Raden Mas Sumitro Djojohadikusumo was one of Indonesia's most prominent economists. During his lifetime Sumitro held several prominent roles including the Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia.
Early life
Sumitro was born in Kebumen, Central Java, on May 29, 1917, the eldest son in an aristocratic Javanese family. Sumitro was the son of Margono Djojohadikusumo, the founder of Bank Negara Indonesia and the first head of the Temporary Grand Advisory Council and member of the Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence. He spent his childhood in Java before moving to Europe, where he received his academic training, first at the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris and later at Economische Hogeschool in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He first won recognition as an economist at the age of 29, serving as an adviser to the Dutch delegation attending the United Nations Security Council meeting in London in 1946.
Their first daughter, Bianti, is married to J. Soedradjad Djiwandono, another Indonesian economist and former Governor of Bank Indonesia, while Prabowo was married to Siti Hediati Hariyadi, the fourth child of then-President of IndonesiaSuharto from 1983 to 1998. His wife, Dora, outlived him, dying in Singapore on 23 December 2008.
Government and political career
In March 1946 Sumitro returned to the newly independent Indonesia. He served in a series of successive governments, starting as an assistant to prime minister Sutan Sjahrir. In 1948 he was the deputy chief delegate representing Indonesia at the UN Security Council meeting at Lake Success, New York. Following Indonesia's international recognition in December 1949, Sumitro became chargé d'affaires at the Indonesian Embassy in Washington D.C., before becoming one of five experts assisting the UN secretary-general. Sumitro went on to serve as the a Cabinet Minister for both Sukarno and Suharto. During the late 1950s Sumitro involved in the PRRI/Permesta rebellion during which disgruntled leaders in several provinces in Sumatra and Sulawesi declared secession from the central government in Jakarta. The movement was quickly crushed and Sumitro fled abroad. A brief summary of Sumitro's career is as follows:
1946: Staff assistant to Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir.
1947: President Director, Indonesian Banking Corporation.
1948-1949: Deputy head, Indonesian delegation to the UN Security Council
Sumitro played a prominent role in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia. Following Independence, Sumitro was the only Indonesian with a doctorate in economics. He invited foreign lecturers from the Netherlands and lecturers from other faculties to assist in educating the students in the FEUI. As tensions grew and Dutch professors were pushed out of their roles in the university, Sumitro recognized the need for more Indonesian economists. He asked the Ford Foundation to help support teaching in the Economics Faculty by sending a group of promising Indonesian students to the University of California, Berkeley to study economics. This group of students, who later became known as the Berkeley Mafia, returned to Indonesia to serve in several high profile government positions and are credited as the architects of the modern Indonesian economy. The group included Widjojo Nitisastro, Mohammad Sadli, Emil Salim, Subroto, and Ali Wardhana. Despite his socialist views, Sumitro was asked to be one of the founders of the University of Indonesia.
