Soekarno (Part III)

Ir. Soekarno
Art Work by : Brani Photo Gallery

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 would 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 contemptuous 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.
Towards the end of his rule, Sukarno's lack of interest in economics created a distance between himself and the Indonesian people, who were suffering economically. His face had become bloated by disease and his flamboyance and sexual conquests - which had once endured him to the people - caused public criticism and turned support towards the Army.

Removal from power

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 in the process.
Major General Suharto, commander of the Army's strategic reserve command, took control of the army the following morning. Suharto ordered troops to take-over the radio station of Radio Republik Indonesia and Merdeka Square itself. 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.[31] A public funeral for 3 of the 6 who were later found dead was set for Armed Forces Day, October 5.
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 since those who were shot were veteran military officers. The PKI's denials of involvement had little effect.[34] 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[33] 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 the following:

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 the 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.[citation needed]
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.

Fatmawati and five of her children with Sukarno,
 including Megawati (far right) andGuruh (center)

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 Ratna 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

1. Bintang Mahaputera Adipurna (1950)
2. Bintang Gerilya (1952)
3. Bintang Republik Indonesia (1959)
4. Supreme commander of the Revolution (1958)
5. Tri Windu (1947) Surakarta Honorary Knights Cross
6. Honorary Doctorate, University of Belgrade (1956)
7. Honorary Doctorate, Columbia University (1958)
8. International Lenin Peace Prize (1960)
9. Order of the Sacred Treasure (1943)
10. Order of the Rising Sun (1955)

The End

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia