Alexander Evert Kawilarang Alex Kawilarang ( 23 February 1920 – 6 June 2000 ) is an Indonesian national hero , a freedom fighter and founder of the military unit ' Kesko TT ' in 1952 , the founding name of the now famous Indonesian special forces unit Kopassus . However in 1959 he resigned his post as Military attaché to the United States to become a General in the separatist Permesta movement where he encountered Kopassus as his opponent . Colonel Kawilarang was born in Meester Cornelis ( now Jatinegara ) in the Dutch East Indies , and died in Jakarta , Indonesia . His father Major A . H . H . Kawilarang was a professional soldier in the Dutch colonial army ( KNIL ) . Both his parents are from the Minahasa . His first Indo ( Dutch - Indonesian ) wife is Nelly van Amden with whom he had a daughter and a son . 1920 – 1945 . Alex Kawilarang enjoyed comprehensive European schooling and before World War II he was a KNIL officer like his father , responsible for training cadets . After fighting the Japanese during the invasion of the Dutch East Indies , he slowly developed an appreciation for the rhetoric of the charismatic Indonesian nationalist Sukarno and became strongly convinced that the time for an independent Indonesian state had arrived . During the Japanese occupation Menadonese , Ambonese and Indo people were often randomly arrested during raids and severely tortured by the Kempeitai . Kawilarang survived several Japanese tortures ( 1943 and 1944 ) , but suffered lifelong disability in his right arm and numerous scars . Kawilarang recalls : In 1944 Kawilarang ' s father died during the ' Junyō Maru ' disaster . The Japanese cargo ship carrying 3 , 000 Menadonese , Ambonese , Indo - European , Dutch , British , Australian , American POW ' s and over 3 , 500 Javanese Romushas ( forced laborers ) was sunk by a British submarine . Kawilarang recalls being told about the tragedy : " I prayed in silence . I did not cry . The Japanese had given me enough practice in digesting pain and suffering in silence . " 1945 – 1958 . Like other Dutch trained military men such as General Nasution he became one of the leading founders of the Indonesian national army ( TNI ) after World War II . During the early years of the Indonesian independence struggle he opposed his former KNIL colleagues in combat . He was liaison officer to the British armed forces , military governor of Aceh and commander of various military units which he led into battle numerous times to protect the unitarian state of the young Republic of Indonesia . During the Andi Aziz uprising in Makassar ( 5 April 1950 ) Kawilarang was Commander of the ' TT VII / Wirabuanahe ' troops and commanded future president Suharto in the crackdown of the South Sulawesi insurgency . He played a key role in the ferocious battles against the well trained Mollucan ex - KNIL soldiers fighting for the separatist RMS movement in the Moluccas . Although better trained and renowned for their fighting skills the resistance of the Mollucan soldiers was eventually put down . This battle prompted Kawilarang to establish Indonesias own special forces . On April 15 , 1952 he founded the Kesatuan Komando Tentara Territorium III / Siliwangi ( Kesko TT ) , Now known as Kopassus . From 1956 to 1958 Kawilarang was granted the prestigious position of military attaché to the USA . He then developed the conviction that a federal Indonesian state with greater levels of independence from the central government in Jakarta was necessary . He resigned his position and became a leader of the so - called Permesta movement , where he took up arms against the TNI . After the bombing of Manado this separatist movement was eventually also put down . 1959 – 2000 . Kawilarang was imprisoned but somehow still enjoyed an amiable relationship with President Sukarno and a general respect as a war hero of the independence struggle and was pardoned and rehabilitated in 1961 . However , due to his role as Permesta commander , he never received the military distinctions : ' Bintang Gerilya ' and ' Bintang Jasa GOM ' . He resigned as TNI colonel and became part of the influential Indonesian ex - military society called purnawirawan . Putting his fighting years behind him , he made amends with all his former opponents and even visited The Netherlands several times for reunions with KNIL pensioners before his death in 2000 . In his biography Kawilarang reflects on the virtues of comradery between men at arms and nobility among officers . During post war reunions with his former Dutch classmates at the Bandung school for officers he concludes : April 1999 , he was appointed Honorary Member of the Kopassus Special Forces and received the red beret . Additional . His son Alexander Edwin Kawilarang , born in 1954 , is head of the purnawirawan organization FKPPI and , as such , part of the so - called Keluarga Besar Purnawirawan ( KBK ) , which translates to English as the ' Greater Family of Ex - military ' . Under the ' Orde Baru ' ( Post Sukarno New Order ) , he also was an official in the Suharto - owned company ' Bambang Tri ( PT Bimantara ) ' .