Foreign vets join freedom fest

JAKARTA (JP): Eighteen foreigners who took part in Indonesia's independence struggle were invited by the Armed Forces as special guests of Indonesia to take part in the various events to celebrate the nation's golden anniversary.

The eighteen were among guests of honor during the presentation of the State of the Nation Address by President Soeharto at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

One of them was Bijuyananda Patnaik, 77, an Indian pilot who flew the nascent republican leaders Mohammad Hatta and Sutan Sjahrir in 1946 out of Indonesia to New Delhi for a meeting with Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

That meeting led to India giving its full support to Indonesia in the bitter struggle against the Netherlands, both on the battlefield and at the United Nations.

Patnaik was assigned by Nehru to go to Indonesia to check on the allegations that Sukarno, the republic president, was a Japanese puppet. "When I went back, I told Nehru that Sukarno was like (Mahatma) Gandhi in Indonesia, so he changed his opinion," he said. "I'm very pleased to see the development of your country," Patnaik told The Jakarta Post.

There were Pakistanis who were members of the British Indian Army sent to fight against Indonesian freedom fighters.

Mohammad Kasam Dad, 76, said he and a few others deserted their corps on the first day of their arrival, after learning that the Indonesians they were fighting against were Moslems and shared some of their own culture.

He recalled sharing the good and bad times with Indonesian fighters when they were fighting from within the forests.

He stayed in Indonesia after the war was over, and married an Indonesian women. He later returned to Pakistan and worked for the Indonesian embassy there.

Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Basar, 75 years, is a Malaysian citizen who came to Indonesia in 1946 to join in the independence fight. He felt obliged, for his father was an Acehnese.

Toshio Okihara, 73, was a Japanese naval officer stationed in Jakarta during World War II. He was one of the Japanese officers who were very supportive of Indonesians's desire for independence. "I feel that I have been an Indonesian, even to this day," he said.

On his return to Japan, he helped found the Jawa Society Nihhun Indonesia in Tokyo. (03/05)