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MY WORLD

Suharto, the Man Behind the Jakarta Summit; Memories of Another NAM Summit; and My Last Glimpse of Sheikh Mujib

S. M. Ali
THIS ts. tn effect the Indonesia Week
Ts surt with, we had the National Day of the Republic celebrated on the fast day of August netting the stage for the summit bf the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) starling on the following day. As our weekend mag*nine carrying this feature, goes to press, the largest non UN gathering of nations from four continents, steadily moves towards the grand Anah-
it la not Just Indonesia which returns to the international stage with a bang It is President Suharto who personally received every visiting head of government at the airport who cap hires the limelight
The Indonesia leader has Indeed come a king way almost tn every field tn giving the strife torn republic both political stability and economic development, tn playing a somewhat low key but constructive role tn regional co operation and finally tn making himself a lit tie controversial tn the foreign media After all any national leader who remains tn power for nearly 25 years must surely pay a price lor his durability tn one form or another. As the saying goes, being indispensable involves a moral and political liability for the country perhaps even on the national leader concerned.
Yet. some 25 years ago. the first authorita Uve biography on the Indonesian leader that hit the bookstalls tn the region, was titled. The Reluctant President." Written tn English by a long tune resident tn Jakarta. Dutch four nailst Roeder, the book had brought into focus the hesitation indecision and even slight ner vousness of Suharto in taking power al the end of the abortive communist coup in 1965 that he had helped to crush.
Roeder's book purposely avoided mentioning all the gossips and stories, speculations and rumours which had been in circulation tn Jakarta about Suharto s reluctance to take the presidency One story was that he luid visited his guru' for advice and then gone to a river on a boat for meditation. Finally. when all other generals invited him for a meeting and asked him to take the presidency, he literally broke down and asked tn a whisper. "Why meZ
A devout Muslim. Suharto s attachment to mysticism Is said to remain as strong as it was during that fateful boat Journey some 25 years ago. or as strong as It with some Indonesian friends I have known for decades. What precisely is its source? A combination of Sufism. Japanese mythology, the Influence of Bud dhtsm and Balinese Hinduism? One only hopes, it is strong enough to withstand the pressure from Isianm fundamentalism that is gaining ground I ti sonic parts of the archipelago.
Is the Suhail > story is a good one io •■•II in a country like Bangladesh where power grab bing. lacking in all subtleties, has become a deadly menace?
WITH the Afro-Asian Conference held in Bandung. Indonesia in 1955 rightly regarded as the founding meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), one can say the Summit this week marks the return of this unique movement to Its birthplace more than 35 years later There are all kinds of differences While some 29 newly Independent countries from Asia and Africa attended the Bandung meeting, there arc now over 104 heads of government and stale present at the Jakarta Summit. From among the luminaries who came to Bandung only Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia is still alive and present in Jakarta. A tired old man. with thinning grey hair, who has given the best years of his life to safeguard freedom In his country is now no more than a shadow of a young energetic Prince who walked up and down the conference hail tn Bandung tn 1955 Then, one also thinks of the difference between the flamboyant visionary Sukarno who organised the Bandung meeting and his successor, cool, pragmatic Suharto, the host of the Jakarta Summit. One other difference should be recorded tn history. In 1955. it was India
under Pandit Nehru, which met most of the expenses of the Bandung meeting, approx Imatcly 82 million, and probably felt the pinch For the Jakarta Summit, the resource-rich Indonesia has reportedly spend 8200 million, without a second thought
Well, one can go on and on.
I missed the Bandung conference. It was not that I missed the air connection or failed to get the hotel booking. I was then too inex pcrlcnced a Journalist to be assigned by my newspaper to a historic conference which, among other things, marked the entry of Premier Chou En-lal of China Into the interna tlonal stage and helped In raising the status of Pandit Nenru among Afro-Aslan nations, even tually making him one of the three founding fathers — Tito and Nasser being the other two — of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
All this is history, recorded In some books and probably preserved In the memories of some Indonesians.
What went on behind the scene, unrecorded in most books on the subject, was another matter. One could not bring together leaders of such diverse backgrounds and temperaments. as an withdrawn King Faisal and an anti monarchist Gamal Nasser, an articulate Nehru and a cautious Chou, a Buddhist monk-llkc figure of U Nu and highly-westernised John Kottiewalla of what was then Ceylon wltliout setting the stage for some hidden ten slon and under currents of personal rivalry among the luminaries
Il was the powerful presence of Pandit Nehru that got the limelight at the Bandung conference However, what the Indian leader often failed to understand was how to be a dominant figure without being domineering. So. he ran into problems which were noted by astute observers from the sidelines
It Is said that the Indian leader was thoroughly displeased with the pro western speech delivered by Kottiewalla When the Ceylonese leader returned to his scat. Nehru whispered to him with a visible show of anger. "You did
not show me your speech before delivering It " The reply from Kottiewalla was prompt. "You did not show me yours."
A well-meaning Nehru took great pains In introducing Chou En lai to other heads of gov ernment. often with somewhat flattering complimentary remarks about the Chinese leader. This was the time of "India-China Bhat Bhal *
Years later. Chou told a visiting delegation of Journalists that he thought Nehru's attitude at Bandung was most patronising "Do you think that the Prime Minister of China needed an In troduction from tire Prime Minister of India?" he asked.
"Certainly not. said a member of the delegation. rather vigorously The visitors — yes. you have probably guessed it — were from Pakistan By now. It was the beginning of the China-Pakistan friendship era
After all these years. South Asians — especially Indians but not excluding Bangladeshis and Pakistanis — seem to be unaware of the problem they create at international confer ences. particularly those held tn Southeast Asia: How to draw the line between being articulate and being talkative, how to explain a viewpoint in short precise sentences without giving a lecture and. finally, how to make your presence felt without being domineering.
That's a subject worth writing about. In details. another time, hopefully with some embarrassing examples, tf I can pick up the courage to do so. THE only NAM Summit I have attended was Ilie one held tn Algiers in 1973 Then working for the Hongkong Standard In a senior position. I went to Cairo on an invitation from the Arab League and then, with expenses paid by my paper I went to Algiers
It was at the Algiers Summit that Bangladesh became a member of NAM and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made his entry Into the international stage, with every one craving to see the colourful leader — one that the world media had written so much about — of a country that had tome through a bloodbath to gain its independence.
We from the media, had lined up on two sides of the corridor to the main conference hall, with leaders walking on the red carpet, to the applause of cheering crowds standing Just behind Journalists.
Sheikh MuJib saw me as soon as he came into view near the entrance, looked a little surprised since I was not a member of his entourage. and almost shouted, with all the warmth In his voice "Mohammad All. what are you doing here?" or something to that effect.
Almost as an instinctive response. I stepped forward on the red carpet to shake the hand of the Bangladesh leader But there was also an instinctive reaction from a security guard who grabbed me from behind, without MuJib really seeing what was happening, and put me back where I befonged. away from the red carpet!
This was the last time I saw MuJib at Al-gers In fact, we never met again.
From the time I filled up the Immigration form at the Algiers airport tn Arabic, with the help of a translator wlv> charged me one dollar until I managed to get my seat tn an over booked return flight to Cairo, my Algiers trip was an unmitigated disaster T1>e accommodation. even by my austere standard, was unsalls factory, food impossibly expensive and the transport system between the city and the conference site totally unpredictable. About the press briefing, the less said the better Yet. it was at the Algiers Summil that NAM produrrd documents on two important Issues, on the New World Economic Order and on the New Information and Communication Order.
The conference site was several miles away from the city, by the sea. whers nearly a hun dred villas, mostly white, built by an earlier president of Algeria, were occupied by visiting delegations. But you could not enter any of these villas to sec members of a delegation without going Ihrough elaborate security ar rangements It was worse for me who was not part of any national entourage.
Since I liad no accreditation as a photogra pher. but only as a correspondent. I was not allowed to lake pictures, not even of the villa where Sheikh MuJib stayed.
The only picture I could take was of the rolling sea at sunset. It was beautiful and It reminded me of Hong Kong I got back to the British colony as fast as possible This lime. I did not mind spending another dollar in get ting my Algerian embarkation card filled in by a translator