Viva Palestina founder George Galloway has been on a tour of Indonesia to launch the latest partner of Viva Palestina UK, Viva Palestina Indonesia. Here is his diary so far.

Day one (Wednesday 25 January) was the Pulau Dua restaurant meeting held by the ASPAC – Asia Pacific Communities for Palestine. Among those attending were D. Al Muzamil Yusuf of the peace and justice party (PKS), a member of parliament and chairman of the all party parliamentary caucus on Palestine. He visited Gaza under siege as part of a parliamentary delegation, which donated two million dollars from Indonesia (government to government).

Dr Hj Adjeng Ratna Suminar, also a member of parliament and of the Democrat Party (the party of the current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) also lent his support. Other prominent attendees were university lecturer Mr Surya Sachrizal, a survivor of the Mavi Marmara, who was shot in the chest when Israeli commandoes stormed the aid ship in May 2010. Another Mavi Marmara survivior, Mrs Nur Fitri Paher from the important NGO MER-C (Medical Emergency Rescue Comittee) working in Palestine, also lent her backing.

This meeting was followed by an appearance at the HIPMI which is the influential young entrepreneurs association, many of whose alumni are now very influential in politics and commerce. There George Galloway met a grateful former constituent, Mohammed, who lived on Mile End Road in east London and he me others with whom he discussed potential humanitarian investment in Gaza.

Day two (Thursday 26 January) was the press conference in the Megawati Institute opposite the gardens in which Megawati’s father President Sukarno proclaimed Independence from the Netherlands in 1945. Megawati Sukarnoputri is a former president of Indonesia and the leader of the opposition (currently ahead in the opinion polls with elections in two years).

The conference was chaired by a famous Indonesian actor Sandy Nayoan and was sponsored by the Megawati Institute

Other speakers were Indah Nataprawira of the Megawati Foundation, Prof Dr Hamka Haq (Baitul Muslimin Indonesia), Abdul Hakim (PSIK Indonesia), Dr Sarbini of MER(C) (the NGO building a hospital in Gaza), and Nurfitri Taher from the Mavi Marmara. A full media turnout came resulting in several pieces and pictures in the press

After the press conference Galloway attended, with tour organisers Putri Gayatri, Ikhsan and Adi, the editorial office of Republika, a major national newspaper, Islamically-oriented, where he was interviewed by by the deputy editor and a group of senior writers. This resulted in a front page picture and report carried over inside as well as on their online edition

Day three (Friday 27 January) Galloway addressed a forum on the Arab Spring and its impact on the Palestinian question at the University of Indonesia (UI). A packed audience listened and questioned the panel, which included Sheikh Shadi Abu Uwaimer (Gaza), Dr Baisuni Imamuddin (Head of Middle West (sic) Centre Indonesia of UI), and Agung Nurwijoyo (Head of SALAM UI X3, Student Volunteer on International Humanity Mission for Palestine 2010). The forum lasted three hours, following which Galloway visited the popular Muslim radio channel Rasil (For A United Islam) which specialises in Sunni-Shia cooperation. He participated in a phone-in show which had been widely advertised and for which the switch board was full throughout the more than two hours show. Other participants were Dr. Jose Rizal (Head of MER-C and Indonesian coordinator for the Global March on Jerusalem) and Nurfitri Taher of the Marvi Marmara.

Day four (Saturday 28 January) Galloway attended an important symposium held by the Indonesian-Palestine Friendship Initiative (IPFI) which is under the wing of the massive national Islamic organization Muhammadiyah and the leadership of Dr Din Syamsuddin spoken of frequently as a potential president of Indonesia. The meeting was attended by journalists, academics, politicians and religious leaders from the Christian (Roman-Catholic and Protestant), Confucian, Buddhist ad Muslim faiths. This meeting resulted in important daily national newspaper coverage (Kompas).

After this meeting was a visit to the national headquarters of the Indonesian Red Crescent Society (Bulan Sabit Merah Indonesia -BSMI) which has a long track record in Gaza, meeting some of the doctors who had rushed there while the bombs were still falling in January 2009 and some of the Palestinian doctors and students being hosted in Indonesia.

Day five (Monday 30 January) From George: Bandung is etched upon my brain and has been since I was very young. In April 1955 the late President Soekarno convened “the first inter-continental conference of coloured (sic) people ever held in the history of human beings”.

Present were almost all the leaders of the newly emerging independent countries of Africa and Asia: Nehru of India, Nasser of Egypt, Chou en lai of China and many others. Under Soekarno’s leadership the conference charted a course for the freedom of the peoples of what came to be known as the Third World, freedom from “colonialism” and freedom from “capitalism”. So when I entered the conference hall as part of my tour promoting Viva Palestina Indonesia it was with a sense of awe. Indonesia under Soekarno was really something in the world, punching, in the 1950s, above even its vast weight. During the 30 year dictatorship which followed him Indonesia punched below its weight. But it is re-emerging now, potentially a mighty Asian power, with 250 million people, the third biggest democracy in the world and the world’s most populous Muslim country.

Still buzzing with the “spirit of Bandung” I gave a speech to the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and a packed hall of students listened intently as I described the plight of the Palestinian people under occupation, siege, annexation and exile as refugees.

I described VP’s international campaign in support of the Palestinians’ Right of Return to their homes, their land, their country which must be restored to the map from which it was wiped more than 60 years ago.

I returned to Jakarta well satisfied with the trip, not least because we returned via the Highlands of Western Java including the new and growing Arab presence in Puncak. The cool weather and immense natural beauty of the highlands is a real tourist gold-mine waiting to be explored.

Day six (Tuesday 31 January) The next morning it was punctual and formally dressed for my first visit to the Indonesian parliament, the occupation of which by thousands of Indonesian students was the last straw which broke the back of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998.

I was received by the Deputy Speaker of the parliament (the speaker, son-in-law of Soekarno, being unwell) and the parliamentary caucus on Palestine. It was a proper parliamentary occasion which reminded me very much of my nearly 25 years in the UK parliament (except the role of the British parliament in destroying Palestinian society is only too well know, to the Palestinians at least).

That evening I addressed a public discussion in the Ismail Marzuki Centre (TIM) in Jakarta with 200 people in the audience and in the presence of my fellow speakers Dr Jose Rizal Yurnalis the head of (MER-C), Yudi Latif Phd from PSIK (Centre for Islamic Studies and Citizenship) and Ir. Maryam Rachmayani from ASPAC (Asia-Pacific Communities for Palestine)

A boisterous Q&A session followed before the organisers and I repaired to the nearby Al Jazeera Arabic Restaurant (though the huge TV screen was showing the news from Al Arabia, aka Al Amerikia)