Sukarno was born on the 6th of June 1901 in the city of Surabaya in Eastern Java.

He was the only son of Raden Sukemi, a poor Javanese school teacher, and his Balinese wife, Ida Njoman Rai. His original name was Kusnasosro but after a series of illness, he was given a new and, it was hoped, a more promising and fulfilling name, Sukarno. His childhood playmates called him Djago (Cock Champion) for his looks, spirit and prowess. As an adult he was best known as Bung Karno (brother), the revolutionary hero and architect of independence.

Despite the humble origins of his family, there was enough money to send Sukarno to various schools set up by the Dutch colonial Administration in the Netherlands East Indies, as Indonesia was then called. His upbringing was privileged. Any one who made it into the Dutch education sys

Saharso Reksodisastro, a guerilla fighter during the battle for Independence said : Sukarno entered into the hearts of the Indonesian people. Because of him, they were prepared to live for years on morsels and rice mixed with weeds. His spirits sustained them. They would have followed him anywhere.

Although Sukarno was an important symbol of the national struggle against the Dutch, he soon lost political grounds to domestic rivals. Because of the new constitutions adopted in 1949 and 1950, which established a parliamentary, rather than presidential, political system for Indonesia, by 1949 Sukarno was little more than a figurehead, while real political power lay with the prime minister.

In 1927 in Bandung where he got his degree in civil engineering he decided that his future lies in oratory and politics not in architecture. Sukarno had been increasingly involve in National Politics since his teen when he was boarded in the house of Tjokroaminoto, a leading nationalists politician. Tjokroaminito treated him as his own son, financed his further education and at the age of 20 married him off to his own 16 year old daughter, Siti Utari.

Sukarno introduced a system called "Guided Democracy," that emphasize traditional Indonesian values, such as decision making by deliberation and consensus rather than majority vote arguing that Western Style parliamentary democracy was unsuited to Indonesian needs. Sukarno also promoted national unity through NASAKOM, an acronym for the three major ideological streams in Indonesian politics: nasionalisme (nationalism), agama (religion), and komunisme (communism). However, unity was never really achieved. Politics became more divided than ever before. Parties that refused to accept Guided Democracy were banned, and Sukarno's political opponents were jailed. The army also increased in power under Sukarno, and became the only meaningful rival of the communists.

Sukarno had little interest in conventional economic management, and as a result the economy declined rapidly under Guided Democracy. By 1965, inflation in Indonesia was more than 650 percent a year, and the economy was on the verge of collapse. Despite this situation, Sukarno was still able to stir the Indonesian masses, awakening in them a great sense of pride in being Indonesian. Millions of Indonesians sang and shouted his slogans and acclaimed Sukarno as "Great Leader of the Revolution," "Lifetime President" (his official title), and oracle and warrior of the Nefo, his acronym for the "New Emerging Forces" in violent conflict with Nekolim, the neocolonialism, capitalism, and imperialism of the "doomed" Western powers.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Indonesian Nation, Sukarno Hatta, Guided Democracy, Islamic Law, Irian Jaya, According Sukarno, Emerging Forces, Movement Whatever, Biography History, PNI Dutch, guided democracy, national unity, struggle dutch, east indies, independence sukarno, own country, indonesian politics, siti utari, symbol national, indonesia's independence,
Approximate Word count = 1993
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)