Surachman Tjokroadisurjo

Raden Mas Panji Surachman Tjokroadisurjo was born in Wonosobo, Dutch East Indies, on 30 August 1894.[1] He was a descendent of Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono II, and he had twelve siblings. His father, Raden Mas Tumenggung Suryoadikusumo, the third regent of Wonosobo. His grandfather, Raden Mas Adipati Aryo Cokroadisuryo, also served as the regent of Wonosobo.[2] He studied at a Europeesche Lagere School before continuing to a Hogere Burgerschool in Batavia.[3][4] In 1915, he went to the Netherlands where he studied chemical engineering at the Delft Institute of Technology. He graduated in 1920, and became the first Indonesian chemical engineer. Prior returning to the Indies, he briefly undertook an internship in Germany.[5][6]

After returning, Surachman was appointed to lead a chemical laboratory in Bandung, where he worked with batik workers and silversmiths, rejecting a job offer in the police department. In this period, he built a relationship with Bandung-based nationalists including Sukarno, and Surachman was relocated to Bogor due to suspicions arising from those contacts. He was later relocated again to Yogyakarta before returning to Bogor.[7] Due to his government work, he decided against openly supporting the nationalist movement, but he did provide donations including helping fund the 1928 Second Youth Congress.[8] In 1936, he was assigned to the colonial government's Economic Department in Batavia.[9] During the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, he was first appointed as a member of the Putera organization, before his appointment as chief of the economic department in July 1945.[6]

Shortly after the proclamation of Indonesian independence, he was appointed as Minister for Economic Affairs (later Minister of Welfare) on 19 August 1945 in the Presidential Cabinet.[10][11] In this tenure, he announced the government economic policy which favored cooperatives,[12] and further announced that foreign property in Indonesia would still be respected by the new government.[13] He was replaced by Darmawan Mangunkusumo when the cabinet fell in November 1945. Not long after, however, he was reappointed into the cabinet as Minister of Finance to replace the sick Sunarjo Kolopaking on 8 December 1945.[14][15] He retained this post in the Second Sjahrir Cabinet.[16]

In his capacity as Finance Minister, Surachman was the first issuer of the Oeang Republik Indonesia, which was arranged to be exchanged with Japanese occupation currency at a 1,000:1 exchange rate.[9] He also announced a 45 percent hike in the salaries of high level civil servants in order to attract skilled bureaucrats.[17] In order to finance the government, Surachman also arranged for the first issuing of Indonesian government bonds in April 1946, which attracted significant interest and managed to reach the targeted amount of sales within less than a year, but due to poor archiving and later conflicts the government would default on.[18] During this period, Surachman would often personally hold onto the government funds, storing the cash in suitcases inside of his home.[19] He was replaced as finance minister by his deputy Sjafruddin Prawiranegara on 2 October 1946 upon the formation of the Third Sjahrir Cabinet.[20] He was still active in government affairs, however, and following Operation Product in 1947, he formed a private company to accommodate the now-unemployed Republican civil servants around Jakarta.[9]

After the transfer of sovereignty in 1949, Surachman was appointed as the first Indonesian President of the University of Indonesia (UI) in 1950. He was also still active in Bandung, lecturing at the Bandung Institute of Technology. In establishing the governance of UI, he had to displace an opium processing factory in order to be able to establish his rector's office.[21] He died on 16 November 1952 in The Hague from hypertension, whilst on a diplomatic mission to negotiate the nationalization of Dutch tin mining companies in Indonesia.[22][23]