Book Reviews and Notices : Out of Exile. BY SOETAN SJAHRIR. (New York: John Day. 1949. Pp. xxxii, 265. $3.00.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591294900200335
• Published date: 01 September 1949
• Date: 01 September 1949
• Subject Matter: Articles

453

Out

of

Exile

.

BY

SOETAN

SJAHRIR.

(New

York:

John

Day.

1949.

Pp.

xxxii,

265.

$3.00.)

Approximately

sixty-two

pages

of

this

study

are

devoted

to

the

author’s

philosophizing

while

in

confinement

or

exile

at

the

hands

of

the

Dutch.

He

appears

to

be

familiar

with

the

works

of

some

twenty-four

philosophers

of

ten

different

nationalities

ranging

from

Plato

to

Gandhi.

These

exercises

in

theory

are

of

note

only

as

indicating

the

outlook

and

mental

characteristics

of

a

leading

Indonesian

who

&dquo;accepted

the

first

premiership

of

the

Republic

of

Indonesia,&dquo;

and

who

later

argued

his

case

before

the

Security

Council

of

the

United

Nations.

He

remarks

that

Indonesian

intellectuals

read

but

little.

&dquo;There

are

no

intellectuals

in

this

country

who

write

and

hence

there

is

no

literature,

neither

Malay

nor

in

any

of

the

other

local

languages....

Our

cultural

level

is

still ...

low....

A

boy

of

perhaps

seventeen

or

eighteen

years

in

Europe,

who

has

graduated

from

high

school,

knows

sometimes

more

about

life

than

our

Indonesian

intellectuals

and

scholars.&dquo;

Combine

the

condition

indicated

by

these

remarks

with

the

fact

that

Sjahrir

gives

little

evidence

of

any

comprehension

of

the

basic

principles

of

government,

and

one

wonders

how

well

qualified

he

and

his

people

are

to

undertake

the

task

of

establishing

and

maintaining

themselves

under

a

regime

of

self-government.

Apparently

the

desire

of

Indonesians

for

independence

springs

largely

from

the

fact

that

the

Dutch

did

not

treat

the

natives

as

equals.

The

Dutch

were

guilty

of

mockery,

sarcasm

and

vexation.

&dquo;Our

nationalism

is

a

projection

of

the

inferiority

complex

that

springs

from

the

colonial

relationship

of

subject

race

and

ruling

race.&dquo;

In

confinement

he

remarks

that

it

is

nonsense

to

say

that

conditions

are

good,

for

the

exiles.

In

this

he

contradicts

himself;

for

previously

he

wrote

of

his

surroundings:

&dquo;Things

are

not

really

bad

here,

and

I

have

a

rather

large

cell

with

a

garden.&dquo;

Again,

&dquo;We

have

all

been

gay

and

in

high

spirits.&dquo;

Later,

Hafil

and

I

now

have

found

a

house

of

our

own ...

a

large

place

covering

an

area

of

four

hundred

square

meters.

It

has

six

rooms

with

a

front

and

rear

veranda

and

adjacent

servants’

quarters

of

about

eight

rooms

more.

The

rear

veranda ...

is

almost

as

large

as

a

tennis

court....

Now

we

have

almost

no

discomfort ...

from

the

heat.

And

for

all

this

we

pay

a

rental

of

twelve

and

a

half

guilders

a

month....

We

live

in

the

so-called

Dutch

village

in

the

European

section,

near

a

pleasant

and

clean

street.

In

general,

Neira

is

quite

clean,

even

the

sections

in

which

the

poorer

in-

habitants

live.

Most

of

the

book

is

in

the

form

of

a

diary

extending

from

March

29,

1934,

to

March

25,

1938.

There

is

an

excellent

and

generally

laudatory

introduction

by

Charles

Wolfe,

Jr.,

who

translated

the

work

from

the

Dutch,

and

a

glossary

of

unfamiliar

names.

University

of

Nevada.

CHARLES

ROGER

HICKS.