Not an army academy<\/p>\n
In concern with your news on the front page of the Saturday
\nMay 3, 1997 edition, titled Soeharto tells children not to depend
\non education alone, I would like to draw your attention to your
\nlevel of inaccuracy, relating to the fourth paragraph:<\/p>\n
\"After secondary school (you mean junior high school
\nMuhammadyah in Wuryantoro?) Soeharto went to the Royal
\nNetherlands Indies Army Academy in Gombong, Central Java, in
\n1940.\"<\/p>\n
Neither in his autobiography The Smiling General, nor
\n'Soeharto, pikiran, ucapan dan tindakan saya' (Soeharto, my
\nthought, speech and action), nor in his interviews with foreign
\njournalists did Soeharto ever mention about a military academy in
\nGombong.<\/p>\n
It should be noted, that before World War II and before
\nIndonesian independence, there was not a single military academy
\nin the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia). Most of the best
\nIndonesian officers were sent to the Royal Military Academy in
\nBreda, the Netherlands, such as Colonel Alex Kawilarang, or later
\nthey were sent to an American military academy at Fort Benning or
\nFort Leavenworth, such as General Soemitro, Hasnan Habib, and
\nSoehario Kecik Padmonegoro.<\/p>\n
I have an uncle who is still alive in Kalimantan. He is a
\nretired chief commandant of a security service at a state-owned
\noil company who had never joined the Military Ordinary School of
\nKNIL (Dutch colonial army and its members) in Gombong in 1939,
\nalso after junior high school, and testified of no military
\nacademy at all.<\/p>\n
During Dutch colonial rule, it was really very difficult for
\nindigenous Indonesians to achieve the rank of sergeant after
\ngraduating from the school except as common soldiers or PFCs. The
\nDutch were very strict and closed to giving ranks to indigenous
\nIndonesians. Most of the old Indonesian soldiers became sergeants
\nafter they fearlessly proved themselves, in battles in Aceh,
\nLombok, Maluku or other hazardous military campaigns. So accuracy
\nand historical truth should be required in rectifying any
\nmisleading or anachronistic news aspect.<\/p>\n
WIMANJAYA<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>\n
Note:<\/p>\n
We based our data on a book by O.G. Roeder, The Smiling
\nGeneral: President Soeharto of Indonesia; 1970.<\/p>",
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