Having exposed the colonial carceral apparatus that targeted the supposed authors of the 1926–27 rebellions, this chapter turns to the origins of the pergerakan or anti-colonial movement in Indonesia (pergerakan was a self-definition that entered the vocabulary of the key protagonists and editors). This chapter is also sensitive to the zaman or epoch that the anti-colonial movement epitomizes. Traditions of anti-colonial rebellion confronting colonial power that reach back through hundreds of years of colonial rule cannot be ignored. Neither can we neglect a cascade of events that signalled major changes in world order. Pertaining to Islam, such an event includes the rise of the Islamic modernist movement with its insistence on religious faith in public life, such as touched the Ottoman Empire. On the part of the colonial order, the advent of the Bolshevik Revolution and the setting up of the Soviet-controlled Communist International (Comintern), also called the Third International, were fearful developments. The opening decades of the twentieth century were an era of rapid social change. decades of the twentieth century were an era of rapid social change. As aptly evoked by author-editor Mas Marco Kartodikromo, this was a Doenia Bergerak, or world in motion, matched by the rise of newspapers, editors and readership. As a movement, the pergerakan also witnessed the advent of political parties, both religious and secular, typically around charismatic leaders. Budi Utomo (BU) was a pioneer, but, from its advent in 1912, Sarekat Islam (SI) quickly emerged as the first truly mass-based organization.

For the Indonesian nationalists and communists who departed their homeland in the 1920s, whether for study or as exiles, there were two primary poles of attraction. For those who graduated through the colonial Dutch education system, Holland was the obvious destination, and so student groups clustered in such places as The Hague or Amsterdam. Some from these groups would visit Berlin or Brussels for conferences, and still others were attracted to Paris. But for those who the Bolshevik revolution was an inspiration or who otherwise heeded Lenin's opportunistic call to bring down the capitalist world order starting from the colonies, then Moscow was a lodestar. As seen in the preceding chapter, setting up in Moscow required dedication and patronage, not to mention proven revolutionary credentials such as membership of the PKI or its affiliates. Likewise, as this chapter brings to light, operating within the bounds of the metropolitan legal system in Holland required special organizational as well as cultural and linguistic skills on the part of the Indonesian anti-colonial nationalists. Without ignoring Berlin, the major comparison with Holland is with the diasporic communities of Vietnamese, North Africans, Madagascan, and French West Indians residing in France who were active in pro-independence activities and who were also divided as to the best approach under fierce metropolitan surveillance.

Dating from the Koiso Declaration of 7 September 1944 (a reference to the vague promise by then Japanese prime minister Koiso Kuniaki of independence for the East Indies), Japan went about planning the future state system in Indonesia as an integral part of the Japanese Empire to have a standing analogous to Korea or Taiwan. Nevertheless, as the tide of war changed, both the timetable and the procedure underwent significant changes. Notable in this respect was the creation of a consultative group to engage a select segment of Indonesians, termed the Dokuritsu Junbi Chosakai but better known by its Bahasa Indonesia name as Badan Penjelidik Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (BPUPKI) (Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence). Such planning helps to explain how, on the day after the proclamation of independence, a central Republican government was established in Jakarta.

The first section of this chapter sets down the key steps leading to the historic Indonesian Proclamation of Independence, offering a range of Japanese narratives on the timetable and process of the independence movement as recorded by Allied interrogators. The second section focuses on the Japanese Naval Liaison Bureau in Jakarta. It also includes a post-war prison interrogation with the key Japanese official in charge among others involved in the proclamation of Indonesian independence.

Enigmatically styled an “affair”, a “rebellion”, a “coup” or a “provocation”, the advent of the PKI-backed rebellion in the East Java city of Madiun and the crushing of it was a game changer especially insofar as the Republic would win new legitimacy in the eyes of the West. As far as the United States was concerned, the events appeared to strike a decisive blow to Moscow’s ambitions at a juncture when the fault lines of the Cold War were clear. Nevertheless, even with most of the top leadership arrested and/or executed in the TNI repression of the event, others escaped, with certain among the 1945 generation going on to command and revive the PKI “phoenix” in the 1950s and beyond. Still, much remains enigmatic about the Madiun Affair until this day, especially as the failed revolution within a revolution mounted in a provincial capital without apparent mass support outside of a thin local working class was entirely outside of the lexicon of communist revolutions.

The first section of this chapter examines the dramatic return from Moscow of Musso in August 1948 and the events leading to the Madiun Affair in September–October 1948. The second section examines the failure of Madiun while seeking new answers to old questions about events and historical narratives. The third section sets down the facts of the rebellion and its repression that led to Musso’s death, along with those of Sardjono, Amir Sjarifoeddin and other ranking PKI-Moscow members at the hands of the TNI. The final section examines Western media and diplomatic reporting on Madiun.