Oloan Hutapea

Last updated

Oloan Hutapea, also known as B. O. Hutapea (born 1920s?, died in the Blitar area in 1968), was a high-ranking member of the Indonesian Communist Party and one of its major theoreticians during the height of its power, and was leader of a clandestine wing of the party in 1967-8 during the Transition to the New Order.

Contents

Biography

Early life

His full name was Bismarck Oloan Hutapea, which he shortened to B.O. Hutapea as his pen name later in life. Little has been published about his early life aside from the fact that he had been a cadet in the Dutch Navy at Surabaya. [1]

T.B. Simatupang, chief of staff of the Indonesian Armed Forces from 1950 to 1953, knew Hutapea while studying in Batavia during 1937-40 and again later during the Japanese occupation. He was also from a Batak background and noted in his memoir that most Bataks in Batavia knew each other at that time. [2] Among his friends in the Batak youth in Batavia, Simatupang listed Hutapea, as well as Josef Simanjutak, another future communist party propagandist, and Lintong Mulia Sitorus, future Indonesian Socialist Party secretary general. [2] During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Simatupang rented a house with Sitorus and Hutapea in the Tanah Tinggi district of Batavia. [1] He notes that other Batak youth called them De Drie Musketiers, that they were often together attending lectures by people such as Sutan Sjahrir and collecting books about independence movements in other countries. [1] He takes credit for introducing Hutapea to communism during this time, as he lent him a copy of "Soviet Communism: A new civilisation?" by Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb, which he says converted Hutapea to the cause. [1] Simatupang notes that, at that time he and Sitorus disagreed with Hutapea, but that it did not cause a rift in their friendship until later, and that at that time they were also good friends with D.N. Aidit, future communist party leader. [1]

Communist party

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hutapea emerged as a close ally of Aidit as the party rebuilt its organization which was still in shambles after the 1948 Madiun Affair. Among the new generation of communists who came to Jakarta in 1949 after the old guard was imprisoned, Lukman and Sudisman arrived, followed shortly after by Njoto and Hutapea from East Java. [3] In February 1950 Hutapea and Peris Pardede were sent by the party to Sumatra to exclude people disloyal to Aidit. [4] Hutapea was also the commissioner of the PKI in East Java during this time. In 1951 police made several raids of houses of Communists and other leftists in East Java, which Hutapea had called a "politics of demoralization" being waged against them by the government. [5]

Then, in August 1951 there were mass arrests of leftists of various parties in the region, Hutapea was among them, along with editors of Trompet Masjarakat, Republik, and editors of several Chinese Indonesian papers. [6] Aidit and other leaders went into hiding, where many of them stayed until 1952. [4] The government accused the arrestees of plotting a coup d'état. [4] These prisoners were interned in a concentration camp in Kediri, where they complained about poor quality food and no access to medicine or reading materials. [7] The Dutch communist party newspaper De Waarheid claimed that Hutapea himself was instrumental in organizing the prisoners into various sports and education committees, and to campaign for better treatment. [7]

Hutapea had various other duties in the party before and after his imprisonment. He was a member of the politburo of the communist party, he was an editor of their theoretical magazine Bintang Merah (Indonesian: Red Star), and he was director of the Aliarcham Academy, a party training school, in Jakarta.

In 1959 Hutapea accompanied Aidit and other party members to Moscow to attend the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. [8]

In his writings, Hutapea showed himself to be among the most hard-line members of the party leadership. In a 1960 article in Bintang Merah, the party's magazine of theory, he condemned revisionists in the Second International who had proposed a non-revolutionary road to power. [9]

After 1965

After the 30 September Movement events, many of the party leadership were arrested or killed. Aliarcham Academy, which Hutapea was director of, was closed by order of Suharto. [10] Hutapea managed to escape capture for several years. In early 1967 a number of the surviving party notables made a plan to rebuild the party in the South Blitar area of East Java, which they judged to be suitable. [11] Among those who left from Jakarta to South Blitar were Hutapea, Rewang, Tjugito, Iskandar Subekti, Marjoko, and Katno. [11] In 1967 Hutapea became head of a new Central Committee based there. [12] This committee stockpiled weapons and attempted to build an independent communist zone in opposition to the new Suharto government. [13] Some of their members had trained with the Viet Cong and recently returned to Indonesia, and so they imitated the tactics used in Vietnam. [13] Some reports said that up to 90 percent of peasants in the Blitar were supportive of this movement, even as anti-communist killings were happening all over the country. [13] The region was more of a refuge for people fleeing the killings than it was a strong base of power. [14] The Indonesian Army made aggressive raids into the region in early 1968, with five thousand soldiers and three thousand militiamen, [14] and Hutapea was killed in South Blitar in May 1968. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sukarno</span> President of Indonesia from 1945 to 1967

Sukarno was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of Indonesia</span> Former political party in Indonesia

The Communist Party of Indonesia was a communist party in the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world before its violent disbandment in 1965. The party had two million members in the 1955 elections, with 16 percent of the national vote and almost 30 percent of the vote in East Java. During most of the period immediately following the Indonesian Independence until the eradication of the PKI in 1965, it was a legal party operating openly in the country. After 1965, the party has since been declared as illegal and its activities are considered treason and terrorist by the Indonesian government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. H. Lukman</span> Indonesian politician (1920–1966)

Muhammad Hatta Lukman was an Indonesian communist politician, who served as the First Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and a member of the People's Representative Council from 1956 until 1959. He was executed following the 1965 crackdown on the PKI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">30 September Movement</span> 1965 Indonesian military faction that attempted a coup

The Thirtieth of September Movement was a self-proclaimed organization of Indonesian National Armed Forces members. In the early hours of 1 October 1965, they assassinated six Indonesian Army generals in an abortive coup d'état. Later that morning, the organization declared that it was in control of media and communication outlets and had taken President Sukarno under its protection. By the end of the day, the coup attempt had failed in Jakarta. Meanwhile, in central Java there was an attempt to take control over an army division and several cities. By the time this rebellion was put down, two more senior officers were dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D. N. Aidit</span> Indonesian communist politician (1923–1965)

Dipa Nusantara Aidit was an Indonesian communist politician, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) from 1951 until his summary execution during the mass killings of 1965–66. Born on Belitung Island, he was nicknamed "Amat".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musso</span> Leader of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI)

Munawar Musso was an Indonesian revolutionary and political figure who was the leader of the Communist Party of Indonesia and one of the key figures in the 1948 Madiun affair.

The People's Democratic Party was a democratic socialist party in Indonesia.

Kamaruzaman Sjam, also known as Kamarusaman bin Achmad Mubaidah and Sjam, was a key member of the Communist Party of Indonesia who was executed for his part in the 1965 coup attempt known as the 30 September Movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Njoto</span> Indonesian communist politician (1927–1965)

Lukman Njoto or Njoto was a senior national leader of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), who joined the party shortly after the country's declaration of independence, and was killed following the 1965 coup attempt.

Fadjar Harapan was a short-lived Indonesian pioneer organization, linked to the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). Fadjar Harapan was founded in 1959, albeit that there already was an existing Scouting movement initiated by the Communist Party. However, the organization was officially not connected to any political party and was open to all children between the ages of six and thirteen. The initiative to found the new organization was taken by the party leader Aidit. Cadres of the Communist Party and Pemuda Rakjat were given the task to study how pioneer movements functioned in other countries, but adapting Fadjar Harapan to Indonesian conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. B. Simatupang</span> 20th-century Indonesian military officer

Tahi Bonar Simatupang was a soldier who served in the Indonesian National Revolution and went on to become chief of staff of the Indonesian Armed Forces.

<i>Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI</i> 1984 Indonesian propaganda film directed by Arifin C. Noer

Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI is a 1984 Indonesian docudrama co-written and directed by Arifin C. Noer, produced by G. Dwipayana, and starring Amoroso Katamsi, Umar Kayam, and Syubah Asa. Produced over a period of two years with a budget of Rp. 800 million, the film was sponsored by Suharto's New Order government. It was based on an official history of the 30 September Movement coup in 1965 written by Nugroho Notosusanto and Ismail Saleh, which depicted the coup as being orchestrated by the Communist Party of Indonesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bintang Merah</span> Indonesian communist magazine

Bintang Merah was a magazine of the Communist Party of Indonesia which published in Jakarta from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1950 to 1965. It described itself as a magazine of Marxist-Leninist politics and theory.

Parada Harahap was an important journalist and writer from the late colonial period and early independence era in Indonesia. In the 1930s, he was called the "king of the Java press". He pioneered a new kind of politically neutral Malay language newspaper in the 1930s which would cater to the rising middle class of the Indies.

Raden Darsono Notosudirdjo, more commonly known simply as Darsono, was a journalist and editor of Sinar Hindia, an activist in the Sarekat Islam and chairman of the Indonesian Communist Party from 1920 to 1925.

Asmu, whose birth name was Asmoe Tjiptodarsono, was a leader, theoretician, and chief agricultural expert of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and head of the Communist-affiliated Peasants Front of Indonesia in the mid-1960s. He was killed during the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aliarcham</span> Indonesian communist politician

Aliarcham (c.1901-1933) was a Sarekat Islam and Indonesian Communist Party party leader, activist and theoretician in the Dutch East Indies. He was a major figure behind the PKI's turn to more radical policies in the mid-1920s. He was arrested by Dutch authorities in 1925 and exiled to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp, where he died in 1933. He became a well-known Martyr, especially among Communists and Indonesian nationalists.

Lintong Mulia Sitorus, in pre-1948 spelling Lintong Moelia Sitoroes, was an Indonesian intellectual, writer, translator, lawyer, and Socialist Party of Indonesia politician. He was a key follower of the independent-minded Indonesian nationalist Sutan Sjahrir in the 1940s and 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peris Pardede</span> Indonesian Communist politician

Peris Pardede (1918–1982) was an Indonesian politician who was a key figure in the Communist Party of Indonesia during the Sukarno era. He held various roles, including editor of the party magazine Bintang Merah, representative of the party in the Provisional House of Representatives and the House of Representatives throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, and Politburo candidate in 1965. After the party was banned in 1965, he was put on trial and spent his final decades as a political prisoner of the Suharto regime.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Simatupang, T.B. (1996). The fallacy of a myth. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan. pp. 96–9. ISBN   9794163589.
  2. 1 2 Simatupang, T.B. (1996). The fallacy of a myth. Jakarta: Pustaka Sinar Harapan. pp. 53–4. ISBN   9794163589.
  3. ↑ Alam, Ibarrui Putri (2006). Roman biografis Ibarruri Putri Alam, anak sulung D.N. Aidit (1 ed.). Jakarta: Hasta Mitra. p. 11.
  4. 1 2 3 Hindley, Donald (1966). The Communist Party of Indonesia, 1951-1963. University of California Press.
  5. ↑ "Weer een protest van de P. K. I." De vrije pers : ochtendbulletin. 26 June 1951.
  6. ↑ "De arrestaties in Oost-Java". Nieuwe courant. 20 August 1951.
  7. 1 2 "Perdjoangan Indonesia Indonesische patriotten strijden voor hun vrijlating". De waarheid. 18 December 1951.
  8. ↑ "PKI-delegatie naar Moskou". De waarheid. 22 January 1959.
  9. ↑ Dake, Anthony C. A. (2018). In the spirit of the Red Banteng : Indonesian communists between Moscow and Peking, 1959-1965 (Reprint ed.). Walter de Gruyter. p. 71. ISBN   9783111653235.
  10. ↑ "Interneringskampen". De waarheid. 6 October 1973.
  11. 1 2 "Blitar Selatan, Babak Terakhir Tripanji vs Trisula - Koran Sulindo". Koran Sulindo (in Indonesian). 6 August 2018.
  12. ↑ van der Kroef, Justus M. (1970). "Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup". Pacific Affairs. 43 (1): 40.
  13. 1 2 3 van der Kroef, Justus M. (1970). "Indonesian Communism since the 1965 Coup". Pacific Affairs. 43 (1): 43–4.
  14. 1 2 Roosa, John (2020). Buried histories : the anticommunist massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia. University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 102–3. ISBN   9780299327309.
  15. ↑ "Indonesische communist gedood". Tubantia (in Dutch). July 11, 1968.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.