A Best Friend Called Kahin

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

GEORGE McTurnan Kahin, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, was famous for introducing Indonesia to the world. At his house in Cayuga Heights, Ithaca, he displayed a panoramic painting of Mount Merapi. The painting, he said, would always hold a spiritual connection between him and Yogyakarta during the revolution era. He openly admitted that his dissertation, Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia (1952), was in favor of Indonesian independence. Before his death on January 29, 2000 he wrote a book entitled Southeast Asia: A Testament, which was published at the end of last yeara memoir of his social interactions during the 1940s and 1950s in Yogyakarta, during the Dutch aggression, and also his journey to Vietnam. Kahin was notorious for opposing US policy in Southeast Asia. TEMPO reviews this last book just for you.

. tempo : 173569175552.

THE ship with Veendam written on its side weighed anchor and departed New York. The date was June 11, 1948. On deck, Kahin, a young man at 30 was picturing Batavia, the Netherlands East Indies, in his mind. In his suitcase was a letter intended for former Prime Minister Sjahrir.

The young man was born in San Francisco and was a graduate of Stanford University where he had completed a thesis for his masters degree on the Chinese in Indonesia. He wa

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