Sartono

Sartono (5 August 1900 – 15 October 1968) was an Indonesian politician and lawyer who served as the first speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) from 1950 until his resignation in 1960. He also served as acting president several times in his capacity as speaker following the resignation of Mohammad Hatta. Born into a Javanese family of noble blood, Sartono studied law at Leiden University. During his studies, he joined the Perhimpoenan Indonesia association and became an advocate for Indonesian independence. After graduating, he opened a law practice and helped found the Indonesian National Party (PNI) in 1927. He unsuccessfully defended the party's leaders when they were arrested by the colonial government in 1929.

Following the arrests, the PNI disbanded and Sartono founded a new party, Partindo, which sought to achieve independence through non-cooperation. However, Partindo was dissolved in 1936. He then helped found another party, Gerindo, which advocated for the creation of an Indonesian parliament. In 1942, Japan invaded the colony and Sartono briefly left politics before returning as general-secretary of a Japan-founded labor organization, Putera, a year later. He also served in several positions during the Japanese occupation period, including as a member of the Central Advisory Council and Investigating Committee for Preparatory Work for Independence.

After the proclamation of independence in 1945, he was appointed a state minister in the Presidential Cabinet by President Sukarno. As minister, he was dispatched to the Yogyakarta Sultanate and Surakarta Sunanate to shore up support for the nationalist government. During the subsequent national revolution, he became a member of the Central Indonesian National Committee (KNIP), serving in the KNIP's working body which ran its day-to-day affairs. In 1949, he became an advisor to the Indonesian delegation of the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference before being elected speaker of the DPR of the United States of Indonesia in February 1950.

Sartono would go on to serve as speaker throughout the entire liberal democracy period, being re-elected in August 1950, when the Provisional DPR was formed, and again in 1956, following the 1955 elections. In 1951, he was tasked with forming a new government following the fall of the Natsir Cabinet. He, however, failed to form a government after less than a month. In 1960, the DPR was suspended by Sukarno following its rejection of the government’s budget. Deeply embittered by the suspension, he resigned from the DPR and did not take public office for several years. In 1962, Sartono accepted an offer by Sukarno to serve as the deputy chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA). His time in the body "confused and irritated him," and he resigned from the DPA in 1968. He died in Jakarta, on 15 October 1968, and was buried at Astana Bibis Luhur, Surakarta.