Aceh the home to RI's first voice of independence

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Bireuen, Aceh

Swallowed up by an advancing army of shrubs and weeds, the monument in the mountainous territory around Takengon, Central Aceh, stands as neglected as the history it commemorates.

The inscription on its base gives an inkling of its tale, telling how it was built in honor of a radio transmitter, now a pile of bricks about 100 meters away.

Military command Division X in Bireuen, which oversaw security in the defined districts of Sumatra (now Aceh), Langkat and Tanah Karo, installed a radio transmitter for the division's interests on top of the tallest pine tree in Tanah Merah forest, Timang Gajah district, Aceh Tengah, about one-and-half hour's drive from its base camp.

Radio Rimba Raya, which made its first broadcast on Dec. 20, 1948, was the voice for the Indonesian people to the outside world in fighting against the returning colonizers.

It aired news in eight languages: Acehnese, Indonesian, English, Dutch, Arabic, Urdu, Chinese and German, since its programs could be heard worldwide, including in New York, The Hague and London. It continued to broadcast intermittently.

Broadcasts were initiated by the military governor of Sumatra, Langkat and Tanah Karo, Daud Beureuh, to counter the propaganda aired around the world by Netherlands Radio Hilversum.

Funds to purchase the transmitter were collected partly from local people, latex exports and the smuggling of opium and marijuana to numerous countries.

In June 1948, the then Indonesian capital, Yogyakarta, had been badly hit in the war, and the state-owned radio station, RRI, stopped broadcasting.

Since Aceh -- one of the last provinces taken by the Dutch as part of its colony in 1903 -- was still free from aggression, Bireuen became the refuge of founding president Sukarno and his temporary seat of government. Now referred to as Kota Juang (town of struggle), it is one of the hotbeds of the separatist movement amid the military crackdown in the province.

Col. Hussen Yusuf, who led the military division, also used the radio transmitter to monitor air attacks launched by the coalition troops, which included the former Dutch colonial power, the UK and the U.S., in 1947 and 1948.

During his time in hiding, Sukarno also asked the Acehnese people to make a contribution in the national interest; it later materialized as a pair of airplanes, named Seulawah 01 and Seulawah 02.

According to Timang Gajah resident Mohamad Kalist, who said he was a member of the local Mujahiddin youth force in 1945, the monument was built in the early 1970s and became a tourist attraction in the resort town.

"But when the military started operations against GAM, the place was left untended," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said that the monument was once occupied by GAM members due to its historical value in boosting the name of Aceh.

After independence, Daud Beureuh joined the rebellious Indonesian Islamic Region/Indonesian Islamic Military (DI/TII) after Jakarta sidelined the contribution of the Acehnese to the struggle for independence.

It led to his contributions, including the story of the radio transmitter, being purged from history and school textbooks.

Until the rigors of the elements or the ongoing conflict prove its demise, the monument on the hill will remain the reminder of the Acehnese people's invaluable contribution to freeing Indonesia from colonialism.