Tan Malaka

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Lore & Background

Tan Malaka's full name was Ibrahim Simabua gala Datuak Sutan Malaka. His given name was Ibrahim, but he was known as Tan Malaka, an honorary and semi-aristocratic name inherited from his mother's aristocratic background. He was born in present-day Nagari Pandam Gadang, Suliki, Lima Puluh Kota Regency, West Sumatra, under Dutch East Indies rule. His date of birth is unclear, varying from source to source, likely sometime between 1894 and 1897. His father was Haji Muhammad Rasad Caniago, an agricultural employee, and his mother was Rangkayo Sinah Simabua. As a child, he studied religious knowledge and trained in pencak silat martial arts. In 1908, he attended the Kweekschool at Fort de Kock, studying Dutch and becoming a skilled football player. According to his teacher G. H. Horensma, although sometimes disobedient, he was an excellent student. He graduated in 1913 and returned to his village, where he accepted a high adat title of datuk. He sailed for Rotterdam that same year. Arriving in the Netherlands, he experienced culture shock and was infected with pleuritis in early 1914, not recovering until 1915. He developed an interest in revolution, inspired by the book *De Fransche Revolutie* given by Horensma. After the Russian Revolution of October 1917, he became increasingly interested in communism, socialism, and reformist socialism, reading Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin. He also read Friedrich Nietzsche, who became an early political role model. He grew to dislike Dutch culture, instead impressed by German and American cultures. He even enlisted for the German Army but was rebuffed. In the Netherlands, he met Henk Sneevliet, a founder of the Indische Sociaal-Democratische Vereeniging (ISDV). In November 1919, he graduated with his hulpacte diploma.

Reader's Guide

Tan Malaka's significance lies in his role as a founder of key political organizations and his influence on Indonesian independence. After graduating, he returned to his village and accepted a job teaching children of tea plantation coolies at Sanembah, Tanjung Morawa, Deli, East Sumatra, starting in January 1920. He produced subversive propaganda for the coolies, known as the Deli Spoor, and wrote on wealth inequality in works like "Land of Paupers" (March 1920 issue of *Het Vrije Woord*). In 1921, he was elected to the Volksraad as a member of the Left-wing grouping but resigned on 23 February 1921. He then joined the PKI in Semarang and became its chairman after a congress on 24–25 December 1921, replacing Semaun. Under his leadership, the PKI maintained a good relationship with Sarekat Islam. He established the Sekolah Sarekat Islam ("Tan Malaka's School"), which spread to Bandung and Ternate, with enrollment beginning on 21 June 1921. Arrested on 13 February 1922, he was exiled to the Netherlands. There, he joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) and was appointed as the third candidate for the House of Representatives at the 1922 elections, becoming the first Dutch colonial subject to run for office in the Netherlands. He did not expect to be elected but used the platform to speak about Dutch actions in Indonesia. He left the Netherlands for Germany, then Moscow, arriving in October 1922 for the Fourth World Congress of the Comintern, where he proposed that communism and Pan-Islamism could collaborate, though his proposal was rejected. He later went to Canton (Guangzhou) in December 1923, editing the English journal *The Dawn*.

Did You Know?

• Tan Malaka's given name was Ibrahim, but he was known by the honorary and semi-aristocratic title Tan Malaka, inherited from his mother's aristocratic background.
• He trained in the pencak silat martial arts as a child.
• He was the first Dutch colonial subject to run for office in the Netherlands, as a third candidate for the Communist Party of the Netherlands in the 1922 elections.
• At the Fourth World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow (October 1922), he proposed that communism and Pan-Islamism could collaborate, but the proposal was rejected.
• He edited the English journal *The Dawn* for an organization of transport workers of the Pacific while in Canton (Guangzhou) in December 1923.