Red as my blood and white as my flesh for Surabaya
… Surabaya, oh Surabaya, oh Surabaya. Kota kenangan, kota kenangan tak ‘kan terlupa. Di sanalah, di sanalah, di Surabaya. Kota kenangan, kota kenangan, tak ‘kan terlupa. Kuteringat masa yang telah lalu. Beribu nyawa, beribu jiwa bertaruh satu. Di sanalah, di sanalah, di Surabaya. Kami berjuang, kami berjuang bertaruh nyawa ….
Surabaya oh my beloved Surabaya. My memory about you is still alive. In this city, in Surabaya. An old memoir for those who keep this city from the conquerors. Thousands souls, thousands heroes will make beloved Surabaya still exist. Because all of us will take a battle for your own sake]
That’s a heroic song for my beloved hometown Surabaya –which I know this very well since I was a kid.
Surabaya or known as City of The Heroes is the big city number two after Jakarta as the capitol of Indonesia. It’s became an important city during the Dutch Aggression in Indonesia at 1945. Also becomes an important harbour for the eastern of Indonesia archipelago (from Kalimantan, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua).
Rip the Flag and send away the conquerors!
To see the heroism of Surabaya people for send away the conquerors (the Dutch and the Britons), we can see Bung Tomo’s activities during the August, 1945. Everyday and night, he go to the radio station and reading poems, asking the people to use ‘bambu runcing’ (sharpened bamboo) for an open war versus the aggressors, then coordining the youth heroes to go to Yamato Hotel (known as Majapahit Hotel after World War II), through to the tower and rip the Dutch national flag; red-white-blue, becomes red and white, our National flag (bendera merah putih). Later, I read this heroic acts in a great book ‘Revolusi Nusa Damai’ (Revolt in Paradise) by Ktut Tantri, a woman from Isle of Man –who became a godchild of King of Klungkung (Bali) also has a good relationship with our first President; Mr. Soekarno. And her book, really, inspired me to be a good author someday 
Tanggwa Aju Manggala Yudha
Meanwhile, in the ancient time of history, Surabaya also had a great kingdom called Majapahit –with capital city Mojokerto, about 100 km from Surabaya. Under initiative of prime-minister Gadjah Mada, Majapahit succesfully made our archipelago as a united. And even bigger than Indonesia nowadays, because Thailand, Madagascar, India, Malay Peninsula (Malaysia and Singapore) and half of Indo-China also became parts of Majapahit. All of them (including Indonesia) are called ‘Nusantara’ acronym from Nusa di Antara (lands surrounding by oceans, because Indonesia is an archipelago surrounded by South China Sea and Indian Ocean then Pacific Ocean). And this success happened because of supporting acts from Admiral Nala, a famous sailorman during Majapahit era (then in the 20th century, name of Gadjah Mada was given to a famous university in Jogjakarta, meanwhile Nala adopted for an Indonesian Navy’s submarine; KRI Nala. Another submarines are; Cakra, Nenggala and Pasopati).
In the beginning, Majapahit people were runaway people from Mataram Hindu –which doesn’t want to changes their religion from Hindu to Islam (muslim). Then, whenever merchants from Indian, Parsi and Malay and also Mataram Islam’s (Jogjakarta) troopers were coming to Majapahit for telling them about this religion, they’re still insist to be Hindu, and runaway again to Mt. Bromo (which has their traditional ceremony called ‘Kasodho’) and Bali.
* Something that make me so proud according the history of Majapahit is their words “Tanggwa Aju Manggala Yudha” in Sanskrit language (means “For the knights, we’re always keep ‘ever onward never retreat’.”) which my anchestors adopted for our family name ‘Manggala’ (The Knight) and because I am a girl, my surname becomes ‘Manggalani’. Thanks for my ancestors
1 comment September 25th, 2006