Des Alwi is a chunk of Indonesian history in miniature. Compact and multi-hued. When we see him sitting beneath a century-old almond tree shading his hotel in Bandaneira; when we recall that Des, a tall, handsome man now aged 83, was here way back in 1936, and as a young boy saw Hatta and Syahrir arrive as exiles, pale as they got off the boat; then we can be envious: he has seen so much history, his experience has been so varied, and he is so at