First Indonesian Armed Force General, our Armed Force Leader during fight in our Independence war against Dutch and British
General of the Army Raden Soedirman (
Perfected Spelling:
Sudirman; 24 January 1916
[a] – 29 January 1950) was a high-ranking Indonesian military officer during the
Indonesian National Revolution. The first commander-in-chief of the
Indonesian Armed Forces, he continues to be widely respected in the country.
Born in
Purbalingga,
Dutch East Indies, Sudirman moved to
Cilacap in 1916 and was raised by his uncle. A diligent student at a
Muhammadiyah-run school, he became respected within the community for his devotion to Islam. After dropping out of teacher's college, in 1936 he began working as a teacher, and later headmaster, at a Muhammadiyah-run elementary school. After the
Japanese occupied the Indies in 1942, Sudirman continued to teach, before joining the Japanese-sponsored
Defenders of the Homeland as a battalion commander in
Banyumas in 1944. In this position he put down a rebellion by his fellow soldiers, but was later interned in
Bogor.
After
Indonesia proclaimed its independence on 17 August 1945, Sudirman led a break-out then went to Jakarta to meet President
Sukarno. Tasked with overseeing the surrender of Japanese soldiers in Banyumas, he established a division of the People's Safety Body there. On 12 November 1945, at an election to decide the military's commander-in-chief in
Yogyakarta, Sudirman was chosen over
Oerip Soemohardjo in a close vote. While waiting to be confirmed, Sudirman ordered an assault on British and Dutch forces in
Ambarawa. The ensuing battle and British withdrawal strengthened Sudirman's popular support, and he was ultimately confirmed on 18 December.
Early life
Sudirman was raised with stories of heroic deeds and taught the etiquette and ways of the
priyayi, or noble caste,
[6] as well as the work ethic and simplicity of the
wong cilik, or commoners.
[7] For his religious education, he studied Islam under
KyaiHajji Qahar with his brother; Sudirman was a religious child, and always
prayed on time. He was soon entrusted with performing both the
adhan and
iqama, or calls to prayer.
[8] When he was seven years old, Sudirman was enrolled at a school for natives (
hollandsch inlandsche school), where he was an average student.
[6][9] The family, although it had enough to live by, was not rich. During his tenure as sub-district head, Cokrosunaryo had not accumulated much wealth, and in Cilacap he became a distributor of
Singer sewing machines.
[4]
In his fifth year of school, Sudirman asked to leave his studies, concerned with the ridicule he faced at the government-run school;
[d] this request was at first refused, but Sudirman was transferred to a junior high school run by
Taman Siswa in his seventh year of school.
[6][9][10] In his eighth year, Sudirman transferred to Wirotomo Junior High School
[e] after the Taman Siswa School was found to be unregistered and closed under the Wild School Ordinance.
[10][11]
[12] Many of Sudirman's teachers at Wirotomo were
Indonesian nationalists, which influenced his views of the Dutch colonists.
[11] Sudirman studied diligently at school; his teacher Suwarjo Tirtosupono later recalled that Sudirman would already be studying second-term lessons while the class was still in term one. Although he performed poorly in
Javanese calligraphy, Sudirman was strong in mathematics, science, and writing in both Dutch and Indonesian.
[13] Sudirman also became more religious under the guidance of his teacher Raden Mohamad Kholil; his classmates named him "hajji" because of his devotion to his prayers, and Sudirman took up preaching to other students.
[14] Aside from his studies and religious activities, Sudirman also served in the school's musical troupe and on the
football team, on which he was a
defender.
[15]
Although Cokrosunaryo's death in 1934 left the family poor, Sudirman was allowed to continue his studies without paying until he graduated later that year;
[14][16] after his step-father's death, Sudirman also devoted more time to studying the
Sunnah and prayer.
[17]By age 19, Sudirman had become a
pupil teacher at Wirotomo.
[11]
While at Wirotomo Sudirman was a member of the Wirotomo Student Union, drama club, and band.
[18] He helped establish a branch of the Hizboel Wathan, an organisation similar to the
Boy Scouts, which was run by the Islamic establishment
Muhammadiyah. Sudirman became the leader of the Cilacap division after graduating from Wirotomo;
[19][20]he was tasked with deciding and planning his groups' activities. He emphasised the need for religious studies, insisting that the contingents from Cilacap attend Muhammadiyah conferences throughout Java.
[21] He taught the younger members
[f] about the history of Islam and the importance of morality, while with older members he enforced near-military discipline.
[22]
Sudirman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia