Moekarto Notowigdo

Moekarto Notowidigdo was born in Blora in 1910 and entered the Indonesian nationalist movement as a young man. During the independence struggle he worked with Finance Minister A. A. Maramis on funding the Republic’s representatives abroad. He subsequently served in Indonesia’s United Nations delegation and became foreign minister in 1952. In an American radio address for This I Believe, he recalled imprisonment during the struggle and prisoners singing the national anthem as a fellow nationalist was taken to execution. He presented that experience as the foundation of his belief in human dignity and solidarity. ^{1, 2, 3}

He became ambassador to the United States in 1953. On 15 April 1954 he signed the World Bank’s Articles of Agreement for Indonesia, establishing its membership in the institution. During President Sukarno’s 1956 American visit he joined Foreign Minister Roeslan Abdulgani in discussions with John Foster Dulles on relations with the Netherlands, Japanese reparations, technical training, and trade. He defended Indonesia’s handling of trials of Dutch citizens while criticizing the treatment of Indonesians arrested in West New Guinea. ^{4, 5}

In May 1958, amid the regional rebellion, Moekarto urged Dulles to cultivate both Sukarno and army chief Abdul Haris Nasution. He reported that he had warned Sukarno about the domestic and international risks of cooperation with the Indonesian Communist Party. He supported a proposed American arms shipment to the army and asked for technical assistance directed toward small industries. ⁶

At his farewell meeting with President Eisenhower in August 1960, Moekarto pressed for longer American study periods for Indonesians. Short training visits, he argued, did not provide enough time to qualify professionally or understand American institutions; he proposed stays of four to six years for suitable students. He also asked for American help in preventing an armed clash over West New Guinea after the dispatch of the Dutch aircraft carrier Karel Doorman. ⁷

His later diplomatic assignments were to India and Canada. He served in New Delhi from 1960 to 1964 and Ottawa from 1964 to 1966. He died in Jakarta in June 1984. ¹