'I learned from Sukarno more than I ever dreamed I could learn'

By Aboeprijadi Santoso

AMSTERDAM (JP): To think about Sukarno today, makes Willem Oltmans, a Dutch journalist, 76 and an ardent admirer of Indonesia's first president, very sad.

He met Sukarno in 1956 and became a good friend. His penthouse in Amsterdam is full with photographs of him with Sukarno, his family and friends. On June 6, his book Sukarno, Sahabatku (Sukarno, My Friend) will be launched in Jakarta.

The following are excerpts from a discussion he had with The Jakarta Post.

"I knew Bung Karno like I would one of my closest relatives. I met him in Rome in 1956, but I had been brainwashed in Holland (Netherlands) that Bung Karno was a collaborator with the Japanese, that he hated the Dutch, etc. So I went to see him in Rome and decided to go to Indonesia to find out the truth.

"Sukarno laughed. He knew the game. He had been a prisoner of the Dutch. He knew exactly what idiots we were. And he felt kasihan (sorry) for us. Oh, they were stupid guys from the other side of the world, who didn't know what was going on. I agreed with him.

"It took me a year (1956-1957) and we became very close friends. When I last visited him in 1966, he invited me for a weekend at the Bogor palace, with Ibu Hartini. So I wrote my diaries and they were published in Holland in 1995 (Sukarno, Mijn Vriend) and now the book in Indonesian, Sukarno, Sahabatku, will be published.

"Bung Karno was thinking purely Javanese, informally he ate with his hand, I saw that in Bogor. But he also had been so long in touch with the Dutch in prisons. And he had read so much ... I always think of Multatuli (Dutch 19th century writer).

"Multatuli wrote in Max Havelaar, that Dutchmen could learn more from the regent of Lebak (in Banten, West Java) than the other way around. And I learned from Sukarno much more than I ever dreamed I could learn.

Sukarno was able to talk in a way the Dutch would understand, Oltmans said.

"He understood that the brains of Dutchmen were totally different. So he was able to translate the way Indonesians think and feel. The Dutch were very provincial, a black-white people. Apartheid (the former system of racial segregation in South Africa) was not an invention of the world, but of the Dutch. Their outlook was black-white. You are either good or bad.

"Well, in Indonesia, that's why Sukarno's non-alignment idea was so interesting, because Indonesians believed nobody was entirely right or entirely wrong. So you have musyawarah and mufakat (deliberations) and reach a consensus. That's the ... psychology of the Indonesians.

"That was what Sukarno taught Indonesians. He taught the world to think this way by (creating) non-alignment principles, and not saying America is right or Russia is right, but we all are right, and we have to reach agreement by listening to each other. I learned that from Sukarno.

"When I talked with Indira Gandhi (Indian PM) or Tanaka of Japan or Castro (of Cuba) or Mandela (of South Africa) ... Well, read the memoirs of Nelson Mandela, he is exactly the same as Bung Karno."

Quoting Mandela, Oltmans said that as a little boy, akhosa or a member of royal family, Mandela saw all the elders talking. "(So) they practice the musyawarah and mufakat in Africa. It is only the whites, the Dutch and the Americans, who think black- white. I can't find the consensus mentality."

"That's why Bung Karno wrote," he continued, "that if 51 people are happy and 49 are unhappy, they call it a democracy, it's ridiculous. He was right. Mandela said exactly the same. I discussed it with Mrs. (Indira) Gandhi."

The Afro-Asian people, he added "have an entirely different machine in their heads."

"They are right. The way (British) Westminster democracy works, is not the answer. (In the United States) Gore won because he got more votes, but Bush is president! We are making a joke of the whole thing. And the (Dutch) Tweede Kamer democracy -- we make fools of ourselves."

Oltmans recalled that Sukarno "did want to go to Holland, of course."

"Nehru (of India) wanted to go to England, Ben Bela (of Algeria) wanted to go to France. If you had had relations with the country for hundreds of years, you would want someday to see it for yourself. Because (Sukarno) learned all the Dutch nonsense in school."

"Had 1965 (the aborted coup of Sep. 30, 1965) not happened, Sukarno probably would have been in Holland, because the Queen (then Juliana) and (her husband) Prince Bernhard very much wanted Sukarno to come. I know this first hand. But the (Dutch) politicians didn't want it."

Since he met Sukarno in 1956, Oltmans was blacklisted as a journalist "because I was a friend of the enemy of the state."

"It took me from 1956 to 2000 to get the damage compensation," he added. "It shows the sickness of (Holland's democratic) system."

Prince Bernhard met Sukarno in secret twice, he said, in Washington in 1961 and in Vienna in 1962. "They talked very warmly ... Bernhard thought the (Dutch) government was crazy not to receive Sukarno. But then Bernhard himself is slightly a crook, he became a golf partner of Soeharto. But Juliana never met Sukarno. She regretted it. And I know then Crown Princess (now Queen) Beatrice also regretted it."

On Sukarno's legacy, Oltmans said that it was Sukarno who built and unified the nation, and constructed the state ideology Pancasila.

"Third, internationally, his most important creation was Bandung 1955, the Afro-Asian Conference, which still continues today."

"These (non-aligned) countries lost substance only after the United States and the CIA killed (their leaders). Norodom Sihanouk (of Cambodia) was ousted by Lon Nol's CIA coup, Salvador Allende (of Chile) was murdered by Henry Kissinger. And (President Abdurrahman) Wahid appointed Kissinger, the war criminal, to become a special adviser to the President of Indonesia. Oh, Sukarno must have turned in his grave!

"What worries me most is that Indonesia will lose its unity. It would be a shame if again the imperialists succeeded. They succeeded in Russia (when) the Soviet Union fell apart. If they could make Indonesia fall apart, it would mean they could steal more."

Outside Indonesia, Sukarno is now "forgotten," says Oltmans.

"The man -- what he did and how he built Indonesia -- that is now lost. Very sad, because he was one of the greatest figures of the last century; forgotten, because he was hated in the West. What he really was, (which) I spent 10 years to find out, was that he was the man who founded Pancasila for Indonesia, got the non-aligned world together and took a gigantic step in 1955 in Bandung to set up a counterbalance between East and West.

"Sukarno was exceptional because he was betrayed by his own generals, by Soeharto, the Pol Pot of Indonesia; but also by his people when he was imprisoned by Soeharto. At that moment, he was left alone.

"What makes me sad is that the greatness of Sukarno was never really told. Soeharto killed him; because if you treat a man like that in isolation, he dies like a flower without water. After that, they made him look bad. Now none of his friends is there to testify.

"Pak (Marshall) Omar Dhani said, 'Wim, I cried because finally somebody, you, portrayed (Sukarno) as he was.'"

And Oltmans' criticism of Sukarno?

"Well, for instance, Sukarno could not believe that (Andrew) Gilchrist's letter (former British Ambassador's document of 1964 saying the West had allies or "our local Army friends" in Jakarta) could have been the KGB's (Soviet intelligence) product. I told him that but he didn't believe it ... And he was too open with his womanizing.

Oltmans witnessed the June 1999 elections in which Sukarno remained a powerful symbol.

"I saw the elections and the madness. Saying 'Hidup (Long Life) Megawati!' -- that's total madness. Well, she is a wonderful pleasant lady, very honorable. But that she could think that she might be the president of Indonesia, is madness. Because she knows nothing!

"I went one morning with Gen. (ret.) Soeharjo (former Kalimantan commander) to Ibu Megawati and we talked for several hours. After that conversation, I knew, maybe she could bring the unity back to Indonesia. I hope she will! Insya Allah! (God willing).

"But, Indonesia is very precious and important. I think, Megawati would be wise, together with the Army, to establish unity in Indonesia. Only then, would she succeed. If she gets the right people, she could save Indonesia, by being there, by symbolizing what her father did.

"But that has nothing to do with honoring Sukarno. Bung Karno did not ask for honor. (What Megawati is doing) is not a question of Bung Karno's legacy. No! That's like Indira Gandhi following her father Nehru.

"Unfortunately Bung Karno never had time for his children. Once I was having breakfast with him and they came to get (his) kiss before going to school.

"Now they all ask, how was Bung Karno? They didn't know him well, let alone understand his political ideas. The one who understands most is Sukmawati. She has the spirit of Bung Karno. The others, not at all! That's such a pity.

"I cry when I saw Megawati speaking to the people, because instead of adopting her father's messages, she didn't know much how to do it. Pity ...

"Poor guy, Sukarno! He watches from heaven, and I wonder what he thinks ... "