'Radio Rimba Raya' played song of freedom in independence war
By AR Djuli
LHOKSEUMAWE, Aceh (JP): People may know Aceh as a former military operations area with a long history of rampant human rights violations. In fact, Aceh has another side many people may overlook.
Radio Rimba Raya, part of the Sumatra Command Division X overseeing Langkat and Tanah Karo, headquartered in Bireuen, North Aceh, played a big part in the history of the republic's struggle for independence half a century ago. The station first went on the air on Dec. 20, 1948, one day after Yogyakarta, the then capital of the Republic of Indonesia, was conquered by the Dutch.
At that time, Radio Republik Indonesia, which broadcast Independent Indonesia programs, was not on the air. Dutch Radio in Hilversum launched the news that the Republic of Indonesia had been destroyed.
On Dec. 19, 1948, the military governor of Aceh, Langkat and Tanah Karo, Tgk. Daud Beureueh, in a meeting of the Regional Defense Council decided that on the next day Radio Rimba Raya must begin operations. It was deemed essential that the station be broadcast across the world to counter the misinformation of Dutch Radio.
The commander of Langkat and Tanah Karo, Col. Husin Yusuf, assisted by a number of officers and radio technicians, was compelled to work night and day to prepare Radio Rimba Raya's transmitter for worldwide broadcasts.
Radio Rimba Raya was already on the air with a limited radius, being used as a communication facility to help determine strategy for the independence struggle. The radio also broadcast news to raise the spirits of the Indonesian's fighting the Dutch.
On the evening of Dec. 20, 1948, Radio Rimba Raya succeeded in broadcasting to the world.
Radio Rimba Raya broadcast news in Indonesian, Chinese, Urdu, English, Dutch and German. The programs in Indonesian and Chinese were presented by Indonesians, while the other programs involved foreigners who had joined the republic.
The transmitter used to broadcast the station to a worldwide audience also has its own history. It was smuggled from Singapore using two motorboats escorted by an eight-man suicide squad. One motorboat carried the transmitter while the other one was loaded with food supplies.
The voyage through the Strait of Malacca took place at night to avoid detection by Allied Forces' surveillance aircraft. The two motorboats agreed that if they were detected it would be up to the boat with the food supplies to sidetrack the enemy.
When the two motorboats entered the waters off the Seuruway coast in East Aceh, they were detected by surveillance airplanes. The two boats accelerated and went their separate ways.
The motorboat carrying the transmitter landed safely at Kuala Seuruway, East Aceh. The fate of the other boat is unknown.
The transmitter was later transported in an old truck to the headquarters of the Sumatra Division X Command at Bireuen. Commander Col. Husin Yusuf immediately installed the transmitter in his headquarters.
The radio broadcasts from the headquarters of the Division X Command were monitored by Dutch and Allied Forces, whose aircraft continued to launch attacks on the area. The radio transmitter had to be removed to the village of Juli, then to Krueng Simpo village, 18 kilometers from Bireuen. Finally Col. Husin Yusuf decided to move the transmitter again and install it in a huge tree in the forest around the village of Rimba Raya in the Timang Gajah subdistrict of Central Aceh.
The location proved to be safe for the radio transmitter, and safe from detection by surveillance aircraft, broadcasts continued to take place.
The station was then given the name of Radio Rimba Raya, and today the transmitter is in a museum in Jakarta.
Today the role played by Radio Rimba Raya in the independence struggle is hardly known. Only a few people, mostly from the 1945 generation of independence fighters, are familiar with the story.
It is ironic that the government today seems to have forgotten that Aceh is an asset to the Republic of Indonesia, much like a peanut might forget its shell. From 1989 to 1998, the New Order regime of former president Soeharto declared Aceh a military operations area. Human rights violations, abductions, killings, rapes and the expropriation of people's wealth were committed by the military during this period.
The monument to Radio Rimba Raya built by former cooperatives minister/head of the State Logistics Agency Bustanil Arifin, a witness to the historical importance of the station, at the radio's original site in the village of Rimba Raya is now in a poor state, overgrown with underbrush and forgotten. It is an appropriate metaphor for the government's treatment of Aceh.