Surastri Trimurti

S. K. Trimurti was an Indonesian journalist, writer and teacher, who took part in the Indonesian independence movement against colonial rule by the Netherlands. She was born on 11 May 1912, in Solo, Central Java. She attended to Sekolah Guru Putri (Girl Elementary School). She became active in the nationalist Partindo (Indonesian Party) in 1933, shortly after completing her schooling at Tweede Inlandsche School. She began her career as an elementary school teacher, but switched to journalism after being arrested by Dutch authorities in 1936 for distributing anti-colonial leaflets. She worked for several Indonesian newspapers, using different pseudonyms to avoid detection. She also published Pesat together with her husband, Sayuti Melik, a prominent politician and journalist. During the Japanese occupation, Pesat was banned and she was arrested and tortured by the Japanese military government. After Indonesia declared its independence in 1945, she was appointed as the first labor minister under Prime Minister Amir Sjarifuddin. She served in that capacity from 1947 until 1948, advocating for workers' rights and social welfare. She was also a member and signer of Petition 50 in 1980, which protested Suharto's use of Pancasila against his political opponents. She co-founded the Gerwis, an Indonesian women's organization, in 1950, which was later renamed as Gerwani. She left the organization in 1965, after it was accused of being involved in the 1965 coup attempt. She returned to college when she was 41 years old and studied economics at the University of Indonesia. She declined an appointment to become Indonesia's Social Affairs Minister in 1959 in order to complete her degree. She died at the age of 96, on 20 May 2008, at the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, after being hospitalized for two weeks. She had been in failing health and confined to her bedroom for the prior year. She was survived by her two sons and several grandchildren. She was buried at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery in Jakarta.