A Brief History
On August 18, 1945, Indonesia, now the world’s 4th most populous country (and the largest island nation) inaugurated Sukarno as the nation’s first president. Indonesia had just received their independence the day before this historic event.
Digging Deeper
Indonesia had been a colony of the Netherlands since 1800, after a two hundred year period of gradual hegemony. A source of natural resources such as oil, nutmeg, cloves, tin, copper and gold, Indonesia was a prize highly valued by industrialized nations, a fact that led the Japanese to invade and conquer the islands during World War II. The Japanese forced the end of Dutch rule over Indonesia, but instead of allowing the liberated Indonesians to join Japan as an anti-Western power, the Japanese treated the country like just another slave colony, a missed opportunity of massive proportions. After the defeat of Japan in 1945, Indonesians were not about to allow themselves to return to colonial status, and declared their independence, a fait accompli not seriously challenged by the Dutch.
Sukarno, born with the name Kusno in 1901, had his name changed to Sukarno after nearly dying from a childhood illness (a Javanese custom). Educated as a civil engineer, Sukarno was a nationalist that chafed under colonial rule. Sukarno was a secularist in the mostly Islamic country of Indonesia, and part of his vision for national unity of the many ethnic groups among the islands meant emphasizing Indonesian nationhood instead of ethnic and religious ties.
During the 1920’s Sukarno was a vocal advocate for Indonesian independence, and was a target of government secret police because of his activism, resulting in a 1930 arrest and sentence of 4 years in jail, though he was released after only a year behind bars.
During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942-1945) the Japanese used Sukarno and other nationalist leaders to maintain control of the country in order to exploit the natural resources for the Japanese war effort. Sukarno was honored during this time by a visit to Japan where he was decorated by Emperor Hirohito.
The Japanese finally allowed a modicum of self-government for Indonesia when it became clear the war would be lost, and Sukarno was appointed to lead the transition to independence. As Indonesia prepared for self government, Islamic law (Sharia) became a platform by which the country was to live under, but this doctrine was removed from the final, accepted version of the 5 Point Jakarta Charter, a change made in the name of national unity among all ethnic and religious groups.
The Japanese were still present when power was transferred to Sukarno, and Indonesians were not about to allow the Dutch to return and take over their country once again. Indonesia was free to become one of the great countries of the non-aligned world during the post World War II Cold War, with Sukarno as President for Life until 1967 when he was unseated by the military because of his increasingly close relations to the USSR and China. Sukarno died in 1970, still under house arrest.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Daves, Joseph. The Indonesian Army from Revolusi to Reformasi: The Struggle for Independence and the Sukarno Era. 2013.
Legge, John D. Sukarno:A Political Biography. Editions Didier Millet, 2012.