I am going to trace back her journey. Yet, I will be more personalized as that was the most familiar part that I can share.
Oma Waringin
What I remembered the most about Oma Nora Suryanti (Soh Lian Tjie) was post stamps! I remembered I visited her house in Jalan Waringin no 23. It was quite a big house, but mostly all the furniture was made of rattan. She always had bread and butter on her table. My brothers and I usually nicknamed her as Oma Waringin. Yet, my cousins nicknamed her as Oma Belanda. She spoke Dutch fluently! She had a lot of foreign guests, and of course, she received a lot of letters from abroad. That was why she was one source for our stamp collections.
Actually, my grandfather and my grandmother from my father's side also speak Dutch. My grandmother was the little sister of Soh Lian Tjie. As Soh Lian Tjie did not get married, and she was one of the closest relatives lived in Jakarta, we became quite close. Before my family moved to Jakarta, we visited her when we were on vacation in Jakarta. Then, when we moved to Jakarta, she was the representation of our grandparents who lived in Makassar.
Every time we were going to visit her, my father would say, "OK, we are going to visit Oma in Jalan Waringin." That is how her nickname Oma Waringin glued into our minds. Of course, we never dared to call her by that nickname in front of her.
Although my grandpa and grandma spoke Dutch, they used it only to speak between them. They used Makassarese or Bahasa Indonesia when they spoke to others, even to my dad. So, my parents spoke Makassarese at home, and we did learn the language as our mother tongue. When my parents moved to Jakarta they also brought four assistants from Makassar. They became our nannies and keeper. No wonder, even my youngest brother, who was barely four months old when we moved to Jakarta, could speak Makassarese.
My cousins who spent their very young age in Makassar saw Oma Nora Suryanti as a unique person who used the Dutch language and had a lot of "londo" friends. They did not know who Oma Waringin was, but when I explained, they would sigh, "Oh, Oma Belanda..." So, we had our own way of calling her!
One day, Oma moved out of her big house. She moved to a small, a bit hidden, pavilion in front of her house. It seemed that she made some agreement with the person who moved into her house. Actually, I did not really remember the time. Jalan Waringin itself did not retain its name, it is now known as Jalan Yusuf Adiwinata. It seemed that its previous name in Batavia era was Wilhelmina Laan.
I knew her as a tour guide and a writer contributor to some English newspapers. That was all that we knew. I knew she had some photographs of the late President Soekarno and also the late President Soeharto and Madame Tien Soeharto. I thought was from her time working as a civil servant in the Ministry of Information. I had the opportunity to peek on those pictures when I was in turn with my brother to visit her and to help her get dressed, combed her hair during her difficult health condition.
She celebrated her 80th birthday with us. She was still full of enthusiasm and interest in the topic of art and culture. Yet, when her health became worse, her youngest sister who was a doctor took her back to Makassar. It seemed that she missed her friends in Jakarta. Makassar was already a strange city for her. She felt bored, and soon she lost her well known good memory. She passed away in 1995, just a year after her 80th birthday!
Unfortunately, I did not know where all her books, her photo albums, and other valuable documents ended up. That was very unlucky as she had a rich collection of books. I remembered that my first serious reading about Soekarno started from her book collection.
Luckily, I was once asked to come to her house ( I thought she was already passed away at that time). Her youngest sister was moving her things out. Between the things dumped together with trashes, I found a plastic bag with some files, photos, and some old cards. I took it as it was going to be thrown away. I put that plastic bag in my attic for years...almost forgotten!
Then, there was a day when someone asked my aunt (from my mother's side) to introduce her to the relative of Soh Lian Tjie. She said that there was a scholar who studied in France who would like to know more about Oma. I did not have much left from Oma. Actually, that plastic bag with its content was the only thing that I have. Yet, before she went back to Makassar, Oma handed a copy of her (supposed to be) autobiography and a copy of her traced family tree; from her grandfather lined down to my generation.
I met Yerry Wirawan. He is also from Makassar. He told me that he was studying history and Oma Soh Lian Tjie was the part of the history that he learned. "Wow...," I was a bit hesitant. I did not really know she was that famous. When Yerry said that I could meet Ibu Claudine Salmon, I was really honoured. Honestly, I knew her late husband's work better. I loved history and since 1999 I volunteered at the National Museum of Indonesia through the Indonesian Heritage Society (IHS). So, I knew Denis Lombard through his work " Carrefour Javanaise". I was also studying the French language at the Centre Culturel Francais de Jakarta (CCF). The couples' names should be mentioned somewhere between the CCF or the IHS. Carrefour Javanaise is actually available in the IHS library in Plaza Senayan Office Building.
I was not really keen on tracing my Chinese background. Yet, it is like destiny that I should be able to accept my root before I could work on this project for my late grandma (yes, she was also a grandma for me).
After more than a decade, I finally searched for that plastic bag and opened it. I think when a person desires something, God will grant it, even though it will be on His own time, His own way! Oma had prepared her autobiography. It had never been published. Her youngest sister was already passed away. An aunt whom I asked about Oma's private belonging, like letters or diaries, said, "I think they burnt all those albums and private things!"
I think it is all God's work! Imagine, the content of that plastic bag, which was considered as trash was actually the original work of the autobiography, some original identity paper, and one small book published by the ministry of information. Probably, the plastic bag that was considered as not important actually held important papers.
I knew her as a tour guide and a writer contributor to some English newspapers. That was all that we knew. I knew she had some photographs of the late President Soekarno and also the late President Soeharto and Madame Tien Soeharto. I thought was from her time working as a civil servant in the Ministry of Information. I had the opportunity to peek on those pictures when I was in turn with my brother to visit her and to help her get dressed, combed her hair during her difficult health condition.
She celebrated her 80th birthday with us. She was still full of enthusiasm and interest in the topic of art and culture. Yet, when her health became worse, her youngest sister who was a doctor took her back to Makassar. It seemed that she missed her friends in Jakarta. Makassar was already a strange city for her. She felt bored, and soon she lost her well known good memory. She passed away in 1995, just a year after her 80th birthday!
Unfortunately, I did not know where all her books, her photo albums, and other valuable documents ended up. That was very unlucky as she had a rich collection of books. I remembered that my first serious reading about Soekarno started from her book collection.
Luckily, I was once asked to come to her house ( I thought she was already passed away at that time). Her youngest sister was moving her things out. Between the things dumped together with trashes, I found a plastic bag with some files, photos, and some old cards. I took it as it was going to be thrown away. I put that plastic bag in my attic for years...almost forgotten!
Then, there was a day when someone asked my aunt (from my mother's side) to introduce her to the relative of Soh Lian Tjie. She said that there was a scholar who studied in France who would like to know more about Oma. I did not have much left from Oma. Actually, that plastic bag with its content was the only thing that I have. Yet, before she went back to Makassar, Oma handed a copy of her (supposed to be) autobiography and a copy of her traced family tree; from her grandfather lined down to my generation.
I met Yerry Wirawan. He is also from Makassar. He told me that he was studying history and Oma Soh Lian Tjie was the part of the history that he learned. "Wow...," I was a bit hesitant. I did not really know she was that famous. When Yerry said that I could meet Ibu Claudine Salmon, I was really honoured. Honestly, I knew her late husband's work better. I loved history and since 1999 I volunteered at the National Museum of Indonesia through the Indonesian Heritage Society (IHS). So, I knew Denis Lombard through his work " Carrefour Javanaise". I was also studying the French language at the Centre Culturel Francais de Jakarta (CCF). The couples' names should be mentioned somewhere between the CCF or the IHS. Carrefour Javanaise is actually available in the IHS library in Plaza Senayan Office Building.
I was not really keen on tracing my Chinese background. Yet, it is like destiny that I should be able to accept my root before I could work on this project for my late grandma (yes, she was also a grandma for me).
After more than a decade, I finally searched for that plastic bag and opened it. I think when a person desires something, God will grant it, even though it will be on His own time, His own way! Oma had prepared her autobiography. It had never been published. Her youngest sister was already passed away. An aunt whom I asked about Oma's private belonging, like letters or diaries, said, "I think they burnt all those albums and private things!"
I think it is all God's work! Imagine, the content of that plastic bag, which was considered as trash was actually the original work of the autobiography, some original identity paper, and one small book published by the ministry of information. Probably, the plastic bag that was considered as not important actually held important papers.
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| Birth Certificate in Dutch |
I believe that my grandmother from my mother's side probably did not have any birth certificate. This birth certificate was not a birth certificate like the one we know now. There is a part "Heden den een en twintigsten December negentienhonderd en drie en dertig..." and also a part that said, "verklaard dat Soh Lian Tjie, Scholier wonende te Batavia..." So, it seems that this certificate is actually a certificate of acknowledgement of birth which was made in December 1933 when she was already a student in Batavia. So, she was nineteen years old when she made that birth certificate.
I don't know why she ended her autobiography on the 27th of December 1949. Yes, that was the day of the transfer of sovereignty that fully acknowledge the Republic of Indonesia as a free and independent country. That was the start of a short period of Republik Indonesia Serikat. A republic consisted of smaller states that ended on the 17th of August 1950.
I found some other important papers. This letter seemed to be a rewritten copy of a letter dated 1st of November 1960 which stated that Soh Lian Tjie had chosen Indonesia as her citizenship. She was a civil servant who worked for Departemen Penerangan Republik Indonesia (the Ministry of Information) so she let go of her chance to take the citizenship of Republik Rakjat Tiongkok. I do not know why on the head of the letter the date written was 20 Djuli 1967. There were seven years of differences between the date on the top and the date underneath!
On the 5th of August 1967 she applied for her Indonesian name. I just realized that her Indonesian name should be Nora Surijanti. Yet, as long as I knew her, she always signed and wrote Nora Suryanti for her name.
It would be nice to know her story as the civil servant of the Republic of Indonesia. Yet, the chances to ask her the story was long gone! We knew that the communist movement of G-30-S PKI made Indonesia black and blue. Lots of people were suspected as a communist. So, having a statement that someone is not related to the G-30-S PKI was really important. That statement letter, signed on the 25th of August 1970, also revealed that she was one of Staff Ahli Direktorat Penlugri Departemen Penerangan at the age of 56 years old.
I hope that tracing back her journey of life will help others in their studies. Yet, most probably, it was also a legacy from Oma Waringin.
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