Sukarno

Sukarno (6 June 1901 - 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian politician. He was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. He was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist.

Sukarno led the Indonesian independence movement against the Dutch colonialists. During the colonial period, he was a prominent leader of Indonesia's nationalist movement, and he spent over a decade in Dutch detention before being released by invading Japanese forces in World War II. Sukarno and his fellow nationalists worked together to gain public support for Japan's war effort in exchange for Japanese assistance in spreading nationalist ideas. Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesian independence on August 17, 1945, following the surrender of the Japanese, and Sukarno was appointed president. He led the Indonesian diplomatic and military resistance to Dutch re-colonisation efforts until the Dutch recognized Indonesian independence in 1949. "Sukarno was the only Asian leader of the modern era able to unite people of such disparate ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds without shedding a drop of blood," author Pramoedya Ananta Toer once wrote.

Sukarno established an autocratic system called "Guided Democracy" in 1959 after a chaotic period of parliamentary democracy that successfully ended the instability and rebellions that were threatening the survival of the diverse and fractious country. Sukarno launched a series of aggressive foreign policies under the banner of anti-imperialism in the early 1960s, and he personally championed the Non-Aligned Movement. These developments resulted in increased tensions with the West and closer ties with the USSR. Following the events of the 30 September Movement in 1965, military general Suharto took control of the country in a Western-backed military takeover of the Sukarno-led government. This was followed by repression of real and perceived leftists, including executions of Communist party members and suspected sympathisers in several massacres carried out with the assistance of the CIA and British intelligence services, resulting in an estimated 500,000 to over 1,000,000 deaths. Suharto officially took over the presidency in 1967, succeeding Sukarno, who remained under house arrest until his death in 1970.

Birthdate: June 6, 1901
Died: June 21, 1970