Tahi Bonar Simatupang

Tahi Bonar Simatupang (28 January 1920 – 1 January 1990) was a soldier who served in the Indonesian National Revolution and went on to become chief of staff of the Indonesian Armed Forces.

Early life Simatupang was born in Dairi, North Sumatra, then part of the Dutch East Indies to a Batak Protestant family. Simatupang attended a Dutch colonial school and then moved to Jakarta in 1937 for further study. Among his friends in the Batak youth in Batavia during that time were Oloan Hutapea and Josef Simanjutak, future high-ranking Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members Lintong Mulia Sitorus, future Indonesian Socialist Party secretary general. In 1942, he gained entry to the Dutch Military Academy, but his studies were interrupted by the Japanese invasion. During the Japanese occupation, Simatupang rented a house with Sitorus and Hutapea in the Tanah Tinggi district of Batavia. He notes that other Batak youth called them De Drie Musketiers, that they were often together attending lectures by people such as Sutan Sjahrir and collecting books about independence movements in other countries. Like Army Chief of Staff General Nasution, he was an "administrator", committed to the reduction in size of the armed forces after independence had been won to bring about a professional military. He opposed efforts by a disgruntled rival, Colonel Bambang Supemo, to replace Nasution, but was himself criticized for apparent political bias after articles he wrote in 1952 were perceived as favoring the Socialist Party of Indonesia (PSI). After the incident on 17 October 1952, in which the army brought demonstrators and troops to the Merdeka Palace to persuade President Sukarno to dissolve parliament, Simatupang's days were numbered, and on 4 November 1953, his post as chief of staff was abolished, effectively dismissing him. He then took a position as an adviser to the Ministry of Defense and then became a lecturer at the Army Staff College and the Military Legal Academy before resigning from the military altogether in 1959.

Legacy T.B. Simatupang is now used as a street name in Cilandak, South Jakarta. His face is also depicted in 2016 series 500 rupiah coins.

Selected works Peloper delam perang peloper dalem damel (1954) Soal-soal politik militer di Indonesia (1956) Pemerintah, masjarakat, Angkatan Perang. Pidatopidato dan karangan-karangan 1955-1958 (1960) Laporan dari Banaran : kisah pengalaman seorang pradjurit selama perang (1961) Released in English in 1972 as Report from Banaran: Experiences during the people's war, translated by Benedict Anderson, E. Graves, John Smail. Released in Dutch language in 1985 as Het laatste jaar van de Indonesische vrijheidsstrijd, 1948-1949 : een authentiek verslag door de voormalig chef-staf van de Indonesische strijdkrachten Capita selecta masalah hankam [oleh] T.B. Simatupang Pembangunan : soal hidup atau mati bagi negara Pantjasila (1968) Pengantar ilmu perang di Indonesia (1968) Komunikasi, konfrontasi, modernisasi dan negara Pancasila yang membangun (1972) Kejakinan dan perdjuangan (1972) Dari Edinburgh ke Jakarta (1974) Ketahanan nasional dalam situasi baru di Asia Tenggara (1976) Het laatste jaar van de Indonesische vrijheidsstrijd, 1948-1949 : een authentiek verslag door de voormalig chef-staf van de Indonesische strijdkrachten (1985) Harapan, keprihatinan dan tekad; Angkatan 45 merampungkan tugas sejarahnya. (1986) Kehadiran Kristen dalam perang, revolusi, dan pembangunan : berjuang mengamalkan Pancasila dalam terang iman (1986) Dari revolusi ke pembangunan (1987) Indonesia : leadership and national security perceptions (1987) Saya adalah orang yang berhutang (1990) Membuktikan ketidakbenaran suatu mitos : menelusuri makna seorang prajurit generasi pembebas bagi masa depan masyarakat, bangsa dan negara (1991) Released in English in 1996 as The fallacy of a myth Iman Kristen dan Pancasila (1995)