ANALYSIS OF TAN MALAKA'S "NORTHERN INDONESIA" IDEA ON PHILIPPINE NATION HISTORY

Abstract

Tan Malaka was one of the most influential West Sumatran figures in history whose thoughts were adopted by some of Indonesian founding fathers. His activities in politics resulted in an exile and was forced by the Dutch to move from places to places. Philippines was one of the countries he stayed from 1925 to 1927. As an intellectual, Tan Malaka wrote numerous works. One of Tan Malaka’s unique idea was that he called Philippines as the “North Indonesia.†His idea was based on three main aspects. Firstly, from linguistic point of view; Tagalog language has similarities with several Indonesian languages since they have been classified in one language family i.e. Austronesian (Malay-Polynesian) languages. Secondly, people from Philippines and Indonesians as Malayid sub-race have similar physical features, especially in Malayosphere regions. Thirdly, inter-cultural influences in clothing and traditional arms suggest historical relationshipsto have been existed between Indonesia and Philippines particularly during the expansion of Majapahit’s hegemony.