Remembering Sukarno
For millions of Indonesians, this day -- June 6, 2001 -- carries a very special meaning. A hundred years ago to the day, the man who is widely considered to be the main architect of Indonesia's independence was born. And though there is some disagreement on his exact role in preparing the nation for independence, which came on Aug. 17, 1945, with the fall of the Japanese empire at the end of World War II, it cannot be denied that Sukarno's contribution to what he was fond of calling "nation and character building" was considerable.
It is certainly not easy to encapsulate the personality of the man called Sukarno. Though immensely popular among the masses even to this day, almost 30 years after his death, his complex public persona is bound to continue to invite debate for many years to come.
He proclaimed Indonesia's independence on Aug. 17, 1945, under the threat of the still powerful Japanese occupation forces. What went before that event is still a matter of some disagreement. However, if the available historical records are correct, it took some prodding by several youthful political activists to get the wavering Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, who was to become Sukarno's vice president after independence was proclaimed, to take the step.
Sukarno appeared to have developed his nationalist sentiments early in life, became engaged in politics in his teens and became a fully fledged political activist by the time he finished college at the Technische Hogeschool in Bandung, now the Bandung Institute of Technology. For these activities, and because of his great oratory talent which he used to incite the nationalist sentiments of his growing audiences, he was arrested and exiled from Java several times.
He was also a prolific writer whose sharp analyses of political life in the then Netherlands East Indies only irked the Dutch colonial authorities even further. His crowning achievement, however, is widely considered to be his formulation of the fundamental principles of Indonesian statehood, which he unveiled before a group of Indonesian leaders who assembled in the early months of 1945 to lay the basic groundwork for the free Indonesia that was to come.
Today, it is generally accepted that Sukarno was a great man and one of the greatest nationalist leaders in contemporary Indonesian history. It would be naive, however, to ignore the mistakes he made during his career in politics. He is held responsible by many for supplying the Japanese imperial army with forced labor during World War II. Among the Indonesian military, many older generation officers still hold a grudge against him for surrendering to the Dutch forces invading the Indonesian war capital Yogyakarta in 1948.
His biggest mistake, as many analysts see it, however, was his stubborn refusal to ban the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in the wake of the failed 1965 coup, which led him on a collision course with the military, led at that time by Lt. Gen. Soeharto, who eventually succeeded Sukarno, placing the country's first president under virtual house arrest.
Despite all that, there is one lesson Indonesians today can draw from Sukarno's tenacious spirit of nationalism. That is his undying devotion to the unity of the Indonesian nation. In one of the messages he is believed to have left to his children, Sukarno is said to have asked them never to reveal to the public the suffering he had to endure in isolation shortly before his death, which he said he was willing to endure as long as the unity and the cohesion of the Indonesian nation was preserved.
Surely, here is a lesson and a message Indonesians today would do well to heed. With his greatness and his failings, Sukarno today continues to inspire Indonesians with all that is useful -- and all that is less so -- to continue to survive as a nation.