my opinion they would certainly have agreed.
So much for an explanation of Alimin’s attitude towards me at a time when the party was endangered. To Alimin, who had admitted my “weaknesses” in his book Analysis, I address the following question: Can a revolutionary party survive if its members are not honest with each other?
As I have stated, then, it was the interests of the Indonesian movement, and specifically Alimin’s attitude towards me, that forced me to leave for Singapore in a great rush. I was forced to leave in a state of poor health, and for this reason I needed something that I have needed more than once on my travels. Previously this was a secret, but with the elimination of the office of the governor general in the Philippines and the takeover of the office by the Filipino people themselves, the secret has been let out. In brief, what I needed was a passport, but it had to be a good false passport: good in the sense that the paper and stamps were authentic, but false because the bearer would not really be a Filipino. What else could I do? In opposing imperialism, which is not based on honesty, one cannot always use honest methods, particularly when aiming to destroy that imperialism.
It was not easy to get a passport at the governor general’s office. One needed all kinds of testimony and assurances and trickery to thwart the screening. In the end I got one, after a high-ranking Filipino official gave his surety.81
[148] So finally a German ship that docked in Singapore in early 1926 had as a passenger one Hasan Gozali, who came from Mindanao in the Philippines. Unfortunately, or, rather, amusingly, the English passport inspector and his Malay assistant were the same ones who had not long before examined the documents of one Estahislau Rivera.82 Hasan Gozali and Estahislau Rivera were one and the same person. However, the similarity of the person and the difference in names did not seem to catch the attention of these officials. It was not only on these two occasions that such a discrepancy escaped the notice of the passport inspectors. In fact, the regulation of passports had many weaknesses. For someone who was calm and patient, not easily prone to give up hope and not easily taken off guard, the passport regulations were by no means insurmountable. In any event, Hasan Gozali, this writer himself, arrived safely at his destination.83
Chapter 13
ARREST AND DEPORTATION
[149] Seen in close-up, the painting of even a skilled artist may seem unclear and unintelligible. All we see are intersecting lines and dabs of color. Only when we stand at some distance do the content, pattern, and aim of the painting become evident.
History, enacted by human beings, has much in common with the work of an artist. When we are involved in it, being buffeted by the varied objectives of the different classes, parties, and leaders, it is hard to see the broad outlines that will ultimately define the struggle. Only when we have advanced a little and are far enough removed can we really understand the historical period we have lived through.
I shall present some notes here which compare the atmosphere of the 1926-1927 period with that of 1946-1947. It is my hope that they will provide some pointers for those who wish to examine certain events closely from all angles. Although twenty years of peace do not usually bring many changes, the two decades during which Indonesian society experienced the Second World War and the revolution manifested major transformations.
[150] While in 1926-1927 we were at a high point of the economic cycle, in 1946-1947 we are caught in the coils of the Dutch blockade and in the midst of the greatest world economic crisis ever seen.1 While all the factories, workshops, plantations, transport facilities, and machines were intact and sound in 1926-1927, today most of the sugar factories are useless if not in ruins, our plantations have reverted to grassland or been destroyed, and nearly all our machines have been demolished, worn out, or carted off to Japan. While in 1926-1927 we had a surfeit of labor of all types—skilled, unskilled, and technical—during the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945 this labor force was almost completely wiped out.2 It is probable that some four to five million workers and peasants were killed during the Japanese occupation.3
In any period of conflict, where there is good for a given group or class from one aspect, there is bad from another and vice versa, as we shall see below. When the economy was at its peak (1926-1927) it was relatively easy to make a living, workers could get employment easily, and some of the younger generation had the opportunity to learn to speak Dutch and to get rather soft jobs as clerks. Furthermore, there were all kinds of light diversions like cinemas, soccer, and hula-dancing.
In the time of our “older brothers” from the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the people had their rice and their stock taken from them; workers and peasants were kidnapped and forced to work in the heat and the rain building roads, airfields, and forts for the Japanese; they were given two hundred grams of corn or rice a day, sheds to sleep in, and gunny sacks to wear (if they were available); and they were beaten, left out in the sun, or held under water if accused of being lazy. The youth were taught “Nippon go,”4 to bow towards Tokyo, and to join the Keibodan, Seinendan, Suisintai, Heiho, and Peta.5 The young women were trained to be “hostesses.” The whole of the Indonesian people were thought of as genjumin bakaro.6
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