Des Alwi, destined to be king<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
In a speech presented at the awards ceremony for the Royal Yacht
\nSquadron's Camrose Award on the Isle of Wight, UK, recently, Des
\nAlwi told the audience how three foreigners had come to him on
\nBanda Neira Island, Maluku province, one afternoon, asking to be
\ntaken to his \"king\".<\/p>\n
\"I'm the king of this island: My position is as good as the
\nSultan of Brunei's, except he has oil but I only have nutmeg,\" he
\ntold the three men, bringing laughter to the people listening to
\nthe account.<\/p>\n
The three men were Ian Laing, Rupert Cooper and Joe Barclay --
\nwinners of the Camrose Award, after their 90-foot ketch Thalassi
\nsuccessfully endured the journey from New Zealand to the
\nSeychelles, through the Banda Islands in Maluku province.<\/p>\n
Des was recognized for his part in making the trip through
\nIndonesia a success.<\/p>\n
\"From my chance contact with him came the confidence that we
\nwere neither reckless nor mad to visit the Bandas, and the
\nknowledge that he would personally protect us from danger during
\nour stay there,\" Laing wrote in his report to the Squadron titled
\nInnocents Abroad, Thalassi in the Spice Islands.<\/p>\n
For the portly Des Alwi is indeed a raja (king): Perhaps not
\nin the English sense of the word, but that of a cultural leader
\nto the Banda people -- a population of about 15,000 -- with the
\ntitle, Orang Lima Besar (big Orang Lima).<\/p>\n
Born Des Alwi Abubakar on Nov. 17, 1927, in Banda Naira,
\nMaluku, Des' life has been a long series of lucky breaks.<\/p>\n
His first big break came when he was only eight years old.
\nPlaying with his friends on the pristine beach of Naira -- the
\nmain island in the Banda archipelago -- Des was lucky to have
\ncaught the eye of Sutan Sjahrir, one of the two famous passengers
\nof the ship Fomalhaut, which had docked at Naira from Boven Digul
\nprison.<\/p>\n
Sjahrir was later to be the new Republic of Indonesia's prime
\nminister, while the other passenger, Mohammad Hatta, later became
\nthe country's first vice president.<\/p>\n
Des soon became attached to the duo and later Sjahrir even
\nadopted him and secured his education.<\/p>\n
Being one of the Dutch colonists' favorite places of exile,
\nNaira, at the time, was already home to many political prisoners,
\nincluding national movement figures Tjipto Mangunkusumo and Iwa
\nKusuma Sumantri.<\/p>\n
\"So my parents never forbade me from associating with
\npolitical prisoners, because there were so many of them,\" Des
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Des' second break came when he was sent to England, to
\nImperial College, London, to study radio in 1947, because
\n\"England was the only country at the time that acknowledged
\nIndonesia's sovereignty.\"<\/p>\n
In London, he lived in the same apartment building as Tun
\nAbdul Razak from Malaysia, who was studying law at Lincoln's Inn
\nat the time. Razak would go on to become Malaysia's second prime
\nminister, from 1970 through 1976.<\/p>\n
Des's Malaysian connection allowed him to play a key role in
\nmending diplomatic ties between Indonesia and Malaysia in 1966 --
\nRazak at the time being Malaysia's deputy prime minister and the
\nMalaysian representative for the signing of the peace agreement.<\/p>\n
In London, too, he worked as the Indonesian representative and
\nas a translator for the British Broadcasting Corporation.<\/p>\n
Back in Indonesia, Des worked for Radio Republik Indonesia,
\nand in 1951 was appointed Indonesian representative at the
\nInternational Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva.<\/p>\n
\"I became an expert on tropical (radio) waves. There weren't
\nmany people in Indonesia who could call themselves radio
\nexperts,\" Des explained.<\/p>\n
His luck stayed with him, as he became education and cultural
\nattache, first in Bern, Switzerland, between 1952 and 1956, then
\nin Austria and Hungary, until the Hungarian Revolution stopped
\ndiplomatic activities in 1957.<\/p>\n
This was followed by a posting in the Philippines, where he
\nbefriended Benigno Servillano Aquino, the Philippine's opposition
\nleader and his wife, the future president Corazon Aquino.<\/p>\n
In 1958, Des quit his posting in Manila and actively supported
\nthe separatist movement, PRRI\/Permesta, for which he was exiled
\nand lived in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia until called back
\nto help mend diplomatic ties with Malaysia.<\/p>\n
\"Sukarno founded Guided Democracy; I was against that,\" he
\nsaid simply.<\/p>\n
Des kept himself busy during the New Order regime. He upgraded
\nhis expertise from sound -- radio -- to film production, which he
\nsaid was the \"commercialization\" of his hobby. He was vice
\nchairman of the Association of Indonesian Film Producers (PPFI)
\nfrom 1984 to 1987.<\/p>\n
He was also active in a variety of foundations, including as
\nchairman of Banda's culture and heritage foundation, the 10
\nNovember Foundation.<\/p>\n
Nowadays Des spends his time between Naira and Jakarta, and
\nhas become an expert on nutmeg, the commodity that once had its
\nvalue weighed in gold, and put his tiny cluster of islands on the
\nworld's map.<\/p>\n
Nutmeg has characteristics similar to those of humans, he said
\nlaughing: \"Did you know that of 100 nutmeg trees planted, more
\nthan 50 will turn female, 40 male and the remainder, banci
\n(effeminate homosexual)!\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/des-alwi-destined-to-be-king-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}