Soekiman Wirjosandjojo

Soekiman Wirjosandjojo was an Indonesian politician and physician who served as the sixth prime minister of Indonesia from 1951 to 1952. He was also the first chairman of the Masyumi Party, an Islamic political party that was influential in the early years of the republic. He was born on 19 June 1898 in Surakarta, a city in Central Java. He studied medicine at the STOVIA medical school in Batavia (now Jakarta) and later at the Amsterdam University in the Netherlands. He was active in the Perhimpoenan Indonesia, an association of Indonesian students in Europe, and became its chairman in 1923. He returned to Java in 1925 and worked as a doctor in various places, such as Purwokerto, Bandung, and Yogyakarta. He also joined the Sarekat Islam, a mass Islamic organization, and became one of its leaders. He was involved in several political disputes within the organization, and was expelled in 1933. He then co-founded the Indonesian Islamic Political Party (Partii), which later became the Indonesian Islamic Party (PII) in 1938. He was arrested by the Dutch colonial authorities in 1940 and spent two years in prison. During the Japanese occupation of Indonesia (1942-1945), he was a member of the Putera and Suishintai organizations, which were established by the Japanese to mobilize the Indonesian people for their war effort. He also served as a member of the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence (BPUPK), which drafted the constitution and the principles of the Indonesian state. After the proclamation of Indonesian independence in 1945, he became the first chairman of the Masyumi Party, which was formed as a coalition of various Islamic groups. He was also elected as a member of the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP), the provisional parliament of the republic. He opposed the cabinets of Sutan Sjahrir and Amir Sjarifuddin, which he considered too leftist and too accommodating to the Dutch. He supported the Linggadjati Agreement, which recognized Indonesia as a federal state within the Dutch East Indies, but he also demanded that the Dutch recognize the sovereignty of the republic. He participated in the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference in 1949, which resulted in the transfer of sovereignty from the Dutch to the United States of Indonesia. He was appointed as the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Health in the Hatta Cabinet, which was formed after the conference. In 1950, he was replaced by Mohammad Natsir as the chairman of the Masyumi Party, and in 1951, he replaced Natsir as the prime minister by forming a coalition with the Indonesian National Party (PNI). His cabinet was known as the Soekiman Cabinet, and it lasted until 1952. As the prime minister, he implemented several policies, such as nationalizing the Bank Indonesia, initiating the holiday bonus for civil servants, and suppressing the communist movement. He also tried to improve the relations with the Western bloc, especially the United States, and sought economic and military assistance from them. He faced several challenges, such as regional rebellions, political conflicts, and corruption scandals. His cabinet collapsed in 1952, after a controversy over the negotiations between the Minister of Foreign Affairs Achmad Soebardjo and the US Ambassador Merle Cochran, which were seen as undermining the sovereignty of the republic. He resigned as the prime minister and was succeeded by Wilopo. He remained as a member of the People's Representative Council (DPR) until 1960, and also served as the speaker of the Constitutional Assembly from 1955 to 1959. He retired from politics in 1960, and died on 23 July 1974 in Yogyakarta. He was buried at his residence on Jalan Kusumanegara No. 15.