Soedarpo Sastrosatomo: Taking his own path to success
Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta
------------------------------------------------- Soedarpo Sastrosatomo: Against the Currents By Rosihan Anwar, translated and edited by Toenggoel P. Siagian Pustaka Sinar Harapan, 2003 455 pp ----------------------------------------------
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.