TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Singapore, late 1957. Colonel Ahmad Husein, Lt. Col. Herman Nicolas “Ventje” Sumual, and Sumitro Djojohadikusumo were dining at a restaurant when a group of casually dressed Americans approached their table. “They knew we were fighting Sukarno, and because of that they were willing to provide weapons assistance,” Ventje Sumual wrote in PRRI/Permesta: Strategi Membangun Indonesia Tanpa Komunis (PRRI/Permesta: Strategy for Building Indonesia Without Communists).
In the midst of the Cold War, every piece of foreign assistance inevitably branded its recipients as proxies of the benefactor. The same label attached itself to the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PRRI), the rival administration led by a number of mid-ranking officers from the Indonesian Army and civilian figures, including the three men at that Singapore meeting.
More specific accusations claimed that the PRRI itself was a creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The PRRI and the CIA did, in fact, meet at that restaurant in Singapore. Among those who arrived later was Foster Collins. “According to Sumitro, Collins was his tennis partner,” wrote Hendra Esmara and Heru Cahyono in Jejak Perlawanan Begawan Pejuang (The Resistance Journey of a Warrior Sage), a biography of Sumitro Djojohadikusumo.
Sumitro, who had previously served as Finance Minister, first came to know Collins in Jakarta. Collins was officially listed as working at a United Nations representative office. “A number of people knew that Collins was a CIA operative,” Hendra and Heru wrote.
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