Soekarno and Soeharto

Soekarno and Soeharto were born at different time and different places, but their lives have some surprising similarities. First of all, both men lived with their grandfathers when they were children. Soekarno lived with his grandfather, Raden Hardjokromo in Tulung Agung, East Java and Soeharto’s grandfather was  Mbah Atmosudiro in Puluhan village, Godean. Their elementary schools were in their grandfather village. 

They didn’t live there continuously. Because of their parents, they should move to another school.  Later in their lives, both men were famous in Indonesia. That is, they were Presidents of Indonesia in different period. Soekarno is the first President of Indonesia from 1945 to 1967 and Soeharto is the second President of Indonesia from 1967 to 1998. Another similarity between Soekarno and Soeharto was in their names. 

Most of parents in Java used to give their children’s names with prefix “Su or Soe” such as in Soekarno and Soeharto,  Soe means good or great. So, the parents hoped that their children would have a good life in the future. However although they both were the powers of Indonesia, the end of their politics didn’t run well. Both men should lay their positions not because the end of their tenures, but it was because of some problems.

Soekarno was about PKI and he was replaced by Soeharto, Soeharto was about crisis of Indonesia and he was replaced by Habibie. The last similarity between Soekarno and Soeharto was their sickness which caused their deaths. Soeharto had renal failure and he passed away in 1970. Soekarno had complex disease and he passed away in 2008. Both of them were gone with a lot of secrets and mysteries, they buried the truth with them. Maybe their similar life circumstances and lifestyles explain why Soekarno and Soeharto also had similar personalities.

Nurjanah