Sumitro Djojohadikusumo

Sumitro Djojohadikusumo (EVO: Soemitro Djojohadikoesoemo 29 May 1917 – 9 March 2001) was an Indonesian statesman and one of the country's most influential economists.

Sumitro was born in Kebumen on 29 May 1917.

He was the eldest child of Margono Djojohadikusumo, a high ranking civil servant in the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies and later founder of Bank Negara Indonesia, and Siti Katoemi Wirodihardjo.

The Djojohadikusumo family was part of the Javanese aristocracy's lower rungs.

He studied at a Europeesche Lagere School (a school typically serving European children), then an Opleiding School Voor Inlandsche Ambtenaren (a school for native Indonesians going into the civil service) in Banyumas.

After finishing secondary education in 1935, he commenced tertiary studies at the Netherlands School of Economics in Rotterdam.

Obtaining his bachelor's degree in 1937, he then took a one-year course in philosophy and history at Sorbonne University.

In his autobiography Sumitro claimed that he wanted to join the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and had briefly joined a training camp in Catalonia, but he was rejected because he was too young.

He was completing his dissertation at Rotterdam in May 1940 when German forces invaded the Netherlands, and during the Rotterdam Blitz he was nearly killed by a Luftwaffe bomb which destroyed one of the walls to his room.

He still completed his dissertation, "The People's Credit Service during the Depression", and earned his doctorate in 1943.

This made him the first Indonesian to earn a PhD in economics.

During the later stages of the war in Europe, after the conclusion of his studies, he helped provide aid to stranded Indonesian sailors in Rotterdam.

Meanwhile, the Perhimpoenan Indonesia student association (which Sumitro was not part of) took part in the Dutch resistance mostly by distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets.

Before the war, Sumitro had decided not to join the association due to the presence of communists such as Abdulmadjid Djojoadiningrat.

Unable to return to Indonesia during wartime, he spent his time studying the Indonesian economy.

After the end of World War II Sukarno proclaimed Indonesian independence on 17 August 1945.

Sumitro briefly joined a Dutch delegation taking part in the first United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting in London in January 1946 as an adviser to Dutch Foreign Minister Eelco van Kleffens.

According to British reports, Sumitro had been included in the delegation to provide a good impression for the Dutch government, but he became disillusioned and decided to return to his home country.

After the handover of sovereignty as a result of the 1949 Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference, in which he took part, he joined the Socialist Party and became Minister for Trade and Industry in the Natsir Cabinet.

He implemented the protectionist Benteng program, and developed an economic plan which aimed for national industrialization.

Sumitro further served as finance minister in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Wilopo and Burhanuddin Harahap during the Sukarno era.

He held ministerial positions under Presidents Sukarno and Suharto intermittently between 1950 and 1978.

During his career in government, Sumitro served as Minister of Industry and Trade, Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Research in five different cabinets.

He was also the Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia.

Born into a Javanese family, he studied economics at the Netherlands School of Economics in Rotterdam in the Netherlands and remained there throughout World War II.

Returning to Indonesia after the war, he was assigned to the country's diplomatic mission in the United States, where he sought to raise funds and garner international attention in the struggle against Dutch colonialism.

During the 1950s, Sumitro favoured foreign investment, an unpopular position at that time which brought him into conflict with Nationalists and Communists.

Due to political differences and allegations of corruption, Sumitro fled Jakarta and joined the insurrectionary Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia in the late 1950s.

Considered a leader of the movement, he operated from abroad, liaising with Western foreign intelligence organizations while seeking funds and international support.

After the movement's defeat, Sumitro remained in exile as a vocal critic of Sukarno, continuing to agitate for the downfall of the government.

After the overthrow of Sukarno and the establishment of the New Order under Suharto, Sumitro was invited to return from exile and in 1967 was appointed Minister of Trade.

In this position Sumitro set policies favouring industrialization through imports of capital goods and export restrictions of raw materials.

He was involved in the high-level planning of Indonesia's economy, along with many of his former students from the University of Indonesia.

After disagreements with Suharto on policy in the early 1970s, Sumitro was reassigned as Minister of Research before his removal from government posts altogether.

Throughout the New Order, Sumitro leveraged his foreign and political connections to establish substantial private business interests and a political presence for his family.

As his son Prabowo Subianto joined the military and married Suharto's daughter, Sumitro also continued to work as an economist with some influence during the 1980s.

In a 1986 recollection, Sumitro stated that he instead began to fundraise for the cause of Republican Spain.

During his studies, he joined an Indonesian students' organization which aimed to promote Indonesian arts and culture.

In the leadup to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, he began to call for greater deregulation of the economy but remained committed to the political structure of the New Order.

Following his death, his children and grandchildren remain influential in Indonesian politics.