Sukarno the flamboyant leader of indonesia's fight to end 350 years by the Netherlands. Handsome, woman-loving, well read, motivated, inspired, a colorful global figure in his day, resplendent and proud in extravagant uniforms but destined to die a lonely and sick prisoner of the military regime that replaced him. Whatever his shortcoming, the talented and charismatic Sukarno has not been forgotten by many indonesians. Indeed, the further into the past he recedes the more towering and heroic his figure becomes, recently, his family created the The Sukarno Center at tampaksiring, near ubu, Bali, to commemorate his struggle for power and his years as President. The well appointed museum houses two floors of fascinating black and white photographs showing Sukarno exiled by the Dutch, exhorting his people to follow him, with world leaders and with his Balinese mother. He is photographed paying her his respects. The 1950s and 60s were years ideological polarity between communism and capitalism. The ideological battle for hearts and minds happened to coincide with a post Wordl War 2 tide of demands for independence from colonialism. The anti colonial struggle sometimes became anti-capitalism. Communist Moscow or Beijing was seen by some as the only friendly counterpoints to America or Europe.
At the museum, Sukarno is seen photographed with most of the pro-independence leaders of the day, Gamal Abdul Nasser from Egypt, Ho Chi Minh from Vietnam, Fidel Castro and Che Guevera from Cuba, the leaders of the communist polarities, Mao Tse Tung and Chow En Lai from China plus Kim IL Sung from North Korea, Nikita Kruschev from Rusia, the middle way Jawahal Nehru and the Gandhi family from India, and then the emperor of Japan, Hirohito and a solitary picture of him with John F Kennedy during a visit to the united states where he was also delighted to meet Maryln Monroe.
Nehru's middle way impressed the great balancer Sukarno and he organized a famous non-aligned group meeting at Bandung in 1955. The conference venue is now a museum filled with photographs of the event. Ultimately, the turbulent political currents of the day were his undoing. Railing against the Dutch has brought great power sympathy, railing against the great power brought condemnation and suggested communist sympathies. 
At home he tried to balance pro and anti communist groups at time of cold war when all that mattered to the western powers was the annihilation of communism. Perceived to be leaning too far toward the left, he was ousted by the non-communist military led by General Soeharto who ruled for 32 years until 1998. The non-alligned movement born in Bandung was also destined to become irrelevant. The Sukarno Center was opened in Bali because of Sukarno's mother was from Singaraja, the old dutch capital of Bali. Sukarno loved Bali and the especially the art of Bali. He loved to visit local and foreign artists and buy their paintings. He amassed a large collection which he kept at he state palace at Tampaksiring, overlooking Tirta Empul. The palace is little used and would make a wonderful new art centre fro Bali and perhaps become an important new tourist attraction. If you visit Gunung Kawi, Tirta Empul or heritage sites along the main road to Tampaksiring a stop at the Sukarno Center is well worth your time.balitouroffice.com
