Sukarno: Image: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS – Photographer: Bert Hardy – Date Photographed: April 1949
The Jakarta Indonesia Urban Blog will soon be moving from Hilo, Hawaii to Hololulu, Hawaii. We’re packing up the house, the library, and the cats and moving to the big city. Although I have to admitt that Hilo is to Honolulu what Honolulu is to Jakarta, if you follow that logic. Nevertheless, Honolulu is a city.
I will be attending graduate school at the University of Hawaii – Manoa and will focus on urban geography, with a particular emphasis on my beloved city of Jakarta. I am looking forward to the move.
I also thank you for your continued support in visiting this blog.
Postings will be rather sporadic through the summer but there is enough here on this blog to keep anyone busy who might be interested in Jakarta.
I am currently reading two biographies of Sukarno. The first is Sukarno: An Autobiography, As told to Cindy Adams, published in 1965 by Bobbs-Merrill. A most interesting read. Sukarno’s voice is both precise, candid, and clear in the text. This is a book I highly recommend because you can feel just how full of life Sukarno is. He is not afraid of his faults nor of his love of Indonesia.
The other book is Soekarno: Founding Father of Indonesia, 1901-1945 written by Bob Hering and published in 2002 by Koninklijk Instituut Voor de Tropen. Which explains the spelling of Sukarno’s name. This is a closely written academic type of book and quite exhaustive in its documentation. It’s sort of the flip side of the Cindy Adams book but well worth reading as it fills in Sukarno’s glosses.
Properly his name is spelled as “Sukarno” and not “Soekarno.” “Soekarno” being the the Dutch spelling of the name. Although, even Sukarno admitts himself that he often signed official state documents using the “Soekarno” spelling. The old colonial habits were and are hard to quit.
Both books are posted as Book(s) of the Week.
This coming June 6 is Sukarno’s birthday. My intent here is to write and reflect a bit on this most remarkable man. If there had been no Sukarno there would be no Indonesia.
I thought I would start by sharing a few video clips.
The following clips are from the documentary Shadow Play of the production company Hilton Cordell, by Vagabond Films, produced by Sylvie Le Clezio and Chris Hilton, directed and wirtten by Chris Hilton, with the original music by Scott Saunders and narrated by Linda Hunt.
Synopsis
“In Indonesia, on 30 September 1965 a group of President Sukarno’s guards murdered six generals who were anti-Communist. General Suharto blamed the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). Suharto grabbed power and set up death squads to murder up to a million accused Communist sympathisers. The documentary traces the events from 1965 to today. Archival film is used together with interviews and re-enactments.”
September 30 is still a date in Indonesian history which even the Indonesians have yet to fully come to terms with. This is a topic I would like to explore in future posts.
Clip 1: Sukarno
“Reviews the background and leadership of President Sukarno, leader of Indonesia from 1949 to 1965. He had led the independence movement after the Second World War and embraced communism while preaching religious tolerance as a means to unite Indonesia’s various ideologies and religions.”
done
Clip 2: ‘Not a Slaughter’
done
Clip 3: When a coup is a transfer of power
done
