On August 17, 1945, 75 years ago, Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia, stood with his deputy, Muhammad Hatta, to read the declaration of independence from the Netherlands, in the house number 56 in Bigangsan Timur Street - which is known today as Brooklamasi Street - in Central Jakarta, and to raise the white and red flag that has become a flag For Indonesia to unite its thousands of islands.
What many do not know is that this house in which Sukarno resided in those days is a gift from 3 merchants from Hadhramaut in Yemen, they are the brothers Faraj, Ahmed bin Saeed bin Awad Maraa and Ahmed bin Muhammad Bajunaid, who also bought a number of real estate and other buildings for the fledgling state in Jakarta and other Areas of the island of Java, something the state later valued as a badge for them after independence.
The three Hadrami families present in Indonesia in the past two centuries socially, economically and politically, including the family of Faraj Mara`, who was born in Hadramawt in 1897 and died in Aden in 1962, and had a close relationship with Sukarno. It is mentioned in this regard that when Sukarno fell ill and was severely pained before the declaration of independence, Faraj Mara'a was keen to provide sufficient quantities of Hadrami Sidr honey for him, and this is only one of many examples of the stances of the Arabs of Indonesia - and most of them are from Hadrami - towards the struggle for Its independence.
Salute the flag and the bird of the republic
The way to raise and greet the Indonesian flag is another Hadrami innovation, Syed Muhammad Hussain bin Salem Al-Mutahhar, who was accompanying President Sukarno, and the first official in charge of the protocol to head the state, and when Sukarno moved to Jogjakarta and wherever he went, he carried with him the first flag that was raised on the day of the announcement Independence.
And when the Dutch attack on Jogjakarta occurred, Sukarno handed that flag to Hussein Mutahhar and warned him not to fall into the hands of the Dutch, according to the director of the Al-Manara Center for Hadrami Research and Studies, Nabil Abdul Karim Hayaza - in his interview with Al-Jazeera - indicating that Hussain Mutahhar hid that flag after Sukarno and his deputy were arrested. Muhammad Hatta and Nafia went to Bengka in southern Sumatra, then Mutahhar was also arrested, and after he escaped from prison, he delivered that flag to Soekarno in Bangka.
Moreover, the garuda bird woven from the image of the Javanese hawk eagle (the well-known emblem of the republic) was drawn by Sultan Abdul Hamid II Al-Qadri (died in March 1978), and he was born in Pontianak, west of the island of Kalimantan or Borneo as it is known internationally. Sultana of Pontianak was chosen to succeed his father on the Independence Day, specifically on October 29, 1945.
Al-Qadiri had modified the drawing after reviews and discussions with Sukarno, Muhammad Hatta and other members of the Indonesian cabinet and parliament at the time, until that slogan was approved in March 1950, and Abdul Hamid al-Qadiri reviewed it again in 1974, and the Qadri family with their royal titles is still present. In the city of Pontianak.
Hadarema, the last waves of Arab immigrants
Although the presence of Arabs and Muslims in Indonesia dates back to the first century AH, and they came from Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, the Levant, India, Persia and even Morocco, during the various Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman periods; Those first generations melted away by intermarriage with the inhabitants of Indonesia, among its common citizens, its elite, and its sultans, but the last two centuries witnessed new waves of immigration from a great civilization whose number prevailed over other Arabs.
According to Dutch statistics mentioned by Dr. Hope Deunga, professor of anthropology at the University of Radboud Nijmegen in the Netherlands - in an interview with the island - that in 1930, the number of Arabs in the islands of Indonesia was estimated at 71,000, and the number rose to 82,000 in 1942, of whom 10,000 were born in Hadramout. And the rest were born in Indonesia from mothers or grandmothers from the indigenous people of Indonesia, where the young Hadramis would migrate without accompanying their wives, and marry the indigenous people of the countries, until a Hadrami or Arab community was formed in most of the cities of Indonesia from east to west. Deunga is estimated to number about half a million people out of 267 million people in Indonesia in 2020, and this is less than other Hadrami estimates that estimate that their number exceeds one million.
Deunga - who is the author of several books on the social history of Indonesia - says that the Dutch colonial authority practiced policies of racial discrimination against the indigenous population, as well as the right of Arab and Indian immigrants and others in their daily lives, as they were classified as "eastern foreigners" and they had to live in their neighborhoods, However, the number of Arab neighborhoods increased over the years in all the main islands of the country, while their movement remained relatively restricted in some years, and they had to obtain approval for their travels, even though their entry to the Indonesian islands was easy.
Civilization and the Indonesian national movement
Therefore, the role of the Arabs of Indonesia is not limited to those aforementioned positions, but extends for decades before independence, and this is related to the national trend and political awareness that moved the masses to seek to liberate their country from the yoke of colonialism. Historian Nabil Hayaza says that the Islam Company - which was founded in Bogor, West Java in 1905, and is the first institutional effort to unify the positions of the Muslims of Indonesia economically and politically - witnessed the presence of 5 Hadrami personalities out of 8 of its founders, due to their awareness of the necessity of an economic renaissance in light of the economic weakness of the general Muslim population Country.
And he does not forget before that the establishment of the Association of Goodness in 1901, which is the first educational association of its kind in the country, years before the emergence of the famous Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama societies to this day.
In September 1914, a number of Arab scholars and personalities founded the Islamic Reform and Guidance Association, which is now famous for its guidance, including Sheikh Ahmed bin Muhammad Al-Surkti Al-Ansari (born in Dongola, Sudan in 1875, and died in Jakarta two years before independence in September 1943), and with him Omar Mangoush, Saeed bin Salem Al-Mash'abi, Saleh Obaid Abdat, Salem bin Awad Belal and Sheikh Muhammad Obaid Abboud, most of them are the hadarah merchants in Batavia or Jakarta as you know today.
They were influenced by the reformist thought that appeared at that time in Egypt and Turkey, including the writings of Rashid Rida in Al-Manar magazine and others, and the thought of the Islamic University. Al-Irshad founded many schools and institutes that exist to this day, and had a role in an educational renaissance and a religious and national awakening, along with the Muhammadiyah Society and its founder Ahmed Dahlan in Central Java.
The Indonesian Arab Party and Basuidan, the grandfather of the Jakarta governor
After the establishment of "Islam Corporation", "Association of Goodness" and "Guidance" for about two decades, the collective awareness of the Arabs of Indonesia developed with the establishment of the Federation of Arab Indonesia in 1934 in the city of Semarang in central Java, which later became the Arab Indonesia Party, and among the founders was Abd al-Rahman Baswedan. - From the Al-Irshad Movement - and he is the grandfather of the current governor of the Indonesian capital, Anis Baswedan, and with others, including Hussein Bafqih - from the Alawite League or Sada al-Habib - Salim Muscati, Noah al-Kef and Abu Bakr Al-Attas.
Nabil Hayaza says that what is remarkable about the position of the Arabs who founded this party is that they boldly announced their position, which showed willingness to sacrifice and take risks, and this was what caught the attention of other Indonesian national figures, as they announced loudly that they were Indonesian and that they belonged to this land, although Indonesia at that time had not yet formed and what Still scattered islands under Dutch rule.
The meeting of 4 and 5 October 1934 - which brought together about 40 Arab personalities in Semarang - represented a ripening of the national consciousness of the Indonesian civilization, and their national belonging to these islands that were still occupied and their children seeking independence, and they came from different cities, foremost among which is Surabaya and Bikalungan. They arrived in Jakarta, bringing with them ideas that most of them wrote and read about in the local press in which they were active.
Their ideas revolved to become what is known today as the "Sons of Arabs in Indonesia", which is represented by stressing that: Indonesia is the country of children of Arabs or of Arab origins, and their culture is the Indonesian culture, and that they must work and struggle for the sake of the society and the country of Indonesia, and to establish an organization that achieves those goals , Calling for a move away from internal rifts and differences between the Arabs of Indonesia, and not to live isolated from the large Indonesian society.
The Arab Indonesia Party had an impact on political and intellectual awareness among the Arabs of Indonesia, uniting their ranks regardless of their different streams and social classes, and was widely welcomed by other Indonesian national leaders who saw the position of the Arabs of Indonesia in support of the national movement seeking the independence of Indonesia, a position that rejects any discrimination it practiced. The Dutch occupation against people of Arab origin or others, including its endeavor to restrict them to certain neighborhoods in various cities.
Deunga says that awareness of the Indonesian national role among the Arabs of Indonesia was initially an "internal" affair among the Arabs themselves, before it extended to the national arena. The Union or the Indonesian Arab Party was a self-awareness movement and an affirmation of belonging to Indonesia, the country to which they immigrated or their parents or grandparents immigrated To him, before setting off into the vast domain of the Indonesian national movement. In the beginning, according to his analysis, some Indonesian Arabs hesitated to belong to this union and adopt its ideas, especially the modern immigrants from Hadhramaut and those who work with them.
Deunga adds that, after years, the number of supporters of the Arab Indonesia Party increased to become about 80% of them supporters of the national struggle for its independence, cementing their affiliation with the country that struggles with colonialism for freedom and independence in a unified state that gathers thousands of islands, except for a few who were not enthusiastic about that position and preferred a federal state Or to remain linked to the Netherlands in a certain way.
Even when the Japanese occupation came in 1942, which banned all parties, including any political, educational, or cultural activity by Arabs, the Indonesian Arabs remained active in secret, and after the end of the Japanese occupation, the overwhelming majority of Indonesian Arabs stood by the struggle for independence.
However, the party was not reconstituted after the end of the Japanese occupation, but the Arabs emerged in the various Indonesian movements and parties, and the Arab personalities had close ties with the Indonesian national leaders, and for this reason Abd al-Rahman Baswedan - the most prominent figure of the Indonesian Arab Party - was chosen for the membership of the Indonesian Central National Committee in 1945.
In 1946 Abdul Rahman Baswedan became Minister of Information, and in 1947 he became a member of the Indonesian diplomatic mission that succeeded in gaining recognition from a few Arab countries and the Arab League, which was the first country to recognize Indonesia before other countries of the world during the first two years of the republic’s life. The fruits of communication by pen between the Arabs of Indonesia and their brothers in a number of Arab countries.
Factors of influence of the Arabs of Indonesia
What helped Indonesian Arabs to play different cultural and social roles at that time, is that Islam unites them with the overwhelming majority of the nationalities and ethnicities of Indonesia's islands. They are the closest immigrant nationalities to the Muslims of Indonesia than any other nationality, according to the Dutch historian Hope Deunga, especially since they include scholars and professors as well as merchants and wealthy people, and this is what facilitated their assimilation with most of the country's nationalities from the far east to the far west.
In addition to this another intellectual factor is that many of the aforementioned Arab personalities are journalists and writers who write in the local press and in the Arab newspapers that they founded, representing the Guidance Associations and the League and the Arab Indonesia Party, which had 3 influential newspapers in the formation of political and cultural awareness and interaction with hot issues. Back then, as the Dutch historian describes.
The press was a carrier of reform ideas and the spirit of awakening against colonialism and the renaissance of the difficult economic and social conditions that they read in the writings of the Arab world, Turkey and the Indian subcontinent, and at the same time the press was a means of communication with the Arab world, which was known by these people about the early struggle of Indonesia.
This view is supported by the Hadrami historian, Nabil Hayaza, pointing to the multiplicity of factors that have facilitated the civilization to have a role and presence in the history and present of Indonesia, which is first of all: Islam’s association with the immigrant Arab personality, especially the scholars among them, then good treatment and decent morals in dealing in buying and selling Neighboring and living in one community, and this brings us to another factor, which is intermarriage. The Hadhramis call Indonesians maternal uncles, since their mothers and grandmothers are the daughters of the indigenous population.
The factor of their diligence and struggle is not forgotten here. Some of them come from Hadhramaut, poor, on a grueling cruise, and then his condition improves with seriousness and diligence and has a significance, and their economic success has translated into exertion and generosity in social and charitable fields, and for the sake of the national struggle in the face of colonialism, including support for residents Aceh province in its war against Dutch colonialism (between 1873 and 1914), in one of the fiercest Dutch wars in the Indonesian islands, so Arab money was spent in order to support the Indonesians in the face of the Dutch there.
Ali Bakathir ... the Indonesian Hadrami immigrant!
Dr. Muhammad Abu Bakr Hamid - in his study - says that he does not forget in this regard the role of the Hadrami poet and playwright of Indonesian-born origin, Ali bin Ahmed bin Muhammad Bakathir al-Kindi (1910-1969).
During his stay in Egypt from the early 1930s until his death, Indonesia was a major focus of his interest, not only in his literature but also in his personal life. It is no wonder that Indonesia takes up a large and important space in his poetry and prose. He portrayed its struggle for freedom and independence in the play “Paradise Returns” in 1946, and he was active while studying at Fouad I University with Indonesian students in the propaganda of the Indonesian independence movement.
Bakathir was among the first to support the establishment of the "General Center for Indonesian Independence Societies for the Middle East", which was based in Cairo since the beginning of World War II in 1939, and participated in preparing a book issued by the Center in 1943 entitled: "Freedom ... Indonesia in Revolution", on the history of Modern Indonesia, and its struggle for freedom and independence, contained historical documents and speeches delivered by its leaders on the eve of the Declaration of Independence.