The Independence Movement
The Independence Movement is almost synonomous with the political leader
Sukarno. The Su in his name and many other Indonesian names is an honorific.
More properly his name should have been written Su Karno.
When he or others chose to use other honorifics such as Bung (brother) or
Batak (father) his name became Bung Karno or Batak Karno. During his time
his picture became one of the most familiar in the world.
Sukarno was born June 6, 1901 in Surabaja, Java of Javanese and Balinese
parents. His father was a Javanese school teacher and his mother Balinese.
He thus represented a mixture of the Islamic Javanese and Hindu Balinese
Malay subcultures. He went to a secondary school in which most of the students
were Dutch. He thus not only got a good education but became imbued with
a fierce desire for Indonesian independence. In 1927 he received a degree
in civil engineering from the Bandung Technical Institute and became an
architect. But by this time he found his true calling was as an orator
and politician. He found he could profoundly move crowds with his oratory.
In 1928 he helped found the Partei Nasional Indonesia (PNI), the
Indonesian Nationalist Party. It had previously been known as
the Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia, the Union of Indonesian Nationalists.
There were a number of other nationalistic parties formed at that time and
later, but PNI was the most effective in promoting a mass following.
Soon Sukarno came to the attention of the Dutch authorities and he was
arrested in 1931 and sent into exile to the island of Flores. He remainded
under the control of the Dutch authorities until he was released by the
Japanese after they invaded Indonesia in 1942.
There were other political organizations formed even earlier than the PNI,
most notably the Perserikatan Komunis Indonesia (PKI), the United Indonesian
Communists. This organization had formed in 1920 from moderate socialist and
and revolutionary Marxists. Later the moderate socialists withdrew from
the PKI. In 1926 and 1927 the PKI sponsored some sporatic revolts in
a few places but they were all put down in a few days time. The effect of
these revolts was to establish the PKI as a radical party willing to
take direct action.
The Japanese Invasion
The Japanese occupation forces gave Sukarno a role in maintaining
their local acceptance. The Japanese invasion was looked upon as
a fulfillment of a remarkable ancient prophesy.Sukarno cooperated with the Japanese trying to get what assistance he
could for the future independence of Indonesia. He even promoted the
formation of voluntary work brigades, called romusha, to help the
Japanese war effort. When it much later became known that the
Japanese military treated
these Indonesian volunteers as slaves Sukarno suffered a loss of face.
As World War II neared its end Sukarno secured from the Japanese Army
arms and training for Indonesians. The Japanese saw this as a source of
military aid in repelling the expected Allied invasion. Sukarno saw it as
the arming and training of an Indonesian army to resist the return of the
Dutch to Indonesia.
After the surrender of the Japanese Government on August 15, 1945 Sukarno and
Muhammad Hatta declared the independence of Indonesia on August 17th. It is
notable that Sukarno and the other nationalists insisted that the new
nation would include all the territories conquered by the Dutch, even those
that had no cultural affiliation with the Javanese or other Malay peoples.
This meant that Sukarno was not opposed to imperialism
per se but
only opposed to the Javanese being the victim of it.
The Battles for Independence
British troops came to Indonesia to take the surrender of the Japanese
military. The British released the Dutch troops that had been imprisoned
by the Japanese and those Dutch troops and other Dutch troops which
arrived fought the Indonesian army. With air support the Dutch
quickly gained control of the major cities and their environs but the
Indonesian guerilla troops maintained control of the countryside under
leaders such a Nasution.
There was a notable incident in the
war. In Madium a People's Republic of Indonesia was declared by the
left-wing socialists and communists. It had Soviet support but was not
well organized. This uprising was crushed by the Siliwangi Division under
Nasution. This crushing of a communist movement was taken by Americans to be evidence
that Sukarno and his supporters were not communists.
The independence movement could not retake the cities from the Dutch
forces and the Dutch forces could not control the countryside.
The stalemate ended when the American Government
under Harry Truman threatened to cut off Marshall Plan aid to the
Netherlands if the Dutch did not get out of Indonesia. In 1949 the
Dutch withdrew and the Indonesian Republic was free to function.
The Reign of Sukarno 1949-1965
Although Sukarno was adept at language and rhetoric he was a miserable
failure at economic policy. He had complete disdain for economics as
ignoble "bean counting." Even worse he did not find or allow anyone
else to properly treat economic and financial matters. While it was
probably true that he was not literally a communist this is not because
he saw anything wrong with communism. For him any systematic ideology
would interfer with his governing by whim. He spent the limited funds
Indonesia had for public monuments and buildings and for private luxuries
for himself and his four wives. The problem was that Indonesia needed
to repair its infrastructure devastated by a decade of war and rebellion.
There was a great need for spare parts for equipment. Indonesia was not
meeting its food needs and shortages were becoming serious. The
Government was
printing money and inflation began to surge into the hyperinflation
range.
Sukarno did not concern himself with these economic problems. He instead
devoted his time to political posturing. He played games in international
politics flirting in turn with the Soviets, the Chinese and West. He
verbally abused
the West because he found this brought responses, not only from the West but
also from the Soviets and Chinese. This balancing of opposition forces
extended to internal politics. His avowed movement was called Nasakom,
which stood for nationalism, religion and communism. He maintained close
relations with the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party which was under the leadership
of D.N. Aidit.
Compiled by Adinda Ajisaka
