This political biography reveals the turbulent life of Ernest Fran?ois Eug��ne Douwes Dekker, son of a Dutch father and a German-Javanese mother, born in Java in 1879. Vignettes from his life flow in novel-like fashion, from the battlefields of South Africa and internment camp in Sri Lanka to a career in journalism in Java. It was at this time that he was awakened to the concepts of racial equality and national independence. After the formation of the Partai Indonesia, a clampdown by the colonial government saw him exiled in 1913, from which he returned at the end of World War I. By the time the Republic of Indonesia was proclaimed, Douwes Dekker (adopting the name Setiabuddhi) had emerged as a close friend and political adviser to President Soekarno. Here is a riveting portrait of an unusual character, whose life spanned a critical period in the modern history of Indonesia.