Gelora Api Revolusi 40周年纪念：Colin Wild 合著回忆

Jul 7, 2026

Upload by Noah

Remembrance of Colin Wild’s role at the BBC Indonesian Service and the co-editing collaboration that produced the historic “Gelora Api Revolusi” (Born in Fire) 36-part radio series. Broadcast three times daily every Saturday in 1985 to mark the fortieth anniversary of Indonesian independence, the project later became published as Gelora Api Revolusi: Sebuah Antologi Sejarah and as Born in Fire: The Indonesian Struggle for Independence. The text recounts how Wild selected a co-editor, the extensive interviews with key Indonesian figures, and the wider non-Indonesian voices included.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatDOCX

Pages5

Reading Time8 min

Colin Wild’s Invitation and Co-Editing

The 1985 Radio Series and Its Legacy

Selecting the Co-Editor

The Interview List and Historical Impact

Non-Indonesian Voices in the Series

Colin Wild (1934-2013) Remembered Meeting with Colin Wild at the BBC Seksi Indonesia (BBC Indonesian Section) at Bush House, London SW1, as we prepared to launch the ‘Gelora Api Revolusi’ program in April 1985. Photo courtesy of BBC External Services Publicity. I will be forever in Colin Wild’s debt for choosing me to be his co-editor in the preparation of the historic ‘Gelora Api Revolusi’ (‘Born in Fire’) 36-part BBC Indonesia Service radio series. Broadcast three times a day every Saturday from 20 April 1985 through to 21 December 1985, the series was Colin Wild’s ‘love letter’ to Indonesia, a country and a people with whom he had fallen in love with after his return to London in 1972 to head up the BBC’s Indonesia Service. Our series celebrated the fortieth anniversary of Indonesian independence. Subsequently published by PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama under the title Gelora Api Revolusi: Sebuah Antologi Sejarah (1986), and in English as Born in Fire. The Indonesian Struggle for Independence. An Anthology (Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press, 1988), it was a series which had a wide impact as numerous friends who came of age in the 1980s have testified to me over the past decade (2010-20) while I have lived in Indonesia. Why did Colin choose me from all the other much better qualified and more experienced candidates, who were readily to hand both at the BBC Indonesia service itself and at the nearby School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) in London? One thinks here of my good friend, Annabel Teh Gallop, a fluent Malay speaker, who was at that very moment employed by the BBC Indonesia Service as a Senior Producer for its Indonesia and Malay Service (1985-86); or Nick Nugent, the highly experienced BBC news journalist specialising on Indonesia (1974-99), who did many of our interviews for our ‘Gelora Api/Born in Fire’ series; or even Dr (later Professor) Ulrick Kratz, a leading Malay philologist, who had just joined the SOAS Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and the Islands when our series was being planned in the early 1980s. All these Indonesia experts were much closer to hand in London than an obscure long-haired junior academic just then embarking on a three-decade (1979-2008) teaching career as an Oxford don (college tutor) at his alma mater, Trinity College! Whatever got into Colin’s head when he sent me the invitation to act as co-editor was certainly not born of any fond memories he personally might have had of Oxford. I did not want to probe too deeply but apparently his stay as an undergraduate reading for a BA Hons English degree at Merton College in the early 1950s had been brief and unhappy. But I thank my lucky stars that he did not hold that experience against me. He showed what a generous soul he was by giving Oxford another chance and inviting me to join him on his great 40th Anniversary of Indonesian Independence endeavour. The program brochure for ‘Gelora Api Revolusi’ broadcast by the BBC Indonesia Section / BBC Seksi Indonesia and produced by the BBC in 1985 to accompany the program. © BBC External Services Publicity. And what a voyage of discovery that project proved! For a start Colin managed to interview many of the ‘giants’ of that period of Indonesian history. These included Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX of Yogyakarta (1912-88; r. 1940-88), Adam Malik (1917-84), General Abdul Haris Nasution (1918-2000), the first Head of Army General Staff, General G.P.H. Djatikusumo (1917-92), the former Indonesian Foreign Minister (1955-56), Dr Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung (1921-99), and former Head of the Emergency Government of Indonesia in Bukittinggi (1948-49), Syafruddin Prawiranegara (1911-89). What luck that all these historical figures were still around and in good enough health to be interviewed in the early 1980s. But Colin’s list did not stop there! It also included other important second-rank figures like the Radio Republik Indonesia head, Raden Maladi (1912-2001; in office, 1959-62), the leading

FAQs

“Gelora Api Revolusi/Born in Fire”是什么节目，何时播出？

这是由 BBC 印尼语服务制作的36集广播系列节目，1985年4月20日至12月21日期间每周六每天播出三次。

该系列如何纪念印度尼西亚独立的周年？

节目以“印尼独立40周年”为主题庆祝，通过大量历史见证者的访谈呈现相关历史。

为什么作者认为 Colin Wild 会选择他共同担任主编？

作者认为这与多位同属印尼问题专家的可用性有关，同时也提到作者当时在牛津的学术任职背景，并强调 Colin 对此并不带有既往不快的情绪。

作者列举的访谈对象主要包括哪些类型的历史人物？

包括印尼政治与历史关键人物（如苏丹、军政要员、外长等）以及非印尼人士专家（如日本与荷兰相关的历史与情报人员），并覆盖不同层级的见证者。

Jul 7, 2026

Upload by Noah