HIS voice choked with emotion as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recalled his childhood years and the hardships in life he faced in a broken home. “I found myself then at a crossroads,” he said.

Yudhoyono, who was born on September 9, 1949, was in his early teens when his parents, Raden Soekotjo and Siti Habibah, separated. His mother remained a divorcee and lived with him in Blitar, his father remarried and lived with his new wife in Pacitan, bot