http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/kind-qaddafi-his-pilot-saw-a-softer-dictator/473642
Kind? Qaddafi? His Pilot Saw a Softer Dictator
Heru Andriyanto | October 24, 2011
Indonesian pilot Ganahadi Ratnuatmaja, white shirt, poses with Muammar el-Qaddafi and the air crew in this undated photo.
Ganahadi Ratnuatmaja paused last week after hearing the news that long-time Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi had been killed, recalling the man he once knew as his boss serving him coffee and sharing jokes.
Those moments came during the time Ganahadi worked as Qaddafi's personal pilot from 2002 to 2009.
"He often came to the cockpit to chat. And one night, when I was taking a rest during a long flight, he gave me coffee," Ganahadi said in an interview with the Jakarta Globe. "He said, 'Drink this so you feel fresh again.'"
Prior to working in Libya, Ganahadi had been a pilot for the Saudi royal family and the government of the United Arab Emirates. The job in Tripoli paid better, so he took it.
The pilot remembers Qaddafi as humorous, open and loyal, in stark contrast to the hatred expressed by the Libyan people toward their long-time leader in recent months.
Ganahadi recalled, for example, Qaddafi abruptly leaving a summit meeting after just one day. "He apologized for the unscheduled trip and said he decided to boycott the meeting because he was unhappy with the agenda," Ganahadi said.
After a meeting of oil producing countries, Ganahadi said Qaddafi was "angry and said other leaders asked him to increase his oil production quota, but he refused. He told me if he met their demand, Libya's oil would be depleted faster and one day Libya would have to import oil."
In another chat, Ganahadi asked Qaddafi why he was smiling. Qaddafi chuckled because he had been with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed by his people earlier this year. Qaddafi was delighted because he discovered that his fellow dictator also smoked American cigarettes and the two agreed on the taste.
Smokes aside, the pilot said, Qaddafi was firmly anti-US. "I was always paid in euros, never in dollars," he said. "The planes were always Airbus, never Boeing, because he said that if America imposed an embargo on the country, he would not be able to fly."
Qaddafi also had fond feelings about Indonesia's fiery first president. "He saw Sukarno as an idol. He told me that unlike other Indonesian presidents, Sukarno didn't bow down to America."
The dictator, who was killed in still murky circumstances on Thursday, was also attentive to his pilot's family life. When Ganahadi's daughter got married in Bandung in 2006, Qaddafi sent his second and favored son, Seif al-Islam, who was reportedly captured in a Libyan hospital on Saturday, to attend the wedding.
Ganahadi was also familiar with the legendary female guards who accompanied Qaddafi, but he said a lot of the stories about them were untrue, including the idea that they had to be virgins when they signed up for presidential duty.
"Qaddafi treated them well," Ganahadi said. "If any of them got married, he would attend the wedding or send someone on his behalf."
His service to Qaddafi was such that in 2005 he was personally given the Al Nawaad Al Wajib state award by the president.
So if the boss was good and the work interesting, why did he give it up? "I had to be on stand-by 24/7," Ganahadi said. "I began to think that my life was actually driven by someone else; it was time to retire."
And as it turned out the hardest thing about working for Qaddafi was quitting. "He became angry when I offered my resignation in 2009," Ganahadi said. "He told me, 'Stay here because you're a Libyan now!'"
He escaped by telling the boss he had to look after his ailing mother.
"For Arabs, when the reason is about your mother, they will accept that. So I was allowed to leave."
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