Indonesia and Sukarno

Indonesia and Sukarno. At the time of Indonesias proclamation of independence in 1945, President Sukarno defined an ideological base for the state the Panca sila meaning five virtues to be followed by all citizens and sworn by the social organizations. Main principles imposed were the adoption of Indonesian Bahasa language and the acceptance of one among five religions Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism and Buddhism forbidding the animist cults and other traditional practices.

Thus Panca sila was assumed as an instrument of governmental control and a mean to javanize the diverse cultures. But not without much internal opposition. Illuded with the possibility of the creation of an official Islamic state, when Suharto reached to power, Communist administrators and Islamic movements supported the Revolution, but what they didnt expect was the minor concessions offered, and once annihilated the Communist Party, an important preoccupation of the government has been to control, domesticate or destroy the most orthodox and active Muslim factions Prof. A. Barbedo de Magalhгes, Oporto University.

Since then they oftenly erupt in riots against the military aristocracy, basically syncretic in matter of religion. Besides reaffirming the Panca sila, in 1982 Suharto introduced the Law of the Associations which would fasten the strain on political, religious and social associations as it increased the powers of the administration to dismiss or impute directors to the aggregations, to destroy or agglutinate them in others more vast and controlled by the militaries.

Social and Political instability is patent in public insurrections in favor of democracy, which in September of 1984 culminated with the killing of 60 Muslims and imprisonment of important personalities such as of former governors that defied an inquiry to the incident. Neo-colonialism in Indonesia Many authors mention that Sukarno had a dream the formation of a great Indonesia comprising the totality of the ancient Dutch East Indies, inclusive the non-Indonesian population.

For this reason had he renounced to the federate structures initially conceived for the creation of the United States of Indonesia thus betraying the agreement with the Dutch for the transfer of sovereignty in favor of an unitary constitution, although still provisional. The new direction was taken in August of 1950, three months after an unilateral declaration of independence by the South Moluccas.

The first elections, free and democratic in fact, would be held in 1955, but disputed by more or less 170 parties Their differences naturally brought difficulties to the functioning of the parliamentary democracy. On one hand, between the exponents of pre-Islamic syncretism of the Nahdatul Ulama NU and the orthodox Moslems of the Masyumi, whichs vital strength came from the outside West Sumatra and North Celebes besides Occidental Java Sundanese ethnic origin.

On the other hand, between the Nationalist Party PNI and the Communist Party PKI, based in Java, and these with the Moslems. The inefficiency of the administration, which passed through seven governments since 1949 to 57, and the rivalry engaged by the parties alone, in contrast with the heroism of the Revolution of August 17th, after all, the concentration of decision and power in Java as restrictor of the economic, social and cultural development aroused at the end tension in the exterior islands.

In February of 1957, Sukarno criticized the Western liberal democracy because unadapted to Indonesian particularity. He interfered more in the constitutional processes and appeals to his concept of Guided Democracy, founded on indigenous procedures the important questions should be decided through prolonged deliberations musyawarah in order to obtain consensus mukafat. This was the practice in the village and the same model ought to be adopted for the nation.

Sukarno proposed a government formed by the four main parties and a national council represented by parties and functional groups in which, under the guidance of the president himself, consensus would express itself. In spite of the charisma gained by Sukarno as father of the country and mentor of the principle unity in diversity, he was unable to avoid the proclamations of the martial law in March of 1957 as a response to the regional dissidences which reached their peak. At the end of the year a further set-back was brought by the defeat of a motion for the renewal of negotiations concerning the destiny of West New Guinea.

In a series of direct actions across the country, Dutch property was seized with the Indonesian government taking over. In the beginning of 1958 West Sumatra claimed for the constitution of a new central government under the leadership of Hatta, a moderate and historic figure of the Revolution, from the start vice-president of Sukarno up until two years ago when he resigned because disagreeing with his policy.

Ignored the appeal of the Sumatrese a new revolutionary government was formed, supported by leaders of the Masyumi Party, including the ex-Prime Ministers Natsir September 1950 March 51 and Harahap August 55 March 56. The military commandant of the North Celebes joined the initiative, yet most striking was CIAs assistance with armament including aircrafts.

Suppression of the revolt was nevertheless soon accomplished, and with the regions undermined, the parties discredited and the prestige of the victorious army elevated, Sukarno resumed the idea of Guided Democracy in partnership with the military. Meanwhile, the army chief of staff A. Nasution had committed himself to the thought that the return to the revolutionary constitution of 1945 presidential-type would offer the best means for implementing the principles of deliberation, consensus and functional representation.

Sukarno urged this course in a speech to the Constituent Assembly, elected in 1955 to draft a permanent constitution. Despite failing the approval of the necessary two-thirds for majority, he introduced it through a presidential decree of dubious legality. Indonesias domestic as well as foreign diplomacy is difficult to conceive in terms other than in the context of neo-colonialism. It certainly is incompatible with the spirit of the Afro-Asian Conference of Bandung held in Java, in 1955. Among twenty nine countries consensus was reached in order to condemn colonialism in all its forms of manifestation.

As it seems, imperialism isnt condemnable so long the territories comes from an ancient colony. Like the annexation of the Moluccan islands 1950-52 and in 1969 the also former Dutch West New Guinea, long pretended. The last was integrated after an Act of Free Choice sanctioned by UN. In truth, many journalists and observers would consider the process orchestrated but it had already been sealed.

Today it is remembered as perhaps the most unfortunate episode UNs history. In both regions, as well as in other islands of the Pacific, population claim Melanesian ancestrality, not identifying themselves with Indonesia, predominantly Malaysian. The country has always been tormented by regional rebellions. From the perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalist movements, even in Java where in the district of Acheh, a Moslem state practically subsisted between 1948 and 1962, Sumatra and Celebes as weve seen but also Kalimantan, to those involving Christian groups as in the South Moluccas.

Still in 1984 the Movement for the Liberation of Papua erupted in attacks against the main cities of the territory, hoisting their flag in the capital opposite to the Regional Parliament. The power of Sukarno depended along the years of the preservation of the equilibrium between the army and the Communist Party PKI. The period assisted to the crescent popularity of the communists due to the consistent protection moved by the President in face of the incursions of the militaries. he opposed to the prohibitions of congresses and editorials, banished political organizations patronized by the military to blacken the PKI, placing some of their militants in political posts. Many analysts think that Sukarno was preparing the path for the rise of the communists to the power.

Others say that his action intended to assure a the permanently threatened equilibrium The coup of Suharto and the military.

On the night of September 30, 1965, a group of subaltern officials based at Halim Air Base attempted a coup dйtat to anticipate what they alleged to be the take-over of a pro- Western council of generals. But by following morning the Strategic Reserve of the Army Forces KOSTRAD, commanded by Suharto, had concluded a successful counter-attack. For specialist Benedict Anderson, of Cornell University, it seems odd that Suharto, who would gather the reins of power into his hands, hadnt been aimed at by the 30th of September Movement which assassinated six army generals while a seventh, A. Nasution, escaped.

With propaganda that implicated important nationalist and communist politicians in the first stroke and the estimulation of the widely spread resentment of the pro-Chinese PKI was object of among the Indonesian Islamic groups, the militaries gradually assumed power. Suharto begun to maintain the already wasted and sickened Sukarno in a fictional presidency, as a symbol of national unity until by decree emptying his legal authority, in March 11, 1966. The next semester would be fatal for more than half a million Chinese and Indonesian besides an excess of 200 thousand political prisoners which altogether formed one of the greatest Communist parties of the World. The wave of hysteria was such that they were pointed out and oftenly even executed by their proper neighbor civilians in the villages.