A fisherman’s Reflections on a beautiful but troubled world
Chapter 10 - Indonesia

The Malay Archipelago extends for more than 4,000 miles in length from east to west, and is about 1,300 miles in breadth from north to south.  It would stretch over an expanse equal to that of all Europe from the extreme west far into central Asia.  It includes 3 islands larger than Britain, and in one of them, Borneo, the whole of the British Isles might be set down.  Sumatra is more than equal in extent to Britain.  Java, Leyte and the Celebes are each larger than Ireland.      . . . . . . . .

At daybreak the islands were in sight.  Flying fish were numerous; more active and elegant than those of the Atlantic.  They turn on their sides displaying their beautiful fins and taking flight of about 100 yards, rising and falling in a most graceful manner.  The coast was very picturesque.  Light coloured limestone rocks rose abruptly from the water to a height of several hundred feet, and were clothed with variant and luxurious vegetation.  Little bays and inlets presented beaches of dazzling whiteness.  The water was transparent as crystal.  I was in a new world and could dream of the wonderful products hidden in the rocks, forests, and the azure abysses.  But few European feet had ever trodden these shores or gazed upon its plants and animals, and I could not help speculating what my wanderings might bring to light.

I landed at a trading settlement near Ternate.  It has a clear entrance from the west among the coral reefs, and there is a good anchorage.  The beach is backed by a luxuriant growth of lofty forest.  The traders here are of the Malay race.  The Moluccas are the spice islands, and the native country of cloves.  Drake and early voyagers purchased the spice cargoes from the Sultans and Rajahs, and not direct from the cultivators.  Nutmeg and mace were brought here from New Guinea.  In the trader’s house are bundles of smoked tripang or beche de mer, dried shark fins, mother of pearl shells and birds of paradise.  The food we obtain regularly is rice, sago, and fish and cockles of very good quality.  Fresh water is carried in vessels suspended by a rattan handle. *    

                                                            Natural History of the Moluccas, in The Malay Archipelago
                                                            Alfred R Wallace,  English naturalist  1823 – 1913  (adapted)

In October 1965 when in Moscow with an international group studying the Soviet system of marine and fisheries education, we heard that there had been an attempted coup in Indonesia.  We paid little attention to that as the bigger news was the outbreak of war between India and Pakistan.  What had happened in Indonesia was that a group of communists in the military, with the encouragement of the Foreign Minister Dr Subandrio, and the active assistance of the Air Force chief, Omar Dhani, and Chairman Aidit of PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party, who was a cabinet member, (and some later claimed, with the tacit agreement of President Sukarno), had rounded up seven leading generals, taken them to the Halim airforce base, murdered them, and had their bodies thrown into pits. The abductions and murders actually took place during the night of 30^th September / 1st October.  Why General Soeharto was not included in the number of those killed, is uncertain.  To this day he has given no clear explanation of his whereabouts that night.  He was either not at home, or was regarded as sympathetic by the plotters. As head of the major commando force in the country, many Indonesians believe that he must have had some advance warning of the coup attempt.  For some tense days, matters hung in the balance, then Soeharto moved his KOSTRAD commando troops into action, and got the rebel units to move out of Jakarta. 

Indonesia’s first President, Sukarno

President Soeharto who deposed Sukarno after the failed 65 coup

The coup attempt suffered from the need for secrecy, and poor communications between the plotters forces afterwards.  Sukarno was placed under virtual house arrest, but without much publicity on that.  Soeharto then got the loyal troop units to act together, and they went through Java killing and capturing the communist elements. They also seized the opportunity to settle scores with suspect groups in the country. Published reports since indicate that the CIA had assisted by giving lists of names of ‘suspected communists’.  It is believed that well over 200,000 persons suspected of being active communists were shot, but many were members of extreme Muslim groups, and some were simply Chinese traders who were regarded with jealousy or resentment by indigenous Malays.  Many others (over 100,000), were arrested and were to be incarcerated for a long time.  Ex-foreign minister Dr Subandrio was released only recently, and died in 2004 at age ninety.  Soeharto strengthened his hold on power, and eventually replaced Sukarno as President.  In classic Indonesian style, the transition was accomplished with smiles and no loss of face.  Sukarno stepped down from his position claiming he was doing so due to his deteriorating health.  Soeharto claimed that Sukarno had authorized his take-over of the Presidency, but the original signed document has never been made public.

Reprisals on suspected communists in 1965

The military then clamped down on all subversive activity.  No one could obtain or keep a job with government who was not cleared of involvement by the security forces.  Many innocent persons were classified as suspect for as little as belonging to the wrong club in University, or having studied in a socialist country abroad.  My local counterpart in the U.N. project was one such person.  A brilliant officer and extremely diligent worker, he managed to be cleared to become Director of a government-owned tuna fishing and export company in the east of the archipelago, but though the outstanding candidate by far, he never became Director General of the Fisheries Department.  A major question in the security form (which both foreigners and nationals had to answer), was, “Where were you in October 1965?”  I obfuscated in my replies, since ‘Moscow USSR’ could have given the authorities the wrong impression.

I arrived in Indonesia in 1973, some 8 years after the attempted coup.  The country was still under strict military control, practically all Ministries and Government Departments being run by ex-military officers. A few were educated and competent.  Most were dull and ignorant.  Many exuded personal greed, and used their positions of authority solely to line their pockets.  To this day, the Indonesian military receives only a small part of its budget from the government.  It has always been understood that it was free to develop other sources of funds.  The easiest was to control the vice trade which the army did with some relish.  Today, the military’s businesses and investments are much wider, and include many legitimate enterprises (like the “Bulog” monopoly on rice distribution, which has put up prices and hampered national self sufficiency), and some less than legitimate ones. 

We landed at Kemayoran airport in the middle of Jakarta, which, though large, was a much smaller city then than the megalopolis it is today with over 12 million residents.  Kemayoran airport was small and welcoming.  It appears in an early Mel Gibson / Sigournay Weaver / Linda Hunt film, “A Year of Living Dangerously”, that portrays the period of the attempted coup.  It is also drawn with some accuracy in one of the “Tin-Tin” cartoon books, Flight 714, in which the little reporter has some adventures in Indonesia and the region.  (That cartoon book also quotes bahasa Indonesia conversations accurately, which impressed me).  Halim air force base became the next national airport before the present large Sukarno-Hatta airport was built on the east side of the city. 

Poster for the film ‘A Year of Living Dangerously’

The Fisheries Department was most fortunate to have one of the most able and visionary of the Director-Generals in the Government.  Admiral Nizam Zachman had both flair and tenacity.  He had decided early on that Indonesia was to develop its own offshore fleets, and would control its own seafood exports.  I met him in his office in Salemba Raya, where before a large wall map of the archipelago, he spelled out his vision and plans for the sector.  Prior to that, when passing through Rome where the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation had its headquarters, I was briefed by Herman Watzinger, one of Thor Heyedral’s men on the Kon Tiki expedition, who had gone on to become Director of Fisheries in FAO.  The contrast was interesting.  Zachman simply painted a picture of what the country’s fisheries needed and urged me to get on with the job.  Watzinger was more concerned that I conduct myself circumspectly and diplomatically at all times, and whatever happened, that I avoid getting “kicked out of the country”.

We traveled by minibus past innumerable paddy fields along the north Java road to Tegal, our destination in the central Javanese province, a journey that took the best part of a day due to the narrow road and the traffic that included buses, trucks, cars, pony-and-trap taxis, motor-cycles, bicycles, ox-carts, becaks or cycle rickshaws, pedestrians, and an assortment of animals including cows, bullocks, sheep, goats and ducks.  Tegal was a dusty rural town of some 200,000 inhabitants.  Local industry included a large Japanese-owned textile factory, and some jasmine tea-flavouring plants.  Today the town even has its own university.  Tegal lay between Cirebon to the west and Semarang to the east, about half-way between Jakarta and Surabaya.  Local fields were cultivated for rice and for onions.  Over 1,000 sailing canoes operated from its shallow river in the coastal waters of the Java Sea.  Today there are but 150 canoes and all are mechanized.  A motley fleet of decked boats, trawlers, seiners and gill netters, operated from the main harbour. Tegal had been a centre of some subversive activity, and Colonel Untung, one of the plotters, had fled there in an attempt to escape by boat from Soeharto’s troops.  Behind the school and training centre where our project was based, was the local ‘killing ground’ for those deemed guilty.  Becak operators would not carry passengers there after dark.

A typical Indonesian prahu canoe

Our Project had seven stations spread out over the 3,000 mile long island state.  Tegal was our main base, but we had a marine and fisheries Academy at Pasar Minggu in Jakarta, and other training centres in Medan, north Sumatra; Singaraja, Bali; Manado, north Sulawesi; Ambon; and Sorong, Irian Jaya (now the Province of Papua). I had to visit all seven sites regularly, and to help direct and equip the programmes in each location.  For that task I had a remarkably supportive team.  My first counterpart was Patapau Pasau, an amiable local officer, but he was changed later by the man who was to be my chief counterpart for most of the 5 years.  Soepanto had been educated in Jogjakarta, and had undergone marine training in Yugoslavia.  He was extremely hard working, wholly determined to succeed at every task, and had a sharp, analytical mind when addressing problems.  He and his wife, a general’s daughter, became dear friends of ours.

My Project centre in central Java, and an out-centre in Bali

I also had a team of fine expatriate officers, hailing from Germany, Denmark, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.  Later we had specialists join us for shorter periods, and they hailed from Iceland, Spain, the Netherlands, and the USA. The station was well equipped with workshops, net sheds, a navigation bridge, and an ice plant.  It had dormitories which accommodated up to 250 students and trainees, and we had a fleet of 17 training vessels. The German marine engineer ran the several workshops with shipyard precision, and to German technical standards.  Trainees filed, cut and machined metal till they were able to make almost any component of a fishing vessel or its machinery.  Future graduates of his courses were to obtain responsible work in the engine rooms of large ships abroad.  The Danish fishery technologist, later to be an ADB project officer, was equally demanding of the deck students, all of whom had to learn to splice rope and wire, and to rig and repair every kind of net used.  They still use his shrimp trawl designs in Indonesia today.  Navigation was taught by ex-Indonesian Naval officers who were competent and reliable. 

With Japanese colleagues

On the research vessel Lemuru in the Java Sea

Within 12 years of the project commencement, Tegal and out-centre graduates had replaced all of the foreign officers (mostly Japanese and Korean) on the joint-venture fishery vessels operating in the country.  The whole project produced 120 fishery high school graduates, and 380 technical course graduates each year.  A number of Diploma students were trained at the Academy in Jakarta, for work in fish processing plants. Initially most deck and engine trainees were posted to serve on joint-venture and government-enterprise vessels fishing for tuna and shrimp. Occasionally, we had classes of graduate students from the Universities in Bandung and Bogor, who came to get a taste of practical fisheries work.  They were fine, intelligent young men whose questions in class would range beyond fisheries to social, environmental and economic issues facing the nation.

Conducting a vessel technology class

The research side of the project work focused chiefly on the operation of an FAO research vessel which was equipped for trawl and purse seine fishing, and had a range of electronic and navigational equipment.  I skippered it one year for a few months when the Icelandic Captain was on home leave.  It was a memorable experience, sailing west to Sumatra, past Krakatoa island, (the site of the volcano eruption of 1883) then around Java, Madura and Bali, and east as far as the island of Timor, then blissfully unaware of the troubles that lay ahead for its people. The seas we explored contained a variety of fascinating marine life, - whales, sharks, dolphins, turtles, tunas, swordfish, colourful reef fish, sardines, mackerels, shrimp, lobster, squid, sea snakes, and sea cucumber. We sailed past Kimodo island but did not stop. On our way along the southern coast of Flores we came upon a volcanic island that had appeared from a depth of 70 metres, and was still venting sulfuric steam, and throwing hot rocks into the sea.  Two years later I sailed through the same stretch of sea only to find that the volcanic rock had vanished without trace.

At a new sea volcano off Flores

Crew of the research ship

Gunung Merapi, a volcano we observed daily from our living room window in central Java

The engineer of the r/s Lemuru, was Jose Almanar Sansalone, from Spain.  In addition to being a fine engineer and seaman, he had a particular interest in wildlife, and was never without an animal or reptile of some description.  His activities would be seen as illegal today, but conservation laws were in their infancy in the sixties and seventies, and so Jose had been able at different times to keep orang utans, gibbons, crocodiles, snakes, parrots, toucans, bears, bush babies, and an assortment of other intriguing pets.  Our kids loved him for that.  He was a bachelor then (what wife would have put up with all the animals!), and though he had many girl friends, showed no signs of settling down.  Later he met and married an ex-nun of all people.  Maria del Carmen, a truly lovely girl, was a teacher of psychiatry who had entered a convent after graduating.  However, she became uncertain of her calling, and was granted a one-year’s leave of absence from her order.  I think this was prior to the time of John Paul II who would probably not have granted a dispensation.  Her father was FAO country Representative in Cuba where he met Jose.  Carmen and Jose were introduced, and that was the end of her career in the cloisters!   They became dear friends of ours, and later visited us in Scotland.  We were entertained in their homes in Denia, Spain, and in Santa Cruz, Tenerife.   Now in retirement, Jose has blossomed as an artist. His paintings and bronze sculptures are regularly displayed at exhibitions in Spain.  Two of his paintings adorn the wall of our living room in Scotland.

Few in Indonesia spoke English in those days, particularly in the countryside, so we had to acquire a minimum skill in bahasa Indonesia.  Our children also picked up bits of the Javanese dialect, but we found bahasa was enough to contend with.  In some ways it is a beautifully easy language, having no tenses or conjugations.  We also grew to enjoy Indonesian food which is liberally spiced with sambal or crushed chilies.  The rice was especially tasty.  Our cook used to purchase the most flavourful slow-growing local varieties which were so delicious, you could eat it without any relish.  It was like eating freshly baked bread.  I have been suspicious of genetically modified cereals since.  The modern varieties of rice taste like sawdust in comparison.

The Indonesian culture, - not the easiest in the world to understand, was well worth the effort to appreciate.  The people are so polite, and so gentle and passive in the way all is said and done.  The politeness can be misleading.  A “yes” will usually mean “Yes, I hear and understand what you are saying”, rather than “Yes, I agree with you, or will do what you request”.  A “Yes, but”, is normally a pretty clear negative.  Many foreigners made things unnecessarily difficult for themselves by failing to detect the nuances in speech and body language.  The oriental smile can be as misleading as the oriental “yes”.  It is infra-dig in that culture, to show feelings of anger, embarrassment or disappointment.  So they will respond with a smile at times when that could be misleading to a Westerner.

I read Conrad’s Lord Jim, when in Indonesia, and was most impressed by the detailed and still relevant descriptions of ports from Zamboanga Philippines to Penang Malaysia.  I also read K’tut Tantri’s “Revolt in Paradise”.  This is an account of the immediate post-war struggle for Independence by a British born American lady who lived in Bali before the war, was practically adopted into the family of the Raja in Bali, and who came to be known by the Dutch as “Surabaya Sue”  for her pro-independence broadcasts from that city. 

Krakatoa island I used to sail around in the Sunda Strait.

Lord Jim - Conrad’s fascinating book

Revolt in Paradise, - K’tut Tantri’s account of the independence struggle

Troops entering Batavia (Jakarta) 1942

Although the largest Moslem country in the world, Indonesia has been blest with a form of Islam that is largely tolerant and respectful to the outside world.  When attending a Gereja Protestan Indonesia church (the Indonesian Protestant church that sprang from the Dutch Reformed Church) in Sumatra, I have been pleasantly surprised to see veiled Moslem students in attendance.  They were required to attend a Christian church occasionally and observe the worship, to be more fully informed on other faiths.  Such open contact with other faiths would seldom be seen in other Moslem lands.  To be fair, I have discussed matters of faith, the Bible and the Koran, with Moslems in Arabia, Africa, central Asia, and the far east.  On a personal level, I have found them to be respectful, willing to listen, and also prepared to discuss painful issues, and to share their own heart beliefs.  Clearly there are extreme groups in Islamic society in most Moslem lands, as there are some extremist ‘Christian’ or sectarian groups in the USA, Northern Ireland, Uganda, and other countries, as well as extremist Hindu groups in India and militant Buddhist groups in Sri Lanka.  Mercifully, they are all a minority, but nonetheless can wreak much havoc and bloodshed.

There were 90 million people in Java when I arrived in the country, and 130 million in the whole country.  Today the population numbers over 200 million.  I could not imagine where all of the thousands of kids running around the streets were to get food, clothing, education, jobs, and housing.  Many of their fathers were crewing sail-boats or pedaling becaks for a wage of perhaps Rp 6,000 a month, or less.  Their mothers may have been working in the rice paddies, the textile factories, or the batik dyeing sheds, for about the same amounts. The basic monthly wage was equivalent to US $ 15 or just above ₤ 9 then.  How could they survive on such low incomes ?  This was something I wrestled with for a long time, and never ceased to ask those willing to discuss, how the poor people existed.

Map of Indonesia

It was around that time I read Small is Beautiful for the first time.  This is the prophetic treatise written by the renowned economist Dr Ernst Fritz Schumacher.  He had been a Rhodes scholar, and a participant in the Bretton Woods conference, then later made economic adviser to the National Coal Board in Britain, but his heart was in third world development.  He founded the Intermediate Technology Group and was a leading member of the Soil Society.  For me, struggling to come to terms with the formidable problems of bringing remunerative work and food and a future, to a vast nation like Indonesia, reading Schumacher was like putting on spectacles and seeing these problems in focus for the first time.  When in Africa, I had debated with departmental economists over the direction of the interventions we were making, and whether they were really in the people’s long term interest, but had no answers to the arguments of conventional economics.  Now, here was an economist of stature, challenging the very basis of much of modern development theory, and showing us a better way to a sustainable future on planet earth. 

Raising the Indonesian flag to commemorate independence day

The sub-title of the book is Economics as if People Mattered.  It painted a lucid, if alarming, picture, of the phenomenal growth of pollution and industrial production in the post-war world, of the escalating consumption of irreplaceable fossil fuels, mainly petroleum, and of modern industry and technology’s treatment of human beings and their aspirations as if they just did not matter.  It also challenged the sustainability of growth and market systems based on human greed, and the impact of globalism on poor societies. 

Most of what Schumacher proclaimed is now accepted as sane and sensible by the United Nations and the majority of development agencies, if not by the governments of the USA and the UK, and the major global industrial corporations.  But in the early 1970’s it was considered very new and radical, even though Schumacher had accurately predicted the OPEC oil crisis 5 years before it occurred.  I began to debate the issues with World Bank economists, and to write some papers based on the application of Schumacher’s theories and principles in my own work.  I found that most economists had never really thought out the social and environmental implications of their policies. To them an efficient business or economic system was one that used the fewest number of human beings, and made the greatest profit for the owner, regardless of how much capital it required, or how much energy it consumed, and with scant attention to the environmental problems it created.

Small is Beautiful, - E F Schumacher’s marvellous book which opened my mind to the
need to protect global resources and to follow an economics that valued people

Some of my ideas were accepted surprisingly by the Asian Development Bank, and somewhat more understandably by developing country governments. Dr Shei, the head of the Agriculture Department of ADB, was remarkably sympathetic.  At my suggestion, and following a meeting with his senior staff, Dr Shei financed a regional workshop and conference on the application of alternative and renewable energy systems, which I organized together with a visionary American research officer, the late Dr Ian Smith of ICLARM (now WorldFish).  But when I wrote a paper for FAO, for the Indo-Pacific Fishery Council meeting in Japan in 1979, it was banned from circulation within FAO Rome, and remained so for two years.  The Organisation even refused to agree to my attendance at the Latin America Fisheries Symposium to which I had been invited by the Government of Mexico whose officers had read my IPFC paper.  However I was able to take leave of absence for that period.  But more of that later.

Though its population was poor, Indonesia had enormous natural wealth, chiefly petroleum, but also nickel and copper, timber, and plantation products, rice, spices, tea and fish – mainly shrimp and tuna.  Its growing industry produced textiles, batiks, shoes and plastic goods.  Domestic production of motor vehicles was achieved following considerable pressure on Japan, but a fledgling aircraft business did not fare so well. The Industry Minister Dr Habibie (a friend of Mrs Thatcher’s who had earlier worked in the German aircraft industry, and was later Vice President and President), wasted huge amounts of public money on high-tech aviation projects that failed.  But the biggest financial loss to the country came from the milking of profits from the oil industry, by the regime.  Pertamina, the national oil company, was the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Things got so bad in the late 1970’s that the associated U.S. companies threatened to pull out of Indonesia if the government did not put the oil company’s house in order.  President Soeharto gave an honourable dismissal to Pertamina’s chief Ibnu Sutowo, and then accountants proceeded to check the books.  They discovered that Pertamina could not account for $6.0 billion (yes, billion, not million), - a figure that was later upped to over $10.0 billion.

The figures are mind-boggling.  Someone has illustrated a billion dollars thus:  If you were born at the time of Christ, and if you were still alive today, and if every day of your life (not every week or month), you had spent a thousand dollars, - you would still not have spent a billion dollars.  But the Pertamina embezzlers had no problem in stealing such amounts, and no conscience about it afterwards.  One middle-level executive, whose official salary would have been around $9,000 a year, died in 1979 I believe.  His first wife had passed away, and his second wife went immediately to Singapore to claim his bank accounts there, as also, but separately, did the children of the first wife. The dispute over who was entitled to the funds went into litigation and became public knowledge.  The frugal officer had accumulated $30 million.  Shortly after, a brave reporter dared to ask President Soeharto, “Mr President, should we not re-open the Pertamina case”.   His reply was, “No, no, - we have no proof”.  Soeharto surprisingly admitted that a newspaper report that he himself possessed $70 million in Singapore bank accounts, was true.  In his defense, he said, “But the money is not for me.  I am keeping it for the poor children of Indonesia”.

Me meeting with an East Timorese officer.

Soeharto stepped down in May 1988, and in November of that year he handed over to the state, seven tax free foundations he controlled.  Early next year prosecutors revealed that he had violated the corruption law.  He was placed under arrest in April 2000, and was charged with involvement in a US $500 million scam.  Around the same period, Time magazine alleged that the former President and his family had amassed a fortune of $15 billion, some $9 billion of it in Austrian banks.  Soeharto issued a defamation suit against the magazine, but it was turned down by both the district and high courts in Jakarta.  However, in February 2001, the Supreme Court ruled to stop legal proceedings against the former President due to his deteriorating health.  President Megawati mentioned a possible pardon for him in December of that year.  As I have opined elsewhere, in the world we live in, only small crooks are punished.  Really big ones usually get off.  But they all one day will stand before a Higher Tribunal.

Soeharto’s family followed in his steps, assisted by an army of sycophant bureaucrats and boot-licking officials.  Each of those amazingly talented kids ended up with ownership or control of dozens of large companies.  Some were granted monopolies, like the one for internal air freight, by the Government.  One son, Tommy, who was given a monopoly over the clove trade, became an infamous gangster and drug dealer.  The Supreme Court Justice who sentenced him at one of his trials, Ir. Safiudin, was later murdered.  Tommy was charged with complicity in the shooting and ultimately convicted.  Some talk in the street even blamed him for the death of his mother, Tien Soeharto, following a struggle in the family home in which a gun was fired. [Hutomo ‘Tommy’ Mandala Putra was jailed for 15 years for paying a hitman to kill Judge Safiudin, and for other offences.  The sentence was considered too lenient by many, yet was later reduced to ten years on appeal.  Tommy was released after serving a mere third of the 10 year sentence.  The hired gunman and an accomplice were jailed for life and are not eligible for remission of their sentences.]

Tien Soeharto , former first lady

Tommy was incarcerated in the high security island prison Nusakambangan near Cilacap on Java’s south coast, but remained there for only three years.  His short-lived business empire had been run from a lavish building in Jakarta city centre, Gudung Timor.  After the collapse of the corrupt enterprises, the building was taken over by the newly created Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries with which I worked on a number of Bank-financed projects.  So I was a regular visitor to the site of Tommy’s former kingdom.

There is one thing that must be said in favour of Soeharto and his 32 year rule.  Despite all the corruption and strong-arm tactics, the smiling General gave the country stability.  There was economic growth, and an absence of the ethnic and religious strife that was stirred up after his resignation.  A young Indonesian government officer, a Moslem, said to me in 1995 when we were in a Jakarta shopping centre in December, where Christmas music was being played over the sound system, “Isn’t this a great example of the tolerance of the Soeharto administration?  Would there be as much celebration of a Christian festival in any other Moslem state?”.

My own view of the cause of most of the troubles since then, from East Timor to Banda Aceh, and to Sulawesi, was that the hoodlums who set the different groups against each other were financed and organized by former Soeharto loyalists in the Indonesian military who had lost their privileged positions.  They hoped that if sufficient unrest came about, then martial law would be declared and they would be back in power.  This has since been confirmed publicly in the national press, and in most other books on that sad period.  General Wiranto himself, Soeharto’s armed forces chief, has been indicted as a war criminal by a court in East Timor.  That did not prevent him from continuing to seek high office including the Presidency itself in 2004.  Thankfully, however, he was well beaten at the polls.

The Bali bombing was different, being the direct work of Al Qaida type extremists.  In East Timor, together with the Indonesian armed forces, the hoodlums killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. It is true however that during this period, the United States (which almost alone in the world supported Indonesia’s claims on East Timor), continued to provide weapons and training to the Indonesian armed forces.  The USA eventually withdrew support from Soeharto, but that had more to do with his intention to cancel an order for American military jets, and to purchase similar aircraft instead from Europe.

As one who loves the Indonesian people, and who has experienced much kindness at their hands, I wish that populous land stability, justice, peace and prosperity.  There is in Java, an ancient legend of a King of Peace who will one day come to right all wrongs and bring harmony and justice to the people. He is called “Ratu Adil”.  The legend or prophesy is so powerful, that it commands respect to this day.  During the latter period of Soeharto’s rule, a former Professor of Agriculture, Ir. Sawito, claimed to be Ratu Adil.  He attracted a small following, but was quickly put in prison by the authorities.  Whether it is a Herod of 2,000 years ago, or a modern despot, - no autocratic ruler welcomes the arrival of a messiah.

                                                     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I visited Bali several times, when in command of the UN research vessel, and when on my annual tour of our out-centres, one of which was situated in Singaraja.  Together with my family, we often stayed at Kuta beach which we loved.  It is located on the Bali Strait, facing west, and just north of the airport.  K’tut Tantri’s famous little hotel was there.  There had been a bad air crash not long after the airport opened in the late 1950’s.  And of course, in 2002 it was the scene of the dreadful Bali bombing outrage. 

Sumatra I knew well having traveled from one end to the other of that huge and fascinating island.  I spent over a year in Padang West Sumatra, among the Mening Kabau people, and had visited Lake Toba and its Samosir island in the province of North Sumatra, home of the Batak people.  The island is home to a dwindling population of tigers, elephants and orang-utan apes.   It is rich in petroleum, particularly in Riau province on the east coast facing Singapore.  Sumatra still has substantial tropical forests, and plantations of oil palm, rubber and teakwood.  Its northernmost province, Banda Aceh, is an area of strict Islam that has sought independence from the rest of the archipelago.  In consequence, it was kept under careful surveillance by the Indonesian military.

But no-one could have foreseen the disaster that was to strike the area suddenly and without warning on December 26^th 2004 when a tsunami wave caused by a submarine earthquake, hit the coast with such velocity that over 280,000 lives were lost, and scores of villages wiped off the map.  The surviving population will rebuild their villages and restore the shattered economy, but the social and psychological scars of the disaster will remain for generations to come.

Three months after the tsunami disaster, North-West Sumatra was struck by a major earthquake that mercifully did not result in a tsunami wave, but which caused serious damage to certain localities.  The island of Nias alone suffering many hundreds of fatalities. The total number who died from that earthquake in Sumatra is reckoned to amount to over 1,300 persons.  Coming on top of the havoc wreaked by the tidal wave, this was a double tragedy for the area. 

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