Despite some of the negative images of Indonesia in Malaysia, its intellecual life has always been fascinating to me since the first day I was taught
Modern Indonesian Politics by the late
Professor Herb Feith in the mid-1980s in Australia's Monash University. One of its striking features is that many of the works of the world's great thinkers and writers are available in
Bahasa Indonesia editions.
In that republic which houses the largest number of Muslims within a single nation-state on earth, almost all the scriptures of the world's great religions, including Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism are available in their Indonesian-language editions. So are, among many other great books, Charles Darwin's
The Origin of Species as well as
Karen Amstrong's A History of God and The Battle for God.
The latest contribution to the already rich stock of translated works in the Indonesian language is undoubtedly Volume III of Karl Marx's
Capital which has been published by
Hasta Mitra in JakartaThe 996-page
Kapital (Buku III) - Proses Produksi Kapitalis Secara Menyeluruh, was translated by Oey Hay Djoen, a veteran of the 1945-1949 anti-colonial or national liberation armed struggle against Dutch colonialism, a Member of Parliament during the Sukarno era and a political prisoner or
tapol (
tahanan politik) under Suharto's regime. Oey Hay Djoen also translated Volume I and Volume II of
Capital as well as other major works of Marx and Engels like
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (
Naskhah-Naskhah Ekonomi Dan Filasafat 1844),
The Poverty of Philosophy (
Kemiskinan Filasafat) and
The Holy Family (
Keluarga Suci), etc.
Kapital (Buku III) - Proses Produksi Kapitalis Secara Menyeluruh is dedicated in part by translator Oey Hay Djoen to his cherished friend and comrade for sixty years, Eng Ming Ching (
left) who is now more well known as Suriani Abdullah in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Oey honours Suriani in his dedication as "my role model and inspiration".
According to Suriani, they first met in 1947 in Indonesia when she was invited to tour the liberated areas in the former Dutch colony such as Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Madiun, Pasuruan, Lumajang, Probolinggo and Jember.
Suriani said: " It was (Oey) Hay Djoen and also (Siauw) Giok Tjhan (then Minister for Minorities Affairs of the Suharto-Hatta Revolutionary Government) who brought me around various parts of Java, like Madiun where I delivered a lecture in English to the university students there on MPAJA's 44-month guerrilla war against the fascist occupation of Malaya ".
Suriani, who joined the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) in Ipoh in 1940, was herself an armed partisan of the MPAJA in Perak. She was once captured and tortured by the Japanese for about six months.
After June 1948, they lost contact with one another for the next 53 years until 2001.
The first email in
Bahasa Indonesia sent by Oey to Suriani reads:
" Betapa gembira dan bahagia hati ini, menerima sepucuk surat dari seorang kawan yang sudah lebih setengah abad (tepatnya 53 tahun) dicari-cari, dinantikan khabar beritanya, diingat dan disimpan dengan penuh kehangatan di lubuk hati. Dalam keadaan apa pun, senang susah, di kancah perjuangan mahupun di dalam kesedihan, keterpurukan sampai pun di tempat pembuangan. Ingatan ku akan Kawan Ming Ching masih sangat tajam. Satu hal yang ingin dan ku anggap penting diberitakan pada Kawan Ming Ching adalah, bahawa anak ku yang perempuan ini, telah ku berikan nama Ming Ching." According to Suriani, ever since they had re-established contact in 2001, Oey has been sending her his new works of translation, including
Buku I and
Buku II of Karl Marx's
Kapital.
"In return, I sent him my Malay-language translation of
The Communist Manifesto and
Left-wing Communism : an Infantile Disorder," Suriani said.
" Hay Djoen's intellectual endeavours have made very valuable contribution to the enrichment of the treasure of Marxist literature in both the Indonesian and Malay languages, " Suriani told
Clare Street.
Suriani's own first love for
Bahasa Melayu, which has now branched out into
Bahasa Malaysia and
Bahasa Indonesia, can be traced back to 1945 - 1947 when she sought the tutorial assistance from an Indonesian communist Sutan Jenain @ Ma Ali, who was then active in Malaya, to help her to upgrade the proficiency of the language used by millions of
rakyat jelata in their everyday lives in the region.
Her autobiography
Setengah Abad Perjuangan - Memoir Suriani Abdullah was, as a matter of fact, first written and published in
Bahasa Melayu which is also now termed
Bahasa Malaysia.Suriani's Malay memoirs now out in Mandarin Communist Eng Ming Ching memoirs out now
I went to Indonesia from Australia and Malaysia for many times since the mid-1980s and have acquired the love for otak-otak or Malay/Indonesian-style fish paste as well as keroncong, the slow-moving Indonesian country music that always helps to relax over-used brains. I also enjoy the very vibrant intellectual debate in Jakarta and Surabaya even when it had to be conducted deep underground during the Suharto era. Of course, I still love Wan Tan Mee in Hong Kong and the Cantonese-style Dim Sim, especially Har Kau in Guangzhou.
