Admirers mark 94th birthday of Sukarno

Admirers mark 94th birthday of Sukarno

JAKARTA (JP): More than 400 people, mostly activists from
various affiliations, from Moslem associations to nationalists,
gathered at the house of Megawati Soekarnoputri to pay homage to
her father, the late President Sukarno, on his birthday on
Tuesday.

In her speech, Megawati called on the young generation to
perceive his ideas and views in a holistic way and judge them
proportionally.

"I hope the young people of today can understand his ideas and
views as an entity. Many of Sukarno's ideas, some of which were
conceived long before independence, are not yet known to the
public," she said at the gathering to commemorate Sukarno's 94th
birthday.

"What is always clear in his ideas is that they were always
meant to help people in their struggle against colonialism. That
is why his life has always been filled with trouble, with many
years spent in prison and exile," she said.

Sukarno, who proclaimed Indonesia's independence on Aug. 17,
1945, ruled the country between 1945 and 1966. He died in 1970 in
official, but not popular, disgrace.

Some of his ideas have been the source of controversy to this
day and his image and teachings have been used by the Indonesian
Democratic Party as rallying points. Megawati is currently the
chairperson of the party.

Tuesday night's gathering, at Megawati's spacious house in
South Jakarta, was organized by young people from the Indonesian
Moslem University Students Associations, the Indonesian Moslem
Students Association and the Indonesian Students' National
Movement.

The gathering was preceded by a prayer session organized by
the Independent Alliance of Tasauf (Moslem contemplators) and
followed by a speech from Dahlan Ranoewihardjo, former
chairperson of the Indonesian Moslem Students Union, and
Abdurrahman Wahid, Chairman of the Moslem-oriented Nahdlatul
Ulama organization.

Other guests attending the gathering included former Jakarta
governor Ali Sadikin, education expert Mochtar Buchori, executive
director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, Mulyana W.
Kusumah, former editor of the defunct DeTik weekly, Eros Djarot,
and numerous activists and members of the Indonesian Democratic
Party, of which Megawati is the chairperson.

Although Megawati's brothers and sisters did not attend the
gathering, Sukarno's fifth wife, Ratna Sari Dewi, and Megawati's
sister-in-law Levana Taufan, were present.

Clad in a white dress and head scarf, Megawati, who is
Sukarno's daughter from his third wife, Fatmawati, said that the
Sukarno family was accustomed to celebrating his birthday
quietly.

Dewi, who came in a neon-bright green two-piece suit, became
the center of attraction when she entered the packed house, which
was extended by several tarpaulins and mats.

Speaking in slightly accented Bahasa Indonesia, Dewi, who is a
Japanese native and has been spending most of her life abroad
since Sukarno's death in 1970, said that she came to visit
Indonesia especially to attend the gathering as she would not be
able to attend the Independence Day celebration in August due to
her work at the New York-based United Nations' Environment
Program.

"I am very happy to meet with the Sukarno family again. My
daughter, Karlina, will be coming in August to attend the
Independence Day celebrations," she said.

Dewi, whose former name is Naoko Nemoto, pointed out that the
commemoration of Indonesia's 50 years of independence coincides
with the end of World War II and the end of colonialism in Asian
countries.

"It is therefore a very important year for all the people in
the world," she stressed.

Mochtar Buchori said the commemoration ceremony was expected
to remind Indonesia of Sukarno's views and strengths.

"Sukarno sacrificed himself totally for the people's cause. As
an engineer, he could have lived comfortably but instead he chose
to fight," he said.

"Hopefully, we will not repeat the mistakes we have made in
the past. Currently we are making too many mistakes, which we
should have already learned not to do, if only we were willing to
look back at history," he added.

Sukarno was born on June 6, 1901 in Surabaya. He died in
Jakarta in 1970 and was buried in Blitar, East Java. (pwn)