The Dapper Man at the Prison Mosque

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Arnold Budoyo Subandrio still remembers his grandfather’s hair, always dyed black and neatly combed back. Even after Subandrio had spent years behind bars, he maintained the dapper appearance he had cultivated when he was First Deputy Prime Minister in Sukarno’s government.

As a child, Arnold, now 52, visited Subandrio with his mother, Anne Frida Yohana Hanafiah-Sereh, nearly once a month. They came with Arnold’s older brother, John “Jonjon” Alexander Gurowo; their stepfather; and their infant half-sister. They also visited during end of fasting month celebration Idul Fitri and every September 15, Subandrio’s birthday.

Arnold still remembers how enthusiastically his grandfather welcomed them. “Papa Ban (Subandrio) would usually meet us at the prison gate and ask the guards to take me and my siblings around the prison grounds,” Arnold wrote in a letter to Tempo on Friday, September 25, 2026.

Subandrio served time at Nirbaya Military Detention Center and Cipinang Prison in East Jakarta. At both facilities, his cell was always next to that of Omar Dhani, the Air Force Commander from 1962 to 1965, whom Arnold called “Eyang (Grandpa) Omar.”