Sjafruddin Prawiranegara

Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, also written Syafruddin Prawiranegara, was an Indonesian politician, economist, and latterly Islamic philosopher. Born Banten, Java, 28th February 1911, of Batenense and Minangkabau extraction, he died of heart failure on 15th February 1989.

Educated in the Dutch-established education that was opened to the better-off indigenous population from 1903, he went on to study at Rechtshogeschool (the Dutch tertiary education institution designed originally to provide Indonesian-speaking staff for the law courts, and which eventually became the University of Indonesia), graduating in 1939.

In 1939-1940 he was editor of a newspaper, Soeara Timur, a moderately separatist journal from Dutch rule. Syafruddin was more strongly nationalist than this however, refusing to join the Stadswacht (home guard), though he did in 1940 join the Dutch department of finance, retaining his job under Japanese occupation, working as a tax inspector.

After the end of the war, he joined the KNI, or Indonesian National Committee, becoming one of fifteen members of its Central Committee. He joined Masjumi, the Islamic political party, publishing 'Politiek dan Revolusi Kita' (Our politics and revolution), espousing a religious socialist philosophy, which led to his appointment as Minister of Finance for Sutan Sjahrir Prime Minister and Socialist Party of Indonesia member from March 12 1946 to June 27 1947, and then under Hatta's non-party cabinet from 1948 until full independence in December 1949.

The resistance to the Dutch was limited to Java and Sumatra, and increasing military success in Java made the position of the revolutionary leaders in Java increasingly weak. In anticipation of the Dutch overrunning of the revolutionary Indonesian capital at Yogyakarta, Hatta was given authority to setup a republican government in defensible Central Sumatra. However, Hatta was to return to Java for UN-led peace talks, and so Sjafruddin was given the role of Prime Minister-in-waiting. When the Dutch captured Hatta, Sukarno, and others, he assumed the role of Prime Minister, in West Sumatra, liaising by radio with remaining nationalists in Java to organise resistance to the Dutch. From this position he was able to maintain the republican effort until the Dutch released Sukarno and Hatta.

After peace had been brokered in 1949, he was appointed as Finance Minister in Hatta's first cabinet of Indonesia, and also in the cabinet of Mohammad Natsir, until his appointment as the first Indonesian Governor of De Javasche Bank (which was quickly transformed into Bank Indonesia) in 1951.

Sjafruddin in 1957 came into conflict with the President over his opposition to nationalization of Dutch economic interests, and his opposition to Guided Democracy (1957–1965, culminating in the writing of a letter to Sukarno on 15 January 1958, from Palembang, South Sumatra, where Sjafruddin was in talks with the rebellious Colonel Barlian, telling Sukarno to return to the Indonesian Constitution.

He was sacked as Bank Indonesia governor as a result, as Sjafruddin became more involved with PRRI. Sjafruddin was less reckless than some of his PRRI colleagues, opposing the five-day ultimatum (on strategic military grounds) on 10th February 1958 to Prime Minister Djuanda to establish a new Cabinet with Hatta and the Sultan of Yogyakarta at its head. Therefore, on 15th February 1958, Sjafruddin became Prime Minister of PRRI; his signature, which had appeared on banknotes of the republican period (1945-1949), and as governor of Bank Indonesia (1951-1958), appeared on the notes of PRRI. Sjafruddin opposted the establishment of a separate country of Sumatra, instead seeing PRRI as a movement for Indonesian integrity, opposed to the centralization of power in Indonesia.

The PRRI rebellion was a failure, and on 25 August 1961, Sjafruddin surrendered to the army. He was imprisoned until 26 July 1966.

Upon release, Sjafruddin tended to express himself more through religion, preaching against corruption under Sukarno, and leading the Petition of Fifty, and opposing the concept of Pancasila as the sole guiding principle for all groups, especially religious ones, in Indonesia. Due to this activity, Suharto banned Sjafruddin from leaving the country; Sjafruddin however continued to espouse his beliefs up until his death in 1989.

External links

* http://cip.cornell.edu/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=seap.indo/1107011776