Kemunculan Komunisme di Indonesia

Equinox Classic Indonesia

by Ruth T. McVey, Tim Komunitas Bambu (Penerjemah)

Buku klasik tentang sejarah kemunculan ideologi komunisme di Asia dan perannya dalam awal pergerakan kebangsaan Indonesia. McVey berhasil menguraikan secara lengkap lahir dan berkembangnya Partai Komunis Indonesia dalam pergolakan politik perlawanan terhadap kolonialisme serta pertarungan ideologi baik secara internal maupun dalam peta perpolitikan di Indonesia di masa pra-kemerdekaan. Di masa orde baru, buku ini termasuk yang dilarang beredar di Indonesia dan hanya menjadi bacaan terbatas dikalangan akademisi. Catatan terpenting adalah buku ini mendokumentasikan dan menyingkap secara lengkap peristiwa 1926-1927.

“Tak ragu lagi, inilah buku yang harus diperhitungkan sebagai telaah paling mendalam mengenai gerakan komunisme Asia. Secara tajam berhasil mengisahkan PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia), yang pada awal abad ke-20 menggemparkan peta politik internasional. Kemampuan bahasa dan kecendekiawanan McVey unik ketimbang para sarjana Barat peneliti Indonesia. Terutama kemampuannya dalam mensarikan informasi dari wawancara-wawancara pribadi dengan para anggota dan mantan PKI telah menghasilkan sesuatu yang luarbiasa. McVey tak hanya akrab dengan sejarah kolonial Indonesia, juga tahu seluk-beluk gerakan komunis internasional. Hasilnya adalah penuturan berimbang yang menguraikan sejarah internal PKI yang penuh warna dan peristiwa penting, juga mengenai hubungan PKI yang rapuh dengan Partai Komunis Belanda, pun dengan Komintern. Klimaks buku ini muncul dalam kisah pemberontakan yang gagal pada 1926/1927, dimana semua maksud dan tujuan pemberontakan itu mengakhiri fase pertama setengah abad sejarah PKI.”
- Harry J. Benda, Sejarawan Yale University -

“Satu-satunya buku tentang PKI yang serius, sangat rinci,
tanpa prasangka, dan objektif. Saya kagum benar.”
- Ben Anderson, Professor Emeritus Cornell University

“Kajian yang paling mendalam mengenai PKI hingga 1926–1927, dan memuat banyak bahan tentang gerakan-gerakan politik lainnya pada periode itu, khususnya Sarekat Islam.”
- M.C. Ricklefs, Sejarawan Monash University

“Karya yang paling berkesan. McVey membawa kita terus-menerus terpesona pada detail yang kaya dalam karyanya.”
- Donald Hindley, Ahli Politik Brandeis University

“Ditulis dengan cermat, disajikan dengan gamblang dan didokumentasikan secara luas, buku ini merupakan karya cendekia yang brilian.”
- Gerald. S. Maryanov, Ahli Politik Northern Illinois University

“Karya yang memiliki otoritas besar dan tak ada keraguan sedikit pun akan kekuatan buku ini.”
- J.D. Legge, Sejarawan Monash university

Genres: History, Indonesian Literature, Politics, Nonfiction

680 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Ruth T. McVey received her PhD in 1961 from Cornell University in the Government Department and Southeast Asia Program. Her dissertation was entitled 'The Comintern and the Rise of Indonesian Communism.' In 1954, she received her MA at Harvard University, in the Soviet Area Program.

From 1976 to 1984, she was a reader in Politics with reference to Southeast Asia at the University of London, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses on Southeast Asian government and politics, and a postgraduate seminar on political ideology. Teaching and tutoring in various general undergraduate politics subjects, especially comparative politics. Supervision of research students in Southeast Asian Politics and Southeast Asian History.

From 1969 to 1976, she was a lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1969-1976.

Reviews

[Franditya · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Saya diminta datang ke Singapura, tapi tidak untuk mendiskusikan apakah PKI telah siap untuk memimpin sebuah revolusi melawan Belanda dan bagaimana menjalankan revolusi semacam itu. Saya diminta datang ke Singapura untuk selanjutnya ke Moskow bersama Musso. Di sana kami meminta persetujuan dan dukungan moral, karena keputusan yang diambil di Prambanan bertentangan dengan aturan Komintern”

–Ruth T. Mcvey, Hal. 544. Petikan tesis Tan Malaka, Naar de “Republiek Indonesia”–


Mengapa petualangan Partai Komunis Indonesia di paruh pertama abad 19 memilih pemberontakan (1926) sebagai jalan politik? Mengapa aksi pemogokan buruh pabrik dan serikat pekerja secara besar-besaran –terutama di Jawa– waktu itu tidak mampu muncul sebagai jawaban Komunisme terhadap penjajahan Kolonial Belanda? Apakah kegagalan revolusi di Hindia salah satunya disebabkan sikap Komintern lebih lebih memprioritaskan perkembangan Eropa Barat daripada Asia? Dan, apakah tesis Tan Malaka tentang Ideologi Islam dan Komunisme sebagai basis Revolusi Hindia sepenuhnya salah?

Tak banyak buku yang membahas tentang Komunisme Internasional atau Komintern dan perkembangan ideologi Komunis di Indonesia. Mungkin referensi tentang Komintern baru bisa dijumpai beberapa tahun pasca tumbangnya Orde Baru. Sebelumnya dipastikan mustahil bisa mendapatkan bacaan bermutu tentang sejarah perkembangan Komunisme di Indonesia, karena rejim Soeharto waktu itu mengharamkan mempelajari ajaran Marxisme-Leninisme.

Tulisan Mcvey yang diterbitkan Komunitas Bambu (2010) tentang kemunculan Komunisme Indonesia di awal abad 19, cukup membantu melakukan pelacakan relasi-relasi yang coba dibangun kelompok kiri Indonesia baik di dalam ataupun di luar negeri. Naskah asli buku itu berjudul “The Rise of Indonesian Comunism” diterbitkan oleh Universitas Cornel tahun 1965. Gaya tulisan Mcvey cenderung melihat bahwa sejarah Komunisme Indonesia tidak bisa dilepaskan dari format sosial-politik kolonial Hindia Belanda. Bahwa asal-usul bangsa Indonesia terletak dalam periode kolonial, yang selanjutnya menghasilkan kepemimpinan nasional dan kaum intelektual yang dipisahkan oleh Belanda dari rakyat jelata sehingga menghambat proses perkembangan nasionalisme secara alamiah.

[Salim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book, it seems like the main reason for the popularity of the early PKI (being the main political force for the 10s and 20s) is really owed to two factors: dutch colonialism obstructing the national bourgeoisie & the capability of PKI leaders to translate socialist propaganda to local conditions, the distance form the comintern was very important for the independence of the movement, yet detrimental in the end, when the ongoing repression and difficulties of operating under extremely repressive occupation government lead to the demise of the movement with a premature rebellion which the comintern wisely advised against.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my earliest memory during my junior high school days was when our family - which includes my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandfathers - were huddling together in front of a late ‘90s - early ‘00 model desktop computer, watching Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI (G30s/PKI Treachery), a film about an alleged coup in 1965 that resulted in the death of seven Army generals, which was instigated by what was then the third largest Communist Party in the world, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). I look with trepidation and disgust as the Army generals were gunned down in the sanctity of their own home, or dragged off into the secluded hiding place of Lubang Buaya (Crocodile Hole), where they were subjected into atrocious torture by members of the female wing of the PKI, Gerwani, who gouged out their eyeballs and dismembered their genitals with razor blades, before shooting them at point blank range and dancing over their disfigured bodies. My disdain was both strengthened and comforted by the stories of my grandfather and uncle, who reminisce over how every single one of those people who danced with glee over the dead bodies were killed in gruesome manners, which I saw as a just reply for a heinous crime.

My reading of The Rise of Communism in Indonesia, a book by scholar Ruth McVey’s, however, signifies my own thoughts’ transition on the subject of Communism in Indonesia, a near-taboo discourse point that has been solely framed through the lens of the attempted coup in 1965 and the subsequent massacre that followed. The hauteur that I openly showed to the alleged PKI members in the movie reflected the same aura of hatred and fear that the people of Indonesia has been showing over the past half a century to any particular representation that is somehow related to Communism, Socialism or specifically to PKI as an institution that represented the aforementioned ideologies. The benefits of an academic research, however, is that you are able to delve into a particular subject, scrutinize it to the detail, and present it as a bare truth to your audience, albeit it being an exclusive one. Nevertheless, this truth serves as a breath of fresh air from the fear that is being bred from a state-sanctioned ignorance that became not only a malignant reality, but also an antithetical reality to the desire for Indonesia to grow to become a mature nation. This fear, which has led to much anger and hate, with which have lend itself to the aching wound that still lingers among the victims of the 1965-66 massacre, has been and will continue to signifies that the goal that the communities of this country are desperately eager to achieve, is well beyond their grasp.

As with any academic publications, the devil is in the details, hence my decision to keep this work one star short of an acclaimed review. If you were to wonder whether it is a cheap shot of me for not having the capacity to differentiate the forest and the tree, you would be correct. Regardless of which, I saluted McVey for being able to reveal the genesis and headway of PKI that culminates in its temporary downfall through a poorly-organized and ire-induced revolt in November 1926. Going against the common “knowledge” that most Indonesians assume, the Indonesians who participated and joined PKI in its early days saw both the party and the ideology as a new vessel that could assist the Indonesian people in its struggle to break free of Dutch colonialism.

Nevertheless, it is not until Indonesian, as well as other delegates from Asia vehemently made their case in Moscow, would then the Communist International (Comintern) adopt their framework in pushing the spread of Communism in Asia. Considering that a majority of the people within Central and Southeast Asia adhere to the Islamic faith, the Comintern, and later PKI spared no efforts in shaping a bond between Islam and Communism. By focusing on the goals of social justice and the struggle to break free from the infidel (kufr/kafir) nature of the imperialist regimes, PKI managed to form a mutual bond with the largest centre-right national organization throughout Indonesia at the time, Sarekat Islam (SI). Eventually, however, the various factors of bickering ideological battles between PKI and SI, Dutch colonial government’s restriction and eventual disbanding of the party, impatience over the struggle to obtain independence through consolidating various labor unions and disagreements over the purpose of PKI between Batavia and Moscow finally culminated in the November 1926 revolt.

In the end, McVey portrayed an organization which was founded with the same purpose as that of other similar organizations during the 1910s-1920s eras, which was to strive for a national independence from the Netherlands. It is, however, the miscalculations over the compatibility of Communism as an ideology with the traditional beliefs among the various segments of Indonesian society that lead to the disagreements over where to bring PKI forward within the strive for independence, which, as McVey puts it, gave way to the “secular nationalists, who….striv[e] for an Indonesian nation-state, rather than in the internationalist framework of Islam or Communism or in the political and cultural particularlism of the regional movements.”

Knowing that academic works are not exactly everyone’s cup of tea, this book still managed to give an in-depth insight on a part of Indonesian history that is all-too often misrepresented from the movies in the cinema all the way to the textbooks in public and private schools. A national unity for a common goal is a noble idea for a state to be striving for, but with the ongoing quasi-authoritarian measures that the government has put in place (Bela Negara program, cultural censorship, etc.), the question that the Indonesians have to ask now is: At what cost is the country willing to pay for the sake of this character and purpose?

I only wish that an Indonesian had been the one writing this book.

[lita]

baru datang, diantar langsung oleh mbak Martina :)

[Aulia Darmawan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buku ini menjelaskan dengan detail bagaimana komunisme masuk ke Indonesia dan mengapa PKI bisa tumbuh besar di negara ini. McVey juga membahas kondisi sosial, ekonomi, dan politik pada masa penjajahan Belanda yang mempengaruhi perkembangan ideologi ini.

Buku ini sangat penting bagi mereka yang ingin memahami sejarah Indonesia, terutama tentang peran PKI. Meskipun dulu buku ini sempat dilarang di Indonesia, sekarang sudah banyak digunakan oleh para akademisi yang ingin mempelajari sejarah politik Indonesia dengan lebih mendalam.

Secara keseluruhan, Kemunculan Komunisme di Indonesia memberi kita pemahaman tentang bagaimana dan mengapa PKI menjadi kekuatan besar dalam politik Indonesia di masa lalu.

[Johan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mesti sabar membaca, karena rinci uraiannya.

[Oswaldus Jemadu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku

[Erlang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku yang sangat menarik

[Indra Pratama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very important research for Indonesian history.

[Pra]

plastik mulai dibuka

[Muhammad Syarafuddin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Membaca buku ini kita tidak hanya tahu sejarah awal Komunisme di Indonesia, tapi juga sejarah Sarikat Islam. McVey bercerita dengan sangat detil, hampir tidak ada yang dilewatkannya.

[Hendri · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing history tell us from this book

[mellyana]

still struggling at chapter 2 from..... too many chapters.

[Ns Mukti]

UI know how radical movement in Indonesia rise