Hendrati Munthe's diplomatic destiny

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

When President Megawati Soekarnoputri installed Hendrati Sukendar Munthe as ambassador to North Korea on Sept. 30, Hendrati, or Henny as she is known to her friends, might have thought of the day when president Sukarno singled her out from a row of young students and asked "What is your name".

He did not like the name Henny. No, no, he said, I will call you Hendrati. It was exactly 40 years ago. Can one see a thread between then and now, a signal subconsciously taken up by the current President, the daughter of the then president?

Whatever it may be, Henny has never forgotten that visit by Indonesia's first president to Moscow.

"He was like a father to all the Indonesian students, warm and caring -- taking the time to speak with each of us. He came to our campus to see our living conditions." She was a student then, the first-ever Indonesian woman to study in Moscow, very young, very shy and very honored to be speaking with her president.

Henny had come to Russia on a scholarship which was partly funded by the Indonesian government and partly by the Soviet government. At a time when most students chose to study in Western Europe, Henny went to Russia to learn Russian, a language that no Indonesian woman had ever ventured to study, in a country where temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius were the order of the day. It didn't really matter, for challenging the challenge was something she enjoyed.

She entered Moscow's Lomonov State University, which is comparable to Cambridge or Oxford in the UK. Her six years in Moscow proved to be crucial in many ways. There she learned to become familiar with foreigners. Lomonov University was like a mini United Nations, with students from all over the world, including from non-communist countries. She learned to appreciate foreign cultures and traditions, and to be open to other visions and opinions without losing her own identity, something that served her well in her career as a diplomat.

Being an Indonesian student abroad is in fact like being an ambassador, introducing the culture and traditions of Indonesia to people overseas.

"I have always wanted to be a diplomat," says Henny, revealing that she always felt an urge to introduce Indonesia to other, foreign people. Of course, traveling and seeing new places was an additional attraction.

Returning to Indonesia after graduating in 1967, she applied to the foreign affairs department for a job teaching the Russian language to prospective diplomats. Having studied in a communist country did not make it easy for her when she returned, though she had had nothing to do with the ideology during her studies in Moscow. But anti-communist sentiment was still running high and she had a tough time facing discriminative gazes.

She persevered, however, and became a permanent staff member at the foreign affairs department after two years. After another year, she entered a course for diplomat candidates.

In the '70s, she received a posting at the permanent mission to the UN, where Russian is one of the five working languages.

Imagine, she says, one time I was stuck with my English so I asked the chair for permission to continue in Russian, to everyone's surprise. Are you communist, asked the Iranian representative who sat next to her in the meeting.

The Russian thread was picked up again in 1999, after she had served in Switzerland and London as the head of information at the Indonesian Embassy. Hendrati Sukendar, the student for whom the embassy had been home over 30 years before, came back to Moscow as the Deputy Head of Mission, the first woman to enter a top position at the embassy. Truly, a thrilling sensation! And what is more, she was fluent in the language she had not used for decades. It was as if she had not been away for almost 40 years. Henny had come home.

Meanwhile, she had added the name Munthe, having married Polisten Munthe, an Indonesian, in 1981. Marriage did not mean giving up her career. So both of them alternated commuting after she was appointed to head the information division at the Indonesian Embassy in London, a post she held from 1991 to 1996. It was not easy, she admits, particularly when the children were toddlers. But staying at home had never been an option.

Today Henny readies herself to say good-bye to her beloved Russia, and she does so with gratitude and love. The system may have made a lot of the people appear stiff and not so outgoing, but in fact the Russian people are warm, kind and very helpful, she says.

Will she excel the way she has in her other posts? Of course, as an ambassador in North Korea she will be facing new challenges. But that is nothing new to her, for in addition to being smart, she beams with energy. At 60, Henny has reached an important milestone. No doubt that many more milestones await her on her path.