Re: Help with Indonesian word

Luis Henrique wrote:


>I know some people here are fluent in Indonesian. These days I have come
>across some web-pages that refer to a anti-communist organisation in
>Indonesia called "Kap-Gestapu". Is this a coincidence, or is it a reference
>to the German Nazi political police? And if it is a coincidence, what
>does "Gestapu" mean, or is it an acronym?

It's _probably_ borrowed "Gestapo"-- but what is Kap?  That's not an Indo.
word either....   and _could_ be their spelling of Engl. cop, so
Cop-Gestapo, right-wing groups (death squads?) made up of renegade or
official police?

OTOH there's a common custom of making up acronym words from syllables of a
phrase--- e.g. Suharto's political party was called Golkar, for "Golongan
Karya"-- so as a pure guess, Ge-sta-pu could be < gerakan 'movement', stat
(or setat) 'state' (Dutch loan), pulisi (~polisi) police, "Police-state
movement".??????

(Pulisi~polisi is < Dutch politie; the official form is polisi, but it's
often pronounced and written pulisi).

Actually I'm surprised-- I thought Communism was a totally dead issue in
Indonesia.

On a lighter note (I've mentioned this before)-- at the time Suharto was
being deposed, student wags claimed that his name stood for "sudah harus
tobat"-- 'should have repented'.  Later on, when his successor Gus
Abdurrahim (Gus Dur) was having problems, they said "Gus Dur" stood for
"Agustus mundur"-- 'steps down in August'