Sukarno 'Not So Terrible'?

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30634, 28 December 1964, Page 7

Sukarno 'Not So Terrible'?

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, December 27.

President Sukarno was perhaps “not so terrible after all,” the British weekly, the “Economist,” said in its latest issue.

The weekly said the President was very few people’s favourite staesman, but added: “Yet the prospect that he may soon be compelled by his health to give up the leadership of his country could be as alarming as the possibility that he may be well enough to retain it.” There was “a very good chance” that his successor would be even worse from the Malaysian viewpoint. The name of the President’s successor was likely to matter less than his sources of power. Of the two contenders for power, the Armed Forces were still some way from being unified compared with the Communist Party (P.K.1.) The “Economist” said that after President Sukarno the Communists would probably not claim the succession, but they would certainly insist on a good share of Government power. The alternative might be an open and probably bloody struggle between the P.K.I. and some military elements. “It is a fair guess that if he (Sukarno) gives way to anyone it will be to a man who will continue his foreign policies without having the strength at home to retreat from them if he ever wanted to. So much the worse for Malaysia’s peace of mind,” the article said. “And the Malaysians may face the further hazard of seeing Mr Sukarno’s so far unsuccessful appeal to panMalay nationalism replaced by the possibly more potent social and economic arguments of the Communist. Nor are these Communists of the peaceful East European variety.” The “Economist” said that even if an open power struggle led to a victory for the non-Communists of the armed forces there was no 1

automatic hope for an end to confrontation.

“The best to be hoped for is that an anti-Communist Indonesian leadership would be ready to listen at least to the Americans about Malaysia, and that it could then at least survive,” it said. “But are the chances of this better than remote?

“All in all, if Sukarno goes we may be thinking he was not so terrible after all.”