Rubbing Shoulders With Two Presidents Part 15
A former freelance journalist who was in Jakarta during “the year of living
dangerously” relates his close encounters with two Indonesian presidents
Tom Graciano/ Indonesia Media
I n June of 1969 Time-Life Books, then a division of Time Inc., publishers of Time and Life magazines, sent a senior writer to Jakarta, Ray Steinberg. Ray was a former correspondent of Newsweek magazine in Tokyo. Being a freelance writer, he was contracteed by Time-Life Books to write the contents of the latest title of its Foods of the World series.
 Ray traveled to Southeast Asia -- Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines – to conduct his own research on the region’s native cuisines. The book was to be titled Hawaiian and Southeast Asian Cooking.. As the Time magazine reporter in Indonesia, I was assigned by Time-Life News Service in Hong Kong to assist Ray.
Basically Ray was to learn how the various Indonesian cuisines were prepared and what were the ingredients and condiments used. He was also to taste these varied food items himself so he could precisely describe what they were like to a Westerner’s taste bud.
Weeks before Ray arrived in Jakarta I lined up a series of food-tasting sessions with leading personalities of Indonesia’s culinary world. These were not only in Jakarta, but also in Bandung ( West Java), Yogyakarta ( Central Java), Surabaya ( East Java), Ubud ( Bali), Ambon (Maluku), Makasar ( South Sulawesi), Menado ( North Sulawesi), Palembang ( South Sumatra) and Padang ( West Sumatra).
 In Jakarta I was introduced by Brig. Gen. Sutikno, then Head of Household Affairs of the Merdeka Palace, to Ibu Supit. She was then Jakarta’s top caterer whose cuisines were served for dinners in state functions attended by local and foreign dignitaries hosted by President Suharto. Ibu Supit strongly suggested that we feature Ibu Tien Suharto’s special recipe for sop ikan (fish soup) in the book. She said the first lady was an excellent cook and sop ikan was Pak Harto’s favorite dish
No sooner did Ray arrive in Jakarta than the two of us embarked on a hectic whirlwind tour of those cities. We tasted what were supposed to be the best culinary delights in each city. In Menado our host was Governor H.V. Worang while in Bali it was no less than the Raja (King) of Ubud himself. Ray was quite a gourmet and astonished people in Padang and Bukuttinggi with his chili-munching capability. I wrote down the recipes of certain dishes Ray thought would be suitable to include in the book.
With the help of Gen. Sutikno and Colonel Dwipayana, intimately addressed as Mas Dipo by senior palace reporters, I succeeded in getting a lunch appointment for Ray and me with Ibu Tien at the first family’s residence on Jalan Cendana No. 8 in Menteng. Mas Dipo was President Suharto’s press officer. To Ray’s and my surprise, Ibu Tien spoke fluent English and Dutch. I found out later she attended the Dutch MULO secondary school. She was accompanied by Mrs. Alamsyah, wife of Major Gen. Alamsyah, one of Pak Harto’s top aides at the time.
 Ibu Tien was a very friendly lady. She asked Ray about his family. He told her his wife was Japanese, that they lived in Japan for many years and that he was fluent in Japanese. Then, turning to me, she asked, “What’s your name again?” “Tommy, Ma’m,” I answered. “Oh, I have a son whose name is also Tommy.” She was of course referring to Hutomo Mandalaputra, popularly known as Tommy Suharto.
Her sop ikan was not served at the lunch. In fact, when Ray and I told her the purpose of our visit, she was surprised. “Oh, nobody told me that.” She said all the food items on the table were prepared by the cook. “I will arrange for both of you to join us next Sunday when we go to Pulau Monyet ( Monkey Island),” she added unexpectedly, to our extreme delight. “I will cook and make sop ikan for Pak Harto, which of course you can taste,” she further said.
Mas Dipo told me later the first family – Pak Harto, Ibu Tien and all their six children – would always try to spend their Sundays together on Pulau Monyet if the president had no official agenda. But, he added, never before had any local journalist been invited to join them, let alone a foreign newsman. He planned on inviting a couple of senior local newspersons to “balance things out.”
I found out a few days later the two senior local journalists invited by Mas Dipo were Ita Syamsuddin of Antara News Agency and August Parengkuan of the Kompas daily, the largest-circulation newspaper in Indonesia. Both were close friends of mine. Ita was the one who told me the clairvoyant story about the catch-22 health dilemma of the late President Soekarno.
On the Sunday following our lunch with Ibu Tien Suharto, Ray and I arrived by cab at the Jalan Cendana residence of the first family at seven in the morning. We were greeted by Mas Dipo. Not long after that, Ita and August came. One of the president’s aides, Colonel Eddie Nalapraya, whom I knew personally, joined us talking to each other in the front yard near the guardhouse while waiting for the first couple and their children to get ready to leave
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