Everyone loves a love story, but when it’s a love story about Sukarno – one of Indonesia’s founding fathers, our first president and the man who ruled the country from 1945 to 1967 –  it’s all the more fascinating. Sukarno was famous for his unparalleled charisma, flamboyance, oratorical skills … and his  love of women.

Sukarno married eight women: Siti Oetari (the daughter of his political mentor HOS Cokroaminoto), Inggit Garnasih (who was 12 years his senior, supported his education and played an important role in the struggle for independence), Fatmawati (whose five children with Sukarno include former president Megawati), Hartini, Kartini Manoppo, Naoko Nemoto (Ratna Sari Dewi), Haryati, and Yurike Sanger.  
Some wives he divorced, other wives remained married to him until his death on June 21, 1970 at the age of 69.

Percintaan Bung Karno dengan Anak SMA is the story of the first president’s love for Yurike Sanger, his eighth and youngest wife. Sukarno married her in 1964 when he was 63 and she was a 17-year-old high school student.

How did the founder of the Republic of Indonesia, the Great Leader of the Revolution, the first president (and eventually, president for life), Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and the Voice of the People get hitched to a teenage girl?

At work, of course!   

Yurike was a member of the Barisan Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, a group that promoted the Indonesian principle of “Unity in Diversity”. Youths in the group dressed in traditional Indonesian costumes and greeted guests at state functions at Merdeka Palace.

Sukarno noticed Yurike on her first day at the Palace and struck up a conversation. After that first meeting, he continued to seek her out and even offered to take her home. A few more meetings followed and Sukarno asked her to marry. They had a low-key wedding at the home of Yurike’s parents.

Unsurprisingly, they opposed the match but were helpless to say no. Who could resist the virtual emperor of Indonesia?  

Percintaan is a complex and intriguing book that simply cannot be put down. Author Kadjat Adra’i, a veteran journalist, writes in the first person and draws us into the mind and heart of an innocent young girl whose life was suddenly hit by a tornado. Her existence — and the existence of everyone around her — was turned upside down. Her thoughts and emotions were left in a dizzying state of confusion.   

Yurike dropped out of school at Sukarno’s suggestion because of gossip and social pressures and abandoned her dream of becoming a flight attendant. Not a high aspiration perhaps, but she wanted to fly and explore the world.  

Instead Yurike became the proverbial bird in a gilded cage and could not lead the life of an average teenage girl. She was profoundly bored much of the time and had to make do with the company of the guards who constantly surrounded her. Conjugal visits by her husband were fleeting and the increasingly chaotic political situation often forced the president to cancel their meetings during the last few years of his rule.

The book has many old photos and reproductions of several personal notes Bung Karno wrote to Yurike, all in his unmistakable scrawl that is so familiar to many Indonesians. The notes were sometimes written on the Palace’s letterhead with the formal address diplomatically crossed out. “Dear Yury,” he wrote in one letter. “I am so terribly busy that today I cannot come to you. You know, it is the reshuffle of the Cabinet. Tomorrow I shall come and stay with you. All my love, Soekarno.”

Sukarno’s strong scrawl gradually grew weaker as his power waned. Even after his fall when he languished under house arrest, he kept writing, promising to come and see her again. Sometimes he was able to keep the promise. During one visit, he asked Yurike to help him borrow Rp 2 million for his son’s wedding because he was broke. A womanizer he may have been; corrupt he was not.

This captivating book brings Sukarno to life again through the eyes of a young girl. It reminds us that the imposing figure of Bung Karno (Brother Karno, as he was fondly known) was a human being, just like all us, and subject to human passions, romantic feelings, petty jealousies, tenderness, weakness and at the end, frailty.

The story of Bung Karno’s marriage to a teenage girl, polygamous marriages and penchant for women is, of course, cannon fodder for feminists. So is the hurt he caused his wives, most of whom suffered eventually the same pain as the women they replaced. This is the same complex and contradictory man who in 1947 published Sarinah, a progressive manifesto that expounded on the rights of women. In the book, Sukarno proposed three roles for women: freedom to organize, equal rights and ideological struggle. One cannot say that his marriage to Yurike reflected any of these ideals.

It’s hard to dismiss Sukarno as a hypocrite. He admitted openly his love for women and was brutally honest about his passions. A feminist myself, I find it hard not to admire Sukarno despite his obvious faults. Perhaps it’s because of his extraordinary intellectualism and his genuine passion for learning. Whoever his wives were, his most consistent partner in bed were … books. His bed was always covered with books written in many languages and he forbade anyone to remove them. Hatta, his first vice-president, once said books were Sukarno’s first wife.

Sukarno was a genius and revolutionary progressive, but at the same time he was unable to shed his feudal tendencies, especially about women. In that, he was a man of his times.

But what excuse do our leaders have today? They claim to be democratic and pro-reform and mouth gender-conscious rhetoric, but sell out women at every turn.  

We’ve got a long way to go, baby.

Percintaan Bung Karno dengan Anak SMA

(Sukarno’s Love Story with a High School Girl)
Kadjat Adra’i
Komunitas Bambu, March 2010
426 pages

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