenous affairs, he established branches of Sarekat. Four years after it was founded, the association opened more than 180 branches with 700,000 members, 20 times its original number. Tjokro used almost half of his time in nurturing this organization—although its development was not always smooth.

      Unlike the elitist Boedi Oetomo which was founded several years earlier in 1908, Sarekat Islam brought the ‘nationalist’ spirit to a wider public. Aristocrats and common people alike had their first experience at seeing a new world, when the Javanese-Dutch hierarchy was abolished. Leaders of the Sarekat Islam sat at the same level as Dutch officials, while proclaiming the Indonesians to be human beings, just like the Dutch. At that time, the indigenous people were dubbed ‘one-quarter human being.’

      The common people had a new identity. They began to enthusiastically attend Sarekat meetings. Mas Marco Kartodikromo, writing in Student Hidjo described in great detail the 1913 Sarekat congress in Solo: "At five thirty in the evening the NIS station in Balapan, Solo was full of people, who had come to pick up passengers arriving on the train. Dozens of horse-drawn carriages, all decked with banners with ‘SI’ written on them, indicated that the carriages had been rented by the Sarekat Islam association.

      People who were not members of SI were forced to walk. There was not one horse carriage that did not have an SI banner. All Muslims seemed to show their solidarity with one another. On the streets, SI members showed how happy they felt. Then the SI carriages headed for Kampung Kabangan, the place where the vergadering Bestuur—congress—was held."

      Tjokro’s writings themselves were not that extraordinary. He mostly wrote in a formal

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