http://www.theage.com.au/world/australian-recalls-drawing-of-indonesias-battle-lines-20101119-180x9.html
Australian recalls drawing of Indonesia's battle lines Tom Allard, Surabaya November 20, 2010 Tony Rafty is lauded on his return to Surabaya in Java, where 65 years earlier he sketched Australian officer D. W. Bryant with Gurkhas and Sukarno's ministers. Photo: Abdullah Munir WHEN the editor of now defunct Sydney afternoon daily The Sun got the message through to Tony Rafty to head down to Java, the artist and caricaturist was not pleased. ''Not another bloody war,'' was his response. It was 1945 and Rafty had already spent some tough years in the jungles of Borneo and Papua New Guinea chronicling the deeds of Australian forces as an official war artist, leaving the military only months before World War II ended after contracting malaria. He got word of his new assignment while in Singapore, illustrating the formal surrender of the Japanese to Lord Mountbatten. His new mission was to find out who was the man rallying his people against the British and Dutch forces seeking to re-assert European dominance over Indonesia now the Japanese had been defeated. Rafty not only found Indonesia's independence hero and first president, Sukarno, he befriended him. He also witnessed one of the most celebrated moments of Indonesian nationhood, the Battle of Surabaya. Rafty and another Fairfax journalist, Ian Flemming, were participants in the seminal event of that battle. Now 95, Rafty last week returned to Surabaya, where he was feted by the locals, his presence even bumping the visit of US President Barack Obama off the front pages of newspapers. At the opening of an exhibition of his drawings staged by the Australian embassy and a parade to the mayor's residence in his honour, Rafty reminisced about his experience in Indonesia and his affection for its people. On his arrival in Indonesia in 1945, he was immensely curious about who ''that man'' Sukarno was, but largely indifferent about his cause. At that time Australia supported the Dutch reclaiming their prized colony. The Dutch East Indies government-in-exile was hosted outside Brisbane during the war and Australian troops had taken the Japanese surrender in eastern Indonesia in preparation for the Dutch return. It was the task of the British to do the same in Java, but they were meeting fierce resistance from woefully equipped but fanatically determined Indonesian partisans. ''I wanted to meet the symbolic leader of the land,'' Rafty wrote back home soon after arriving in Java. ''Was he old? Was he just a rebel leader of ruthless ways? Would he see us?'' Thanks to the directions of a rickshaw driver, Rafty met Sukarno in Batavia, now Jakarta. He soon became sympathetic to the independence movement. ''He was very clear in the way he spoke . Everything he said had meaning, and people listened.'' The two men bonded over Sukarno's art collection. They met many times and Sukarno took Rafty with him to Surabaya, where he was to sign a ceasefire with the British commander, Brigadier General A. W. S. Mallaby The plane was hit by a hail of bullets when it arrived at Surabaya's airport. ''Sukarno jumped straight out of the plane and shouted, 'Merdeka [freedom]. Merdeka. Merdeka,''' recalls Rafty. ''Someone must have recognised him because we were soon surrounded by a screaming mob of Indonesians waving their red-and-white banner.'' The ceasefire was signed - recorded in sketches by Rafty - but General Mallaby was killed only days later, apparently while attempting to disarm some Indonesians. Rafty, who had stayed behind in Surabaya, was aware six war correspondents, including Flemming and Herald photographer Ray Olsen, were being kept in prison. He used his links to Sukarno to convince guards to release them. Flemming used Morse code to inform the British that General Mallaby had been killed. The British responded with a terrifying sweep of Surabaya, aided by a massive air and sea bombardment. ''That was the cruellest thing I had seen,'' says Rafty. ''They didn't care who they bombed. They killed many women and children. There was no justification for what they did to the city of Surabaya and its people.'' Rafty recorded the operation in a series of sketches, some of which were stolen after an exhibition in Australia. About 10,000 Indonesians died and many more fled the city as the British gradually asserted control after three weeks of ferocious fighting. The day the bombardment in Surabaya was launched, November 10, is National Heroes Day in Indonesia. Like Anzac Day, it honours a terrible defeat. However, the significance of the battle was its galvanising effect, producing a rallying cry for the revolutionary movement. It also prompted the British, impressed by the determination of the Indonesian resistance, to take a neutral position, rather than helping the Dutch. Australia went even further under prime minister Ben Chifley, taking up the cause of Indonesian independence at the fledgling United Nations and blockading Dutch supply ships. In 1949, Indonesia was recognised by the international community as a nation state. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! 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