Revolt in Indonesia
TAS, SAL
Revolt in Indonesia President Sukarno's rule and plans are being assailed by soldiers on the non-Javanese islands as well as by anti-Communist party leaders By Sal Tas Bangkok When several...
...In 1955, when I came to Indonesia to cover the elections, an air of optimism prevailed...
...thev are not very interested in maintaining an elaborate central Government apparatus...
...it was an awful experience for all concerned...
...These islands did not secede from the central Government...
...Sukarno's position is critical...
...This was Sukarno's first counterattack, and the rebels learned their lesson...
...But it soon became apparent that tire new group was too timid to break completely with its predecessor and sadly lacked energy and originality...
...Those who remained eked out a poor existence...
...Djuanda, but he gave him express instructions to form the "national council ' of his "conception...
...It was Makmur, by the way, who armed the Sobsi gangs that now ravage northern Sumatra...
...At that point, either Sukarno will yield or the Army leaders will have to demote him...
...True, similar uprisings in the past had petered out because of the Indonesian tendency to compose internal conflicts pleasantly...
...This federal legislature would be the decisive organ of government...
...The very act of rebellion continually strengthens the rebel camp...
...instead, they formed provincial governments led by the military leaders...
...had best ignore such threats...
...A number of soldiers and officers, tired of waiting, went into the mountains to form bandit gangs...
...Four parties received almost all the votes...
...Seas are deep and distances are great in Indonesia, and the central Government is too weak to contemplate invading the rebellious islands...
...Here is a graphic illustration of what went on: Celebes exports copra, which earns a great deal of hard currency...
...The rebels refused to accept this as a compromise, and continue to urge more autonomy, power for Hatta and constitutional reform...
...Sukarno thus has one card left to play: foreign aid when the economic crisis nears...
...Except for the Masj umi, the dominant parties in Parliament had also gotten the bulk of their votes in Java—where more than half of Indonesia's people live...
...Hatta, a Sumatran, is a thoroughly honest and businesslike personality who is adored by the people of the provinces...
...Their resentment grew into outright anger, however, when the central Government appeared to consist of a gang of racketeers out to plunder the richer islands...
...In fourth place were the Communists...
...Maludin Sim-bolon, who started the whole movement, was ousted...
...There is the possibility of a Communist coup on Java, but the odds are against it...
...It called for dismissing the Sastroamidjojo Cabinet and replacing Parliamentary government with a new "national council," conceived as a cross between a corporate-state council and a politburo...
...The fight between Sukarno and the forces led by Hatta and Simbolon is a fight for or against Communism...
...Second was the (Moslem) Masjumi party, which had succeeded in purging at least its leadership of corrupt elements...
...Third came the Nahdatul Ulama, composed of the more backward Moslems, mostly Javanese, who had broken away from the Masjumi during its stringent housecleaning...
...As an admirer of Nasser and Tito, he will doubtless repeat their tactics, threatening to accept Soviet aid if the U.S...
...The Communist trade union, Sobsi, enjoying the protection of Government officials, launched a large-scale sabotage campaign against the big agricultural combines in an attempt to drive these "imperialist enterprises" into bankruptcy...
...Thus it cannot prevent them from exporting their own products, getting back needed money and foreign currency...
...Thus the situation has developed into a straight fight between Sukarno, hacked bv the I'M and the Communists, and the panglimas (commanders) of the rebellious islands...
...Above the present Parliament, with its single chamber elected on the basis of population, they wish to place an upper house copied from the U.S...
...The panglimas are not alone, however...
...As conditions went from bad to catastrophic, President Sukarno came up with a "conception" which would give him dictatorial powers...
...And time will work with them, for they are gaining an inestimable economic advantage over Sukarno...
...with high officers introducing their own brands of corruption...
...Anti-Communism is a conspicuous element in the panglimas' revolt...
...The NU welded together the worst characteristics of Javanese-Hindu bigotry and ancient Islam...
...He tried to foment revolt against the provincial leaders, but with a single exception he failed...
...Though Ali was forced to resign, Sukarno refused to name Hatta Premier...
...The Army, therefore, has never been completely loyal to President Sukarno...
...The honest and only slightly Marxian Socialist party made a fair showing among literate voters but was crushed into insignificance by the illiterate masses...
...The election only served to underscore the political immaturity of this underdeveloped nation...
...The growers were not only robbed of two years' income, but they were also left without a cent for recouping their losses...
...The Communists would hold a strategic position under this plan...
...Through an excess of trust in his Javanese subordinates and a general lack of revolutionary experience, Simbolon became the victim of a coup organized by the Javanese head of the Medan garrison and by Makmur, fellow-traveling chieftain of the north Sumatran countryside...
...They have powerful allies even in Jakarta: Hatta, Masjumi chief Mohammed Natsir, the respected Socialist leader Sutan Sjahrir...
...Politically, the rebels demand a major constitutional reform...
...It is certainly not in democracy's interest to save Sukarno's corruptionist-Communist alliance...
...Company directors could merely stand by and watch the invaders exhaust the soil within a year and then quit it, wiping out years of labor and the enormous amount of capital that had gone into scientific management of the land...
...The rebels had demanded the resignation of Ali Sastroamidjojo, and have urged power for Mohammed Hatta, who had resigned as Vice President in protest against Sukarno's policies...
...In six months, according to the highest responsible official in the Indonesian economy, the economic situation will be catastrophic...
...He finally nominated a compromise figure...
...Colonel Simbolon, despite his loss of northern Sumatra, has become the intellectual leader of middle and southern Sumatra and is gathering an all-Indonesian movement against corruption, centralized rule and Communism...
...All the non-corrupt leaders and movements now stand with the panglimas...
...turns him down...
...It is difficult to see how Sukarno can vanquish these autonomous movements...
...Senate...
...The corrupt regime of Premier Ali Sastroamidjojo had been brought to heel by the military and a promising caretaker government had been formed by Burhanu-din Harahap...
...The Nationalist party (PNI)—nominally led by Sastroamidjojo but actually controlled by President Sukarno— emerged on top even though it had been responsible for most of what had gone wrong in Indonesia...
...Nobody, probably not even the Communists, would like to see it repeated—especially since most of the Army, even in Jakarta, would be against them...
...Provincial soldiers also suffered from the inefficiency and corruption in the central Government, which often failed to pay them regularly...
...But after a month on the scene, my second visit in two years, I believe the opposite is true: The republic is being reborn in a new and healthier form...
...But the recent events seem of a different nature...
...But they do want to remain a free country and do not want to become a "people's democracy" headed by Sukarno but ruled by Mao Tse-tung...
...They began by arresting the Communist party and Sobsi leaders in their territories...
...The Dutch organized the copra growers in a cooperative and set up a stabilization fund that enabled it to pay copra producers a certain minimum price when world prices fall...
...But they dealt Jakarta one tremendous blow: They decided that they themselves would receive and hold the revenues from their exports...
...At this point, the islands outside Java rebelled...
...The program of the island leaders is simple: autonomy, decentralization, a fair share of the income and foreign exchange earned by the islands, and a more decisive hand in planning the republic's imports...
...Hatta and his allies do not want to join the SEATO military pact...
...We have to fight increases in production," it was explained at the last Sobsi convention, "because this strengthens the enemy...
...The Army put down a terribly bloody Communist revolt some years ago...
...Against this background the present rebellions took place...
...But the U.S...
...But Java is also the poorest and least literate section of the country, and islands like Celebes and Sumatra bore Javanese supremacy with difficulty...
...The election over, Sukarno—a man somewhere between Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito and Iran's Mohammed Mossadegh—formed a united front with the Nahdatul Ulama...
...Large companies such as Goodyear Tire and Rubber were robbed of valuable property, forced to buy it back from illegal settlers, then robbed of the land once more...
...The island commanders, with their virtually independent governments and considerable funds, are allied with the intellectual leaders Hatta, Natsir and Sjahrir, and the struggle is, in a sense, the Hatta front against the Sukarno front...
...Revolt in Indonesia President Sukarno's rule and plans are being assailed by soldiers on the non-Javanese islands as well as by anti-Communist party leaders By Sal Tas Bangkok When several Indonesian islands rebelled against the central Government in Jakarta, it appeared to be the beginning of the end for the young republic...
...The exception was in northern Sumatra, where Lt.-Col...
...All the hopes of the decent people of Indonesia are focused on the struggle, even the hopes of decent Javanese...
...Thus they laid the groundwork for what can become a council of the autonomous islands, a council aimed to force Sukarno to yield and align Java with the rebellious islands...
...Today the once-rich Minahassa area of Celebes is a scene of desolation and neglect...
...Other provincial revolts were designed to square financial accounts by indiscriminate smuggling...
...The islanders want to build roads, bridges, ports and schools of their own...
...Though they do not want to secede from the Indonesian Republic, thev demand greater efficiency and scrupulous honesty in the central Government...
...Moreover, the panglimas now resolved that they would all come to the aid of any one of them who was attacked by the central Government...
...The surpluses from this stabilization fund— which grew continually—were used to finance new projects vital to the industry's life...
...The Communists became increasingly powerful...
...Jakarta had instituted a highly centralized rule...
...In this body, each of the large islands and groups of small islands would have the same number of seats...
...Their reasons were not difficult to fathom...
...It attracted all the religious-political village leaders who have a habit of governing their dessahs for their own profit...
...When Jakarta decided to take over the fund, it managed in two years to wipe it out completely...
...Since Java is a deficit territory and the central Government needs the income and foreign exchange of the outer islands, the rebels have seized a major political weapon...
...When the President tried to stage a similar coup in southern Sumatra, he failed dismally...
...Leading Government posts everywhere were filled with Javanese...
...Several of the rebellious generals, particularly those of Sumatra and Celebes, are unquestionably honest and politically serious, and they are backed by the population of their islands...
...A second Sastroamidjojo government was set up, as corrupt and incapable as the first one...
Vol. 40 • May 1957 • No. 20
