* RI exiles wish dearly to return
** Record-keeper of the exiled and forgotten
*** Waiting to regain the right to be Indonesian
*********************************************************************************
RI exiles wish dearly to return
The political turmoil in Indonesia in 1965 prevented hundreds
of leftist Indonesians, who were abroad to study or attend conferences, from returning home. Many of these people live alone in Europe and many wish to regain their Indonesian citizenship. The Jakarta Posts Evi Mariani visited two exiles in the Netherlands to see what they have been doing.
Growing up in the time of revolution and ideological partiality did something to Fransisca Fanggidajs gaze and the way she speaks.
The floating mass raised during the New Order would never have such qualities.
Siscas eyes are a fighters pair, whose sharp gaze has never worn away, despite 40 years of political exile.
A former journalist for Sunday Courier, the Indonesian Communist Partys Harian Rakjat, and later news agency Indonesian National Press
Service, Sisca, 80, now lives alone in an apartment on the sixth floor in small town Zeist, 30 minutes bus ride from Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Living alone, the most important thing is being able to dial 101 for an ambulance. I have never been in a situation where I have to call, but from what I heard, its fast, Sisca says in her apartment scattered with books and papers.
Sorry, its messy. The apartment is going to be renovated and we have to start packing our things now,she says.
To survive in her retirement, Sisca relies on 800 euros a month the government provides for senior citizens and the unemployed. The
amount is sufficient, but she has to be frugal.
She translates articles and reads news mostly on Indonesia to fill her days.
Although she has been away from home since 1965, she still feels a strong connection with the homeland, which she helped fight for in the years after 1945.
Ive been thinking a lot about Papua. I think they deserve independence. They have abundant resources but most of the financial benefit goes to Jakarta,she says.
The problem cannot be solved only by the Papuans. All people have to stand up for Papuans rights, Sisca says with deep conviction and vigorous ardor.
With the same sentiment, Sisca voice her belief: Only communism is good for the people. Her belief stems from her long involvement with several leftist organizations. Her first in 1945 was Indonesian Socialist Youths (Pesindo), some of whose members were involved in a communist revolt known as Peristiwa Madiun 1948.
I was in the first generation at Marx House (a Marxist educational program). I received education in Madiun in 1946,she said.
Sisca was not born into a proletarian family. In fact she was among the patricians at that time. Siscas father, Fanggidaj, who came from Rote, worked in Java as a Dutch government official.
Because of her fathers occupation she had a Dutch education where she learned Dutch and English. Her language skills enabled her to work as one of the international relations officials in Pesindo, which in 1947 sent her as a head of delegates to an international congress in India and to the first World Youth Festival in Prague.
Her first husband, Sukarno, was among the 11 people shot dead in the wake of the foiled revolt.
I was also registered as a member in Gerwani (the Indonesian Womens Movement), but I was more busy with my job as a journalist so I was not really active in Gerwani, she said.
In September 1965, a week before the Sept. 30 tragedy, she was sent to Chile to attend a meeting of the International Organization of Journalists.
At that time she was 40 and had remarried a journalist, Supriyo. She already had seven children, the youngest 18 months old.
In Halim (Perdanakusuma airport), my second child hugged me and said, Mom, please dont go away long, and I promised I would not, Sisca said.
It turned out they only met 38 years later in 2003.
My youngest child didnt recognize me, Sisca said.
In the first 20 years of her exile, she couldnt even hear anything from Indonesia and vice versa.
I was still in Chile when I heard from people that the government had revoked my passport. The announcement was aired on Voice of America radio,she said.
Without citizenship, Sisca was taken to the Peoples Republic of China by fellow journalists from the communist country, which she called Tiongkok. For 20 years the Chinese government allowed her to stay as a political exile.
But I couldnt send any letters from China. It would have been dangerous for my family. The government jailed my husband for 17 years in Salemba. So my sister took care of my children. She said,
please dont send any letters from China,Sisca recalled.
During the New Order regime, intelligence agencies often ran an operation called litsus (an abbreviation of penelitian khusus, meaning special examination), on people and members of their families suspected to have links with communism or subversive actions.
I couldnt stand hearing nothing from my family. My friends suggested I move to Europe. I can speak Dutch and I once spent a year during my childhood in this country, so I chose Holland,she said.
In 1985, Sisca, then 61, moved to the Netherlands.
Making a phone call to her family was among the first things to do in the Netherlands.
It was the first time she had made contact with her children since 1965.
My eldest child answered the phone,she said.
After saying that mother had called, they went speechless.
I had so much to say. But I went speechless, and she did too. And then we cried, Sisca said.
In 2000, President Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahid issued a decree for reconciliation with those who faced difficulties going home.
We (exiled people) welcomed the idea. We want our Indonesian citizenship back.
We met with then-minister of Justice Yusril Ihza Mahendra at the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague. But afterwards, we never heard anything anymore, she said, disappointed.
However, Gus Durs decree paved the way home for some people. The decree suggests that it is safe for them to come home and meet their families.
They can apply for a twomonth tourist visa to visit Indonesia.
The problem is money. I cannot work here because of my age. I did only volunteer work. I have to save money from my allowance,she said.
In 2003, after saving her allowance money, she managed to fly to Jakarta.
She spent two months with her children and grandchildren.
During the family time she had to explain her reasons for leaving her children that long.
Of course two months were not enough. I want more time with them. Now my only concern is how to get them to accept me.
***
Record-keeper of the exiled and forgotten
JP/Evi Mariani
Sarmadji Sutiyo collects obituaries of the exiled and the outcast.
Since 1968 he has documented dozens of death certificates,letters and pictures of about 50 exiled Indonesians who died far away from their homeland, families and friends. His endeavor has been heard by the politically exiled people, mostly those who live in western Europe, where at least 100 people are spending the twilight of their
lives alone.
Hence, every time an exiled friend died, friends or family would send a letter, sometimes with a death certificate, a picture and short obituary to Sarmadjis place in Amsterdam.
Sarmadji, known affectionately as Warjo to his friends, carefully keeps the documents in folders inside a clear plastic holder.
Some of my friends also entrusted their books and papers to me, when they heard that I have a private library and documentation, Sarmadji told The Jakarta Post. His small apartment could hardly be considered fit to live in. It looks more like a library that has a bunk bed filled with piles of books along the edges, and a kitchen.
He keeps some of the books and publications inside banana crates that
make his apartment resemble a fruit warehouse.
In the library-cum-house, he has little red books in the original Chinese and in Indonesian translation. Sarmadji also has some publications by leftist organizations like the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) or Peoples Cultural Institution (Lekra).
I call this special collection a Monument to those who cannot go home,he said.
Sarmadji, 75, cannot go home because he went to study at a university in Beijing before the Sept. 30, 1965 tragedy took place.
Previously, he was a government official at the Ministry of Education in Jakarta.
His political activities in Indonesia was mostly related to PKIs youth arm, Pemuda Rakyat, which he joined in 1950.
After years in China, he moved to the Netherlands where he lives in his library alone.
He has named his library Perhimpunan Dokumentasi Indonesia (Indonesian Documentation Collection) or Perdoi.
Assisted by his friend, Gogol Rusiyanadi, he has made a stamp for the library, an e-mail address ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) and has started putting in the catalog thousands of the titles he keeps.
Im thinking to put more serious effort into the library, like setting up a foundation for this,he said.
So far, Perdoi has been largely financed by Sarmadji himself. However, he realizes that his collection is valuable, not only for him but also for the public. Many of the books he keeps are rare and important for academic research.
He can even claim his collection is the most complete library of the leftist thinking of Indonesia, for many leftist books and publications in the country were destroyed or held in locked vaults.
Some of the collection was displayed during an exhibition at the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague,Sarmadji said, beaming.
A staunch supporter of Soekarno and a true nationalist, Sarmadji obviously feels proud to be recognized as a contributing Indonesian, if not by the state but by workers at the embassy.
Decades of exile from his own homeland have not faded his hope that someday he could come home as a respectable Indonesian citizen.
After his Indonesian passport was revoked in 1965, he kept a special passport for the citizenshipless. The passport allows him to go everywhere in the world except to Indonesia.
His hopes were high when then-justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra came to the Netherlands to make a first step toward reconciliation.
But when no news ever came after the visit, he decided to register as a Dutch citizen.
I was born before 1945. So the Dutch government told me I could have Dutch citizenship if I agreed to be called a Dutch Indies citizen.
It felt like being back as a kawula, a servant to the Dutch government, he said.
But he really wanted to visit Indonesia, so he complied with the requirement; therefore, he can visit the country on a tourist visa.
He has no family in Indonesia except for his brother. He also has no income if he leaves the Netherlands, the government of which gives him decent pension from years of working as a glass cutter in a factory.
Speaking with him, one cannot feel how deep his sadness is, because he seems strong and happy.
But for years he has been doing the saddest work an exiled citizen could ever choose to do: Neatly saving stories of one lost friend after another, keeping track of those who died far away from home: all as an alien. (Evi Mariani)
* A bunch of folders is stacked neatly on a shelf in the living room of Sarmadji Sutiyos apartment.
* The folders provide documentation on Indonesians exiled abroad, now deceased. The earliest passing away that he recorded was in 1968, the most recent in February 2006.
***
Waiting to regain the right to be Indonesian
JP/Evi Mariani
My sympathy is for those who had sacrificed everything for the independence of the nation, the country and the people of Indonesia either those who were on the left side or on the right side ...
People on the left side of the road, Soe Hok Gie
Many of them were on the left side of the struggle. And for that, they have been cast away. Their precise number is uncertain, but the exiled themselves can only say they totaled hundreds.
There are about 100 in western Europe, I think. When then-justice minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra met us, about 50 came from countries in western Europe to the Indonesian Embassy in The Hague, Sarmadji Sutiyo, an exile living in Amsterdam, said.
Alexander Supartono and Lisabona Rahman, who went around Europe to meet the exiled people in their 2001 research on literature of the exiled said that there were plenty in Russia, and only a handful in the Peoples Republic of China.
Like typical leftists, who mostly held deep convictions, and were thus often involved in internal conflicts, these hundreds of exiled people had different views on things; hence, they were divided into many factions.
There were those who were close to China, those supported by Moscow,
those who tried to be independent from all the superpowers at that time, and other groups.
Nevertheless, they shared one wish: To be recognized as Indonesian citizens; to come home.
They want to come home, of course. But it is an emotional, romantic
notion. Many of them realize it is unrealistic to live in Indonesia now. Most of them are already of retirement age; they cannot work, they dont want to be a burden on their families, Alex said.
Meanwhile, living in Europe, they have their pensions or allowances from the governments.
Some of them can even send money to their families back in Indonesia, he said.
Alex said that except for those who could still find work in Indonesia, going home was almost impossible.
But realistic or not, Alex said that the important thing for the exiled citizens was recognition.
The teaching of history in schools since the New Order regime seem to forget a lot of things and highlight other things. They tell students scary stories about the alleged cruelty of the Indonesian Communist Party.
Many young Indonesians think that Independence was fought for only by the Indonesian Military.
The contributions of Tan Malaka, Mas Marco Kartodikromo and many
nameless peasants who stood against oppression are rarely mentioned.
It seems as though the nation has difficulty remembering that independence was fought for, as Soe Hok Gie wrote in his thesis, by people on both the right and left.
Maintaining them in exile will never help the nation to remember its
own history. (Evi Mariani)
***
Courtesy of JJ Kusni
(From left to right) exiled writer JJ.Kusni, exiled journalist A. Umar Said, Mrs. A. Umar Said, official at the Indonesian Embassy in Paris Lucia Rustam, manager of Restaurant Indonesia in Paris Soejoso and Rustam pose in front of Restaurant Indonesia. The eaterie was established in 1982 by 11 exiled Indonesians living in Paris as a way to earn an income. JP/Evi Mariani
Information about KUDETA 65/ Coup d'etat '65, click: http://www.progind.net/
http://geocities.com/lembaga_sastrapembebasan/
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