THE DUTCH ARRESTED MY FATHER, MY UNCLE AND OTHERS, 1948
One day the painters of the Ministry of Youth and Development office called
many children, distributed papers, drawing tool and materials then requested the children to draw. The
drawings were collected and exposed on the office wall. Painter Soerono explained the meanings of the
drawings to the guests who came. The
children were very proud that their works were appreciated.
Picture 1:Painters taught children to paint in Bugisan 5 street Yogyakarta in 1948.
In these Republic of Indonesia struggling years,
the painters and the caricaturists worked to build enthusiasm to defend the
existence of the Republic with their own specific talents and methods. In front
of the State Building of Yogyakarta, one could read good lettering
graffiti with grammatically-right English
words. We Don’t Want to be Ruled by Any Other
Nations. There must be an
educated politician who dictating the words and painters who were trained in using the brush and wrote it on the
wall. Many more similar graffitis found everywhere in Indonesian towns.
There was also an undercover hand-operated printer in
Taman Siswa Street which printed
motivating slogans on easily torn rice-straw paper. Indonesian used any material possible to maintain its existence and spirit. Abdulsalam’s pro Republic caricatures were often published in the
Kedaulatan Rakjat, Nasional and Patriot newspaper in Yogyakarta (Blog Arswendo
Atmowiloto, Tiga yang Berharga, 19/07/2007).
At the neighboring house
near Bugisan street 5, every Saturday night 10 teenagers perform Orkes
Bambu or Bambu Band with bamboo flutes, blowed-bamboo bass, drums, and ukuleles. The singer was the most cute girl
in the kampong, Isti Karniah. Younger children flocks around the band as
spectators. They never thought that something dangerous would happened the next day.
On Sunday morning at 7 a.m. December 19, 1948 Dutch
Military Aggression (II) or named as Kraai
Operatie began. President Soekarno, Vice President Moh. Hatta, Sutan
Sjahrir, Agus Salim and many Indonesian leaders were detained and imprisoned.
Four hundred and forty two members of Korps Speciale Troepen, 2600 of M
Fighter Group and 1900 of T Fighter Group under Captain Eckhout attacked Maguwo
airport. Unmatched in numbers and armaments 128 persons of 150 West Java
originated Siliwangi Division were killed.
This was another breach of the Renville
Agreement which was conducted on January 1948. Renville is a name
of US ship where the agreement was conducted.
At the same day of the aggression to Yogyakarta,
Commander in Chief of Indonesian Army, General Sudirman ordered Siliwangi
Division to come back to West Java to strengthen their original area. Another General Sudirman's order which was printed at the back of the postcards published by the
Republic said: “Defend your homes and yards”.
Picture 2: Siliwangi Division members with families walking 600 km went back from Yogyakarta to their origin territory of West Java at night to avoid ambush by the Dutch.
One day after the offence, Abdulsalam’s family,
Soerono’s family, Oesman Effendi, Soedibjo and our extensive family fled to the
village of Cebongan still in Yogyakarta recidency.
Our extensive family consisted of our core family that
was my father and mother, my younger sister Isti, my younger brother Yanto plus
my grandfather Wirjo, my two aunts Suwarti and Supiah plus two maid servants
Kasiyem and Yatin, who didn’t have time to go home to leave us when the Dutch
attack happened.
Abdulslam’s
extensive family was Abdulsalam and wife, Wiwi, their children Wibowo and Nani
and a maid mbok Hardjo. The journey to Cebongan was a very hard for a kid of my age and
under because it was hot, far, and no food to eat and we have to move fast
because we have to arrive at Cebongan as soon as possible. To make matter more
torturing, the flee was not straight but had to circle south-west part of
Yogyakarta to avoid streets and areas that we considered had been occupied by
the Dutch.
At the cross road west of Pingit we saw three corpses
and a black sedan car damaged. We walked quickly passed the horrified scene.
We arrived at the house of Kambali at Cebongan around 2 pm.
Without any sound, suddenly, early in the morning four
Dutch soldiers, came and captured Abdulsalam, Usman Effendi, Soedibjo, dan my
father Abdullah Angudi. They were marched to Cebongan sugar factory which has became
headquarter of the Dutch platoon.
Picture 3: Abdullah Angudi, Abdulsalam (painter), Soedibio (painter) and Oesman Effendi (painter) were arrested by the Dutch at Kambali's house at Cebongan.
During this invasion Minister Soepeno, the minister who
subordinated the Bugisan office and those painters was also arrested by the
Dutch and was shot. After the war the name Minister
Soepeno became the name of streets
in Semarang, Yogyakarta and other towns.
Picture 4: Minister Soepeno was caught and shot by the Dutch
Soerono and others who went to the river nearby to take
bath were not aware that his friends had
been captured. They were frightened and worried when they got home.
Next morning led by Soerono, the only young man in the
group, the refugees walked to the next uncertain destinations. The move didn’t
take long and we arrived at the kampong
of Kontengan. We found only some damaged large huts with rotten bamboo walls as
our shelters. It was cold at night. Wind blowed through the holed walls.
In the meantime after two nights at the detention chamber at Cebongan sugar factory, Abdulsalam, Oesman Effendi, Soedibjo and my father were brought with a truck to Ngupasan jail behind the State Building in Yogyakarta. All were alive because the truck which carried those prisoners from Cebongan to Yogyakarta was not ambushed by the Indonesian guerrillas or National Indonesian Army, TNI.
During many days of the interrogation sessions at Ngupasan, Dutch
soldiers didn’t find any clues that
Abdulsalam and my father were members of the guerrilla and hence they were not
badly treated. Praise to Allah (Glory to Allah) that the
Dutch didn’t find any connection of my father with Temanggung where my father
was one member of the demolition guerrilla team. Also probably my father didn’t
tell the Dutch that he had ever lived in that town.
Among the inmates was the mayor of Yogyakarta, Mr. Soedarisman Poerwokoesoemo.
After one week in Ngupasan jail, my father was released.
Once again my father walked to Cebongan passing different, very deserted,
dangerous and strange route my father never walked through before.
Unfotunately somewhere outside of town, at a village cross road, my father was
encountered by a group of patrolling Dutch platoon. They circled my father and detained my father and
asked who my father was. My father explained in Dutch that he just been
released from Ngupasan jail that very morning. My father learned Dutch language
in the Dutch-Indie Elementary and Secondary School and that helped the Dutch to
be lenient to my father. The Dutch soldier made a radio call to Ngupasan jail
to confirm my father’s explanations. Then the Dutch patrolling soldier released
my father and let my father go. It was a very tense moment because my father
had heard the fate of my uncle, Adi, who was captured, ordered to go and shot dead from behind.
My father went further and about one kilometer from
where my father was asked by the Dutch, he was stopped by a group of
guerrillas. The guerrillas asked what my father had talked with the Dutch
patrolling soldiers. My father explained the guerrillas, the story from the
capturing at Cebongan till the releasing from Ngupasan jail.
The Indonesian guerrillas were suspicious to every
person coming from town, because coming to the villages from town was Dutch
spies’ routes. The Indonesian Dutch spies usually came as a cheap cosmetic
peddlers as covers at market days . They could also tell fake
stories about themselves when asked by the guerrillas.
TNI believed my
father’s story and my father was allowed to go to Cebongan to find his family. In the case of Indonesian guerrillas didn’t believed
my father’s information and looked upon it as a fake story, they could execute
my father easily.
The village roads were void of people and everybody
were afraid of being asked by strangers. They were frightened if they talked
with a stranger because he or she might
be a Dutch spy. If you were suspected as
a Dutch spy, since your answers were vague, you could be killed easily.
But at last my father found us after asking many
villagers whether they saw a group of refugees with certain number and
characterictic of the group passing their villages.
Meanwhile at the same day when Yogyakarta was invaded
by the Dutch, West Java originated Siliwangi Division was ordered to go back to
their area. But since the locations where the troops and their families were
staying in Yogyakarta were separated in too many buildings and people’s houses, the order could not be done
fast and simultaneously. Disseminating
the order and to determine the places and
time of meeting for departing together was done from mouth to mouth for
secrecy.
Many main roads and infra-structures were occupied by
the Dutch and so Siliwangi movement was executed only by night walking for 500 km to West Java
trough rice field, country paths, villages, crossing rivers in the rainy season
of Java. Nobody prepared the provision except very poor farmers of Java who took pity to the groups who were consisted of man, old woman, pregnant and children. This long torturing journey was named The
Long March of Siliwangi.
At last my father found us and the group in the kampong
of Kontengan. Then we moved on to Jumeneng Alit.
At Jumeneng Alit in the evening when I played with my
new buffalo-shepherd friend, we were
suddenly in the middle of a cross-fire between the guerrillas and the Dutch. My new friend and I squatted in a cluster of bamboo trees.
Running guerrillas jumped above our heads. Because the Indonesians had only
limited ammunitions, they usually fired some shots to the Dutch and run, they
never made frontal fightings. They never ambushed the Dutch in the morning but
at the late evening when the Dutch were exhausted from patrolling. Bamboo trees
around us hit by bullets broken, creaked
and collapsed.
When I went home I was reprimanded by my worried father
and mother since I was playing too far apart and this could be dangerous since I might be
lost when the refugees had to move on.
Being aware that
Jumeneng Alit was not safe, the rest of the group went west and arrived at the
village of Bligo, outside Yogyakarta regency, near Progo River. Since the end
of evacuation was vague, while the provision was depleting, Soerono and his
wife and their children Widodo, Soerojo and Tuti decided to go back to
Yogyakarta. We separated at Jumeneng Alit.
At Bligo, a rich
farmer named Mangunredjo accepted us and he prepared three rooms and other spaces
for us.
Three weeks later Abdulsalam who was released from Ngupasan jail
walked to Cebongan, Kontengan, Jumeneng Alit and Bligo, through unfamiliar,
strange and deserted tracks. The routes `mentioned above was hiked thru frequent askings to the alarmed villagers. This method made Abdulsalam found the
way to Bligo and found us.
...and do no evil nor mischief on the (face of the) earth.
(Koran 2:60)
(Next episode:The Retreat of the Dutch, 1949 at angudi003.blogspot.com).
Sardjono Angudi
11/2012 revised 11/2015 revised 02/2023
One year after the war. Arrestee: Abdullah Angudi and Abdulsalam (1st and 2nd from right).The writer sit at front 4th from right.
References:
id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjanjian_Renville
id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perundingan_Linggarjati
id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agresi_Militer_Belanda_I
id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agresi_Militer_Belanda_II
