GENERAL SUHARTO TAKES OVER FROM SUKARNO
In a unanimous resolution March 12, the Provisional People's Consultative Congress in Jakarta deprived Sukarno of the fig leaf of authority he still retained and named General Suharto "Acting President." The decision was made retroactive to February 22 when Sukarno, bowing to the pressure of the reactionary generals whom he had placed in strategic positions in his government, turned over all real powers to Suharto.
Suharto is a political general trained in his youth in the Royal Netherlands Indonesian Army and later in the Indonesian Army set up by the Japanese during the occupation of his country in World War II. Although he fought against the Dutcr in the war for independence, he is thoroughly "Western oriented." His final accession to absolute power was hailed with great satisfaction in Washington and New York.
The Indonesian legislature left Sukarno with the title of "President" but deprived him of the right to call himself "Great Leader of the Revolution." He had already lost the right to the title "President for Life."
In a broadcast March 13, General Suharto defined Sukarno's standing as follows: "For the time being we will treat President Sukarno as a President with no more power, as a President with no political authority, no authority of state and no authority of government."
For many years Sukarno appeared to wield virtually unlimited powers. Actually he played a balancing act between contradictory class forces. As Indonesia sank into a deeper and deeper crisis under the capitalist system, these forces began ie polarizing around the reactionary generals to the GENERAL SUHARTO right and the Communist party to the left. Under the leadership of D.N. Aidit, the CP failed to prepare for the inevitable showdown. Instead of moving to take power and opening the road to socialism, the CP leaders deliberately stayed within the guidelines set by Sukarno. This class-collaborationist course met with the approval of both Moscow and Peking.
i
On September 30, 1965, a group of officers, alarmed at news of a plot among the generals to stage a coup d'état, attempted a preventive takeover. Six generals were killed in this abortive effort. The young officers spared Suharto. He, together with General Nasution, then mobilized the army and succeeded in crushing the putschists, claiming that the September 30 affair had been plotted by the CP. One of the most savage witch-hunts of all time followed, as many as 500,000 Indonesians, who either belonged or were said to belong to the Communist party, being murdered.
With his left support thus smashed, Sukarno was no longer able to play his balancing act and the generals disposed of him at their leisure, even utilizing him to facilitate the process.
Sukarno is said to have stated what he would like for his epitaph: "When I die do not write in golden letters on my tomb: ‘Here lies His Excellency Doctor Engineer Sukarno, First President of the Republic of Indonesia.' Just write: 'Here Lies Bung Karno, Tongue of the Indonesian People.'"
A more appropriate epitaph would be the statement Sukarno made to President Kennedy in 1961 during a visit to the United States: "You are against Communism. Then give me your support. I am the best bulwark in Indonesia against Communisn."