Muhammad Mangundiprojo

Major General Mohamad Mangundiprojo was an Indonesian military officer, revolutionary, and civil servant. Born in the Sragen Regency on the island of Java, Mangundiprojo joined a nationalist group during the Second World War. He later fought in the Indonesian National Revolution against the return of Dutch colonial authority to Indonesia, and later went on to become a politician.

Early life Mohamad Mangundiprojo was born on 5 January 1905 in the Javanese province (which are referred to as regencies) of Sragen. At the time, Java and many other provinces constituted the Dutch East Indies, a colonial possession ruled by the Netherlands. Mangoendiprodjo's family had a history of fighting against the Dutch; his great grandfather had served the Sultanate of Demak and had fought alongside Diponegoro, a 19th-century Javanese noble who had opposed Dutch rule in the Java War.

During his formative years, Mangundiprojo chose to pursue a career of becoming a civil servant in the Dutch colonial government. In 1926, he graduated from a Dutch-operated university on Java and planned to join the Municipal Police. However, he instead became a prosecutor in the Jombang Regency. Before being deployed, he received a military education Surabaya; he was then given command of a unit in the Sidoarjo Regency in East Java. When the war ended in 1945, many of the PETA units were disarmed. However, many soldiers and officers, including Mangundiprojo, maintained their military training and discipline.

Post-Independence After the war of Independence, Mangundiprojo joined the Indonesian civil service. He served as the Regent of Ponorogo from 1951 to 1955.