Soekarno’s Biography

Soekarno was the first President of Indonesia, serving in office from 1945 to
1967. He was a prominent leader of Indonesia’s nationalist movement during the
Dutch colonial period and spent over a decade under Dutch detention until
released by the invading Japanese forces. Upon Japanese surrender, Soekarno adn
Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945 and
Soekarno was appointed as first president.
Soekarno is the son of a Javanese primary school teacher, an aristocrat
named Raden Soekemi Sosrodiharjo and his Balinese wife named Ida Ayu
Nyoman Rai. After graduating from a native primary school in 1912, he was sent
to the Europeesche Lagere Scholl (a Dutch primary school) in Mojokerto.
Subsequently in 1961, Soekarno went to a Hogere Burgerschool (a Dutch type
higher level secondary school) in Surabaya, where he met Tjokroaminoto.
Tjokroaminoto is a nationalist and founder of Sarekat Islam. In 1920, Sukarno
married Tjokroaminoto’s daughter Siti Oetari. In 1921, he began to study civil
engineering (with focusing on architecture) at the Technische Hoogeschool te
Bandoeng (Bandoeng Institute of Technology), where he obtained an Ingenieur
degree (abbreviated as “Ir.”, a Dutch type engineer’s degree) in 1926.
For his challenge to colonialism Sukarno spent two years in a Dutch jail
(1929–31) in Bandung and more than eight years in exile (1933–42) on Flores and
Sumatra. When the Japanese invaded the Indies in March 1942, he welcomed
them as personal and national liberators. During World War II the Japanese made
Sukarno their chief adviser and propagandist and their recruiter for labourers,
soldiers, and prostitutes. Sukarno pressured the Japanese to grant Indonesia its
independence and, on June 1, 1945, made the most famous of many celebrated
speeches. In it he defined the Pantjasila (Pancasila), or Five Principles
(nationalism, internationalism, democracy, social prosperity, and belief in God),
still the sacrosanct state doctrine. When the collapse of Japan became imminent,
Sukarno at first wavered. Then, after being kidnapped, intimidated, and persuaded
by activist youths, he declared Indonesia’s independence (August 17, 1945). As
president of the shaky new republic, he fueled a successful defiance of the Dutch,
who, after two abortive “police actions” to regain control, formally transferred
sovereignty on December 27, 1949.
Sukarno died at the age of 69 of a chronic kidney ailment and numerous
complications. Suharto decreed a quick and quiet funeral. Nevertheless, at least
500,000 persons, including virtually all of Jakarta’s important personages, turned
out to pay their last ambivalent respects. The next day another 200,000 assembled
in Blitar, near Surabaya, for the official service followed by burial in a simple
grave alongside that of his mother. The cult and ideology of Sukarnoism were
proscribed until the late 1970s, when the government undertook a rehabilitation of
Sukarno’s name. His autobiography was published in 1965.