(1901–70), paramount leader of Indonesia’s nationalist movement, the country’s first president (1945–68), and the father of Megawati Sukarnoputri (1947–    ), who became president of Indonesia in 2001.

Career of Sukarno.

Born in Surabaya, Java, on June 6, 1901, Sukarno graduated from Bandung Technical College in 1925. He first expounded his political ideas in 1926 in an article entitled “Nationalism, Islam, and Marxism,” a synthesis that marked his political thought throughout his career. Sukarno was arrested by the Dutch in 1929 for his political activities but was released two years later. Arrested again in 1933, he was later exiled to Bengkulu on Sumatra, where he remained until he was released by the Japanese following their invasion of Indonesia in 1942. During the Japanese occupation he was permitted to promote Indonesian nationalist aims in return for mobilizing support for the Japanese war effort.

On Aug. 17, 1945, just after Japan’s surrender, Sukarno proclaimed Indonesia’s independence and became the country’s first president. He subsequently led the new republic’s struggle against the reimposition of Dutch colonial rule. Sukarno continued as Indonesia’s president after the Dutch formally transferred sovereignty in 1949.

When the system of parliamentary government proved ineffective, Sukarno in late 1956 called for the dissolution of all of Indonesia’s political parties; in 1959 he instituted his so-called Guided Democracy, and in 1960 he dissolved the elected parliament. Required to share power with the armed forces, he used the Communist party to counterbalance the military. In foreign policy Sukarno was suspicious of the U.S. and other Western powers, and he assumed a role as leader of the emerging nations against colonial and “neocolonial” powers. He compelled the Dutch to cede West Irian (later called Irian Jaya and now known as Papua; transferred to Indonesian administration under United Nations auspices in 1962) and proclaimed a state of “confrontation” with the newly formed Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

An attempted coup on Sept. 30, 1965, led to Sukarno’s downfall. Acting indecisively in its aftermath, he could prevent neither the mass killings that followed nor the elimination of the Communist party. The army leader General Suharto forced Sukarno to delegate effective power to him in March 1966 and replaced Sukarno as president in 1968. Until his death in Jakarta on June 21, 1970, Sukarno lived in isolation under house arrest.

Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Sukarno’s eldest daughter, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was elected to parliament in 1987 as a candidate of the Indonesian Democratic party and became its leader in 1993. As the head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle in the late 1990s, she was the country’s most prominent opposition figure, and she was named vice-president of Indonesia by the People’s Consultative Assembly in October 1999. A decree issued in August 2000 by President Abdurrahman Wahid (1940–    ) granted her limited powers to administer the nation’s day-to-day affairs. She became Indonesia’s first woman president in July 2001 when the legislature voted to dismiss Wahid for alleged incompetence and corruption. During her administration, East Timor, which Suharto had incorporated as a province of Indonesia in 1976, became fully independent in May 2002.       A.Ka., AUDREY KAHIN, Ph.D.