TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Hadi Soesastro: A best friend, a bright colleague, a most humane person
He was the youngest of the founders of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an institute he co-founded in l97l, but, alas, he was called by his Creator before the older co-founders
Change Size
H
e was the youngest of the founders of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an institute he co-founded in l97l, but, alas, he was called by his Creator before the older co-founders. I believe because he had been the best among us, in character, in intellectual capabilities, in his demeanor and in his love for other people.
Hadi, we fondly called him, departed on May 4, just four days after his 65th birthday on April 30.
We at CSIS all grieved and cried, because we lost a friend, a colleague, a co-worker, a thinker, but above all, the finest human being we have been privileged to be with for over 40 years.
Our friendship began in the mid-sixties, in the wake of the abortive communist coup when two groups of intellectuals, one in Jakarta and one in Europe, decided that they should establish a think tank dedicated to long-term planning and strategic issues, issues which are vital to the state and society.
The one group in Jakarta was led by Harry Tjan, Soedjati and myself, which was more pragmatic and politically oriented, while the other group in Europe was led by Daoed Joesoef and Hadi, both active in the Indonesian Student Organization in Europe, and more intellectually oriented. The two groups merged when Hadi came back to Indonesia in I971 and Daoed followed Hadi in 1973. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) came into being as a result of the merger of these two groups of intellectuals.
Hadi had always been the main intellectual among us since the very beginning. Having been trained as an aeronautical engineer in Aachen, Germany in I974-1978, he went to the Rand Graduate School in Santa Monica to pursue his PhD degree in systems analysis and economics under the tutelage of Charly Wolff, Jr. one of Hadi’s and our close friends for 40 years. Hadi’s dissertation was on the Second Five Year Plan of Bappenas under Widjojo Nitisastro, particularly on its financial aspects and funding.
But Hadi was more than merely an engineer and an economist. He had an eye for strategic issues and had an extraordinary capacity to combine all these aspects: economic, political, security and the strategic into a conceptual synthesis which was far-reaching and comprehensive. This was a combination of a special gift, intellectual capabilities, discipline and profound thinking. This particular and special grasp of things was indeed very difficult to emulate and imitate. We benefited from these sparks of genius and at the same time from having our feet firmly on the ground.
He understood and dedicated a lot of thought to the Indonesian economy. And as such he was consulted by many, both from government as well as private sector people and by colleagues from academia. He was involved in many regional institution building activities, first in the Asia Pacific region through the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) where he was present at its creation in 1980, at the Australian National University in Canberra, with Sir John Crawford and Dr. Saburo Okita, who helped inspire Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the government institution established in 1989, supported by PECC and ASEAN.
Later he was involved in the ASEAN+3 and EAS processes, through his work and studies together with like-minded colleagues in the region. And he was included in many Indonesian government teams, especially in preparing FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) and EPAs (Economic Partnership Agreements) with China, Japan, Korea and India. He also assisted the Indonesian preparatory team for the G-20.
Through all these years he managed to establish a network of scholars who became very loyal and supportive of each other in the Asia Pacific and East Asia regions including: Charles Morrison and Hugh Patrick from the US, ZhangYunling and Huang Jiping from China, Ross Garnaut and Peter Drysdale from Australia, Robert Scollay from New Zealand, Soogil Young from South Korea and last but not least Shujiro Urata and Ippei Yamazawa from Japan.
ASEAN had from the beginning become his primary interest and he had assisted a lot of government departments and officials on ASEAN economic cooperation including the evolution of the idea of the ASEAN Economic Community.
Together with Carolina Hernandez from the Philippines, Hadi helped shape up and subsequently bring about the idea of an ASEAN People’s Assembly (APA) a regional forum to bridge the relations between ASEAN governments and the ASEAN Civil Society Organizations.
He was very active in ASEAN ISIS activity since its inception over 25 years ago, and helped establish a grouping of ASEAN Economists, comprising the late Tan Sri Dr. Noordin Sopiee and now Dato’ Dr. Mahani from Malaysia, Dr. Narongchai Akrasanee from Thailand, Dr. Chia Siow Yue from Singapore and Dr. Jesus Estanislao from the Philippines. Throughout all these activities and the enormous work he undertook, he was always imperturbable, low key, smiling, patient and above all bright and hardworking.
When one looks through his collection of works that CSIS plans to publish in the near future, one cannot help but appreciates the unassuming but hardworking Hadi, and we are proud of this Indonesian son we at CSIS respected, adored and loved for 40 years. When he became ill with cancer in the past few years, he still went on as much as before until he collapsed two weeks ago.
CSIS has lost its finest son, and has to do its utmost to fill his shoes. While there is hardly anybody that can perform the range of his tasks now, maybe each one of us collectively can try to part of what is needed, in memory of him.
I myself met Hadi in 1967 for the first time in Germany when he was chair of the Indonesian Students’ Association in Europe and since then we became the best of friends until his passing.
He enriched my life with his bright ideas, good demeanor, and loyalty to our friendship and our common ideals of which CSIS is the central part. I do hope that he also enjoyed and benefited from our friendship as much as I did.
I also become close to his family, and am godfather of Agus, his eldest son. I hope we can stay close in memory of him.
Hadi, you are the best in God’s eyes, and that is why He wants you to be close to Him so soon. Have a safe journey into His embrace and please think of us.
