Brilio.net/en - Opened in 2014, Museum Sandi is the best kept secret of Yogyakarta. Few are aware of Museum Sandi, or of what treasures it holds. Museum Sandi is the only Cryptologic museum in Indonesia and many different types of coding-related objects are found inside. What a rich coding history Indonesia has! The most famous artifact at Museum Sandi is a very special bookthe Indonesian cryptography textbook.
The book, known widely as Codebook C, contains Indonesian basic coding and was written in 1946 by the father of Indonesian coding, Dr. Roebiono Kertopati. Roebiono is the founder of cipher bureau, the origin of the National Encryption Body (Lembaga Sandi Negara).
According to Anas Hilal, coordinator of Yogyakarta Museum Sandi, this codebook contains 10,000 words, including punctuation, prefixes, suffixes and other forms often found in the text of the news. It was originally intended for confidential/secure communications between the government of the Republic of Indonesia in Yogyakarta, with other areas in Java, Sumatra and Jakarta, he explained, some time ago.
The first Dutch Military Aggression threw Indonesia into a chaos in 1946. In an effort to keep the government running smoothly, it was moved into Yogyakarta. The Minister of Defense at the time, Amir Syarifuddin, ordered Roebiono Kertopati to establish the cipher bureau before eventually he wrote the phenomenal book.
(brl/tis)
