Kramat Raya 106: Birthplace of the Youth Pledge

Kramat Raya 106: Birthplace of the Youth Pledge

By Ida Indawati Khouw

Every Oct. 28 Indonesia celebrates Hari Sumpah Pemuda (Youth
Pledge Day), to commemorate the day in 1928 when youths from
various islands vowed to unite and found an independent state.
This article, the 60th on historic and protected buildings and
sites in Jakarta, provides a brief history of the building where
the young activists made their pledge.

JAKARTA (JP): A bitter fact unwritten in history: Many of the
heroic youths who organized the historic Youth's Pledge on Oct.
28, 1928, were so poor they could not pay the rent for their
boarding house.

It was in this house that the youths pledged to unite despite
their different ethnic, religious, social and political
backgrounds to found an independent Indonesia.

If you were not aware of the dire financial straits of the
youths, you are not alone. The history books, of course, focus on
the heroic side of their lives.

The students lived in a boarding house belonging to Sie Kong
Liang. The house stands at what is now Jl. Kramat Raya 106. Kong
Liang was so irate at the nonpayment of rent that he brought the
case to court in 1934.

There is no record of how much in arrears the youths were to
Kong Liang. However, the Goddess of Fortune was apparently on the
youths' side, as Kong Liang lost the legal battle.

The students' victory was attributed to their lawyers,
Muhammad Yamin and Amir Sjarifoeddin from the Indonesische
Clubgebouw (IC -- Indonesian Clubhouse), which was also a tenant
of Kong Liang's building.

The owner, who did not live in the house, appealed the
decision but Yamin and Sjarifoeddin urged IC chairman Roesmali
not to appear in court and to avoid the case. At the suggestion
of friends, Roesmali fled to his hometown in Sumatra.

It is unclear how this little legal drama ended.

The historic event at Kong Liang's house that Indonesia
observes every year as Hari Sumpah Pemuda was in fact the second
Youth Congress. It was during this event that the patriotic song
Indonesia Raya (Great Indonesia) by Wage Rudolf Supratman was
first sung to mark such an auspicious occasion. The song later
became the national anthem.

Youths living in the house belonged to various ethnic
associations, such as Jong Java (Younger Generations of Java), an
organization grouping students from Java.

It was a trend among students to rent a house during their
study in Batavia (the former name of Jakarta). These rented
houses were known as in de kost, Dutch for boarding and lodging.

The rent for each student was 7.5 guilders per month.

Education was still not universal, especially for people
outside Java, and those who wanted to continue their studies had
to do so in Java, most often in Batavia.

It was normal for students to associate only with other
students from the same area, and they formed groups based on
their place of origin, such as Jong Celebes from Sulawesi, Jong
Sumatranen Bond from Sumatra, Jong Ambon from Maluku, Jong Bataks
Bond from North Sumatra.

Aside from being a place to stay, the Javanese youths made use
of the boarding house to hold political discussions and to
rehearse for traditional Javanese performances, which were put on
by the Langen Siswo arts group.

Unlike Dutch houses which had large rooms and spacious yards,
the rooms in the boarding house were not very big. The house
consisted of numerous rooms with a comfortable veranda in the
back, and the property was large enough to accommodate the
approximately 1,000 youths who attended the youth congress.

The congress was able to go forward only after the various
youth groups were able to agree on a common agenda: to unite and
fight for freedom from Dutch colonial rule.

Numerous documents suggest that by the end of 1927,
segregation among the youths began to fade to the point where the
students living at Jl. Kramat Raya 106 were not only Javanese.

They then named the house Indonesische Clubgebouw. The
activities of the students included reading -- the house
contained a small library full of books and newspapers -- holding
political discussions and playing billiards.

Topics of the informal discussions, usually held after dinner
and running well into the night, included the qualities of the
ideal national leader and how youths from different areas could
understand other cultures and languages in order to create a
spirit of nationalism.

"They could be categorized as idealist-utopian youths ... They
discussed the idea of nation, national language and the free
state, whereas the Dutch colonial government was very harsh
against such thoughts," according to the book Peranan Gedung
Kramat Raya 106 dalam Melahirkan Sumpah Pemuda (The Role of the
Kramat Raya 106 Building in the Birth of the Youth Pledge).

Within a short period of time the youths realized their dreams
by organizing the famous second youth congress, which became a
milestone in the unity of Indonesia.

The first congress had been held in Batavia on April 30, 1926,
and became known as Youth Congress I. It focused on the
importance of fusion among youth organizations.

The second congress was held on Oct. 27 and Oct. 28, 1928, at
several locations. The first session was at the Katholieke
Jongelingen Bond (Catholic Youth Organization) building at
Waterlooplein (now Lapangan Banteng, Central Jakarta); the second
at Oost Java Bioscoop (East Java Cinema) on Koningsplein Noord
(the present Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara, Central Jakarta).

Only the last session, on the night of Oct. 28, was held at
the boarding house on Kramat Raya, taking place on the back
veranda.

Newspapers recorded how people enthusiastically followed the
event. Dharmokondo newspaper from Surakarta, Central Java,
reported in its Nov. 2, 1928, issue that approximately 1,000
students were present at the event.

Persatoean Indonesia, the Batavia-based newspaper, said there
were approximately 750 in attendance. The newspaper also stated
"representatives from various (colonial) government offices were
present, including the police. It is clear that the secret
service agents were there, secretly trying to go unnoticed among
the public, like tigers with the hearts of rats".

Several national leaders delivered speeches in the Malay
language during the event, with the police interrupting to remind
the leaders they were not allowed to discuss certain subjects.

Speeches in the Dutch language were immediately translated
into Malay by the prominent Muhammad Yamin, who was a first-year
law school student.

The congress was closed with the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge):
"First, we the young men and women of Indonesia profess one
homeland, the land of Indonesia.

"Second, we the young men and women of Indonesia profess one
people, the people of Indonesia. Third, we the young men and
women of Indonesia hold in high esteem one language, the
Indonesian language."

Marie V. Mohr noted in her book The Call of the Hibiscus,
Indonesia's Message to the World that Yamin was fired with a zeal
and a vision that Malay should be the national language.

Yamin, who presented the major address at the congress, was
one of the student members of the committee that had planned the
congress and also the leader of the Sumatra Youth Group.

Mohr interviewed several people who had attended the congress,
some of whom said Yamin was inspired to make the Malay language
the national language.

"An interesting aspect was that Yamin intuitively felt that
the national language was to be the Malay language. It was said
'Muhammad Yamin was inspired' and 'He liked to sleep at Borobudur
(the magnificent temple in Central Java built around the year
800)," Mohr writes.

She also writes that the congress attendants she interviewed
recalled how the national language became a major tool for
breaking down barriers between different ethnic and tribal
groups, and also served as a means to democratize relationships
between different groups from the same areas.

In 1934 the Indonesian Clubhouse dispersed following the debt
dispute with the building's owner, but some of the members
continued their activities at Jl. Kramat Raya No. 156.

The house was then rented to other people and put to various
uses, such as a florist, a hotel and a customs office. In 1960,
former IC members tried to purchase the building and have it
named an historical site.

At first the owner agreed to sell the property, but then
changed his mind. Several Sumpah Pemuda figures continued to
fight to preserve the property.

No further developments were recorded, and in 1974 the Jakarta
administration declared the building the Sumpah Pemuda museum,
which consists of photographs of Indonesia's struggle for
independence and statues of national leaders.

"We are now facing difficulties processing the building's
title because its transaction documents have gone missing," says
the manager of the museum, Dalimun St.