SUHARTO’S AIMS FOR INDONESIA

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31052, 6 May 1966, Page 13

SUHARTO’S AIMS FOR INDONESIA

(N.Z.PA. Reuter—Copyright) DJAKARTA, May 5. Lieutenant-General Suharto wants Indonesia to win more friends and use more diplomacy to restore world faith in the nation.

“Action should be taken to restore world confidence in Indonesia and its revolution by making more friends rather than foes and by avoiding conflicts,” he told Parliament last night.

General Suharto, who holds executive power in Indonesia, said it was not necessary to emphasise the use of armed force in the confrontation of Malaysia. “Diplomacy might be put to better use,” he said. Generally there was a need for realism in Government policy. This meant “daring to face political facts without abandoning our ideology.”

Home affairs should have priority over external affairs, with the latter being an extension of internal policy, he said.

He also said that In carrying out President Sukarno’s double command—“raise the vitality of the revolution and crush Malaysia”—the second point should not mask the first.

“National unity is important. We need increased national vigilance to face the counter revolutionaries and communists,” he added. The general said his remarks did not mean relaxing confrontation, which could proceed with political flexibility—as for example in trying to divide the federation. The aim was to “balance existing physical operations with more urgent operations in the social and political fields,” he said. General Suharto said conditions indicated that President Sukarno’s planned “congress of the new emerging forces,” could not be held at the moment. This is the President's term for Communist and developing nations friendly to Indonesia and pursuing similar policies. A conference had been

planned this year, with Indonesia and China collaborating in the construction of a giant building complex to house the organisation. From the conference the President was expected to attempt formation of a world body, rivalling the United Nations.

Work has now stopped on the project. Meanwhile 18 Indonesian party and faction leaders, nominated by President

Sukarno to his new 67-rnan Supreme Advisory Council, have refused to take up their posts. The 18 represent some of the most powerful interests in the country. Antara said the 18 political leaders had petitioned the President and the new Government urging that appointment of a council be delayed until after the People’s Consultative Congress, due to

meet next week, had discussed the subject. They also said the council should be purged of vested interests, opportunists, and incompetents. The measures adopted in appointing the council had clearly been unwise, and had been carried out without adequate consultation, they said. The 18 include Mr Osa Maliki, chairman of the moderate Indonesian National Party, the biggest party in the country; the chairman of the major conservative Moslem Nahdatul Ulaina Party (Mr K. H. idham Chalid); leaders of two smaller Moslem parties and the Roman Catholic Party; and the Deputy Finance Minister (Mr R. A. B. Massie). The President’s nomination of the council has met intense opposition. In the era of rule by presidential decree since Dr. Sukarno signed his executive powers over to Lieutenant-General Suharto, the council has been an amorphous body, serving in a role somewhere between Parliament and the Cabinet. Criticism published in official and unofficial organs has charged that the President now has no authority to make such appointments by himself and that the new body contains too many pro-Coramun-ists.