Remembering Sukarno
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.