From Jail to Jail. Tan Malaka
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amalgamated into larger portions of text, and occasionally very long paragraphs have been split. I have used the “new spelling” adopted in 1972 for all Indonesian terms, place names, and organizational names. I have retained the spelling of the time (whether prewar or 1945-1972) for personal names and names of publications with, as noted above, corrections of any errors contained therein.
My approach to the text can be summarized by saying that I have tried to remain faithful to the flavor and spirit of Tan Malaka’s writing, while at the same time presenting a readable English-language book. Where the two aims have been irreconcilable, the latter has prevailed. I believe my task has been more to present Tan Malaka and his ideas to the English-speaking reader than to attempt to render every idiosyncrasy of the text.
Annotation of the Text
From Jail to Jail as presented here in English contains over thirteen hundred notes. These annotations are of three categories. A number of notes relate to the text itself to explain errors and uncertainties in the text or to explain the meaning of a foreign word retained in the translation. Some provide sources for the many quotations scattered throughout the text. On occasion Tan Malaka himself has given the author, title, and page number of his quotations, but elsewhere the source has proved considerably more elusive, and occasionally all my attempts to track it down have proved fruitless. The majority of the annotations provide historical and contextual information on matters raised or referred to in the text. Many of the annotations explain events or concepts familiar to Tan Malaka’s contemporary readers but requiring explanation today, particularly for non-Indonesian readers. Since the story spans fifty years and two continents and refers to ancient and even prehistoric times, this task has been quite formidable.
I have prepared the translation to be read not only by Indonesianists, but also by people interested in the history of communism and nationalism in Asia and in political autobiography in general. I have, therefore, provided annotation that specialists in any one of those disciplines may regard as superfluous but that may be necessary to others for an understanding of the text.
Biographical and organizational appendixes give information on individuals and organizations integral to Indonesian history. Others have been dealt with in footnotes as they occur in the text. Such annotation has been limited to brief factual details relevant to the text, with reference to more comprehensive sources.
Research Program
This project took twelve years to complete. I began in mid-1972, acquiring photocopies of the copy-text from Cornell University. From July to September 1972 I studied the copy-text and some principal secondary sources on Indonesian history in order to start assembling a coherent picture of Tan Malaka and to chart the avenues of investigation I would follow. From September to December 1972 I was able to undertake research in Indonesia. This period was devoted mainly to recording interviews with people who had known Tan Malaka in his home village, concerning his schooling, his political activity, or his imprisonment, either as friend, relative, comrade, or political opponent. The interviews were conducted principally in Jakarta, but also in Serang and Bogor (West Java), Semarang (Central Java), and Padang, Padang Panjang, Bukit Tinggi, and Pandam Gadang (West Sumatra). They were mainly conducted in Indonesian, with one or two in Jakarta in English, and several in Pandam Gadang conducted through an interpreter in Minangkabau.
The remainder of my research period in Indonesia was spent in collecting material by and about Tan Malaka. In this regard, the Pustaka Murba archives held in Jakarta by Djamaluddin Tamim proved to be most valuable. The newspaper and periodical collections of the Perpustakaan Museum Pusat (now Perpustakaan Nasional) in Jakarta and Perpustakaan Negara in Yogyakarta were extremely rewarding.
Only after this research period was complete did I commence the actual translation in early 1973. Over the next eighteen months I prepared the first draft of the translation, working entirely from the copy-text. During 1974 and 1975 the draft was copy-edited for English expression and checked back sentence by sentence with the original. Beginning in 1975, regretfully, the project had to be completed as a part-time effort.
In 1976 I commenced annotating the translation. Further research into contemporary newspapers and other publications complemented the material I had gathered during my field work in Indonesia in 1972. Work in the National Archives and Records Service (NARS) in Washington, D.C., and in the Public Records Office (PRO) in London yielded archival material of considerable significance where Tan Malaka was considered to be impinging on the territorial possessions of these powers. The principal collection consulted in the United States was the Bureau of Insular Affairs records, particularly decimal file 856d.00 in record group 59, which proved extremely valuable for documenting Tan Malaka’s activities in the Philippines, particularly the events surrounding his arrest and deportation in August 1927. United States government interest in Tan Malaka did not vanish with his departure from the Philippines, however, and there is a small but significant body of intelligence reports concerning his role in the postwar period to be found in the State Department Research and Intelligence files. The principal collections consulted in the Public Records Office were those of the Foreign Office (FO 371 and FO 372), India Office (PZ), and Colonial Office (CO 273). Of particular importance were the Malayan Bulletin of Political Intelligence, throughout the 1920s, and the Malaya Command Intelligence Notes.
Material uncovered in the United States and British archives revealed the extent of intelligence cooperation among the various colonial powers. Continual exchange of information regarding the presumed activities of Tan Malaka and other “dangerous elements” took place throughout the 1920s and 1930s. From these sources I established a solid basis of Dutch intelligence and government material connected with Tan Malaka. This was complemented by the thorough documentation provided in Harry Poeze’s work. I have been fortunate enough to consult many of the documents obtained by Poeze and other scholars when consulting the Dutch archives for research on periods and events that incidentally touch on Tan Malaka. The principal collections of such material are those of the Algemeene Secretaris and the Ministerie van Koloniën, held in the Algemeene Rijksarchief (ARA).
Large amounts of information came from the Mailrapporten (mail reports from the Netherlands Indies), which contain intelligence reports, letters, and transcripts of interrogations of political prisoners. These sources have provided the principal documentation on the Partai Republik Indonesia (PARI). In 1976 I was also able to consult the collections (in particular serial collections) of the Library of Congress and the British Museum, and to do some follow-up research at Cornell University—both in the library and in the private collection of Professor Benedict Anderson. A short visit to Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia in late 1976 also enabled me to follow up a number of leads uncovered over the previous few years.
Between 1977 and 1980 I finished the translation, with reference to the comparison texts and to experts in Indonesian and the other languages in the text. I then undertook a detailed analysis of textual errors and problems. I spent considerable time in basic research on the Philippine national revolution and the Chinese revolution of the 1920s in order to be able to annotate Tan Malaka’s substantial pieces on those historical periods. These were not in my own field of study and I sent these chapters, with preliminary annotation, to experts in these fields for comment and guidance as to further sources for study. Also during this period, I prepared a first draft of my introduction.
In 1980 during a visit to Manila I consulted with Philippine scholars of the labor and communist movement of the 1920s and did some research into contemporary material held in the National Library. I was particularly fortunate in finding a book of 1927 newspaper clippings on Tan Malaka collected by the Filipino nationalist historian Carlos Ronquillo.
A holiday visit to Indonesia also in 1980 enabled me to renew old contacts and to make an unexpectedly rewarding journey to Bayah, on the south coast of West Java, where Tan Malaka stayed during most of the Japanese occupation. I happened to be in Jakarta at the same time as Harry Poeze, who was undertaking research for his continuing work on Tan Malaka, and so we decided to travel together to Bayah. It was our intention merely to look at the place in order to provide a context for Tan Malaka’s description of it. To our surprise, our host, on hearing of our interest in Tan Malaka, informed us that there were still a number of people in the town who remembered him. Our host made immediate