$Unique_ID{bob00207} $Pretitle{} $Title{Indonesia Chapter 1D. The Decision to Grant Independence} $Subtitle{} $Author{Donald M. Seekins} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{dutch sukarno indonesia republic pki forces java republican military indonesian see pictures see figures } $Date{1982} $Log{} Title: Indonesia Book: Indonesia, A Country Study Author: Donald M. Seekins Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1982 Chapter 1D. The Decision to Grant Independence The increasingly desperate position of the Japanese, signaled by the fall of the government of Tojo Hideki in July 1944, led to an unexpected decision by his successor, Prime Minister Koiso Kuniaki, to grant independence to the archipelago. This was announced on September 7, 1944, and was a vindication of the position of Sukarno and other cooperating nationalists who had been increasingly criticized as lackeys of the Japanese. The announcement was especially gratifying because the territory to be given independence included not simply Java but the entire archipelago, on which Sukarno had repeatedly insisted. The Investigating Committee for the Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence, founded in March 1945, included delegates from the Outer Islands and took up the question of what kind of government the new nation would have. A republican constitution was proposed in July, providing for a centralized presidential system: there would be an elective Indonesian People's Congress which would select the president and vice president of the republic; during the president's five-year term, he could have broad powers and would be responsible only to the Congress, which would meet as infrequently as once every five years. Emphasis on mutual aid, collectivism, and consensus building reveal Sukarno's predominant influence. Hatta lobbied unsuccessfully for a Western-style parliamentary system and the inclusion of provisions recognizing individual rights. It was agreed that the territory of the new republic would include not only the former Dutch East Indies but also Portuguese Timor and British possessions on Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. Thus the basis for a postwar Great Indonesia policy, pursued by both Sukarno and his successor, Soeharto, was established. The committee also addressed the delicate question of religion. Muslim delegates protested the establishment of a secular state as Sukarno had wanted. A compromise, known as the Jakarta Charter, was worked out in which the state would be based upon belief in God, and Muslims were required to follow Islamic law. On June 1, 1945, Sukarno had given an address outlining the five principles (pancasila) of the Indonesian nation. Much as the concept of Marhaenism had been used by him to create a common denominator for the people in the 1930s, so pancasila would provide a common foundation for the country after achieving independence. The five principles were belief in one God, humanitarianism, national unity, democracy, and social justice. Broad and imprecise as the five principles were, they would continue to serve as the ideological basis of the Indonesian state long after their first advocate had passed from the scene. On August 15 Japan surrendered, and the leadership, pressured by radical youth groups, had to move quickly. On August 17 independence was formally declared, with Japanese compliance, and the new republic began its highly uncertain career. The National Revolution, 1945-50 The period of National Revolution witnessed the survival struggle of the new republic and stubborn Dutch efforts to suppress it through policies of military intervention and of divide and rule. The struggle was complicated by the emergence of conflicting forces within the republican camp. In late 1945 these included Sukarno and Hatta, the older nationalist leaders who had cooperated with the Japanese; antifascist leaders, of whom the most important was Sutan Sjahrir; and radical youth groups who came to support the revolutionary Tan Malaka. This period also saw the rise of the most important political actor in postindependence Indonesia: the armed forces. One of the terms of the August 15 surrender was that Japanese troops would maintain order in the occupied territories until Allied forces arrived to take over. The Allies, hampered by lack of knowledge of internal conditions and the last-minute transfer of authority for the archipelago from United States forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur to Lord Louis Mountbatten's South East Asia Command, had no consistent policy concerning Indonesia's future, apart from the vague hope that the Dutch and republican forces could be induced to negotiate peacefully. To Indonesians, however, the intention of the Allies was clear: the restoration of Dutch colonial rule. Thus in the weeks between the formal declaration of independence and the first Allied landings on Java on September 29, republican leaders engaged in a frantic consolidation of their position. Sukarno was named provisional president of the republic and Hatta vice president, an association of two very different men that had survived the occupation era and would continue until 1956. Because there was no opportunity for nationwide elections, the emergency Central Indonesia National Committee (KNIP), with 135 members, was set up; eight provincial republican governments were established on Java and the Outer Islands. Those on Java retained the personnel and apparatus of the Java Service Association. On August 27 Sukarno established a single national party, giving it the old name of the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI). One of the most significant steps in this early period was the creation of the armed forces. Local battle units (Laskar) were created in different parts of the archipelago from military units established by the Japanese. Arms were obtained from Japanese storehouses. A national defense force was officially created on October 5 in order to coordinate the different Laskar units. This became the nucleus of the republican armed forces. The first encounters between Allied troops, mostly British with some Dutch units, and republican forces were tense and hostile. Major violence erupted in Surabaya on October 28, 1945, when British troops were attacked by a much larger force of Laskar soldiers and activist youth armed with Japanese weapons. At first, republican leaders in Jakarta urged moderation; a tough British counterattack on the city following the death of the British commander Brigadier A.W.S. Mallaby, however, unified the Indonesian public behind the resistance. The Battle of Surabaya of November 10-24, costing thousands of lives, was the bloodiest single engagement of the National Revolution and obliged the Allies to come to terms with the republic's existence. Sukarno found his predominant position undermined from two sides: the allies distrusted him as a collaborator, making it impossible for him to represent the republic in negotiations, and leftists excoriated him as a lackey of the Allies for not advocating total resistance. In October 1945 he was obliged to step down in favor of the socialist Sutan Sjahrir. Sukarno remained president, but with few powers, and Sutan Sjahrir became prime minister, foreign minister, and minister of the interior. During the next year, he was involved in intense negotiations with the Dutch. The result was the Linggajati Agreement of November 1946, which provided for Dutch recognition of republican rule of Java and Sumatra and the creation of a Netherlands-Indonesian Union under the Dutch crown, consisting of the Netherlands, the republic, and the states of the eastern archipelago-the latter two forming the United States of Indonesia. This agreement was ratified by the KNIP, but only after it was packed with over 300 new members. Neither the Dutch nor the Indonesians, however, were happy with it. The Dutch busied themselves with the creation of new states both on Java and in the Outer Islands in order to counterbalance the republic. In December 1946 they established the state of East Indonesia on Bali. Fifteen federal states were set up outside the republic between 1947 and 1948, including Pasundan in western Java, East Java, South Sumatra, and West Kalimantan. The Dutch intended to create an Indonesian federal system and reduce, or eliminate, the influence of the republic. In March 1948 Hubertus J. van Mook, Dutch lieutenant governor, announced that he would be president of a federal Indonesia, which would be established by the end of the year. The Dutch initiated a "police action" against republican territory in July 1947. Their troops drove republican forces out of Sumatra and eastern and western Java, confining them to the region of central Java around Yogyakarta. This cut them off from Java's ports and sources of food and other supplies. United Nations (UN) pressure on the Dutch stopped them from pressing on and capturing Yogyakarta, and a Good Offices Committee, consisting of representatives from Belgium, Australia, and the United States, was set up to supervise a cease-fire. The Renville Agreement, signed in January 1948, represented the low point of republican fortunes. In view of the republic's weakened position, there was no alternative but to recognize the "van Mook line," which connected the points of the most extensive Dutch inroads into its territory, and to withdraw republican troops from eastern and western Java in accordance with its provisions. The military opposed the agreement, however, and many units continued fighting the Dutch. Dutch belligerence, moreover, had begun to alienate international public opinion, including that of the United States. Thus the police action was in fact a moral victory for the republic. Within republican territory, however, conditions were by no means stable. The left wing (a revitalized PKI under Musso, leader of the 1926 revolt, and Trotskyite forces under Tan Malaka) bridled at the Renville Agreement. Fighting between pro-PKI army units and the Siliwangi Division, an elite military corps established in 1946 by Sutan Sjahrir, broke out in Surakarta in September 1948. The PKI forces retreated east to Madium, and on September 19 Musso called on the people to overthrow the government, which at this time was headed by Hatta as prime minister. By the end of October, the Siliwangi Division had crushed the rebellion, and Musso was killed (see the Development of the Armed Forces, ch. 5). Thus the PKI suffered the second serious reverse in its history but was reactivated in the 1950s. Tan Malaka had organized the Party of the Masses (Murba) in October. Although he was antagonistic to the PKI and advocated resistance to the Dutch, he was judged a threat by certain republican army officers and was executed in February 1949. There was also conflict between Islamic armed groups and republican military units. Hard on the heels of the Madium insurrection came a second Dutch "police action." Yogyakarta was captured on December 19, and Sukarno, Hatta, and other republican leaders were arrested and exiled either to northern Sumatra or to Bangka. By this time, however, the republican cause had won international sympathy, and there was little patience for further Dutch belligerence. In January 1949 the UN Security Council demanded the reinstatement of the republican government, and the United States Congress discussed cutting off all Marshall Plan aid to the Netherlands if this were not done. The Dutch were also obliged to ensure a full transfer of sovereignty in the archipelago to Indonesian authorities by July 1, 1950. The Round Table Conference was initiated in The Hague on August 23 to discuss the means by which this could be accomplished. The conference ended on November 2, 1949, Hatta serving as the principal negotiator for the republic. It was agreed that the Netherlands would recognize the Republic of the United States of Indonesia (RIS) as an independent state, and all Dutch military forces would be withdrawn. Two particularly difficult points slowed down the negotiation process. One was the status of western New Guinea which, to the displeasure of the Indonesians, would remain under Dutch rule pending future negotiations. The other was the size of the debt supposedly owed the Netherlands by the republic. The figure of 4.3 billion guilders was finally agreed upon, although much of this had been expenses for attempting to suppress the revolution. Sovereignty was formally transferred on December 27, 1949. The federal arrangement of the republic created at the Round Table Conference was, in the words of political scientist George Kahin, "a weirdly unbalanced and distorted organism." There were 16 states: the Republic of Indonesia, with territory in west and central Java and in Sumatra and a total population of 31 million, and the 15 states created by the Dutch, one of which, Riau, had a population of only 100,000. Under the RIS constitution drafted and approved in October 1949, however, each state had equal representation in the upper house of the federal legislature, and in the lower house the Dutch-created states were guaranteed 100 of the 150 seats, more than they were entitled to on the basis of population. In this way the Dutch apparently hoped to circumscribe the republic's influence and ensure the maintenance of a friendly Indonesian regime that would guarantee the security of their economic interests. Yet a constitutional provision giving the cabinet the power to enact emergency laws with the approval of the lower house of the legislature opened the way to the dissolution of the federal system. By May 1950 all the federal states had been absorbed into a unitary Republic of Indonesia, and Jakarta was designated the capital. The consolidation process was sparked in January 1950 with the abortive coup in west Java of "Turk" Westerling, a "counterinsurgency expert" who had gained a reputation for mass murder in Sumatra and Sulawesi during the National Revolution period; this led to the extension of Jakarta's control over the state of Pasundan in February. The other states relinquished their federal status under strong pressure from Jakarta in the following month; East Indonesia (composed of Sulawesi, the Malukus, Bali, and the Lesser Sunda Islands) and South Sumatra were the last to do so, in May. In April the Republic of the South Malukus (RMS) was proclaimed at Ambon, which with its large Christian population, was one of the few regions in the archipelago where there was significant pro-Dutch sentiment. The separatist movement was suppressed by November, but the following year some 12,000 Ambonese soldiers and their families were brought to the Netherlands, where an RMS government in exile was established. Parliamentary and Guided Democracy, 1950-65 A provisional constitution, creating the Republic of Indonesia as a unitary rather than a federal state, was ratified by the RIS legislature on August 14, 1950. Although the constitution was to be redrafted and formally approved by the national legislature after general elections, the elections were not held until September 1955, and the provisional constitution remained in force until the 1945 Constitution was reinstated in 1959. Unlike the 1945 document, which reflected the "collectivist" orientation of Sukarno, it outlined a parliamentary political system: the cabinet was responsible to a unicameral legislature, the House of Representatives, elected directly by the people (the RIS Senate, or upper house, having been abolished). The president, moreover, had reduced powers. Although he could dissolve parliament, elections had to be held within 30 days, and all his decrees, including those associated with his being commander in chief of the armed forces, had to be approved by government ministers. Sukarno became president under the new system, and Hatta became vice president. Sukarno was hampered by these institutional restraints, but his prestige as a revolutionary leader gave him great influence. Part of the price paid by Jakarta to the federal states in the process of creating a unitary state was the retention of Dutch-appointed delegates from the RIS legislature in the new House of Representatives. These men were well aware that general elections would most likely turn them out of office, an important factor in the decision to postpone elections for five years. Their presence compromised the parliament, making it illegitimate in the eyes of many Indonesians, who wanted a clean break with the colonial past. Parties, Regions, and Social Group Formally united behind the slogan "Unity in Diversity," Indonesia in the first years of independence remained deeply divided along social, religious, and regional lines. This was reflected in the large number of political parties in the legislature. In March 1951 the largest of these, Masyumi, had only 49 seats out of a total of 232, while the second largest, the PNI, had 36. Eleven others, from Sutan Sjahrir's Indonesian Socialist Party (PSI) to Murba, which survived the death of its founder Tan Malaka, had from four to 17 seats each. Islamic groups were united in Masyumi, which had been founded during the Japanese occupation and functioned as a political party during the parliamentary period. Its strongest faction in the early 1950s was that of Mohammed Natsir, a leader of Modernist orientation who advocated "religious socialism," an amalgamation of pragmatism, parliamentarianism, and basic religious principles. Its liberal orientation, which was closely allied to that of Hatta, alienated the more orthodox Muslims, however, and this led to the splitting off of the old traditionalist association, the NU, in August 1952. This left the PNI the largest party in the House of Representatives. The PNI embodied Sukarno's concept of Marhaenism and his emphasis on consensus building; its support was predominantly Javanese, including members of the priyayi class and the abangan. It advocated the nationalization of large economic enterprises, a large percentage of which were still foreign owned, and an equal distribution of land to cultivators. Sutan Sjahrir's PSI combined a liberal concern with individual rights and parliamentary government with a "Fabian" socialism in which there would be a mixed public-private economy. The PKI had 13 representatives in the House of Representatives in March 1951, three years after Madiun. A new generation of communist leaders, including Aidit Dipa Nusantara, M.H. Lukman, and Njoto, began in 1952 to embark on a policy of building up a mass following, which would make the PKI the largest and best financed party in Indonesia. They controlled the Central All-Indonesia Workers Organization (SOBSI) of 1.5 million members and expanded the Indonesian Peasant Front (BTI), which found considerable support, particularly among the abangan villagers in the poorer areas of Java and on the plantation estates, which harbored a traditional suspicion of Islamic groups and their santri supporters. This was the period of "united front" work, in which cooperative ties were forged with other "anti-imperialist" parties, principally the PNI. For Sukarno the PKI was less of a threat than the Islamic parties, particularly Masyumi, because the new communist leadership voiced support for his pancasila and the goal of genuine national unity under a secular state. Six cabinets were formed in the 1950-57 period, reflecting the unstable balance of power between the different parties. The general election of September 29, 1955, the first in Indonesia's history that involved a universal adult franchise and in which almost 38 million people participated, left the PNI the largest party with 22.3 percent of the vote and 57 seats, closely followed by Masyumi with 20.9 percent and also 57 seats. The Muslim Scholars League (NU) was third, with 18.4 percent of the vote and 45 seats. The PKI, however, made the most striking gains, obtaining 16.4 percent of the vote and 39 seats, while the Indonesian Socialist Party obtained only 2 percent of the vote and five seats. The election, in Ricklef's words, solved no political problems but "merely helped to draw the battle lines more precisely." The split between Java and the Outer Islands was particularly apparent. The PNI, PKI, and NU received more than 85 percent of their support from Javanese voters, while Masyumi was the strongest party in the Outer Islands. No single group, or stable coalition of groups, was strong enough to provide national leadership. The result was chronic instability, which would erode the foundations of the parliamentary system. In the early 1950s the military, too, was seriously divided. At the end of the war for independence, the government debated plans to "rationalize" the republic's armed forces, demobilizing many of its 200,000 men in order to create a smaller and more modernized army. Rationalization was vehemently opposed, however, by certain factions within the military allied with politicians in parliament. On October 17, 1952, officers supporting rationalization and exasperated as civilian interference in the military's affairs drew up tanks in front of the presidential palace and demanded that Sukarno dissolve parliament. He refused, and the chief of staff, General Abdul Haris Nasution, was obliged to resign. By 1955, however, the different military factions had worked out a commitment to keep civilians out of the affairs of the armed forces, and Nasution was called back to his command (see The Development of the Armed Forces, ch. 5). In the Outer Islands, however, military officers were busy carving up political and economic satrapies. In Manado and northern Sumatra, military officers ran highly profitable smuggling operations, which Jakarta could not inhibit. Nasution, however, now working in tandem with Sukarno, issued an order in 1955 that these officers be transferred out of their localities. The result was a coup attempt initiated during October and November 1956 against Nasution by Colonel Zulkifli Lubis. Although this failed, and Lubis went underground, a number of military officers in Sumatra seized control of civilian governments in defiance of Jakarta. In March 1957 Lieutenant Colonel H.N.V. Sumual, commander of the East Indonesia military region based in Ujung Pandang, issued a Universal Struggle Charter (Permesta), calling for "completion of the Indonesian revolution." Meanwhile the Darul Islam movement (see Glossary) continued resistance against the central government in western Java, Aceh, and southern Sulawesi, seeking to establish an Islamic state. The Republic of Indonesia was falling apart, testimony in the eyes of Sukarno and Nasution that the system of parliamentary democracy and party politics was unworkable. The Transition to Guided Democracy Sukarno had long been impatient with party politics and suggested in a speech on October 28, 1956, that they be discarded; soon after, he announced a new conception-Guided Democracy. In fact, Guided Democracy with its emphasis on consensus, collectivism, and national unity, embodied nothing really new. These were ideas that Sukarno had been articulating throughout his political career. During the first years of independence, however, his freedom of action was limited by parliamentary institutions. In an unstable and ultimately unworkable coalition with the central military command under Nasution and the PKI, he was able to dismantle it, crush political party opposition, and create a more centralized and authoritarian political system. On Sukarno's proclamation of martial law on March 14, 1957, a relatively liberal phase of Indonesian politics was brought to an end. The year witnessed the move of the PKI to the center of the political stage. In provincial elections held in July 1957 in eastern and central Java, it gained 34 percent of the vote and, overall, was the second most powerful party after Masyumi. Tensions with the Dutch over the issue of western New Guinea led to the repudiation of the debt and the takeover of Dutch firms by communist union members: the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which controlled most the archipelago's shipping, was seized on December 3, and Royal Dutch Shell, two days later. Some 46,000 Dutch citizens were expelled from Indonesia, and Nasution ordered some army officers to take a role in managing these enterprises, marking the beginning of the armed forces active role in the national economy. Control of the oil industry was especially important, and a military officer, Colonel Ibnu Sutowo, was put in charge of a new national oil company, Permina. Tensions between Jakarta and the Outer Islands increased as Masyumi leaders were harassed by Sukarno and PKI supporters. Relations worsened after the resignation of Hatta in December 1956. Popular with the Outer Islands, Hatta could not be reconciled to Sukarno's growing antiparliamentarianism. On February 15, 1958, civilian political leaders, including Natsir, proclaimed a rebel government at Bukittinggi, the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia (PRRI), and two days later the Permesta insurgents in Sulawesi made common cause with them. Sukarno charged that the rebels received American aid, souring relations with the United States and causing Sukarno to develop closer relations with the Soviet Union and China. Decisive action by the military in both Sumatra and Sulawesi neutralized the revolt by mid-1958, though it was not completely suppressed until 1961. There were two important consequences: the forced retirement of many officers from the Outer Islands from the armed forces, making the officer corps more Javanese; and the firm implantation of central military authority in the outer archipelago. Because of the growth of army power, regional rebellion was no longer a viable option. In July 1958 Nasution suggested that the best way to secure Guided Democracy was through a revival of the 1945 Constitution, placing emphasis on broad presidential authority. On July 5, 1959, Sukarno issued a presidential decree reinstating it, dissolving the old House of Representatives. In March 1960 a new legislature, the House of People's Representatives-Mutual Assistance (DPR-GR), was set up. Of its 283 seats, 154 were given to various sociopolitical or functional groups, including the military. All representatives were appointed by the government. Masyumi and the PSI were formally banned because they refused to recognize Guided Democracy. The most striking aspect of Guided Democracy, particularly for foreign observers, was Sukarno's flamboyant leadership style. Lacking a power base, such as that possessed by the army or the PKI, he relied on his talents for showmanship and his prestige as a revolutionary leader to maintain his place at the political apex. He was notorious for his ability to hypnotize the masses with words and impressive public demonstrations. In seemingly endless speeches he spun out slogans and catchword concepts, which formed the nebolous basis of a national ideology. Two of the most important were Manipol-USDEK and Nasakom. The former emerged in 1960: Manipol was the political manifesto set forth in Sukarno's August 17, 1959, independence day speech; USDEK was an Indonesian acronym for a collection of ideas: the 1945 Constitution, Indonesian Socialism, Guided Democracy, Guided Economy, and Indonesian Identity. Nasakom was the synthesis of Nationalism, Religion, and Communism. The latter, like the pancasila of 1945, was described as the basis of national unity. Sukarno claimed to have resolved the contradiction between God and communism by pointing out that a commitment to Marxist "historical materialism" did not necessarily entail a commitment to atheistic "philosophical materialism." Sukarno, in his quest for national unity, had little appreciation for the technical or administrative aspects of governments. While expensive monuments and public buildings were built in the capital, the people continued to endure worsening poverty. An eight-year economic plan was published in late 1960, but with its eight volumes, 17 parts, and 1,945 clauses (representing August 17, 1945), it seems to have been as much an exercise in numerology as economics. Hyperinflation plagued the Guided Democracy years, reaching 100 percent per year in the 1961-64 period, despite attempts to restrict severely the money supply by devaluing the rupiah (for the value of the rupiah-see Glossary). Decree Number Ten of November 16, 1959, had important social as well as economic implications. Foreigners, specifically Chinese, were forbidden to trade in rural areas, and some 119,000 Chinese were subsequently repatriated to China. The principal instigator of this policy was the army, which sensed popular anti-Chinese feeling and apparently wished to sour relations between Indonesia and China and undermine the support of its rival, the PKI. By the 1960s the PKI had become more aggressive, particularly in the villages, Sukarno called on the party to implement land reform policies established in 1959 and 1960, and PKI cadres embarked on "unilateral action," dispossessing landlords and distributing the land to poor peasants in Java, North Sumatra, and Bali. This was not accomplished without violence, and traditional tensions between the abangan, many of whom were PKI supporters, and the santri were exacerbated. By 1962 the PKI, with 2 million members, was the largest communist party in any noncommunist country; its BTI had some 5.7 million members, and SOBSI had 3.3 million members. PKI leader Aidit actively pursued his own "foreign policy," aligning Indonesia with Beijing in the Sino-Soviet conflict after 1960 and gaining active Chinese support for PKI domestic policies, particularly "unilateral action." Many foreign observers felt by the early 1960s that a total communist takeover was only a matter of time.