Sarekat Islām

Sarekat Islām, the first nationalist political party in Indonesia to gain wide popular support. Founded in 1912 the party originated as an association of those Muslim merchants who wanted to advance their economic interests in relation to Chinese merchants in Java, but the association became political. It quickly gained mass support and started working for the self-government of the Dutch East Indies. The party’s most prominent leader was Omar Said Tjokroaminoto.

Its religious appeal helped the Sarekat Islām to grow rapidly. By 1916 the organization claimed 80 branches throughout Indonesia with a total membership of about 350,000. The Dutch authorities did not attempt to suppress the organization, presumably because they wanted to channel the increasingly radical movement into a constitutional stream.

The Sarekat Islām, however, became more and more involved in revolutionary activities. Communist elements entered the organization, and the struggle for power between the religious leaders and the communists culminated in the division of the Sarekat Islām in 1921. Before the division the orthodox Marxist party, the Indies Social Democratic Association, changed its name to the Indies (after 1924, Indonesian) Communist Party (PKI). In 1920 the communists tried to draw the movement into the orbit of the international communist movement. The religious leaders of the Sarekat Islām, Agus Salim and Abdul Muis, aware of the communist activities, urged a motion, passed in 1921 at a national party congress, that no member of the Sarekat Islām could hold dual party membership. This led to the departure of the left wing of the party. The latter group set up the Sarekat Islām Merah (Red Islāmic Association), which later changed its name to the Sarekat Rakjat (People’s Association), to serve as the mass organization of the PKI. The split severely undermined the Sarekat Islām, which eventually declined into a secondary party.