A Fading Dream: The Story of Roeslan Abdulgani and Indonesia

This is the biography of Dr H Roeslan Abdulgani, who rose through the political ranks of Indonesia to become one of the country's most important policy-makers, and a trusted aide to President Sukarno. The story ranges over a broad canvas -- from the colonial rule of the Dutch to present-day Indonesia. It takes readers from the birth of Dr Abdulgani in Surabaya in 1914 and his high school political activist days, through his appointments as Secretary General and then Minister of Foreign Affairs, to his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information, where he was instrumental in helping President Sukarno develop and propagate the ideas of 'Guided Democracy' -- and beyond. Perceptively woven into the narrative and forming a dramatic backdrop to events is the social and political history of Indonesia, seen from a unique insider's perspective by the author, who is Dr Abdulgani's daughter. A Fading Dream is, therefore, in many ways a chronicle of two extraordinary lives -- that of a man and politician, and the nation whose destiny he helped to shape.