Rubbing Shoulders With Two Presidents
By: Tom Graciano
 More than half of the guests who were not leaving had gone to part of the reception hall where seats had been arranged in a theater style facing a stage. They took their seats waiting for the ludruk to start. The program mentioned that this comedy, in which the characters conducted their dialog in the East Javanese dialect accompanied by the traditional Javanese gamelan orchestra, would last for two hours. It was almost 10:30 p.m. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to make it back to Jakarta before 1:30 a.m. But my worry was quickly quashed by my curiosity for what the president was going to do next to me and Grace.
After the last guests had left, Bung Karno and Mrs. Hartini started walking towards the rows of chairs facing the stage. The president shouted at me, as the distance between us was probably about 30 feet, “Tommy, you’re going to play president tonight. You will sit on my chair and Grace on Ibu’s.” The special gold-trimmed chairs for the president and the first lady were placed in the middle of the first row, closest to the stage. Then the president called his favorite aide, Marine Colonel Bambang Widjanarko. He had to shout again as the aide was some distance away from him. “Bambang, let Tommy sit on my chair and Grace on Ibu’s chair. Ibu and I will be sitting here,” he instructed the colonel speaking in East Javanese dialect. Bung Karno and Mrs. Hartini sat on ordinary seats in the middle of the row half-way between the first row and the last one at the back, about ten rows behind their special seats he ordered me and Grace to sit on.
 Colonel Widjanarko ushered me and Grace to the president’s and the first lady’s chairs. We were flanked on our right and left by members of the diplomatic corps and some cabinet ministers. There were only a few ministers. They must have been Bung Karno’s staunchest political supporters as most of the cabinet members had quickly aligned themselves with General Soeharto, the rising new leader of the country. “Tommy, enjoy the show with Grace, OK?” the president shouted at me again to the bewilderment of the ministers and foreign diplomats. I replied, in a muffled voice so as not to attract the dignitaries’ attention, “Yes, Sir.”
The ludruk, a traditional comedy show from East Java, was to be performed by soldiers from East Java’s Brawijaya military division. These soldiers and their officers were reportedly supporting Bung Karno in the escalating power struggle with General Soeharto who got strong backing from the military. Both Grace and I felt uncomfortable sitting on those special chairs. We both didn’t understand the dialog but had to pretend we enjoyed the show so as not to offend our hosts. Every time the audience laughed – and Bung Karno laughed the loudest – we also laughed out of courtesy. Surely something funny must have been spoken in the dialog. My mind was busy trying to figure out how we’d be able to beat the curfew so the driver would be able to return the car to my Japanese friend on time as I promised him.
Grace and I kept whispering to each other and glancing left and right to see the expressions on the faces of the ministers and the foreign diplomats. Apparently they had also been stealing furtive glances at us both. They must have been wondering who on earth we were, sitting on the president’s and the first lady’s chairs at the instruction of the real president of the Republic of Indonesia. Bung Karno himself shouted at us a few times following his clearly audible laughs, “Are you enjoying yourselves, Tommy, Grace?” Each time he did that, I mumbled a “yes Sir.”
At last, the two-hour show was coming to an end. The entire cast was standing before the curtain and the audience rose to give them a standing ovation led by no less than the president and the first lady themselves. They went forward to shake hands with the actors and actresses as a gesture of appreciation for their performance.. Grace and I, and I’m sure Elsie too, wherever she ended up sitting among the audience, were relieved. It was a two-hour special kind of ordeal which is very difficult to describe.
The guests were all in a hurry to leave the palace so they could beat the curfew as it was already a quarter to one in the morning. We all said good night to the president and the first lady. When it was our turn to shake hands with him, Bung Karno again asked the inevitable question, “Did you both enjoy the show, Tommy, Grace?” We obligingly answered with our short but enthusiastic “yes Sir” and thanked the president and the first lady for giving us the privilege of sitting on their seats that night. They both laughed.
The drive back to Jakarta was like a race for all cars coming out of the Bogor Palace. Our driver was clearly not happy because we stayed back for the show. We could see it on his face and on the way he drove us. Praise God, we arrived in Jakarta safely with just enough time to drop Grace and Elsie off and raced to my Japanese friend’s house. He was upset but tried hard to hide it. I thanked him and the driver and walked hurriedly over to the Press House which only took me no more than five minutes.
God had been fully in control, I have no doubt about it. We narrowly beat the curfew.
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