An Icon’s Birthday Has Indonesia Looking to Past
September 24th, 2009By MARK LANDLER
A version of this article appeared in print on Monday, June 4, 2001, on section A page 4 of the New York Times edition.
This Wednesday marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sukarno, the founding president of Indonesia. After months of political intrigue involving the current president, Abdurrahman Wahid, people here are desperate for a chance to change the subject.
Indonesia is celebrating the birthday on June 6 with an outpouring of festivals, conferences and commemorations. Tens of thousands of people are expected to make a pilgrimage to Blitar, the town on Java’s eastern end where Sukarno, a hero of Indonesian nationalism, was buried in 1970. Selandjoetnja…
