Moenasiah (born c. 1897) was a

Sarekat Islam Sarekat Islam or Syarikat Islam ( 'Islamic Association' or 'Islamic Union'; SI) was an Indonesian socio-political organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century during the Dutch colonial era. Initially, SI served as a cooperative of ...

and

Indonesian Communist Party The Communist Party of Indonesia ( Indonesian: ''Partai Komunis Indonesia'', PKI) was a communist party in the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world before its violent disbandment in ...

leader active in

Semarang Semarang (Javanese script, Javanese: , ''Kutha Semarang'') is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Netherlands, Dutch Dutch East Indies, colonial era, and is still an important regio ...

Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

during the 1920s. She was chairperson of the women's section of the Communist Party for a time in the 1920s. She was exiled by Dutch authorities to

Boven-Digoel concentration camp Boven-Digoel, often simply called Digoel, was a Dutch concentration camp for political detainees operated in the Dutch East Indies from 1927 to 1947. The Dutch used it to detain thousands of Indonesians, most of whom were members of the Communist ...

from 1927 to 1930.

Biography

Little is known about Moenasiah's early life. She made her livelihood in Semarang by operating a

Warung A warung ( old spelling: waroeng or warong) is a type of small family-owned business — small retail, eatery, or café — in Indonesia. A ''warung'' is an essential part of daily life in Indonesia. Over time, the term ''warung'' has sh ...

(roadside food stall). In the early 1920s she quickly rose to prominence in the Semarang wing of the

(SI), an Indonesian nationalist organization whose Semarang branch had a strong

Left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

and

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

base. She used her status as a small-time food stall operator to draw attention to the plight of Indonesians working in the market, who were subject to unfair treatment and abuse by police and Europeans. She became vice-president of women’s section of Semarang SI in October 1921 and president in 1922. She was arrested in May 1923 along with other members of the women's committee ( Soetitah and Napsiah) for speeches she gave during the VSTP (Rail and Tram worker's union). In 1923 the Semarang branch of the distanced itself increasingly from the central body of the organization in Batavia (led by H. O. S. Tjokroaminoto and reorganized itself more explicitly as the Indonesian Communist Party; Moenasiah became vice-chair of the women's section of the new party. Seeing the need for a mass organization like the SI, the Semarang activists also founded a new organization called the (people's union), with Moenasiah as chair and Soetitah as vice-chair of the women's section.

In February 1927, at age 30, she was detained in the mass arrests of Communist Party activists and leaders which took place across Java. She was exiled to

along with roughly a thousand other PKI members who were detained there indefinitely without charge. Relatively few women activists were arrested and exiled there; among these were activists and educators including not only Moenasiah and Soetitah in Semarang but also Soekaesih and Saama, two activists in the women's division of the organization in Batavia. She was released from her internment in Boven-Digoel in December 1930 along with a large group of 144 detainees. After her release it is unclear where she went or whether she remained politically active.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moenasiah 1890s births Year of birth uncertain Year of death unknown Boven-Digoel concentration camp detainees People from Semarang Communist Party of Indonesia politicians Sarekat Islam politicians