'Sukarnoism' played out
1965The Newsletter Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Title, extent and credit checked against the scan (17 October 2026, from the scan: page 1, headline over columns 4-7, 'By Newsletter Reporter'; continued page 4, col. 2; the 'YS demonstrators fined £40' item is still welded in one paragraph). The text is machine-read and not corrected: for anything you quote, read the scan.
clattered through th AbI sundav as tank streets of Djakarta and tracer bullets probed the night sky, the 20-year-old rule of President Sukarno ended as dramatically as it had begun.
After an abortive coup by sympathisers of the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) in the army and palace guard led by Colonel Untung, and the abduction of six leading rightwing military figures, including General Yani, the C-in-C, Generals Nasution and Sujarto struck back, arrested Sukarno and established a scarcely veiled military dictatorship.
The Stalinists, having been beaten in Djakarta, have now fled to Central Java, where guerrilla war and peasant uprisings have been reported.
Not neutral The air force, though not involved in the coup, is not neutral, and Stalinist influence is strong in its ranks.
Entire divisions of the Indonesian Army have defected to the rebels and the elite right-wing Siliwangi Division sent to crush the rebels in Central Java is meeting stiff resistance.
Indonesia is now plunged into civil war. In order to understand the causes of the present conflict and prognosticate its outcome, an analysis of Indonesian Stalinism is indispensable.
No other politician in Asia owed as much as Sukarno did to the opportunism and adventurism of international Stalinism.
Sukarno's debut in nationalist politics in 1926 as chairman of the Party Nasional Indonesia (PNI) was in fact an attempt to capitalise on the failure of Communist insurrection of 1926 against the Dutch in Java.
Balance
Representing the newly-arising (but weak Indonesian capitalist class, and fearful of the powerful and militant working class, Sukarno throughout his 40-year career has always tried, and succeeded (until last Sunday), in balancing between the working class and imperialism.
From the beginning, Sukarno had two major political objectives: to obtain political independence for Indonesia and, secondly, to control the trade union and peasant movements.
In 1929 he was arrested by the Dutch. Released in 1931 he was re-arrested in 1933 and exiled until the Japanese released him in 1942. Sukarno (centre) with his Foreign Minister Subandrio (right) and C-in-C General Yani.
The weak Indonesian capitalist class, which could hardly lead a revolutionary liberation war against the Dutch was unable to offer any resistance to the more formidable Japanese.
Sukarno, their leader, collaborated with the Japanese occupiers in the hope that the Japanese would grant his country independance When Tokio began stalling on his demands, Sukarno formed a secret alliance with the Socialists and Stalinists, who were opposed to the Japanese.
The Japanese, realising that they would lose the war, once again offered Sukarno the bait of independence. Sukarno readily agreed.
But the capitulation of Japan put an end to the negotiations and Sukarno in order to forestall
allied occupation, issued his own Declaration of Independence on August 17, 1945.
Thousands of Indonesians, who had been armed by the Japanese and formed a homeguard (Peta), now turned their weapons against the Japanese and the Indonesian Revolution began.
Recognition w Once again, inter-imperialist rivalries, this time between the British and the Dutch, helped Sukarno to secure de facto recognition and maintain his republic.
When Mountbatten, however, recognised the Netherlands government as the only legitimate authority in Indonesia and allowed Dutch troops to land, renewed fighting broke out and continued (Cont. page 4, col. 2)