'I was a victim of the Cold War'

'I was a victim of the Cold War'

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

Tears welled up in the middle-aged man's eyes and his voice shook
with emotion as he started recalling the moment he was reunited
with his parents.

The previously lively conversation on his career halted for a
moment as he tried to control himself.

"We are all victims of the Cold War," said Tan Wei-wen, the
60-year-old counselor for trade and commerce at the Embassy of
the People's Republic of China in Jakarta. "It was a tragedy."

Tan, the second of five children born in June 1945, right
after the end of World War II, continued, with less emotion and
more self-control.

His English was heavily accented, but not in a way one would
expect in a Chinese.

"I was parted from my family for more than 20 years," he said,
explaining that he could not even write a simple letter to his
parents. "I was afraid of being accused of acting as an agent for
other parties and so was my family. In fact, we are only wong
cilik (a Javanese phrase meaning ordinary people)."

Tan pronounced the Javanese words as fluently as he pronounced
Chinese.

"I was born in Semarang (Central Java)," he said with renewed
calmness. He paused for several seconds and added that he spent
his school years in the city before he decided to continue his
education in China.

"I flew to Beijing in 1966, following the emergence of anti-
Chinese rallies after the coup allegedly perpetrated by the PKI
(Indonesian Communist Party), while my parents stayed in
Semarang.

"I felt like a stranger there," Tan explained, adding that the
situation during the Cold War had plunged him into the
uncertainty faced by many people in developing countries at that
time.

The Cold War years, which the man referred to as a time of
unnecessary suspicion, had separated him from his roots, and yet,
unexpectedly, had brought him to his current position.

Tan explained that when he went to Beijing, China was
undergoing the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, as Chinese
leader Mao Tse-tung had started the anticapitalism movement. This
decade was to become known as the bloodiest in Chinese history.

Instead of continuing his education, he joined the mass
movement and later went to the countryside to work as a farmer
when "chairman Mao instructed his cadres to develop their mental
capacity through manual labor."

During those three years of farming, he really felt the
hardship of living as a village farmer. "Because we claimed that
we were serving the people, we had to learn the nature of their
aspirations and despair."

However, young Tan did not stop there. "I also continued to
study English by myself, through the VoA (Voice of America) or
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)," he said, adding that he
was once suspected of learning the language of "the enemy" and
was reported to his superior.

His flair for learning English with very little assistance led
him to work as an interpreter as soon as he had returned to
Beijing. In 1974, he was sent to Afghanistan on the staff of the
trade attache.

"I was involved in development projects funded by China," he
said. "That was the beginning of my international career." He
served in Afghanistan until late 1978, before he went back to
China.

Not long after, the country started opening its doors after
the downfall of Soviet communism and welcomed foreign aid. "One
offer came from the UNDP (UN Development Program), which opened
its office in China in 1979," he explained. With his years
abroad, Tan found himself employed as a national program officer
for the UNDP.

"I was never involved in politics; always in trade," he said.
With the UN position he held, Tan did his part in reforming
China's economy.

"We admit that we had a lot to learn from the West," he said.
"However, we still held the control of our country."

His return to Indonesia for an international conference in
1989 reunited him with his parents. "It was quite an emotional
moment," he recalled.

"My mother still lives in Semarang, but my father has passed
away," he said, adding that his family roots were in Indonesia
instead of China.

His views of both countries seem to have done him good as a
counselor. "I have a clearer view of the situation and the
position of each country."

Tan served his first term in Indonesia from 1993 to 1997. He
then returned to this country for his second term four-and-a-half
years ago.

As China's representative, Tan was able to explain the
position of his country well. "China has always been questioned
since its birth," he said. "Even now, after the Cold War, people
are still suspicious of whatever we do."

Suspicions, Tan added, were a bad inheritance from the Cold
War days. "Holding on to them will bring no benefit," he said.
Despite criticism and questioned motives, his country would go on
with whatever principles it had.

China, reemerging with a new openness, had learned from others
-- both their successes and mistakes, he said.

"We believe that we are developing a system that will be the
most democratic for the benefit of the majority of our people,"
he said.

Speaking of the China-Indonesia relationship, Tan said that he
still perceived suspicion emanating from Indonesians with regard
to his country's policies. "It gets in the way of developing a
better relationship, but we're patient."

"A horse's endurance is tested by how far it can go," he said,
repeating an old Chinese saying.

Although China might still have to prove itself, Tan Wei-wen
has surely passed that test. (003)