SE$VENTY-TWO PARTIES STRIVE FOR POWER IN INDONESIA

Wanganui Chronicle, 15 December 1949, Page 10

SE$VENTY-TWO PARTIES STRIVE FOR POWER IN INDONESIA

Something About Them And I heir Outstanding Personalities

(By Hugh Laming, N.Z.P.A. —Reuter Correspondent in Indonesia). BATAVIA. —With Indonesian sovereignty and independence an assured Christmas gift, 72 political parties ranging in membership from five to a million are striving for power in the about-to-be-born United States of Indonesia. The recent return of the Indonesian and Eurasian delegates from the round table conference at The Hague, which patiently constructed the scaffolding of the new State, has quickened political activity and intensified the traditional oriental intrigue accompanying it from Sumatra to New Guinea. Java, and the republican capital of Jogjakarta in particular, is the centre of political passion the turbulent eddies of which swirl through the mountains to Bandung and Batavia—soon to be renamed Jacarta —and across the Java Sea to Borneo, the Celebes and Timor, even disturbing the quiet j beauty of Bali, painters’ and escapists’ paradise. There is an air of exuberant confidence among all classes of Indonesians, contrasting with the gloomy forebodings of the majority of Dutchmen and the nervous alarm of the wealthy Chinese communities. ATTACKS ON VILLAGES Meanwhile, despite all-too-familiar • daily reports of train minings, and at- | tacks on villages by “unidentified guerillas.” life for the mass of Indon- | esians and Europeans in the country • remains unchanged. Torrential tropical rains have I dampened the ardour of political fire- | brands in Java and quickened that | which promises to be a bumper -rice harvest. In Batavia, largest city of Indonesia and eventual capital of the USI, acute housing shortage, currency chaos and steadily rising price of food and clothing continue to outweigh politics as prime topic of talk. The Dutch military garrison mounts as Netherlands troops gradually withdrew from outlying districts, in accordance with The Hague Agreement preparatory to evacuation by July 1950. Well-disciplined though despondent with that which they consider surren- I der by their politicians at home to foreign political and financial pressure, the majority of the Dutch soldiers will be glad to quit Indonesia. Is is in Jogjakarta that the Indonesian political future is being carved from chaos. As a high Indonesian government official remarked to mo recently: "There are more political spellbinders to the square mile in Jogja than anywhere else in the world." 3 MAJOR PARTIES The three major political parties and their 68 satellite sub-parties, each with separate identity but almost identical policy, are scurrying from secret meeting to clandestine conclave in Jogjakarta where rumour run: wild. There are whispers of “palacerevolts,” creation of blocs pro-this an I anti-that even of assassmation and and other impending unpleasant nos.;. To Western eyes, the political situation presents a scene more picturesque than ligical. Those versed J n Indonesian affairs slate it. is more a battle of personalities than of policies and thal the result is cut-and-dried with the major politicians jerking the strings upon which the host of lit 11. politicos dance a meaningless jig. It is known thal the Consul-Gen-erals of Great Britain, Australia and the United States have been urging a policy of firm action against lawless elements upon President Sukarno and his entourage, a policy endorsed , by the United Nations Commission for j Indonesia to whose good offices the result of The Hague Conference is at- ! tributed by Dutch and Indonesians. : The necessity for American econo-

■ mrc aid, with its first grant of 40 million dollars and an implied promise of . another 90 million from the import- [ export bank, is also a cogent reason . for the President to curb the extre- ’ mists formerly prominent in the mili- , tary forces of the republic and who , still wait in the wings restlessly. DOAIINATING PARTIES ' Dominating the political scene are ! the Masjumi Party, which may be described without detailed accuracy as the Conservative Party of Indonesia: The National Party, a kind of LiberalProgressive grouping; and the SocialI ist Party, as the name implies though not above adopting methods which would shock its British and Australian namesakes. Each of these parties possesses as ’ official or unofficial political appendages anything from three to thirtythree other groups, the members of which often belong to all the other parties' of the bloc and 'occasionally, | as a form of personal and business ini surance to parties of quite different colour. The rank and file, according to In- | donesian political observers and Dutch officials, have little real say in the formulation of policies. Their’s is not to reason why, l heir’s is but to shout “merdeka” at the right moment. The real decisions, the inner group- . ing and negotiation, the resolving of i personal and political views, are macle by ten men and one woman. The eleven outstanding personali- . I ties are: President Sukarno; Prime I Minister Hatta, both Independents but j closely associated with National and ' note, National Party; Sultan Hamidii note, National Party; Sultan Hamidii lof Pontianac (East Borneo); former Prime Minister youthful Sutan Sjahrir, Socialist Party; East Indonesian Prime Minister Anak Agung; Mr. Moi hammed Roem and Mr. Sjjamsuddin, Masjumi Party; 26 year old Colonel Simatupang, Chief of Staff of - the Republican Army; and the mystery . man of Indonesian events, Kartosu.weirio, leader of the dreaded Darul Islam fanatical Moslem guerillas, still } terrorising a large area in West Java. The woman is Indonesian feminist leader, slim, charming Mrs. Uflan . | Sanloso. } Around these men are twenty or thirty others of outstanding ability in divers ways. They include orthodox! Moslem Conservatives such as Ruslan Abdulgani and Mohammed Natsir: ■ Alimin, the Communist leader, still in I the hills; General Sudirman, com- ‘ i manding the Republican Army from j J a sickbed; and his former Aide, East . | Java Guerilla Leader Colonel Sung- • j kone. i Besides the Republic proper there are also 15 other Indonesian federal I governments who must ratify The i J Hague agreement before proclamai I tibn of sovereignty probably on DeII cember 28. • I They are expected to follow the de- ■: vision:; in Jogjakarta. Around them • is a similar web of intrigue for local I I power. 1 | The republican and federal politi- ., clans, Ihrough their working eommit- - i tees an* now engaged in deciding upon -[the procedure for the election of Pre- ■ sidont of the United States of Jnclonci 1 sia. ; J The USI Cabinet when appointed. • , will be charged will) federal constitu- ■ I tio:ial decisions as well as immediate • : adminislralives duties. [ According to the Hague agreement, .(general elections would be held with- | j in a year of proclamation of sover- ; eignty. Until they are held, the prac- - jtical power of republican politician:; i derives directly from their own perj sonality and power of leadership and 1 indirectly from a shadowy body called | “The People’s Congress,” the full com- 1 I position of which is probably know n I ( onh to President Sukarno and Prime J Minister Malta. This Congress has not