Sartono

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 his studies, 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. When several party leaders were arrested by the colonial government in 1929, he became one of their defense lawyers and unsuccessfully argued for their acquittal. Following the arrest of its leaders, PNI became paralyzed and the party subsequently suspended its activities. In its place, Sartono founded a new political party, Partindo, which sought to achieve independence through non-cooperation and mass action. Partindo lasted until 1936, when it decided to dissolve itself. After Partindo's dissolution, Sartono helped found another party, Gerindo, which advocated for the creation of an Indonesian parliament.

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. After the proclamation of Indonesian independence in 1945, he was appointed one of five ministers of state in the Presidential Cabinet by Sukarno. As minister, Sartono was dispatched to the Yogyakarta Sultanate and Surakarta Sunanate to shore up support for the nationalist government. During the subsequent national revolution, he became a member of the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP), the provisional legislature, and served in the KNIP's working body, which ran the legislature's day-to-day affairs. He 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 in February 1950.

Sartono served as speaker of the DPR throughout the entirety of the liberal democracy period, being re-elected in August 1950, when the Provisional DPR was formed following the transition into a unitary state, and again in 1956, after legislative elections were held. Following the fall of Mohammad Natsir's Cabinet in 1951, Sartono was appointed ''formateur'' by Sukarno. His efforts were thwarted due to policy differences between the two largest parties, the PNI and Masyumi Party, and he returned his mandate after less than a month. Following Mohammad Hatta's resignation from the vice presidency in 1956, Sartono was legally second in the presidential line of succession and he conducted presidential duties on multiple occasions. In 1960, the DPR was suspended by Sukarno as it rejected the government’s budget. Sartono was deeply embittered by the DPR's suspension, and he subsequently resigned from the 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," and he eventually resigned from the DPA in 1968. He died in Jakarta, on 15 October 1968, and was buried at Astana Bibis Luhur, Surakarta.

Early life and career

Sartono was born in Wonogiri, near what is today Surakarta, on 5 August 1900. Born to a noble ethnic- Javanese family, he was the second oldest of seven children. His father, Raden Mas Martodikarjo, was a civil servant who was a descendant of Prince Mangkunegara II. His mother was a noblewomen, who was a descendant of Prince Mangkunegara III. In 1906, he left Wonogiri and began his education at the Europeesche Lagere School in Surakarta, a school only for children of noble descent. There, he graduated in 1913, with the highest grade. After graduating, he was accepted to the Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO) school also in Surakarta. Sartono spent three years in MULO, from 1913 until 1916, and after graduating, he left for Batavia. In Batavia, he entered the ''School tot Opleiding voor Inlandsche Rechtskundigen'', later known as the ''Rechts School'', a law institute for the native Indonesian nobility.

At ''Rechts School'', he joined the ''Tri Koro Dharmo'' organization, a youth organization of Budi Utomo, which later evolved into ''Jong Java''. In 1921, he passed in his law examination, and received the title of "''rechtskundige''" (jurist). After graduating, he became a civil servant at the District Court in Surakarta for around six months. In September 1922, Sartono left his job as a civil servant, and departed to the Netherlands, to study for a doctorate in law at Leiden University, along with his former classmate Iwa Koesoemasoemantri. The pair departed from Surakarta to the port of Tanjung Priok, the main hub for transportation from the colony to Europe. They arrived in Genoa, Italy, before taking the train to the Netherlands. During his studies in Leiden, he joined the Perhimpoenan Indonesia association, and became the associations secretary from 1922 until 1925.

Early political career

After completing his studies, Sartono returned to the Indies in 1925, and opened a law practice in the city of Bandung, together with his friends from Leiden (including Iskaq Tjokrohadisurjo, Budiarto Martoatmodjo, and Soenario). The young advocates were successful in handling the legal actions of Dutch authorities. One notable case they handled was the trial of a man named Jasin, who was a train conductor from Tasikmalaya. Jasin was accused of being part of the failed 1926 communist revolt. As a result of Sartono's defense, Jasin's punishment was lightened, but he was still found guilty, and exiled to the Boven-Digoel concentration camp, in West New Guinea. Sartono later participated in the founding of the Indonesian National Party (PNI) at Bandung on 4 July 1927. Following the 1929 PNI congress in Yogyakarta, he was appointed as treasurer of the party. He also became the legal adviser during the second Indonesian youth congress in 1928 – which resulted in the Youth Pledge.

In 1930, the Dutch colonial government arrested four of the PNI's leaders, and later sentenced them to prison time. Sartono was not arrested, and instead he became one of Sukarno's defense lawyers during Sukarno's trials in Bandung. In 1931, Sartono founded the Partindo party, after the disbanding of the PNI. During his leadership of Partindo, he created a department for labor unions, which Sartono directly managed. Despite this, Sartono argued that labor unions should not engage in politics. Sartono led Partindo until 1933, when the released Sukarno was elected the party chief and Sartono became his deputy. Around the same period, the Swadeshi movement in Colonial India began capturing the attention of the many politically active Indonesians. This included Sartono, who became an advocate for the movement, and also chaired a commission on the movement within Partindo.

After Sukarno's election as leader, however, Sukarno's view that labor unions should be associated with political parties became dominant – and in 1933, the party's official position became that labor unions must be based on political parties. Partindo was again disbanded in 1937, and Sartono further took part in the founding of another party, Gerindo, where he was deputy chief under Amir Syarifuddin. Following the successful Japanese invasion of Indonesia, Sartono briefly left politics and handled rubber plantations in the Bogor

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