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.