Draft:Itjang Djoedibarie
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Comment: Most of this is cited to primary documents or to Djoedibarie's own writings. As far as I can tell none of these references are secondary, independent and reliable sources that provide significant coverage of Djoedibarie. MCE89 (talk) 14:22, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
Itjang Djoedibarie | |
|---|---|
 Itjang Djoedibarie, undated photograph.[1] | |
| Born | May 1, 1956 Cikeruh (now Jatinangor), Indonesia |
| Died | September 10, 1983 (aged 27) Cikeruh (now Jatinangor), Indonesia |
| Nationality | Indonesian |
| Education | Criminology |
| Alma mater | University of Indonesia |
| Occupation(s) | Criminologist, poet, activist |
| Years active | 1978–1983 |
| Organization | Komite Hitam (Black Committee) |
| Known for | Post-conspiracy theory, Institutional critique in literature, Symbolic sabotage of the Menara Loji |
| Notable work | Otopsi Syair (posthumous), Post-conspiracy (manuscript)[2] |
Itjang Djoedibarie (1 May 1956 – 10 September 1983) was an Indonesian criminologist, poet, and intellectual activist.[3] He is noted for his radical approach to structural crime theory, the institutional critique he applied in his literary works, and his involvement in the theft of the Menara Loji bell as an act of symbolic sabotage.[4] His thought, largely contained in the posthumous book Otopsi Syair (Autopsy of Verse) and the manuscript Post-conspiracy, was a synthesis of anomie theory, individualist anarchism, and the nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche.[5]
Biography
[edit]Early life and education
[edit]Itjang Djoedibarie was born on 1 May 1956 in the district of Cikeruh (now]), Sumedang Regency.[5] His father, Sarip Djoedibarie, was a former laborer at a rubber plantation owned by the Dutch company Maatschappij tot Exploitatie der Baud-Landen.[5][6] Sarip died 27 days after Itjang's birth from an illness that Itjang believed was caused by exploitative working conditions under the company's administration. This early trauma became a foundational element of his critical views on social structures and institutional crime.
After his mother also passed away when he was six, Itjang was raised by his older siblings in difficult economic conditions. After graduating from high school in 1973, he worked various odd jobs for two years, including as a driver and a seller of stolen books, to save money for university.[5] In 1975, he enrolled in the Criminology department at the University of Indonesia (UI) with a personal mission to "formulate academic proof of his father's death due to the rubber plantation's exploitative practices."[5] However, his writings on this topic were rejected by the faculty, an event that pushed him towards radicalism and led to his manuscript Post-conspiracy: Notes from an Egoist Criminologist (1979).[5][7]
Activism and intellectual circles
[edit]In Jakarta, Itjang became involved with a radical underground discussion group called Komite Hitam (the Black Committee), a response to the repressive Normalization of Campus Life/Student Coordination Body (NKK/BKK) policies that stifled the student movement.[8] It was in this environment that he interacted with figures such as Bonang P. Sirait, an opportunistic intellectual operator, and Cumbu, an "anti-intellectual" poet.[5] His interactions with these two opposing poles of thought—Bonang's cynical pragmatism and Cumbu's poetic nihilism—both enriched and sharpened Itjang's analysis of the social and political realities of his time.[9]
Thought
[edit]Itjang Djoedibarie's thought centered on a critique of power in its various forms: the state, capital, and institutions of knowledge and language.
Critical criminology and anomie
[edit]Itjang applied the anomie theory, developed by sociologist], to analyze Indonesian society. For him, the gap between the cultural goals dictated by the state (e.g., development and prosperity) and the availability of legitimate means to achieve them created an anomic condition.[5] Within this framework, "crimes" committed by individuals in the lower strata were often innovative or rebellious responses to this structural strain, including his father's death, which he termed a "structural crime."[5]
Post-conspiracy and egoist anarchism
[edit]Influenced by anarchist thinkers and their works, Itjang formulated his "Post-conspiracy" philosophy.[5] He rejected all forms of formal organization, which he considered vulnerable to bureaucracy and betrayal. Instead, he proposed a fluid, decentralized network of resistance based on the individual "Ego" as the primary agent. Collective action, in his view, was not born from ideological solidarity but from a "functional convergence" of the interests of autonomous Egos.[10]
Works
[edit]Otopsi Syair
[edit]Itjang's main work, published posthumously, is Otopsi Syair (Autopsy of Verse; 1983, second edition 2025).[5] This book is not merely a poetry anthology but a radical project of institutional critique.[8] Using a forensic lexicon (e.g., "autopsy," "case file," "toxicology analysis"), Itjang dissected institutions such as Language, Religion, and the State. In the poem "Otopsi Anatomi Kata" (Autopsy of the Anatomy of a Word), he wrote: "First, we dissect the phoneme 'love'. / With rusty tweezers, pry open its membrane of meaning... Behind it: a hollow cavity, an echo of narcissism... Second, we amputate the word 'nation'. / Saw its brittle bones, made of false heroic myths."[11]
His cold, analytical, and emotionless writing style was an antithesis to the lyricism common in Indonesian poetry of his time, placing him within the tradition of experimental literature that emerged in the 1970s.[12]
Loji Tower Bell Theft
[edit]In 1983, after graduating from the University of Indonesia, Itjang returned to Cikeruh. Together with Bonang P. Sirait, he planned the theft of the bell from the Menara Loji, a remnant of the colonial era.[4] For Itjang, this act was a "field thesis"—an empirical proof of his theory of symbolic sabotage and a personal revenge for the history of exploitation represented by the tower. By applying analysis from crime pattern theory, they successfully carried out the act.[5]
However, the collaboration ended in betrayal. Bonang sold the bell on the black market and used the money to flee to mainland China.[5] This event caused Itjang to experience a "devastating cognitive dissonance," although in his final letter he still referred to Bonang as his friend.[13]
Death
[edit]The internal crisis following the Loji incident culminated on 10 September 1983. Itjang wrote a final letter he called "Deklarasi Ketidakhadiran" (Declaration of Absence). In it, he explained his decision to end his life as a synthesis of Merton's anomie theory and Nietzschean nihilism: "I choose death not out of weakness, but to show that my absence is more striking than the presence of the norm."[13]
Itjang Djoedibarie died by suicide on the same day. His death occurred amidst the repressive political climate of the Petrus killings, which added a layer of meaning to his act as a form of individual resistance in the face of massive state violence.[5][14]
Legacy
[edit]Although his life was short, Itjang left a significant local legacy. The residents of Cikeruh, who remembered him for practical help such as organizing cooperative bookkeeping and oral history archives, spontaneously named the main village road Jalan Itjang Djoedibarie.[5]
In 1986, the district government officially renamed the street Jalan Kolonel Ahmad Syam and attempted to erase Itjang's name from official records.[5] However, this attempt at erasure was not entirely successful. The name Jalan Itjang Djoedibarie is reported to have survived in the collective memory of the residents and has even appeared on some digital maps, serving as evidence of an "underground archive's" resistance to official history.[15]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "File:Itjang_Djoedibarie_photo.jpg". Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ "Post-conspiracy: Notes from an Egoist Criminologist, 1979". The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ "Itjang Djoedibarie Biography". libcom.org. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ a b Muhammad, Hamdan (2025-05-29). "The Bell Theft from Loji Tower in Jatinangor, Sumedang: A History". Jurnal Muslihat: Sastra Eksperimental. 1 (1): 1–4. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15602389.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Djoedibarie, Itjang (2025). "Biography of Itjang Djoedibarie". In Muhammad, Hamdan (ed.). Otopsi Syair. Jatinangor: Muslihat Press. pp. 66–87. ISBN 978-6-57934-733-3.
- ^ "Sejarah Jatinangor dari Kebun Teh sampai Kawasan Perguruan Tinggi Jawa Barat". Tempo.co. 31 October 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ "Criminology UI". criminology.fisip.ui.ac.id. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ a b Muhammad, Hamdan (15 April 2025). "Interview Regarding Underground Intellectual Circles of the New Order Era" (Interview). Jatinangor.
- ^ Arsyad, D. (1984). Excerpts from the Transcript of Bonang P. Sirait's Interview with the Black Committee (Issue #3 ed.). Jakarta: Batubata Magazine Forum. p. 12.
- ^ "Post-conspiracy". The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
- ^ Djoedibarie, Itjang (2025). Muhammad, Hamdan (ed.). Otopsi Syair. Jatinangor: Muslihat Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-6-57934-733-3.
- ^ "Angkatan 70-an: Eksperimen dalam Sastra". Good News From Indonesia. Retrieved 26 June 2025.
- ^ a b Djoedibarie, Itjang (2025). "Deklarasi Ketidakhadiran". In Muhammad, Hamdan (ed.). Otopsi Syair. Jatinangor: Muslihat Press. pp. 101–104. ISBN 978-6-57934-733-3.
- ^ "Petrus: Kisah Gelap Orba". Historia.ID. 19 December 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
- ^ Muhammad, Hamdan; Pasisir, Guntur (2025-06-04). "Alternative Narratives of Agrarian Conflict in Warung Kalde Hamlet (1979–1985) during the Pre-Expansion Phase of Unpad Jatinangor". Jurnal Muslihat: Sastra Eksperimental. 1 (1): 5–11. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15547500.
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