Information AboutAhmed Sukarno |
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Sukarno ( June 6 , 1901 – June 21 , 1970 ) was the first President Of Indonesia . He helped the country win its independence from The Netherlands and was President from 1945 to 1967, presiding over mixed success in the country's turbulent transition to independence. Sukarno was forced from power by one of his generals, Suharto , who formally became President in March 1967. Sukarno's name is sometimes spelled Soekarno ( Pre-1972 Spelling ), and Indonesians also remember him as '''Bung Karno''' (''Bung'' is an affectionate title used to address colleagues, popular in early 1900s). Like many Javanese people, he had just one name. BACKGROUND The son of a Java nese schoolteacher and his Bali nese wife from Buleleng regency, Sukarno was born in Surabaya, East Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia ). He was admitted into a Dutch -run school as a child. When his father sent him to Bandung in 1916 to attend a secondary school, he met Tjokroaminoto , a future nationalist. In 1921 he began to study at the Technische Hoogeschool in Bandung . He studied civil engineering and focused in architect. A rare breed even among the colony's small educated elite, Sukarno was fluent in several languages, especially Dutch (besides German, English and French and his native Javanese mother language). He once remarked that when he was studying in Surabaya, he often sat behind the screen in movie theaters reading the Dutch subtitles in reverse, because he could not afford the regular front seating's price. INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE Sukarno became a leader of an Indonesian independence movement party, ''Partai Nasional Indonesia'' when it was founded in 1927. Because state government was not like with PNI movement. Sukarno was also famous of his pledoi: ''Indonesia Menggugat''. By the pledoi, Sukarno campaigned the battle against imperialism and capitalism because he thought both systems worsened the life of Indonesian people. He also promoted his belief that Japan would commence a war against the Western powers and that Java could then gain its independence with Japan's aid. He was arrested in 1929 by Dutch colonial authorities and sentenced to two years in prison. By the time he was released, he had become a popular hero. In the 1930s he was again arrested several times and was in jail when Japan occupied the archipelago in 1942. WORLD WAR II AND THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION During World War II , indigenous forces across both Sumatra and Java aided the Japanese against the Dutch, but would not cooperate in the supply of the aviation fuel which was essential for the Japanese war effort. Desperate for local support in supplying the volatile cargo, Japan now brought Sukarno back to Jakarta. Sukarno refused to ever talk about his actions during the war. However, several historians noted that he helped the Japanese in obtaining its aviation fuel as well as Romusha (volunteer work units) and Peta and Heiho (Javanese volunteer army troops) by use of Sukarno's speech broadcast on the Japanese radio and loud speaker networks across Java. By mid- 1945 these units numbered around two million, and were preparing to defeat any Allied forces sent to re-take Java. On November 10 , 1943 Sukarno was decorated by the Emperor Of Japan in Tokyo . He also became head of Badan Penyelidik Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia ( BPUPKI ), the Japanese-organized committee through which Indonesian independence was later gained. EARLY INDEPENDENCE Following the Japanese surrender, Sukarno, Mohammad Hatta , and Radjiman Wediodiningrat were summoned by Marshal Terauchi, Commander-in-Chief of Japan's Southern Expeditionary Forces in Saigon . Sukarno initially hesitated in declaring Indonesia's independence. He and Mohammad Hatta were kidnapped by Indonesian youth groups to Rengasdengklok , west of Jakarta. Finally Sukarno and Hatta declared the Republic of Indonesia in August 17 , 1945 . Sukarno's vision for the 1945 Indonesian Constitution comprised the Panca Sila . ( Sanskrit - ''five pillars''). Sukarno's political philosophy was guided by (in no particular order) elements of Marxism , Nationalism and Islam . This is reflected in the Panca Sila, in the order in which he originally espoused them in a speech on June 1 , 19451: # Nationalism (with a focus on national unity) # Internationalism ('one nation sovereign amongst equals') # Representative Democracy (all significant groups represented) # Social Justice ( Marxist influenced) # Theism (with a secular bent) The Indonesian parliament, founded on the basis of this original (and subsequent revised) constitution, proved all but ungovernable. This was due to irreconcilable differences between various social, political, religious and ethnic factions2. Sukarno's government initially refused to form a national army, for fear of antagonizing the Allied Occupation Forces and their doubt over whether they would have been able to form an adequate military apparatus to maintain control of seized territory. The various Militia groups at that time were encouraged to join the BKR -- Badan Keamanan Rakyat (The People's Security Organization) -- itself a subordinate of the "War Victims Assistance Organization". It was only in October 1945 that the BKR was reformed into the TKR -- '''Tentara Keamanan Rakyat''' (The People's Security Army) in response to increasing Dutch presence in Indonesia. In the ensuing chaos between various factions and Dutch attempts to re-establish colonial control, Dutch troops captured Sukarno in December 1948, but were forced to release him after the Ceasefire . He returned to Jakarta in December 28 1949 . At this time, Indonesia adopted a new provisional constitution that made the country a federal state. This was replaced by another provisional constitution in 1955 that restored a unitary form of government. Both constitutions were parliamentary in nature, making Sukarno a figurehead. However, even with his formally reduced role, he commanded a good deal of moral authority as Father Of The Nation . Sukarno's government was not universally accepted in Indonesia. Indeed, many factions and regions attempted to separate themselves from his government, and there were several internal conflicts even during the period of armed insurgency against the Dutch. One such example is the Leftist -backed Seccessionist attempt by elements of the military in Madiun, East Java in 1948, in which many accused supporters of the separatists were allegedly executed. There were further attempts of Military Coup s against Sukarno in 1956, including the well-publicized separatist movement in Sulawesi supported by the CIA , during which an American aviator operating in support of the separatists was shot down and captured. 6 'GUIDED DEMOCRACY' AND INCREASING AUTOCRACY Sukarno resented his figurehead position, and used the increasing disorder to intervene more in the country's political life. Claiming Western-style democracy wasn't suitable for Indonesia, he called for a system of "guided democracy" based on what he called traditional Indonesian principles. The Indonesian way of deciding important questions, he argued, was by way of prolonged deliberation designed to achieve a consensus. He proposed a government based not only on political parties but on "functional groups" composed of the nation's basic elements in which a national consensus could express itself under presidential guidance. During this later part of his presidency, Sukarno came to increasingly rely on the army and the support of the ''PKI'' - the Communist Party Of Indonesia . In the 1950s he increased his ties to China and admitted more Communist s to his government. He also began to accept increasing amounts of Soviet bloc military aid. This aid, however, was surpassed by military aid from the Eisenhower Administration, which worried about a leftward drift should Sukarno rely too much on Soviet bloc aid. However, Sukarno increasingly attempted to forge a new alliance called the New Emerging Forces, as a counter to the old superpowers whom he accused of spreading "Neo-Colonialism, Colonialism and Imperialism". His political alliances gradually shifted towards Asian powers such as the PRC and North Korea. The Bandung Conference was held in 1955 in Bandung , with the goal of uniting developing Asian and African countries into a Non-aligned Movement to counter against the competing superpowers at the time. In order to increase Indonesia's prestige, Sukarno supported and won the bid for the 1962 Asian Games held in Jakarta . Many sporting facilities such as the Senayan sports complex, and supporting infrastructure were built to accommodate the games. There was political tension when the Indonesians refused the entry of delegations from Israel and Taiwan . On November 30 , 1957 , there was a grenade attack against Sukarno when he was visiting a school in Cikini, Jakarta . Six children were killed but Sukarno did not suffer any serious wounds. In December he ordered the nationalization of 246 Dutch businesses. In February he began a breakdown of PRRI ( Pemerintah Revolusioner Republik Indonesia ) rebels at Bukittinggi . These PRRI rebels, a mix of anti-communist and Islamic movements, received arms and aid from Western sources, including the CIA. Until J. Allan Pope, an American pilot, was shot down after a bombing raid in northern Indonesia in 1958, the CIA sent arms to rebel movements on Sumatra as well as Sulawesi. The downing of this pilot, together with impressive victories of government forces against the PRRI, evoked a shift in US policy, leading to closer ties with Sukarno as well as Major General Abdul Haris Nasution , the head of the army and the most powerful anti-communist in the Jakarta government. Sukarno also established government control over media and book publishing, and laws discriminating against Chinese Indonesian residents. The infamous PP/10 (Government Directive 10) of 1959 banning "foreign citizens" from operating in rural areas forced the Chinese Indonesian residents to move out of rural areas and relocate to urban areas. On July 5 1959 he reestablished the 1945 constitution by presidential edict. It established a presidential system which he believed would make it easier to implement the principles of guided democracy. He called the system as government-by-decree Manifesto Politik or Manipol. He sent his opponents to internal exile. In March 1960 Sukarno dissolved the elected Assembly and replaced it with an appointed Assembly, and in August he broke off diplomatic relations with the Netherlands over Dutch New Guinea (West Papua.) After West Papua declared itself independent in December of 1961, Sukarno ordered raids to West Irian ( Dutch New Guinea ). There were more assassination attempts when he visited Sulawesi in 1962. West Irian was brought under Indonesian authority in May 1963 under the Bunker Plan . In July of the same year the Assembly had himself proclaimed President For Life . While the western media eagerly portrayed him as an autocratic despot, Sukarno's rule was in fact much milder than was the case for Third World authoritarian governments of the time. Executions or political gulags were unheard of under Sukarno's rule (he was even known for maintaining personal friendships with some of his most staunchiest political enemies), and even his radical move to the left, soon followed by political repression on forces considered to be rightist, were based on his actual beliefs that Britain and the US were sabotaging his Indonesian revolution. Sukarno also opposed the British-supported Federation of Malaysia , claiming that it was a neocolonial plot to advance British interests. In spite of his political overtures, which was partly justified when some political elements in British Borneo territories Sarawak and Brunei opposed the Federation plan and aligned themselves to Sukarno, Malaysia was proclaimed in September 1963. This led to the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation (''Konfrontasi'') and the end of remaining US military aid to Indonesia. Sukarno withdrew Indonesia from the UN Security Council in 1965 when with US backing, the nascent Federation of Malaysia took a seat. Sukarno also became increasingly ill and collapsed in public in August 9, 1965. He was secretly diagnosed with kidney disease. REMOVAL FROM POWER On the night of September 30, 1965, six of Indonesia 's top anti-communist generals were killed and thrown down a well, and while the PKI was blamed for instigating a supposed coup attempt, evidence indicates Sukarno's supporters were behind it, fearing the rise of anti-communist factions, both inside the military and the country as a whole. One survivor, Nasution, escaped the murder plot, but lost his youngest daughter, Ade Irma Suryani Nasution, and his aide-de-camp. The events and supposed coup plotters of that night are referred to as "G30S," an abbreviation of "Gerakan 30 September," or "the September 30th Movement." This brought an immediate retaliation from Lieutenant General Suharto , commander of the strategic reserves, and the rest of the military, sparking a crackdown on the Communist Party. The army encouraged anti-communist organizations and individuals to join in killing anyone suspected of being a communist sympathizer. The killings were concentrated in Sumatra, East Java and Bali. By the time they petered out in 1966, an estimated half a million Indonesians had been slaughtered by soldiers, police and pro-Suharto vigilantes. The ethnic Chinese were also targeted, primarily for economic and racial reasons. The embassy of the PRC was overrun by demonstrators and looted. An official CIA report called the purge "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century."2 American diplomats 25 years later revealed that they had compiled lists of Indonesian "communist operatives" and had turned over as many as 5,000 names to the Indonesian military. Robert Martens, former member of the US political embassy in Jakarta said in 1990: "It really was a big help to the army. They probably killed a lot of people, ... but that's not all bad. " Howard Fenderspiel, the Indonesia expert at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research in 1965: "No one cared, as long as they were communists that were being butchered. No one was getting very worked up about it"3. Today, concrete evidence linking the PKI to the generals' assassinations is limited, leading to speculation that Sukarno organized the events and scapegoated the Communists , though this is highly unlikely, given Sukarno's huge base of support from PKI . Suharto is also a likely suspect, given his close ties to USA and the Western Powers. Sukarno's grip on power was weakened by the crisis, while Suharto used the situation to increase his own hand. On March 11 , 1966 , Suharto and his supporters in the military forced Sukarno to issue a Presidential Order called '''Supersemar'' (Surat Perintah Sebelas Maret -- The March 11 Order) in which Sukarno yielded all executive powers to Suharto in order to restore peace. In 1991 a government minister admitted that the national archives only possessed a copy of this letter, and in 1992 another government minister called for whoever is in possession of the original document to submit it to the national archives. However, there are several testimonies from eyewitnesses who claim that such a document did exist, and that the copy in the archives is a faithful reproduction of the original. There is much speculation about who triggered the crisis that led to Sukarno's removal from power. While the semi-official version claims that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) ordered the murders of the six generals, others blame Sukarno, and still others believe Suharto orchestrated the assassinations to remove potential rivals for the presidency4. See Indonesian Civil War article for greater explanation and Anderson Theory . There are also suggestions that Sukarno was toppled by the United States because of his communist sympathies and ties to China and the Soviet Union . The PKI was the largest communist party at the time outside the Soviet Bloc and China, and was growing in influence. The administration of US President Lyndon Johnson had been vocal in its criticism of Sukarno's activities, and did not want the PKI to come to power in Indonesia. American support for Suharto can thus be seen as a US policy consistent with the Domino Theory and the Gilchrist Document . Sukarno was stripped of his presidential title by Indonesia's provisional parliament on March 12, 1967, led by his former ally, Nasution, and remained under House Arrest until his death at age 69 in Jakarta in 1970. He was buried in Blitar, East Java, Indonesia. His grave has been in recent decades of significance within the network of places that Javanese visit on Ziarah and for some is of equal significance as those of the Wali Songo . Megawati Sukarnoputri , who served as the fourth president of Indonesia, is his daughter. QUOTE
SEE ALSO REFERENCES #Kahin, Audrey R. and George McT. "Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia", The New Press, 1995. #Smith, Roger M (ed). ''Southeast Asia. Documents of Political Development and Change'', Ithaca and London, 1974, pp. 174-183. #Blum, William. ''Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II'', Black Rose, 1998, pp. 193-198 #U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, ''Research Study: Indonesia -- The Coup that Backfired,'' 1968, p. 71n. #Robert Cribb, ‘Nation: Making Indonesia’, in Donald K. Emmerson (ed.), Indonesia Beyond Suharto: Polity, Economy, Society, Transition. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1999, pp.3-38 #Andrew Roadnight, United States Policy towards Indonesia in the Truman and Eisenhower Years. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002 |
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