Hamengku Buwono Ix, Sri Sultan
(1912–1988), vice president of Indonesia. Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX was Indonesia's vice president from 1973 to 1978 during the New Order under Suharto (ruled 1966–1998). He also was the sultan (1940–1988) and the governor of Yogyakarta (1950–1988). The position of sultan has only a symbolic status in modern Indonesian, but it nonetheless became very influential under Hamengku Buwono IX.
Raden Mas Dorodjatun (his birth name before being appointed as sultan) was born in Yogyakarta on 12 April 1912. He was educated in Indonesia and the Netherlands. As sultan, he mobilized the people's army against the Dutch in the war of revolution in 1945 in central Java and declared that the Yogyakarta kingdom was part of the Republic of Indonesia. He initiated the famous Serangan Oemum (General Combat) against the Dutch on 1 March 1949, which showed the world that the new republic still existed.
He served in various ministerial posts after independence, with the exception of the period between 1953 and 1959. His ability to deal with the Dutch during and after the revolution and to mediate conflict between the civilian and the military authorities in the 1950s made him a respected minister of defense during 1949–1953. In the early years of the New Order (1966–1973), together with Suharto and Adam Malik (1917–1984), he was part of a leadership triumvirate, given the task of rehabilitating the economy. As the coordinating minister for economy and finance (1966–1973), he was successful in attracting Western donor countries to the Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI). As the first vice president during Suharto's era (1973–1978), he also held other important positions, including the national head of the Indonesia Sport Committee and the head of the Indonesian Scout Movement. Hamengku Buwono IX passed away in the United States on 3 October 1988. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the twenty-six-kilometer length of road from the palace in Yogyakarta to the sacred Mataram cemetery at Imogiri, where the sultans of both Yogyakarta and Solo are buried.
Further Reading
Atmakusumah, ed. (1982) Tahta untuk Rakyat (Monarch for the People). Jakarta, Indonesia: Gramedia.
Darban, Ahmad Adaby, ed. (1998) Biografi Pahlawan Nasional Sultan Hamengku Buwana IX (A Biography of National Hero Sultan Hamengku Buwana IX). Jakarta, Indonesia: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan RI.
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