Sutan Sjahrir

Sutan Sjahrir (5 March 1909 – 9 April 1966) was an Indonesian politician, and revolutionary independence leader, who served as the first Prime Minister of Indonesia, from 1945 until 1947.

Sutan Sjahrir was born on 5 March 1909, in Padang Panjang, West Sumatra.

He came from an ethnic-Minangkabau family, from what is today Koto Gadang, Agam Regency.

His father, Muhammad Rasyad Maharajo Sutan, served as the Hoofd or Chief public prosecutor at the Landraad in Medan.

His mother, Siti Rabiah, came from Natal, in what is today South Tapanuli Regency.

Sjahrir's father had six different wives, with Sjahrir's mother being the fifth wife his father married.

From his father's marriage, Sjahrir had 6 siblings.

Two biological brothers, and four half-siblings.

His two biological brothers were Soetan Sjahsam, who became an experienced businessman, and Soetan Noeralamsjah, who would become a prosecutor and politician from the Great Indonesia Party (Parindra).

He was also the half-brother of Rohana Kudus, an advocate for women's education and a journalist with the first feminist newspaper of Sumatra.

Although from Padang Pandjang, Sjahrir's family lived in Medan, but he was often brought by his father to his grandmother's house in Koto Gadang, which has now become abandoned.

Sjahrir attended the Europeesche Lagere School (ELS), before continuing to the Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO), in Medan.

During his time at MULO, he was first introduced to works by authors such as Karl May.

In 1926, he continued his education at the Algemene Middelbare School (AMS), in Bandung, West Java.

There, he joined the Indonesian Student Theater Association (Batovis) as a director, writer and actor.

His earnings from there were used to fund the 'People's University' (Cahaya), which was a university co-founded by Sjahrir, to battle illiteracy and raise funds for the performance of patriotic plays in the Priangan countryside.

Sjahrir completed his studies at the AMS in 1929, and continued his education to the Netherlands, after receiving a scholarship.

Sjahrir arrived in the Netherlands in 1929, enrolling first at the University of Amsterdam and later becoming a law student at Leiden University where he gained an appreciation for socialist principles.

He was a part of several labor unions as he worked to support himself.

He was briefly the secretary of the Perhimpoenan Indonesia (Indonesian Association), an organization of Indonesian students in the Netherlands.

Sjahrir was also one of the co-founders of Jong Indonesie, an Indonesian youth association instead of the need for association to assist in the development of Indonesian youth for further generations, only to change within a few years to Pemuda Indonesia.

This, in particular, played an important role in the Youth Congress (Sumpah Pemuda), in which the association helped the Congress itself to run.

During his political activities as a student in the Netherlands, he became a close associate of the older independence activist Mohammad Hatta, future vice-president of Indonesia.

Previously, he was a key Indonesian nationalist organizer in the 1930s and 1940s.

Unlike some of his colleagues, he did not support the Japanese during the Japanese occupation and fought in the resistance against them.

He was considered to be an idealist and an intellectual.

Born to a Minangkabau family, he studied at the University of Amsterdam and later became a law student at Leiden University.

He became involved in Socialist politics, and Indonesia's struggle for independence, becoming a close associate of the older independence activist Mohammad Hatta, who would later become the first Vice President of Indonesia.

During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Sjahrir fought in the resistance.

Towards independence on 17 August 1945, he was involved in the Rengasdengklok Incident and the Proclamation of Independence.

Following the release of his 1945 pamphlet "Our Struggle" ("Perjuangan Kita"), he was appointed Prime Minister of Indonesia by President Sukarno.

As Prime Minister, he was one of the few Republican leaders acceptable to the Dutch government, due to his non-cooperative stance during the Japanese occupation.

He also played a crucial role in negotiating the Linggadjati Agreement.

Sjahrir founded the Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) in 1948 to politically oppose the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Although small, his party was very influential in the early post-independence years.

However, Sjahrir's socialist party ultimately failed to win support and was later banned in 1960, after the party was suspected of being involved in the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia rebellion.

Sjahrir himself would eventually be arrested and imprisoned without trial in 1962.

In 1965, he was released to seek medical treatment and was allowed to go to Zürich, Switzerland.

There, he died on 9 April 1966.

On the same day, through Presidential Decree No. 76/1966, Sjahrir was inaugurated as a National Hero of Indonesia.