Indonesians in Focus: Oerip Soedarman

By Barrie | July 25th, 2007 | No Comments

The well-worn fingers of the old man began to tremble as he turned the pages of the book. His eyes squinted through his thick glasses as he slowly read the brittle pages contained in the heavy, dark red cover embossed with the title: Staatblad Van Nederlandsch-Indie (State documents of the Dutch East Indies).

His wrinkled face suddenly brightened up as he paused at one entry. “Here is the proof we need about East Java province,” he said. “All is revealed in this book.”

The careful reader is engineer Haji Oerip Soedarman, a retired official from the East Java provincial government, and one of the few living experts on East Java’s history.

Last Tuesday (July 10), Soedarman held a press conference to discuss the history of East Java province.

According to this former public servant, the public should no longer be confused about the anniversary of the province’s founding. “The date is Jan. 1, 1929,” said Soedarman with finality.

The province’s founding has long been a contentious issue and hot topic for discussion among historians, archivists and administrators. At one stage a group of politicians from the East Java provincial parliament decided to go to the Netherlands just to check documents held by the former colonial power.

Most authorities agree there are only four possible dates; Dec. 28, during the Singosari Kingdom period; Aug. 14, during the Mataram Kingdom; Jan. 1, during the era of Dutch East Indies rule; and Aug. 19, after the republic’s proclamation of independence.

As far as Soedraman is concerned, the politicians didn’t need to go all the way to Holland to ask their questions, as the answers can be found in the Dutch colonial government’s official papers, documents that are readily available in Indonesia.

“In Article 1 of the Staatblad Van Nederlandsch-Indie, number 298 of 1928, it’s clearly written het gewest oost-Java is een provincie (the East Java area is a province),” Soedarman said.

“Furthermore, in state documents held in Cipanas, West Java, the following information can be found: Deze ordonnantie treedt in werking met ingang van 1 January 1929. This means the decree came into effect on 1 January 1929.”

Discovering the correct foundation date of the province is just one of many historical facts Soedarman has come across during his extensive reading of old documents.

The anniversaries of the Surabaya city administration and East Java’s principal public medical center, Dr. Soetomo Hospital, are two other nuggets of history unearthed by this professional and tenacious bookworm.

And he has not only been an impersonal observer, for Soedarman is also related to an important event in the republic’s history.

He is the nephew of the late Wage Rudolf Soepratman, the composer of the Indonesian national anthem, Indonesia Raya (Great Indonesia). Hence Soedarman’s personal interest in the background of the anthem, which has now become the subject of a book to be launched on Independence Day, 17 August 2007.

Soepratman worked on the anthem composition between 1926 and 1928. “It was sung for the first time in public on 28 October 1928,” Soedarman said.

“After that, the Dutch colonial government banned all performances of the song.

At one stage the authorship was challenged by a writer in Timbul magazine, which was published in Solo, Central Java. You can read all about this in my book.”

Soedarman’s introduction to the musty world of an archival researcher began in the 1980s when he was working as a government officer. He was assigned a number of small research jobs by the former East Java Governor, Sunandar Priyosudarmo.

Sunandar had asked him to find details of the Surabaya City Government’s birthday. Soedarman had to search through a stack of old books piled under a bell tower in the provincial government office.

“When I started leafing through the old books I discovered a great deal of information, including the facts I was seeking. I discovered that the Surabaya City Government was formed on 1 April 1906,” he said.

Soedarman believes his interest in archival material was stimulated by his father, Oerip Hasan Sengari, who was fascinated by written documents from the past. By trawling through old documents and books he learned new historical facts that had either been forgotten, overlooked or ignored by others.

Soedarman says he is dismayed by the lack of interest shown by so many toward the history of the nation. He believes there are two reasons for this indifference.

“The first reason is that reading books is not a popular activity in this country, and the second reason is few people know how to read Dutch,” he said.

“When I was young the Dutch language was still being taught in schools — that’s why I am able to read and speak it.”

If politicians want to find details of the birthday of the province, he said, there is no need to travel to the Netherlands; all the appropriate documents are held in libraries in East Java and Jakarta.

There are also other available documents, including maps, which show how the province was divided into multiple regions.

The names of past East Java officials have also been preserved.

“Few people know the history of the first Governor of East Java, W Ch Hardeman,” Soedarman said. “He was the former head of Residency in the colonial administration and was based in Surabaya.”

Due to his diligence and sound research skills, Soedarman was invited to join the East Java province’s historical team.

“All the information I’ve sought has been available and that’s how I discovered the foundation date of East Java,” he said.

“I found that in the National Library, in Jakarta.”

ID Nugroho