THESE stories are told by Des Alwi, Hatta's adopted child. The setting: Banda. The time: Hatta and Sjahrir are in the early years of exile on the remote island in eastern Indonesia.

One story goes that one sunny Sunday Hatta and Sjahrir, who have by then made friends with the locals, joined a group of children led by Des Alwi to the beach—a quiet, clean location far from the harbor. No one would have thought that both Hatta and Sjahrir