Sumitro's life mirrors the turbulent of Indonesian history

By Peter McCawley

CANBERRA (JP): Revolutionary nationalist, diplomat, economics professor, government minister to both Sukarno and Soeharto, exile, intellectual, economic adviser and businessman -- Sumitro was all of these things and more. With his death on Friday March 9 at the age of 83, Indonesia lost one of its greatest sons.

The history of Sumitro's family -- of the role that his father, Margono Djojohadikusumo, played in the pre-independence nationalist movement, of Sumitro's own brilliant career, and more recently of the controversial roles played by his sons and his family in high Indonesian political life -- encapsulates much of the history of modern Indonesia.

Sumitro was born in Kebumen, Central Java, on May 29, 1917. Margono was a rising civil servant in the Dutch colonial administration at the time. By the standards of the day, when virtually all important positions in the Netherlands East Indies were occupied by the Dutch, Margono had a senior job with good prospects, so the family was relatively well-off.

Like many educated Indonesians at the time, Margono had nationalist and socialist inclinations. These ideas rubbed off onto Sumitro. One way or another, Sumitro spent much of his life carrying forward the programs of reform that Indonesian intellectuals talked of in the 1920s and 1930s in Java.

Sumitro graduated with a Doctorate in economics from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 1943. Within a few years, he began to play a key role as an economic adviser during Indonesia's post-war struggle for independence from the Dutch. In 1949 he attended the Round Table Conference at The Hague which settled the question of Indonesian independence.

The following year, when Natsir became Prime Minister at the age of 33, Sumitro was appointed to the important portfolio of Minister of Trade and Industry.

Shortly afterwards, Sumitro was unexpectedly drawn into another key economic role -- he was approached by a group of students (under the leadership of Suhadi Mangkusuwondo, himself later to become an economics professor and key policy-maker in the 1970s and 1980s) to accept the prestigious post of Dean of the Economics Faculty at the University of Indonesia (UI).

Sumitro agreed. During the next few years, he played a major role in strengthening the Faculty. Much of the success of the Faculty in the succeeding decades, and the fact that the Faculty later produced so many well-known Indonesian economists, reflects the key role that Sumitro played during the 1950s.

In later years, Sumitro would often say that, looking back over his life, the work that most satisfied him was his period as Dean of Economics at UI.

During the next four years, whilst working as a professor at UI, Sumitro also served in a number of cabinets. In two of the cabinets, under Prime Ministers Wilopo (1952-1953) and Burhanuddin Harahap (1955-1956), Sumitro held the key post of Minister of Finance.

Throughout this period, and later in the decade, Sumitro was seen as one of the most well-known of the small group of Fabian- type intellectuals linked to the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) who were aiming to promote what would today be called "good governance" in Indonesia. In practice, the economic policies that Sumitro attempted to implement, especially when he was minister of finance under Wilopo, reflected a careful, responsible approach to economic management.

Many of these policies were not popular. Efforts to enforce strict budget disciplines, eliminate pockets of patronage, and cut back on military and civilian government staffing, antagonized powerful social groups. In the end, in many respects the policies largely failed.

The PSI suffered a devastating setback in the 1955 elections. Sumitro soon fell out with the government, becoming critical of the adventurous policies being pursued by Sukarno. In 1958, a rebellion broke out in Sumatra. Sumitro's patience with Sukarno's flamboyant gestures at home and abroad had run out so he threw in his lot with the rebels. He fled Jakarta, accusing the government of "tyranny and abuse of power".

The rebellion, however, was quickly crushed. Sumitro chose to go into exile overseas. It was a wise decision because Sukarno became increasingly displeased with the PSI and its supporters. In the early 1960s, the PSI was forced to disband. Leading PSI figures were imprisoned.

Sumitro and his family remained overseas for a decade. In exile, he continued to exert influence over Indonesian politics. He wrote bulletins commenting on domestic events which (this being pre-internet times) were smuggled into Indonesia by hand to be distributed to his friends. He worked as a consultant living, he said, as a "gypsy", moving his family from Singapore to Hong Kong, and later staying in Europe and England.

In late 1967, there was another change in Sumitro's fortunes. The authorities sent word to Sumitro that he was welcome to return to Indonesia. There was open hostility towards Sumitro in some senior circles in the Indonesian military because of his support for the 1958 rebellion in Sumatra -- and, perhaps, because he was an "intellectual".

Nevertheless, Sumitro had an influential ally in the acting president, Soeharto, who had placed great priority in tackling Indonesia's economic problems. Soeharto found Sumitro a useful source of advice on economic matters.

For a year after his return to Indonesia, Sumitro lived quietly, working as a consultant in Jakarta with his friend and leading Indonesian journalist, Mochtar Lubis. Then, in a controversial move, (after he had been formally installed as the President of Indonesia in March 1968), Soeharto propelled Sumitro once again to the center of economic policy-making. In the new "Development Cabinet I" announced on June 6, 1968, Sumitro was appointed to the key post of Minister for Trade. Sumitro remained a minister for the next 10 years, later becoming Minister for Research (1973-1978).

Throughout this period, Sumitro was one of the core inner team of ministers on whom Soeharto relied heavily for economic advice. Together, this group (which included Professors Widjojo Nitisastro, Ali Wardhana, Emil Salim, Mohammad Sadli and others) engineered the successful economic recovery in Indonesia which gathered strength during the 1970s and 1980s.

Throughout the 1980s and well into the 1990s, although no longer in the Cabinet, Sumitro continued to exercise an important influence over economic policy in Indonesia. He remained a key adviser to Soeharto. Sumitro was, for example, a strong supporter of the very extensive program of pro-market structural reform introduced in Indonesia during the 1980s. He was frequently critical of the amount of bureaucracy and red tape in Indonesia. He constantly urged that policies should be more supportive of the private sector.

The last few years were difficult ones for Sumitro. The final change in his fortunes came with the outbreak of the economic crisis in Indonesia in late 1997 and the fall of Soeharto in 1998. One way or another, both of his sons (Prabowo Subianto and Hashim Djojohadikusumo) as well as his son-in-law (Soedradjad Djiwandono) suffered severe setbacks. All are prominent figures in their own fields in Indonesia, and their successive misfortunes received widespread publicity.

Prabowo, a well-known army officer who had earlier married one of Soeharto's daughters, was widely recognized as a tough, competent but sometimes unpopular officer. He had risen rapidly through the ranks to the level of Lieutenant General.

But following Soeharto's resignation, Prabowo was dismissed from the army following an inquiry into his alleged role in the kidnapping of student activists in 1998. He had also been accused by some of involvement in military abuses in Timor although charges were not formally pursued.

Hashim, a rather successful businessman, has reportedly found business conditions more difficult in recent years. There have been allegations that he, too, benefited from high-level connections during the Soeharto era.

Soedradjad had won praise as an effective Governor of Bank Indonesia during the mid-1990s. But in early 1998 he was summarily dismissed by President Soeharto under controversial circumstances. It was widely believed that Soedradjad had incurred Soeharto's displeasure in various ways, including by resisting political pressure from the president to adopt high- risk monetary policies.

It is safe to speculate that Sumitro would have not been greatly surprised by these setbacks. And one can imagine that he would have counseled his family to follow the advice of Queen Elizabeth I, who herself lived through difficult years in England in the 16th Century, to "Speak softly, and wait for better times".

The turbulence of Sumitro's life was a mirror of the turbulence of Indonesia during the 20th Century. Surely, there are few whose life so closely reflects that of their nation.

The writer is a member of the editorial board of the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Canberra.