User:The man from Gianyar/Sandbox VI
Sartono | |
|---|---|
_di_Republik_Indonesia,_p83.jpg) Official portrait, c. 1956 | |
| 1st Speaker of the People's Representative Council | |
| In office 26 March 1956 – 24 June 1960 | |
| Preceded by | A. M. Tambunan |
| Succeeded by | Zainul Arifin |
| In office 22 February 1950 – 28 February 1956 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | A. M. Tambunan |
| Legislative offices | |
| 1949–1960 | Member of the People's Representative Council from Central Java |
| 1945–1949 | Member of the Central Indonesian National Committee |
| Advisory offices | |
| 1962–1967 | Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council |
| 1962–1967 | Member of the Supreme Advisory Council |
| 1943–1945 | Member of the Central Advisory Council |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 August 1900 Wonogiri, Dutch East Indies |
| Died | 15 October 1968 (aged 68) Jakarta, Indonesia |
| Resting place | Astana Bibis Luhur |
| Political party | Indonesian National Party (1927–1931; 1945–1968) |
| Other political affiliations | Partindo (1931–1937) Gerindo (1937–1942) |
| Spouse |
Siti Zaenab (m. 1930) |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Leiden University (Mr.) |
| Occupation | |
| Signature |  |
Sartono (5 August 1900 – 15 October 1968) was an Indonesian politician and lawyer who served as the first speaker of the People's Representative Council (DPR) from 1950 until 1960. Born to a noble ethnic-Javanese family, Sartono studied law at Leiden University, during which time he joined the Perhimpoenan Indonesia association and became an advocate for Indonesian independence. After graduating, he opened a law practice and helped found the Indonesian National Party (PNI) in 1927. Within the party, he assumed the positions of deputy chairman and treasurer. When several PNI leaders, including Chairman Sukarno, were arrested by the colonial government, he became one of their defense lawyers and unsuccessfully argued for their acquittal. Following the arrests of its leaders, Sartono assumed the role of acting chairman until PNI's dissolution in 1931. In its place, he founded a new party, Partindo, where he served as chairman and later deputy chairman under Sukarno. After Partindo's dissolution in 1936, he helped found another party, Gerindo, where he served as deputy chairman under Amir Sjarifuddin.
Following the Japanese invasion of the colony in 1942, Sartono briefly left politics, before returning to serve as the general-secretary of a Japan-founded labor organization, Putera, in 1943. He subsequently served in several positions during the Japanese occupation period, including as a member of the Central Advisory Council and Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence. Following the proclamation of Indonesian independence in 1945, he was appointed a minister without portfolio in the Presidential Cabinet by Sukarno. As minister, he was dispatched to the Yogyakarta Sultanate and Surakarta Sunanate to shore up support for the newly-formed nationalist government. During the subsequent national revolution, he became a member of the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP), the Republic's provisional legislature, where he served in the KNIP's working body, which ran the legislature's day-to-day affairs. Sartono then served as an advisor to the Indonesian delegation of the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference before being elected speaker of the DPR of the United States of Indonesia (USI) in February 1950.
Sartono served as speaker of USI's DPR until August 1950 when, following the dissolution of USI and the transition into a unitary state, he was elected speaker of the newly-formed Provisional DPR. He was re-elected to the position in 1956, after legislative elections were held. As speaker, Sartono presided over an unstable and chaotic liberal democracy period. In 1951, he was asked by President Sukarno to form a government following the collapse of Mohammad Natsir's cabinet. His efforts at forming a cabinet were thwarted due to policy differences between the two largest parties, the Masyumi Party and PNI, and he returned his mandate to Sukarno after less than a month. In February 1956, Prime Minister Burhanuddin Harahap's cabinet announced the unilateral abrogation of the Netherlands-Indonesian Union after talks with the Dutch over the West New Guinea dispute failed. However, the opposition, unwilling to give credit to the cabinet for abolishing the unpopular union, stalled. During the tumultuous debate, Sartono, alongside one of his deputies Arudji Kartawinata, resigned from their positions and staged a walkout from the DPR building.
Sartono returned to DPR in March 1956, having already been elected to a seat in 1955, and was re-elected speaker, defeating Prawoto Mangkusasmito of Masyumi. Following Mohammad Hatta's resignation from the vice presidency in November 1956, Sartono was legally second in the presidential line of succession and he conducted presidential duties on multiple occasions. In 1960, DPR was suspended by Sukarno as it rejected the government’s budget. He was deeply embittered by DPR's suspension, and he subsequently resigned from DPR and did not take public office for several years. In 1962, Sartono accepted an offer by Sukarno to serve as the deputy chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA). His time in the body "confused and irritated him,"[1] and he eventually resigned from the DPA in 1967. He died in Jakarta, on 15 October 1968, and was buried at Astana Bibis Luhur, Surakarta.