Sukarno: Biography 1901-1945
Soekarno was born
a hundred years ago, on 6 june 1901. More than anyone else, he came to embody
the Indonesian struggle for independence. He proclaimed Indonesian independence
on 17 August 1945 and led his country as its first president until after a coup
that misfired in 1965, when he was betrayed by his subordinate, general
Soeharto, a reactionary rightist who were fully supported by the whole Cold War
machinery of the West. It was beyond the scope of American politcians to accept
Soekarno’s independence and understand his inability to kow-tow to the West.
Soekarno’s
lofty ideas to emancipate and promote the living standard of his people were in
the end quashed by a super-power who had superior numbers, firepower and
wealth. To be fully independent and self-reliant were totally unacceptable
ideas for the capitalist world. But indisputably he had put an indelible stamp
on political developments in the great island nation from the late
nineteen-twenties till the seventies.
This
biography describes his life from his formative years, crowned with a degree in
engineering, through the ups and downs of his political career, to his
cooperation with the Japanese conqueror of Indonesia Independence
Bob Hering is
a retired Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the James Cook University of
North Queensland, Australia, who is now living in Stein, the Netherlands
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