CAN SUKARNO STAY?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31256, 31 December 1966, Page 16

CAN SUKARNO STAY?

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, Dec. 27.

A series of new denunciations of President Sukarno has raised again the question of his ability to hold office until the elections scheduled for 1968, the “New York Times” News Service reported today.

The latest round of criticism, stemming from disclosures at military trials, where witnesses testified that Sukarno had seemed to approve the attempted Communist coup, in October, 1965, has gone further than previous campaigns.

National associations of judges and lawyers have called for Sukarno’s "dishonourable dismissal” and trial. A leader of the Christian Labour Union warned that if the President did not repent and change his attitude, Indonesia would see a process eliminating the President as well as his teachings. However, even his most extreme critics concede that Sukarno still has followers on whom he can rely in a crisis.

The large Nationalist Party he led for many years remains faithful, although willing to compromise on occasion with the military leaders of the present administration. Even inside the military, many units are believed more

loyal to the President and his so-called “old order” than to General Suharto, chairman of the Cabinet Presidium and his “new order.”

In the Djakarta area, the most politically sensitive in the country, one highly-placed advisor to Suharto estimates that “there are 30 new order battalions and eight old order battalions, which means we can outfight them and outsmart them.” Few observers believe, however, that a conflict between the Piesident and his critics will come to a violent clash. Suharto and his advisors are thought to be too deeply committed to the principle of legitimacy in government to seek President Sukarno’s physical ouster.