Abstract
Since its founding in 1922 by Ki Hadjar Dewantara at Yogyakarta, the Taman Siswa (“Garden of Pupils”) has always been identified with the nationalist movement in Indonesia. After the Independence of the Republic of Indonesia in 1945 its expansion accelerated owing to its popularity, as Taman Siswa was considered an authentic national educational institution. By the end of the 1950s, one hundred sixty-four Taman Siswa branches with a total of about fifty thousand pupils were established throughout Indonesia.
However, the horizontal expansion of the Taman Siswa schools into various regions of the Republic and the vertical recruitment of teachers from different social backgrounds, coupled with the growing penetration of political influence from every party and mass organization, inevitably resulted in inter-and intra-branch tension and conflict. The conflict between the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) group and the non-PKI group in Taman Siswa grew particularly conspicuous as PKI became Indonesia's most powerful and well-organized political party in the years of Guided Democracy, from 1959 to 1965.
This article is a preliminary study of the critical juncture of the Taman Siswa movement after the shock of the “Coup of September 30, 1965.” It was a period when Taman Siswa had to deal with conflict within its ranks, as well as trying effectively to adjust to the drastic change in the political situation since the “Coup.”
