13 million guilders, about 1.074 trillion rupiah today. That figure did not come from the people's taxes but from the private purse of one king. His name was Sultan Syarif Kasim II, the twelfth ruler of the Sultanate of Siak Sri Inderapura in Riau. A few months after the proclamation of 17 August 1945 he sent a telegram to President Sukarno. Its message: the Sultanate of Siak stands behind the Republic of Indonesia, and he was handing over everything.
Not only money. The sultanate's diamond crown, the ceremonial sword, the jewels, and the whole royal territory from East Sumatra, Deli, and Serdang to the Riau coast, whose oil fields were worked with an American company. All of it, given to a state only months old.
Sultan Syarif Kasim II was the largest donor among all the kingdoms of the archipelago at the time. Having given it all to Indonesia, he vanished from his palace. He went to Aceh and joined the Rencong Regiment as a colonel, not as a king but as an ordinary soldier. He also contributed to the purchase of the Dakota RI-001 Seulawah, Indonesia's first transport aircraft.
He died on 23 April 1968, not in a palace but in Rumbai, Pekanbaru. As an ordinary citizen.
Today his name stands on the international airport and the state university in Pekanbaru.
