I wish that the following brief account of Sukarno's political biography would refresh 
your memory about him, and I also wish that you'd share my curiosity about the Gestapu "coup" which is still an unsolved mistery: 

6 June 1901:

Sukarno was born in Surabaya (father, Raden Sukemi Sosrodihardjo [a Javanese], and 
mother, Idayu Njoman Rai [a Balinese]) 

1911 - 1913:

Sukarno attended his father's primary school at Mojokerto 

1914 - 1915:

Attended ELS (Europeesche Lagere School), a Dutch-anguage elementary school, at 

Mojokerto 

1916 – 1921:
attended HBS (Hogere Burger School), an elite Dutch high school, in Surabaya 

1921 - 1926:
attended THS (Technische Hoogeschool te Bandung) in Bandung, earned "Ingenieur" with 
a dissertation on Harbour Design; he also developed his own version of Marxism, called 
MARHAENISM; he claimed to have met a sundanese farmer nicknamed Marhaen while 
cycling through the countryside near Bandung; the following is a conversation between 
Sukarno and Marhaen:
            'Who owns this field ?' asked Sukarno
                        'I do,' replied Marhaen
            'And the hoe, who owns that ?'
                        'I do.'
            'Those tools, who owns them ?'
                        'I do.'
            'The crop on which you're working, for whom is it ?'
                        'For me.'
            'Is it sufficient for your needs ?'
                        'There's barely enough to keep us alive.'
            'Do you ever sell your labour ?'
                        'No.I must work hard, but my labours are all for myself.'
            'But brother, you live in poverty.'
                        'That's right, I live poorly.'
'I thought to myself,' said Sukarno,'this man clearly and is not a member of the 
proletariat, he is a pauper, he is poor, he suffers much, has not enough to live on, but 
he is not a member of the proletariat, for he does not sell his labour-power to another 
without participating in owner-ship of the means of production. [ He then asked the 
farmer his name and was told MARHAEN. Sukarno then decided to use that name to 
describe the DESTITUTE PEOPLE OF INDONESIA ] 

4 Jul. 1927 :
Ir. Sukarno, Iskaq Tjokrohadisurjo, and Dr. Tjipto Mangunkusumo established 
'Perserikatan National Indonesia' (PNI); Party's position was political independence of 
Indonesia and non-cooperation with the Netherland Indies Gov't. 

May 1928 :
PNI became 'Partai Nasional Indonesia' 

29 Dec. 1929:
Sukarno and his colleagues at PNI were arrested by the Dutch police 

18 Aug - 22 Dec 1930:
Sukarno was tried at the Bandung District Court under the presidency of Mr. R. 
Siegenbeek van Heukelom on charges (under Article 153 of HAATZAAI Article) of a 
crime to contribute by speaking or writing, directly or by implication, to the 
disturbance of public order; Sukarno then made an eloquent speech titled 'Indonesia 
Menggugat' in his own defence; he was then found guilty and sentenced 4 years in the 
jail of Sukamiskin near Bandung. 

25 Apr 1931:
PNI was dissolved and replaced by 'Partai Indonesia' (Pertindo) 

31 Dec 1931:
Sukarno got clemency and was released from jail, and then joined Partindo 

1 Oct 1933 - 9 Jul 1942:
Sukarno was arrested for the second time and exiled to Endeh (Flores), then 
tranferred to Bengkulu in 1938 after he sufferred a severe bout of malaria 

9 Mar 1942:
The Netherland Indies Gov't surrendered to Japan without offering much resistance on 
land; Sukarno was subsequently released from jail 

9 Mar 1943:
Putera ('Pusat Tenaga Rakyat') was set up with Sukarno as Chairman; however, his 
reputation was tarnished by his role in recruiting Romusha, a conscription of 
Indonesian laborers to serve the Japanese army, not only in Indonesia, but also in 
other parts of Southeast Asia (estimated that 270,000 romusha were sent Outer Islands 
and Japanese-held territories in Southeast Asia, but only 52,000 were repatriated to 
Java); Sukarno's collaboration with the Japanese gov't (who was hostile to the Allies) 
also brought into being a familiar refrain in his oratory 'Amerika kita setrika, Inggris 
kita linggis !'. 

March 1944:
Djawa Hokokai replaced Putera which was dissolved by the end of 1943; the new party 
was under the chairmanship of Sukarno. 

1 Mar 1945:
BPUPKI ('Badan Penyelidik Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia) was founded 
under the chairmanship of Dr. Radjiman Wediodiningrat. 

1 June 1945:
Sukarno introduced his Pancasila during BPUPKI meeting. His Pancasila contained five 
principles:
                        1. nationalism
                        2. internationalism (humanism)
                        3. democracy (representative government or consent)
                        4. social prosperity for all
                        5. belief in God
He said,'The first two principles, nationalism and internationalism, can be pressed to 
one, which I used to call socionationalism.' Similarly with democracy 'which is not the 
democracy of the West' together with social justice for all can be pressed down to 
one, and called socio democracy. Finally - belief in God. 'And so what originally was 
five has become three: socio nationalism, socio democracy, and belief in God.' 'If I 
press down five to get three, and three to get one, then I have a genuine Indonesian 
term - GOTONG ROYONG [mutual co-operation]. The state of Indonesia which we are 
to establish should be a state of mutual co-operation. How fine that is ! A Gotong 
Royong state !' 

8 Aug 1945:
Sukarno, Hatta, and Radjiman Wediodiningrat were summoned by Marshal Terauchi, 
Commander-in-Chief of Japan's Southern Expeditionary Forces in Saigon. 

14 Aug 1945:
They return from Saigon 

15 Aug 1945:
Sukarno, Hatta, and Mr. Ali Subardjo visited Admiral Maeda. In the evening, Sukarno 
received Wikana and his colleagues and was later kidnapped by Jakarta youth leaders 

16 Aug 1945:
Sukarno and Hatta were held kidnapped at Rengasdengklok. They then returned

to Jakarta in the evening in order to see the Gunseikan, General Yamamoto, the meeting 
with Nishimura and the drafting of the proclamation. 

17 Aug 1945:
The proclamation by Sukarno and Hatta on behalf of all Indonesian people 

15 Aug 1950:
Sukarno unilaterally declared the unitary Republic of Indonesia and abandoned the 
Round Table Conference signed by Indonesia and its former ruler, the Netherlands, on 
27 Dec. 1949; Indonesia followed a Parliamentary Democracy till 1959. 

April 1955 :
Sukarno hosted the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung; 29 Non-Bloc countries attended the conference.

10 Nov 1956:
The newly elected Constituent Assembly started to draft a new Indonesian constitution 

18 May 1958:
During PRRI revolt in Sulawesi, an American B-25 pilot, Allan Pope, was shot down over 
Ambon. After this incident, Sukarno had good reason to believe that America would 
like to see him toppled, and he started developing closer relations with the Soviet 
Union and, especially, the People's Republic of China 

5 July 1959:
Sukarno with influence from the Army dissolved the Constituent Assembly and adopted 
by decree the Constitution of 1945 (UUD 45); later this year, Sukarno introduced his 
NASAKOM ('Nasionalisme, Agama, dan Komunisme') which was to serve as the basis for 
a revolutionary 'just and prosperous society.'Under Nasakom, to oppose PKI ('Partai 
Komunis Indonesia') was to be anti-Pancasila/anti-Sukarno. 

1960:
Sukarno introduced his most important formulas, Manipol/USDEK; USDEK was an 
acronym of UUD 45, 'Sosialisme ala Indonesia', 'Demokrasi Terpimpin','Ekonomi 
Terpimpin',and 'Kepribadian Indonesia'; at the same time, the PKI power in Java's 
villages grew strongly 

23 Sep 1963:
Sukarno who had proclaimed himself President-for-Life declared 'Ganyang Malaysia' 
Policy 

Late 1963:
following Sukarno's call for implementation of land reform measures that had been 
made into law in 1960, the PKI announced 'aksi sepihak' and began dispossessing 
landlords and distributing the land to poor Javanese, northern Sumatrans, and Balinese 
peasants. Reforms were not accomplished without violance. Old rivalries between 
nominal Moslems, the abangan (many of whom were PKI supporters), and orthodox 
Moslems ('santri') were exacerbated. The PKI membership rolls then totalled 2 million.

Dec. 1964:
After the UN General Assembly elected Malaysia as a nonpermanent member of the 
Security Council, Sukarno took Indonesia out of the world body and promised to 
establish CONEFO (Conference of New Emerging Forces); 1964 was called by Sukarno 
as TAVIP ('Tahun Vivere Pericoloso' = The Year of Living Dingereously ) 

29 May 1965:
Sukarno announced that he had documentary evidence (called Gilchrist Letter) of a 
plot against the lives of himself, Subandrio, and Ahmad Yani, to be carried out by 
'henchmen' of theimperialists( which in the Gilchrist Letter were called 'ourlocal army 
friends' and which could be held to imply the existence of close connections between 
the British Embassy and members of the Indonesian Army). These statements were 
made in the context of Gilchrist letter, produced by Subandrio and purporting to be a 
telegram of the preceeding March from the British Ambassador, Sir Andrew Gilchrist to 
the British Foreign Office. 

17 Aug 1965:
D.N. Aidit, the PKI chairman, called for the arming of 5 million workers and 10 million 
peasants to carry on 'Ganyang Malaysia'; this new armed force were then called 'the 
Fifth Force' 

30 Sep - 1 Oct 1965 :
A coup d'etat was launched by Lt.Col. Untung, commander of the Tjakrabirawa 
Presidential Guard, but smashed by Lt.Gen. Suharto from KOSTRAD; this event 
however remains a mistery to Indonesian people up to this present moment (especially 
about who has masterminded the coup d'etat)==> please see explanation below in 
Appendix I 

11 Mar. 1967:
Sukarno was FORCED to sign the executive order of March 11 ('Supersemar) in front of 
three generals, Basuki Rachmat, Mohammad Yusuf, and Amir Machmud, and Sukarno 
was obliged to transfer supreme authority to Suharto ( Please note that the above 
three generals were sent by Suharto [Minister and Commander of the Army], so this 11 
March event should be viewed as COUP d'ETAT by Suharto against Sukarno) 

12 Mar. 1967:
MPRS stripped Sukarno of all political power and installed Suharto as Acting President. 

21 June 1970:
After a sudden deterioration in his condition on 16 June 1970, Sukarno was taken to 
the Jakarta Military Hospital and died there on the morning of 21 June. Sukarno's wish 
to be buried in the garden of his Batu Tulis home near Jakarta was not granted by 
Suharto (then President of Indonesia); and he was instead buried next to his mother at 
Blitar (East Java). Years before his death, Sukarno had written,"And when I die, don't 
write on my tombstone, President Sukarno, doctor, engineer, leader of the Revolution, 
No !  Just write on my tombstone, "Here lies Sukarno, 'Penyambung Lidah Rakyat 
Indonesia' " 

References: 

1. J.D. Legge, "Sukarno: A Political Biography", The Penguin Press (1972) 
2. W.H. Frederick and R.L. Worden, "Indonesia: a country study", Department of the Army (1993) 

Wrote by Paul H. Salim, Calgary - Canada