Sukarno,
born Kusno Sosrodihardjo (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was the first
President of Indonesia.
Sukarno
was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands
and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967. He was replaced by one
of his generals, Suharto
(see Transition to the New Order), and remained
under house arrest until his death.
Name
The
spelling "Sukarno" is frequently used in English as it is based on
the newer official spelling in Indonesia since 1947 but the older spelling Soekarno,
based on Dutch orthography, is still frequently used, mainly because he signed
his name in the old spelling. Official Indonesian presidential decrees from the
period 1947–1968, however, printed his name using the 1947 spelling. The Soekarno–Hatta International Airport
which serves near Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia for example, still uses the
older spelling.
Indonesians
also remember him as Bung
Karno or Pak Karno. Like
many Javanese people, he had only one name;
in religious contexts, he was occasionally referred to as "Achmed
Sukarno". The name Soekarno means "Good Karna" in Javanese.
The
son of a Javanese primary school teacher, an aristocrat named Raden Soekemi Sosrodihardjo
and his Balinese
wife from the Brahman caste
named Ida Ayu Nyoman Rai from Buleleng regency, Sukarno was born at Jl. Pandean IV / 40 Surabaya,
East Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Following Javanese
custom, he was renamed after surviving a childhood illness. After graduating
from a native primary school in 1912, he was sent to Europeesche Lagere School (Dutch-medium junior secondary school)
in Mojokerto.
When his father sent him to Surabaya in 1916 to attend a Hogere Burger School (Dutch-medium secondary school), he met Tjokroaminoto,
a nationalist and founder of Sarekat Islam,
the owner of the boarding house where he lived. In 1920, Sukarno married Tjokroaminoto's
daughter Siti Oetari. In 1921 he began to study at the Technische Hogeschool
(Technical Institute) in Bandung. He studied civil engineering and focused on
architecture. In Bandung,
Sukarno became romantically involved with Inggit Garnasih, the wife of Sanoesi,
the boarding house owner where he lived as student. Inggit was 13 years older
than Sukarno. On March 1923, Sukarno divorced Siti Oetari to marry Inggit (who
also divorced her husband Sanoesi). And later on Soekarno also divorced Inggit
and married Fatmawati.
Sukarno
graduated with a degree in engineering on 25 May 1926. In July 1926, with his
university friend Anwari, he established the architectural firm Soekarno &
Anwari in Bandung,
which provided planning and contractor services. Among Sukarno's architectural
works are the renovated building of the Preanger Hotel (1929), where he acted
as assistant to famous Dutch architect Charles Prosper
Wolff Schoemaker. Sukarno also designed many private houses on
today's Jalan Gatot Subroto, Jalan Palasari, and Jalan Dewi Sartika in Bandung.
Later on, as president, Sukarno remained engaged in architecture, designing the
Proclamation Monument and adjacent Gedung
Pola in Jakarta,
the Youth Monument (Tugu Muda)
in Semarang,
the Alun-alun Monument in Malang, the Heroes' Monument in Surabaya,
and also the new city of Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan.
Atypically,
even among the colony's small educated elite, Sukarno was fluent in several
languages. In addition to the Javanese
language of his childhood, he was a master of Sundanese, Balinese
and of Indonesian, and especially strong in Dutch. He
was also quite comfortable in German,
English,
French,
Arabic, and Japanese, all of which were taught at his HBS.
He was helped by his photographic memory and precocious mind.In his
studies, Sukarno was "intensely modern," both in architecture and in
politics. He despised both the traditional Javanese feudalism, which he
considered as "backward" and was to blame for the fall of the country
under Dutch colonialism, and the imperialism practiced by Western countries,
which he termed as exploitation of humans by other humans and is responsible
for the deep poverty and low levels of education of Indonesian people under the
Dutch. To promote nationalistic pride amongst Indonesian people, Sukarno
interpreted these ideas in his dress, in his urban planning for the capital
(eventually Jakarta),
and in his socialist politics, though he did not extend his taste for modern
art to pop music; he had Koes Plus imprisoned for their allegedly decadent lyrics
despite his reputation for womanising. For Sukarno, modernity was blind to
race, neat and Western in style, and anti-imperialist.
Independence struggle
See also: Dutch Ethical
Policy and Indonesian National Revival
Sukarno
was first exposed to nationalist ideas while living under Tjokroaminoto.
Later, while a student in Bandung, he immersed himself in Western, communist, and
Islamic political philosophy, eventually developing his own political ideology
of Indonesian-style socialist self-sufficiency. He began styling his ideas as Marhaenism, named after Marhaen, an
Indonesian peasant he met in southern Bandung area, who owned his little plot
of land and worked on it himself, producing sufficient income to support his
family. In university, Sukarno began organising study club for Indonesian
students, the Algemeene Studieclub,
in opposition to the established student clubs dominated by Dutch students.
On
4 July 1927, Sukarno with his friends from the Algemeene Studieclub established a pro-independence party, Partai Nasional Indonesia (PNI),
upon which Sukarno was elected as the first leader. The party advocated
independence for Indonesia, and opposed imperialism and capitalism because it
opined that both systems worsened the life of Indonesian people. The party also
advocated secularism and unity amongst the many different ethnicities in the Dutch East
Indies, to establish a united Indonesia. Sukarno also hoped that
Japan would commence a war against the western powers and that Java could then
gain its independence with Japan's aid. Coming soon after the disintegration of
Sarekat Islam
in early 1920s and the crushing of Partai Komunis Indonesia after their
failed rebellion of 1926, PNI began to attract a large number of followers,
particularly among the new university-educated youths eager for larger freedoms
and opportunities denied to them in the racist and constrictive political
system of Dutch colonialism.
PNI
activities came under the attention of the colonial government, and Sukarno's
speeches and meetings was often infiltrated and disrupted by agents of the
colonial secret police (Politieke
Inlichtingen Dienst/PID). Eventually, Sukarno and other key PNI leaders
were arrested on 29 December 1929 by Dutch colonial authorities in a series of
raids throughout Java. Sukarno himself was arrested while on a visit to Yogyakarta.
On his trial at the Bandung Landraad
courthouse from August to December 1930, Sukarno made a series of long
political speech attacking the injustices of colonialism and imperialism,
titled Indonesia Menggoegat
(Indonesia Accuses).
On
December 1930, Sukarno was sentenced to four years in prison, which was served
in Sukamiskin prison in Bandung. His impressive speech, however, received wide
coverage by the press, and due to strong pressure from the liberal elements
both in Netherlands and Dutch East Indies, Sukarno was released early
on 31 December 1931. By this time, he had become a popular hero widely known
throughout Indonesia.
However,
during his imprisonment, PNI had been splintered by oppression of colonial
authorities and internal dissension. The original PNI was disbanded by the
Dutch, and its former members formed two different parties; the Partai Indonesia (Partindo) under
Sukarno's associate Sartono who were promoting mass agitation, and the Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia (PNI
Baroe) under Mohammad Hatta and Soetan Sjahrir,
two nationalists who recently returned from studies in Netherlands who were
promoting long-term strategy of dispensing modern education to the uneducated
Indonesian populace to develop an intellectual elite able to offer effective
resistance to Dutch rule. After attempting to reconcile the two parties to
establish one united nationalist front, Sukarno chose to become the head of
Partindo on 28 July 1932. Partindo has maintained its alignment with Sukarno's
own strategy of immediate mass agitation, and Sukarno disagreed with Hatta's
long-term cadre-based struggle. Hatta himself believed Indonesian independence
will not occur within his lifetime, while Sukarno believed Hatta's strategy to be
ignorant of the fact that politics can only make real changes through formation
and utilisation of force (machtsvorming
en machtsaanwending).
During
this period, to support himself and the party financially, Sukarno re-entered
architecture, opening the bureau Soekarno & Rooseno. He also wrote articles
for the party's newspaper, Fikiran
Ra'jat. While being based in Bandung, Sukarno travelled extensively
throughout Java to establish contacts with other nationalists. His activities
attracted further attention by the Dutch PID. On mid-1933, Sukarno published a
series of writings titled Mentjapai
Indonesia Merdeka ("To Attain Independent Indonesia"). For
this writing, he was arrested by Dutch police while visiting fellow nationalist
Mohammad Hoesni Thamrin in Jakarta on 1
August 1933.
This
time, to prevent providing Sukarno with platform to make political speeches,
the hardline governor-general jonkheer Bonifacius Cornelis de Jonge utilised his
emergency powers to send Sukarno to internal exile without trial. In 1934,
Sukarno was shipped, along with his family (including Inggit Garnasih), to the
remote town of Ende, on the island of Flores. During his
time in Flores, he utilised his limited freedom of movement to establish a
children's theatre, among its members was future politician Frans Seda.
Due to an outbreak of malaria in Flores, the Dutch authorities decided to move
Sukarno and his family to Bencoolen (now Bengkulu) on western coast of Sumatera,
on February 1938.
In
Bengkulu,
Sukarno became acquainted with Hassan Din, the local head of Muhammadiyah
organisation, and he was allowed to teach Islamic religion at a local school
owned by the Muhammadiyah. One of his students was 15-year old Fatmawati,
daughter of Hassan Din. He became romantically involved with Fatmawati, which
he justified by stating the inability of Inggit Garnasih to produce children
during their almost 20-year marriage. Sukarno was still in Bengkulu
exile when the Japanese invaded the archipelago in 1942.
World War II and the Japanese occupation
See also: Japanese occupation of Indonesia
In
early 1929, during the Indonesian National Revival, Sukarno and
fellow Indonesian nationalist leader Mohammad Hatta
(later Vice President), first
foresaw a Pacific War and the opportunity that a Japanese advance on Indonesia
might present for the Indonesian independence cause.In
February 1942 Imperial Japan invaded the Dutch East
Indies quickly defeating Dutch forces who marched, bussed and
trucked Sukarno and his entourage three hundred kilometres from Bengkulu
to Padang, Sumatra.
They intended keeping him prisoner and shipping him to Australia, but abruptly
abandoned him to save themselves upon the impending approach of Japanese forces
on Padang.[9]
The
Japanese had their own files on Sukarno and the Japanese commander in Sumatera
approached him with respect, wanting to use him to organise and pacify the
Indonesians. Sukarno on the other hand wanted to use the Japanese to free
Indonesia: "The Lord be praised, God showed me the way; in that valley of
the Ngarai I said: Yes, Independent Indonesia can only be achieved with Dai
Nippon...For the first time in all my life, I saw myself in the mirror of
Asia." On July 1942, Sukarno was sent back to Jakarta,
where he re-united with other nationalist leaders recently released by the
Japanese, including Mohammad Hatta. There, he met the Japanese
commander General Hitoshi Imamura, who asked Sukarno and other
nationalists to galvanise support from Indonesian populace to aid Japanese war
effort.
Sukarno
was willing to support the Japanese, in exchange for a platform for himself to
spread nationalist ideas to the mass population. The Japanese, on the other
hand, needed Indonesia's manpower and natural resources to help its war effort.
The Japanese recruited millions of people, particularly from Java, to be forced labor
called "romusha"
in Japanese. They were forced to build railways,
airfields, and other facilities for the Japanese within Indonesia and as far
away as Burma. Additionally, the Japanese requestioned rice and other food
produced by Indonesian peasants to supply their own troops, while forcing the
peasantry to cultivate castor oil plants to be used as aviation fuel and lubricants.
To
gain cooperation from Indonesian population and to prevent resistance to these
draconian measures, the Japanese put Sukarno as head of Tiga-A mass organisation movement. On March 1943, the Japanese
formed a new organisation called Poesat
Tenaga Rakjat (POETERA/ Concentration of People's Power) under Sukarno,
Hatta, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, and KH Mas Mansjoer. The
aim of these organisations were to galvanise popular support for recruitment of
romusha forced labor,
requisitioning of food products, and to promote pro-Japanese and anti-Western sentiments amongst Indonesians.
Sukarno coined the term, Amerika kita
setrika, Inggris kita linggis ("Let's iron America, and bludgeon
the British") to promote anti-Allied sentiments. In later years, Sukarno
was lastingly ashamed of his role with the romusha. Additionally, food requisitioning by the Japanese
caused widespread famine in Java which killed more than one million people in
1944-1945. In his view, these were necessary sacrifices to be made to allow for
future independence of Indonesia. He also was involved with the formation of Pembela Tanah Air (PETA)
and Heiho (Indonesian volunteer army troops) via speeches broadcast on the
Japanese radio and loud speaker networks across Java and Sumatera. By mid-1945
these units numbered around two million, and were preparing to defeat any
Allied forces sent to re-take Java.
In
the meantime, Sukarno eventually divorced Inggit, who refused to accept her
husband's wish for polygamy. She was provided with a house in Bandung
and a pension for the rest of her life. In 1943, he married Fatmawati.
They lived in a house in Jl. Pegangsaan Timur No. 56, confiscated from its
previous Dutch owners and presented to Sukarno by the Japanese. This house
would later be the venue of the Proclamation of Indonesian
Independence in 1945.
On
10 November 1943 Sukarno and Hatta was sent for seventeen-day tour of Japan,
where they were decorated by the Emperor Hirohito
and was wined and dined in the house of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo
in Tokyo.
On 7 September 1944, with the war going badly for the Japanese, Prime Minister
Kuniaki Koiso promised independence for Indonesia, although no date
was set. This announcement was seen, according to the U.S. official history, as immense
vindication for Sukarno's apparent collaboration with the Japanese. The U.S. at the time considered Sukarno one of the "foremost
collaborationist leaders."
On
29 April 1945, with the fall of Philippines to American hands, the Japanese
allowed for the establishment of Badan
Penjelidik Oesaha-oesaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (BPUPKI), a
quasi-legislature consisting of 67 representatives from most ethnic-groups in
Indonesia. Sukarno was appointed as head of BPUPKI and was tasked to lead
discussion to prepare the basis of a future Indonesian state. To provide a
common and acceptable platform to unite the various squabbling factions in
BPUPKI, Sukarno formulated his ideological thinking developed for the past
twenty years into five principles. On 1 June 1945, he introduced these five
principles, known as pancasila, during the joint session of
BPUPKI held in the former Volksraad Building (now called Gedung Pancasila).
Pancasila as presented by Sukarno
during the BPUPKI speech, consisted of five common principles which Sukarno saw
as commonly shared by all Indonesians:
1.
Nationalism,
whereby a united Indonesian state would stretch from Sabang
to Merauke,
encompassing all former Dutch East Indies
2.
Internationalism,
meaning Indonesia is to appreciate human rights and contribute to world peace,
and should not fall into chauvinistic fascism such as displayed by Nazis with their belief in
the racial superiority of Aryans
3. Democracy, which Sukarno believed has always been in the blood
of Indonesians through the practice of consensus-seeking (musyawarah untuk mufakat), an
Indonesian-style democracy different from Western-style liberalism
4.
Social
justice, a form of populist socialism in economics with Marxist-style
opposition to free capitalism. Social justice also intended to provide equal
share of the economy to all Indonesians, as opposed to the complete economic
domination by the Dutch and Chinese during the colonial period
5.
Belief in
God, whereby all religions are treated equally and have religious freedom.
Sukarno saw Indonesians as spiritual and religious people, but in essence
tolerant towards differing religious beliefs
On 22
June, the Islamic and nationalist elements of BPUPKI created a small committee
of nine, which formulated Sukarno's ideas into the five-point Pancasila, in a document known as the Jakarta
Charter:
1.
Belief in
one God, with obligation for Muslims to observe Islamic law
2.
Civilised
and just humanity
3. Unity of Indonesia
4.
Democracy
through representative consensus-building
5.
Social
justice for all Indonesians
Due
to pressure from the Islamic element, the first principle mentioned the
obligation for Muslims to practice Islamic law (sharia). However,
the final Sila as contained in the 1945 Constitution which was put into effect
on 18 August 1945, excluded the reference to Islamic law for sake of national
unity. The elimination of sharia was done by Mohammad Hatta
based upon request by Christian representative Alexander Andries Maramis, and
after consultation with moderate Islamic representatives Teuku Mohammad Hassan,
Kasman Singodimedjo, and Ki Bagoes Hadikoesoemo.On
7 August 1945, the Japanese allowed the formation a smaller Panitia Penjelidik Kemerdekaan Indonesia
(PPKI), a 21-person committee tasked with creating specific governmental
structure of future Indonesian state. On 9 August, the top leaders of PPKI
(Sukarno, Hatta, and KRH Radjiman Wediodiningrat), were summoned by
Commander-in-Chief of Japan's Southern Expeditionary Forces, Field Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi,
to Da Lat,
100 km from Saigon.
Field Marshal Terauchi gave Sukarno the freedom to proceed with preparation for
Indonesian independence, free of Japanese interference. After much wining and
dining, Sukarno's entourage was flown back to Jakarta on 14 August. Unbeknownst
to the guests, atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki,
and the Japanese were preparing for surrender.
The
following day, on 15 August, the Japanese declared their acceptance of Potsdam Declaration terms, and unconditionally
surrendered to the Allies. On the afternoon of that day, Sukarno received this
information from leaders of youth groups and members of PETA Chairul Saleh,
Soekarni, and Wikana, who had been listening to Western radio broadcasts. They
urged Sukarno to declare Indonesian independence immediately, while the
Japanese were in confusion and before the arrival of Allied forces. Faced with
this quick turn of events, Sukarno procrastinated. He feared bloodbath due to
hostile response from the Japanese to such a move, and was concerned with
prospects of future Allied retribution.
At
early morning on 16 August, the three youth leaders, impatient with Sukarno's indecision,
kidnapped him from his house and brought him to a small house in
Rengasdengklok, Karawang,
owned by a Chinese family and occupied by PETA. There they gained Sukarno's
commitment to declare independence within the next day. That night, the youths
drove Sukarno back to the house of Admiral Tadashi Maeda, the Japanese naval
liaison officer in Menteng area of Jakarta, who sympathised with Indonesian
independence. There, he and his assistant Sajoeti Melik prepared text of Proclamation of Indonesian
Independence.
War leader
Sukarno, accompanied by Mohammad Hatta (right), declaring the
independence of Indonesia.
President Sukarno of Indonesia speaks before the United Nations
General assembly, Sept. 30th 1960. His military aide, Lt. Col. Sabur (Left),
retrieved each page as the President finished reading it.
See also: Indonesian National Revolution and Liberal democracy period in Indonesia
On
early morning of 17 August 1945, Sukarno returned to his house at Jl Pegangsaan
Timur No. 56, where he was joined by Mohammad Hatta.
Throughout the morning, impromptu leaflets printed by PETA and youth elements
informed the population of the impending proclamation. Finally, on 10 am,
Sukarno and Hatta stepped to the front porch, where Sukarno declared the independence of the Republic of
Indonesia in front of a crowd of 500 people.
On
the following day, 18 August, PPKI declared the basic governmental structure of
the new Republic of Indonesia:
1.
Appointing
Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta as President and Vice-President
and their cabinet.
2.
Putting
into effect the 1945 Indonesian constitution, which by this time excluded
any reference to Islamic law.
3. Setting a Central Indonesian National Committee
(Komite Nasional Indonesia Poesat/KNIP)
to assist the president prior to election of a parliament.
Sukarno's
vision for the 1945 Indonesian constitution comprised the Pancasila (five principles). Sukarno's political philosophy was mainly a
fuse of elements of Marxism, nationalism and Islam. This is reflected in a proposition of his version of
Pancasila he proposed to the BPUPKI (Inspectorate of Indonesian Independence
Preparation Efforts), in which he originally espoused them in a speech on 1
June 1945:
Sukarno
argued that all of the principles of the nation could be summarized in the
phrase gotong royong. The Indonesian parliament, founded on the basis of this original (and
subsequently revised) constitution, proved all but ungovernable. This was due
to irreconcilable differences between various social, political, religious and
ethnic factions.
In
the days following the Proclamation, the news of Indonesian independence was
spread by radio, newspaper, leaflets, and word of mouth despite attempts by the
Japanese soldiers to suppress the news. On 19 September, Sukarno addressed a
crowd of one million people at the Ikada Field of Jakarta (now part of Merdeka Square) to commemorate one month
of independence, indicating the strong level of popular support for the new
republic, at least on Java and Sumatera. In these two islands, the Sukarno
government quickly established governmental control while the remaining
Japanese mostly retreated to their barracks awaiting arrival of Allied forces.
This period was marked by constant attacks by armed groups on Europeans,
Chinese, Christians, native aristocracy and anyone who were perceived to oppose
Indonesian independence. The most serious cases were the Social Revolutions in Aceh and North Sumatera,
where large numbers of Acehnese and Malay aristocrats were killed by Islamic
groups (in Aceh) and communist-led mobs (in North Sumatera), and the
"Three Regions Affair" in northwestern coast of Central Java
where large numbers of Europeans, Chinese, and native aristocrats were
butchered by mobs. These bloody incidences continued until late 1945 to early
1946, and begin to peter-out as Republican authority begin to exert and
consolidate its control.
Sukarno's
government initially postponed the formation of a national army, for fear of
antagonizing the Allied occupation forces and their doubt over whether they
would have been able to form an adequate military apparatus to maintain control
of seized territory. The members of various militia
groups formed during Japanese occupation such as the disbanded PETA and Heiho,
at that time were encouraged to join the BKR—Badan Keamanan Rakjat (The People's Security
Organization)—itself a subordinate of the "War Victims Assistance
Organization". It was only in October 1945 that the BKR was reformed into
the TKR—Tentara Keamanan Rakjat
(The People's Security Army) in response to the increasing Allied and Dutch
presence in Indonesia. The TKR armed themselves mostly by attacking Japanese
troops and confiscating their weapons.
Due
to sudden transfer of Java and Sumatera from General Douglas
MacArthur's American-dominated Southwest Pacific Area to Lord Louis Mountbatten's British-dominated
Southeast Asian Command, the first Allied soldiers (1st Battalion of Seaforth Highlanders)
only arrived in Jakarta on late September 1945. British forces began to occupy
major Indonesian cities on October 1945. The commander of British 23rd
Division, Lieutenant General Sir Philip
Christison, set-up command in the former governor-general's palace
in Jakarta. Christison stated its intentions as the liberation of all Allied
prisoners-of-war, and to allow the return of Indonesia to its pre-war status,
as colony of Netherlands. The Republican government were willing to cooperate
with regards to the release and repatriation of Allied civilian and military
POWs, setting-up the Committee for the Repatriation of Japanese and Allied
Prisoners of Wars and Internees (Panitia
Oeroesan Pengangkoetan Djepang dan APWI/POPDA) for this purpose. POPDA,
in cooperation with the British, repatriated more than 70,000 Japanese and
Allied POWs and internees by the end of 1946. To resist Dutch attempts to
regain control of the country, Sukarno's strategy was to seek international
recognition and support for the new Indonesian Republic, in view of the
relative military weakness of the Republic compared with British and Dutch
military power.
Sukarno
was aware that his history as Japanese collaborator might complicate
relationship with the Western countries. Hence, to help acquire international
recognition as well as to accommodate domestic demands for establishment of
political parties, Sukarno allowed the formation of parliamentary system of
government, whereby a prime minister controlled day-to-day
affairs of the government, while Sukarno as president remained as figurehead. The
prime minister and his cabinet will be responsible to the Central Indonesian National Committee
instead of the president. On 14 November 1945, Sukarno appointed Sutan Sjahrir
as first prime minister, he was a European-educated politician who was never
involved with the Japanese occupation authorities.
Ominously,
Dutch soldiers and administrators under the name of Netherlands Indies Civil
Administration (NICA) began to return under the protection of the British. They
were led by Hubertus Johannes van Mook, a pre-war
Dutch colonial administrator who led the Dutch East Indies government-in-exile
in Brisbane,
Australia. They armed released Dutch POWs, which began to engage in shooting
rampages against Indonesian civilians and Republican police. As consequence,
armed conflict soon erupted between the newly-constituted Republican forces
aided by a myriad of pro-independence mob groups, against the British and Dutch
forces. On 10 November, a full-scale battle broke-out in Surabaya
between British Indian 49th Infantry Brigade and Indonesian population,
involving air and naval bombardments of the city by the British. 300 British
soldiers were killed (including its commander Brigadier AWS Mallaby), while
thousands of Indonesians died. Shootouts broke-out with alarming regularity in Jakarta,
including an attempted assassination of Prime Minister Sjahrir
by Dutch gunmen. To avoid this menace, Sukarno and majority of his government
left for the safety of Yogyakarta on 4 January 1946. There, the Republican government
received protection and full support from Sultan Hamengkubuwono
IX. Yogyakarta will remain as the Republic's capital until end of
the war in 1949. Sjahrir
remained in Jakarta to conduct negotiations with the British.
The
initial series of battles in late 1945 and early 1946 left the British in
control of major port cities on Java and Sumatera. During the Japanese
occupation, the Outer Islands (excluding Java and Sumatera) was occupied by
Japanese Navy (Kaigun),
which did not allow for political mobilisation in their areas on account of the
small population base available for mobilisation, and the proximity of these
areas to active theatres of war. Consequently, there were little Republican
activity in these islands post-proclamation. Australian and Dutch forces
quickly occupied these islands without much fighting by end of 1945 (excluding
the resistance of I Gusti Ngurah Rai in Bali, the insurgency in South Sulawesi,
and fighting in Hulu Sungai area of South Kalimantan).
Meanwhile, the hinterland areas of Java and Sumatera remained under Republican
administration.
Eager
to pull-out its soldiers from Indonesia, the British allowed for large-scale
infusion of Dutch forces into the country throughout 1946. By November 1946,
all British soldiers have been withdrawn from Indonesia, replaced by more than
150,000 Dutch soldiers. On the other hand, the British sent Lord Archibald Clark Kerr, 1st Baron
Inverchapel and Miles Lampson, 1st Baron Killearn
to bring the Dutch and Indonesians to the negotiating table. The result of
these negotiations was the Linggadjati Agreement signed on November 1946,
where the Dutch acknowledged de facto
Republican sovereignty over Java, Sumatera, and Madura. In exchange, the
Republicans were willing to discuss future Commonwealth-like United Kingdom of
Netherlands and Indonesia.
Sukarno addressing the KNIP (parliament) in Malang, March 1947
Sukarno's
decision to negotiate with the Dutch was met with strong opposition by various
Indonesian factions. Tan Malaka, a communist politician, organised these groups
into a united front called the Persatoean
Perdjoangan (PP). PP offered a "Minimum Program" which called
for complete independence, nationalisation of all foreign properties, and
rejection of all negotiations until all foreign troops are withdrawn. These
programmes received widespread popular support, including from armed forces
commander General Sudirman. On 4 July 1946, military units linked with PP
kidnapped Prime Minister Sjahrir who was visiting Yogyakarta.
Sjahrir was leading the negotiation with the Dutch. Sukarno, after successfully
influencing Sudirman,
managed to secure the release of Sjahrir and the arrest of Tan Malaka
and other PP leaders. Disapproval of Linggadjati terms within the KNIP led Sukarno to issue
a decree doubling KNIP membership by including many pro-agreement appointed
members. As consequence, KNIP ratified the Linggadjati Agreement on March 1947.
On
21 July 1947, the Linggadjati Agreement was broken by the Dutch,
who launched Operatie Product, a massive military invasion
into Republican-held territories. Although the newly-reconsitituted TNI was unable to offer significant
military resistance, the blatant violation by the Dutch on
internationally-brokered agreement outraged world opinion. International
pressure forced the Dutch to halt their invasion force on August 1947. Sjahrir,
who has been replaced as prime minister by Amir Sjarifuddin,
flew to New York City to appeal Indonesian case in
front of United Nations. UN Security Council issued a
resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, and appointed a Good Offices
Committee (GOC) to oversee the ceasefire. The GOC, based in Jakarta, consisted
of delegations from Australia (led by Richard Kirby, chosen by Indonesia),
Belgium (led by Paul van Zeeland, chosen by Netherlands), and
United States (led by Frank Porter Graham, neutral).
The
Republic was now under strong Dutch military stranglehold, with the Dutch
military occupying West Java, and the northern coast of Central Java
and East Java,
along with the key productive areas of Sumatera.
Additionally, the Dutch navy blockaded Republican areas from supplies of vital
food, medicine, and weapons. As consequence, Prime Minister Amir Sjarifuddin
has little choice but to sign the Renville Agreement on 17 January 1948, which
acknowledged Dutch control over areas taken during Operatie Product,
while the Republicans pledged to withdraw all forces that remained on the other
side of the ceasefire line ("Van Mook Line").
Meanwhile, the Dutch begin to organize puppet states in the areas under their
occupation, to counter Republican influence utilising ethnic diversity of
Indonesia.
The
signing of highly disadvantageous Renville Agreement caused even greater
instability within the Republican political structure. In Dutch-occupied West
Java, Darul Islam guerrillas under Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwirjo
maintained their anti-Dutch resistance and repealed any loyalty to the
Republic, they will cause a bloody insurgency in West Java and other areas in
the first decades of independence. Prime Minister Sjarifuddin,
who signed the agreement, was forced to resign on January 1948, and was
replaced by Mohammad Hatta. Hatta cabinet's policy of
rationalising the armed forces by demobilising large numbers of armed groups
that proliferated the Republican areas, also caused severe disaffection. Leftist
political elements, led by resurgent Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) under Musso took advantage of
public disaffections by launching rebellion in Madiun, East Java,
on 18 September 1948. Bloody fighting continued during late-September until end
of October 1948, when the last communist bands were defeated and Musso shot dead. The
communists have overestimated their potential to oppose the strong appeal of
Sukarno amongst the population.
Sukarno and Foreign Minister Agus Salim
in Dutch custody, 1949.
On
19 December 1948, to take advantage of the Republic's weak position following
the communist rebellion, the Dutch launched Operatie Kraai,
a second military invasion designed to crush the Republic once and for all. The
invasion was initiated with an airborne assault on Republican capital Yogyakarta.
Sukarno ordered the armed forces under Sudirman
to launch guerilla campaign in the countryside, while he and other key leaders
such as Hatta and Sjahrir
allowed themselves to be taken prisoner by the Dutch. To ensure continuity of
government, Sukarno sent a telegram to Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, providing him
the mandate to lead an Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia
(PDRI), based on the unoccupied hinterlands of West Sumatera,
a position he kept until Sukarno was released on June 1949. The Dutch sent
Sukarno and other captured Republican leaders to captivity in Prapat, in
Dutch-occupied part of North Sumatera and later to the island of Bangka.
The
second Dutch invasion caused even more international outrage. United States,
impressed by Indonesia's ability to defeat the 1948 communist challenge without
outside help, threatened to cut-off Marshall Aid
funds to Netherlands if military operations in Indonesia continued. TNI did not
disintegrate and continued to wage guerilla resistance against the Dutch, most
notably the assault on Dutch-held Yogyakarta led by Lieutenant-Colonel Suharto
on 1 March 1949. Consequently, the Dutch were forced to sign the Roem-van Roijen Agreement on 7 May 1949.
According to this treaty, the Dutch released the Republican leadership and
returned the area surrounding Yogyakarta to Republican control on June 1949. This is
followed by the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table
Conference held in The Hague which led to the complete transfer of sovereignty by
the Queen Juliana of the Netherlands to Indonesia,
on 27 December 1949. On that day, Sukarno flew from Yogyakarta to Jakarta,
making a triumphant speech at the steps of the governor-general's palace,
immediately renamed the Merdeka Palace ("Independence
Palace").
Figurehead president
At
this time, as part of compromise with the Dutch, Indonesia adopted a new federal constitution that made the country
a federal state called the Republik
Indonesia Serikat (Republic of United States of Indonesia), consisting of
the Republic of Indonesia whose borders were determined by the "Van Mook
Line", along with 6 states and 9 autonomous territories created by the
Dutch. During the first half of 1950, these states gradually dissolved itself
as the Dutch military that previously propped them, was withdrawn. On August
1950, with the last state - State of East Indonesia - dissolving
itself, Sukarno declared a Unitary Republic of Indonesia based on
newly-formulated provisional constitution of 1950. Both the
Federal Constitution of 1949 and the Provisional Constitution of 1950 were
parliamentary in nature, where executive authority laid with the prime
minister, and which—on paper—limited presidential power. However, even with his
formally reduced role, he commanded a good deal of moral authority as Father of the Nation.
The
first years of parliamentary democracy proved to be very unstable for
Indonesia. Cabinets fell in rapid succession due to the acute differences
between the various political parties within the newly-appointed parliament (Dewan Perwakilan Rakjat/DPR). There was severe
disagreements on future path of Indonesian state, between nationalists who
wanted a secular state (led by Partai Nasional Indonesia first
established by Sukarno), the Islamists who wanted an Islamic state (led by Masyumi
Party), and the communists who wanted a communist state (led by PKI, only allowed to operate again in
1951). On the economic front, there was severe dissatisfaction with continuing
economic domination by large Dutch corporations and the ethnic-Chinese.
In
the regions, the Darul Islam rebels under Kartosuwirjo in
West Java refused to acknowledge Sukarno's authority and declared a NII (Negara
Islam Indonesia - Islamic State of Indonesia) on August 1949. Rebellions in
support of Darul Islam also broke-out in South Sulawesi
in 1951, and in Aceh
in 1953. Meanwhile, pro-federalism members of the disbanded KNIL launched failed rebellion in Bandung
(APRA rebellion of 1950), in Makassar
in 1950, and in Ambon (Republic of South Maluku revolt of 1950).
Additionally,
the military was torn with hostilities between officers originating from the
colonial-era KNIL, who wished for a small and elite
professional military, and the overwhelming majority of soldiers who started
their careers in the Japanese-formed PETA, who were afraid of being discharged
and were more known for nationalist-zeal over professionalism.
On
17 October 1952, the leaders of the former-KNIL faction, Army Chief Colonel Abdul Haris Nasution and Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff
Major-General Tahi Bonar Simatupang mobilized their troops in a show of force.
Protesting against attempts by the DPR to interfere in military business on
behalf of the former-PETA faction of the military, Nasution and Simatupang had
their troops surround the Merdeka Palace and point the tank turrets in
the direction of the said building. Their demand to Sukarno was that the
current DPR be dismissed. For this cause, Nasution and Simatupang also
mobilized civilian protesters. Sukarno came out of the palace and using nothing
but his famed oratory skills, convinced both soldiers and civilians alike to go
home. Nasution and Simatupang had been defeated, and both were later dismissed.
Nasution, however, would be re-appointed as Army Chief after reconciling with
Sukarno in 1955.
In
1954, Sukarno married Hartini, a 30-years-old widow from Salatiga,
whom he met during a reception. His third wife, Fatmawati
was outraged by this fourth marriage. She left Sukarno and their children,
although they never officially divorced. Fatmawati
no longer took-up the duties as First Lady,
a role subsequently filled by Hartini.
Sukarno casting his vote at the 1955 elections
The
1955 elections produced a
new Parliament and a Constitutional Assembly.
The election results equally shared power between the antagonistic powers of
PNI, Masyumi, Nahdlatul Ulama, and PKI. Hence, domestic
political instability continued unabated. Talks in the Constitutional Assemby
to produce a new constitution met a deadlock over the issue of whether to
include Islamic law.
On
the international front, Sukarno organised the Bandung Conference in 1955, with the goal of
uniting developing Asian and African countries into a non-aligned movement to
counter against the competing superpowers at the time.
Sukarno
resented his figurehead position and the increasing disorder of the country's
political life. Claiming Western-style
democracy was unsuitable for Indonesia, he called for a system of
"guided democracy." The Indonesian way of
deciding important questions, he argued, was by way of prolonged deliberation
designed to achieve a consensus. This was the way problems were solved at the
village level, and Sukarno argued it should be the model for the entire nation.
He proposed a government based not only on political
parties but on "functional groups" composed of the
nation's basic elements, which would together form a National Council, through
which a national consensus could express itself under presidential guidance.
Vice-President
Mohammad Hatta
was strongly opposed to Sukarno's guided democracy concept. Citing
irreconcilable differences, Hatta resigned from his position in December 1956.
Hatta's retirement sent a shockwave across Indonesia, particularly among the
non-Javanese ethnicities, who viewed Hatta as their representative in a
Javanese-dominated government.
From
December 1956 to January 1957, regional military commanders in North Sumatera,
Central Sumatera, and South Sumatera provinces took over local government
control. They declared a series of military councils which will run their
respective areas and refused to accept orders from Jakarta. A similar regional
military movement took control of North Sulawesi on March 1957. They demanded
the elimination of communist influence in government, equal share in government
revenues, and reinstatement of Sukarno-Hatta duumvirate.
Faced
with this serious challenge to the unity of the republic, Sukarno declared
martial law (Staat van Oorlog en Beleg)
on 14 March 1957. He appointed a non-partisan prime minister Djuanda Kartawidjaja, while the military was in
the hands of his loyalist General Nasution. Nasution increasingly shared
Sukarno's views on the negative impact of western democracy on Indonesia, and
he foresaw greater role for the military to bring much-needed discipline to the
country.
As
a reconciliatory move, Sukarno invited the leaders of the regional councils to
Jakarta on 10–14 September 1957, to attend a National Conference (Musjawarah Nasional), which failed to
bring a solution to the crisis. On 30 November 1957, an assassination attempt
was made by grenade attack against Sukarno when he was visiting a school
function in Cikini,
Central Jakarta.
Six children were killed, but Sukarno did not suffer any serious wounds. The
perpetrators were members of the Darul Islam extremist group, under the
order of its leader Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwirjo.
By
December 1957, Sukarno began to take concrete steps to enforce his authority
over the country. On that month, he nationalised 246 Dutch companies which have
been dominating Indonesian economy (most notably the NHM, Royal Dutch
Shell subsidiary Bataafsche
Petroleum Maatschappij, Escomptobank, Internatio, Geo Wehry & Co,
Jacobson & Berg, etc.) and expelled 40,000 Dutch citizens
remaining in Indonesia while confiscating their properties, due to the failure
by the Dutch government to continue negotiations on the fate of Netherlands New Guinea as was promised in the
1949 Round Table Conference. Sukarno's economic nationalism policy was followed
by issuance Presidential Directive No. 10 of 1959, which banned commercial
activities by foreign nationals in rural areas. This rule targeted the
ethnic-Chinese, who dominated both the rural and urban retail economy despite
the fact that at this time few of them had Indonesian citizenship. This policy
resulted in massive relocation of the rural ethnic-Chinese population to urban
areas, while approximately 100,000 chose to return to China.
To
face the dissident regional commanders, Sukarno and Army Chief Nasution decided
to take drastic steps following the failure of Musjawarah Nasional. By utilising regional officers that
remained loyal to Jakarta, Nasution organised a series of "regional
coups" which ousted the dissident commanders in North Sumatera (Colonel
Maludin Simbolon) and South Sumatera (Colonel Barlian) by December 1957. This
returned government control over key cities of Medan and Palembang.
On
February 1958, the remaining dissident commanders in Central Sumatera (Colonel
Ahmad Hussein) and North Sulawesi (Colonel Ventje Sumual) declared PRRI-Permesta
Movement aimed at overthrowing the Jakarta government. They were joined by many
civilian politicians from the Masyumi Party, such as Sjafruddin Prawiranegara who were opposed
to growing influence of communists. Due to their anti-communist rhetoric, the
rebels received monetary, weaponry, and manpower aid from the CIA until Allen Lawrence Pope, an American pilot, was
shot down after a bombing raid on government-held Ambon
on April 1958. On April 1958, central government responded by launching
airborne and seaborne military invasions on Padang
and Manado,
the rebel capitals. By the end of 1958, the rebels have been militarily
defeated, and the last remaining rebel guerilla bands surrendered on August
1961.
'Guided Democracy' and increasing autocracy
Sukarno (on top of the steps) reading his decree on 5 July 1959
Main article: Guided Democracy in Indonesia
The
impressive military victories over the PRRI-Permesta rebels and the popular
nationalisation of Dutch companies left Sukarno in a very strong position. On 5
July 1959, Sukarno reinstated the 1945 constitution by presidential decree. It established a
presidential system which he believed would make it easier to implement the
principles of guided democracy. He called the system Manifesto Politik or Manipol—but was actually government by
decree. Sukarno envisioned an Indonesian-style socialist society, who adhere to
the principle of USDEK:
1.
Undang-Undang Dasar '45 (Constitution of 1945)
2.
Sosialisme Indonesia (Indonesian socialism)
3. Demokrasi Terpimpin
(Guided Democracy)
4.
Ekonomi Terpimpin (Commanded Economy).
5.
Kepribadian Indonesia (Indonesia's Identity)
The structure of Sukarno's guided democracy in 1962
On
March 1960, Sukarno disbanded parliament and replaced it with a new parliament
where half the members were appointed by the president (Dewan Perwakilan Rakjat - Gotong Rojong / DPR-GR). On September
1960, he established a Provisional People's Consultative Assembly
(Madjelis Permusjawaratan Rakjat
Sementara/MPRS) as the highest legislative authority according to the
1945 constitution. MPRS members consisted of members of DPR-GR and members of
"functional groups" appointed by the president.
With
the backing of the military, Sukarno disbanded the Islamic party Masyumi
and Sutan Sjahrir's
party PSI, accusing them of involvement with
PRRI-Permesta affair. The military arrested and imprisoned many of Sukarno's
political opponents, from socialist Sjahrir
to Islamic politicians Mohammad Natsir and Hamka. Using martial law
powers, the government closed-down newspapers who were critical of Sukarno's
policies
During
this period, there were several assassination attempts on Sukarno's life. On 9
March 1960, Daniel Maukar, an Indonesian airforce lieutenant who sympathised
with the Permesta
rebellion, strafed the Merdeka Palace and Bogor Palace
with his MiG-17
fighter jet, attempting to kill the president; he was not injured. On May 1962,
Darul Islam agents shot at the president
during Eid al-Adha
prayers on the grounds of the palace. Sukarno again escaped injury.
On
the security front, the military started a series of effective campaigns which
ended the long-festering Darul Islam rebellion in West Java (1962), Aceh
(1962), and South Sulawesi (1965). Kartosuwirjo, the leader of Darul Islam,
was captured and executed in September 1962.
To
counter-balance the power of the military, Sukarno started to rely on the
support of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). In
1960, he declared his government to be based on Nasakom,
a union of the three ideological strands present in Indonesian society: nasionalisme (nationalism), agama (religions), and komunisme (communism). Accordingly,
Sukarno started admitting more communists into his government, while developing
strong relationship with the PKI chairman Dipa Nusantara Aidit.
In
order to increase Indonesia's prestige, Sukarno supported and won the bid for
the 1962 Asian Games held in Jakarta.
Many sporting facilities such as the Senayan sports complex (including the
100,000-seat Bung Karno Stadium) were built to accommodate
the games. There was political tension when the Indonesians refused the entry
of delegations from Israel and Taiwan. After the International Olympic Committee put
sanctions on Indonesia due to this exclusion policy, Sukarno retaliated by
organising a "non-imperialist" competitor event to the Olympic Games,
called Games of New Emerging Forces (GANEFO). GANEFO
was successfully held in Jakarta on November 1963, and was attended by 2,700
athletes from 51 countries.
As
part of his prestige-building program, Sukarno ordered the construction of
large monumental buildings such as National Monument (Monumen Nasional), Istiqlal Mosque,
CONEFO Building (now the Parliament Building), Hotel Indonesia,
and the Sarinah shopping centre to transform Jakarta from a former colonial
backwater to a modern city. The modern Jakarta boulevards of Jalan Thamrin,
Jalan Sudirman, and Jalan Gatot Subroto was planned and constructed under
Sukarno.
Foreign
policy
As
Sukarno's domestic grip on power was secured, he began to pay more attention to
the world stage, where Sukarno embarked on a series of aggressive and assertive
policies based on anti-imperialism to increase Indonesia's
prestige internationally. These anti-imperialist
and anti-Western policies, often bordering on brinkmanship, were also designed
to provide a common cause to unite the diverse and fractious Indonesian people.
In this, he was aided by his Foreign Minister Subandrio.
Since
his first visit to Beijing in 1956, Sukarno has began in the 1950s to increase his
ties to the People's Republic of China and the communist bloc in general. He
also began to accept increasing amounts of Soviet
bloc military aid. By early 1960s, Soviet bloc provided more aid to Indonesia
than to any other non-communist country, while Soviet military aid to Indonesia
was only equalled by aid provided to Cuba. This large influx of communist aid
prompted an increase in military aid from the Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy administrations, which
worried about a leftward drift should Sukarno rely too much on Soviet bloc aid.
Sukarno
was feted during his visit to United States in 1956, where he addressed a joint
session of United States Congress. Soon after his first
visit to America, Sukarno visited Soviet Union,
where he received even more lavish welcome to Moscow. Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev paid a return visit to Jakarta
and Bali
in 1960, where Khrushchev awarded Sukarno with the Lenin Peace
Prize. To make amends for the CIA involvement in the PRRI-Permesta
rebellion, President Kennedy invited Sukarno to Washington, and
provided Indonesia with billions of dollars in civilian and military aid.
Despite
his close relationships with both Western and Communist Blocs, Sukarno
increasingly attempted to forge a new alliance called the "New Emerging
Forces", as a counter to the old superpowers, whom he accused of spreading
"Neo-Colonialism and Imperialism" (NEKOLIM). In 1961, this first
president of Indonesia also found another political alliance, an organization,
called the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM, in Indonesia known
as Gerakan Non-Blok, GNB) with Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser, India's Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Yugoslavia's President Josip Broz Tito,
and Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah, in an action called The
Initiative of Five (Sukarno, Nkrumah, Nasser, Tito, and Nehru). This action was
a movement to not give any favour to the two superpower blocs, who were
involved in the Cold War.
Sukarno is still fondly remembered for his role in promoting the influence of
newly-independent countries; among others, his name is used as streetnames in Cairo, Egypt and Rabat, Morocco, and as a
major square in Peshawar,
Pakistan. In 1956, the University of Belgrade awarded him an honorary
doctorate.
Sukarno at Borobudur with Indian prime
minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi during their visit to
Indonesia
As
the NAM countries were becoming split into differing factions, and as fewer
countries were willing to support Sukarno's growing aggressive anti-Western
foreign policies, he increasingly began to abandon his non-alignment rhetoric,
in exchange for a new alliance with China, North Korea, North Vietnam,
and Cambodia, an alliance he called the "Beijing-Pyongyang-Hanoi-Phnom Penh-Jakarta
Axis". After withdrawing Indonesia from the
"imperialist-dominated" United Nations
on January 1965, Sukarno sought to establish a competitor organisation to the
UN called Conference of New Emerging Forces (CONEFO) with support from China,
who at that time was not yet a member of United Nations.
Sukarno
began an aggressive foreign policy to secure Indonesian territorial claims. On
August 1960, Sukarno broke-off diplomatic relations with the Netherlands over
continuing failure to commence talks on the future of Netherlands New Guinea, as was agreed at the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table
Conference of 1949. After the Dutch announced the formation of a Nieuw Guinea Raad on April 1961, with
the intention of creating an independent Papuan state, Sukarno declared
military confrontation in his Tri
Komando Rakjat (TRIKORA) speech in Yogyakarta,
on 19 December 1961. He organised military incursions into the half-island,
whom he referred to as West Irian, which by end of 1962 has landed around 3,000
Indonesian soldiers throughout West Irian. On January 1962, a naval battle
erupted when an Indonesian infiltration fleet of four torpedo boats were
intercepted by Dutch ships and planes off the coast of Vlakke Hoek. In this
battle, one Indonesian boat was sunk, killing the Naval Deputy Chief-of-Staff
Commodore Jos Sudarso.
On February 1962, the Kennedy administration, worried of a continuing
Indonesian shift towards communism should the Dutch held-on to West Papua, sent
Attorney-General Robert Kennedy to Netherlands, to underline
that United States will not support Netherlands in case of conflict with
Indonesia. With massive Soviet armaments and even manpower aid, Sukarno planned
a large-scale air and seaborne invasion on the Dutch military headquarters of Biak scheduled for August
1962, called Operasi Djajawidjaja,
to be led by Major-General Suharto. Before these highly risky plans can be realised,
Indonesia and Netherlands signed the New York Agreement on August 1962. The two
countries agreed to implement the Bunker Plan (formulated by American diplomat Ellsworth Bunker),
whereby the Dutch agreed to hand-over West Papua to UNTEA on 1 October 1962.
UNTEA handed the territory to Indonesian authority on May 1963.
After
securing control over West Irian, Sukarno also opposed the British-supported
establishment of Federation of Malaysia in 1963, claiming that it was a
neo-colonial plot by the British to besiege Indonesia. In spite of his
political overtures, which was partly justified when some leftist political
elements in British Borneo territories Sarawak
and Brunei opposed the Federation plan and aligned themselves with Sukarno,
Malaysia was proclaimed in September 1963. This led to the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation (Konfrontasi), proclaimed by Sukarno
in his Dwi Komando Rakjat
(DWIKORA) speech in Jakarta on 3 May 1964. Sukarno's proclaimed objective was
not to annex Sabah
and Sarawak
into Indonesia, but to establish a State of North Kalimantan under the
control of North Kalimantan Communist Party. From
1964 until early 1966, limited numbers of Indonesian soldiers,
"volunteers", and Malaysian communist guerillas were infiltrated into
both north Borneo and the Malay Peninsula, where they engaged in jungle warfare
with British and Commonwealth soldiers deployed to protect the nascent
Malaysia. Indonesian agents also exploded several bombs in Singapore.
Domestically, Sukarno whipped up anti-British sentiment and the British Embassy
was burned down. In 1964, all British companies operating in the country,
including Indonesian operations of the Chartered Bank
and Unilever,
were nationalized.
By
1964, Sukarno commenced an anti-American campaign due to his growing shift
towards the communist bloc, and less friendly Lyndon Johnson
administration. American interests and businesses in Indonesia were denounced
and even attacked by PKI-led mobs. American movies were banned,
American books and records of the Beatles were burned, and Indonesian band Koes Plus
was jailed for playing American-style rock and roll
music. As a result, US aid to Indonesia was halted, to which Sukarno made his
famous remark, "Go to hell with
your aid". Sukarno withdrew Indonesia from the United Nations
membership on 7 January 1965 when, with US backing, Malaysia took a seat of UN Security Council. By this time, Sukarno's
brinkmanship policies left him with few international allies. With the
government already severely indebted to the tune of US$ 1 billion to the
Soviet Union, Sukarno became increasingly dependent to Communist China for
support. He spoke increasingly of a Peking-Jakarta axis, which will be the core
of a new anti-imperialist world organization, the CONEFO.
Domestic
tensions
Domestically,
Sukarno continued to consolidate his control. He was made president for life by
the MPRS in 1963. His ideological writings on
Manipol-USDEK and NASAKOM became mandatory subjects in Indonesian schools and
universities, while his speeches were to be memorized and discussed by all
students. All newspapers, the only radio station (RRI), and the only television station (TVRI) were made into
"tools of the revolution" and functioned to spread Sukarno's
messages. Sukarno developed a personality cult, with the capital of
newly-acquired West Irian renamed to Sukarnapura
and the highest peak in the country was renamed from Carstensz Pyramid to Puntjak Sukarno
(Sukarno Peak).
Despite
these appearances of unchallenged control, Sukarno's guided democracy stood on
fragile grounds due to the inherent conflict between its two underlying support
pillars, the military and the communists. The military, nationalists, and the
Islamic groups were shocked by the rapid growth of the communist party under
Sukarno's protection. They feared immanent establishment of communist state in
Indonesia. By 1965, the PKI had 3 million members, and were
particularly strong in Central Java and Bali. PKI has become the
strongest party in Indonesia.
The
military and nationalists were growing wary of Sukarno's close alliance with
communist China, which they thought compromised Indonesia's sovereignty.
Elements of the military disagreed with Sukarno's policy of confrontation with
Malaysia, which in their view only benefited communists, and sent several
officers (including future Armed Forces Chief Leonardus Benjamin Moerdani) to spread
secret peace-feelers to the Malaysian government. The Islamic clerics, who were
mostly landowners, felt threatened by PKI's land confiscation actions (aksi sepihak) in the countryside and
by the communist campaign against the "seven village devils", a term
used for landlords or better-off farmers (similar to the anti-kulak campaign in
Stalinist era).
As
the mediator of the three groups under the NASAKOM system, Sukarno displayed
greater sympathies to the communists. The PKI has been very careful to support
all of Sukarno's policies. Meanwhile, Sukarno saw the PKI as the best-organised
and ideologically-solid party in Indonesia, and a useful conduit to gain more
military and financial aid from Communist Bloc countries. Sukarno also
sympathised with the communists' revolutionary ideals, which is similar to his
own.
To
weaken the influence of the military, Sukarno rescinded martial law (which gave
wide-ranging powers to the military) in 1963. On September 1962, he
"promoted" the powerful General Nasution to the less-influential
position of Armed Forces Chief, while the influential position of Army Chief
was given to Sukarno's loyalist Ahmad Yani.
Meanwhile, the position of Air Force Chief was given to Omar Dhani,
who was an open communist sympathiser. On May 1964, Sukarno banned activities
of Manifesto Kebudajaan
(Manikebu), an association of artists and writers which included prominent
Indonesian writers such as Hans Bague Jassin and Wiratmo Soekito, who were also
dismissed from their jobs. Manikebu was considered a rival by the communist
writer's association Lembaga Kebudajaan Rakjat (Lekra),
led by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. On December 1964,
Sukarno disbanded the Badan Pendukung
Soekarnoisme (BPS), the "Association for Promoting
Sukarnoism", an organisation that seek to oppose communism by invoking
Sukarno's own Pancasila formulation. On January 1965,
Sukarno, under pressure from PKI, banned the Murba Party.
Murba was a Trotskyite party whose ideology was antagonistic to PKI's orthodox
line of Marxism.
Tensions
between the military and communists increased on April 1965, when PKI chairman Aidit called for the
formation of a "fifth armed force" consisting of armed peasants and
labor. Sukarno approved this idea and publicly called for the immediate
formation of such a force on 17 May 1965. However, this idea was rejected by
Army Chief Ahmad Yani
and Defence Minister Nasution, as this was tantamount to allowing the PKI to
establish its own armed forces. Soon after this rejection, on 29 May, the
"Gilchrist Letter" appeared. The letter was
supposedly written by the British ambassador Andrew Gilchrist to the Foreign
Office in London, mentioning a joint American and British attempt on subversion
in Indonesia with the help of "local army friends". This letter, produced
by Subandrio,
aroused Sukarno's fear of a military plot to overthrow him, a fear which he
mentioned repeatedly during the next few months. The Czechoslovakian agent
Vladislav Bittman who defected in 1968 claimed that his agency (StB) forged the letter on
request from PKI via Soviet Union, to smear anti-communist generals. On his
independence day speech of 17 August 1965, Sukarno declared his intention to
commit Indonesia to an anti-imperialist alliance with China and other communist
regimes, and warned the Army not to interfere. He also stated his support for
the establishment of "fifth force" of armed peasants and labor.
While
Sukarno devoted his energy for domestic and international politics, the economy
of Indonesia was neglected and deteriorated rapidly. The government printed
money to finance its military expenditures, resulting in hyperinflation
exceeding 600% per annum in 1964-1965. Smuggling and collapse of export
plantation sectors deprived the government of much-needed foreign exchange
income. Consequently, the government was unable to service massive foreign
debts it accumulated from both Western and Communist bloc countries. Most of
the government budget was spent on the military, resulting in deterioration of
infrastructure such as roads, railways, ports, and other public facilities.
Deteriorating transportation infrastructure and poor harvests caused food
shortages in many places. The small industrial sector languished and only
produced at 20% capacity due to lack of investment.
Sukarno
himself was contemptous to macroeconomics, and was unable and unwilling to
provide practical solutions to the poor economic condition of the country.
Instead, Sukarno produced more ideological conceptions such as Trisakti:
political sovereignty, economic self-sufficiency, and cultural independence. He
advocated Indonesians to be "standing on their own feet" (berdikari) and reach economic
self-sufficiency, free from foreign influence.[28]
Removal
from power
Main article: Transition to the New Order
On
the dawn of 1 October 1965, six of Indonesia's most senior army generals were
kidnapped and killed by a movement calling themselves the "30 September Movement" (G30S). Among those
killed was Ahmad Yani,
while Nasution narrowly escaped. The G30S Movement consisted of members of the
Presidential Guards, Brawidjaja Division, and Diponegoro Division, under the
command of a Lieutenant-Colonel Untung bin Sjamsuri, a known communist
sympathiser who participated in the 1948 PKI rebellion. The movement took
control of the radio station and the Merdeka Square. They broadcasted statement
declaring the kidnappings were meant to protect Sukarno from a coup attempt by
CIA-influenced generals. Later, it broadcasted the disbandment of Sukarno's
cabinet, to be replaced by a "Revolutionary Council". In Central
Java, soldiers associated with the Movement also seized control of Yogyakarta
and Solo between 1–2 October, killing two colonels.
Major
General Suharto,
commander of the Army's strategic reserves, took control of the army the
following morning. Suharto ordered troops to take-over the radio station of Republic of Indonesia
Radio and Merdeka Square. On the afternoon of that day, Suharto issued an
ultimatum to the Halim Air Force Base, where the G30S had based themselves and
where Sukarno (the reasons for his presence are unclear and were subject of
claim and counter-claim), Air Marshal Omar Dhani, and PKI chairman Aidit had
gathered. By the following day, it was clear that the incompetently organised
and poorly coordinated coup had failed. Sukarno took-up residence in the Bogor Palace,
while Omar Dhani fled to Cambodia and Aidit to Central Java.By 2 October, Suharto's soldiers occupied Halim Air Force Base, after a short
gunfight. Sukarno's obedience to Suharto's 1 October ultimatum to leave Halim
is seen as changing all power relationships. Sukarno's fragile balance of power between the military, political Islam,
communists, and nationalists that underlay his "Guided Democracy" was now collapsing.
In
early October 1965, a military propaganda campaign began to sweep the country,
successfully convincing both Indonesian and international audiences that it was
a Communist coup, and that the murders were cowardly atrocities against
Indonesian heroes. The PKI's denials of involvement had little effect. Following the discovery and public burial of the generals' corpses on 5
October, the army along with Islamic organisations Muhammadiyah
and Nahdlatul Ulama, led a campaign to purge
Indonesian society, government and armed forces of the communist party and
other leftist organisations. Leading PKI members were immediately arrested,
some summarily executed. Aidit was captured and killed on November 1965 The purge spread across the country with the worst massacres in Java and Bali. (see: Indonesian killings of 1965–66) In some
areas the army organised civilian groups and local militias, in other areas
communal vigilante action preceded the army. The most widely accepted estimates are that at least half a million were
killed.It is thought that as many as 1.5 million were imprisoned at one stage or
another.
As
a result of the purge, one of Sukarno's three pillars of support, the
Indonesian Communist Party, had been effectively eliminated by the other two,
the military and political Islam. The killings and the failure of his tenuous
"revolution" distressed Sukarno and he tried unsuccessfully to
protect the PKI by referring to the generals' killings as a rimpeltje in de oceaan ("ripple
in the sea of the revolution"). He tried to maintain his influence
appealing in a January 1966 broadcast for the country to follow him. Subandrio
sought to create a Sukarnoist column (Barisan
Sukarno), which was undermined by Suharto's pledge of loyalty to Sukarno
and the concurrent instruction for all those loyal to Sukarno to announce their
support for the army.
On
1 October 1965, Sukarno appointed General Pranoto Reksosamudro as Army Chief to
replace the dead Ahmad Yani, but he was forced to give this position to Suharto
two weeks later. In February 1966, Sukarno reshuffled his cabinet, sacking
Nasution as Defence Minister and abolishing his position of armed forces chief
of staff, but Nasution refused to step down. Beginning in January 1966,
university students started demonstrating against Sukarno, demanding the
disbandment of PKI and for the government to control spiraling inflation. On February
1966, student demonstrators in front of Merdeka Palace
were shot at by Presidential Guards, killing the student Arief Rachman Hakim,
who was quickly turned into a martyr by student demonstrators.
A
meeting of Sukarno's full cabinet was held at the Merdeka Palace
on 11 March 1966. As students were demonstrating against the administration,
unidentified troops began to assemble outside. Sukarno, Subandrio and another
minister immediately left the meeting and went to the Bogor Palace
by helicopter. Three pro-Suharto generals (Basuki Rahmat,
Amirmachmud,
and Mohammad Jusuf)
were dispatched to the Bogor palace and they met with Sukarno who signed for
them a Presidential Order known as Supersemar.
Through the order, Sukarno assigned Suharto to "take all measures
considered necessary to guarantee security, calm and stability of the
government and the revolution and to guarantee the personal safety and
authority [of Sukarno]". The authorship of the document, and whether Sukarno
was forced to sign, perhaps even at gunpoint, is a point of historic debate.
The effect of the order, however, was the transfer of authority to Suharto.
After obtaining the Presidential Order, Suharto had the PKI declared illegal
and the party was abolished. He also arrested many high ranking officials that
were loyal to Sukarno on the charge of being PKI members and/or sympathizers,
further reducing Sukarno's political power and influence.
The
MPRS, now purged from communist and
pro-Sukarno elements, began proceedings to impeach Sukarno on the grounds of:
1.
Toleration
30 September Movement and violation of the
constitution by supporting PKI's international communist agenda
2.
Negligence
of the economy
3. Promotion of national "moral degradation" by Sukarno's
blatant womanising behaviour.
On 22 June
1966, Sukarno made the Nawaksara speech in front of MPRS session, an
unsuccessful last-ditch attempt to defend himself and his guided democracy
system. On August 1966, over Sukarno's objections, Indonesia ended its
confrontation with Malaysia and rejoined the United Nations.
After making another unsuccessful accountability speech (Nawaksara Addendum) on
10 January 1967, Sukarno was stripped of his presidential title by MPRS on 12 March 1967, in a session
chaired by his former ally, Nasution. He was put under house arrest
in Bogor Palace, where his health deteriorated due to denial of adequate
medical care. He died of kidney failure in Jakarta Army Hospital on 21 June
1970 at age 69. He was buried in Blitar, East Java, Indonesia. In recent decades, his grave has been a
significant venue in the network of places that Javanese visit on ziarah and for
some is of equal significance to those of the Wali Songo.
A
semi-official version of the events of 1965–1966 claims that the Indonesian
Communist Party (PKI) chairman Aidit organised the murders of the six generals,
using communist sympathisers within the military, to secure PKI's position in
case of feared incapacitation of Sukarno, who suffered a mild stroke on 4
August 1965. Others believe that Sukarno and PKI cooperated to kidnap and
murder the generals, to forestall a potential Western-backed coup as mentioned
in the Gilchrist Document, a view based on Sukarno
being in close contact with Aidit and the conspirators in Halim Air Force Base
during 1 October. It is believed that upon taking power, the Suharto government
deliberately covered-up Sukarno's involvement and sought to solely blame the
PKI out of respect of his past services to bring independence to the country,
and to protect the integrity of the nation's historic narrative. After the fall
of Suharto in 1998, some of his opponents theorise that Suharto orchestrated
the assassinations to remove potential rivals for the presidency.
Family
Sukarno
married Siti Oetari in 1920, and divorced her in 1923 to marry Inggit Garnasih,
whom he divorced c. 1943 to marry Fatmawati. Sukarno also married Hartini in 1954, after which he and Fatmawati separated
without divorcing. In 1959 he married a third wife, the then 19-year old
Japanese hostess Naoko Nemoto (renamed Dewi Sukarno). In the early 1960s, Sukarno went on to marry 4 more wives: Kartini Manoppo;
Yurike Sanger; Heldy Djafar; Amelia de la Rama.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, who served as the fifth
president of Indonesia, is his daughter by his wife Fatmawati.
Her younger brother Guruh Sukarnoputra (born 1953) has inherited
Sukarno's artistic bent and is a choreographer
and songwriter,
who made a movie Untukmu, Indonesiaku
(For You, My Indonesia) about Indonesian culture. He is also a member of the
Indonesian People's Representative Council for
Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party –
Struggle. His siblings Guntur Sukarnoputra, Rachmawati Sukarnoputri
and Sukmawati Sukarnoputri have all been active in politics. Sukarno had a
daughter named Kartika by Dewi Sukarno. In 2006 Kartika Sukarno married Frits Seegers, the Netherlands-born chief
executive officer of the Barclays Global Retail and Commercial Bank. Other offspring include Taufan and Bayu by his wife Hartini, and a son named
Toto Suryawan Soekarnoputra (born 1967, in Germany), by his wife Kartini
Manoppo.
Awards and Honors
- Honorary Doctorate,
University of Belgrade (1956)
- International Lenin Peace Prize
(1960)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukarno
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