Renungan di Hari Pahlawan

FROM            : S. Suryadarma, Air Commodore, AURI H.Q. Djakarta Indonesia

TO                    : H.E. Bo Ne Win, Supreme Commander of the Burmese Armed Forces, Army H.Q., Rangoon, Burma

SUBJECT      : Indonesian Airways

DATE            : 1 September 1950

Dear General,

            I would like to bring forward to your notice our plan concerning the fate of the Indonesian Airways in Rangoon.

            The Indonesian Airways began to operate in your country in early 1949 by force of circumstances, known to you, and by the kind permission of your Government.  Since then we have been flying our planes for patriotic purposes and thus not for commercial ones.

            According to my instruction in the month of August this year, the Indonesian Airways will be withdrawn from Burma and being always our plan from the very beginning, we would like, as a token of goodwill and gratitude from your country’s fine hospitality and magnificent support to our country during those dark days of the struggle against agression, to offer the RI-007 and all other available spares and materials to the Air Transport Command of your Air Force.  As to the RI-001, we are going to keep it, since it was presented to us by our people.

Dari kedua kutipan surat tersebut, terlihat sekali bagaimana koordinasi antar instansi pemerintah dalam upaya menyelesaikan masalah yang cukup pelik dimasa awal kemerdekaan Republik Indonesia dengan cara yang sangat baik.

Sebuah episode yang belum banyak diketahui oleh kita semua, para penerus perjuangan bangsa Indonesia.  

Belajar dari sejarah adalah merupakan bagian penting dari upaya menjaga kelangsungan hidup bangsa.   Eric Arthur Blair,  wartawan dan pengarang berkebangsaan Inggris yang lebih dikenal dengan nama George Orwell, mengatakan bahwa  “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

Jakarta 11 Nopember 2016