Sutomo : FREEDOM OR DEATH. GOD IS GREAT... GOD IS GREAT... GOD IS GREAT.. FREEDOM!

Sutomo

Sutomo was born in Kampung Blauran in the centre of Surabaya to a clerk father, Kartawan Tjiptowidjojo, and mother of mixed Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese descent. He was forced to give up his education at the age of twelve because of family economic hardship during the Great Depression. Alongside menial jobs, he joined the Indonesian Scouting organisation and at the age of seventeen as the 2nd Pramuka Garuda; a rank achieved by only three Indonesians before the Japanese occupation during World War II.
Hey British soldiers! As long as the Indonesian bulls, the youth of Indonesia, have red blood that can make a piece of white cloth, red and white, we will never surrender. Friends, fellow fighters, especially the youth of Indonesia, we will fight on, we will expel the colonialists from our Indonesian land that we love... Long have we suffered, been exploited, trampled on. Now is the time for us to seize our independence. Our slogan: FREEDOM OR DEATH. GOD IS GREAT... GOD IS GREAT... GOD IS GREAT.. FREEDOM!"

Bung Tomo's speech, 9

November 1945.

During the Japanese occupation, Sutomo was chosen in 1944 as a member of the Japanese-sponsored Gerakan Rakyat Baru. During the early stages of the Indonesian National Revolution he played a central role when Surabaya came under British attack. Although the Surabaya city was lost to the British, the battle served to galvanise Indonesian and international opinion in support of the independence cause. Sutomo spurred thousands of Indonesians to action with his distinctive, emotional speaking-style of his radio broadcasts. His "clear, burning eyes, that penetrating, slightly nasal voice, or that hair-raising oratorical style that 2nd only to Sukarno's in its emotional power".
His relationship with President Sukarno soured after Bung Tomo offended the president by asking about personal matters. After the 1950s, Sutomo emerged again as a national figure during the 1965 turbulent period. Initially, he supported Suharto to replace the left-leaning Sukarno government, but later opposed aspects of the New Order regime. On 11 April 1978, he was detained by the government for his outspoken criticism of corruption and abuses of power; upon his release three years later, however, Sutomo continued to loudly voice his criticisms. He said that he didn't want to be buried in the Heroes' Cemetery because it was full of "fairweather heroes" who had lacked the courage to defend the nation at times of crisis, but when peace came appeared in public to glorify their achievements.
On 9 June 1947, Sutomo married Sulistina in Malang, East Java. He was known as a devoutly religious father of five who took religious knowledge seriously throughout his life. Before his death, Sutomo managed to finish a draft of his own dissertation on the role of religion in village-level development. On 7 October 1981, he died in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during his Hajj pilgrimage. Renowned as a 1945 Revolution hero, his family and friends succeeded in their request for his body to be returned to Indonesia, but although his reputation and military rank gave him the right to be buried in the Heroes' Cemetery, he was laid to rest in public burial ground at Ngagel, Surabaya, East Java.

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