Mohammad Yamin

At that time among the major writers was the national activist Abdul Muis (1898–1959), whose central theme was the interaction of Indonesian and European value systems.

Mohammad Yamin (24 August 1903 – 17 October 1962) was an Indonesian poet, politician, and national hero who played a key role in the writing of the draft preamble to the 1945 constitution.

Yamin was born on 28 August 1903 in Talawi, Sawahlunto on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.

He was educated at Dutch schools for natives, firstly at a Hollandsch-Inlandsche School, then at an Algemene Middelbare School in Jogyakarta.

Distinctly innovative poetry had appeared in the 1910s.

The European sonnet form was especially popular, but the influence of traditional verse forms remained strong.

Although Yamin experimented with Malay in his poetry, he upheld the classical norms of the language more than the younger generation of writers.

Yamin also published plays, essays, historical novels, and poems, and translated works from such authors as Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) and Rabindranath Tagore.

Yamin began his literary career as a writer in the 1920s when Indonesian poetry was marked by an intense and largely reflective romanticism.

He was a pioneer in that art form.

Yamin started to write in Malay in the Dutch-language journal Jong Sumatra, the literary publication of the Jong Sumatranen Bond, a semi-political organization of Sumatran youth.

Yamin's early works were tied to the clichés used in classical Malay.

He debuted as a poet with "Tanah Air" ('motherland') in 1922.

It was the first collection of modern Malay verse to be published.

Quoted below is the first stanza of "Tanah Air", his ode to the natural beauty of the highlands in present West Sumatra:

In the above poem, one imagines Yamin standing on the hills near the town of Bukittinggi, the site of the prehistoric canyon now verdant with rainforest and paddy fields.

The credit for the first important modern prose in Malay belongs to his fellow Minangkabau, Marah Roesli, author of the novel Sitti Nurbaya which also appeared in 1922.

Rusli's work enjoyed years of great popularity.

Yamin was the leader of the Jong Sumatranen Bond (Association of Sumatran Youth) from 1926 to 1928, and also Indonesia Muda (Indonesian Youth) in 1928.

. He then became an active member of the Association of Indonesian Students (PPPI) and the Indonesia Party (Partindo).

Yamin's second collection, Tumpah Darahku, appeared on 28 October 1928.

The date was historically important because it was on that date that Yamin and his fellow nationalists recited an oath: One Country, One Nation, One Language, popularly known as the Youth's Oath (Sumpah Pemuda).

The date is celebrated as a national holiday in Indonesia.

In the early 1930s, Yamin was active in journalist circles, joining the editorial board of the newspaper Panorama, together with Liem Koen Hian, Sanusi Pane, and Amir Sjarifuddin.

In 1932 he obtained a law degree in Jakarta.

His play, Ken Arok dan Ken Dedes, which took its subjects from Java's history Pararaton, appeared in one of the 1934 issues of Poedjangga Baroe, the only literary publication that featured the rebuke to the predominantly Dutch-speaking indigenous intellectuals.

His compatriots included Roestam Effendi, Sanusi Pané, and Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana, founders of Poedjangga Baroe.

In his poetry, Yamin made much use of the sonnet form, borrowed from Dutch literature.

In mid-1936, together with his colleagues Liem, Pane, and Sjarifuddin, Yamin started another newspaper, Kebangoenan (1936–1941), which—as with Panorama—was published by Phoa Liong Gie's Siang Po Printing Press.

In 1936 Pandji Tisna's (1908–1978) Sukreni: Gadis Bali, possibly the most original work of pre-independence fiction, dealt with the destructive effect of contemporary commercial ethics on Balinese society.

Upon the dissolution of Partindo, Yamin was one of the founders of the Indonesian People's Movement (Gerindo) in May 1937 along with A. K. Gani and Amir Sjarifuddin.

Gerindo aimed to raise public consciousness of nationalist ideas by organizing the people.

Gerindo's founding, however, also reflected a growing willingness on the part of many left-wing nationalists to cooperate with the Dutch.

This willingness arose both from despair over the prospects for organizing effective nationalist resistance in the face of Dutch military and police power and from a conviction that collaboration against fascism (especially Japanese fascism) had the highest priority in world affairs.

Gerindo hoped that through cooperation the Dutch would establish a separate legislature in the colonial territory.

Yamin was expelled from the organization in 1939 for breaches of regulations, including campaigning against another Gerindo candidate in the Batavia municipal council elections.

He then established the Party of Indonesian Unity (Parpindo).

In 1939, Yamin became a member of the Volksraad, an advisory body created in 1917 by the Dutch in the Netherlands East Indies.

Note that he refers to Sumatera, specifically the part that is called the Alam Minangkabau which lies on the western part of the large island, as his land and water (tanah airku) as well as that to which he will defend with his blood (tumpah darahku), and not Indonesia as it became independent in 1945.

This may reflect the early development of his concept of nationhood.