Indomitable Dewi overcomes all obstacles<\/p>\n
Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Belying the stereotype of a delicate and demure Japanese
\nwoman, Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno shows her true colors.<\/p>\n
She is tough, defiant and ambitious, a woman who declares
\nproudly that her achievements came through hard work and
\npersistence. There is a formality about her as she sits in her
\nCentral Jakarta home, a no-nonsense, all-business attitude.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian name her husband, Sukarno, gave her, meaning
\nessence of the jewel, is in many ways fitting, but ultimately she
\nis a great survivor, overcoming all that life has put in her
\npath.<\/p>\n
Born Naoko Nemoto in Nishi-Azabu in Central Tokyo 61 years
\nago, she initially wished to be an opera singer or a great
\nwriter.<\/p>\n
But she had a hard-scrabble existence in the difficult years
\nfollowing World War II in Japan. Dewi has told of living through
\npoverty and even having to grab a lunch of the leftovers from the
\nAmerican base.<\/p>\n
Blessed with pretty features, Dewi realized she could become
\nthe architect of her future. She set about improving herself,
\nstudying English, learning Japanese dance, the Urasenke tea
\nceremony and Sogestu-style flower arranging.<\/p>\n
Hard work and an unrelenting confidence in her own abilities
\nare still her secrets of success.<\/p>\n
\"I study three times more than other people, I make efforts
\nthree times than others, I work three times harder than others
\nbut I only sleep one third of normally people do,\" she said last
\nweek during a trip to Jakarta from her Tokyo home.<\/p>\n
\"My life is made with my own hands and mind. I never get any
\nhelps from other people. That is why I am proud of it and have
\nthe confidence. I did it myself, I did everything and
\neverything.\"<\/p>\n
She worked one night a week at Kokusai Club in Akasaka, the
\nplace where foreign VIPs went to unwind, and it was to prove her
\nway out of the anonymity of Tokyo's concrete jungle.<\/p>\n
Dewi, 19, met Sukarno, then 57, at the club, and he was to
\nmake her his wife, one of six during his lifetime.<\/p>\n
She was the first lady of a president who was adored by his
\npeople as the country's founding father and given respect, albeit
\nsometimes grudging, as a great international statesman.<\/p>\n
It cannot have been an easy transition to become the youngest
\nwife of the president in Jakarta during the uneasy period of the
\nearly 1960s, when Sukarno gradually began to cut ties with his
\nhated \"neo-colonialists\".<\/p>\n
Many Indonesians also harbored terrible memories of the
\nJapanese occupation of the country during World War II, although
\nDewi was famed among the people for her beauty.<\/p>\n
Her greatest test was in store. After an abortive coup blamed
\non the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in 1965, Sukarno was
\nshunted aside and put under house arrest as Soeharto took the
\nreins of power.<\/p>\n
Dewi went into exile with her three-year-old daughter, Karina,
\nin Paris, choosing France because of its neutrality. But she was
\nunable to be at Sukarno's side when he died in 1970, and she has
\nfrequently blamed the Indonesian government for thwarting her
\nfinal attempts to meet him.<\/p>\n
She raised Karina on her own -- a fact of which she is
\nimmensely proud -- and became a fixture of the international jet
\nset, her name cropping up in society pages and gossip columns in
\nLondon and New York through much of the 1970s.<\/p>\n
\"I became single a parent since bapak (Sukarno) passed away.
\nMy principal in raising Karina is that she is physically related
\nto me but spiritually she has to be independent. She must have
\nher own life and I don't meddle into hers. I also respect her.\"<\/p>\n
She notes that among Sukarno's children, it is only her
\ndaughter that completed her university degree and now works as a
\nprofessional.<\/p>\n
\"I gave her the best education and set her spirituality free.\"<\/p>\n
Dewi keeps homes in Paris, New York and Jakarta (she resident
\nher for much of the 1980s and still carries an Indonesian
\npassport) but her primary residence is in Tokyo's exclusive
\nGotanda district.<\/p>\n
\"...I am now one of the most popular people in Japan. I make
\npublic appearances every day on television shows,\" she said.<\/p>\n
\"People think I am wealthy. I am well-off, not wealthy. I also
\nworked hard there (in Paris) to survive.\"<\/p>\n
It's her utter belief in herself that must have helped her
\nweather two possible public relations disasters in the early
\n1990s.<\/p>\n
In 1992 Dewi spent a brief period in jail in Aspen, Colorado,
\nfor assaulting another socialite, Maria Victoria Osmena, at a
\nparty (she has always denied she was in the wrong).<\/p>\n
Dewi then stunned the Indonesian public with the publication
\nof Syuga, a book of photographs of her, many of them showing her
\nnude.<\/p>\n
\"The book reflects the human life journey from birth to death.
\nAll the feelings, from sad, happy, in mourning and the glory,\"
\nshe said in defending the book which was once banned in this
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Her social activities also keep her busy. She has raised some
\nUS$90,000 for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United
\nStates.<\/p>\n
It is apparently not the money that matters to her, with all
\nthe businesses and commercials she is involved in, but the love
\nof doing something for others and being recognized for her
\ncontribution.<\/p>\n
She may be a footnote in Indonesian political history, but she
\nobviously still loves the attention that her name and fame bring.<\/p>\n
\"Everywhere I go people are still giving me red-carpet
\ntreatment. On the streets, they are still calling me, asking to
\ntake pictures with me and asking for my autograph.\"<\/p>\n
With her confidence and determination, Dewi is not somebody
\none would like to have as an enemy (she was in Jakarta in a
\ncopyright case over a magazine's use of photos from Madame Syuga.<\/p>\n
She can also be counted on to say what she thinks, especially
\nabout the final years of Sukarno, and she is obviously no friend
\nof Soeharto.<\/p>\n
\"I am probably not too Indonesian because now I feel more
\ncosmopolitan, but I have spent 21 years living here. I know the
\ntruth about what happened in the past concerning bapak, so why
\nshouldn't I tell the younger generation about that,\" she said.<\/p>\n
She added that it was torture for a hard worker and thinker
\nlike Sukarno to see the turmoil in the country in the late 1960s,
\nwhile he was physically imprisoned, unable to reach the people.<\/p>\n
\"It's so sad because what was important for bapak is first the
\npeople and the country, second the people and the country and
\nthird the people and the country -- then probably the fourth is
\nme,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Dewi Sukarno has been through a lot, but there is no slowing
\ndown.<\/p>\n
\"Only God knows when I must stop,\" she said, laughing.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indomitable-dewi-overcomes-all-obstacles-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }