Idealised Indonesia

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31262, 7 January 1967, Page 4

Idealised Indonesia

Five Journey from Djakarta. By Maslyn Williams. Collins. 382 pp.

Taking Djakarta as his point of departure, the author made five journeys to the principal islands of Indonesia-Sulawesi (Celebes), Bali, Sumatra, Java and West Irian. He was given every assistance in his journeys, including guides and transport and allowed to travel unhindered, except for some bureaucratic delays when he sought permission to leave Indonesia by way of West Irian. But Mr Williams was patient and persistent and ended his journey as he had intended. So quickly do events move that already this book is politically cut of date. Aidit and Nasution no longer sit at each end of a see-saw. while Sukarno deftly maintains the balance in the centre. The author had interviews with both Aidit and Nasution but saw Sukarno only from a distance when the President made an unexpected arrival by helicopter in a Javanese town he was visiting. The Mayor, the Army commander and the local judge were still adjusting their hastilychanged clothes as they hurried to meet Sukarno, who made no political speeches, attended no receptions, but merely led the crowd in singing Javanese songs. Here was a typical example of the paradoxes at every level of Indonesian life: how could one reconcile the picture of this kindly man, his arms round two shy little girls he had called from the crowd, with that of the ranting fanatical dictator with his insistent “Crush Malaysia” policy blaring from loudspeakers and radios day after day? It Is almost possible to see Mr Williams’s hurt bewilderment as he- struggles to correlate Indonesian words with Indonesian actions. Because he made these journeys with a sincere desire to like and understand the people and the variations in culture and temperament

from island to island he approached the Indonesians’ problems with sympathy. Theirs is an ancient civilisation slowly emerging, he says, after 300 years of suppression during which, so he claims, the Dutch deliberately fostered the divisions between the islands. Now, the Rulers objective is unity in a common endeavour to establish Indonesia as an Asian nation of importance. As he travelled through the areas laid waste in Bali after the disastrous eruption of Mount Agung in 1963, or discussed women’s organisations with the Minister for Social Affairs (a woman), or watched the Independence Day celebrations in West Irian, Mr Williams says he realised more and more clearly how difficult it is for Westerners to understand the Asian point of view in world affairs and more difficult still for them to realise that to many Asians the Western way of life is not one to be emulated. Mr Williams’s descriptions of everyday life in the towns and villages are vivid, but his political views are often idealistic to the point of naivete.

Details are given of the routes he took on each journey, but unfortunately there are no maps and only one photograph—Sukarno during his helicopter visit to Sukabumi. The end papers are themselves maps of Indonesia but are quite inadequate and still refer to Sulawesi as Celebes, although this old name is not used anywhere in the text. In this comprehensive coverage of Indonesian life Mr Williams has delved conscientiously into communism, education, medical care, art and factory life. Interviews were granted freely by Ministers. by factory managers, schoolteachers and doctors, but throughout the book the emphasis is on the ordinary people of Indonesia, for whom Mr Williams formed a genuine, although sometimes perplexed affection. » *