Word: sukarno
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...dinner time at Merdeka Palace. There, at the round table, was President Sukarno, glaring nervously around him. There was his charming young Japanese-born wife, Ratna Sari Dewi, the hostess with the mostest in Indonesia. And there was quiet, almost shy Army Lieut. General Suharto, Indonesia's apparent new strongman, sitting on Dewi's right. As photographers clicked away, the dinner guests sipped their soup in icy silence. Not until Dewi coaxed a smile, and then a laugh, from Suharto did everyone relax...
...Three. There was reason for strain. The dinner was intended to smooth the way toward an agreement between the President and the general. But only hours earlier, Sukarno had been forced to go along with the appointment of a new military-civilian government whose key figures were picked by Suharto. A face-saving compromise, not unusual for such Javanese drama, had saved a few Sukarno associates for minor roles. But the men who would call the shots were Suharto, in charge of defense and security; brainy former Ambassador to Moscow Adam Malik, in charge of foreign affairs as well...
...about a smile?" asked a reporter. "I am smiling," snapped a puffy-faced President Sukarno at the Pakistan Ambassador's reception. "I'm smiling at the many foreign correspondents abroad. Abroad they say I have been ousted. They say I am a sick man. They say I nearly committed suicide. But I am not a sick man. I have not been ousted. I will never try to commit suicide because I love life. Here I am. I am still President of the Republic. I am still leader of the revolution...
Perhaps. But a better judge of the situation was Sukarno's Japanese third wife, the fetching Ratna Sari Dewi, who donned tight slacks to spend a Sunday on the golf links with the nation's new apparent strongman, Lieut. General Suharto (he plays; she doesn't). Word had it that she was playing a mediator's role between her husband and the new regime, attempting to talk Sukarno into giving in gracefully to the generals. Though his phone line was now cut and his helicopters were grounded, Sukarno still held out against the new, smaller Cabinet...
...ordered extra troops into Djakarta's sun-baked streets, briefly closed its airport and cable office, disconnected telephone links with the outside world. Djakarta operators responded to queries with a singsong "Circuit not operating, emergency time." Only the students continued to enjoy their customary freedom from military interference. Sukarno's third wife, beautiful Japanese Ratna Sari Dewi, 26, left her luxurious mansion for another house after students raided it and dumped garbage into her swimming pool...