“Madilog: Materialisme, Dialektika, dan Logika” Tan Malaka
This is an incredible insight into one of Indonesia’s intellectual thinkers, Tan Malaka. He was a controversial figure, who is now only historically famous for being one of the most influential early PKI members (the now-banned Communist Party) who set the ideological foundation of the party. But from reading his thoughts about so many range of knowledge, it seems that the censorship on him or the oversimplification of who he was, fail to capture his essence.
Hence my utter surprise when reading this book, where I had expected a leftist propaganda on communist thoughts, but found a very well-read person who seems to know a lot of things from a lot of things. And it is reflected in this book.
In here, he writes about his deep understanding of religion from Egyptian mythology, to “Hindustan religions”, to the Abrahamic religions, all the way to the arguments of atheism and the existence of ghosts. He talks science, even discussing the theories founded by the likes of Darwin, Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Democritus, Gauss, Rutherford, and Einstein, among many others, including stories about Madam Currie. He covers history as diverse as Hitler’s Germany, the Nordic, the Hindustan, Aria and Tartar, Britain, France, Syrian, Roman, Jewish, African, and more. He also goes in depth with philosophy from Marx and Engels to Hume, Hegel, Plato, Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, Nietzsche, Gandhi, and many more.
And the best part is, he did not only present these knowledge to show off, but he showed how they are being implemented in various different cultures and societies in history. He then use all of these impressive knowledge to form his own formulation of an ideal state of thinking, which would eventually influence the formation of secular Indonesia.
But what is it really about? In its essence, the book explores the concept of his 3 main ideas: materialism, dialectics, and logic. It was written in 1943 during the Japanese occupation with the objective to teach the Indonesian people to move away from mystical thinking (that hinder progress and independence) and instead teaches a more scientific-based rational approach to understand and function in the world.
Firstly, materialism. Malaka argues that material reality is more essential to understanding the world, rather than supernatural, superstitious, or mystical forces (which was – and still is in some places – the main way of thinking in Indonesia). And he instead emphasized the role of economic and social conditions in measuring reality.
Secondly, dialectics (or investigating/discussing the truth of opinions), where he applies dialectical thinking to analyze social and economic occurrences, focusing on contradictions and conflicts that drive changes.
And then thirdly, logic, where he highlights the importance of logical thinkin in analyzing problems and in decision making, encouraging us to adopt a more rational and scientific approach.
The book particularly highlight the importance of education, and Malaka deeply ingrain these knowledge into his nationalist ideology where he advocated for Indonesian independence. And it is in the detailed examples that this book excels, where Malaka showed – for example – how even scientific findings by top scientists can be investigated and challenged.
All in all, despite being written even before Indonesia’s independence in 1945, the book’s teachings remain relevant today; underlining the importance of critical thinking, scientific approach, rational decision-making, and perhaps most importantly the intellectual courage to challenge the status quo.
These are things that are sadly still not very well taught in Indonesia even after 80 years, with the book was even banned during the Suharto regime for obvious reason (if the people are smart, they will be harder to control). Hence, the importance of this book and the urgent need to spread its ideas today.
THE CHAOS THEORY 