Australia a haven in independence war<\/p>\n
By Deddy Mulyana<\/p>\n
BANDUNG (JP): Few of us are aware that the fight for
\nindependence in 1945 also involved Indonesians in foreign
\ncountries. One of those countries was Australia.<\/p>\n
In 1942, the Dutch colonialist government transferred 300
\nIndonesian political prisoners from the notorious Boven Digul
\njail in Tanah Merah, Irian Jaya, to the New South Wales town of
\nCowra in Australia, following the Japanese invasion in Indonesia.
\nLater, the prisoners were sent to other places as well.<\/p>\n
The Dutch also sent thousands of Indonesian servicemen,
\nclerks, medical staff and merchant seamen to Australia. Many of
\nthe merchant seamen and mutineers from the Dutch army, as well as
\nillegal immigrants, ended up in jails in Queensland, New South
\nWales and Victoria.<\/p>\n
It is estimated that, apart from the descendants of Javanese
\nworkers and the existing pearlers, there were about 10,000
\nIndonesians who spent different periods of time in Australia
\nbetween 1942 and 1945.<\/p>\n
After Australians helped secure the Boven Digul political
\nprisoners' release from jail, they developed a movement in
\nAustralia that supported Indonesia establishing a republic, long
\nbefore Indonesia proclaimed its independence on Aug. 17, 1945.
\nThey sponsored organizations to support the struggle for
\nIndonesia's independence in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and
\nMackay.<\/p>\n
In Mackay, for instance, they established the Indonesian
\nNational Party, the Indonesian Political Exiles Association and
\nthe Committee for Indonesia's Independence. The organizations
\nheld meetings that attracted a lot of public attention. Brisbane
\nin particular had been considered as a shadow capital for the
\nIndonesian revolutionaries outside their homeland. In Melbourne,
\nthe refugees were placed in Roemah Indonesia of the Metropole
\nHotel. Here, from 1943 to 1945, Indonesians entertained hotel
\nguests with gamelan instruments they produced while in prison in
\nDigul. They also performed traditional dances and dramas like
\nwayang orang and ludruk.<\/p>\n
At the same time, many Indonesians had also started making
\ncontact with military policemen and prison wardens. When they
\nfelt they had more freedom and received better wages, they began
\nto socialize with Australians, with quite a few marrying
\nAustralians. Generally they found Australians less likely than
\nthe Dutch to discriminate, despite Australia's White Policy.<\/p>\n
The displaced Indonesians in Australia continued to struggle
\nagainst the Dutch after Indonesia proclaimed its independence,
\nsince the Dutch intended to recapture its former colony. The
\npolitical prisoners in Roemah Indonesia refused to cooperate with
\nthe Dutch and were forced to leave the hotel. Australians,
\nparticularly the workers (unionists), supported the struggle.<\/p>\n
After the Central Committee for Indonesia's Independence in
\nBrisbane issued an appeal on Sept. 1 calling on all Indonesians
\nin Australia to protest, there was a boycott against Dutch ships
\nby Indonesians on Sept. 22 and Sept. 23. The boycott was
\nsupported by Indian, Chinese and Malay seamen, Australian
\nwaterside workers and trade unionists in Brisbane, Sydney and
\nMelbourne. Many of the Asian seamen taking part in the campaign
\nwere imprisoned, deported or deprived of their livelihood.<\/p>\n
During the boycott, Indonesian soldiers resisted and ignored
\norders from Dutch officers to help them fight the Indonesian
\nrepublic. Along the same line, on Sept. 24 Australian waterside
\nworkers enacted a boycott on the loading, in all Australian
\nports, of Dutch ships supposed to leave for the Netherlands East
\nIndies.<\/p>\n
The boycott was documented in Indonesia Calling. Although the
\nfilm was initially banned in Australia, it was later shown and
\ndisseminated not only in Australia but also in many other
\ncountries throughout the world.<\/p>\n
When Indonesia became independent and relatively stable, most
\nof its displaced citizens returned to their home country,
\nalthough a few remained in Australia. The largest group of almost
\n1,500 people, comprising merchant seamen, ex-servicemen, and
\ncivilians, was brought on the British ship Esperance Bay from
\nMelbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in October 1945. During the
\nfollowing few years hundreds of Indonesians again returned to
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Based on a decree made by the Australian minister of
\nimmigration, all Indonesian refugees had to leave for their
\nhomeland in 1946. Some Australian women married to Indonesian men
\nhad to leave for Indonesia as well or remained in Australia.
\nProblems arose when Indonesians married to Australians tried to
\nremain in Australia.<\/p>\n
This problem was encountered, for instance, by Annie O'Keefe.
\nInitially this woman was married to a Maluku journalist -- they
\nhad seven children. They all fled to Melbourne in 1942 after
\nAmbon was occupied by the Japanese. After her husband was killed
\nin his journalistic duty in Irian Jaya, this woman married James
\nO'Keefe. Annie O'Keefe insisted on staying in Australia and this
\ngave rise to polemic as to what decision should be made about
\nthis case. Finally, in February 1949 the government decided that
\nshe could stay in Australia.<\/p>\n
According to the Australian minister of immigration, Arthur
\nCalwell, 3,768 Indonesians were repatriated to Indonesian
\nterritory up to February 1949 and just 19 still waited for
\nrepatriation. Quite a few of the remaining Indonesian migrants
\nworked in Australia in the 1950s.<\/p>\n
These people included Raden Moenandar, who was recruited in
\n1943 to work for Radio Australia when it started to have an
\nIndonesian section and broadcast programs in the Indonesian
\nlanguage.<\/p>\n
During the rebellion against the Dutch in Indonesia in the
\n1920s, Moenandar was arrested and sent to Digul. Upon his arrival
\nin Australia (as a refugee) Moenandar was initially imprisoned in
\nCowra, then he was sent to Melbourne as a free man and began
\nworking for Radio Australia. But he returned to Indonesia after
\nIndonesia became independent, and he left his Digul gamelan
\ninstrument in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Moenandar died in Jakarta on July 30, 1969 in his late 60s.
\nThere is not much information about the relationships between
\nIndonesian political prisoners and the military, except that the
\nrelationships were formal and superficial, but the Australian
\nmilitary police and wardens were more friendly than the Dutch.<\/p>\n
Pontjopangrawit was another prisoner who made a gamelan
\ninstrument in Digul. Pontjo also fled from Tanah Merah to
\nAustralia and took with him a gamelan he had made in Irian Jaya.
\nLike Moenandar, he also returned to Indonesia and left his
\ngamelan in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Most of these people had returned to Indonesia by the end of
\nthe 1940s, after they had enjoyed good relationships with
\nAustralians, particularly through some Australian-Indonesian
\nassociations which existed until the end of the decade in almost
\nall states of Australia. In their homeland they continued to
\ndefend Indonesia's independence.<\/p>\n
These associations were the precursor of the present
\nAustralia-Indonesia Association which was set up in 1956,
\nalthough the former associations were politically more radical in
\ncharacter and had much smaller memberships than the latter.<\/p>\n
The Boven Digul prisoners left their gamelan instruments in
\nMelbourne, until they were finally taken and maintained by the
\nDepartment of Music, Monash University.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian struggle for independence in Australia was the
\nbest compared to other similar movements in other foreign
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
The writer is a graduate of the Department of Anthropology and
\nSociology, Monash University, Australia.<\/p>",
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