Ibu Tien passes away

JAKARTA (JP): First Lady Mrs. Siti Fatimah Hartinah Soeharto, popularly known as Ibu Tien, died of a heart attack at the Army Gatot Subroto Hospital at dawn yesterday. She was 72.

Her sudden death was announced by the State Secretariat in a short statement broadcast on television nationwide.

Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher also gave the news before a congregation of Moslems ahead of the Idul Adha (Day of Sacrifice) prayers at the State Istiqlal Grand Mosque.

"President Soeharto informed me that she died in Gatot Soebroto Hospital at 5:10 a.m. The President cannot say the Idul Adha prayers here today with us," he said.

The television announcement also called for seven days of national mourning and the hoisting of the red-and-white flag to half mast during that period.

According to officials, Mrs. Tien died about an hour after she was admitted to the hospital after complaining of breathing difficulties. President Soeharto and all but two of her six children were present at her bedside.

The two missing daughters, Titik Prabowo and Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana were both abroad. They were on their way home yesterday.

Upon hearing the news, thousands of people joined government officials and foreign diplomats to stream to the President's residence on Jl. Cendana No. 8 to pay their last respects.

Chief of the Indonesian Ulema Council Hasan Basri led the prayers in the packed house with Vice President Try Sutrisno and other dignitaries on hand.

Former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, former chief of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly Gen. (ret.) A.H. Nasution and daughter of former President Sukarno, Megawati Soekarnoputri, also paid their tributes.

At 1:30 p.m. the solemn sound of a trumpet began the honors, as a coffin draped in the red and white flag and jasmine banquets were carried by pallbearers.

Vice-President Try Sutrisno delivered a short eulogy.

"Farewell First Lady, a fighter, Ibu Tien, an exemplary Indonesian woman. Our prayers are with you... You have contributed so much to our society and our nation... We bid you farewell with an open, strong heart... to your eternal place of rest."

The green army hearse carrying the coffin moved down the road slowly, with President Soeharto in a car behind it, surrounded by security officers.

The main streets turned into a sea of mourners as the convoy proceeded to Halim Perdana Kusumah airport in East Jakarta from whence it was flown to her hometown of Surakarta (Solo).

She was laid in state at her residence in the ancient city before burial in a family cemetery in Giribangun village in a state ceremony today.

In a message conveyed to the public by Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono, President Soeharto thanked the people for their sympathy and asked them to forgive her for any mistakes.

The daughter of a district officer descended from Javanese royalty of Surakarta, she was born on Aug. 23, 1923. Mrs. Tien is survived by six children and several grandchildren.

American writer O.G. Roeder, in President Soeharto's biography The Smiling General, describes Mrs. Tien as the President's most trusted person.

"The only ones who initially supported me crushing the G- 30S/PKI plotters in 1965 were my wife and children," President Soeharto said in the book.

Mrs. Tien was well-known as a social activist. Like many other middle-class women during the Dutch colonial period she was a member of the Girl Scout Movement. She was an employee of Surakarta Cultural Center in 1944 and an activist of the Indonesian Women Youth Movement in 1945.

She and then Lt. Col. Soeharto married in Surakarta in 1947 during a brief lull in the armed revolution, a few days before Soeharto had to rejoin his battalion in Yogyakarta.

A recipient of several medals of honor, including the highest, the Mahaputra, she was the founder of the famous Beautiful Indonesia in Miniature Park and numerous charity organizations such as the Harapan Kita hospital and the Gotong Royong Humanitarian Funds.

One of the preoccupations of Mrs. Tien, known as an admirer of local heroes such as R.A. Kartini, Dewi Sartika and Tjoet Nya Dien, was promoting the role of Indonesian women in development.

Minister Tarmizi said when he met her on Friday to discuss a plan to build a museum at the Indonesian Miniature Park, he did not notice anything to suggest she had any health problem.

"She looked perfectly healthy," he told journalists. She was also seen visiting the Fruit Garden in Cileungsi, West Java, with her grandchildren on Saturday.

Moerdiono said a number of friendly countries had sent their condolences.

Singaporean President Ong Teng Cheong and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Muhamad and Brunei ruler Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah are among the foreign government leaders expected to attend the funeral in Surakarta, officials said. (riz/anr/pan)

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