Paiso (born 1894, date of death unknown) was an Indonesian communist activist and political prisoner who was imprisoned by the Dutch in the Boven-Digoel concentration camp from 1927 to 1932. His son-in-law Manai Sophiaan (1915-2003) was an Indonesian diplomat and politician and his grandson Sophan Sophiaan (1944-2008) was an actor and politician.
Biography
editLittle is known of Paiso's early life. He was Javanese and was born in 1894 in the Dutch East Indies; he probably had a basic Dutch-language education.[1][2]
He worked as a civil servant in Merauke, as a writer for the Assistant Resident and later clerk for the Magistrate.[2] By the mid-1920s, he was active in communist politics in Makassar, which at that time was in the Celebes and Dependencies Residency (today in South Sulawesi, Indonesia). In February 1924 he became secretary of a new branch of the People's Union (Indonesian: Sarekat Rakjat) in Makassar, an organization affiliated with the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI).[3][2] In 1924 his daughter Moenasiah was born.[1] By 1925 he was also chairman of the local PKI branch, and also led a branch of the Islamic Communist Association (Indonesian: Perserikatan Komunis Islam).[4][5] These activities soon led him to be targeted by authorities. The police arrested him at a ceremony marking the death of Sun Yat-sen in March 1925.[1] The next year he was arrested under the Indies' strict censorship laws; in January 1926 he was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for speech infractions (Dutch: spreekdelicten).[6][7][8] He was initially sent to the capital Batavia.[1] Before he finished his sentence, in October 1927, authorities decided to exile him to Boven-Digoel concentration camp along with hundreds of other Communist Party members.[2]
While interned in the camp, Paiso lived in Kampong C and was said to have supported himself by baking and selling bread.[9] By the early 1930s, Digoel internees who were well-behaved and considered rehabilitated started to be released in large numbers. Paiso was allowed to return home with a group of 157, including Lie Eng Hok, in March 1932.[10][11] He returned to Makassar and to politics after his release, although he was careful not to be re-arrested.[1] During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies his daughter Moenasiah married a teacher named Manai Sophiaan, who would later become an Indonesian National Party politician.[1]
After Indonesia became independent, the Communist Party was legalized and Paiso was able to operate more openly with the party once again.[1] By the 1950s he was a key figure in the PKI's activities in South Sulawesi.[12] He was involved in the Permesta rebellion, a cross-party regional movement centered in Makassar, for a time in early 1957 but formally withdrew his participation when it became increasingly anti-communist and anti-Sukarno.[13]
He was still alive at the time of the banning of the PKI in 1965[14] and the Transition to the New Order, but it is unknown what happened to him.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Matanasi, Petrik (13 November 2023). "Digoelis Makassar Itu Bernama Paiso". Historia (in Indonesian). Retrieved 5 November 2024.
- ^ a b c d "Naar Boven Digoel". Het nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië (in Dutch). Batavia. 10 October 1927. p. 10.
- ^ "Celebes en Onderhoorigheden". De nieuwe vorstenlanden (in Dutch). Surakarta. 7 February 1924. p. 5.
- ^ Lin, Hongxuan (2023). Ummah yet proletariat: Islam, Marxism and the making of the Indonesian Republic. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 43. ISBN 9780197657386.
- ^ "Uit Inlandsche Bladen Api". De nieuwe vorstenlanden (in Dutch). Surakarta. 29 May 1925. p. 2.
- ^ "Spreekdelict". Djawa Tengah (in Indonesian). Semarang. 25 January 1926. p. 6.
- ^ "Telegrammen. Spreekdelicten". Deli courant (in Dutch). Medan. 25 January 1926. p. 2.
- ^ "Uit de Beweging". Overzicht van de Inlandsche en Maleisisch-Chineesche Pers. 15: 68. 15 January 1926.
- ^ Mrázek, Rudolf (2019). The complete lives of camp people: colonialism, fascism, concentrated modernity. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 65. ISBN 9781478007364.
- ^ "Dikasi Poelang dari Digoel". Djawa Tengah (in Indonesian). Semarang. 27 January 1932. p. 2.
- ^ "Benoemingen". De Sumatra post (in Dutch). Medan. 15 March 1932. p. 15.
- ^ Amal, Ichlasul (1992). Regional and central government in Indonesian politics: West Sumatra and South Sulawesi, 1949-1979. Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Gadjah Mada University Press. p. 101. ISBN 9789794202395.
- ^ Harvey, Barbara S. (1977). Permesta: half a rebellion. Ithaca: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project. p. 54. hdl:2027/coo.31924008509634.
- ^ The contours of mass violence in Indonesia, 1965-68. Honolulu: Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with University of Hawaiʻi Press. 2012. p. 163. ISBN 9780824837433.