Tjokroaminoto, Omar Said

Born 1882 in the village of Desa Bakur, Java; died Dec. 17,1934, in Jogjakarta. One of the leaders of the national and Muslim movement in Indonesia. Participant in the Budi Utomo.

In 1912, Tjokroaminoto founded the Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union), which he headed until his death. His skillful combining of Muslim goals with nationalistic and anticolonial goals and his talent as an orator furthered his popularity with the masses. Together with the other petit bourgeois leaders, Tjokroaminoto fought the Communist influence within Sarekat Islam, which led to a schism in 1923 and the collapse of the organization. In his struggle to influence the masses of workers and to counterbalance Marxism, Tjokroaminoto advanced the theory of Muslim socialism. Although he was in favor of class peace based on Islam in Indonesian society, he simultaneously denounced the domination of “criminal” (that is, foreign) capitalism in Indonesia.