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Kevin Tivano Tandayong Assignment 91 Nr.

405624 21 March 2014

As I was growing up, my grandfather used to tell me stories about the wars and conflicts that happened in Indonesia. Interestingly, his stories were quite different from the ones that I studied at school in that they were usually mixed with his own personal opinions. Sometimes, his stories were not even mentioned in the book, forcing me to question the validity of his stories. The question of the validity of the information presented in an oral interview still exists even until today; thus, using this notion as a basis, this paper will attempt to determine the extent of how accurate an oral interview can add value to the current written history. In order to do that, this paper will look at an interview with an Indonesian ex-police officer who served in the police force during the decolonization period. This paper will then compare the information given in the interview with the materials gathered from other sources, mainly Indonesian written history. Additionally, this paper will also connect this information to the material presented in the international literatures and to the articles published by the Indonesian newspaper at that time.

The interviewee is a man named Mukari. He was one of the first police officers who joined and supported the Indonesian decolonization movement from 1945 to 1950. He was also one of the first people who were chosen to be in the special police force. Furthermore, he also had a first-hand experience in the battlefield against both the British and the Dutch army. His unique personal experiences, as well as his distinctive position in the military, make this interview a story worth analyzing. The interview itself was conducted on January 14, 2012 by a local history-lover community, named Roodebrug Soerabaia, as an effort to promote Indonesian history to the local community.

The interviewee starts by sharing his early days in the police force. Prior to becoming a police officer, the interviewee was working in Nomura, a Japanese ship building company. He was only 18 when he finally joined the Indonesian police force, just after Japan was about to lose the World War II. Three months after his first tour of duty, news came to him that the British
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(2012). Wawancara Dengan Kapten. Pol. (Purn) Mukari [Video]. Retrieved March 7, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruXgvB8C-Ng

army, together with Netherlands Indies Civil Administration (NICA), had landed in Indonesia and caused some disturbances in a nearby city named Soerabaja. This particular information given by the interviewee was true; it was recorded in the history that the British army indeed came to Indonesia, particularly in Soerabaja. Unfortunately, the timings of the events mentioned in the interview are not very clear.

According to the interviewee, the arrival of the British army, as well as the commotion in Soerabaja, occurred three months after his first tour of duty, just after Japan was about to lose the World War II. In this case, the information acquired from the oral interview is vague in the sense that it does not give us any valuable information regarding the details of this particular event. On the other hand, a written history of the same event can precisely tell us that the British army came to the city of Soerabaja exactly on October 25, 1945. In fact, it is recorded that the commotion mentioned had begun as early as September 19, 1945. 2 Comparing these two sources, we can see that the information gathered from the written history is much clearer than the information taken in the oral interview. At this point, it seems that the information presented in the oral interview are not very useful and can only add value to a very limited extent.

The interview then continues with the interviewee stating his standpoint that most people who were involved in the war were actually ignorant to the current war circumstances and they were just following orders, or as the interviewee himself stated in the interview, kita hanya pelaksana. His view on the state of mind of the Indonesian people towards the war is very different from what has been portrayed in most articles and literatures. In an article written by Editions Didier Millet, it is mentioned that the British had underestimated the extent of the Indonesian resistance, as well as the number of people who decided to participate in the war.3 This means that the people of Soerabaja were not as ignorant as the interviewee claims to be. Additionally, a literature written by J. G. A. Parrott even described the city of Soerabaja at that time as a strong unified fortress. 4 Contradicting the

Modern History: Battle of Surabaya. Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://www.nusantara.com/heritage/surabaya.html 3 Ibid. 4 Parrott, J. G. A. Who Killed Brigadier Mallaby?. Retrieved March 18, 2014 from http://cip.cornell.edu/DPubS?service=Repository&version=1.0&verb=Disseminate&view=body&cont ent-type=pdf_1&handle=seap.indo/1107105571#

interviewees standpoint, these two literatures describe the people of Soerabaja as if they were always prepared to go for a battle.

The two views presented are completely different, yet both of them are true: the earlier view is referring to the peoples attitude observed in the initial stage of the war, while the latter is referring to the peoples attitude seen in the last stage of the event. From the perspective of a third party, it is rather difficult to understand the overall public opinion towards an event. Thus, the easiest way is to look at the outcome of that particular event and use it to conclude the general public opinion. It is also not surprising that the most literatures would come to such conclusion given the fact that at the end of the day, more than 100,000 civilians joined the war against the British army. However, as the interviewee was there since the beginning, he is able to give us a better understanding of the actual public opinion or, in this case, how the people initially perceived the war. Thus, we can see here that an oral interview can certainly add value by providing a first-person perspective that a written history cannot provide. Furthermore, as we can see from these two sources, the peoples attitude towards this war was changing overtime. At first, they were ignorant of the war; however, later it turned out that they indeed became a very strong unified community. How did these peoples attitude change drastically? During the decolonization period, the Indonesian media played a very important role in influencing the public opinion. This can be seen in the many instances where the media was heavily involved in shaping the peoples opinion and attitude, such as this particular war that occurred in Soerabaja in 1945.

On November 9, 1945, Major General B. C. Mansergh from the British army issued an ultimatum to the people of Soerabaja, demanding the people to return the hostages in good condition and surrender unconditionally to the British army. 5 In this time of crisis, an Indonesian revolutionist named Bung Tomo made a vigorous propaganda speech with its famous slogan, Freedom or Death. The propaganda speech starts with a strong declaration to the British that the people of Soerabaja would never surrender to anyone, or as Bung Tomo himself declared, tidak akan kita akan maoe menjerah kepada siapapoen joega. The propaganda speech continues by telling the people that they have been exploited for too long,
The Battle of Surabaya. The Sukarno Years. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from http://www.sukarnoyears.com/212surabaya.htm
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and now is the time to seize their independence. The whole purpose of the propaganda was to persuade the people to join him in the upcoming battle against the British army. What is interesting here is the fact that the media, especially the radio, showed a very positive support towards the revolutionist party. This famous speech by Bung Tomo was aired non-stop in most radio stations in Soerabaja. As a result, by November 10, 1945, 100,000 civilians were persuaded to join Bung Tomo in the battle against the British army. 6 The propaganda speech, supported by the Indonesian radio stations, shows that collaboration between the two can make a huge impact in influencing the peoples attitude.

Similarly, the media coverage provided by the Indonesian newspapers also contributed in influencing the public opinion that could be seen in the way the newspaper was written at that time. An article published by Berita Indonesia on November 10, 1945, titled Penoempahan Darah Lagi?, clearly stated that even though the British was initially not an enemy of Indonesia, the people of Soerabaja would not stand still if threatened. The article then continues by saying, Truly, we, the people of Indonesia, will never give up. We believe that there is no one that can break our spirit of independence in Soerabaja, which further proves the point that the media was indeed involved in influencing the public opinion.7

In the interview, the interviewee also shared his personal experience during the early Dutch hostile reactions towards Indonesia in late 1946. The interviewee shared that after the Japanese were gone from Indonesia, the Dutch began to raid the small cities, starting with Modjokerto, Sidoardjo, and then Malang. Here, his first encounter with the Dutch army occurred when he was on his duty in Sidoardjo. Additionally, the interviewee shared about his personal experience during Dutch Military Aggression II in 1949. In one of the battles, his leg was shot by the enemys multiple barrel firearm when his units were trying to defend Pagotan sugar factory in a small village in Madiun. This incident also marks the end of his career in the police force.

This information provided in this part of the interview is slightly different from the earlier one in that the events mentioned here are very specific to him. Among the three cities mentioned
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Modern History: Battle of Surabaya. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from http://www.nusantara.com/heritage/surabaya.html 7 Penoempahan Darah Lagi?. Berita Indonesia, November 10, 1945. Accessed March 20, 2014. http://niod.x-cago.com/maleise_kranten/article.do?code=Niod009&date=19451110&id=00919451110-001003

as once was raided by the Dutch army, only the attack to the city of Sidoardjo is actually recorded in the official written history. 8 One possible explanation is that the information given by the interviewee is wrong; the other two cities were never attacked. Another explanation, which is more likely to be the case, is that the events mentioned are too specific that sometimes they are rather difficult to record, or that they do not hold any significant value. Indeed, in comparison with the major battle that occurred in Soerabaja, the attacks to these small cities were seen as somewhat less important. Furthermore, is it not normal for the opposing army to launch a small raid or two? Nevertheless, this finding further supports the point that the information from an oral interview can add value to the current written history; however, the importance of that particular information may not be of any significant value.

In summary, the paper concludes that the information acquired from an oral interview adds value to the current written history in that it provides a first-person perspective that the written history cannot provide. However, one has to be careful in discerning the information acquired from an oral interview, especially facts-related information, as there are possibilities of human error involved. Furthermore, one also need to consider the significance of the information given in an oral interview, as there are times when the information given do not possess any significant value that can be added on top of the information found in the current written history.

Sejarah Kabupaten Sidoarjo. Sidoarjokab.go.id. Retreived March 20, 2014 from http://sidoarjokab.go.id/article/sejarah-kabupaten-sidoarjo
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