Des Alwi, the brave man from Banda who believes in peace<\/p>\n
By Mehru Jaffer<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): He witnessed the Japanese occupation, the Dutch
\ncolonial era and the Indonesian revolution. He rebelled against
\nfounding president Sukarno and helped mediate in the Malaysian
\ndispute. Today his life may be marked by less exciting political
\nendeavors, but what has not changed is the keen interest of Des
\nAlwi, 73, in the welfare of the people of Banda and his love for
\nthe islands.<\/p>\n
As a token of appreciation, Des, whose activities today
\ninclude fishing, owning a hotel and producing documentary films,
\nwas awarded a prestigious Mahaputra award last month, given to
\ncitizens for their outstanding contribution to the state.<\/p>\n
To celebrate the occasion, Meutia, Gemala and Halida
\n(daughters of Mohammad Hatta); Upik (daughter of Sutan Sjahrir);
\nMans Muskita (daughter of Laluhahary, the first Ambonese governor
\nof Maluku); and a group of friends and relatives from Banda, both
\nMuslim and Christian, got together, inspiring Des to relive his
\ninvolvement in the 1945 war in defense of Surabaya.<\/p>\n
Des was the commander of the communication offices. The radio
\nstation was under his supervision. In October 1945, Allied forces
\nreplaced the Japanese and set up base in the city as if to
\nprepare for the return of the Dutch. The British 49th Indian
\nInfantry Brigade under Brigadier Mallaby came to forcibly occupy
\nbank buildings, British Petroleum headquarters and the radio
\nstation.<\/p>\n
\"We did not like that,\" said Des, who was also robbed of his
\njeep and Japanese pistol by British soldiers. Soon Surabayan
\nfreedom fighters set the radio station ablaze, killing all in a
\nplatoon of 24 soldiers and also Brigadier Mallaby when his car
\nexploded.<\/p>\n
The battle of Surabaya was to continue for three bloody weeks.
\nThe British 5th Division began moving into the city in
\npreparation for a revenge operation. Des was told to move the
\nradio transmitter out of Surabaya. He left Surabaya in a lorry
\nalong with three others, including Arifin, a nephew of Hatta,
\nfollowed all the way by mortars. On the way they saw a bullock
\ncart: \"The driver was killed, a ten-year old boy had lost a leg
\nand we noticed that the two women in the cart had their breasts
\ncut off,\" he said.<\/p>\n
They decided to take the boy with them to safety but he died.
\nWhen they tried to start the lorry it would not move. They
\ndecided to push it backwards and that is what saved their lives.
\nA mortar landed on the front of the lorry.<\/p>\n
\"Arifin started to vomit as a splinter pierced his lung. I got
\none in my left leg. Arifin was rushed to Malang while I was
\ndeposited in a hospital in Sidoarjo,\" said Des. There he found
\nthe place littered with corpses and the staff too overworked to
\nattend to their wounds. A neighbor told him that he had woken up
\none morning to find that his hand had been chopped off. A nurse
\nsaid to Des that she could do nothing about the splinter lodged
\nin his leg.<\/p>\n
Luckily, his driver arrived to transport him to Malang where
\nhe bumped into Dr. Suwisa, also from Banda. He passed out with
\nrelief at the thought that at last he was in safe hands.<\/p>\n
Today Des is chairman of the November 10 Foundation, named
\nafter a day that has gone down in Indonesian history as Hero's
\nDay. He is the curator of an archive that documents papers and
\nfilms about the revolution.<\/p>\n
However dangerous life was in those revolutionary times, Des
\nsometimes feels that maybe it was better when Indonesians did not
\nhave much. At least people were not killing each other during the
\nrevolution, he said.<\/p>\n
Now he feels little optimism as he watches so much violence
\naround him that is directed, not toward a common enemy, but
\ntoward its own kind. He finds that today there are far too many
\npeople talking too much.<\/p>\n
There is no discipline, little organization and much too much
\ndestruction, he noted.<\/p>\n
\"All films of the revolution were destroyed. Many documents
\nand films of Hatta were burnt by communists and of Sukarno by the
\nmilitary. All the time taking revenge on each other. That is the
\nkind of people we have become,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Des was only eight years old when he first met Mohammad Hatta
\nand Sutan Sjahrir, when the country's two founding fathers were
\nexiled to Banda. He became Sjahrir's pupil, and learned from him
\nDutch and also a love for books.<\/p>\n
Des joined Sjahrir in Jakarta in 1942 where he studied radio
\nand the Japanese broadcasting system in order to secretly monitor
\nnewscasts from Australia and the BBC on behalf of the growing
\nnationalist movement. He also went underground, working all the
\ntime as a courier and broadcaster for his adoptive fathers who
\nwere now leading the fight for independence.<\/p>\n
After the 1945 battle of Surabaya, Des was sent by Sjahrir to
\nLondon to study at a technical college and to work at the
\nIndonesian information office where he made friends with Tengku
\nAbdul Rahman, Malaysia's first prime minister.<\/p>\n
After independence he joined the foreign ministry, but soon
\nrefused to work for Sukarno after Hatta resigned from the
\ngovernment and Sjahrir was imprisoned. He fled his post at the
\nIndonesian embassy in Manila and sought refuge in Malaysia, where
\nhe acted as official spokesman for the anti-Sukarno movement. He
\nreturned home only after Sukarno was president no more.<\/p>\n
Today, Christians are given refuge in the ruins of his hotel
\nin Ambon that was destroyed by arsonists in the April 1999 riots.
\nHe is also busy getting Christian homes that were torched in
\nBanda at the same time rebuilt. Although he is a Muslim, Des
\nmarried a Christian from Manado and believes that the only way
\nIndonesia can face the future is for its peoples to first learn
\nto live in peace with each other.<\/p>",
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