Notes from a general's wife

Notes from a general's wife

Catatan Dari Sinai: Sebuah Album Kenangan

Dewi A. Rais Abin

Published by Penerbit Djambatan, 2nd edition, 2000

Hardcover, xvi + 132pp

JAKARTA (JP): In the late 1970s Dewi A. Rais Abin lived and
traveled in the Middle East. This enlightening experience was
possible because she was married to Indonesian Lt. Gen. Rais
Abin, Commander of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Middle
East from 1975 to 1979. On her journeys and pilgrimages from
their residence in Ismailia, Egypt, Dewi, a veteran journalist,
kept a dairy of her experiences and her impressions.

These writings have been published in a book, entitled Catatan
Dari Sinai (Some Notes from Sinai) by Djembatan. The book does
not speak about the general's mission but contains only notes
from Dewi's point of view. Dewi's early stories were printed by
several local magazines and by Kompas daily.

Gen. Rais was the commander of the Middle East peace-keeping
force comprising battalions from Indonesia, Canada, Finland,
Ghana, Sweden, Poland and Australia. The force was established to
supervise the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli troops
following the conclusion of the peace agreement in the wake of
the October 1973 war.

Dewi said her husband's assignment afforded her a great
personal opportunity because she had a chance to pray in the
three holiest Islamic mosques: Al Aqsa in Jerusalem, the Grand
Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet Mosque in Medina.

Her circumstance also afforded her the freedom to travel
between Egypt and Israel even though Indonesia has no diplomatic
relations with the Jewish state.

On these occasions, the writer visited Mount Sinai, where
Jews, Christians and Muslims believe Moses received the Ten
Commandments from God and to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Dead
Sea.

-- Thayeb I. Sabil