Soetran

Soetran (5 April 19211 July 1987) was an Indonesian military officer and politician who served as the Regent of Trenggalek from 1968 until 1975 and as the Governor of Irian Jaya from 1975 to 1981.

Born in Sidoarjo, Soetran dropped out of elementary school and settled down to become a soldier. He joined the Defenders of the Homeland in 1942 with the rank of ''budancho.'' He was later transferred to Merauke and Trenggalek as a commander.

Soetran became the regent of Trenggalek in 1968. His leadership in the region was characterized by his command approach. He managed to transform the region into a center of clove production. He also enacted the ''tembokisasi'' (construction of walls) and reforestation in the region in an attempt to increase the standards of living. He was elected to a second term in 1973, and the region received an award as the best-performing region in 1974. For his achievements in Trenggalek, Soetran was elected as the Governor of Irian Jaya in 1975. Under his leadership, the province experienced two consecutive earthquakes in 1976. He ended his term in 1981, four months longer than scheduled.

Soetran moved to Surabaya following his resignation as governor. He died in 1987.

Early life

Soetran was born on 5 April 1921 in Cangkring Village, a small village in Sidoarjo, East Java, to a working-class family.

Due to his father's blindness, Soetran dropped out of elementary school in the 4th grade and began to work at various jobs, such as a farmer, entertainer, and a '' ludruk'' performer.

Military career

In 1942, following the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Soetran joined the Defenders of the Homeland organization, a volunteer army organization formed by the Japanese. He was given the rank of ''budancho'' (equivalent to a sergeant). After the Indonesian independence, he joined the People's Security Bureau (the forerunner of the Indonesian National Armed Forces) and was put in command of a squad in the Tjipto Battalion.

After the Indonesia National Revolution ended in 1949, Soetran enrolled in the officer course and graduated as a first lieutenant in 1950. He then enrolled in several other military education programs, such as Preparation Course for Officers in 1956 and Advanced Officers Course in 1957.

In 1958, Soetran served as the Deputy Commander of the 511th Infantry Battalion with the rank of First Lieutenant, and he was promoted four years later to the rank of Captain and became the battalion's commander. Less than a year, in 1963, he was transferred to Irian Jaya and became the commander of the Tanah Merah Military District in Merauke. In 1967, he was reassigned to East Java, promoted to Mayor, and became the commander of the Trenggalek Military District.

In 1980, at the end of his term as the Governor of Irian Jaya, Soetran was promoted from colonel to brigadier general.

Regent of Trenggalek

Clove cultivation

On 3 October 1968, Soetran was inaugurated as the Regent of Trenggalek, replacing Moeladi. Before his term, Trenggalek was known as a poverty-stricken area. Trenggalek frequently experienced long periods of dry season, causing droughts in the area. Gaplek, the staple food source in the region, could not be grown during this period.

Following Soetran's rise to the regent office in Trenggalek, Soetran began to seek a solution for this problem. After experimenting with several high-valued commodities, Soetran found out that cloves could grow well in the Trenggalek region. Slowly, Soetran began to oblige Trenggalek's populace to cultivate clove.

The project yielded its results not long after it was commenced. The barren lands of Trenggalek transformed into green clove plantations and the region became the center of clove production in East Java. Although clove plantations only covered about 16% of the arable lands in Trenggalek, clove cultivation managed to yield an additional 21 trillion rupiahs per year for Trenggalek's populace. The region later became identical with clove, and the populace began to rely solely on cloves.

Donald K. Emmerson, a political professor, credited Trenggalek's development under Soetran on his self-styled "commando" approach. According to Emmerson, Soetran assumed full responsibility on the development process in the region and ran the government as an extension of himself.

Construction and development

Prior to his appointment as the regent, government offices, military offices, and houses in Trenggalek were in bad condition. Soetran attempted to improve this problem by initiating the ''Tembokisasi'' program which aimed at remodeling Trenggalek's cityscape. The program encouraged Trenggalek's populace to construct walls in their houses and villages. As of 1972, about several hundred kilometers of houses in Trenggalek have been fully walled.

Aside from the ''Tembokisasi'' program, Soetran also encouraged reforestation in Trenggalek. Soetran instructed the populace to "not leave any patch of land uncultivated". Soetran's reforestation policy managed to kept the region safe from prolonged droughts and provide additional exports.

Renaming Trenggalek

In 1971, under the pretext of embellishing the stereotype of the region, Soetran proposed to change the name of Trenggalek to Trenggalih. According to Soetran, words which end with -ek in Javanese usually has a bad connotation (e.g. ''jelek/elek'' (ugly)'', kemenyek'' (smart ass)'', tekek'' (deaf), etc.). Soetran planned to change the name of Trenggalek, which was frequently mocked by Javanese speakers as the abbreviation of ''terang enggone wong elek'' (clearly the place of ugly faces) to Trenggalih, with its abbreviation ''Terang Ing Galih'' (light in our heart).

Most of Trenggalek's officials opposed Soetran's plan, citing the administrative and bureaucratic process that would occur after the change. However, Soetran continued with his plan, and in the same year, he formed a team to investigate the beginnings of Trenggalek, the first appearance of its name, and the possibility to rename the regency in relation to the first appearance. In 1975, at the end of his term, Soetran increased the size of the team. The project continued several years after Soetran left the regency. The team managed to found out and document the beginnings of Trenggalek and its first appearance ten years later but refused to change the name of the regency.

Parasamya Purnakarya Nugraha

Soetran's success of his clove cultivation program in Trenggalek resulted in his re-election for a second term in 1973. In 1974, the regency obtained the ''Parasamya Purnakarya Nugraha'' award, an award given by the president to the best-performed regions in Indonesia during the first five year-plan. The award was given in the form of a flag by President Suharto to East Java Governor Mohammad Noer in a ceremony on 21 August 1974 at the Tambaksari Stadium.

Legacy

The government of Trenggalek honored Soetran by creating the Soetran Award. The award was given to villages in Trenggalek who come up with local innovations. The winner of the award is entitled to receive additional village funding.

A street in Trenggalek is named after Soetran.

Governor of Irian Jaya

Soetran was inaugurated as the acting governor of Irian Jaya on 31 April 1975, replacing Acub Zainal. His term as acting governor ended after he was inaugurated as a definitive governor on 12 August 1975. His term was intended to end on 4 September 1980, but due to the lack of replacement, his term was extended for another four months until 20 January 1981.

Obligatory clove cultivation

After he was appointed to the office of governor in Irian Jaya, Soetran implemented the same program he had implemented in Trenggalek seven years before. On 20 May 1975, Soetran declared the Obligatory Clove Cultivation (''Wajib Tanam Cengkeh'', WTC) program. Soetran argued that the program would contribute significantly to Irian Jaya's regional income and increase development in the region. For his program, Soetran earned the nickname of "Clove Governor".

Under his decree, Soetran obliged all families in Irian Jaya to cultivate cloves in their backyard. According to his decree, families who lived in the village should plant at least 20 cloves, 5—10 cloves for families who lived in the suburbs, and five cloves for those who lived in cities. Schools, offices, dormitories, and places of worship were also obliged to cultivate cloves. Aside from the populace's small scale cultivation, Soetran oversaw the development of clove plantations managed by the regency and province government.

Several days after the program had begun, Soetran requested funding from the then- President of Indonesia, Suharto. His request was fulfilled after Suharto lent 250 million rupiahs for the project on 20 November 1975, with 50 million rupiahs being given in the first year. Soetran planned to spend 35 million rupiahs to buy clove seeds from Trenggalek.

However, the project soon met its failure. In a pilot project that involved gubernatorial employees cultivating 2,000 clove seeds, fewer than 10% of the seeds survived the first year. An agricultural expert remarked that the failure was due to the employees' inability to cultivate the cloves. Another reason for the failure was Soetran's violation of the Agriculture Minister's instruction, which states that clove seeds could only be exported from four locations: Selokaton, Branggah Banaran, Bogor

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