Soekarno

Soekarno (www.sportgeschiedenis.nl/userfiles/soekarno.jpg)

If people ask me about the greatest president of Indonesia, I would like to answer with : IR. SOEKARNO. He was such a good leader, a pioneer in proclamation, he was the one who contributed much in stabilizing our country early after independence and of course the very first of our presidents. He had bright opinions about many things, especially which related to colonialism. One of his ideas which strengthened our vision against colonialism is “Politik Bebas-Aktif”. “Bebas”, or free in English, means that Indonesia has no interference through west or east (both are the main polars of world’s powers that time) and “aktif” or active in English means Indonesia is actively trying hard to provide world peace.

He started his political carrier in his college time whereas he mostly contributed ideas to help Indonesia. Different from other famous figures of our independence who were working much in military ways, Soekarno worked in a diplomatic way. His inspiring words burned people’s spirits. He was also involved in many meetings between Indonesia and the Netherlands, trying hard to get our victory. In 1925, he built the “Algemeene Studie Club” at Bandung. His magazine, “Indonesia Muda” mostly contained writings about our biggest hope of independence. Along his struggle, he established “Partai Nasional Indonesia”(PNI) with his struggle-mates such as : Dr. Ciptomangunkusumo, Mr. Budiarto and more. Soekarno believed that the only key to gaining our independence was the uniting of Indonesia itself, so he never gave up to keep exclaiming the nationalism spirit through people.

Soekarno worked in diplomatic ways where he always claimed inspiring quotes in newspapers. His aim of course, as I said before, is about uniting people anytime anywhere, not to stop their struggle working on our victory. No matter how much blood should be sacrificed, no matter how much pain and money should be sacrificed also, but he meant it that our victory wouldn’t come in easy and instantly. Soekarno became Netherlands' biggest enemy in politics. He was the one who stirred people in diplomatic and surely in military ways also. Netherlands arrested him and excluded him from Batavia. But Soekarno never stopped. In his isolation, he wrote “Indonesia menggugat”, told that though Netherlands is a developed country as it claimed, but in fact all deeds that Netherlands did was only dividing another country (Indonesia) and ste its victory. Netherlands became more angry about him and accused as Soekarno of provocating the media. Then, he was isolated in Nusa Tenggara Timur for years.

Years after his isolation, he went back to Batavia then he continued his struggle with his closest friends who had same views about working our victory such as : Mohammad Hatta and Mohammad Yamin and more.

End of story, our country finally got victory in 1945, proved by the proclamation of independence by Soekarno and Hatta in August, 17th 1945. The next day, Soekarno was declared as Indonesia's first president, accompanied with Mohammad Hatta, his closest friend as his vice president.

Soekarno held a conference in Bandung, called as “Konferensi Asia Afrika “to get more attention and support from Africa, Asia, and Latin America during our diplomatic and military effort against Japan. It persisted that countries in Asia, Afrika, and Latin America would act free from interference through west and east power. This conference then also well known as Gerakan Non Blok which pay attention a lot in world peace.

Gerakan 30 September Partai Komunis Indonesia (G-30-S-PKI 30th of September 1950) was a revolt to Soekarno, and it started a huge political crisis in Indonesia. People in Indonesia (as the command from Suharto) started to isolate him. People who did not do that order, would get punished by the country, like jail for some years. Soekarno died on Saturday, 21th of June 1970 at Rumah Sakit Angkatan Udara Jakarta and buried at Blitar, East Java.

I am really proud of him. He was a great person who could inspire passion in all people in Indonesia. He had a charisma and great behavior that could make people trust him, and then follow him. He was down to earth, really cared for his nation, did everything for a life better to the people, and never do something evasive, like corruption, killed guilty someone or something like that. Although even he was in death agony, he was not angry to people who isolated him and treated him unfairly. No one president after Soekarno really really liked him. He was the first president who made the evolution of Indonesia from a dependent country to a free country.