Achmed Sukarno Biography

1. Achmed
Sukarno
First President of Indonesia
From 1945 to 1967
By: Michelle Silva

2. The Leader + Historical
Context
• Indonesian leader with anti-
imperialist ideology with communist
tendency that established the
Indonesian government system called
“Pancasila”, term that means the five
principles.
• He established a system of
government, with a controlled
democracy, suppressing political
parties and taking control of the
state.
• The most important period of his life,
is done in the context of the Second
World War, in the year 1942, when
Indonesia was a Dutch colony.

3. • After the entry of Japan in the Second World War, after the
attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, by the conquest
of the entire Southeast Asia, Indonesia seeks help from
Japan in 1942, to expel the Dutch and proclaim their
independence.
• This helped him to get the total support from the whole
Indonesian population.
• in 1945 to 1967 Sukarno was proclaimed as president for
life, establishing a very strong dictatorial system, is
overthrown and imprisoned by a military dictatorship
(anti-communist) during Cold War to prevent the
proclamation of this ideology throughout the region.

4. Rise of the Leader
• Sukarno came to power through a war of
independence through an armed conflict against
Dutch colonial rule that dominated the archipelago.
This conflict lasted four years and led Sukarno to
power in 1945
During 1949 by the diplomatic channel, the
Netherlands recognize Indonesia as a unitary and
independent country, removing any kind of
interference.

5. Maintaining Power
• During his presidency, Sukarno
established the following rules to
ensure their hold on power:
1- Elimination of all political parties
2- Media control
3-Armed forces control
4-Centralize all state powers in the
president, with a "controlled“
democracy
5-Establishment of the Pancasila,
with its five principles of
government and ideology.

6. Opposition
There was no opposition from 1945 to
1965 considering Sukarno:
Overtook all the political parties
Centralized the power
The opposition came in 1965 from:
The Armed forces
Led by General Suharto
He launched a purge of society and the
armed forces to eliminate the
influence of the Communist Party and
other left-leaning Organization
In a military coup led by Suharto, he
overthrow and imprisons Sukarno in
1967

7. Social Policies
• Sukarno's government was based on the Pancasila, which consisted
in the application of five principles ideological supposedly designed to
benefit the people, but because it was a strong dictatorial regime,
these principles were never fully met creating even greater social and
economic differences among the population.

8. Belief in one Supreme God
Unifies the thinking of major religions in Indonesia as expressed in the
Constitution of this country "The State shall be based in the belief of
one supreme God.
Sense of just and civilized humanity
It is based on respect for human beings and against oppression.
Indonesia Unit
It is based on the cultural and ethnic differences should not affect the
integrity of the country. It reaffirmed the band's shield is labeled
Bjinneka Tunggal Ika which means "Unity in Diversity.“
Democracy guided by the inner wisdom and demand of discussions
between representatives of the people
Shows the need respect the decisions of the people for the real exercise
of democracy, strengthening the national unity. It is represented by the
figure of a wild bull's head in black and white on a red background in
the top left of the shield.
Social justice for all the people of Indonesia
Is framed on the need for the general welfare and progress for the
people to search for the greatest possible happiness, represented with
two ears of rice and cotton, in the lower left quarter of the shield.

9. Economic Policies
In the 1960s, the economy was drastically deteriorated due to political instability, the
young and inexperienced government and economic nationalism, which resulted in
severe poverty and hunger. At the time of the fall of Sukarno, the economy was
mired in chaos:
• with 1,000% annual inflation
• a reduction in exports
• lack of infrastructure
• factories operating at minimum capacity
• very low investments
After President Sukarno´s fall in the mid 1960s, the administration of the "new
order" brought:
A greater degree of discipline to economic policy
that quickly reduced inflation
Established the currency
Attracted foreign aid and investment

10. Treatment of Women and
Religious Groups
• Indonesia is a multicultural country that has received a number of external influences
basically there were three well-defined trends that Sukarno sought to balance after the
liberation of Holland
The religion in Pancasila is manifested in the belief in a supreme God respecting the
different existing religions, including Islam with extreme closed position in which the
woman does not have any kind of participation and not accept other religions.
Nationalist influence With his influence Sukarno tried to unify Indonesia under a
democratic controlled system
Communist Trend Influenced by China and opposed to USA who also had their
interests in the region
Considering that Sukarno established a totalitarian regimen and because of the many
trends discussed above, minority groups or types of religions cannot be clearly
established because each trend had its own characteristics , turning Indonesia into a
multicultural country.
As for racism, we can say that Indonesia was the victim of racism while it was a Dutch
colony until 1942.

11. Education Policies
According to the actual constitution of
Indonesia:
– Every citizen has the right to
education
– The government shall allocate 20
percent of the
state budget to education
– Their educational process
establishes a system of
basic education school and university,
as a
curiosity it can be concluded that it
maintains a
preschool educational system as we
have in the
country, beginning their education at
the age of
six years.

12. Removal from Power
• in 1967 Sukarno was
overthrown by a military
coup, anti communist, led
by General Suharto who
succeeded him in power, the
popular assembly named
temporary president
Suharto, who introduced
new policies of a liberal and
economic aspects of
international type open
markets and the acceptance
of foreign investment.

13. Impact on Country/ World
The Sukarno regime had a negative
impact on Indonesia, leading to a weakening
end of its economic system that brought the
country to have an inflation which reached
1,000%, accompanied by a severe starvation
and extreme poverty in its population.
After Suharto's fall, economic policies by the
new government allowed the gradual
recovery of social and economic status of
Indonesia, which is demonstrated today as
part of one of the 8 Asian tigers which now
constitute a major global economic powers
(higher tigers: Hong Kong, Singapore, South
Korea, and Taiwan under tigers: Malaysia,
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines)