Becoming Indonesian: The Painful Journey of Ong Hok Ham

David Reeve, Department of Chinese and Indonesian, School of Modern Language Studies, University of New South Wales

The role of Chinese Indonesians in the archipelago is a question of great importance, now and in the future. The Chinese are often suspected of having an incomplete Indonesian identity. This paper examines the life of a famous Chinese Indonesian public intellectual and historian, Ong Hok Ham, a favourite of foreigners in Jakarta, now in his 73rd year, and confined to a wheelchair after a stroke. Ong is one of those Chinese often referred to as 'more Indonesian than the Indonesians, more Javanese than the Javanese'. Coming from a hybrid Dutch-Chinese background in East Java, Ong Hok Ham made a strong decision in the early 1950s to become a 'real Indonesian' but it took another twenty to thirty years to inhabit that identity with confidence and gusto. There was lot of pain along the way, including jail and mental illness. His time at Yale University was very important in restoring him to enjoying life to the full, in a markedly idiosyncratic, bohemian and hedonistic way.

Books by Ong Hok Ham:
Rakyat dan Negara, Jakarta: Sinar Harapan, 1983.
Runtuhnya Hindia Belanda, Jakarta: PT Gramedia, 1989.
Dari Soal Priyayi sampai Nyi Blorong: Refleksi Historis Nusantara, Jakarta: Penerbit Buku Kompas, 2002.
Wahyu yang Hilang, Negeri yang Guncang, Jakarta: Tempo 2003.
The Thugs, Curtain Thief, and the Sugar Lord. Jakarta: Metafor, 2003
Riwayat Tionghoa Peranakan di Jawa, Jakarta: Komunitas Bambu 2005.

David Reeve has been visiting Indonesia since 1969, as a diplomat, historian, researcher, language teacher and program administrator. He has worked in Indonesia for eleven years. He did part of his PhD work at Cornell in 1974-75. He was the founding lecturer in the Australian Studies program at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, from 1984 to 1987. From 1997 to 1999, he worked in Indonesia for the ACICIS program which places Australian students at Indonesian universities. He has published works on Indonesian politics and language, and was an editor of the book Australia di mata Indonesia. Since 2002 he has been working on a biography of Ong Hok Ham. He met Ong Hok Ham first in 1975, when David was at Cornell and Ong at Yale. He retired from UNSW in July this year.

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