Jakarta - The ongoing Jakarta Fair is not only a trade and business exhibition for Hasdik Ramadhan, after he read that the Bengkulu stand is exhibiting Sukarno`s bed from his time in exile there.
The wrought iron antique bed draped in a yellowish mosquito net, with a card saying "the bed of Sukarno", fascinated the Banten resident.
"I admire Sukarno because people can learn a lot of good points from our founding president. We should learn from his life," said Hasdik, who inherited his love for Sukarno from his father.
He recalled how he was bitten by this bug after reading books about Sukarno, passed on to him by his late father, during a stay in Sulawesi.
Sukarno, who declared Indonesia`s independence on Aug. 17, 1945, with vice president Mohammad Hatta, had been exiled to Bengkulu by the Dutch colonial authorities between 1938 and 1942.
A similar admiration was expressed by Wulan, a 12th grader at Al Ihsan vocational school in Bintaro, Tangerang, who heard about the exhibition from her sister.
"I want to know how Sukarno lived during his exile. It`s important for the younger generation to know national history," she said.
Trimurti, the stand`s caretaker, said Bengkulu exhibited the first president`s historical memorabilia to remind young people of the independence struggle.
"The exhibits are real, not replicas. A lot of people don`t believe that it`s Sukarno`s bed because it looks so small. But it actually is big enough for an adult," she said.
"The Dutch colonial authorities exiled Sukarno in malarial areas, like Bengkulu and Digul, Papua. He survived because of the mosquito net," she said.
During his exile in Bengkulu, Sukarno lived in a house on Jl. Anggut Atas, which is now known as Jl. Soekarno-Hatta, married Fatmawati, daughter of a leader of the Bengkulu Muhammadiyah chapter, and renovated an old mosque, known as Jami Mosque.
Besides exhibiting the bed of Sukarno, the Bengkulu stand also displays other items of the first president, such as a table and four chairs, antique bicycles and some photographs.
Adit, another visitor, was attracted to the photo exhibition. The photos showed Sukarno`s daily life with his family.
"I like photography. The old photos show that we had a pleasing natural landscape and fine architectural buildings at that time. It`s funny to see that, unlike today, older people took up a more formal pose when being photographed," he said.
Yona, a housewife from Kemayoran, North Jakarta, found the photos adorable.
"Sukarno was handsome and charming," she said with a smile.
Trimurti said Bengkulu wanted to improve its tourism sector. Therefore, she said, the province has established tourism destinations, including historical sites.
"We take care of every historical site in Bengkulu. Besides the Sukarno heritage site, Bengkulu also has the house of governor general Thomas Raffles, who discovered the parasitic flowering plant Rafflesia arnoldi, she said.
"Bengkulu also boasts Fort Malborough built in 1713 by the British East India Company and the tomb of national hero Sentot Ali Basah," she said, referring to Yogyakartan Prince Diponegoro`s right-hand man, during the fight against Dutch colonialism. Tifa Asrianti
Source: http://old.thejakartapost.com (July 14, 2008)