Kretek Cigarette Wang Agus Salim At The Appointment Of Queen Elizabeth II

President Soekarno and H. Agus Salim sat next to each other when they were exiled by the Dutch to Parapat, North Sumatra in 1949. (nationalarchief.nl)

JAKARTA - The popularity of the bumiputras for kretek cigarettes is second to none. In fact, since the Dutch colonial era. Every day the best-selling kretek cigarettes are sold. Fans also grew. From priyayi to commoners. Freedom fighter Agus Salim, one of them.

The Grand Old Man has liked kretek cigarettes since he was young. His habit of smoking kretek cigarettes is often a concern. Moreover, when he smoked kretek at Queen Elizabeth II'sACTS. Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, was curious.

Cigarettes are one of the industries that promises abundant profits in the Dutch East Indies. Fans are hoarding. Kretek cigarettes, especially. The industry continues to grow greatly to compete with white cigarettes. Therefore, a native can be rich.

Nitisemito and his cigarettes are proof. His wealth is abundant. The man who is nicknamed the King of Kretek was able to employ employees from among the Dutch. The view of Europeans working for the bumiputras is not commonplace.

The success of the kretek industry can also be seen from its durability hit by the recession 1929-1939. Other industries have been swept away by the recession. Even if you want to rise, that desire is considered impossible. It's different from the cigarette industry. The crisis era known as the miss era (Melaise) made the cigarette industry competitive.

Initially they began to reduce the quality of cloves, tobacco, and employees. Cigarette quality may decrease, but it is a militant fan. The cigarette industry is getting up the fastest. Moreover, cigarettes are one of the industries that save the Dutch East Indies from bankruptcy through its taxes.

The smoking of Java has also become a rival to white cigarettes. Van Der Rijden stated that in 1931 the production of white cigarettes reached 7.1 billion cigarettes per year. while the production of 6.4 billion cigarettes. From the difference in the number of white cigarettes and kretek cigarettes, it has been seen for a long time that the threat of competition between these two products is serious. The Dutch colonial government took a stand, because since 1925 in Cirebon, a British and US joint venture company has built a BAT white cigarette factory (British-American Tobacco) in Cirebon.

In 1928, he built his factory in Surabaya. The Netherlands also took a stand and differentiated the excise duty on white and original cigarette products, by issuing Staadsblad No. 427 of 1935 regulating the minimum retail price of white cigarettes so as not to suppress the small people's industry," concluded Rudy Badil in the introduction to the Javanese Kretek book: Cross-Cultural Lifestyle (2011).

The power of kretek cigarettes to compete with white cigarettes is not without reason. Fans among the bumiputras are hoarded. Moreover, kretek cigarettes not only have a function to be enjoyed, but there is pride in every suction of kretek cigarettes as part of the nation's cultural heritage.

Agus Salim agrees with that. He was young and has been fond of kretek cigarettes. Every day, he often smokes his kretek cigarettes. Especially when he wants to teach or talk on the pulpit. Kretek cigarettes are the trigger for his booming rhetoric. For him, kretek is the identity of the bumiputras.

Agus Salim never forgets to bring kretek when he visited abroad. The reliable diplomat was proud not to play with his kretek cigarettes. Including when Bung Karno was sent to attend Queen Elizabeth II minus Queen Elizabeth II in London England on June 2, 1953.

Agus Salim did not forget to burn his kretek cigarettes at Queen Elizabeth II'sACTS at the Westminster airing. He burned it because he saw many of the invited guests who also burned cigarettes. However, among all invited guests, Agus Salim's kretek cigarettes are considered to have a strong smell.

The smell of Agus Salim's kretek cigarettes then caught the attention of Queen Elizabeth II's husband, Prince Philip. The owner of the event then tried to ask Agus Salim about the smoked cigarettes. Agus Salim was happy to explain the cigarettes he smoked were kretek.

A cigarette made from mediate, cloves, and sauce that is specially mixed. Agus Salim also added that the smell that Prince Philip smelled was from cloves. He explained that because the smell of cloves is the attraction of various ethnic groups, especially England came to Indonesia.

I sent it at that time the late Haji Agus Salim, Sri Pakulam, then there was another person I forgot. Kiai Salim, Agus Salim at the time of the reception, officially the reception, brothers and sisters, namely this new koingin, Queen Elizabeth, there is her husband Duke of Edenburg, Prince Philip. Wow, there is an Indonesian envoy who handsomely stands there, Kiai Salim smokes kretek cigarettes, kretek kretekkretek. Well, the Duke of Edinburg who always walks up to Haji Agus Salim.

What is that, what is that? Kiai Salim replied that this is a clove cigarette, tobacco with love, clove is a love. Duke of Edinburg said: it smelts, it smelts means a little smell. And Kiai Salim as a person who is always very agile, right to answer: yes, your highness, this very selling attracts your people a vehicle ago to come to my country. So it was the smell of clove that made the Mr. nation a few hundred years ago come to our homeland. Tangkas, "Bung Karno said in his mandate at Ganefo's deliberation at the State Palace entitled Given His Full Life, September 12, 1963.