Jakarta – A team of relatives, historians and forensic scientists are pressing ahead with their efforts to carry out DNA tests on remains excavated in an East Java village three years ago, thought to be that of controversial leftist figure Tan Malaka.
The team will send samples to an Australian laboratory for a so-called Low Copy Number (LCN) forensic analysis to check the Y-Short Tandem Repeats (Y-STR); nucleus DNA passed on by a man to his female descendants. The tests use very small samples of between 100 and 200 milligrams of bone or teeth.
"This analysis allows tests on very small samples. We have to analyze the remains carefully as we only have a 1.1 gram fragment of bone and 0.25 grams of teeth," said Djaja Atmaja, leader of the forensic investigation. Djaja said that the efforts could hit a snag because some of the samples had been severely tainted.
"We found it very difficult to identify the remains as they were already 60 years old. Besides, they were submerged underwater because the body was buried in a river basin," Djaja said.
Despite these problems, Harry Poeze, the Dutch historian who has spent almost half his life studying the life of Tan Malaka, said that the remains exhumed from Selopanggung village did belong to the leftist independence fighter, who fought against Dutch colonial rule along with other founding fathers like Soekarno, Hatta and Sjahrir.
"My research, which involved a series of interviews with eyewitnesses as well as locals in Selopanggung, assures me that it is him. For instance, the remains had both hands tied behind the body. Tan Malaka was shot dead with his hands tied behind his back. We must finish what we have started so we have to continue with our DNA investigation," he said.
Poeze said that the efforts had never received any support from the government. He said he wrote to the Social Affairs Ministry in 2007, looking for assistance in the digging of the Selopanggung grave. "The ministry said it did not have funds to support the effort," he said.
Zulfikar, Tan Malaka's nephew, whose DNA is being used as a match for that of the Selopanggung remains, said that the test was important not only for the family but also for all Indonesians.
"Tan Malaka doesn't belong to his family only. He belongs to Indonesia because he fought for this country," he said. President Soekarno made Tan Malaka a national hero in 1963 and the New Order government, which whitewashed most leftist elements from the country's history, never revoked that decision. (msa)