But two years later, in 1999, Bera came home to Indonesia and made a decision to come out of retirement, and set up an official return to the Indonesian swimming team. At the Southeast Asian Games, he defended his 100 m freestyle title for the third straight time in a Games record-breaking time of 51.03, slashing 0.28 seconds off the mark set by his teammate Wisnu Wardhana in 1993. He also defended his 50 m freestyle crown when he swam 23.49, more than two-tenths of a second (0.20) outside his own 10-year-old record.