CHAPTER FOUR:
Introduction: The Military and the Politics of
Authoritarian Domination
In
The military claimed -- with
some validity, unlike in
During the early life of the
independent state, politics were complex and turbulent. There was dissension over how the new state
was to be organized politic-ally; how state-society relations were to be
ordered; and who would do the ordering.
There was very little consensus on these questions: the military had its
vision, but so did the PKI, the Islamic forces, the socialists, and various
prominent elites.
This examination of the military
in Indonesian politics will highlight some of the key themes of military
interventionism discussed in the theoretical chapters.
Modern
This section will investigate
the pattern and nature of military intervention and the evolution of
state-society relations in
In the pre-colonial times of
what is now known as "
By the mid-1600s, Mataram had
fallen apart. By the early 1670s, it had
been replaced as the dominant power by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). By the 1760s, the VOC was supreme. The remnants of the divided Mataram were
constituted as vassals, along the lines of the princely states in
The Dutch occupied the Netherlands
Indies for over 180 years, and their policy evolved along with local conditions
and changes in the mother country.[5] With the VOC’s collapse at the end of the
1700s, a series of Governor-Generals set about "defeudalizing,"
rationalizing, and modernizing the colony.
They established a net-work of inter-island transport, including
railroads, and introduced a modern infrastruct-ure in areas like banking,
telegraph communications, and newspapers.
The result was a more vigorous, efficient export-based commercial
economy. Entering the twentieth century,
the Netherlands Indies was, speaking in general, a single
administrative-political-economic unit, and an integral part of the world
economy – but as a colony.
Dutch rule was not as direct as
British rule in
Still, colonial modernization
brought radical change in its train.
Administrative unification, together with the influx of Western ideas of
freedom and democracy, national independence, and popular sovereignty, soon
gave rise to nationalist sentiments.[7] A "national" society had indeed
been created, one that spawned among the elites a sense of belonging and
togetherness.[8]
The earliest nationalist
stirring was spearheaded in 1908 by the Budi Utomo organization, an advocate of
Javanese nationalism and traditionalism.
Led by "progressive" priyayi, it took a moderate line
in opposing the Dutch.[9] Next came Sarekat Islam, founded in 1912,
with roots in the Islamic Trade Association and an agenda aimed at undermining
the economic dominance of the Chinese.
It grew into a sort of mass movement, and by 1918 claimed almost half a
million members.[10] Also prominent among the more radical
groupings was the PKI, formed in 1920 -- making it one of the oldest communist
parties in
More significant in this early
associational life was the Indonesian Association, founded in the 1920s by
students in
Despite the populist orientation
embodied in his Marhaen ("little people") doct-rine[14]
and Pancasila (Nationalism, Humanitarianism, Democracy, Social Justice, and
Belief in God), Sukarno was not a democrat.[15] He subscribed to the ideas of nationalists
such as Ki Hadjar Dewantoro (an educator-nationalist and prince of the royal
house of
The attraction of a
nationalist-statist ideology for anti-colonial leaders is under-standable, the
more so for someone like Sukarno who had to fight for sovereignty and, at the
same time, acquire and hold onto power.
He favoured a political order in which the ruled were represented by
functional groups, "guided" by leaders (or a leader) who knew best
what the true national interest was.[19] As
in so many other instances, it is ironic that a movement that promised the
ruled a greater voice in politics and the state should give rise instead to
authoritarianism, first Sukarno’s, then Suharto’s.
The
Military and the Politics of the Struggle for
As in
In 1944, a nationalist umbrella
body was formed, the Indonesian Preparatory Committee for Independence
(PPKI). Sukarno was its head and
Pancasila its guiding principle.[21] This later was transformed into the Central
Indonesian National Comm-ittee (KNIP), which acted as a quasi-parliament until
the elections of 1955.
In September 1945, a month after
The story of Indonesian
independence grows more complicated with the Dutch attempts to reimpose control. Between 1946 and 1948, the Dutch launched
numerous military offensives, interspersed with agreements that they promptly
broke.[23] Their final campaign was the attack in
December 1948 on the Republican capital,
The struggle for independence
was not waged by a united movement.
Friction regularly arose in dealings between Sukarno, Hatta, Sjahrir,
Amir Sjarifuddin, Tan Malaka, and the PKI leadership. Tension was also evident between civilian
leaders like Sjahrir and Amir, and the military led by Sudirman. There were also intra-military disputes over the
shape of the new armed forces that saw PETA square off against Dutch-trained
officers like Abdul Haris Nasution.[25]
The
most serious task for the new "government" led by Sjahrir and,
nominally, Sukarno,[26] was constructing a national armed forces out of
the patchwork of politicized armed bodies.
Again, there was little agreement between civilian and military leaders,
and within the military itself, as to how the institution was to be organized. Civilian control was another sticking point.[27] The
conundrum was deepened by the fact that the leadership of the nascent armed
forces consisted largely of Japanese-trained PETA officers. Like
In response, Sudirman moved closer
to Tan Malaka,[30] a key opposition figure. Soon the army was embroiled in civilian
politics. At the instigation of his
followers, some officers staged an abduction of Sjahrir – the "July 3
Affair" – in the hope that Sukarno would appoint Tan Malaka to the
government. This, one might say, was the
military’s first intrusion into politics.
Sukarno instead demanded Sjahrir’s release, then won over Surdirman by
declaring the Tentara Republic Indonesia (TRI) to be the state’s sole
legitimate armed force and by appointing him its chief.
The civilian-military struggle
also touched on the crucial question of how the politicized militias (laskars)
were to be dealt with. The military
wanted some put under its command and others disarmed, but there was dissension
over exactly how this would be carried out.
Thus, when Nasution, acting under Sudirman’s orders, tried in September
1948 to "rationalize" the military in preparation for the expected
Dutch offensive, a bloody, futile resistance broke out, waged by communist
militias and allied units who refused to disband. The "Madiun Affair" ever since has
been depicted as a communist "stab in the back" to the Republic.[31]
It
was fortunate that the Dutch chose not to go on the offensive at the time of
the Affair. They did so in December,
however, capturing
The period between independence and the installation of the
"Guided Democracy Order" in 1959-60 was marked by the struggle among
party leaders to gain the upper hand in an open arena of parliamentary
politics.[32] Parallel conflicts also arose between civilian
power-holders and soldiers, and among the various military factions vying for
control of the armed forces.
A parliamentary system was
adopted in accordance with the provisional 1950 Constitution.[33] The
responsibility of day-to-day governance rested with a Prime Minister and
cabinet under the guidance of a figurehead President, Sukarno. Thus, for the first decade of independence,
Sukarno was "pushed upstairs".
Politics was dominated by party leaders who sought the suppport of
different social sectors. As Leo
Suryadinata notes, the PNI (Partai Nasional Indonesia, close to Sukarno)
enjoyed the support of civil servants and the priyayi class (mostly abangan or nominal Muslims). The Masjumi drew support from Muslim
landlords, traders, and modern-minded intellectuals, while the Nahdatul Ulama
(NU) targeted more orthodox santri Muslims and commercial elements in
the smaller towns of central and eastern Java.
The Socialist Party of Indonesia (PSI), meanwhile, secured a following
in the army and civil service, while the PKI -- the only legal communist party
in
In post-independence
With his death, Nasution, Simatupang,
and other Dutch-trained officers came to occupy the top positions, intensifying
intra-military tensions and contributing to the general political
instability. Nasution’s attempts to
reform the military, and also to stake out a place for the military in
politics, generated opposition from several quart-ers. Politicians[38] opposed the military’s role in
political-administrative affairs, which, thanks to the State of War and Siege
(SOB) decree, the military exercised with special alacrity in "insecure areas",
similar to the situation in Burma.
Ex-PETA officers, meanwhile, opposed Nasution’s restructuring plans,
which involved replacing them with better-trained personnel.[39] Finally,
Sukarno himself disliked and distrusted Nasution, as we shall see below.
Nasution’s "
Nasution’s absence from the
scene did not lead to the subordination of the military to civilian
authorities. Behind the "27th June
Affair" lay the machinations of Defence Minister Iwa Kusumasumantri, a
Sundanese and follower of Tan Malaka.
The Affair centred on the appointment of a new Chief-of-Staff
(KSAD). Simbolon, the most senior
officer, was unacceptable to Iwa, who saw him as Nasution’s man. Iwa therefore appointed Bambang Utojo. But Zulkifli Lubis, the Acting KSAD -- Iwa's former ally and foe of Nasution --
refused to step down. He declared that
the army represented the whole nation and would fight attempts by politicians
to politicize it to advance sectarian goals.[42]
Just
when Nasution seemed doomed to obscurity following his dismissal and electoral
humiliation in the 1955 voting,[43] Sukarno appointed him Chief of Staff in
November 1955. Each seemed to recognize
that he needed the other to attain a comm-on goal: the abolition of
parliamentary politics and the establishment of a more "Indo-nesian"
political order.[44] Their relationship proved mutually
beneficial. Nasution’s support secured
for Sukarno a power base that he could personally command, and use to establish
the Guided Democracy order. Sukarno’s
support boosted Nasution’s legitimacy and gave him a firmer grip on the
military. This he consolidated in a
round-about, complex fashion by eliminating military rivals and challengers.
Upon
his reappointment, Nasution embarked on a scheme to professionalize the
military structure, which meant transferring those who were "setting
themselves up as warlords."[45] This
stirred further opposition to Nasution within the military.[46] The most serious challenge took the form of a
series of regional revolts, led by all the
The
revolts exploited widespread anti-Jakarta sentiments which coexisted with a
strong sense of "Indonesian-ness."
This enabled leaders like the Sultan of Jogjakarta (a Javanese) and
Hatta (a Sumatran) to band together to isolate the extremists. It also assisted Nasution (a Batak) in
maintaining contacts with rebel leaders which, in turn, helped to moderate
secessionist demands.[50] Overall, the revolts proved
a blessing in disguise for Nasution, ridding him of troublesome officers. Furthermore, Sukarno’s nationwide declaration
of martial law (imposing a State of
Of
theoretical relevance here is how the military’s lack of cohesion inhibited its
ability to intervene in politics and undermine parliamentary rule. The "17th October Affair" resulted instead
in Nasution’s dismissal by Sukarno, who was adept at manip-ulating disunity
within the military. The "27th June
Affair" also failed to change the system substantially. Paradoxically, it was the concerted effort by
dissidents -- military, regional, and political – to oust Nasution via the
string of regional revolts that ended up strengthening his hand. The revolts turned him into precis
class=Section3>
ely the kind of strongman-unifier that, in
alliance with Sukarno, could override the parliamentary system and impose a
more authoritarian "Guided Democracy" order. This early military intervention in politics
confirms my contention that for military intervention to be effective, a
prominent leader must arise to unify the military. It also lends support to the idea that the
military usually intervenes as the political instrument of authoritarian
leaders like Nasution and Sukarno in
The
Sukarno-Nasution
Despite Sukarno’s charisma and
symbolic standing, he did not, as noted, exercise power directly in the first
post-independence years. He stood
"above politics" as President and supreme leader. His relations with other power-players, as
with Field Marshal Pibul’s in
Sukarno’s turn towards direct
personal rule did not really represent a new direction for him. He often expressed disillusionment with
"Western democracy" and parliamentary politics. As David Reeve notes, he had always favoured
the notions of "Indonesian democracy" and "democracy with
leadership" that early nationalist thinkers had advanced. These revolved around governance and
decision-making strategies that would represent "functional" groups,
not through open party competition, but by musyawarah and mufakat
(consultation and consensus).[51] He felt the system of parliamentary politics
and governance had been imposed on him by political parties and rivals;[52] he resented his role as "a maker of
speeches, a host at official receptions, and a man to whom ambassadors
presented their credentials."[53] Nor should it be forgotten that Sukarno was,
at least for rhetorical purposes, a pseudo-revolutionary Marxist, as his
NASAKOM formula (Nationalism, Religion, and Communism) attested.[54] His "revolutionary" leftist
orientation drew him into a closer relationship with the PKI, with the latter
becoming, over time, the second pillar of the Guided Democracy state.[55]
The military, of course, shared
Sukarno’s distaste for politicians. As
Sukarno moved away from supporting parliamentary politics, the military began
to assert its own anti-democratic views more forcefully. Nasution, for example, blamed disorder,
instability, and the ongoing regional revolts on "cow-trading"
politics. He rejected the "Western
European model" and proclaimed that soldiers would not become the
"dead tools" of government. He
also reiterated his "
Despite the antipathy and mutual
suspicion between these two leading figures, then – and despite the ideological
distance between the leftist "revolutionary" and the staunch
anti-communist – their strategic goals converged. Ironically, as noted, it was a crisis wi
class=Section4>
thin the military, the regional revolts, which
strengthened the duo’s position politically.
The revolts gave Sukarno grounds to extend martial law throughout
The kind of state-society order
that Sukarno desired was outlined in his Kon-sepsi formula. He envisioned
supreme power as lying in a "servant-leader" who embodied the
people’s aspirations.[57] Below
him would be a cabinet of gotong-royong (mutual assistance) in which all
parties would be represented, including the PKI. A National Council of functional groups would
represent workers, peasants, intellectuals, women, and adherents of religious
faiths (Muslim, Protestant, and Catholic).[58]
In May 1959, the Constituent
Assembly – elected in 1956 and composed of party politicians – rejected Konsepsi
and Sukarno’s call for a return to the 1945 Con-stitution. Nasution, now Chairman of the Supreme War
Authority and in full control of the military, banned all political activity
and urged Sukarno to adopt the 1945 Constitution by presidential decree.[59] In
early 1960 did exactly that. He
dissolved the Constituent Assembly and brought the era of parliamentary rule to
a close.[60]
This analysis of the roots of
the Guided Democracy state testifies to a fund-amental shift in the prevailing
mode of interaction between state and society.
Intermediary institutions, those that stand between the state and
society, hitherto had not been directly controlled by state officials. Now they were remodelled and replaced by
institutions and bodies directly linked to state officials or key
power-holders, and subject to their control.
Thus was established a state-centric configuration that boosted the
state’s autonomy from society, but also made it less insulated and autonomous
from dominant social actors, which lends support to the observation made in the
theoretical framework with respect to the reorganization of power in
non-democratic or authoritarian orders.
The reorganization of power in
this instance was achieved by Sukarno in what might be described as a
"presidential coup". On the
face of it, this would seem to disprove the argument that military intervention
and the authoritarian reorganization of power are different sides of the same
coin. But since Sukarno and Nasution,
shared a common goal, and since it was Nasution that actually initiated the
move towards authoritarian rule by banning all political activity and calling
from adoption of the 1945 Constitution by presidential decree, the argument
might provisionally be allowed to stand.
The events of 1959-60 might best be seen as an indirect intervention by
the military in Indonesian politics.
Guided
Democracy Politics, 1960-1965: Sukarno, the Military, and the PKI
In the Guided Democracy order,
although dominant, the military was kept in check by Sukarno, who was a master
at political manipulation. In 1960, for
example, he separated Nasution from his power base, the key Siliwangi Division,[61] replacing him with Ibrahim Adjie, a Sukarnoist
whose morals Nasution disdained. He appointed Nasution’s old foe, Hidajat, as
deputy Defence Minister. He successfully
exploited inter-service and personal rivalries (for example, those between
Nasution and Air Force General Suryadama, and later Omar Dhani).[62] And he reduced the power of the Defence
Ministry to that of an administrative centre, rather than the
command-and-control apparatus envisioned by Nasution.
In
June 1962, Sukarno kicked Nasution upstairs, appointing him Chief of Staff and
forcing him to turn over the post of Army chief to Ahmad Yani. The latter was, according to Harold Crouch,
Nasution’s main rival, and had a warm relationship with Sukarno.[63]
Nasution’s position eroded further when Sukarno established the Supreme
Operational Command (KOTI) with himself as head and Yani as Chief of
Staff. The KOTI was responsible for
executing governmental and economic programs, as well as combatting
counter-revolutionary forces and the Nekolim.
Despite
Nasution’s sidelining, however, the military’s position as a whole was
firm. The forces that had tended to
challenge it – especially civilian parties and pol-iticians – had been
"tamed," or co-opted into the Guided Democracy framework. Its rivals, the PSI and Masjumi, had been
expelled from the political arena because of their opposition to Guided
Democracy and their involvement in the regional revolts. As well, the SOB decrees Sukarno imposed to
counter the revolts served to buttress military power; Sukarno’s foreign
adventures – the
Sukarno’s notion of
functional-group representation was in fact a godsend for the military. It was in line with the armed forces’
distaste for parliamentary politics,[67] and dovetailed also with its self-image as a
functional group. That image, sanctioned
by Sukarno in 1958, was later legitimized in Suharto’s New Order via the Dwi
Fungsi (Dual Function) formula. The
military thus affirmed it's status as a socio-political grouping, one
responsible for both defending and developing the nation.[68] This
reinforced its mystique as "guardian of the nation".
The functional-groups concept
enabled the military to build a civilian base, known as Sekber Golkar (the
Joint Secretariat of Functional Groups).
In essence, this was an anti-PKI front composed of over ninety
functional groups[69] – the forerunner of Golkar, the government’s party which today
dominates the representative-legislative sphere of Suharto’s New Order.
In the Guided Democracy years,
however, the Sebker Golkar did not enjoy dominance. It could only compete with other fronts
affiliated to political parties and the PKI.[70] All of
them competed for the favour of Sukarno, the man at the center of things. This arrangement can be contrasted with
In the bid between power players
in Sukarno's order, the PKI seemed to be gaining more influence owing to its
ideological affinity with the "President for Life". Sukarno, for example, endorsed the PKI’s proposal
to "nasakomize" the military through the dispatching of advisory
teams to ABRI. He even supported arming
work-ers and peasants as a "Fifth Force", threatening the military’s
monopoly over the legitimate means of coercion.[71] Owing
to Sukarno's growing pro-PKI stance, the military, ABRI, felt, as Nasution puts
it, "pushed into a corner."[72]
However, despite ABRI's growing
unease with Sukarno’s increasing close alliance with the PKI and by the spectre
of a communist triumph, the PKI was actually in a desperate "race against
time".[73] Crouch
notes that the ideological affinity between Sukarno and the PKI was not
mirrored by a significant PKI presence in the state sphere, and its position
was still far from secure.[74] The
military, by contrast, was firmly entrenched in the state apparatus, as we have
seen. In addition, the struggle between
the PKI and the military over the "functional group representation"
sphere of the Guided Democracy order was still unresolved. The PKI’s fronts -- which included the
Central Organization of All Indonesian Workers (SOBSI), the BTI (a peasant
front), the League of People’s Culture (LEKRA), and Gerwani, a women’s front --
were all challenged by military-backed fronts, just as the latter felt
threatened by the PKI’s organizing efforts.
The PKI’s ascent, like that of
its military nemesis, was a difficult one.
After being nearly decimated by Nasution and the Siliwangi Division in a
skirmish that became known as the "Madiun Affair" of 1948, the party
made a comeback, winning 16 percent of the popular vote in the 1955 general
elections. Led by Dipa Nusantara Aidit,
it chose to support Sukarno in all his endeavours.[75] In return, it gained the latter's protection
from its bitterest foe, the military, and from socialist and Islamic rivals as
well.
Most scholars have seen
Sukarno’s attitude toward the PKI as prompted by political expediency, or by a
desire to outflank the military and Islamic forces.[76] There
is certainly much truth in this evaluation.
What also needs to be considered, though, is the close ideological affinity
between Sukarno and the PKI.[77] It made
sense for the PKI to support a sympathetic and all-powerful ruler like
Sukarno. After the 1955 elections -- the
only genuine elections in
Equally
valuable to the PKI was the actions Sukarno took against parties and fronts
linked to ABRI or otherwise anti-PKI. In
1960, for example, Sukarno banned the League for Democracy, an anti-communist
front drawn from the ranks of Masjumi, PSI, NU, and IP-KI (a party with close
ties to the military).[78] In the
same year, he banned the PKI’s (and the military's as well, ironically)
political rivals, the Masjumi and PSI, for different but rather good reasons –
their involvement in the regional revolts.
In 1964, The Body for the Upholding of Sukarnoism (BPS), a front led by
Trade Minister and Murba leader Adam Malik that opposed
"nasakomization," also was banned.
Thanks to Sukarno’s active assistance and Guided Democracy politics,
then, it can be said that the PKI gained a great deal of capital from its
junior partner-ship with the "Great Leader", while the military
increasingly came under ideological and political siege from Sukarno and the
PKI.
The
PKI gained further support among Java’s rural poor with its aksi sepihak,
or unilateral actions -- peasant seizures of land considered already
distributed under land reform laws of 1959 and 1960.[79] These
often-violent actions polarized the rural areas along class and religious
lines: landowners and rural elites were mostly santri, or orthodox
Muslims, and largely affiliated with the NU, while the poor were mostly abangan
(nominal Muslims). PKI gains in this
area, though, were offset by growing fears of lower-class violence and
"Red terror." Many members of
the socio-economic elite were pushed away from Sukarno and the PKI, and into
the arms of the military,
Still,
if ABRI enjoyed a "competitive edge" over its rival and enemy, the
PKI’s long-term prospects were quite encouraging, given its closeness to the
leader on which all actors in the Guided Democracy state depended. Things seemed even rosier when Sukarno’s
relations with ABRI worsened as a result of the latter’s alleged foot-dragging
on "nasakomisation" and the "Fifth Force". Sukarno even accused military leaders of becoming
"reactionary".[80] Adding
fuel to the fire was Sukarno’s accusat-ions that Nekolim forces planned to
assassinate him together with Dr.Subandrio and Yani, and that a coup by a
CIA-backed "Council of Generals" was in the planning stages.[81]
Unfortunately
for the PKI, Sukarno vomited and collapsed while receiving a Sekber-Golkar
delegation. This spawned speculation
about his health and rumours of impending coups and power struggles. Tensions increased; the balance of power was
growing unsettled as mutual suspicions deepened among the twin pillars of
Sukarno’s order, the PKI and the military.
This set the stage for the dramatic and traumatic violence that exploded
in late 1965.
The above analysis of the Guided
Democracy state lends credence to the assertion in the theoretical framework
that in an authoritarian order, military or otherwise, the political centre of
gravity shifts towards the personal ruler, who holds the lion’s share of
power. In the Guided Democracy order,
this was Sukarno. He was in almost
complete control of the state and its institutions, which largely became
extensions of his will and vision. In
this sense, the state was non-autonomous, malleable, and not insulated from
Sukarno’s preferences.
We have seen that Sukarno was
able to maintain quite a stable surface balance, despite the mutual antagonisms
of the two pillars. ABRI’s entrenchment
in the state apparatus was offset to a large extent by the PKI’s ideological
closeness to Sukarno. But the fact that
his two powerful subordinate forces were implacable enemies proved
destabilizing at a deeper level. As it
transpired, doubts about Sukarno’s health trigger-ed the kind of crisis of
succession and transition to be expected, given the earlier discussion of the
vulnerability of authoritarian systems when the ruler is weakened, physically
or otherwise.
The
“Succession” Crisis: Gestapu and the Birth of Suharto’s
Soon after Sukarno’s collapse,
on October 1, the Gestapu (30th of September Movement) staged its coup
attempt. It was led by Colonel Untung of
the Presidential Guard and "radicals" from the Diponegro and
Brawijaya Divisions.[82] Yani
and five top generals were killed, along with Nasution’s daughter and an
aide. Nasution himself narrowly escaped
death. Inexplicably, General Suharto,
head of the counter-coup reserves (KOSTRAD), but not one of the Council of
Generals, was not on the hit-list. This
oversight proved fatal.[83]
Untung announced he had acted to
pre-empt a coup by a CIA-backed "Council of Generals," to safeguard
the President, and to purge ABRI of corrupt "power-mad generals".[84] He proclaimed a Revolutionary Council, which
he headed, and which included the Air Force’s Omar Dhani, Sukarno’s protégé and
Foreign Minister Subandrio, the Navy chief, and other pro-PKI figures. Sukarno’s name, however, was absent. In this respect and others, Gestapu is
a mystery that has generated considerable debate.[85] The
official version is that it was a PKI plot to split the army and secure its position
after the death or incapacitation of Sukarno.[86] The roles of Sukarno and
Suharto are also intriguing. Was Sukarno
involved in the coup, or did he know about it, and if so how much? Was Suharto simply an innocent beneficiary?[87]
Suffice
it to say that by the second day, Suharto, with Nasution’s advice and with
minimal fighting, had regained control.[88] Nasution was, for the most
part, in shock: he had been injured while escaping from the team sent to abduct
and kill him, and his daughter had been mortally wounded. Sukarno was now in an awkward position. He had gone to Halim Air Base, the coup
headquarters, along with Omar Dhani (who had openly endorsed the coup), Subandrio,
Aidit, and other PKI leaders.[89] That night he made for his palace at
Taking
advantage of public horror at the murder of the generals and Nasution’s
daughter, the military set out swiftly to destroy the PKI. It joined with other anti-PKI elements –
Islamic parties and youth organizations, the right wing of the PNI, and old
political foes, along with anti-communist intellectuals and students. Its anti-PKI camp-aign included a televised
exhumation of the dead generals, and a public funeral for them and Nasution’s
daughter. Soon mobs looted and gutted
PKI offices and property, first in
Whatever
their character and extent, the massacres served the New Order rulers in a
number of key ways. First, it rid them
of their main rival, the PKI. Second, as
Julia Southwood and Patrick Flanagan suggest, the trauma turned survivors into
"obedient collaborators and victims",[94] and made many of those involved in the
kill-ings the "partners in crime" of the regime. The bloodbath allowed New Order power-holders
to present themselves as standing guard over society to prevent a replay of the
traumatic events. The slaughter thus
provided the regime with a negative kind of legit-imacy: as noted in the
theoretical discussion, the fear of disorder and bloodshed may induce a degree
of acceptance of authoritarian control, given the likely alternatives.
With the PKI annihilated, ABRI
was the only significant force left. The
time was near to get rid of Sukarno.
Ironically, Sukarno then precipitated his own downfall. Misjudging his popularity, in early 1966 he
dismissed Nasution as Defense Minister and ABRI Chief.[95] In
response, Ali Murtopo, an intelligence man and hard-core Suhartoist, stepped up
his support for anti-Sukarno students who had taken to the streets under the
banners of the Islamic University Students Association (HMI) and the Indonesian
Students Action Group (KAMI). He
orchestrated mass rallies together with attacks on Subandrio’s Foreign Ministry
and the Chinese Embassy. The climax came
on
Thus
emboldened, Suharto took decisive action.
He dissolved the Presidential Guard, arrested Sukarnoist ministers
(including Subandrio), and formed a new cabinet with himself as Defence
Minister. The Sultan of Jogjakarta was
brought into the cabinet to lend Suharto an aura of legitimacy. He also forced the PNI (Sukarno’s informal
power base) to hold a special congress under the eyes of the Siliwangi
Division. This ensured that a Suhartoist
chairman was "elected."
Next,
Suharto purged the military of Sukarnoists.
His own loyalists -- Sumitro, Dharsono, Surono, and so on -- were appointed
as commanders of the Siliwangi, Diponegoro and Brawijaya Divisions,
respectively. The civil service and the
National Front were also purged. The
final blow to Sukarno was delivered by none other than Nasution, as Chairman of
the Provisional People’s Consultative Assembly (MPRS), the
"king-making" body of the 1945 Constitution. In March 1966, this body stripped Sukarno of
his title of President for Life. Later,
symbolizing his total disempower-ment, he would be called to account for his
role in Gestapu and "the economic and moral deterioration of the
nation."[96] In March 1967, the MPRS
named Suharto as Acting President, officially withdrawing the mantle from
Sukarno. The formal transfer of power
was effected a year later, when Suharto was confirmed as President.
Of
theoretical relevance in this discussion of the crisis and Suharto’s rise to
power is the fact that the military establishment did not initiate the
intervention, nor could it have. Its
leaders were not united enough to move against Sukarno. They, especially Yani, had accepted Sukarno
as a supreme leader, whatever differences existed over the role of the PKI.[97]
Finally, its place in the Guided Democracy regime was secure. Moreover, the military had no pressing reason
to intervene. It would not necessarily
be threatened even by Sukarno’s death or incapacitation. Actually, it was the PKI that stood to lose
if any such misfortune befell Sukarno.
One might surmise from the ease with which the top brass were eliminated
in the Gestapu that they were not expecting trouble, much less
contemplating a coup of their own at that point.
On
the other hand, Gestapu itself was, strictly speaking, an act of
military intervention. After all, it was
carrried out by a military faction. It
may thus be viewed as an attempt by a segment of the military to reorganize
political power on behalf of a political leader or leaders – Sukarno and
perhaps some PKI figures (probably without their full knowledge or
involvement).
Gestapu
suggests that military intervention is a phenomenon that is closely tied to the
politics of the state, and as discussed theoretically, it will be ineffectual
if carried out by a divided military or in the absence of a
strongman-unifier. It also serves as
further evidence that authoritarian orders, being dependent on the balance of
forces that the ruler establishes, are vulnerable to system instability
whenever the ruler shows signs of physical or political decline.
Regarding
Suharto, he cannot, unlike
The
Military and the Golkar Formula: The Simplification of State-Society
Politics
The contours and structures of
Sukarno’s Guided Democracy were intrinsically authoritarian; thus the
transition from Sukarno to Suharto did not involve fundamental changes in the
way power was organized. In fact,
Suharto was careful to preserve the form and structures of the "old"
order as set out in the 1945 Constitution.[98] The same basic structures
of political power obtain in his "New" Order: namely, a strong
presid-ency; a largely "elected" legislative body or parliament
(DPR); and the representation of regions and relevant functional groups,
symbolized by the MPR (People's Consult-ative Assembly).[99]
Both
Sukarno and Suharto based their rule on the 1945 Constitution and the five
principles (or pillars) of Pancasila:
Belief in One God, Humanitarianism, National Unity, Social Justice, and
People's Sovereignty. It was primarily
meant as a unifying doctrine. Both
leaders used Belief in One God to thwart Islamic goals, and National Unity was
an overriding preoccupation. Both
leaders honored the other principles more symbolically than in practice, and
they were able to manipulate all the pillars to serve their strategies of rule. But in this respect, Suharto was the more
skilful political craftsman, and he was more successful in implementing an
authoritarian state under the 1945 constitution framework.
After Gestapu, Suharto
was faced with the task of firming up a badly-shaken authoritarian order. Fortunately, there was at that time no one to
challenge the legitimacy of Sukarno’s hegemonizing-legitimizing formula, built
around the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila,[100] which all elite groups -- including ABRI and
even the PKI -- had accepted as a "sacred" legacy of the revolution
and integral to Indonesian nationhood.
Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski have pointed to this feature of
authoritarian orders: that some degree of consensus may coexist with coercion.[101] The
constituting of the New Order was no easy task, however. It involved rearranging forces to restore a
balance among the constellation of state factions. It also meant "taming" forces
unleashed by Gestapu, especially Islamic forces, which had become
politicized during the transition period.
Suharto’s
main problem at this juncture was how best to engineer the entrench-ing of what
was then his only power base – the military – in the New Order’s political
arena, where it could serve as a controlling and stabilizing force. The politically sophisticated solution was a
remodelling of the functional-group representation prin-ciple provided for in
the Constitution. The Sekber-Golkar,
used to counter the PKI during the years of Guided Democracy, was revived. It became Golkar, the govern-ment’s party,
and was placed under ABRI control (though this control slackened over time, as
explored below). Golkar as the electoral
machine of the regime. Its overriding
function was to win votes and seats, and thus allow ABRI and Suharto to control
the representative-legislative sphere.
To this point, it has been successfully employed in six elections –
1971, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, and 1997 – that have served to stabilize and
legitimize the New Order.
Golkar underwent several
organizational reformulations before it was decided that Suharto, as chief
supervisor, would be the supreme head.
He was empowered to dictate or veto any Golkar appointment. Next in line came a Leadership Council
consisting of a central executive board, along with executive boards from the
provinces and regencies (administrative units).
The chair and other top positions on these boards were held by active or
retired ABRI men. Later they would pass
to anyone particularly favoured by Suharto and ABRI.[102]
As Reeve notes, Golkar is a
versatile vehicle facilitating ABRI’s entry into politics and state
institutions. It also facilitates the
movement of ABRI men among posts in the military, the Golkar leadership, and
the representative-legislative sphere.[103]
Conceptually, Golkar can be likened to the Burmese Socialist Program
Party (BSPP). Both were the instruments
of the military and, ultimately, the ruler – Suharto and Ne Win
respectively. Certain differences should
not be overlooked, however. Suharto did
not permit ABRI totally to dominate Golkar (and over time the military has
ceased to dominate it), whereas the BSPP was simply a powerless façade for
military rule.
Worse still for ABRI’s power
prospects, Suharto strengthened the civilian presence in the upper reaches of
the New Order power structure. At the
end of 1993, he selected Harmoko as the first civilian chairman of Golkar –
formerly ABRI’s political fief. Harmoko
is said to be an ally of Habibie -- Suharto's protege (and Minister of Research
and Technology) -- and a rising star himself.[104] In
addition, two of Suharto’s children – his daughter Tutut and son Bambang
Trihadmodjo – were named vice-chair and treasurer of Golkar, respectively.[105] Suharto
clearly is attempting to build up a civilian-Islamic bloc through Habibie and
others, as well as to strengthen the civilian component of Golkar. He is trying to consolidate Golkar’s position
as a political party that is able to withstand ABRI’s pressure and influence
and which operates in the manner of, say, Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI).[106] If he
is successful, the sophisticated authoritarian order Suharto has so cleverly
constructed may be maintained and even more firmly institutionalized. In the future, presumably, Golkar will be
led by his children and whichever ABRI figures or factions can be won over as
allies.[107]
Golkar’s importance in the New
Order scheme cannot be overemphasized.
It ensures the closure of the representative-legislative sphere to
societal forces.[108] In
addition, Golkar’s ability to fill representative-legislative bodies at all
levels with a majority of loyal members has enabled ABRI (and ultimately
Suharto) to dominate the MPR – the nation’s supreme body, which elects the
President and draws the broad outlines of state policy.[109] Without
Golkar, ABRI would not easily have been able to assert its control over the
representative-legislative sphere and politics more generally. In short, the Golkar formula has enabled the
New Order state to maintain an apparently open political arena, and to rule constitutionally
while effectively marginalizing opposition parties and forces (like the Islamic
groups) that might, given the opportunity, challenge the regime.
Unlike
Bama and Thai strongmen, therefore, Suharto has succeeded in establishing
restrictive control over a state-society framework that in principle is
somewhat open and pluralistic -- in
The
key to creating a subordinate but nominally pluralistic political arena lay in
Suharto’s ability to "simplify" politics. In this he was assisted by a succession of
versatile aides: among them, Ali Murtopo, Sumitro, Sudomo (a naval admiral),
and Benny Murdani. In 1973, disparate
and competing political parties were merged into two "opposition" or
"minority" parties, with very little chance of one day becoming a
ruling or majority one. The result was
two parties in permanent opposition, divided by their different views and
platforms, and composed of squabbling camps and factions. This made them highly vulnerable to the
blandishments and threats of Suharto’s aides and their handpicked men in the
DPR and MPR. Further restrictions were
imposed on campaign platforms and the use of certain symbols (the Kaaba,
for example); other laws forced the adoption of Pancasila as the only
creed. Thus these parties became, as
intended, shadows of political parties.[111]
The
Military: The New Order’s Dominators, Stabilizers and Dynamizers
Apart from this
"simplification" of politics, the military exerted control over the
population by dominating the public institutions with which ordinary people had
to interact on a daily basis: the administrative machinery of the state. Civil servants were forced to join Golkar or
functional groups such as the Civil Servants Corps (KORPRI), and to swear
loyalty to the state. This meant they
had to cut their ties to other parties and join Golkar.[112] ABRI’s reach extended still further, in the
form of a military-dominated hierarchy of extra-administrative bodies that
oversaw (and intervened in) administration down to the village level. Public servants and policy-implementing
bodies were thereby deprived, to a large extent, of autonomy.[113] Noteworthy here is that although soldiers
could be said not to monopolize administrative bodies as in the past, the fact
remains that ABRI is able to intervene when and where desired. It has the clout to prevent actions that run
counter to its interests or threaten its overall dominance. In the early years, the presence of ABRI in
the administrative sphere was almost as conspicuous as with the BSPP in
The ABRI further sought to
impose control through surveillance and coercion, another feature that
resembled
Control of the press is seen as
particularly important to the regime’s control over society. It is exercised in many ways, including
outright banning. More common is a
telephone call requesting editors not to print certain articles or report on
events, on pain of having the publication’s permit revoked or subscriptions cancelled. Another is the "press briefing",
where the press is given the "facts" of certain events. Fear and self-censorship are the results, as
well described by Adam Schwarz.[118] Largesse may also be provided: an
air-conditioned secretariat for the Indonesian Journalists Association; soft
and long-term loans; cash favours or "envelopes"; substantial
governmental subscriptions; free airline tickets for pilgrimages to
ABRI’s success in entrenching
itself in the state, and its position above society, have shaped the contours
of the relationships that constitute the New Order. First, its dominance has given soldiers the
opportunity to become decision-makers, "legislators" in local
assemblies and the national parliament, political managers and
"politicians" in Golkar, and important administrators and policy
formulators, as well as business man-agers.
As Andrew MacIntyre and Jamie Mackie note, ABRI is allocated one-fifth
of parliamentary seats, in addition to the "elected" but military-nominated
Golkar MPs. Its members also hold important
posts in key ministries (Home and Justice, for example) and the position of
secretary of state. The military
exercises "wide powers of supervision and control over local officials and
societal organizations throughout rural society."[120]
Second,
military control of political-administrative offices have allowed top officers
to use the state apparatus and political power to amass wealth.[121] As a
consequence, an entire class has emerged whose standing is based almost solely
on political power and/or state connections – a common feature of such
authoritarian arrangements, as noted in the theoretical framework. A case in point is Suharto himself. Michael Vatikiotis claims he used his
position as commanding officer of the Diponegoro Division and, later, as President
to accumulate about US $2-3 billion; these were 1990-91 figures and were
projected to grow rapidly. The key to
this wealth has been business deals or connections with Chinese cukong-entrepreneurs
such as Liem Sioe Liong and Kian Siang (Bob Hassan).[122] Other
generals – for instance, Ibnu Sutowo, and even dissidents like Jasin, Sukendro,
and Dharsono – have obtained state favours and used them to generate wealth.[123]
According to Murdani, a former Defence Min-ister and once a close aide
to Suharto, an ordinary retired general could easily make US $1-2 million
through contracts and tenders.[124] ABRI’s dominance is such
that, in Schwarz’s words, it would have been the envy of soldiers of several
Latin American states.[125]
Third, and most important, the
fact that the military wore three hats -- those of soldier, politician, and
administrator -- knitted the four million civil servants together under
military tutelage. The result has been a
relatively cohesive state stratum of armed and unarmed bureaucrats.[126] In the
three decades since the birth of the New Order, members of this stratum have
formed a cohesive social web, a "sub-society" separated especially
from lower social strata. One might add
that, as in other
Members of this state stratum
have also established links with elites in other spheres: businessmen,
professionals, and intellectuals, as well as local notables and community
leaders. The regime’s carrot-and-stick strategy
of co-option, combined with the social and patrimonial linking of the official
class to other societal elites, has created a national "elite
network" and an important degree of consensus. Certain rules of the game have been established,
based on not rocking the boat too vigorously, or seeking support outside elite
circles (for example, by championing the cause of sub-ordinated social strata).[128] Such
linkages, rules, and points of consensus are vital to the stability of
authoritarian orders. Non-state elite
groups gain access to state resources; state elites live very comfortably,
partly as a result of their extra-state connections.[129] Like
the Thai strongmen-rulers, then, but unlike Ne Win and the Tatmadaw in
Suharto
and the Politics of Personal Domination
The view presented here of New
Order Indonesia as a military-dominated polity is not meant to suggest that it
is a military state – though in many ways it is that as well. ABRI is certainly the main pillar of the New
Order. But it stands at the pinnacle of
a state in which power, control, and key resources derive from the president
and his close aides.[130] In his
amassing of personal power, Suharto’s brand of authoritarianism is similar in
many aspects to Sukarno’s, Ne Win’s, and the version implemented by Thai strongmen-rulers
-- Pibul, Sarit, Thanom, and Praphart.
Still,
Sukarno and Suharto do differ, notably in their personalities and visions. Sukarno was impelled by a vague
"Marxism" and a populist-nationalist romanticism which saw national
politics as part of a struggle of the world’s downtrodden against global
exploitation and oppression. His enemies
were more external than internal:
It is to Suharto’s great credit
that he was able to restore and preserve an authoritarian order in a situation
in which disparate forces, each with its own agenda, intruded into politics and
sought to extract benefits from the new man at the centre.[132] The
situation was dangerous, but provided Suharto as pivotal power-player with the
opportunity to exploit these forces and the prevailing climate of anxiety. He benefitted from the trauma of a "mass
insanity": the communal killing throughout
Suharto seized the opportunity
to remodel and refine the Sukarno system.
He focused his attention on the principle of functional group
representation. He used Golkar, which
ostensibly existed to represent these groups, as a means of entrenching his
power base in the military, politics, and the state, and the military's in
politics. It was also the method by
which he dominated the legislative-representative arena, neutralizing political
parties and Islamic forces. Suharto
loyalists – aides such as Ali Murtopo, Sumitro, Darjatmo, Amir Murtono,
Sokowati, and Sapardjo – consolidated Golkar through their patient legwork, and
steered it to victory in the first New Order elections of 1971. With a majority in the new parliament (DPR),
the Suharto group moved to simplify and re-structure the political parties,
reducing them to two – the PPP (United Development Party) and PDI (Indonesian
Democratic Party)– which were no match for Golkar.
The remodelling of the
representative-legislative assemblies, the DPR and MPR, eroded whatever
functional purpose they might have served.
As Vice-President Adam Malik put it, a parliamentarian’s life came to
consist of the "four D’s" (in Bahasa Indonesian): clock in, collect
your pay, sit back, and keep quiet.[133] Despite
some more recent tendencies towards independence among legislators, the power
of the representative-legislative bodies has been effectively circumvented, and
deliberations skewed in favour of those who control Golkar – Suharto and ABRI.[134] To clarify
parliamentarians, especially those in the military and Golkar fraksi
(division), have debated and expressed concerns over specific issues, and
delayed some government bills. They have
even campaigned against the government in connection, for example, with public lotteries
and increase in electricity prices. But,
as McIntyre points out,
the DPR (parliament) has been
unable to change government policy, and its ability to constrain government
actions remains very limited, however.[135]
After establishing unchallenged hegemony
in this sphere, Suharto moved swift-ly to tame the only force left that was
capable of challenging him. Well aware
of ABRI’s history of insubordination, he set out to set his personal stamp on
its function-ing. First, he rallied
those who had dutifully served him, largely in an intelligence or
special-operations capacity.[136] The
"special aides" (for example, Murtopo, Sumitro, and later, Murdani)
were drawn into the inner circle, and charged with managing "general and
specific affairs". That meant their
jurisdiction and power were unlimited – or rather, limited only by
Suharto. They also moved into key
positions within ABRI, the ministries, security and intelligence bodies,
economic and development agencies, and the Golkar machinery. Because they owed their status to Suharto, he
was able effectively to play one off against the other. This "palace polit-ics" kept the
"palace generals" divided. The
man at the centre, ever vigilant, could clip the wings of excessively ambitious
up-and-comers.[137]
Suharto likewise moved to rid
ABRI of rivals and potential challengers, like
ABRI
was also restructured to diminish the power of those in the formal chain of
command. A series of military
reorganizations reduced the autonomy of the Air Force and the Navy, bringing
them under the control of the Department of Defence and Security (HANKAM). This, in turn, was always controlled by a Suharto
loyalist. The operational capacity of
Area Command was likewise reduced. Crack
units were placed under HANKAM and came to form part of the Strategic Reserve
(KOSTRAD) and the Secret Warfare Force (Kopassandha), both under loyalist
direction.
Suharto
also initiated what Jenkins has called a system of "doubling-up of
functions", wherein powerful aides hold each other in check. In the late 1970s, for example, Chief
Mohammad Jusuf, who served as ABRI Chief, Minister of Defence, and head of
HANKAM, had Murdani and Sudomo as deputies.
Sudomo, as head of KOPKAMTIB, had Murdani and Yoga under him; Murdani
also served as Yoga’s deputy when the latter headed BAKIN. All were granted direct access to Suharto,
turning the strongman into their chief manipulator and arbiter.[141]
ABRI as an institution was kept
happy and busy through the political openings provided to active and retired
personnel alike. This opened up new
career paths and avenues of influence for military men, who served as Golkar
functionaries and appointed or "elected" members of the DPR and
MPR. In addition, as noted, soldiers
held positions in ministerial bureaucracies, the judiciary, the
military-territorial administration, the civil administration, and the state
enterprises – Pertamina, Bulog, Inkopad, Perhutani, Berdikari, and the state
banks.[142] Top-echelon soldiers were well-positioned to
grant or withhold permits, licenses, contracts, credits, and protection to
local entrepreneurs (mainly ethnic Chinese) and domestic or foreign entrepreneurs. In exchange, top ABRI men would receive a
share of the profits, commissions, board memberships, and jobs for family
members and clients.[143] Being
so well-rewarded, these figures were unlikely to risk their future prospects by
moving against a ruler who had become their father-benefactor. This is a useful reminder that while
disgruntled or idealistic officers might arise to challenge the status quo, the
vast majority tends to be occupied taking advantage of the opportunities the
military system has to offer to risk challenging the system. The pivotal role of Suharto, the military
strongman-ruler, as described above, is in agreement with the theoretical
observation that states that military-authoritarian rulers play a pivotal role
in the re-structuring of the state and that to a large extent they determine
the configuration of power among state elements, and in particular, the
military's position within the system.
And yet challenges to Suharto
did arise within ABRI. The earliest,
albeit indirect, occurred in 1973-74. It
was rooted in the rivalry between intelligence men: Sumitro of KOPKAMTIB and
Juwono of BAKIN, on the one hand, and Suharto’s staffers Murtopo and
Humardhani, on the other. The challenge
coincided with turbulence linked to Islamic protests against the Marriage Bill,
which gave non-Islamic groups an equal voice in marriage and family-related
matters. A rice crisis and student
protests against the technocratic economic strategy and Japanese "domination"
added to the volatile brew. Sumitro and
Juwono sympathized with the protesters and their attacks, not just against
ABRI’s Dual Function doctrine, but against corrupt members of the elite,
including those close to Suharto and his wife.
Typical of the opaque "palace politics" that predominate in
authoritarian orders, there were even allegations that the students had been
egged on by the Sudomo-Murtopo clique and used to discredit Sumitro. The climax was widespread rioting and the
"Malari" incident, followed by repression, mass detentions, and the
muzzling of the press. An important
consequence of "Malari" was the purging of Sumitro and his group,
which marked Suharto’s rise to full supremacy.
No subsequent challenge to Suharto has ever arisen among officers on
active duty. Nor have elite challengers
sought to forge linkages with subordinated elements in waging their
intra-military or intra-elite battles.[144]
Opposition to Suharto emerged
again in the late 1970s. This time it
was led by former generals, with Nasution at the forefront.[145] They
were eventually joined by well-known former leaders like Mohammed Hatta
(co-founder, with Sukarno, of modern
The
challenge by Nasution and the others seemed to gain adherents in the inner
circle, including Adam Malik,[149] Generals Alamsjah, Jusuf, and Widodo. The last two produced the Jusuf "blue
book" and the Widodo Papers, which sought to redefine ABRI as a force that
stood "as one with the people," independent of the government of the
day and particular power-holders. They
advocated the reduction of ABRI’s involvement in non-military affairs, and
proposed that it be placed above all political groups, including Golkar.[150]
But
the opposition withered when Suharto lashed out, warning ABRI would have to
"choose friends", and that "enemies" would be isolated and
destroyed.[151] The
ease with which Suharto was able to overcome this challenge indicates just how
strong he had become, and how pervasive was his aura of power and
invulnerability.
The
President’s dominance was further reinforced in 1983, when a substantial number
of officers reached retirement age and Benny Murdani was made the new ABRI
Chief. He set about
"rationalizing" ABRI’s command structure, further central-izing
control in the hands of Suharto loyalists.
As Schwarz, Vatikiotis, and others have pointed out, increasingly, ABRI
brass found themselves outside the decision-making loop.[152] A case
in point is Suharto’s appointment of General Sudharmono, whom ABRI disliked, as
Vice President in 1988. Sudharmono was
viewed by ABRI, while chairman of Golkar (1983-88), as building a rival civilan
power-base through the diversion of tenders and contracts to non-military
clients and cronies. ABRI’s attempts to
block his "election" as Vice-President in 1988 proved futile
(although it was able to replace Sudharmono with it's candidate, Wahano, as
Golkar chairman in 1988).[153] This is
not to say ABRI has not been able, subtly, to assert a degree of autonomy. For instance, it did manage to get its choice,
Sutrisno, selected as, Vice-President for the 1993-98 term (before Suharto made
known his choice).[154]
The
absence, as Schwarz and Vatikiotis note, of credible opponents within the
military in the 1990s has meant that Suharto can largely ignore the military’s
political opinions.[155] As part
of his effort to gain wider support, Suharto has worked to mend fences with a
faction of "political Islam".
In December 1990 he sanctioned the establishment of the Association of
Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI), led by a rising protégé, the Minister of Research
and Technology B.J. Habibie.[156]
Significantly, not a single ABRI man attended Habibie’s inauguration.[157] Suharto
followed this up with a 1991 pilgrimage to
Suharto is very much in control
of ABRI. According to one long-time
observer, all military promotions receive the President’s personal approval.[159] Suharto
also handpicks the heads of the military services and the police. He has final say over who commands KOSTRAD (the
Strategic Reserve), the
Suharto has, as a personal
ruler, certainly been an astute observer and manipulator of his lieutenants and
clients. He has also taken great care to
cultivate the loyalty, cooperation and support of groups within an oligarchical
ruling circle. And at the time, he has
been quite successful in eliminating their autonomous political power and
influence. In the context of personal
rulership style as discussed by Robert Jackson and Carl Rosberg, one might
describe Suharto's rulership style as that of a prince and an autocrat.[162] Small
wonder that William Liddle refers to Suharto as the "Indonesian
king".[163]
The
distinction between public and private spheres in strategies of rule is essentially
a Western concept. But it not a concept
that can be easily ignored.[164] On the
other hand, the notions of "mandate of heaven" and divine right that
once justified personal rule lack legitimacy nowadays. All contemporary states, including Suharto’s,
formally subscribe to the notion that the state and/or government are public
institutions serving the common good. In
As indicated by the analysis,
above, Suharto's New Order state is, unlike Ne Win's BSPP state, a complex
military-authoritarian state. It is also
quite a distinctive one, being more open than many such orders. There are three political parties that
"compete" in periodic, regular elections, and there are legislative
assemblies that debate issues, elect the chief executive, and lay down state
policies. On the other hand, however,
the configuration of state-society interaction and the pattern of relative-autonomy
relations in Suharto’s New Order evince all the central characteristics, as
Heeger notes -- and discussed in the theoretical chapters -- of
military-authoritarian orders.
These include: (a) the
transformation of political roles and actors into bureau-cratic ones; (b) key
powerholders’ increasing personal control over the political-administrative
bureaucracy and state institutions; and (c) the erosion of rational-legal
bureaucratic norms throughout the polity and their replacement by personal,
particular-istic practices. There
obtains a pattern of autonomy relations where the pre-eminent ruler enjoys the
greatest degree of relative autonomy vis-à-vis the state and its institutions. Possessing a somewhat lesser degree of
autonomy are military men and other subordinate power-holders. Thus, both Indonesian state institutions and
Indonesian society enjoy less autonomy vis-à-vis Suharto and subordinate key
officials. The state is more malleable,
less insulated, and more responsive to state officials (especially Suharto); it
is the opposite where society is concerned.[167]
The
Problem and Politics of Transition:
We have seen that the New Order
state is, on balance, Suharto’s creation and most responsive to him. His authority and influence is firmly
anchored in the state, and extends into the political sphere as well.[168] This
situation is inherently unstable, as the discussion in the theoretical chapters
(Chapter 2, in particular) suggest -- more so when the strongman-ruler is in
physical decline and/or, with the passage of time, approaching the end of his
rule. Like all men, Suharto is
mortal. The fact that he is not a
dynastic ruler means that whatever stability and legitimacy he has won for both
the Presidency and New Order institutions could be reversed without him at the
helm.[169]
A further complication is
Suharto’s seeming unwillingness to designate a military man in active service
as his successor, which keeps both aspirants and analysts guessing.[170] As
Vakiotis notes, all vice-presidents either have been ABRI men not on active
command, or civilians. This is true of
the Golkar chairmanship as well.[171]
Suharto’s strategy here apparently aims to ensure that his grown
children, who head vast economic "empires", are protected into the
future.[172]
Knowledgeable sources in
As Suharto’s departure from the
scene looms closer,
The more complex capitalist
economy has given rise to a small, but vibrant "middle-class" stratum
and has engendered the hope that authoritarianism might be diluted by the new
stratum’s aspirations for greater participation and more rights. It has been argued, for example, that the
"new"economy gives greater space to organized business interests to
exert their influence. Bargaining
relationships have arisen, as Andrew McIntyre suggest, between the state and
some industry groups -- especially in the insurance, textile, and
pharmaceutical sectors.[176] Further evidence of the new
middle-class assertiveness is the proliferation of NGOs representing those
adversely affected by existing development policies. Among these are the Legal Aid Institute
(LBH), the Democracy Forum, the Institute for the Defence of Human Rights, a
state sanctioned labor union (the SPSI, or the All Indonesia Workers Union),
and an independent, not legally registered labor union, along with a range of
non-profit social and charity concerns.[177] Recent
years have also seen the rise of numerous small self-help groups under such
umbrellas as the Institution for Promoting Self-Reliant Community Development
(LPM) and the Self-Reliant Community Development Insitute (LSM).[178] As Liddle cautions,
however, most of these NGOs are tiny and resource-poor.[179]
Another
line of argument is possible. Despite
economic "modernization," Mackie stresses that both the middle class
and the bourgeoisie are small and hetero-geneous; the bourgeoisie, in addition,
is mostly ethnic Chinese.[180] The
rural and urban propertied class is prevented by state elements from intruding
into politics or exerting political power.[181] Given the nature of the
middle class and the hierarchical social order, not to mention the social
structures that shape political culture, hopes for a middle-class-led
democratic transition may be misplaced.[182]
Future state-society
arrangements in
For ABRI, the challenge is more
or less to maintain the status quo. It
would like to regain some of the dominance it has lost under Suharto
recently. Mostly, ABRI wants a successor
chosen from its combat ranks (not officers from the legal or bureaucratic
sections, like Sudharmono). Its worst
nightmare would be a successor whose power-base is in the civilian sectors of
Golkar or the bureaucracy, or -- worse still -- one beholden to political
Islam.[183] This
scenario would almost certainly invite military intervention. The political game in
------------------------------------ E N
D N O T E S -----------------------------------------
CHAPTER FOUR:
INDONESIA: MILITARY INTERVENTION AND THE POLITICS OF AUTHORITARIAN DOMINATION
[1] The Indonesian Armed Forces
is currently known as Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia (ABRI). Its forerunners
were the Volunteer Force for the Defence of Java (PETA), formed by the Japanese
in October 1943; the People’s Security Agency (BKR), formed in August 1945; the
People’s Security Army (TKR), formed in October 1945; the Army of the Republic
of Indonesia (TRI), formed in 1946); and the Indonesian National Army (TNI),
formed in May 1947. ABRI’s various incarnations were clarified by General
Soedibyo of the National Defence Institute in an interview in
[2]
For a discussion of the changes that Dutch
colonialism wrought on the loosely linked "inland-states" and
"harbor principalities" of present-day "Indonesia", and the
resulting "distorted" form of capitalism, see Mochtar Pabottingi,
"Nationalism and Egalitarianism in Indonesia, 1908-1980", unpublished
doct-oral dissertation, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1991, esp. pp. 58,
138-179. See also David J. Steinberg et al., In Search of
[3] Steinberg et al., In
Search, pp. 80-86. See also Theodoor
G.T. Pigeaud, Java in the Fourteenth Cent-ury (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1962);
Soemarsaid Moertono, The State and Statecraft in Old Java (Ithaca:
Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, 1968); Soedjatmoko et al, ed., An
Introduction to Indonesian Histor-iography (Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1965).
[4] For a discussion of the symbiotic
relationship between the Dutch and native rulers (together with the indigenous
aristocracy), see Pabottingi, "Nationalism and Egalitarianism", pp.
38-70.
[5] In the 17th century, the Dutch were the
"diligent servants of a great merchant company". In the 18th, by contrast, they were
"uninterested in governance" and were "essentially alien war
bands, extracting what they could from conquered territories by the most
expedient means". In the 19th century, "they gradually became civil
servants of a colonial state". See
Steinberg, et al., In Search, p. 146. The twists and turns of Dutch colonial policy
and its consequences are covered in such classic works as
[6] The administrative
machinery was controlled by the Dutch to the extent that only 221 high-ranking
positions were held by "natives" out of a total of some 3,000.
Moreover, the Volksraad or People's Council, established in 1918, was merely an
advisory body. See Feith, The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in
[7] For comprehensive works on
nationalist and radical movements, see George McT. Kahin, Nation-alism and
Revolution in Indonesia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1952); Ruth
McVey, The Rise of Indonesian Communism (Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1965); W.F. Wertheim, Indonesian Society in Transition (Bandung:
W. van Hoeve Ltd., 1959); and Deliar Noer, The Modernist Muslim Movement in
Indonesia, 1900-1942 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1973).
[8] Benedict Anderson explores the creation of a common
"nationhood" under colonial rule, the incipiently-nationalist class
of "native" functionaries and elites, and the birth of the “national
imagination” in his Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983). Although the details may be
debated, the importance of an imagined affinity between strangers to the
formation of a common "national" identity must be recognized.
[9] Pabottingi, "Nationalism
and Egalitarianism", p. 188. For Budi Utomo, see Robert Van Niel, The
Emergence of the Modern Indonesian Elite (Bandung: W. van Hoeve Ltd.,
1960), and Akira Nagazumi, The Dawn of Indonesian Nationalism: The Early
Years of Boedi Oetomo (Tokyo: Institute of Develop-ing Economies,
1972). It is also discussed in McVey, The
Rise.
[10] McVey, The Rise, pp. 96-97. It advocated
a state accountable to the people, common ownership of wealth, the distribution
of products and profit by a popular assembly, and other radical measures.
Accounts of Sarekat Islam are found in all works on nationalism and revolution
in
[11] It was founded by H.J.F. M. Sneevliet (a
Dutchman, and member of the Dutch Social Democratic Workers’ Party, or SDAP).
The best and most comprehensive work on the PKI is McVey, The Rise. See
also Jeanne S. Mintz, Mohammed, Marx, and Marhaen (New York: Frederick
A. Praeger, 1965). In 1926 the PKI
launched an ill-prepared, poorly-coordinated "inglorious revolution",
which was easily and harshly crushed, ending its activities for a time. See McVey,
The Rise, pp. 230, 289, 305-303, 342.
See also Mintz, Mohammed, p. 33. Over 13,000 communists and
participants were arrested. Many were interned at the notorious Boven Digul
camp in
[12] Sukarno’s life is well
covered in the scholarly literature. See
John D. Legge, Sukarno: A Political Biography (Boston: Allen &
Unwin, 1975); Donald E. Weatherbee, Ideology in Indonesia: Sukarno’s
Indonesian Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966); Willard
A.Hanna, Bung Karno’s Indonesia (New York: American Universities Field
Staff, 1961); Louis Fischer, The Story of Indonesia (New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1959); C.L.M. Penders, The Life and Times of Sukarno
(London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1974); Dahm, Sukarno; and Cindy Adams, My
Friend the Dictator (Indiana-polis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965).
[13] A good analysis of Sukarno’s contribution to
Indonesian national identity is found in Pabottingi, "Nationalism and
Egalitarianism", pp. 240-277.
[14] The term was coined by Sukarno to denote the
"little people". These included peasant farmers and street-stall
operators, who were not proletariats because they owned the means of production
– land, buffaloes, ploughs, etc. Nor did they sell their labour; but this did
not keep them from facing grinding poverty.
See Legge, Sukarno, pp. 72-73.
[15] He never had "close contact with the
masses, but regarded them, when mobilized, as a political tidal wave".
Pabottingi, "Nationalism and Egalitarianism", p. 257. On Pancasila,
see endnote #21 below.
[16] The imposition of the "family" in
things political apparently aims to assert the hegemony of pater-nalistic
authoritarianism. At best, it represents an overly simplistic equation of a
larger and more compl-ex socio-political-economic formation with the family – a
basic social unit. It also romanticizes and overemphasizes the family’s role in
promoting the welfare of its members. However, Third World power-holders have
been quite successful in manipulating "family values" and
"community" to perpet-uate a paternalist, authoritarian
"political culture". Part of their success derives from the fact that
the family and patrimonial networking are often effective in ensuring survival
and upward mobility. Such patrimonialism is by definition particularistic,
however; it is also private, not public.
[17] For Dewantoro’s and Supomo’s thoughts, see
Reeve, Golkar, pp. 9-25. See also
Herbert Feith and Lance Castel, eds., Indonesian Political Thinking, 1945-65
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1962).
[18] David Reeve, Golkar, pp. 9-20
(Dewantoro’s thoughts), 20-25 (Supomo’s), 25-36 (Sukarno’s). Their views have
much in common with those of Mihail Manoilesco, regarded by Philippe Schmitter
as the pioneer of "state corporatism". Manoilesco sees a
state-society relation as a complete system of political domination,
articulated by a nationalistic-statist, corporatist hierarchy of authority,
whereby "artificial [and] circumstantial" class differentiations and
antagonisms would be replaced by a spirit of "national solidarity".
His vision takes into account the underdevelopment of the peripheries, the
delay-ed-dependent capitalism, and the pervasive resentment of their
populations in the face of their own "inferiority". His solution is a
"defensive, nationalistic modernization from above" via the division
of the polity into vertical units of interest-aggregation. See Philippe C.
Schmitter, "Still The Century of Corporatism?", in Frederick B. Pike
and Thomas Stritch, eds., The New Corporatism: Social and Polit-ical
Structures in the Iberian World (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1974), pp. 85-131.
[19] On Sukarno’s conception of
the state, see Reeve, Golkar, pp. 25-36.
See also Sukarno, National-ism, Islam, and Marxism, trans. Karel
H. Warouw and Peter D.Weldon, with an introduction by Ruth McVey (Ithaca:
Cornell Indonesian Project, 1970); Legge, Sukarno; Dahm, Sukarno;
Feith and Castel, Indonesian.
[20] For details of these "armies", see
Harry Benda, The Crescent and the Rising Sun: Indonesian Islam Under the
Japanese Occupation (The Hague: Van Hoeve, 1958).
[21] Sukarno formulated Pancasila (the Five
Principles: Nationalism, Internationalism or Humanitarian-ism, Consensus or
Democracy, Social Justice and Belief in God) as a "common denominator of
all ideologies and streams of thoughts". See Adam Schwarz, A Nation in
Waiting:
[22] These were the Hizbu’llah,
Barisan Banteng (the Buffalo Corps, formerly Barisan Pelopor),
the socialist-led Pesindo (Pemuda Sosialis Indonesia), the
communist-led Laskar Rakyat (People’s Army), remnant units of the disbanded
PETA, and a host of others outside Java (in
[23] The Dutch refused to
recognize the "
[24] Among those who fought, apart from the
military, were militant Muslims of the Darul Islam move-ment in
[25] For an analysis of the
early Indonesian military and its factional composition, see Sundhaussen, The
Road, pp. 13-18.
[26] This was actually an "interim or
provisional government".
[27] Sundhaussen, The Road, pp. 18-40.
[28] General Sudirman was regarded as the father
of the armed forces. For a study of his role and attitudes, based largely on
Indonesian sources and documents, see Salim Said, Genesis of Power: General
Sudirman and the Indonesian Military in Politics, 1945-49 (Sydney: Allen
& Unwin, 1992).
[29] Sutan Sjahrir, Our Struggle (Ithaca:
Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, 1968), p. 36. Also see Sund-haussen, The
Road,, pp. 20-21. The Sultan, however, became Minister of Defence, 1948-53.
[30] Tan Malaka was a veteran communist who broke
away from the PKI because of a disagreement over the armed uprising of
1926-1927. He formed the Partai Murba (Proletarian Party), and also led the PP
(the United Struggle), a front that opposed negotiations with the Dutch. He was
killed in the confusion of the War of Independence in February 1949, four
months before the Dutch military with-drawal.
[31] The "Madiun Affair" was essentially
a fight between army units slated to be disbanded, which were allied to PKI laskars,
and the Siliwangi Division, the key unit of the new army, allied to Tan
Malaka’s laskars. See Sundhaussen, The Road, pp. 39-40. For details, see Kahin, Nationalism,
pp. 272-303. See also Oey Hong Lee, Power
Struggle in Southeast Asia (Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation Co.,
1976), pp. 64-65. Musso, the veteran PKI leader, was killed; Amir Sjarifuddin,
a provisional Prime Minister who signed the Renville Agreement in 1948, was
captured and executed by the army.
[32] The democratic framework was advanced by the
political parties, and in particular by Hatta and Sjahrir, who looked askance
at the traditional collectivism of Dewantoro, Supomo, and Sukarno. See Reeve, Golkar,
pp. 9-25. Feith suggests the
parliamentary framework was adopted despite the fact that the leaders did not
understand how it worked, or what it really meant. Rather, it was settled on
because it was at the time a "universal" convention: all former
colonies, including Indian and
[33] Ibid.
Sukarno’s advocacy of an authoritarian system – embodied in the 1945
Constitution – was opposed by Vice President Hatta, who favored a mix of
Western parliamentary forms with "indigen-ous" village democracy.
Sjahrir and other socialists strongly opposed Sukarno’s emphasis on an
all-submerging kind of unity. After independence (in 1949), Sjahrir, with Hatta
in support, pushed for a system of multi-party parliamentary democracy. For an
analysis of the early debates among leading figures over the shape of the
political system, see David Reeve, Golkar of Indonesia: An Alternative to the Party System (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985), esp. pp. 58-107. Also, Nasution, The Aspiration for Constitutional
Government.
[34] Leo Suryadinata, Military Ascendancy and
Political Culture (Athens: Ohio University Center for International
Studies, 1989), pp. 2-3.
[35] For an analysis of how the
rulers of the New Order, the military, portray the parliamentary years of the
1950s, see David Bouchier, "The 1950s in New Order Ideology and
Politics", in David Bouchier and John Legge, eds., Democracy in
Indonesia: the 1950s and the 1990s (Clayton, Victoria: Center of Southeast
Asian Studies, Monash University, 1994), pp. 50-62.
[36] A very detailed account of politicking in the
pre-Guided Democracy years is offered by Feith in The Decline.
[37] They were the Natsir government (a coalition
led by Masjumi, lasting from September 1950 to March 1951); Sukiman (under
Masjumi, April 1951 to February 1952); Wilopo (led by the PNI, April 1951 to
June 1953); Ali Sastoamidjojo (also under the PNI, July 1953 to July 1955);
Buhanuddin Harahap (led by Masjumi, August 1955 to March 1956); and Ali’s
second cabinet (PNI-led, March 1956 to March 1957). Frequent changes in
government, though, may not have been the key factor in the dangerous
instability that developed. Such instability may have stemmed more from
struggles between military factions, the military rebellions against civilian
control, and Sukarno’s flaming rhetoric, than from democratic politics. In
democracies, moreover, "instability" is plainly visible, while the
instability inherent in authoritarianism is "invisible" to those
outside. We hence observe the unexpected collapse of seemingly invincible,
stable authoritarian orders
[38] The politicians were Zainal Baharuddin
(Socialist), Zainul Arifin (NU/Nahdatul Ulama), Arudji Kartawinata (PSII/Partai
Syarikat Islam Indonesia), and Iwa Kusumasumantri and Mohammed Yamin from
Murba, the fringe communist group founded by the late Tan Malaka --a veteran
nationalist and an unorthodox communist. He numbered among his followers Adam
Malik (who served under Sukarno, became a supporter of the staunchly
anti-communist Suharto, and was rewarded with cabinet posts and the
vice-presidency).
[39] Those opposing Nasution were mostly Javanese
ex-PETA officers, including Colonels Bambang Supeno (close to Sukarno), Bambang
Suseng, Zulkifli Lubis (Chief of Intelligence), and others. They sometimes
sided with politicians against Nasution, and sometimes with Nasution against
politicians. Later, Lubis played a
prominent part in the anti-Nasution revolts of regional military commanders,
generally known as the "regional revolts".
[40] But without seeking exclusive domination,
according to Nasution. See Harold
Crouch, The Army and Politics in
[41] The account given here is only a very
simplified account of the affair. For details of the convoluted intra-military
politics leading to the "17 October Affair", see Feith, The
Decline, pp.259-269. It began as a military move against
"interference" by parliament and politicians. But it soon
deteriorated into jockeying between pro- and anti-Nasution military cliques
when Sukarno, offended by the demonstration by tanks and troops outside the
palace, took a firm stand. According to Feith (p. 262), Sukarno initially
favoured the military plot, but changed his mind after disagreement arose over
the officers and politic-ians to be arrested following the coup.
[42] As the above events suggest, the
"civilian-military" crisis did not stem from fights between discrete bodies
over principles. Rather, it illuminates the nature of
[43] After his dismissal, Nasution sponsored a
military-supported political party, the IP-KI (League of Upholders of
Indonesian Independence) to contest the first general elections, held in 1955.
Significant-ly, it fared poorly, as did pro-military parties in
[44] For a discussion of Sukarno’s manipulative
relationship with successive prime ministers and cabin-ets, see Legge, Sukarno,
pp. 273-276.
[45] These were Simbolon (the North Sumatra
Command), Warouw (
[46] On the opposition to
Nasution’s "rationalization" plan, which led to the military-regional
revolts, see Crouch, The Army and Politics, 32-33.
[47] Ibid., pp. 104, 106.
[48] They included Sjafruddin Prawiranegara
("Prime Minister" during the War of Independence), Mohammed Natsir
(Prime Minister, 1950-1951), Burhanuddin Harahap (1955-1956), and Sumitro
Djojohadijusumo (a veteran socialist).
[49] There is a
significant difference between a "secessionist government", and a
"counter-government". Although regional dissatisfaction with
[50] For an account of Nasution’s masterly handling
of rebel officers, see Sundhaussen, The Road, pp. 107-111. The PRRI
apparently did not win over many military units, in particular the key
Siliwangi Division. Also, neither side wished to fight to the end: they still
faced strong rivals, including the politic-al parties (the re-emergent PKI
especially) and the formidable Sukarno. Thus, Nasution adopted a flex-ible
response. Negotiations were held with the rebels, and about 300 million Rupiah
were freed up for
[51] Reeve, Golkar, pp. 112-113.
[52] The 1945 Constitution, in
force since 1959, was ratified in August 1945 after extensive debates over
issues such as the family principle, people’s sovereignty, and group
representation. However, a number of factors led to the 1945 Constitution being
shelved. These included the need for external legitimacy and outside support,
which the rejection of democracy and parliamentary politics would have damaged;
the push by the political parties for a multi-party, parliamentary system;
Hatta’s espousal of individual rights and rejection of the collectivism
inherent in the family principle; and the rise of Sutan Sjahrir, who opposed
the family principle with its authoritarian connotations. In November 1945,
Sjahrir, as Prime Minister, proclaimed the adoption of a parliamentary,
democratic system. This change, which amounted to a rejection of the 1945 Constitution,
was meekly accepted by Sukarno. For details, see Reeve, Golkar, pp.
65-86.
[53] Legge, Sukarno, p. 243.
[54] This formulation was among
the many "unifying" creeds proposed by Sukarno. Another important emblem of Sukarnoism was
Manipol/USDEK – the Political Manifesto.
It consists of the 1945 Constit-ution, Indonesian Socialism, Guided
Democracy, the Guided Economy, and Indonesian Identity: togeth-er, USDEK.
[55] Recall that in the 1950s and 1960s, Communism
seemed to many leaders, intellectuals, and political activists to be an
inexorable tide, or at least a viable alternative system. This was true in both
the Third and First Worlds.
[56] Daniel S. Lev, "The Role of the Army in
Indonesian Politics", Pacific Affairs, Vol. XXXVI, No. 4 (Winter
1963/ 64), pp. 349-364; also, Lev, The Transition to Guided Democracy,
1957-1959 (Ithaca: Cornell Modern Indonesian Project, 1966), pp. 185.
Nasution’s "
[57] One could say that Sukarno’s brand of
personal rule approximates Jackson and Rosberg’s ideal type of the
"prophetic ruler" – a visionary who is ideologically motivated to
reshape society (pp. 79-80, 182 -186).
See Robert H. Jackson and Carl G. Rosberg, Personal Rule in Black
Africa: Prince, Autocrat, Prophet, Tyrant (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1982), esp. pp. 77-78, 83-84, 143-145.
[58] Legge, Sukarno, pp. 282-284. Sukarno
also owed his success in implementing his Konsepsi agenda to the
discrediting of leaders who could potentially challenge it, such as Hatta,
Natsir, and Sumitro Djojohadijusumo, along with leaders of the Masjumi and PSI.
All were implicated directly or indirectly in the regional revolts. See Feith, The Decline, pp. 588-589.
[59] The story of
the politics of constitutional changes is, like most things in
[60] By 1960, all the structures of the Guided
Democracy state were in place: the Presidential Karya (Work) cabinet;
the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA), composed of representatives of the parties
along with regional and functional groups; the National Planning Council; a
provisional Majelis Permusjawa-ratan
Rakyat (People’s Consultative Assembly, MPRS); a gotong-royong Parliament
(Dewan Perwa-kilan Rakyat gotong Royong, DPR); and a National Front. All
positions to these bodies were filled by appointment rather than election. Legge, Sukarno, pp. 301-305, 312-314. See also
Feith, The Decline p. 592.
[61] After 1948, the ABRI was organized into Troop
and Area Commands (KODAM). Although the
Siliwangi Division no longer existed from that point, the West Java Command was
for some time still referred to by this appellation. Likewise, the Central and
[62] Sundhaussen, The Road, pp. 144-145.
[63] On the Nasution-Yani rivalry and Sukarno’s
manipulations, see Crouch, The Army and Politics, pp. 79-82. The fact
that there were other more senior officers like Sungkono, Soeprajogi, and
Suharto made Yani more dependent on Sukarno for legitimacy and authority within
the military. As such, he was an ideal client and supporter. See Sundhaussen, The
Road, p. 165.
[64] Crouch, The Army and Politics, pp. 59,
69-75. The military supported the move against
[65] See Abdul Haris Nasution, Fundamentals of
Guerilla Warfare (New York: Praeger, 1965); also Guy Pauker, The
Indonesian Doctrine of Territorial Warfare and Territorial Management (Rand
Memorandum, 1963).
[66] For analyses of the military’s position in
the Guided Democracy state, see Crouch, The Army and Politics, pp.
34-42, 45-51; and Sundhaussen, The Road, pp. 152-153, 168, 173-175.
[67] Suryadinata, Military Ascendancy, pp.
5-7.
[68] Reeve, Golkar, p. 269.
[69] They included the armed
forces’ in-house organizations, a host of labor and civil servant unions
(including SOKSI), and bodies representing students, intellectuals, women, the mass
media, fishermen, farmers, etc. For a general overview of the multitude of
bodies that composed these military-sponsored groups, see Suryadinata, Military Ascendancy, pp. 163-174
(Appendix G). The military also formed two other fronts, KOSGORO (Cooperatives
for Mutual Assistance Efforts) and MKGR (the Family Mutual Help Association).
The fronts also ran economic enterprises; like SOKSI, they were linked to and
supported by the Ministry of Defence and Security (HANKAM). See Suryadinata, Military
Ascen-dancy, pp. 10-15.
[70] For an analysis of the
politics of "mass" organizations (ormas) and "fronts" involving the military, the PKI, political
parties, and above all Sukarno himself, see Reeve, Golkar, pp. 208-262
(Ch.5).
[71] Ibid., pp. 87-94.
[72] Reeve, Golkar, pp.
194-197; Sundhaussen, The Road, pp. 526-7, 584; McVey, “The
Post-Revolut-ionary,” pp. 131, 151, 176 (Part 1), and 148, 152 (Part 2).
[73] Crouch, The Army and Politics, p. 95..
[74] Ibid, pp. 94-95.
[75] Rex Mortimer argues that
the PKI’s position was weakened by the absence of pronounced class cleavages
(and thus class awareness) in
[76] A typical position on the Sukarno-PKI
relationship is Legge’s, in Sukarno, pp. 231, 254, 307, 324, 327, 353,
378-79, 381, 383, 384; Donald Hindley, "President Sukarno and the
Communists: The Polit-ics of Domestication", American Political Science
Review, Vol. LVI, No. 4 (December 1962), pp. 915-926; and Ewa T. Pauker,
"Has the Sukarno Regime Weakened the PKI?", Asian Survey, Vol.IV, No.9 (September
1964), pp. 1058-1070. For additional analyses of the Sukarno-PKI relationship,
see Arnold C. Brackman, The Communist Collapse in Indonesia (New York:
Norton, 1967); J.M. van der Kroef, The Communist Party of Indonesia
(Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1965).
[77] Sukarno’s committment to
Nasakom (Nationalism, Religion, Communism), his promotion of
"revol-utionary" forces, his anti-West stance, the invitation he
issued to Khrushchev, and his frequent consult-ation with Mao and other Chinese
leaders, all serve as good indications
of his Marxist orientation. Even though his Marxist slogans can be interpreted
as tactics of self-promotion, it is possible that he may genuinely have been
committed to a PKI-led revolution, one aimed at "end[ing] the centuries of
oppress-ion". This, anyway, is Brian May’s thesis, in The Indonesian
Tragedy (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), pp. 86-89. Feith also
argues that Sukarno, like Cuba’s Castro, might have been moving towards a
Marxist state with the PKI in control and Indonesia in a position of dependence
on the comm-unist bloc. See Feith, "President Sukarno, the Army and the
Communists: The Triangle Changes Shape", Asian Survey, Vol.IV, No.8
(August 1964), pp. 968-980. Most Indonesianists, however, take the conventional
view that Sukarno manipulated both the military and the PKI in order to
maintain his grip on power.
[78] On the Democratic League, see Herbert Feith,
"The Dynamics of Guided Democracy", in Ruth McVey, ed., Indonesia
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1963), pp. 343-344; Rex Mortimer, Indones-ian
Communism under Sukarno: Ideology and Politics 1959-1965 (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1974), p. 112; Roeslan Abdulgani, Nationalism, Revolution
and Guided Democracy (Perth: Monash University Center for Southeast Asian
Studies, 1973), p. 48; Reeve, Golkar, pp. 164-165.
[79] For an account of the
exceedingly slow implementation of the land reform laws and the PKI-led
unilateral peasant actions, see Mortimer, Indonesian Communism, pp. 204,
284-91, 309-28.
[80] Crouch, The Army and Politics, p. 93.
See also Sundhaussen, The Road, pp. 192-194.
[81] Sukarno made this accusation, which was probably
unsubstantiated, at a meeting of army comm-anders, 28 May 1965. See May, The Indonesian Tragedy, pp.
125-128. With regard to the “Council of Generals,” Crouch’s view that it was
based on "political intuition rather than hard evidence", which seems
essentially correct (The Army and Politics, pp. 106-107).
[82] For a comprehensive
analysis of the Gestapu Affair, see Ulf Sundhaussen, Golkar, esp.
pp. 192-207; also Crouch, The Army and Politics, esp. pp. 107-134. Other sources include Ruth McVey and Benedict
Anderson, A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965 Coup in Indonesia
(Ithaca: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, 1971); W.F. Wertheim,
"Indonesia Before and After the Untung Coup", Pacific Affairs,
Vol. XXXIX, No.1-2 (Spring/Summer 1966), pp. 115-127; and Daniel S. Lev,
“Indo-nesia 1965: The Year of the Coup”, Asian Survey, Vol.VI, No.1
(February 1966), pp. 103-110.
[83] Suharto once commanded the
Diponegoro Division, and had personal and professional ties with Untung and
other "Young Turk" radicals. Hence Wertheim’s speculations as to
Suharto’s possible involvement cannot be lightly dismissed. See Wertheim,
"Suharto and the Untung Coup: The Missing Link", Journal of
Contemporary Asia, Vol. 1, No.1 (1970), pp. 50-57, and "Whose
Plot? New Light on the 1965
Events", Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1979), pp.
197-215. Crouch’s view is that the coup plotters might have seen Suharto as a
potential friend, though he does not enter into why this might have been so.
See Crouch, The Army and Politics, pp. 123-125.
[84] Sundhaussen, The Road, p. 197.
[85] The real story may not be known for quite some
time, given the opacity of politics in authoritarian states, and the attitude
of all states as far as sensitive information is concerned. For analyses and
inter-pretations of Gestapu, see Anderson and McVey, A Preliminary
Analysis; Legge, Sukarno, pp. 386-96; Sundhaussen, The Road,
pp. 196-207; Lev, "Indonesia in 1965"; Crouch, "Another Look at
the Indo-nesian Coup", Indonesia 15 (April 1973), pp. 1-20; J.M.
van der Kroef, "Interpretations of the 1965 Indonesian Coup: A Review of
the Literature", Pacific Affairs, Vol. XLIII, No.4 (Winter
1970-71), pp. 557-577; John Hughes, The
End of Sukarno (London: Angus and Robertson,1968); Tarzie Vittachi, The
Fall of Sukarno (New York: Deutsch, 1967); Arnold C.Brackman, The
Communist Collapse in Indonesia (New York: Norton, 1967); and Jerome R.
Bass, "The PKI and the Attempted Coup", Journal of Southeast Asian
Studies, Vol. I, No. 1 (March 1970), pp. 96-105.
[86] This is based on the plotters’
"confessions", and no doubt is tainted with the self-interest of both
those charged and their accusers. See Nugroho Notosusanto and Ismail Saleh, The
Coup Attempt of the “September 30 Movement” in Indonesia (Jakarta: Pembimbing
Masa, 1968). According to Crouch, the PKI was "completely unprepared [and]
offered almost no resistance" when inflamed mobs and Muslim militias
attacked it (The Army and Politics, p. 155). This casts real doubt on
the depiction of Gestapu as a PKI masterplan for succession and the
elimination of the military. It could, instead, have been an unforeseen turn of
events resulting from the impatient radicalism of Untung and Diponegoro and
Brawi-jaya "Young Turks"; miscalulations by some PKI cadres; and perhaps
a flawed assessment of the balance of forces by the ambitious Air Force Chief,
Omar Dhani. The pros and cons of the PKI involvement are discussed in detail in
Bass, "The PKI".
[87] See Wertheim, "Suharto and the Untung
Coup", p. 52.
[88] Actually, the coup group commanded a
substantial force: at least one unit of the Presidential Guards, five
battalions from Diponegoro, one from Brawijaya, the Air Force and its ground
troops, and the PKI militias, including a women's detachment (Sundhaussen, The
Road, pp. 196, 215). Had the coup forces been less inept and more willing
to fight it out, they might have succeeded. The failure of this and earlier
coups (including the botched coup in November 1956 directed at Nasution, and
the "regional" revolts of 1958-1959) indicates the poor coup-staging
skills of ABRI officers. This may partly account for Suharto’s long grip on
power, a point Michael Vatikiotis notes astutely: see his Indonesian
Politics Under Suharto (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 19.
[89] According to a government
report from 1978, 13 years after Gestapu, Sukarno went to Halim as part
of a "pre-arranged plan to disperse the national leadership in the event
of trouble". He may not have known that the base was the coup
headquarters. See Hamish McDonald, Suharto’s Indonesia (Honolu-lu:
University Press, 1980), pp. 46-47.
[90] Hughes, The End , pp. 159-60, 175;
Amnesty International, Indonesia: An Amnesty International Report
(London, 1977); Julie Southwood and Patrick Flanagan, Indonesia: Law,
Propaganda and Terror (London: Zed Press, 1983), pp. 77-78.
[91] Hughes, The End, pp. 142, 181; May, The
Indonesian Tragedy, p. 122.
[92] The former figure was the one cited in the
first official report submitted to Sukarno before he was deposed in February
1966. According to Crouch, Admiral Sudomo estimated the number of those killed
at about 500,000. In addition, 200,000 were arrested throughout Indonesia. See
Crouch, The Army and Politics, p. 155; also Southwood and Flanagan, Indonesia,
p. 72, Amnesty International, Indonesia,; and Hughes, The End,
pp. 185-6.
[93] Among the victims were many ethnic Chinese, resented
for their economic influence. But according to Schwarz, the Chinese were not
the primary victims, since many of them had been forced to leave the rural
areas from 1959 onwards after a law was introduced prohibiting them from
operating rural retail stores. In 1960, over 130,000 Chinese returned to China.
Schwarz contends that anti-Chinese violence in Jakarta was relatively
minor. See Schwarz, A Nation, pp.
105-106.
[94] Southwood and Flanagan, Indonesia, p.
79. The authors divide post-1965 Indonesian society into three groups: the
Dominators (Suharto groups); the Collaborators (state functionaries, soldiers
and officers, parliamentarians, journalists, lawyers, students, etc.), some of
whom could be termed "Critical Collaborators"; and the Victims (those
labelled "enemies and subversives" by the Dominators – the Chinese
minority and the poor, depoliticized majority) (pp. 52-63).
[95] For details of Sukarno’s comeback attempt, see
Crouch, The Army and Politics, pp. 158-178.
[96] The MPRS rejected Sukarno’s
explanation, which was that Gestapu stemmed from the blunders of PKI leaders,
the cunning of Nekolim forces, and individuals who were "nuts".
Legge, Sukarno, p. 407. Untung
and his Diponegoro radicals were certainly that -- they shot from the hip and
ignored the very person who had the means to thwart them, Suharto.
[97] Crouch, The Army and Politics, p. 79. Yani's personal relationship with Sukarno was warm. He treated Sukarno like a sultan who could not be forced out of power, and preferred to keep close to Sukarno and thus influence him, and counter the PKI's influence with Sukarno.
[98] For a discussion of the 1945 Constitution,
see Reeve, Golkar, pp. 69-74. It
is important to note that Sukarno was not directly deposed by Suharto, as U Nu
had been in Burma by Ne Win, and Pibul in Thailand by Sarit.
[99] The People’s Consultative Congress (MPR), which meets every five years, is composed of 1000 members, drawn from the DPR and regional DPRs, with some appointed members. Of the 500 DPR members, 100 are appointed by the President, with 75 seats reserved for ABRI. The DPR meets several times a year to approve government-initiated legislation. See Douglas E. Ramage, Politics in Indonesia: Democracy, Islam and the Ideology of Tolerance (London: Routledge, 1995), p. 211 (fn.73).
[100] Sukarno was responsible not only for reviving
the 1945 Constitution (which Hatta and Sjahrir had bypassed in 1950), but for
the "discovery" of Pancasila.
See Harold Crouch, "Introduction" (to Part II: State Control),
in Arief Budiman, ed., State and Civil Society in Indonesia (Clayton:
Monash Papers on Southeast Asia, 1988), pp. 115-120. See also Schwarz, A Nation, p. 10.
[101] Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew K. Brzezinski, Totalitarian
Dictatorship and Autocracy (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965), p.13.
[102] The passages concerning the military’s position
in Golkar are based on Suryadinata, Military Ascendancy, pp. 19-28,
43-61, 125-132. See also Jenkins, Suharto,
pp. 48-50.
[103] David Reeve, "The Corporatist State: The
Case of Golkar", in Arief Budiman, ed., State and Civil Society,
pp. 164, 168 (and 151 -176).
[104] See John McBeth, "Party Patron: Suharto’s
Party Picks First Civilian Leader", FEER (4 Novem-ber 1993), p. 14.
[105] Schwarz, A Nation, p. 275.
[106] For an excellent journalistic study of the PRI
and its role in arranging a smooth transfer of power from one personal ruler to
the next, see Alan Riding, Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), esp. pp. 66-75. A limitation on presidential
tenure (to one term in the Mexican case) seems crucial to the smooth transfer
of personal power in a one-party presidential system.
[107] Source: Notes from talks with a well-known
scholar and many businessmen, Jakarta, 1993.
Informed speculation is that Suharto wants someone, like Habibie, who is
close to his children to be the next President. However almost all those
interviewed agreed that Habibie’s dominance is not assured, because it depends
so heavily on Suharto’s favour. Habibie has been compared to Subandrio, Sukarno’s
protégé, who served as the leader’s link to the PKI. Likewise, Habibie serves
as Suharto’s link to a pol-itical Islamic segment which soldiers regard as
hostile to them.
[108] See Allan Samson, "Indonesia 1972: The
Solidification of Military Control", Asian Survey, Vol. XIII, No. 2
(February 1973), pp. 127-139.
[109] The People’s Consultative Congress (MPR)
meets every five years. It also "elects" the President (and head of
state). See Ramage, Politics in Indonesia, p. 211 (fn.73).
[110] Juan Linz, "Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes", in Fred I. Greenstein and Nelson W. Polsby, eds., Handbook of Political Science: Macropolitical Theory, Vol.3 (London: Addison-Wesley Publish-ing Company, 1975), pp.265-66.
[111] It should be recalled, however, that Sukarno had
already disposed of or "tamed" all the political parties other than
the PKI during the "Guided Democracy" years. Suharto moved to
emasculate the already weakened political parties by "restructuring or
simplifying" them through the Political Parties and Golkar Bill (1974),
the Election Law Amendments Bill (1979), the Presidential Decision No. 3 /1982
(on electoral campaigns), and five other bills passed in 1984: the Amendments
of the Election Law Bill, the DPR/ MPR Bill, the Political Parties and Golkar Amendment
Bill, the Referendum Bill, and the Mass Organization Bill. See Suryadinata, Military
Ascendency, pp. 69-73, 92-94, 101-107, and May, The Indonesian Tragedy,
pp. 249-264, 281-288. See also Donald
Hindley, "Indonesia 1971: Pantjasila Democracy and the Second
Parliamentary Elections", Asian Survey, Vol. XII, No. 1 (January
1972), pp. 56-68; R.William Liddle, "The 1977 Indonesian Elections and the
New Order Legitimacy", Southeast Asian Affairs (1978), pp. 175-185;
and Benedict Anderson, "The Last Days of Indonesia’s Suharto?", Southeast
Asian Chronicle 63 (July-August, 1973), pp. 2-17.
[112] Regarding civil servants, in addition to
having to join KORPI, theirs wives are compelled to join Dharma Wanita,
the official women’s body, always headed by the wives of senior officers. See
Jamie Mackie and Andrew MacIntyre, "Politics", in Hal Hill, ed., Indonesia’s
New Order: The Dynamics of Socio-Economic Transformation (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1994), pp. 1-53 (esp. p. 27).
[113] In fairness, it must be said that over time,
a few ministries – finance, home, and industry – have grown more professional,
thanks to the efforts of dedicated technocrats. See Mackie and MacIntyre,
"Politics", p. 21. On the other hand, the customs service was so corrupt
and unprofessional that it was deemed beyond reform; in 1985 it was placed
under the supervision of a Swiss inspection agency for a time.
[114] See John A. McDougall, "Patterns of
Military Control in the Indonesian Higher Central Bureau-cracy", Indonesia
33 (April 1982), pp. 89-121. In a polity where the military is dominant, the
question of whether or not soldiers actually occupy posts in ministries and the
civil administration is not terribly relevant. It is also misleading to argue
that, because the military presence in the administrative sphere has decreased,
the administrative machinery is increasingly independent of the military.
[115] In 1988, Benny Murdani was "retired"
as head of KOPKAMTIB, and the agency was dissolved. It was replaced by BAKORSTANAS (the Agency
for Coordination for Support of National Stability), which was directly
responsible to Suharto. See Pour, Benny,
pp. 419-420.
[116] Repression may have
increased recently (1996) due to a resurgence of labour militancy, along with
regime fears of the growing popularity of Megawati Sukarnoputri’s
democratization message among some subordinated segments. Incidentally, it is
intriguing that most of the acknowledged champions of democracy in Southeast
Asia are women -- Cory Aquino, Aung San Suukyi, and Megawati.
[117] On the recent situation in East Timor, see
Schwarz, A Nation, pp. 194-229, 233-234, and 246-249 (on repression and
intimidation in other parts of Indonesia, including Aceh).
[118] Ibid., pp. 238-247 ("The Press:
More Responsible than Free").
[119] An insightful account of regime-press
relations is given in Nono Anwar Makarim, The Indonesian Press: An Editor’s
Perspective (Cambridge: Center for International Studies, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, 1974). See also
Vatikiotis, Indonesian Politics, pp. 107-108; Southwood and Flanagan, Indonesia,
pp. 84-89.
[120] Mackie and MacIntyre, "Politics",
pp. 23-24.
[121] A theoretical discussion of the military and
state elites’ commercialization of positions and power is found in Olle
Tornquist, "Rent Capitalism, State, and Democracy: A Theoretical
Proposition", in Budiman, ed., State and Civil Society, pp.
29-49. See also McDonald, Suharto’s
Indonesia, pp. 116-119. For an excellent account of military involvement in
business, state enterprises, "welfare foundat-ions", and the general
corruption, see Crouch, The Army and Politics, pp. 272-303.
[122] Vatikiotis, Indonesian Politics, p.
50; also pp. 4-5, 14-15, 43-45, 50-51, 152-154.
Schwarz gives Suharto’s total family fortune as US$30 billion (A
Nation, p. 144). For further
accounts of Suharto’s business interests, see Jenkins, Suharto, pp. 71,
76-77, 166, 169, 177-178. On the
Suharto-cukong connection, see May, Indonesian Tragedy, pp.
219-228.
[123] On Ibnu Sutowo, head of Pertamina (the National
Oil and Gas Mining Agency), see McDonald, Suharto’s Indonesia, pp.
143-165, and May, Indonesian Tragedy, pp. 215-219. Even critics of
Suharto like Sukendro, Jasin, and Dharsono, grew dependent on government
linkages. As punishment for critic-izing the regime and Suharto, they had
permits and credit lines withdrawn and were blacklisted from government
contracts. See Jenkins, Suharto, pp. 70-72, 183-184.
[124] See Crouch, The Army and
Politics, p. 355. An important player like Sutowo's aide Haji Thahir had
$80 million in personal accounts in Singapore alone when he died. On the Thahir
scandal and Mur-dani’s attempt to recover the money, see Pour, Benny,
pp. 433-448.
[125] Schwarz, A Nation, p. 16.
[126] The figures for civil servants are from
1991-1992, cited in Vatikiotis (Indonesian Politics, p. 51).
[127] Hal Hill and Jamie Mackie,
"Introduction", in Hal Hill, ed., Indonesia’s, pp. xxii-xxxv,
and also communications received from Chris Dagg, Simon Fraser University. On
the Dharma Wanita and P4 indoctrination, see Julia I. Suryakusuma, "State
Ibuism: The Social Construction of Womanhood in the Indonesian New Order",
Nav, Vol.6:2, June 1991, pp. 45-71. In many Third World countries, civil
servants – even university professors, public school teachers – wear military-style
uniforms, badges, insignias of rank, etc. There is a conscious and sustained
effort among Third World states to create a distance between state officials
and the general population, in order to impress the former’s superior status
upon the latter.
[128] I refer here to, for example, tensions
between Suharto and ABRI; between ABRI and civil or Golkar bureaucrats; and
among bureaucratic cliques, Golkar factions, presidential cliques, and military
fact-ions.
[129] See Andrew MacIntyre, Business
and Politics in Indonesia (Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin,
1991).
[130] Mackie and MacIntyre, "Politics",
pp. 6-7, 14. See also Karl Jackson, "The Prospects for Bureau-cratic
Polity in Indonesia", in Lucien Pye and Karl Jackson, eds., Political
Power and Communications (Berkeley: University Press,1978); Harold Crouch,
"Patrimonialism and Military Rule in Indonesia", World Politics
31, 4: 571-87; Herbert Feith, "Repressive-Developmentalist Regimes in
Asia: Old Strengths, New Vulnerabilities", Prisma 19 (1980), pp.
39-55; Dwight King, "Is the New Order a Bur-eaucratic Polity, a
Neopatrimonial Regime, or a Bureaucratic-Authoritarian Regime? What Difference Does it Make?", and Ruth
McVey, "The Beamtenstaat in Indonesia", in Interpreting, pp.
104-116 and 84-91, respectively.
[131] Suharto figured prominently in the famous
"general attack" on Jogjakarta in 1949. In 1957-1959, he commanded the Diponegoro
Division in Central Java; in 1960, he was First Deputy (Intelligence) to the Army
Chief of Staff and commander of KOSTRAD (this was a move by Nasution to counter
Yani). He headed the Anti-Dutch
"Mandala" command that captured West Irian in 1962. And in 1965,
while still in command of KOSTRAD, Yani appointed him deputy to Omar Dhani at
the Anti-Malaysia "Alert Command" – an attempt to sabotage the
campaign. Thus he cannot be considered a nonentity, but he was consistently
underestimated by his seniors and contemporaries, and even by his juniors – for
example, Untung and his Brawijaya "radicals" in 1965 (if he was not
somehow linked to them). By contrast, Nasution, who was generally highly rated
before 1965, was constantly outflanked by Sukarno and easily shoved aside by
Suharto.
[132] The forces that emerged included New Order
"radicals" – army officers, intellectuals and techno-crats, sectors
of students – who wanted a clean break with the recent past. They were not a
homogen-eous grouping: some wanted a restoration of parliamentary rule, while
others desired a more disciplined, corruption-free order under the leadership
of "no-nonsense", modernizing soldiers. Others included Islamic
forces which wanted to "drown the PKI in a sea of blood", and aspired
to introducing a more Islamic society and state.
[133] MacIntyre, Business and Politics, p.
32.
[134] As two respected Indonesianists have noted, neither
the DPR nor the MPR has the capacity to constrain the president, the
bureaucracy, or the military. See Mackie and MacIntyre, "Politics",
pp. 19-20. Also, Vatikiotis, Indonesian Politics, p. 105; Schwarz, A
Nation, p. 272.
[135] MacIntyre,
Business and Politics, pp. 33-35. Also, see John McBeth, "Loyal
House: But Parliament is Becoming More Animated", Far Eastern Economic
Review (FEER) (
[136] See Jenkins, Suharto, pp. 20-24. The
most prominent Suharto loyalists were Generals Ali Murtopo, Ibnu Sutowo, Benny
Murdani, Sudharmono, Sumitro, Yoga Sugama, Sudjono Humardhani, Mohamm-ad Jusuf,
Amir Machmud, Marden Panggabean, Darjatmo, Bustanil Arifin, Sutopo Juwono, and
Alams-jah, along with Admiral Sudomo. Members of the "inner core
group" were Ali Murtopo, Sudomo, Humardhani, Alamsjah, Yoga Sugama, Ibnu
Sutowo, and Benny Murdani.
[137] For details, see Ibid.,
pp. 20-30.
[138] Nasution seems to have been quite severely
traumatized by his daughter’s death and his harrowing narrow escape in Gestapu.
This could explain his unassertive behavior in the early years of the New Order. Based on an interview with a
foreign “consultant” close to Nasution,
[139] It was relatively easy for Suharto to impose
his personal stamp on the military because of the power vacuum created by the
deaths of Yani and other generals. Another key factor was Nasution’s lack of
ambition and, perhaps, ingrained professionalism. Suharto obviously understood
the military mind. Contrary to the layman’s view that it is dangerous to
dismiss general officers, this often proves to be untrue, mainly because such
figures tend to lose their air of authority quite soon without a swagger stick
to wield. The secret to the longevity of a military strongman is that he
understands and skilfully exploits factionalism in the military.
[140] These included Hugeng, Ishak Djuarsa, Jasin,
Sumitro (a "palace general"), Sutopo Juwono, Sajidiman, and Widodo.
Later, Ibnu Sutowo and Benny Murdani (the most powerful man after Suharto) were
removed. Sutowo was dropped on account of the mess he made of Pertamina, the
oil monopoly. Murdani was abruptly removed as ABRI Commander and pushed
upstairs to the defence ministry in 1988. He was replaced by Try Sutrisno, a
former military adjudant to Suharto, and was also retired from KOPKAMTIB. The
latter was replaced by a new agency headed by Try. This may have been a routine
step, as Pour insists (Benny, p. 413); but it certainly stripped Murdani
of the extraordinary power he had held for fifteen years.
[141] Suharto’s strategy for keeping key military
players in check was more sophisticated than that of Ne Win, who sacked anyone
who in his view had gained excessive power or importance. See Jenkins, Suharto,
pp. 20-27, 134-156, for a fuller treatment of Suharto’s
"divide-and-rule" approach to loyal generals and aides. Jenkins’ work
is based on extensive interviews with Nasution and disenchanted former
generals, and is surely one of the best sources available on the politics of
politicized military.
[142] Inkopad is the army’s cooperative body,
Berdikari the army’s trading firm, and Perhutani the forest-ry corporation. The
proportion of soldiers in the state apparatus has varied over the years. Early
on, they predominated, but at present less so. Nonetheless, apart from Suharto,
there is no other force within the state that dares to offend ABRI in any way.
Given the fact that ABRI is, after
Suharto, the most powerful force, the number of governmental posts held by
soldiers seems rather irrelevant. Comp-ared to
[143] For an overview of the
economic and commercial partnership between Chinese entrepreneur-financiers and
ABRI/Suharto, often in ventures tainted by corruption, see McDonald, Suharto’s
Indonesia, pp. 118-124; and May, The Indonesia Tragedy, pp. 215-234
(Ch.7, "Corruption and Beyond").
On corruption, see Jamie Mackie, "The Report of the Commission of
Four on Corruption", Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol.
VI, No. 3 (November 1970), pp. 87-101.
[144] Schwarz, A Nation, pp. 34-35.
[145] Other distinguished ex-generals who joined Nasution
were Djatikusumo, Sudirman, Mohammed Jasin, and Subiyono from the Brawijaya
"Division"; Iskandar Ranuwihardjo, Munadi, and Broto Hamidjojo from
the Diponegoro Division; Mokoginta, Sugih Arto, Sukendro, Daan Jahja, and Alex
Kawilarang (Siliwangi Division); Hugeng, an army general and ex-police chief;
Ali Sadikin of the Marine Corps, and ex-Governor of Jakarta; and Admiral
Nazir. See Jenkins, Suharto.
[146] These included Sjafruddin
Prawiranegara (Prime Minister during the "war of independence", who later
joined the "regional revolts"), Natsir, and Burhanuddin Harahap
(Prime Ministers under Sukarno; they too joined the "regional
revolts"); Sunario (former foreign minister); and Slamet Bratanata (former
minister of mines). Others were Nuddin
Lubic, head of the PPP faction in the DPR; Sanusi Hardja-dinata, general
chairman of the PDI); and Mochtar Lubis, a prominent editor and writer.
[147] Jenkins, Suharto, pp. 66-72, 77-84,
90-112. See also Ulf Sundhaussen,
"Regime Crisis in Indones-ia: Facts, Fiction, Prediction", Asian
Survey, Vol. XXI (August 1981), pp. 815-837; and Leo Surya-dinata,
"Indonesia Under the New Order: Problems of Growth, Equity, and
Stability", in Leo Surya-dinata and Sharon Saddique, eds., Trends in
Indonesia II (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1981), pp. 3-51.
[148] The accusers were Generals
Hugeng and Jasin, who had been dismissed because of their knowledge of
corruption in the palace. See Jenkins, Suharto, pp. 164-167, 174-182,
243 -245; and McDonald, Suharto’s Indonesia, pp. 126, 235 (on General
Hugeng’s knowledge of Madame Suharto’s corrupt deals).
[149] See David Jenkins, "Adam’s Heavenly
Warning", FEER (
[150] The figures named -- Adam Malik, Generals
Alamsjah, Jusuf, and Widodo -- were, respectively, the Vice President; the
Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Advisory body (DPA); the Defence Minister and
ABRI chief; and the Army Chief of Staff.
Jenkins, Suharto, pp.
113-125.
[151] Jenkins, Suharto, pp.157-158. The threat was made by Suharto in a speech at Pekanbaru in March 1980.
[152] Vatikiotis, Indonesian Politics, pp.
82-83.
[153] Ibid., pp. 84-87 (ABRI's dislike of,
and opposition to Sudharmono). Also see, Ramage, Politics in Indonesia,
p. 178.
[154] Schwarz, A Nation, pp. 285-286. As
Schwarz notes, Try Sutrisno was probably Suharto’s choice anyway. ABRI’s
announcement pre-empting Suharto’s seems to have been an attempt to assert its
independence. This is Suhaini Aznam’s contention in "The Guessing
Game", FEER (
[155] Vatikiotis, Indonesian Politics, pp. 82-83. See also Schwarz, A Nation, p. 283; and Mackie and MacIntyre, "Politics", pp. 8, 16, 18.
[156] Ramage provides a detailed discussion of the
complex, multi-layered political manoeuvres in 1990 involving Suharto, ABRI, and
rival Islamic segments. The Islamic stream is divided into Muslim
"intellectuals" of the ICMI, led by Habibie and
"legitimized" by Suharto; the followers of Wahid (the NU leader, a
"neo-modernist" who is close to Murdani; and those who support Madjid
(a democratic "neo-modernist"). The latter two and ABRI are
suspicious of ICMI and Habibie, but ABRI is also wary of the neo-modernists who
favour democratization. For an excellent and thoughtful discussion of the
Suharto-ABRI-Islam equation (or the Pancasila-Democracy-Islam triangle), see
Ramage, Politics in Indonesia.
[157] Schwarz, A Nation, pp. 162-193 (
[158] Vatikiotis, Indonesian Politics, pp.
132-133, 159-160. See also John McBeth,
"The Muslim Ticket: Suharto Courts Islamic Intellectuals", FEER
(
[159] John
McBeth, "Succession Talk Recedes: Suharto Could Lead into the 21st
Century", FEER (
[160] Ibid.,The extent of Suharto’s hold on
the military can be seen from the fact that the ABRI chief of staff, Soeyono,
was a presidential adjutant in the late 1980s, as was Wiranto, the
[161] Ibid.
On Raden Hartono and his close relation with Habibie and Tutut
(Suharto’s daughter), see Ajay Singh and Keith Loveard, "A Successor in
Waiting?", Asiaweek,
[162] See Robert H.Jackson and Carl G.Rosberg, Personal
Rule in Black
[163] R.William Liddle, "Regime in Crisis?:
Presidential Succession, the East Timor Massacre, and Prospects for
Democratization in Indonesia", The 44th Annual Meeting of the
Association of Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., 2-5 April 1992, pp. 13, 14,
25.
[164] The international community and international
bodies like the United Nations tend to ignore the fact that the public-private
distinction is non-existent in most
[165] Liddle, "Regime in Crisis?", p. 15.
[166] Ibid., p. 18.
[167] As Mackie and MacIntyre put
it, the regime has become a "self-perpetuating patronage system from top
to bottom, rewarding those who [are] in it and penalizing all those who are
excluded". It will hence be difficult for reform movements to "open
[the system] up in more democratic or pluralist directions". Mackie and
MacIntyre, "Politics", p. 45.
[168] Jenkins, Suharto, pp.13-14. A concise exposition of Suharto’s personal
dominance is "In Suharto’s Shadow", The Economist,
[169] This is also the conclusion Sundhaussen
reaches in "
[170] See J. Soedjati Djiwandono, "
[171] Vatikiotis, Indonesian
Politics, p. 85. Although Try Sutrisno, the current vice-president, is an
ABRI man, he does not hold an active ABRI post. The background and status of
the previous vice-president, Sudharmono, were similar. Earlier vice-presidents
were civilians: the Sultan of Jogjakarta 1973-78 and Adam Malik 1979-1988. As
for Golkar, all its chairmen have been loyal "political gener-als":
Sokowati, Amir Murtopo (two terms), Sudharmono (who rose to the vice-presidency
in 1988), and Wahano. The present Golkar head is Harmoko, a civilian who is
regarded with suspicion by ABRI, and widely viewed as building a civilian
"empire" within Golkar.
[172] Tales of the economic-commercial activities of
Suharto’s children and their in-laws, clients, and cronies are heard everywhere
in
[173] These views are commonly expressed in
[174] There have certainly been structural changes
in the economy, as evident from new industries and the rise in production
(which has grown several hundred percent since 1966). However, the question of
who has benefitted most is a matter of considerable debate. Anwar Nasution
stated (in 1991) that those living below the official poverty line have fallen
from 40 percent in 1976 to 20 in 1987. He contends that real wage may have
declined due to high inflation and wage freezes. The real-estate boom has
either driven the poor out of the cities or concentrated them in overcrowded
slums. Existing regulations and new deregulation measures have benefitted
mainly individuals and groups with strong links to the regime. See Anwar
Nasution, "The Adjustment Program in the Indonesian Economy Since the
1980s", in Hal Hill, ed., Indonesian Assessment 1991 (Canberra:
Australian National University, 1991), pp. 14-37. A positive appraisal of the
economy is given in Hal Hill, "The Economy", in Indonesian New Order, pp. 54-122.
Hill deems as not very damaging to economic development the rampant nepotism in
For accounts of the conflicts between
technocrats and the "palace generals", bureaucratic interests, and
Suharto’s cronies and family, which made economic liberalization and reforms an
uphill fight, see Crouch, The Army and Politics, pp. 318-330; Schwarz, A
Nation, pp. 71-97; and Vatikiotis, Indonesian Politics, pp. 39-40,
43-45, 50-52, 171-172, 173-174, 176-178.
[176] MacIntyre, Business and
Politics, esp. pp. 6-21, 22-65 (Chs. 2 and 3). He argues that the New Order
state is not as monopolistic and stifling as many Indonesianists make it out to
be. But the author admits (p. 247), industry groups have had to wrest
concessions from the state, the "corporatist" struct-ure of which
"obstructed demand-making". He also emphasizes that his research does
not mean "the whole state-sponsored corporatist network" is becoming
more inclusionary. In reviewing McIntyre's work, R. Stephen Milne notes that
the earlier views may also be valid, since the
[177] For accounts of
"charitable" foundations in general and Suharto’s in particular, see
"Charity Begins at Home: Indonesian Social Foundations Play Major Economic
Role", and "The Cash Conduit", FEER (
[178] On free trade unions and
their activities, see Michael Vatikiotis, "All Rights Reserved: Free Trade
Unions Strains Government Tolerance", FEER (
[179] R. William Liddle, "
[180] J.A.C. Mackie,
"Property and Power in Indonesia" and "Money and the Middle
Class", in Richard Tanter and Kenneth Young, eds., The Politics of the
Middle Class In Indonesia (Victoria, Australia: Aristoc Press Pty. Ltd.,
1990), pp. 71-95 and 96-122. Mackie
contends that whatever influence they have is based on personal ties and
obtains in particular decision areas only.
[181] Ibid. Also, see Liddle, "Regime
in Crisis?", pp. 17-18. Liddle
states that the Indonesian middle class is disproportionately bureaucratic; and
many are clients of state patrons. The entrepreneurial sub-class, meanwhile,
considered "a critical group in much analysis of democratization", is
largely Sino-Indonesian.
[182] For a discussion of the hegemonic imprint of
traditional and neo-traditional values in "modern" Southeast Asian
societies, see Niels Mulder, Inside Southeast Asia: Thai, Javanese and
Filipino Inter-pretations of Everyday Life (Bangkok: Editions Duang Kamol,
1992).
[183] On the fear and suspicion of
political Islam among the military and New Order elites, see Vatikiotis, Indonesian
Politics, pp. 120-138 (Ch. 5, "Toward an Islamic Identity?");
Jenkins, Suharto, pp. 6-12, 31, 36, 248; and Ramage, Politics in
Indonesia. This work is a comprehensive analysis of Islamic political
actors and their complex attitudes towards Pancasila, the New Order state and
its dominators. It also addresses the
interaction and conflicts among Islamic factions and leaders.