Soedarpo Sastrosatomo: Taking his own path to success
Soedarpo Sastrosatomo: Taking his own path to success
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta
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Soedarpo Sastrosatomo: Against the Currents
By Rosihan Anwar, translated and edited by Toenggoel P. Siagian
Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 2003
455 pp
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The English version of Soedarpo Sastrosatomo's biography was
launched on June 27 at a gathering that had as much class as the
book, written by senior journalist Rosihan Anwar and competently
translated/edited by Toenggoel Siagian.
Reading the biography of Soedarpo Sastrosatomo presents a
fascinating epic revealing the ups and downs, the struggles and
hardships, but above all the ethical integrity of a man whose
honesty and straightforwardness marked his life with great
success.
The biography is spread over 10 periods in his life: Childhood
in Medan (1920-1929), Youth: Klaten-Yogya (1929-1940), College
Time Batavia-Jakarta (1940-1945), Revolutionary Times: The
Jakarta Years (1945-1948), Revolutionary Times; The New York
Years (1948-1950), The Washington Period (1950-1952, The Business
World (1953-1964), Politics, Business, Friends and Family 1965-
1981, Politics, Business, Friends and Family 1982-2000,
Recollections and Reflections.
Rising above "the streams", Soedarpo's life stands as a
shining example in today's society where corruption, collusion
and nepotism (KKN) is a common, distressing phenomenon. He did
not come from a wealthy family; his father was an employee in
Medan of the government agency that held the monopoly for the
import, processing and distribution of opium in the Dutch East
Indies.
When his father died quite young, his mother was left with
nine children. She decided in 1929 to move back to her birthplace
in Central Java where she opened a stall to make ends meet.
Soedarpo was nine years old at the time.
Nationalism has been part of his life ever since he was a
small boy. The family house in Medan was a meeting place for
movement people, and he attended discussion groups on philosophy
and nationalism, mostly held at student dormitories. But Soedarpo
was not politically involved until World War II broke out and
Indonesia's struggle for independence needed him and other
students to travel to several towns, establish contacts with
local leaders and pursue a common vision for developing
strategies for the struggle.
He became a political courier, the intermediary between
Sukarno and premier minister Sjahrir during the Linggajati
negotiations, and between Sukarno and the delegation at the UN.
As the first Indonesian diplomatic representation in New York in
1948, he was accorded the status of a full-fledged diplomat in
1950, introducing Indonesia to the Americans with innovative
presentations on art and culture.
Soedarpo took up every challenge, as he did in sports when he
was young, and mostly with great success. He was always guided by
and dedicated to moral principle, and though he was amiable and
kind, he never compromised his ethics and personal integrity.
This is how he parted with even his best friends when they
deviated from the straight and narrow, and this is why he
ultimately quit from the foreign service and took up yet another
challenge in life.
He went into business, and became a pioneer in good
entrepreneurship. His shipping business flourished, earning him
the title of "shipping king", and a place in the Maritime Asia
Hall of Fame.
Shipping was not the only business he was involved in, though
it remained his major enterprise, He has been involved in
numerous projects and enterprises, including trading, stevedoring
the co-founding of an insurance company PT Asuransi Bintang, and
of Bank Niaga.
There is an old adage that says behind every successful man is
a woman. In the case of Soedarpo, it was two women: his mother,
Rd. Ngt. Sarminah, and his wife, Minarsih Wiranatakoesoema, whom
he married during turbulent times in 1946.
From his mother, he received a Javanese cultural and
philosophical outlook and beliefs. But unlike the Javanese woman
of that time, she was different, "she managed to break out of the
walls of feudalism and to grow up outside of those customs".
Opening a stall selling daily necessities for survival she
imparted the idea that business is one way to freedom and
independence. She also encouraged her children to pursue the
highest possible education, warning that "whatever you do it
must be done out of the goodness of your heart. Otherwise it has
no value to others".
"Without Mother," he says, "we (he and his brother) would have
been nothing". She instilled in them the principles by which to
live.
His wife Minarsih, or Mien for short, came from a mix of
Minangkabau and Sundanese aristocracy and is a personality in her
own right. He says it was her trust and generosity that helped
them overcome ethnic and social differences, giving him the
freedom to do what he thought best in certain circumstances.
It was such support that encouraged him to be highly creative.
"I have to acknowledge her contribution to the progress of my
life," he said. Patient, undemanding but always supportive, Mien
did not complain when he suddenly disappeared and sent her a
telegram to pack her suitcase and come to New York.
Those who have read the Indonesian version, published in 2001,
may note some difference in the English version, where the editor
rearranged and shortened paragraphs and inserted others, adding a
host of footnotes. While footnotes tend to hamper the flow of
reading, they are useful explanation for those unfamiliar with
Indonesian history or Dutch terminology.
It must be said that some of Rosihan Anwar's journalistic
flavor of the Indonesian version got lost in the edited work, and
the paper quality as well as the font of the original work was
slightly better.
Still, the excellent English and a host of new data makes the
translation of Soedarpo's fascinating life story captivating, as
well as invaluable for those interested in Indonesia's historical
background against which Soedarpo rose to such unique heights
without losing his sense of balance.