Jumat, 05 Februari 2016

In exile, Sukarno’s love story in Bengkulu

Exile: In 1938, the Dutch sent Sukarno to Bengkulu, a city lacking in political activity and fairly hard to reach.
Exile: In 1938, the Dutch sent Sukarno to Bengkulu, a city lacking in political activity and fairly hard to reach. - 

Sukarno spent four years in exile in Bengkulu, a sleepy coastal city in southern Sumatra.
The years were eventful for the founding president, his family and the nation itself.

As a leader of the independence movement against the Dutch, Sukarno was first exiled to Ende, in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara; along with his wife, Inggit Garnasih; Ratna Djuami, Inggit’s niece; and an adopted daughter.

However, after five years, Sukarno came down with malaria, prompting his friends to demand that the Dutch transfer him to a healthier climate.

In 1938, the Dutch sent Sukarno to Bengkulu, a city lacking in political activity and fairly hard to reach. Sukarno described it as a bastion of conservative Islam, where women neatly covered their bodies and were separated from males.

He lived in a house in the city center loaned to him by Tjang Tjeng Kwat, a Chinese businessman supplying the Dutch in Bengkulu with basic necessities, and accepted an offer from local Muhammadiyah chairman Hasan Din to teach at a new religious school on the condition that he would not talk about politics.
Boost: The museum’s caretaker says that the water from this well can endow men with Bung Karno’s famous virility.
Boost: The museum’s caretaker says that the water from this well can endow men with Bung Karno’s famous virility.

In that class he met Fatmawati, Hasan Din’s 15-year-old daughter, a year younger than Ratna Djuami.

Fatmawati came from Curup, a nearby village. When she continued her studies at a home economics school in Bengkulu, she sought a place to live and Sukarno invited her to stay in his house.

She became a member of the family, sharing a room with Ratna Djuami and another foster child, Sukarti, who was 10 years younger than Ratna.

In the house Sukarno and Inggit set up a theater club, Monte Carlo. 

Several youths joined as players, including Ratna and Fatmawati. They frequently trained or played badminton in the yard. 

Sukarno was fond of Fatmawati and they strolled along Panjang Beach many times, discussing many things.

Twenty years her senior, Sukarno was a father figure. 

Inggit, however, was suspicious. After staying in the house for two years, Fatmawati moved to her grandmother’s home not far away, still seeing Sukarno from time to time.
Oval office: the irregularly shaped room where Bung Karno worked while in exile in Bengkulu.
Oval office: the irregularly shaped room where Bung Karno worked while in exile in Bengkulu.

Two years later, when Fatmawati was 17, her family was going to marry her off to a youth. She asked for Bung Karno’s views. Instead of giving her advice, Bung Karno expressed his love and proposed to her. Fatmawati agreed, but did not want to become a second wife.

Sukarno’s reasons for marrying Fatmawati — a desire to have children — was something that the 53-year-old inggit could not accept, more so because Fatmawati had stayed with her family. 

When Japan invaded Sumatra on Feb. 12, 1942, Sukarno and his family were evacuated to Padang, West Sumatra. He held Fatmawati’s hands when he said goodbye in front of her grandmother’s home. 

Sukarno eventually divorced Inggit after 20 years of marriage, accompanying her back to Bandung. In June 1943, amid the wartime and his work to free Indonesia, Sukarno sent a telegram to a friend in Bengkulu, asking him to inform Fatmawati of his plans to marry her.

Their marriage lasted for 13 years, until another woman, Hartini, won his heart. Fatmawati left the presidential palace and chose to live by herself. Sukarno felt deep affection for five more women in later years.

Nonetheless, Fatmawati made a profound impression on the minds of Indonesians, not only as the first lady when Sukarno became president, but also as the woman who made the flag flown when Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed the nation’s independence on Aug. 17, 1945.
Polymath: The multi-talented Bung Karno designed this mosque in Bengkulu while in exile in the sleepy city.
Polymath: The multi-talented Bung Karno designed this mosque in Bengkulu while in exile in the sleepy city.

The love story of Sukarno and Fatmawati is captured by two places in Bengkulu: the Exile House of Bung Karno on Jl. Sukarno and the Fatmawati House on Jl. Fatmawati near Simpang Lima, Bengkulu.

The Bung Karno house lies on 4 hectares, with its main building measuring 9-by-18.5 meters. Part of the house has been renovated according to its original form. 

The house keeps an old bicycle of Sukarno and a reproduction of the famous photo showing Sukarno and Fatmawati riding in tandem.

An oval office in front has two cabinets with about 200 of Sukarno’s books. A bed used by Sukarno and Inggit is in an adjacent room, along with two wardrobes for Monte Carlo costumes and a table designed by Bung Karno.

Photos feature Monte Carlo players, a teenaged Fatmawati dressed in black posing with the Sukarno family and love letters sent by Sukarno to Fatmawati.

Across from the room of Sukarno and Inggit is the one used by Ratna Djuami and Sukarti, also known as Kartika, where Fatmawati stayed for almost two years. 

The house also features a well with a reputation for healing.
M. Yaman, the historic building’s caretaker, suggests that people wash their faces with the water to boost their virility and to sire many children — just like Sukarno.
Immortalized: Paintings of Bung Karno and Fatmawati adorn the walls of the house.
Immortalized: Paintings of Bung Karno and Fatmawati adorn the walls of the house.

“A man who had difficulty in having children once came here before dusk, took a bath in the well water and performed his dusk prayers in this house,” Yaman said. “Several years later he visited here again with his wife and a little child for a thanksgiving party with a feast.” 

A replica of the house of where Fatmawati lived lies in Simpang Lima, some 400 meters away. The original house was located about a hundred meters closer to Simpang. 

Its most attractive object is the old, hand-operated Singer sewing machine that was used to sow the Independence flag by Fatmawati, who had five children with Sukarno, including Megawati Sukarnoputri — the country’s fifth and only woman president.

Another Bung Karno site open to tourists is Mesjid Jamik on Jl. Soedirman near Simpang Tiga market. With a three-tier pyramidal roof and a front terrace, the mosque is where Bung Karno attended prayer services.

It is also a reminder that Sukarno was a polymath: The future president was a graduate of Technische Hoogeschool, the embryo of the Bandung Institute of Technology. 

He designed the mosque and two other houses in 1940, one on Jl. KH Ahmad Dahlan 48, now owned by Alfian; the other at Jl. Prof. Dr. Hazairin 3137 — 3138 belonging to Ki Agus Husin.
Historic: The sewing machine that Sukarno’s wife Fatmawati used to make the first Indonesian national flag.
Historic: The sewing machine that Sukarno’s wife Fatmawati used to make the first Indonesian national flag.

Sourse: - See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/07/04/in-exile-sukarno-s-love-story-bengkulu.html#sthash.UdT0bVoZ.dpuf

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