Indonesia Began on the Left: Revisiting the Foundational Ideas of Tan Malaka and Sjahrir

If we look back at the history of national ideas, Indonesia was not born from a vacuum or mere compromise. This nation was fundamentally born from radical and progressive ideological debates, rooted in the ‘left’ (struggle and resistance).

The early ideas of an independent Indonesia were arguably pioneered by leftist thought: people’s sovereignty, anti-imperialism, and social justice. The theoretical and practical foundations of these concepts were laid by two key figures in the nation’s struggle, Tan Malaka and Sutan Sjahrir.

Through his monumental 1925 work, ‘Naar de Republiek Indonesia’ (Towards the Republic of Indonesia), Tan Malaka became the primary driver of the concept of ‘Indonesia’ as a Republic. Long before the Youth Pledge or the Proclamation of 1945, Tan Malaka had formulated a geopolitical and economic vision of a fully sovereign nation. His was a firm leftist thought: independence was not merely a change of flag, but a total dismantling of the Western capitalist and imperialist structures that oppressed the people. Tan Malaka stressed that national unity must be built on class consciousness and concrete action. ‘Naar de Republiek Indonesia’ was not just an ideological document but a guide to action for mass movements, proving that the initial push to form a political entity called ‘Indonesia’ was driven by a critical materialist analysis of colonialism—a leftist foundation demanding economic self-sufficiency and independent political freedom.

However, criticizing imperialism alone was insufficient to sustain the newborn republic. This is where Sjahrir complemented the spectrum of thought through his famous 1945 pamphlet, ‘Perjuangan Kita’ (Our Struggle). If Tan Malaka laid out the macro-vision of the republic and anti-imperialist struggle, Sjahrir provided sharp self-criticism of the internal conditions of Indonesian society following the Japanese occupation. In ‘Perjuangan Kita’, Sjahrir heavily criticized the seeds of fascism and feudalism that had been injected into and begun to infect the souls of Indonesian youth during the Japanese occupation. Sjahrir warned that the struggle for independence would lose its meaning if the Indonesian nation merely imitated the authoritarian methods of the colonizers.

For Sjahrir, the ideals of the left, socialism, had to go hand in hand with democracy, humanity, and freedom of thought—not the freedom to follow something without a clear basis or to cultivate an individual. Sjahrir asserted that the Indonesian revolution must be a people’s revolution based on social democracy. True populism must not sacrifice rationality and civil rights for the euphoria of narrow nationalism. Through this view, Sjahrir brought a democratic-leftist tradition that emphasized the importance of political education, the purging of fascist elements, and state governance that upholds citizens’ freedoms.

The fusion of ideas from ‘Naar de Republiek Indonesia’ and ‘Perjuangan Kita’ shows how strong the roots of leftist thought were in the formation of Indonesia. Tan Malaka gave us the courage to dream big and dismantle colonial structures, while Sjahrir gave us a moral reminder not to fall into authoritarianism in the name of nationalism. Both placed the common people (the proletariat) as the rightful owners of this republic.

Recalling that ‘Indonesia began on the left’ is not an attempt to provoke, but an invitation to straighten the intellectual history of the nation. We need to realize that basic ideas such as social justice, populism, and the rejection of oppression are the leftist discourses that formed Indonesia’s foundation. Understanding the legacy of Tan Malaka and Sjahrir helps us reassess whether our Republic today still runs on the rails of people’s justice they once envisioned.