Guess What? Dr. George McTurnan Kahin

Hotel Garuda in Yogyakarta has a special place in the heart of Dr. George McTurnan Kahin, 77, a visiting American academic who is credited with setting up a famed Indonesia study center at Cornell University.

"I went to the hotel to see the room I used to stay in," Kahin told The Jakarta Post Thursday, a day after he returned from the Javanese court city.

"The room was still there. In fact it is now part of a suite," related Kahin, with a twinkle in his eyes, about the hotel he last visited almost 30 years ago.

What is so special about the room?

The academic, who was conferred a medal by the Indonesian government in 1991 in honor of his work, said he was in that room when the Indonesian freedom fighters attacked the hotel in 1949. Kahin was then a post graduate student doing historical research on the Indonesian revolution. The event was the second aggression by the Dutch colonial troops.

"I ducked under the table as the hotel was under a barrage of fire. Indonesian fighters also planted dynamite around the hotel to blow it up," he said.

Revisiting the room evoked memories, he said with a grin.

He added that he later met the Indonesian fighter who planted the dynamite. The officer freely admitted his role that day.

"But don't take it personally," Kahin quoted the officer as saying. "He was a gallant officer," Kahin said. (hbk)