Supported by a majority of the participants, most of whom had been in PETA, Iskandar took over leadership of the session. He then convinced the participants that the TKR desperately needed a commander. When the TKR was officially established by the government on October 5 of that year, President Sukarno had appointed Soepriyadi as its commander. Soepriyadi was a platoon commander or shodancho in PETA. He had previously been appointed as Minister of People’s Defense. However, Soepriyadi went missing following the rebellion in Blitar the previous May, presumed by some combatants to have been killed by the Japanese. In his book, Genesis of Power, Salim Said, a former journalist and an academic on the military, said that Soepriyadi’s appointment was puzzling. Sukarno was probably accommodating the recommendation of Prime Minister Sjahrir and Amir Sjarifoeddin, to appoint Oerip as chief of general staff. Oerip’s duty was to put in order the confused state of the military organization. At that time, fighters from various groups acted independently. They set their own ranks and positions. “One person appointed himself as ageneral just because he was able to capture a Dutch jeep,” Salim told Tempo