Molly Bondan: Contributor to RI-Australia friendship

In Love With A Nation: Molly Bondan and Indonesia Edited by Joan Hardjono and Charles Warner Published by Charles Warner, Australia, 1995 240 pages

MELBOURNE, Australia (JP): If someone gave me a start and asked me to quickly name two Australians whose works have contributed to the friendships between the peoples of Indonesia and Australia, I could, with a clear conscience, say, "(the late) Molly Bondan and Herbert Feith."

Herbert Feith is an expert on Indonesia from Monash University. He was one of the first Australians who wrote about Indonesia, both in a positive manner as well as critically.

Molly Bondan was remarkable woman, who received posthumously the Bintang Jasa Pratama Kelas II Award in 1990 from the Indonesian government, comes across as extraordinarily talented in the most practical and unpretentious way. She was also gifted with compassion and a sense of justice.

By putting together Molly Bondan's account, of audio history tapes, radio broadcasts and various writings, into a book form, Joan Hardjono and Charles Warner have presented us all with a gift. In Love with a Nation is the story of Molly Bondan's life, which wove into, very tightly, the fabric of Indonesian history, beginning with the 1944-1945 struggle for independence. It is, therefore, also a story of the Republic of Indonesia, from the moments of its birth until the late 1980s.

The first three chapters of the book allow the reader to look into the family background, providing an illustration of how Molly Warner grew up to be the way she was. Her family was delightfully unconventional, full of ideas and ready to take part in various activities. She described them as non-party socialists, responsible for conditioning her and her brothers to "frown upon social snobbery, to accept the basic rights of people as human beings, to detest racial discrimination." In the early 1940s', Australia, where most Australians were still gripped by the fear of invasion of the "yellow hordes", Molly and her friends thought about establishing an organization to promote cultural relations with Asia.

After the war, when they decided to act on their ideas, they chose Indonesia (the Netherlands East Indies as it was then called), seemingly arbitrarily. That was the beginning of Molly's journey across culture. She came in contact with the small community of Indonesians in Sydney, and was impressed by their intelligence and political awareness. Having been brought up a free spirit, she related to their longing to be independent from the Dutch. Her sympathy towards the struggle solidified when she married Mohamad Bondan, an activist in exile.

When, in 1947, her husband returned to the newly formed republic, Molly had the choice of remaining in Australia, but she chose to join Bondan. Once in Indonesia, her untiring dedication to the endeavors of nation building did not stop until her last days. She assisted various nationalist leaders in their tasks, and helped bring out numerous publications on social and cultural aspects. She wrote many of the late president Sukarno's speeches in English, while other political leaders have been known to rely on her fine mind and skills.

Despite her obvious connections, Molly remained faithful to her ideals. She lived among the local community, earned local wages, and identified with Indonesians. This was very apparent, halfway through the book, in her use of "we", "our" and "us", when referring to Indonesia and Indonesians. She made friends with people across the social classes, from ministers to local hawkers. In fact, where this book differs from other volumes on Indonesia, written by non-Indonesians, is the remarkable insight she possessed. So, towards the end of the book, when she evaluated and pondered the progress and development of the nation, there is no smugness in the tone and the reader does not gain the impression of being subjected to a sermon. She was profoundly introspective and honest. Her thoughts, as it became apparent, never stopped developing, and though she did not have a PhD in Philosophy and Sociology, it is obvious her ideas were based on a remarkable breadth of experience and a rare intimate knowledge of the nation.

In Love with a Nation is extremely readable, the language being light and often conversational. The content however, is far from trivial. It is a must read for the present generation of Indonesians, who are distanced by a whole generation time span, may be unaware of the nationalist ideals of their parents, and taking for granted what has been achieved so far.

-- Dewi Anggraeni