In memory of statesman Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung

In memory of statesman Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung

By Putu Wirata

DENPASAR (JP): Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung, who served as a
statesman for three eras, passed away on April 22, 1999, at the
age of 78 in Gianyar, Bali. He died after several weeks of
treatment at a hospital in Perth, Australia. His remains will be
cremated on May 15.

Anak Agung, son of the king of Gianyar, was once prime
minister of the Dutch-puppet East Indonesia State, a minister and
an ambassador. He spent his old age in the vast complex of his
palace, the Puri Agung Gianyar, in the central part of the town
of Gianyar. A secretary and dozens of parekan (courtiers) kept
him company while his four children worked and lived in Jakarta.

He spent the rest of his life writing books and involving
himself with Hindu intellectual fora concerned with the
continuity of Balinese culture.

"He had a strong memory and an extraordinary concern about the
preservation of Balinese culture," said Dewa Ngurah Swastha,
chairman of the Forum for Hindu Dharma Society in Indonesia, an
symposium for Hindu intellectuals who are critics of development
policies.

In the forum, Anak Agung was an advisor together with other
prominent figures. It was in Puri Agung Gianyar that the
association was launched in 1996.

Anak Agung formulated his ideas in what he called the "Bali
trilogy" -- custom-culture-religion -- as the basis for the
growth of Balinese society. If one of the elements were
destroyed, the frame would disappear and Balinese society would
be on the brink of collapse.

It was also on account of the trilogy that he joined other
forum members once to visit the regional house of representatives
in Bali to criticize what he called commercialization of custom
and religion. He strongly opposed the Hindu-style wedding package
for tourist couples who were on honeymoon and called it "an
insult". He was also against ngaben (Balinese cremation) as a
tourism package.

"The people's culture which was destroyed by tourism as in
Hawaii caused his concern about the phenomenon of
commercialization of Balinese culture for tourism," said Ngurah
Bagus, a professor at Udayana University.

Anak Agung was also critical of the sociopolitical phenomena
in Indonesia.

"The current government has no sense of crisis. They know that
the country is in one, yet the House of Representatives is in
recess. Indeed, they have a right to vacation, but they should
have postponed their holidays and convened to discuss the steps
needed to save the country and the nation in crisis," he said in
April 1998.

Anak Agung was born at Puri Agung Gianyar in 1921 and was
raised with the shackles of feudalism and Dutch colonialism.

He entered grade school (HIS) at Klungkung, then continued
junior high school (MULO) and senior high school (HBS) in Malang,
East Java. In 1939, he enrolled at the School of Law (RHS) in
Jakarta where he studied until 1941 when his studies were stopped
because the war broke out in the Pacific region.

The Japanese army defeated the Dutch. They accused Anak
Agung's father Dewa Agung Manggis of subversion, arrested him and
exiled him to Lombok. By coercion, the Japanese appointed Anak
Agung, then 21 years old, as regional head (syuto) of Gianyar in
1942 to replace his father.

In his book Kenangan Masa Lampau (Memories From the Past,
1993) which retells the Dutch and Japanese occupations, Anak
Agung wrote that the Japanese only intended to make him a kind of
"puppet". The Japanese indirectly made use of Anak Agung's
authority to force the inhabitants to hand over their food which
became the logistics of the army engaged in battles with the
Allied Forces. Japan also mobilized romusha workers and comfort
women.

The Japanese occupation did not last long. Emperor Hirohito
surrendered unconditionally after the Allies bombed Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Indonesia became independent in 1945.

The situation was not stable though. The Dutch were still
trying to reinstate their colonial government creating upheavals
everywhere. One year after the proclamation of Indonesia's
independence the Paruman Agung (Bali's regional council of
people's representatives) appointed Anak Agung as the Bali
representative at the Malino conference followed by the Denpasar
conference in December 1946.

The Denpasar conference decided on the establishment of the
East Indonesian State and Ide Anak Agung as a member of the
provisional board of representatives of the eastern Indonesia
state.

His career continued to rise. In the Nadjamoedin Daeng Malewa
cabinet (1947) Anak Agung was appointed minister of interior
affairs and concurrent deputy prime minister. Then, he was prime
minister of the East Indonesia State. Until 1949 the political
situation was still turbulent as a result of the Dutch Military
Action II in 1948. International pressure brought Indonesia and
the Netherlands to the Round Table Conference in The Hague in
1949. It was followed by the establishment of the Federal
Republic of Indonesia in which Anak Agung together with Moh.
Hatta, Hamengkubuwono IX, Sultan Hamid II became members.

Subsequently, Anak Agung was appointed RI ambassador to
Belgium and Portugal and was reassigned to Paris (1953). Two
years later the foreign ministry assigned him to Jakarta.

In the Boerhanuddin Harahap cabinet (1955) Anak Agung was
assigned the post of foreign minister. The cabinet was dissolved
in 1956. Sukarno introduced a political policy which joined the
nationalist, religious and communist groups. The policy was known
under its acronym NASAKOM, and coincided with the announcement of
it. Suspected of obstructing the policy, Anak Agung and his
colleagues -- Mohammad Roem, Prawoto, Sutan Sjahrir and others --
were detained on charges of waylaying the Indonesian
Revolution.

"The arrest violated human rights because it was done without
a legal process," said Anak Agung in a discussion.

When Soeharto came to power Anak Agung and friends were
released from prison and rehabilitated. Foreign minister Adam
Malik assigned Anak Agung to the East-West Center in Honolulu,
Hawaii in 1967 to compose a manuscript on the history of
Indonesia's foreign policy.

The assignment yielded a book titled Twenty Years of
Indonesian Foreign Policy 1945-1965. After the assignment in
Honolulu, Anak Agung subsequently became deputy director general
of foreign relations, RI ambassador to Austria, head of the RI
representative office at the International Nuclear Energy Agency
in Vienna and head of the RI representative office at the United
Nations for Industrial Development also in Vienna. He was staff
expert and special assistant at the foreign ministry from 1974 to
1980.

Amid his busy schedule of state duties, Anak Agung continued
to write and to conduct research for his book published in 1980,
Renville, Sebagai Titik Balik dari Perundingan-perundingan
Indonesia-Belanda (Renville, a Turning Point of the Indonesian-
Dutch Negotiations). In 1984, Anak Agung received an invitation
from the Dutch Advanced Studies Institute in Wassenaar to collect
material by a research of archives in the Netherlands for the
writing of the book Dari Negara Indonesia Timur ke Republik
Indonesia (From the East Indonesia State to the Federal Republic
of Indonesia, 1985). In 1986, he was again invited by the
institute to conduct another research into archives which
resulted in the books, Bali pada Abad XIX (Bali in the 19th
Century, 1987) and Surat Menyurat Hatta-Anak Agung (Hatta-Anak
Agung correspondence) which is a collection of the correspondence
between the two prominent figures from 1963 to 1974.

In his last weeks, Anak Agung managed to work occasionally.
"He was preparing a book. Apparently he had written more than 200
pages," said Dewa Gde Agung, his personal secretary.