From A Civil Servant's Daughter to An Underground Activist (Umi Sardjono)

Isma Savitri From A Civil Servant’s Daughter to An Underground Activist Monday, October 4, 2021 Suharti Sumodiwirjo, more familiarly known as Umi Sardjono, was born to a Javanese civil servant family. Kartini’s collection of letters was an influence to Umi and led her to join pre-independence organizations. arsip tempo: 179233733023.7978828 “I ALREADY had great aspirations when I was in school, I didn’t want to become a wife. At the time, I wanted to fight for women’s rights the way Kartini did,” Umi Sardjono told Ruth Indiah Rahayu, head of the Education Division of IndoProgress Institute for Social Research and Education, in early 2000s. According to Ruth, this admission showed that Umi already had the desire to promote women’s rights since a young age. “When girls her age wanted to become housewives, Umi instead thought about women’s rights,” said Ruth in a Zoom interview with Tempo on Saturday, September 25. When Ruth visited her, Umi’s memory had already weakened due to her old age. Ruth said the former leader of the Indonesian Women’s Movement (Gerwani) was also suffering from acute paranoia. The traumatic events she experienced while being incarcerated during the New Order era continued to haunt her. Until the end of her life, Umi felt she was being constantly watched. Umi Sardjono was born in Salatiga, Central Java, December 24, 1923, under the name Suharti Sumodiwirjo. Umi’s father, Ruslan Sumodiwirjo, was a clerk at a kawedanan, an administrative below the regency level. Her grandfather was a fighter for Prince Diponegoro. After they were defeated by the Dutch in 1830, some of Diponegoro’s soldiers fled to Salatiga. They then cleared lands there, Umi’s grandfather included. “Umi inherited a fighter’s spirit from her grandfather, also her father, who was an activist,” said Lilik H.S., writer of Pemenang Kehidupan (Life’s Victors), a book on women survivors of the 1965 tragedy, on September 30. Umi did not tell Ruth and Lilik much about her mother. Ruth suspects it was because women tended to be subordinate to men in that era’s households. But Ruslan’s status as a kadewanan civil servant meant Umi had the privilege to study at a Dutch school for natives, the Hollandsch-Inlandsche School. In her time, only a handful of people had this opportunity. Ruslan did not only give Umi access to education but also introduced his second daughter to the ‘Bible’ of that era’s women activists, Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang (Letters of a Javanese Princess), by Raden Ajeng Kartini. Umi Sardjono wikipedia.org According to Ruth, this book was the red thread that connected women activists during the independence movement. “Women activists always read Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang. This is interesting, as it shows the transformation of awareness from Kartini’s ideas about women’s emancipation into a practical movement,” she said. Besides Umi, another activist who had read the book in this era included Siti Soendari (a journalist for Wanita Swara), Suyatin Kartowijono (one of the initiators of the Women’s Congress), Surastri Karma/S.K. Trimurti (journalist), and Suwarsih Djojopuspito (author of the novel, Manusia Bebas/Free Humans). To young Umi, Kartini’s book was a major influence. She became more open minded, particularly on the importance of fighting for women’s rights. Her father, who was quite moderate, allowed Umi to continue her education. His father did not want Umi to be illiterate like her mother. Umi then continued her education in Semarang, Central Java, and went to university at the Social Politics Academy. Ruth said there was, in fact, an ideological difference between Kartini and Umi as an adult. While Kartini was a liberal feminist, Umi was a socialist feminist who shared the beliefs of the Marxist activist, Clara Zetkin. But both Umi and Kartini had the same idea to fight for women’s education. They spoke about regulations against child marriage due to the near certainty that marriage would rob a girl’s right to education. Both were also anti-polygamy. One day, adult Umi would fight against polygamy in parliament. “A value that was not considered by Kartini but was then initiated by Umi was the normative rights of women workers,” said Ruth, who is also a doctoral candidate of philosophy at the Driyarkara University of Philosophy. When she was 15 years old, Umi joined movement organizations, following in her brother’s footsteps as well as her father’s, who was involved in the Greater Indonesia Party (Parindra). Umi became interested in joining the organization because Parindra accommodated women and was not opposed to Kartini’s dreams. But, according to Ruth, Umi did not last long with the party. Umi considered Parindra’s movement was not progressive enough, as it contained members who were much older and established. According to Ruth, in the article Umi Sardjono: Feminis Marxis yang Menakhodai Gerwani (Umi Sardjono: A Marxist Feminist Who Led Gerwani—IndoProgress, 2017), Umi then joined the Indonesian People’s Movement (Gerindo). Gerindo, which was founded by Amir Sjarifuddin in 1937, was established as a platform to unify the various nationhood movements. The organization contained cadres from the communist party—which was disbanded by the Dutch after the 1926 action—such as Wikana, who was tasked with organizing young people, as well as Sutrisno and D.N. Aidit, who oversaw political affairs. S.K. Trimurti was also a member of Gerindo. Umi was sent to Blitar, East Java, by Gerindo. She received training on the ‘underground’ movement to fight against Japanese fascism. Ruth said that this strategy was the objective and subjective characteristic of ‘communist party’ people after the disbandment by the Dutch in 1926, when the party’s leaders were scattered because they were either exiled or were unable to return to Indonesia. Their underground movement area was quite strong in the western part of East Java, covering Madiun, Jombang, Kediri, Tulungagung, and Blitar. During the Dutch colonial era and Japanese occupation, said Ruth, women did more than working in soup kitchens and as health workers. They also worked as political couriers, who worked underground to deliver secret letters between units. This dangerous work was often given to women as they were rarely suspected by the Japanese. These political couriers, including Umi, would perform the task either on foot or riding a bicycle. Umi was assigned to the western part of East Java, such as Tulungagung, Kediri, Jombang, and Madiun. It was during her time in East Java that Umi met Sukisman, another underground activist. They married without a wedding reception because it was a time of struggle. After getting married, Sukisman changed his name to Sardjono, which Umi added to her name. From then on, Suharti was known as Umi Sardjono. “Prior, Suharti had chosen the name Umi because it was easier to remember,” said Ruth. According to Lilik, Sukisman was older than Umi. “He was (her) senior, and after the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was established, he had a pretty important position there. I believe that Umi’s political ideology was also influenced by her husband,” said Lilik. Umi and Sukisman continued their work as political couriers. The work meant they often had to be away from each other, sometimes for months. Ruth said the couple never had children. Besides delivering secret letters, Sukisman was also in charge of propaganda at an underground radio station. Sometimes, Sukisman would bring flyers promoting Indonesia’s independence. These flyers would be rolled and slipped inside his bicycle handlebars to be distributed in villages. As underground fighters, Umi and Sukisman were also tasked with gathering information from fellow activists as well as from the enemy. The couple opened a restaurant in front of the Centrum Hotel—now called the Tugu Sri Lestari Hotel—in Jalan Merdeka, Blitar. Umi said that this restaurant was an important meeting point for guerrilla fighters and activists, as well as a place where information was exchanged. When these fighters paid their food at the restaurant, Umi would give them secret flyers. Occasionally, Japanese soldiers also ate at the restaurant. Researcher and women’s activist Ruth Indiah Rahayu. Personal Doc. One day in 1943, Umi and Sukisman’s suspicious movements were detected by Japanese soldiers. The husband-wife were apprehended and put in jail. Both were accused of assisting the revolt of Pembela Tanah Air (PETA, the Japanese-led volunteer army for Indonesians during World War II) soldiers led by Supriyadi. While she was a prisoner of the Japanese, 20-year-old Umi was mercilessly tortured. She was hung upside down like a bat and starved. The Japanese would interrogate her that way. Beatings would come whenever Umi refused to speak. S.K. Trimurti was also a prisoner there. Like Umi, she was tortured. It was then that they met and became close friends. They became like sisters. Umi would call Trimurti “Yu Tri.” Umi admitted to Ruth that she was surprised that she was able to stay alive despite the sadistic tortures. “Why didn’t I die? Is it because I drank my own urine?” Umi told Ruth. Two days after the Declaration of Independence, the prison in Blitar was raided by the Socialist Youth Front, which on November 10, 1945, became an official organization called the Indonesian Socialist Youth Front. Umi, Sukisman, and other prisoners were set free during this attack. At the initiative of Blitar’s mayor, Umi and Sukisman sought temporary refuge at President Sukarno’s residence. After the Declaration of Independence, conflicts broke out between Indonesia and the allied armies. As a member of the Indonesian Women Soldiers (Laswi), Umi took up arms in the war to maintain Indonesia’s independence. Lilik learned about this from Sri Sulistyawati alias Sri Sukatno, a journalist who survived the 1965-1979 torture. Sri, who was a secretary for Jakarta Gerwani, told Lilik that Umi was a friend of her aunt, who was active in Laswi. “But in regard to Umi’s involvement in Laswi, we have to re-check the chronology,” said Lilik. According to Sri, as told to Lilik, Laswi’s had hundreds of women members spread throughout several regencies. Its leader was Sumarsih Subiyati, wife of Arudji Kartawinata, commander of the People’s Security Agency III of West Java, which would later become the Siliwangi Division. This movement had several units, such as soup kitchen workers, Red Cross, couriers, as well as front line soldiers. Besides working as a courier, Umi Sardjono also fought in battles. Sri told Lilik that she once saw Umi. “I was still little. I was so surprised when I saw a woman entering the house in an army uniform and boots. It was Umi Sardjono,” she said. Isma Savitri [end of article; site navigation trimmed]