Tan Ling Djie
Tan Ling Djie was an Indonesian communist politician active during the late 1940s and 1950s.
Early life
Tan Ling Djie was born in Surabaya, on 5 August 1904. He studied at Rechts Hoge School Batavia and the Law Faculty of Leiden University, the Netherlands. In his youth, Tan has been considered a leftist. He was the driving force behind the founding of the Indonesian Chinese Peranakan Union, which is "a leftist political organization of Chinese people in the Netherlands which was founded in 1932." Tan Ling Djie was also a journalist and editor of Sin Tit Po—a radical Chinese Surabaya newspaper led by Liem Koen Hian. He is also a member of the Chinese-Indonesian Party which was founded by Liem.Political career
Joining the PKI
While in Indonesia, the Chinese minority there were slightly marginalized in the national movement because of ethnic differences. Resulting in a number of nationalist political parties finding it difficult to accept them. This resulted in the Communist Party attracting a number of Chinese who were disillusioned by nationalist parties who would not accept them as members, and who were attracted by its radical and non-racial approach.Time in the Netherlands
While in the Netherlands, apart from establishing the Indonesian Chinese Peranakan Union, Tan was also a member of the Dutch Communist Party which was influenced by Paul de Groot. Tan Ling Djie was not the only Chinese left, but there were still Oei Gie Hwat, Tjoa Sik Ien, and Siauw Giok Tjhan.Involvement in the PKI
When the Madiun Affair broke out, Tan Ling Djie was arrested while attending the Railway Workers Union Conference in Yogyakarta. For three months, he had to languish in prison. Meanwhile his roaming friends like Amir and Musso had to end their lives at the hands of government soldiers. The sudden attack by the Dutch army against the capital city of Yogyakarta in the Second Dutch Military Aggression on 19 December 1948 allowed political prisoners imprisoned in Yogyakarta to escape, including Tan Ling Djie. They were also no longer being hunted by government soldiers who were busy dealing with the Dutch military.Following the disastrous Madiun Affair, Tan Ling Djie was named as one of the leaders of the illegal PKI along with Amir Sjariffudin, Maruto Darusman, Abdulmadjid, Setiadjit, and Wikana. They took over the leadership of the PKI from Alimin and Sardjono. He also became secretary general of the Preparatory Committee for the Fusion of 3 Parties, namely the PKI, the Indonesian Labor Party, and the Socialist Party. Tan Ling Djie was arrested and held without charge for a time as part of the August 1951 mass arrests.
Meanwhile, D. N. Aidit in a paper entitled About Tan Ling Djie-ism which was presented at the 5th National Congress of the Indonesian Communist Party in 1954, which was later published in the Red Star, mentions Tan Ling Djie, "as Secretary General of the Socialist Party concurrently as a leading member of the 'illegal PKI' Politburo, then since August 1948 as Deputy Secretary General of the PKI. "