Suharto And The Address Unknown
By Dr.Auswaf Ahsan
21 February,
2008
Countercurrents.org
"I can speak English, May I help you doctor, to translate"? A tall, good-looking girl in her snugly fitting blue jeans and white top with a pale pink head scarf asked me. We were in Meurah Dua, a remote village in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, as a part of relief mission to help the Tsunami stricken people. Our team from Kerala, a southern Indian state, was supposed work in one of the worst tsunami hit areas, Banda Aceh. As Meurah Dua was reported to be more militant infested and obviously less media focused they did not to have many Australian relief teams over there. She introduced herself as Rina and spoke in an accent which had an apparent East Asian tinge. She was pleasant and sociable and took no time to merge with our team and helped us to feel Acehnese language as well as the people of her village. "I am so happy that I could speak English after many weeks" she told. She took me around on her bicycle and showed me militants and military. Gradually our friendship grew. Next day we had to depart, I could see tears in her eyes, but then her image began to blur as tears welled up in my eyes too. I held her hand and told "please do not forget to write mails Rina", "I do not have access to internet doctor" she replied. I tried to console her by promising to send her letters. But then came the most shocking statement of Rina that I am unable to come to terms with even after three years. "Sorry doctor, I do not have an address now" she said, pointing towards the tents…
This statement of Rina about her having no address disturbed me again recently when I watched Kim Ki Duk's 'ADDRESS UNKNOWN'. This movie's tragic tone hints at the consequences of the Korean War on people without being heavy-handed or overly biased towards one side or the other. Chang-guk is a half-breed, whose African American father deserted him seventeen years earlier. His mother keeps trying to write letters to her husband, but they're always returned to her. Here Kim depicts superbly the ordeal of being without address, thus the title. Yet another occasion was while going through a book titled 'KORA' by Tenzin Tsundue. He writes "Ask me where I'm from and I won't have an answer, I feel I never really belonged anywhere, never really had a home"! Tenzin Tsundue is a restless young Tibetan, who after graduating from Madras, South India, braved snowstorms and treacherous mountains, broke all rules and restrictions, crossed the Himalayas on foot and went into forbidden Tibet! In both the cases they were striving hard not to become a stolen or lost generation. Rina's address was stolen long time ago by Suharto, furthermore Tsunami has struck her people dreadfully. Since Aceh has abundant oil resources, Jakarta is keen to tap this for their big brothers. Puppet regimes show professionalism to convert even natural calamities in their favour.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a Suharto loyalist general, praised Suharto the dead dictator as "a loyal fighter, a true soldier and a respected statesman". World political leaders and international media showered tributes to this 'Pol Pot' of Indonesia who was responsible for not less than one million deaths. Suharto helped his colonial big brother Australia to plunder not only Indonesia but the neighboring Timor as well. This brutal exercise continued for almost four decades, but the colonizers disposed him as 'trustworthy friend'. Global media would have more reasons to celebrate when Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the new age Pharaoh, or General Musharraf, the enlightened moderator, gets elected for Nobel peace prize for their war against terror. The way the international media indulged in Suharto affair was a jolt to me and tossed me back to December, 2004, the days of tsunami. That was the Indonesia which I could see and feel. Perhaps, people can understand each other well only during their times of distress, and not when their despised 'democratic emperors' die. Nevertheless, it is more common to remember pharaohs for pyramids than those thousands who were crushed under the massive stones during its erection. Common mass symbolize a country instead of the powerful; similarly, villages represent a nation than their colonial capitals. Our relief team could see Indonesia quiet closely, possibly, because we were too far away from Jakarta.
Will the 'heroes' of the new world order be compelled to confess for these stolen addresses? Let us wait and see whether Australian Premiere Kevin Rudd's admission of guilt to the aborigines has any trace of political honesty.
Dr.Auswaf
Ahsan
Associate Professor
Dept.of Oral Medicine & Radiology
Century Dental College
Kerala - India
darveesh@gmail.com
