A reporter's story of living the news<\/p>\n
Foreign Correspondence -- A Journalist's Biography;
\nPeter Barnett; Macmillan Publishers Australia 2001; 410 pp<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Australian journalist Peter Barnett, now 70,
\nrecently published his biography, comprising tales from a life
\nspent in Australia, Asia and the U.S.<\/p>\n
It makes for interesting reading as he was one of Australia's
\nlongest-serving ABC foreign correspondents, with 13 years spent
\nin Washington D.C.<\/p>\n
He also has several important Indonesian connections. For two
\nyears (1962-1963), he was posted in Jakarta by Radio Australia,
\nwitnessing the years of \"living dangerously\".<\/p>\n
He portrays Sukarno, the great orator, who had the magnificent
\nobsession of regaining West New Guinea from the colonial clutches
\nof the Dutch. He gives thumbnail sketches of the players around
\npresident Sukarno, such as Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution, \"the
\nchieftain of one of the world's mightiest armed forces\", Dr.
\nSubandrio, \"a most intelligent man who presents his policy views
\nwith clarity and cunning of an experienced lawyer\", as well as
\nAidit the communist and Ali Sastroamidjojo the nationalist.<\/p>\n
On a more personal level, Peter married Siti Nuraini Jatim, a
\nwell-known Indonesian poet, in Melbourne in 1970 when Siti was
\nworking at Radio Australia. She was a descendent of an
\naristocratic Sumatran family and had married a rising author,
\nAsrul Sani, in the 1950s (they had three daughters but later
\ndivorced). Nuraini and Peter had a son, Adam.<\/p>\n
Peter converted to Islam, guided by the Chicago-educated
\nIslamic scholar Prof. Nurcholish Madjid, making Peter a familiar
\nfigure in Melbourne's Muslim community today.<\/p>\n
In Foreign Correspondence, Peter relates his life story,
\ntracing his origin from the sleepy West Australian town of
\nAlbany, how he grew up and became a cadet and reporter of a small
\nnewspaper; how he wandered through Europe and America in the mid-
\n1950s in search of a faith, becoming involved with the Moral
\nRearmament (MRA) headquartered in Caux, Switzerland, a group of
\nanti-communist idealists.<\/p>\n
In 1961 he covered Vietnam while the war with the communists
\nwas raging, interviewing South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem
\n-- \"the most garrulous man I ever met\" -- who was later killed in
\na CIA-sponsored coup. He also met with Diem's sister-in-law
\nMadame Ngo Dinh Nhu, the so-called Dragon Lady, \"who was
\ncontemptuous of compassion and justice\".<\/p>\n
Then, after his two-year stint in Indonesia, Peter joined
\nhands with Japanese media organization NHK to coproduce a
\ntelevision documentary. The subject was The Asian Highway -- the
\nEast\/West link. They started their journey in Tehran, went north
\nfirst to the Caspian Sea, then headed south by van and jeep
\ntoward Kabul, passing through deserts and god-forsaken places,
\nacross the Khyber Pass to New Delhi, through Benares, the holy
\ncity of the Hindus, arriving at Calcutta, which exhibited utter
\npoverty, and ending the trek at Dacca in then East Pakistan,
\nnowadays Dhaka in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
It had been a journey of six weeks beset by severe climate and
\nphysical strain. Peter is at his best writing this travelogue,
\nusing to the fullest extent a reporter's eye for details and
\nhuman interest.<\/p>\n
His next assignment was in Borneo, where Indonesian troops
\nwere infiltrating the common border with Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Peter wrote: \"We now moved inland to the jungle areas of
\nSarawak where British, Ghurka and Malaysian troops manned
\nisolated outposts. A few months later Australians joined them --
\nthe first and only time me were at war with Indonesia.\"<\/p>\n
Today that \"little war\" between Australia and Indonesia in the
\njungle of Sarawak is totally unknown to the younger generations.
\nSo, for the sake of historical records, we should be thankful to
\nPeter Barnett for reminding us of the important events in our
\npast.<\/p>\n
Peter's accounts as White House correspondent provide
\nfascinating reading and deeper insight into American politics. He
\naccompanied several presidents on their international travels --
\nLyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter -- against a backdrop
\nof rising tensions, like the increasing opposition to the Vietnam
\nWar as manifested during the Democratic Party Convention in
\nChicago when riots broke out, and later on during the Watergate
\naffair which forced Nixon to resign.<\/p>\n
Peter presents some striking information about the American
\npresidents he knew. He writes that Johnson was excessively pro-
\nAustralian; Nixon was not a likable man, was reliant on drugs,
\nrequired psychiatric counseling for deep depression, and he also
\nbeat his wife. Carter was a complicated man, always polite and
\nnever raised his voice, and, according to one senior Democrat,
\nperhaps the most intelligent U.S. president since Woodrow Wilson,
\nwhile also being \"the meanest son of a bitch of them all\".<\/p>\n
Though all in all this is interesting, the book would have
\nbeen more complete if Peter also revealed more technical aspects
\nof being a journalist, giving some samples of the kind of news he
\nwrote, its content, its composition, its language and the like in
\norder that it could be studied by young reporters and students of
\njournalism.<\/p>\n
The final chapter is devoted to his elder brother Harvey, who
\ndied in 1995, a victim of melanoma. Harvey Barnett served for 19
\nyears in the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation (ASIS)
\n-- Australia's equivalent of the CIA. In 1976 Harvey was invited
\nto join the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)
\nand five years later became director-general. He retired in 1985.
\nHarvey was deeply religious and was particularly committed to the
\nSubud movement, an organization that blends Islam, Christianity
\nand Javanese mysticism,<\/p>\n
This is interesting to me because I knew both Barnett brothers
\npersonally, particularly Harvey who I had close contact with
\nduring the time he served in the Australian Embassy in Jakarta.
\nHe regularly came to my house on a Sunday evening for a chat,
\nswapping information about the political situation. I sensed that
\nHarvey was not an ordinary diplomat. He was instrumental in
\npersuading the Melbourne Age to appoint me as its Jakarta
\ncorrespondent for more than a year in 1967.<\/p>\n
Years later when Harvey visited me, I always greeted him with,
\n\"Hello, spook\", whereupon he broadly smiled. The last time I saw
\nHarvey and his wife Deirdre was in Melbourne when I attended the
\n39th Asia-Pacific Film Festival held in Sydney in 1994.<\/p>\n
Now he is gone, and I miss my \"Australian spook\".<\/p>\n
-- H. Rosihan Anwar<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/a-reporters-story-of-living-the-news-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }