Content area
Full Text
FROM JAIL TO JAIL: Three Volumes. By Tan Malaka. Translated and introduced by Helen Jarvis. Athens (Ohio): Ohio University Press (Swallow Press). Monographs in International Studies. Southeast Asia Series, No. 83. 1991. Vol. 1: cxlvi, 303 pp. Vol. 2: viii, 306 pp. Vol. 3: vii, 454 pp. US$55.00 (three volume set), paper. ISBN 0-89680-150-0.
IS IT A COINCIDENCE that there exists a series of Pacar Merah ("The Scarlet Pimpernel") adventure novels, depicting the alleged wanderings, arrests and escapes of the elusive Tan Malaka? Tan Malaka (1897?-1949) was one of Indonesia's earliest political activists. Initially he taught at a school for the children of plantation workers ("coolies") in Deli (1919-1921), but he was to become more and more involved in political party and union activities in Java, a process described as "sliding toward a ravine" (vol. 1, p. 68). This involvement culminated in his election as chairman of the Indonesian Communist Party in 1921, after which he was arrested and exiled to the Netherlands in 1922. His subsequent travels (to Moscow, Canton, the Philippines, China, etc.), periods of detention and arrests were to prevent him from returning to Indonesia until the Japanese occupation (1942).
The extensively annotated publication of the texts which Tan Malaka wrote during the last years of his life (1946-1948) is highly commendable. The author has complemented the various...