OH, spirited youths, dressed in Western suits, their chins tilting upwards, their eyes sharp and serious. It was a matter of pride: the realization that they were part of a new nation. An old photograph from the 1920s showed the youths who conceived Indonesia: Mohammad Hatta, Nazir Pamuntjak, Achmad Soebarjo and Soekiman Wirjosandjojo.

Two of these youths met one day. Mohammad Hatta had just arrived in the Netherlands on September 1921, while