1. Johannes Leimena, more colloquially referred to as Om Jo, was an Indonesian politician, physician, and national hero.
65 Facts About Johannes Leimena
1. 2.
Johannes Leimena was one of the longest-serving government ministers in Indonesia, and was the longest-serving under President Sukarno.
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Johannes Leimena filled the roles of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health.
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Johannes Leimena became involved in Indonesian nationalist movements through the Ambonese youth group Jong Ambon, and he took part in the two Youth Congresses in 1926 and 1928.
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Johannes Leimena participated in national Christian organizations such as the Communion of Churches in Indonesia.
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Johannes Leimena became Deputy Prime Minister in 1957 and became one of Sukarno's closest aides.
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Johannes Leimena took part in many meetings to advise Sukarno, with some giving him credit for convincing Sukarno to take a course of action which avoided a civil war.
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Unlike many of his imprisoned colleagues, Johannes Leimena was still involved in politics, becoming a member of the Supreme Advisory Council until 1973.
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Johannes Leimena died in 1977, and his body was interred at the Kalibata Heroes' Cemetery.
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Johannes Leimena was born in Ambon, Maluku, on 6 March 1905.
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Johannes Leimena's father, Dominggus Leimena, was a substitute teacher in an elementary school in Ambon, and his mother, Elizabeth Sulilatu, worked as a teacher.
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The Johannes Leimena family was descended from the local rajas from his father's home village of Ema, and like the rest of Ema, the Johannes Leimena family adhered to Christianity.
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When Johannes Leimena was five years old, his father died and his mother remarried, leaving Johannes Leimena to live with his aunt while his other siblings moved in with their stepfather.
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In 1914, Johannes Leimena moved to Cimahi, West Java; his aunt had been promoted to a principal of a school serving the children of Ambonese colonial troops stationed there.
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Johannes Leimena continued his studies at a Christian-only Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs.
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Johannes Leimena applied for jobs as a railway or postal officer, but was rejected by both.
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Johannes Leimena became a leading figure within the former, initially advocating neutrality for Jong Ambon in the background of competition between pro-independence and pro-Dutch Ambonese organizations.
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Johannes Leimena joined the Theosophical Society, influenced by his Sumatran colleagues such as Amir Sjarifuddin and Mohammad Yamin.
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In 1926, Johannes Leimena was a committee member at the "First Youth Congress", and again in 1928's Second Youth Congress.
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Outside of the nationalist movements, Johannes Leimena took part in the ecumenical movement, which was taking root in Indonesia during his time at STOVIA.
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Johannes Leimena graduated from STOVIA as a doctor in 1930.
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Johannes Leimena received a medical degree in 1939 from Batavia's Medical College, specializing in liver diseases.
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Johannes Leimena was held for six months and suffered beatings during his incarceration.
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Johannes Leimena was released after he treated a Kenpeitai officer who suffered from malaria.
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Johannes Leimena was first appointed as a full health minister in the First Amir Sjarifuddin Cabinet, which was formed on 3 July 1947.
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Johannes Leimena retained the post until 1953, when the Wilopo Cabinet collapsed, for a total of eight cabinets.
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Johannes Leimena was a founding member of the Indonesian Christian Party, being appointed as part of the leadership committee upon Parkindo's formation in September 1947.
28.
Johannes Leimena was based in Jakarta in the early days of the revolution, but moved alongside the rest of Sjahrir's cabinet in 1946 to Yogyakarta as Jakarta was being increasingly controlled by the Dutch.
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Johannes Leimena was an important member of the Indonesian negotiating team in agreements with the Dutch.
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Johannes Leimena was part of the Indonesian delegation to the Linggadjati Agreement of November 1946, and the Renville Agreement of January 1948.
31.
Johannes Leimena initially intended to travel to Ambon aboard a KNIL aircraft, but this was overridden by the Defense Minister at that time.
32.
Johannes Leimena viewed public health as a necessity in the reconstruction of Indonesia and in socioeconomic development, and during his time as health minister he put significant efforts into preventive healthcare and hygiene in rural Indonesia.
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Three laws related to healthcare, presented to the government by Johannes Leimena's ministry, were passed in June 1951.
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Johannes Leimena formed the Public Food Board, which advised the general public on nutrition.
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Under a fellowship from the World Health Organization, Johannes Leimena travelled to Europe in 1953, where he observed the healthcare systems of Norway, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia.
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Johannes Leimena went to Egypt, India and Singapore, where he attended lectures and discussions in addition to observing existing health services.
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Johannes Leimena had concerns regarding foreign aid being used to influence Indonesian foreign policy and politics through terms and conditions, and called for unconditional aid for health services from developed countries.
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Johannes Leimena, who stayed in Geneva, apparently intended to resign and reportedly said that he felt like "a fisherman who has caught something and is told to throw it back into the water".
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At that time, Johannes Leimena had been elected as a member of the People's Representative Council representing Maluku in the 1955 elections.
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Johannes Leimena was then appointed into the Constitutional Assembly of Indonesia, as a deputy speaker, until he became inactive due to further appointment as minister.
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Johannes Leimena was elected its deputy chairman in 1950, and he remained in that position until 1964, when he instead became an honorary chairman until his death.
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Johannes Leimena founded the Indonesian Christian Student Movement in February 1950, which was a merger of the pro-Dutch Christen Studenten Vereniging and the Indonesian Christian Student Union.
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Johannes Leimena became the movement's inaugural chairman from its founding until its first congress in December 1950.
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Johannes Leimena joined the "National Council" which was formed in May 1957, and late in 1957, Johannes Leimena was appointed into a "Committee of Seven" intended to manage undergoing issues with the Indonesian Army.
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Johannes Leimena was a loyalist of Sukarno, including after Sukarno's 1959 Decree.
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Johannes Leimena was part of the Supreme Operations Command in 1962 during the West New Guinea dispute.
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Johannes Leimena was given a titular rank of a vice admiral of the Indonesian Navy in 1962, and was promoted to admiral on 17 August 1964.
48.
Around one hundred men were involved in the early morning operations against Nasution's house, and as Johannes Leimena had three men assigned to him as personal bodyguards due to his position, the rebel soldiers wanted to prevent them from interfering in the kidnapping of Nasution.
49.
Johannes Leimena, upon learning that Tubun had been killed, refused to flee the house.
50.
The incident at Johannes Leimena's home received more attention than some of the attacks on the generals' homes, and it was assumed then that Johannes Leimena was a target for the rebels, though he was not.
51.
Johannes Leimena first consulted with Suharto before heading to Halim, and he delivered a message from Suharto to Sukarno requesting the latter leave Halim before 16:30 that day, as that was the time limit Suharto gave the coup forces to surrender before he would launch an attack on Halim.
52.
On 3 March 1966, as acting minister for higher education and science, Johannes Leimena ordered the closure of the University of Indonesia, but his order was ignored by the army units guarding the university.
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Later in the afternoon, Johannes Leimena joined Sukarno and two other Deputy Prime Ministers in meeting with Army generals Amirmachmud, Mohammad Jusuf and Basuki Rahmat at the Bogor Palace.
54.
Johannes Leimena had, at that time, served as government minister for nearly twenty years in a similar number of cabinets.
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Johannes Leimena was appointed as the director of the Cikini Hospital on 11 December 1968.
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Johannes Leimena was one of the few politicians in this period who did not distance himself from Sukarno.
57.
Johannes Leimena was elected into the People's Representative Council following the 1971 election, but he did not take office.
58.
Johannes Leimena gave two addresses to meetings of the DGI in 1950 and 1964, where he promoted the idea where the interests and aims of the church are parallel with that of the country.
59.
Johannes Leimena had written a piece for the Christian magazine Eltheto during his time in the Netherlands, in which he mentioned that "the duty of an Indonesian Christian is to show how Christianity has nothing to do with colonialism".
60.
Johannes Leimena married his wife, Wijarsih Prawiradilaga, an ethnic Javanese Muslim woman, during his time working as a doctor in Bandung.
61.
Johannes Leimena's family noted Leimena's tendency to dress in simple clothing, especially white-colored attire.
62.
Johannes Leimena died in Jakarta on 29 March 1977, at around 07:30am He had been suffering from an illness during a recent trip to Europe, when he was forced to return to Indonesia on a wheelchair.
63.
Sukarno and Mohammad Roem said that Johannes Leimena was an honest politician and a skilled diplomat.
64.
In 2010,33 years after his death, Johannes Leimena was awarded the title of National Hero of Indonesia by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
65.
The Johannes Leimena Institute, operated by the DGI, had been established in 2004, having been previously founded as the Johannes Leimena Academy in 1984 as a think tank.