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What would Soe Hok-Gie be doing if he were still alive? Would he still be an idealist fighting injustice, or would he have transformed into an opportunist and joined the establishment?

These questions, of course, will remain unanswered because Hok-Gie passed away in 1969 at the top of Mount Semeru in a hiking mishap a day before his 27th birthday.

With his death, Indonesia lost a vocal young intellectual who fought tirelessly for democracy and human rights. The young activist opposed the dictatorships of Sukarno and Suharto, and inspired others through the articles he wrote on the subject. It was how he is remembered today, especially how his closest friends and admirers want him to be remembered, that we see in “Soe Hok-Gie … Sekali Lagi” (“Soe Hok-Gie … One More Time”).

This weighty 512-page book has been released in commemoration of Hok-Gie’s death 40 years ago. Consisting of five chapters, the book begins with Rudy Badil’s piece, “Antar Hok-Gie dan Idhan ke Atas” (“Sending Hok-gie and Idhan to the Above”). The piece describes the 12 fateful days in December 1969 which began with Hok-Gie and his friends — including Badil — leaving Jakarta for Mount Semeru, and ended with Hok-Gie’s burial in Jakarta.

Chapter 2, “Kisah Soe dan Semeru” (“Soe’s Story and Semeru”), Chapter 3, “Saksi-saksi Rawamangun-Salemba” (“Witnesses from Rawamangun-Salemba”), and Chapter 4, “Tulisan dari ‘The Angry Young Men’ ” (“Pieces from ‘The Angry Young Men’ ”), are collections of articles about Hok-Gie written by his closest friends and by young intellectuals who feel enlightened by his ideas.

Meanwhile, the last chapter, “Karangan dari Kamar Suram Bernyamuk” (“Articles from a Dim, Mosquitoed Room”), is a collection of Hok-Gie’s published articles from a range of newspapers. Three quarters of the book portrays Hok-Gie through other’s eyes.

Maybe because this well-known activist died young he has been idealized and largely escaped criticism. Unlike some of his student activist friends who later gladly joined the legislature in the early New Order regime, Hok-Gie kept up the fight from the periphery.

Ben Anderson, an Indonesianist who contributed a piece in English to the book, pointed out that Hok-Gie is a representation of orang Indonesia sejati (a true Indonesian); despite his Chinese heritage, he truly cared about the greater good of his country.

These attitudes may be the main reason why Hok-Gie has been portrayed as a perfect idealist. Maybe his only flaw was his writing style, as described by Mona Lohanda, a historian Hok-Gie taught when he was a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Letters at the University of Indonesia.

Observing Hok-Gie’s published undergraduate thesis, Lohanda points out how his writing style shows slight impatience towards explaining historical terminology in detail. This way of writing was likely influenced by Hok-Gie’s experience writing for newspapers, which use a different style to that preferred in academia.

But the focus of “Soe Hok-Gie … Sekali Lagi,” taking up three quarters of the book, is an attempt to answer the question: “What was the true Hok-Gie like?”

Unfortunately, despite the length of the book, it doesn’t provide any new angles for readers to interpret “the true Hok-Gie” for themselves. There is a lot of repeated information about his courage, his idealism and his advanced notions. There are even some repeated quotations.

Maybe the only piece that tries to portray Hok-gie from a different angle is “Surat Terbuka Ker untuk Gie” (“Ker’s Open Letter to Gie”). This piece is written by Kartini Sjahrir, one of only a few women in Hok-gie’s life. Through this, readers who are curious about Hok-gie’s romantic life may find that despite it all he was still an ordinary man who could fall in love with a woman.

This book consists of independent articles so chronological reading is unnecessary. Readers are free to choose any piece to start getting up close and personal with the angry young man, who has become an icon for Indonesia’s 1966 generation.