Tan Malaka, Forgotten Founding Father

It was with De Waard that Tan used to discuss his political thinking. De Waard later knew why Tan’s grades in school were falling: the young man was addicted to reading books on politics. “I tried hard to make him go back and learn his lessons knowing his grades in class were falling,” De Waard wrote.

should not be planned solely on the basis of logistics, let alone with outside support such as from Russia, but on the strength of the masses.

For decades his name was blacked out from textbooks.

Revolution is never the same as a perfect fairy tale.

statement to a British policeman who was about to arrest him in Hong Kong in 1932. “Just remember that my voice from the grave will be louder than if I were on top of the earth.”

Moreover, communism was then still in a weak position. “A revolution is not something created from the brain,” Tan wrote, charging that the planned rebellion was immature.