Looking back at the Second Indonesian Youth Congress

Looking back at the Second Indonesian Youth Congress

Raymond Toruan, Chief Editor, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It was on a Sunday afternoon, Oct. 28, 1928, almost 74 years
ago. Indonesische Clubgebouw (the Indonesian Clubhouse) at Jl.
Kramat 106 in the outskirts of Jakarta (called Batavia at that
time) was hosting an inconspicuous meeting of young -- mostly in
their early twenties -- Indonesian leaders.

It was the third session of what was later known as the
Congres Pemoeda-Pemoeda Indonesia Kedoea Tahun 1928 (Second
Indonesian Youth Congress 1928). The first session had been held
a day earlier in a small building belonging to Katholieke
Jongelingen Bond (the Catholic Youth League) at Waterlooplein,
now known as Jl. Lapangan Banteng Utara. The second had moved, on
the following morning, to another building, Oost Java Bioscoop, a
cinema at Koningsplein, now known as Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara.

There is no confirmed explanation as to why the meeting was
relocated. Obviously, those young activists were not gathering
for purposes that were compatible with the colonial policy of the
Dutch East-Indies government.

They were plying unchartered waters. They came from diverse
backgrounds, from different and sometimes conflicting youth
organizations. Some were based on ethnicity, some on religious
denominations, and others still on specific interests, such as
the Boy Scout movement or gender-based associations.

Common ground was hard to find between such a diverse group of
young people, except for the fact that they came from a land that
had been a collection of Dutch colonies for more than three
centuries. There was no model to learn from, no model suitable
for a population of around 55 million people spread over an
archipelago of more than 17,000 islands covering three time
zones, consisting of more than 200 ethnic groups and speaking
more than 300 distinct languages.

The name "Indonesia" was relatively new and liable to the
colonial powers' scrutiny. "Indies", or "East Indies", were the
terms used to describe the region and the people living in the
region colonized by the Dutch, which explains why the terms
"Indies", or "inlander", have a pejorative connotation to local
ears.

When the first batch of elite, educated inlanders -- the
result of a new policy to open public schools to locals in the
early 1900s -- got together in 1908 in Jakarta and set up Boedi
Oetomo (now spelled Budi Utomo) to nurture the growing resentment
of being treated as second- or even third-class citizens, they
did not use the term "Indonesia". When, in the same year, their
compatriots studying in the Netherlands organized themselves to
voice their rights, they still named their organization Indische
Vereeniging (Indies Association).

It was not until 1922 that Indische Vereeniging changed its
name to Indonesische Vereeniging (Indonesian Association), which
was formally translated as Perhimpoenan Indonesia. Five years
later, on Sept. 23, 1927, four leaders of Perhimpoenan Indonesia
in the Netherlands -- including Mohammad Hatta, who later became
the first vice president of Indonesia -- were arrested by the
authorities.

The arrest did not stop the nascent development of political
organizations. Instead it provoked a sense of solidarity among
the different, emerging political organizations. Bung (Brother)
Karno, later to become the first president of Indonesia, was
instrumental in arousing political awareness among the masses
through provocative speeches he gave in numerous cities across
the country.

The sense of being a nation under colonialism was not yet
clearly defined at that time. There was a rather elite collection
of organizations, associations, study clubs and other bodies.
Bung Karno, among others, worked very hard to induce a sense of
unity, the sense of being a nation to those diverse groups.

In 1926 several youth organizations gathered -- the first
Congres Pemoeda-Pemoeda Indonesia -- to discuss the need to join
hands. It was not until two years later, however, that their
aspirations materialized, mainly due to Hatta's arrest and Bung
Karno's speeches. They set up a committee in December 1927 to
prepare a meeting to unite existing youth organizations and
associations into one Indonesian youth organization.

A series of meetings was planned for Oct. 26 through Oct. 28,
1928. In fact it did not start until Saturday afternoon, Oct. 27.
Close to the conclusion of the third meeting on Sunday evening,
Oct. 28, there was still no decision about the planned, united
youth organization. This was probably because some officers of
the PID (Politieke Inlichtingen Dienst, the colonial secret
service) kept interrupting the meeting to remind participants to
avoid using the term merdeka (freedom).

One of the young leaders, Mohammad Yamin, send a note to the
chairman of the meeting, Soegondo Djojopoespito, suggesting a
draft resolution. Soegondo was surprised, but agreed to the
content and wording of the draft. He passed it along to one of
his colleagues, Amir Sjafruddin, who also OK'd the draft.
Soegondo then stepped forward and read the text, titled Poetoesan
Congres Pemoeda-Pemoeda Indonesia (the Decision of Indonesian
Youth):

"First, we, Indonesian children, acknowledge one country,
Indonesia.

Second, we, Indonesian children, acknowledge one nation,
Indonesia.

Third, we, Indonesian children, uphold one language, Bahasa
Indonesia."

It became a milestone in Indonesian history, popularly known
as Soempah Pemoeda (the Youth Pledge) 1928.