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.