Sutomo

Born July 30,1888; died May 30, 1938. Leading figure in the Indonesian national movement.

Sutomo, the son of an aristocrat, graduated from a medical school in Jakarta in 1911 and worked as a physician in Java and Sumatra. In 1908 he helped found the first Indonesian national organization, the Budi Utomo. From 1919 to 1923, Sutomo studied and practiced medicine in Europe. In 1924 in Surabaya he founded an Indonesian national organization, the Indonesian Study Club, and in 1931 he founded the Union of the Indonesian Nation. In 1935, as a result of the merger of the Union of the Indonesian Nation, Budi Utomo, and several other parties and organizations, the Party of Greater Indonesia (Parindra), whose goal was to secure autonomy for Indonesia, was founded under Sutomo’s leadership.