'Tell me who your friends are...'

[p. 56]

Ambassadeur A.M. Hanafi

Ambassadeur en Ibu Hanafi

[p. 57]

Hanafi was a friend and close associate of President Sukarno from the early days onwards in the Indonesian Revolution. In the fifties he became a cabinet minister. After the high treason of Suharto and his group of officers on October 1, 1965, Bung Karno asked him to serve as ambassador to Cuba. After President Sukarno lost power in 1967 through additional treacherous behavior of associates he trusted, Pak Hanafi was discharged as ambassador in Havana and initially remained on the island for a number of years, until he came to live with his family in Paris, where he remains till this day.

The first time I met him was in Rome in 1956, when he had traveled with the President to Italy for a state-visit to President Giovanni Gronchi. What I did not know was - and he wrote this for this book of friends - that he played a role in the fact, that President Sukarno choose to speak to me on Indonesian-Dutch relations during his Italian journey. I always remained hi contact with him, like with journalist Djawoto, later Sukarno's ambassador to Peking, with journalist Sukrisno, later Sukarno's ambassador to Hanoi, and many other friends I initially met in 1956 in Rome. Wim Lartumeten and his deputy Diarto stand out as lifetime friends. Wim died many years ago. Diarto, who was set to write for this book, died on September 4, 2002. I always stopped in Solo to see him, the last time in 2001. I visited Pak Hanafi last this summer of 2002 in Paris. He wrote part in Dutch, part in English. It seemed correct to let this mixture stand.

Op een dag... toen ik in Parijs droomde van het onvoltooid verleden in mijn leven - want de herinnering aan vroeger is het exclusieve paradijs van ouderen - kwam een bericht uit Holland dat mijn vriend Willem Oltmans, ook bekend als vriend van Sukarno, de President van Indonesië, vroeg of ik wilde deelnemen aan een boekje ter herinnering, dat hij 50 jaar journalist is.

Vanwege mijn sympathie voor hem geef ik er de voorkeur aan hem wartawan belanda te noemen, which means Dutch journalist. Why? Is it cynicism? No. Humiliation? Not at all! Just the opposite. It expresses in some aspect, the respect and pride of Indonesian nationalist sentiments for the courage of Willem Oltmans. He, who carefully would study the history of relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia, would clearly understand why Indonesians feel that way towards him.

[p. 58]

Who is this wartawan?

In 1956, I was honored to be selected by President Sukarno to accompany him on state-visits to the United-States, Canada, Italy and West-Germany. The same year, I joined the presidential party on state-visits to Iran, the ussr, Yugoslavia and later China. The President was assisted by the then minister of Foreign Affairs, Ruslan Abdulgani, dr. Johannes Leimena, dr. Susanto Tirtoprodjo from the Indonesian Supreme Court, and many other important Indonesian personalities. Also the Chief of the presidential military household, general Suhardjo Hardjowardojo, and the aide-de-camps, Suganhi and Sabur. (All three remained for many years close friends of mine) were present in Rome, when Willem Oltmans entered our lives.

I remember the day President Sukarno had to pay a visit to a particular institution in the Italian capital. We were warned, that suspicion was raised because of the constant presence of a unknown Dutch journalist, who obviously was trying to meet president Sukarno, (Omdat De Telegraaf me had verboden Sukarno te interviewen, slaagde ik er in een opdracht te krijgen van de Agence France Presse in Rome om een verslag van het Indonesische staatsbezoek te maken). Adjudant lt-colonel Sugandhi discussed the matter with vice-prime minister Leimena at a moment when I stood next to him.

Soon afterwards I happened to be next to President Sukarno and brought up the subject of the Dutch journalist with him directly, adding my opinion, that it would be a useful idea to give the Dutchman an interview. It was at the time, that the entire world was aware of the bad relations between Indonesia and Holland as a result of the dispute about Irian-Barat. Bung Karno agreed with my position as both secretary-general of the Peoples Congress for the Struggle for Irian-Barat and my connection with the Angkatan 45. I also reminded the president of a similar case, that happened in Jogyakarta in 1946, when an American student tried to meet him. He was the later famous us professor George McTurnan Kahin. He had become a great specialist on Indonesia and a loyal friend. Bung Karno agreed to my suggestion.

I told Pak Umargatab, in charge of presidential security, that the President was informed and agreed to the presence of this wartawan

[p. 59]

belanda during the Italian state-visit. A few days later, during the presidential visit to Pompei Willem discussed for the first time the problem of Irian-Barat with Bung Karno. It would change his entire life, because after traveling to Indonesia later that year, he became convinced, that the sole solution to the Dutch-Indonesian conflict lay in the transfer of sovereignty of the last Dutch colony in the Far East to Indonesia. In 1957 Oltmans became branded a traitor in Holland. Five years later, in 1962, Holland did transfer sovereignty over Irian Barat to Indonesia. Wartawan belanda Willem Oltmans was proven to be right all along.

During my exile in Paris in 1995, I received a book written by professor George McTurnan Kahin and Audrey Kahin, titled, Subversion as Foreign Policy, The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles debacle in Indonesia, (University of Washington Press, New York, 1995). It was sad to me, that Bung Karno has never been able to read this extremely knowledgeable and informative book about one of the most important periods in my nation's history. The same sadness struck me when I read Mijn vriend Sukarno (Spectrum, Utrecht, 1995) when Willem showed a quarter century after Bung Karno's death, that he had become a true friend of the father of our nation, a foreigner who came to know him intimately well and understood him. Fortunately this book was published in 2001 in Jakarta as well, with the title, Bung Karno Sahabatku, by Pustaka Sinar Harapan.

Now, I have become 85 years old and I am a dreamer of a turbulent epoch in Indonesians history, a fading member of the Generation of 1945. Perhaps I have become during the Suharto years an outcast and a refugee in France, but I feel like Willem Oltmans as strong as a rock of steel. That's is why I am proud to say: ‘Willem Oltmans should not receive a normal salute for his 50 years of devotion to his country and his profession, but he should celebrate a real jubilee, because he deserves it.’

Zie hier mijn onvoltooid verleden. Sukarno once said ‘for a fighting nation there is no journey's end.’

Anak Marhaen Hanafi.

Parijs, 6 juni 2002.