Indonesia in Chaos

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28471, 28 December 1957, Page 8

Indonesia in Chaos

Assurances given by the Indonesian Foreign Minister (Dr. Subandrio) that the campaign against the Dutch will not lead to Communist control of Indonesia can scarcely relieve the anxieties of the West. The new Indonesian attempt to take over Dutch New Guinea seems no nearer success than when it began. But what little control the Indonesian Government had over the forces it released in reprisals against the Dutch is disappearing. President Soekarno is on a rest cure; the Government seems to speak with several voices; and Com-munist-led unions have taken over Dutch enterprises without colour of right. The chaos in Indonesian administration serves to show how little fitted the Indonesians are to take control of an area to which they have little moral, geographic, or economic claim. The Indonesian Government should learn to manage its own business before it demands new responsibilities.

In the present divided state of Indonesia, with economic difficulties, weak central administration, and uncertain army loyalty, the machinery just does not exist for con-

trolling subversion once it has begun. Indonesian leaders now in office may be opposed to Communist infiltration, but they have shown little sign of being able to resist the Communists. They were alarmed when Communist-led unions seized Dutch-owned estates and enterprises, because they realised the ill effects on Indonesia’s economy of substituting inexperienced management for the administration of the Dutch; but reversal of the process was beyond them. How Indonesia can avert the threat of economic disaster is difficult to imagine. Although the Dutch, both in Indonesia and the Netherlands, have behaved extraordinarily well in difficult circumstances, they are not in a position now to give much help alone. Australia and New Zealand cannot be indifferent to the prospect of a nation—or rather a collection of peoples—with a huge population falling into such confusion that the ground is prepared for communism. With their allies in the South-east Asia Treaty Organisation they must seek some way of composing the differences between the patient Dutch and impetuous Indonesian politicians.