By: Prabowo Subianto [taken from the Book: Military Leadership Notes from Experience Chapter I]
Ali Sadikin was a standout TNI figure of his time. Pak Ali Sadikin was known as a courageous officer on the battlefield and a very charismatic person.
Various achievements on the battlefield made Ali Sadikin one of the youngest TNI Brigadier General at the time. Hence, he was then known as ‘the boy general’.
Ali Sadikin and my father were close friends. I know Ali Sadikin as a leader who wanted a strong and self-sufficient Indonesia.
After his years of active duty, he served the nation in politics as Governor of Jakarta.
Marine Commando (KKO) Lieutenant General (Ret.) Ali Sadikin was a prominent and well-known TNI figure in his time. He was a Marine and an Indonesian Navy figure. He was highly regarded in the Indonesian Marine Corps, known then as the Naval Commando Corps (KKO AL).
Pak Ali Sadikin is known as a very brave and very charismatic combat officer. His name was well known throughout the country, starting from when he was a battalion commander with the rank of captain at the tender age of 26.
He was involved in the KKO deployment to Minahasa, North Sulawesi, in the PERMESTA crackdown operation. KKO troops made an amphibious landing outside Manado. Then the battalion led by Ali Sadikin spearheaded the mission to seize Manado from the Permesta rebels. Special Forces (RPKAD) operations to seize Mapanget airbase, now known as Sam Ratulangi Airport, took place around the same time.
After TNI forces captured Manado, the next stage was to reach and gain control of Permesta-controlled areas in the interior of Minahasa. The TNI forces had to trek the mountainous region. The only road access to central Minahasa was approximately 45 minutes from Manado City by car via Kinilow.
In Kinilow, there is a famous S-shaped road – approximately at the foot of Mount Lokon. That’s where the TNI forces alternately tried to break through Permesta’s defences but to no avail.
After many failed attempts to penetrate Kinilow, Ali Sadikin’s forces were called in as reinforcements. His forces succeeded in using hidden tracks sneaking through critical areas to ambush the Permesta forces from behind. They then seized the S-shaped road in Kinilow, paving the way for TNI forces to rapidly advance and capture Tomohon and other Permesta-controlled areas in North Sulawesi.
For this accomplishment, he was promoted to the rank of major. His many other achievements on the battlefield propelled Ali Sadikin to become the youngest KKO Brigadier General. He was known as ‘the boy general’ after becoming a KKO General at just 35.
He was so brilliant to the point where he became one of Bung Karno’s favourites. In his career, he briefly became the KKO Commander, the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, the Minister of Marine Transportation, the Coordinating Minister of Maritime Compartment, and the Governor of Jakarta.
I met Pak Ali Sadikin when he was the Governor of Jakarta. My father, Professor Soemitro, was the Minister of Trade in Pak Harto’s cabinet. Ali Sadikin and my father were close friends. They often had weekly lunch together alternately: one week, they would have lunch in the office of the Governor of Jakarta and at the Ministry of Trade the next week. Their offices were barely 1 kilometre apart.
I also heard that Pak Ali Sadikin, Pak Mitro, Pak Muhammad Jusuf, and Pak Ibnu Sutowo (President Director of Pertamina) were a close-knit group inside the government in those days. The four of them held the same views. They were nationalists. They aspired for Indonesia to be economically self-sufficient and promoted such concepts as the people’s economy. They formed such friendships despite their different political views and backgrounds.
Pak Ali Sadikin was in the Navy and was close to Bung Karno. Pak Mitro was known as part of an anti-Sukarno group. Pak Muhammad Jusuf was of the TNI faction that supported Pak Harto to become president. Ibnu Sutowo was of the TNI faction that was close to Nasution and Ahmad Yani. They became friends because they shared a mutual goal: Realising a strong and self-sufficient Indonesia.
