Sukarno (6 June 1901-21 June 1970) was President of Indonesia from 18 August 1945 to 12 March 1967, preceding Suharto. Sukarno was the founder of Indonesia, leading the country to independence from the Netherlands, and he ruled Indonesia as its nationalist dictator until his deposition by the army general Suharto following a failed communist putsch.
Biography[]
Sukarno was born in Surabaya, Java, Dutch East Indies in 1901, and he studied engineering in Bandung, where he became involved in the foundation of the Indonesian National Party in 1927. Imprisoned by the Dutch colonial authorities from 1929 to 1931, he was exiled to Sumatra in 1933. He returned to Jakarta following the Japanese invasion, supporting the Japanese war effort in return for Japanese acceptance of his leadership among the nationalist community. By the end of World War II he had thus acquired a unique position of authority among the Indonesian peoples, enabling him to declare Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945. He became President on 18 August, and subsequently united the heterogeneous resistance forces against the Dutch, who were eager to reclaim their erstwhile colony. He was officially confirmed Presidennt upon independence in 1949. Increasingly dissatisfied with democracy, he introduced a system of "Guided Democracy". With the consent of the army, he became Prime Minister in 1959, and subsequently sought to consolidate support for his authoritarian government through nationalism, such as the acquisition of West Irian and the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation. He declared himself president for life in 1963. He was greatly weakened by his ambiguous role in the unsuccessful communist putsch of 1965, which led the army to replace him with its leader, General Suharto. He died in 1970.