BIOGRAPHY : RADIN INTEN II (1834-1856) ~ Only the Good Die Young

    There is a street nearby the school where I teach. Almost everyday I pass this street to get to the school. This street is located in Pondok Kelapa sub-district in the area of Duren Sawit District, East Jakarta. This street stretched from Kali Malang street all the way to Buaran Area, still in East Jakarta. This street also pass by the BKT - Banjir Kanal Timur (East Flood Control Canal). 

    Truly speaking, at first, I have no idea who Radin Inten II is, I didn't know that this man is one of our National Hero (and I kept miss-spell the name for Raden Inten instead of Radin Inten). Back in the 80's when I lived in Pondok Bambu sub-district in East Jakarta, this street was not existed yet. I remember riding a bike with my friends all the way to Pondok Kelapa and Lampiri, swim in the small river near Pondok Kelapa Indah in time when this street wasn't exist yet.

    So, yesterday when I came home from school after PALAPA Fire Camp Night, in the Mikrolet (one of transportation mode in Jakarta) there were two students arguing about "Radin Inten II". One said that the man is a National Hero from Lampung Province, while the other pretty sure that it is the name of a street they just passed. The argumentation was so intense that made me think that most people know Radin Inten as a street name instead of an Indonesian National Hero (just like me several years ago .. wkwkwkwkwk). So, when I home, I started to gather information and wrote this blog ..

   Who Is Radin Inten II? What was the role of his struggle for Indonesian independence? Here is the story ....

Radin Inten II Statue in Bandar Lampung 

    Talking about this great man, we have to look for the history all the way to the colonial era, when VOC (Vereenigde Osst-Indische Compagnie - a Dutch Trading Company in East Indies) still ruled Nusantara. At that time, Lampung was famous for it's spices production especially for Lada Hitam (Black Pepper). In the 17th century, VOC was still a new player of spices trading in Nusantara. They tried to overruled many trader including the Banten Kingdom as a rising star in the Malaka Strait at that time. This moslem Kingdom controlled the trade in the area with powerful resources and wisdom.

     

    It was Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (1651-1683) the king of Banten who succeed to made Banten Kingdom as a serious competitor for VOC in the waters of Java, Sumatera and Mollucas (Maluku). Even though Banten Kingdom was continuously monitored by VOC in Batavia, this Kingdom kept on controlling trade of this area including the coast of southern Sumatera which was Lampung and surrounding area. This became a serious problem for VOC. 

So, as usual, VOC then planned to bring the Banten Kingdom down. VOC negotiated with one of the Tirtayasa's son, name Sultan Haji. This Devide et Empera politics (Politik Pecah Belah) often brought the succes for VOC in dividing Nusantara into pieces. 

This effort succeed. With the help of VOC from Batavia, Sultan Haji declared war to his father Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa the King of Banten and made the King down from his throne in 1682. With the winning of Sultan Haji, VOC then had an agreement which stated that the controlling of Spices Trading in Lampung was handed to VOC and at the same time gave the trading monopoly right to VOC in that area. 

     VOC then sent their officer to Lampung in the name of King of Banten, and start to take control of the trading in Lampung. They started to retain the Pepper Plantations around Lampung, sometimes with a hard way.

But, what VOC didn't know is, Lampung was actually not a part or under administration of Banten Kingdom. Lampung had their own leaders called "Adipati" who is totally different with "Jenang" (a representative of Banten Kingdom in Lampung who only took care of trading administration in the coastline of Lampung). And in fact, most of the Adipati in Lampung didn't accept the Sultan Haji administrative, they still considered Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa as the King of Banten, as their partner and high commissioner in trading. 

Staad Bantam (Original Name of Banten Kingdom)

So, those actions of VOC came to nothing on result for another 200 years.

                                 In 1811, the English Governor General Raffles who shortly had an acquisition of Dutch territory in East Indies occupied an area called "Semangka" in Lampung, and didn't want to give it to the Dutch, because Raffles know that Lampung was not a VOC / Dutch territory. In fact VOC or Dutch had never ruled this area in the first place. Long after Raffles leave the area, in 1826 the Dutch then placed their officer in Lampung as Residence. 

   Since 1817 Lampung had their own leader, the rising star Radin Inten I, who grown stronger and stronger and ruled a Kingdom name Negara Ratu. This situation made the Dutch so worried, so they sent Meneer Krusemen as an assistant of Lampung Residence to make some agreement with Radin Inten I. The agreement stated that Radin Inten I will have financial support from Dutch as much as 1.200 Gulden per year plus another 600 gulden to each of his two brothers. But Dutch also stated in the agreement that Radin Inten I would not expand his territory more than what he already possessed at that time. Off course, this agreement ignored and was never followed by Radin Inten I and he kept maintained resistance against the Dutch. As the result, in 1825 Dutch Government ordered Meneer Liliever to detained Radin Inten I in custody, but this order was known before and Radin Inten I had already attack the Ducth first and killed Liliever with all of his staff. In the same time, Dutch was facing the war with Pangeran Diponegoro in Central Java, so they couldn't do anything about the resistance of Radin Inten I.

    In 1825, Radin Inten I pass away and the Kingdom of Negara Ratu and the resistance handed over to his son Radin Imba Kusuma. To keep his father legacy, Raden Imba Kusuma resistance to the Dutch was never diminish. After the Diponegoro War in 1830, Dutch then focus their troops to detained Radin Imba Kesuma. And 4 years later, the Dutch succeed to beat Raden Imba Kesuma in his fortress in Semangka, Lampung. Raden Imba Kesuma moved away to Lingga with his wife who was pregnant. But, unfortunately, because of the treason of the local people in Lingga, Raden Imba Kesuma was detained by the dutch and exile to Timor Island. Meanwhile his wife who was pregnant was still in Lampung.   

Lampung Province, Indonesia

    And so, in 1834 Radin Inten II was born without the presence of his father. Even though he never met his father, but the story about the courage, the struggle and the resistance of his father was keep on told and living in the society. And it shape the character of Radin Inten II to kept the resistance to the Dutch. In 1850, in the age of 16, Radin Inten II was crowned as the King of Negara Ratu, and as soon as his inauguration, the young King then managed, prepared and established many confrontation with the Dutch. He organized his army with the help of partisan and leaders in Lampung. He built or rebuilt many fortress and armed it with canons, Lila (small canons) and traditional weapons. He stocked logistic inside the fortress as preparation for the war with Dutch. 

   In 1851, Duth finally responded. After 16 years of silence, Lampung was started to flare up again. Dutch then send 400 troops from Batavia under the command of Captain Jucht with the task to conquer Merambung Fortress. But Dutch hit the wall hard, and I mean it literary wkwkwkwkw ....

They were forced back by Radin Inten II troops and thought about another strategy to beat Radin Inten II. They sent Captain Kohler, an Assistant of Teluk Betung Residence to ask the truce and start to negotiation with Radin Inten II. After several negotiation, finally they reached an agreement not to attack each other and recognized the sovereignty of each other.

But, hey! .. It was not Dutch if they didn't have something cheat behind all these negotiation. They made agreement just to bought some time to launch their massive attack to Radin Inten troops. They believed that if Radin Inten II was still the leader of Lampung, and it would be very hard for them to conquer Lampung completely. And they also did the "Devide et Empera" strategy to devide the unity of Lampung people. For example, people in Kalianda were influenced and provoked to betray Raden Inten II and made Dutch easier to patrol Mount Rajabasa area. 

   Mid of August 1856, a large amount of Dutch troops were shipping from Batavia toward Lampung. Under the command of Colonel Waleson, consist of infantry, cavalry and Zeni troops to launched the massive attack to the position of Radin Inten II. They sent ultimatum and deadline to the King to surrender maximum in 5 days before they attack (pretty gentle I think!). On the other side, the King kept on prepared all of his resources to face the upcoming war. The Dutch was support by the traitor Prince Sempurna Jaya Putih with his army and together they attacked Radin Inten II. 

   And so, 16 August 1856 the Dutch finally launched the massive attack to beat Radin Inten II and his troops. One by one they attack many fortress in order to reach Ketimbang Fortress where Radin Inten II set the defence. First, Bendulu Fortress occupied by the Dutch, and next Hawi Berak Fortress was also occupied. The Dutch then divided their troops in to three big division and surrounded the Ketimbang Fortress from three main way. First from east side of Mount Rajabasa, second from Kalianda through Merambung Fortress, and third from Panengahan through Salai Tabuhan Fortress. 

  Recorded in 27 August 1856, the Dutch finally approached Ketimbang Fortress. Because of the lack of the weapons and soldier, the battle in Galah was won by the Dutch and also the battle in Pematang Sentok. But, when they arrived and entered Ketimbang Fortress, they found the fortress empty. Radin Inten and his army have moved to another post. Colonel Waleson was very disappointing, and sent groups of troops to locate and kill Radin Inten II. Military operations were launch to find Radin Inten II, but still they had not found him yet. All the corps of Dutch Army were humiliated by a 22 years old King .. (hahaaaa!!). 

    Finally, in the early October 1856, after two months unsuccessful military operations, Dutch used the old trick (as usual .. rolling my eyes though!!), lies and betrayal have always be the part of the way Dutch war in the battle of Nusantara. The Dutch then approached Radin Ngerapat, one of the King relative, and asked Radin Ngerapat to silently invited Radin Inten II in a "secret meeting". Radin Ngarapat was forced to tell Radin Inten II that he wanted to help and support Radin Inten with soldiers and weapons. With no suspicion Radin Inten II attended the invitation with only one person to accompany him. 

     So, in the night of 5th October 1856, Radin Inten II attended the meeting with Radin Ngerapat in Kunyanya. Meeting was only the coverage, because all the Dutch soldiers were standing by near the location to ambushed Radin Inten II. And when the first meal ate by Radin Inten II, suddenly Radin Ngerapat attack him with the help of the Dutch soldier. A heroic scene took place when 2 brave and valiant warrior fought with no fear against dozen of traitor and Dutch soldiers. It was an unbalanced fight, but it was worth to try, for Lampung, for Nusantara, for the freedom of mankind, for the sake of human rights given by God. The blood of the valiant warrior was spill and soaks the Mother Earth ... And so, in the age of 22, Radin Inten II died. He was born as a fighter, live like a fighter and die also like one. He fight for what he believe until his last breath. 

    So now, you know him, I know him, everyone supposed to know him better. He is our national hero, he isn't only a name of an airport, or a name of street. He is not only a monument standing by in the city of Bandar Lampung .. He's more than that .. He's Radin Inten II, our National Hero !!

Radin Inten II 

Alika .. Out !!    

PS : 

The Government of Republic of Indonesia conferred the title of National Hero to Radin Inten II with the Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia No. 082 / 1986 dated October 23rd, 1986