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‘Migration in the Time of Revolution’: Ba Ren, the spy who came into the fold
Apart from a few old survivors of last century’s left-wing purges and a short bookshelf of historians, Ba Ren’s name would puzzle Indonesians. Yet his complex story as disclosed in Taomo Zhou’s book Migration in the Time of Revolution is so extraordinary.
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Tracing history: Historian Taomo Zhou’s book "Migration in the Time of Revolution" details Ba Ren's complex story. (Courtesy of ISEAS Publishing Singapore/-)
Ba Ren’s name will likely puzzle Indonesians, yet his complex story is so extraordinary it warrants an arena of readers.
Thanks to historian Taomo Zhou from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University who accessed previously secret files in Beijing, now unfortunately closed, we have many details in her book Migration in the Time of Revolution, though gaps remain.
Ba Ren’s experiences were complicated by the equivocal way pribumi (native-born) Indonesians viewed the ethnic Chinese — even third generation or beyond who only spoke local languages and had never been to the mainland.
These are peranakan (descendent) as opposed to the China-born totok (recent immigrant).
To liberals, they were part of society’s rich mix. But for narrow nationalists seeking to split communities, the ethnic Chinese have been an ideal tool for the malevolent to create discord.
Second president Soeharto exploited this dichotomy by persecuting lower-and middle-class Chinese and passing discriminatory laws while using the rich elite to make money.
Ba Ren was born Wang Renshu in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang but called himself Common Man, a clear misnomer for he was a gifted revolutionary.
