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. The latter was necessary because, in certain places, such as in
South Sulawesi, there was a lot of unrest, caused by 'pemudas' (youths). The first governments were characterized by fraud and corruption, but that changed under Prime Minister Agung. When the Netherlands transferred sovereignty to the RIS in 1949, the state ran into problems. The Republic sent troops to Sulawesi, against which former KNIL commander
Andi Aziz led the
Makassar Uprising. Sukawati was probably part of the plot, but that has never been proven. Thought was given to the declaration of an independent state of East Indonesia, but that initiative failed because the Netherlands did not want to cooperate. The uprising ended, parliament dismissed the government and dissolved the state. The new East Indonesian Cabinet was pro-Republican and advocated the integration of East Indonesia into the unitary Indonesian Republic. On 21 April 1950, he successfully negotiated East Indonesia's integration into the
unitary Republic of Indonesia, believing there was majority support for a unitary state. Sukawati had no choice but to merge into the unitary state of Indonesia and therefore voted positively when Sukarno proclaimed Indonesia a unitary state on 17 August 1950. Sukawati played an important role in the process of the integration of the State of East Indonesia into the Republic of Indonesia. == Personal life ==