Tjokorda Gde Raka Soekawati

Tjokorda Gdé Raka Soekawati (EYD: Cokorda Gdé Raka Sukawati; ; 15 January 1899 – 1967) was a Balinese nobleman and politician who served as the first and only president of the State of East Indonesia from 1946 until its dissolution in 1950. His title, Tjokorda Gdé, signaled that Soekawati belonged to the highest ksatria (one of the four noble castes in Bali).

He had two wives, the first a Balinese, Gusti Agung Niang Putu, who gave him a son named Tjokorda Ngurah Wim Sukawati. In 1933, he married a French woman named Gilberte Vincent, who gave him two children.

His royal house is Sukawati.

Biography

Early life and education Tjokorda Gde Raka Soekawati was born on 15 January 1899 in Ubud on the island of Bali, then part of the Dutch East Indies and now part of the Gianyar district of the Indonesian province of Bali. Balinese by ethnicity, he belonged to the Balinese caste of ksatria, corresponding to the Indian kshatriyas, as indicated by the component "Tjokorda" in his name. From the beginning of the 19th century, the Sukawati family ruled Ubud, the principality of Gianyar; the latter, in turn, depended on the Dutch administration. Sukawati's father, Tjokorda Gede Sukawati, was the ruler of Ubud at the time of his son's birth.

In his youth, Soekawati attended a school for Indonesian officials. In 1918, as a candidate Indonesian civil servant, he was an official Indonesian candidate appointed by the Bandung auditors. At the end of the same year, he was mantri police (a title for native officials) to Denpasar. In 1919, now with political ambitions, was promoted to Punggawa (district) of his birthplace Ubud. In 1924 he was elected a member of the Volksraad consultative assembly, a position he held until 1927. A year after the Japanese capitulation, he started his political career. In July 1946, he was a delegate at the Malino Conference. At this conference, he was also elected as a member of the advisory board for Borneo and East Indonesia. At the Denpasar Conference, he again chaired the General Committee. At the end of August 1946, he stayed in the Netherlands for a short time, together with the sultan of Pontianak, Syarif Hamid II, to provide information about the Malino Conference. The "Republic of Indonesia" saw it as a puppet state of the Netherlands, at least until Prime Minister Anak Agung Gde Agung, through his so-called "Synthese-politics" (cooperation with the Republic), succeeded in securing the recognition of the Sukarno / Hatta government as a future "co-state" in the (federated) United States of Indonesia (Republik Indonesia Serikat, RIS). However, the mistrust remained. This is because the Dutch participated in the administration of East Indonesia, especially in the beginning, and the KNIL was prominent.