Hendrati Munthe's diplomatic destiny

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.