Source: Review of Indonesia, Vol. IV. SCAN
General Report delivered by D.N. Aidit, General Secretary CC. CPI at the Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Indonesia, held in Jakarta on 4th – 7th July 1957.
II. THE PRESIDENT SUKARNO CONCEPT
IV. THE FIRST THREE-YEAR PLAN ON ORGANISATION AND EDUCATION
RESOLUTION OF THE FIFTH PLENUM OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE C.P.I ON THE GENERAL REPORT
---------------------------
Comrades! This Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee should actually have been held last January, but the activities in which our Party was busily engaged both at the centre and in the regions and which fully engaged the attention of a majority of the C.C. members, made it impossible for this meeting to be held on time.
On February 20th last, an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau, expanded to include all C.C. members living in Jakarta, was held. This enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau, which was attended by most of the C.C. members, discussed the current political situation, particularly in relation with the President Sukarno Concept. That meeting unanimously decided to support the President Sukarno Concept as an important contribution to the building of a United National Front and as something which answers the urgent political problems facing the Indonesian people at the present time. We shall speak at greater length about the President Sukarno Concept later on in this report.
Apart from discussing the latest political situation, we shall at this meeting review the preparations being made by the Party for the local representative assembly elections to be held throughout the county (with the exception of Jakarta, where these elections have already been held), we shall investigate the way in which the First Three Year Plan on Organisation and Education as adopted at the Fourth Plenum of the Central Committee in July last year is being implemented, and we shall examine the results of the work of the “C.P.I. Committee to Draft a Constitution for the Republic of Indonesia”. We shall also review the possibilities of convening a National Conference of Communist Women and a National Conference of Peasants in the not too distant future.
Comrades! What is the international and domestic situation in which our present C.C. Plenum is being held?
Ten months ago, the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. came to the conclusion that democratic and progressive shifts were taking place to the advantage of the struggle for peace and independence and were isolating the policy of war and colonialism. We pointed to the existence and growth of an international anti-war and anti-colonial united front.
The period which has elapsed since the Fourth Plenum was held is marked by ever closer ties and co-operation between the anti-colonialist forces in Asia and Africa with the countries of the socialist camp, even though the governments of some Asian-African countries, namely those that have joined the Baghdad Pact, are doing their best to refute the principles and spirit of the Bandung Conference and to spoil the good relations between the countries of Asia and Africa and the relations between these countries and the countries of the socialist camp. Not only has the anti-colonial and anti-war international united front been preserved, but both in the countries of the socialist camp and among the ranks of the countries of Asia and Africa new developments have taken place in the efforts to strengthen their respective positions.
In an effort to destroy international co-operation between the States, including the co-operation between the countries of Asia and Africa and the socialist camp, the imperialists, under the leadership of the United States of America, are striving to lower the prestige of the countries of the socialist camp. It was also with the same intent that the imperialist launched aggression in the form of armed intervention and counter-revolutionary uprising in Poland and Hungary in 1956. In Poland, this aggression was speedily defeated thanks to the vigilance and correct policies of the Polish United Workers’ party. But in Hungary, the imperialist intervention and aggression gave rise to widespread damage and difficulties for the life and power of the working people. The imperialist then turned this incident into a major event. Via the press and the radio, they incited the whole world in an attempt to destroy the good relations that had been established between the Soviet Union and other States, and particularly with the anti-colonialist countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. And yet it is clear to all that the military assistance rendered by the Soviet Union on the request of the legal Janos Kadar Government to defend socialist achievements in Hungary from the intervention of the imperialist States was fully in keeping with the provisions of the “Warsaw Pact” and was in keeping with the anti-foreign-intervention spirit of the Bandung Conference.
It was thanks to the resoluteness of the Hungarian working people, thanks to the assistance of the countries of the socialist camp and to the solidarity of the international proletariat that the counter-revolutionary intervention and uprising was completely crushed and normal life and conditions are now being restored. Quite contrary to the objectives which it was hoped to attain by means of this intervention, namely lowering the prestige of the countries of the socialist camp and of the Soviet Union in particular, the prestige of the Soviet State and people who made sacrifices in the interests of socialism in Hungary, far from falling, have actually risen in the eyes of the countries of the socialist camp and in the eyes of the working people throughout the world.
By means of a criminal campaign about the “Hungarian affair”, the imperialist and reactionaries in all countries aimed, at one fell swoop, to discredit the Communist Parties in those countries. But, the contrary turned out to be the case. The brilliant victories of the Communist Parties in Italy and India in elections held in those countries recently, and the brilliant victory won by the C.P.I. more recently in the Jakarta local representative assembly elections are the clearest proof that the campaign of the imperialist has failed.
And now, by means of the report of the so-called UNO Hungarian Committee, and by utilizing the forum of the U.N. General Assembly, the imperialist are once again trying to inflame an “anti-Soviet” and “anti-communist” spirit. It is quite certain that these attempts at incitement, too, will be foiled by the forces of democracy in all countries.
The ties and co-operation between the socialist countries, far from becoming strained, have in fact become closer and stronger. This has been officially declared among others in Joint Statements issued by Prime Minister Bulganin (of the Soviet Union) and Prime Minister Cyrankewitz (Poland) and by Prime Minister Bulganin and Prime Minister Chou En-lai, issued in Moscow on November 18th, 1956 and January 18th, 1957 respectively. The ever-closer ties and co-operation between the countries of the socialist camp is also proven by the success attending the Conference of Budapest held between Bulgaria, Rumania, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Hungary at the beginning of this year. With cooperation between the countries of the socialist camp becoming closer and unity between them becoming stronger, the basis of the anti-war and anti-colonial international united front is also becoming stronger.
The many mass actions out in the Asian-African countries in opposition to and condemnation of the British-French-Israeli aggression in
Egypt is evidence of just how strong the anti-colonial forces in these countries are. In Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, one of the actions of the workers was a spontaneous 24 hour general strike. In Pakistan, the students, workers and other sections of the people, in opposition to the policy of the Pakistani Government, held demonstrations to protest against the British aggression and to demand that Pakistan should leave the Baghdad Pact. In India, demonstrators protesting against Britain and raised the demand that India should leave the British Commonwealth.
In Iraq, a country with a government under the lackey, Nur Es-said, which fully supported Britain and Israel and adopted a hostile attitude towards the Arab peoples, not only workers and students but also members of Parliament held demonstrations and protest actions on a large scale supporting Egypt and firmly demanding that Iraq should leave the Baghdad Pact and that the Nur Essaid Government should resign. The Nur Es-said Government was quite powerless to prevent the actions of the Iraq people who destroyed the oil pipes and installations of the imperialist there, despite the fact that the government was given speedy armed assistance by the American Government in an effort to preserve its position. The Iraqi Government blatantly betrayed the interests of the Arab peoples, betrayed the interests of the Iraqi people themselves and sold it out the Western countries running the Baghdad Pact.
But the other Arab states, especially Egypt and Syria, together with their people remained faithful to the principles and the spirit of Bandung and strengthened their unity and collaboration in opposition to imperialist aggression while at the same time defending independence and peace in the Middle East.
The Ali Sastroamidjojo Government, which was in office at the time, and the Indonesian people adopted the same attitude over the question of assistance to Egypt and opposition to the British French Israeli aggression, namely of supporting Egypt and opposing colonial aggression. Demonstrations of the youth, the students and the veterans together with the workers, the peasants and other sections of the people, in support of Egypt were a manifestation of the great anti-colonial spirit of the Indonesian people. Strikes carried out by Indonesia workers in the enterprises of the British and French capitalists and aimed at supporting the struggle of the Egyptian people raised the political consciousness of the workers and were of great help in strengthening the spirit of international unity and solidarity of the Indonesian workers.
It was thanks to the high political consciousness of the Indonesian workers and people that the attempts made by the domestic reactionaries, led by the leaders of the Masyumi and the P.S.I., to divert the people’s attention from the Egypt question to the “Hungarian question” were defeated, both within and outside Parliament.
Of great significance were the mass demonstrations held by the Thai people in Bangkok at the end of 1956 which were aimed not only at supporting Egypt against the British-French-Israeli aggression but which at one and the same time turned into a demonstration demanding that the SEATO military pact be dissolved. Further proof of the intensifying struggle of the Thai people was the demonstration of thousands of students in Bangkok at the beginning of last March opposing the dishonest, practices of the government party, the party of Phibul Songgram, during the elections there last February. The progressive forces are intensifying their demands that Thailand should carry out an independent foreign policy, that it should establish diplomatic and economic relations with the Chinese People’s Republic and that it should forbid the establishment of foreign war bases on Thai territory. All this was carried out under a fascist regime set up by American arms.
In Japan, too, under the control of American arms, the people are expanding their actions of resistance, for instance, actions demanding that American war bases be closed down, that atomic and hydrogen weapon tests be halted and that trade and diplomatic relations with the Chinese People’s Republic be normalized. The Japanese people have won important successes in this struggle.
The above facts show that imperialist military aggression assisted by pro-imperialist “national” governments in various countries in Asia and the Middle East has been proven powerless to hold back the tremendous wave of anti-colonialism and anti-war in Asia and Africa. These facts are further borne out by the anti-American demonstrations such as took place in Taiwan recently. This is striking evidence that the spirit of anti-colonialism cannot be suppressed by the force of arms.
This international anti-war and anti-colonial front has been further strengthened by the visits and personal meetings between the top leaders of various states, and by the official and unofficial delegations – parliamentary missions, cultural missions, delegations of experts, trade missions and other friendship missions. President Sukarno’s visit to the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China and other socialist countries as well as the Indonesian-Soviet Joint Statement issued on September 11th, 1956 are historic events and contributions to the strengthening of friendly ties between Indonesia and the Soviet Union, and to world peace. In this connection, it is important to mention, too, the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and the Chinese People’s Republic and other countries of the socialist camp. The lifting of the embargo by an increasing number of countries is also a sign of the growing strength of the international anti-war and anti-colonial front. All this is of great importance for the efforts to resist imperialist incitement and for the efforts to strengthen the mutual understanding and friendly ties between the peoples of the world.
The tremendous welcome which the Indonesian people accorded to the visit of K.E. Voroshilov, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. is proof of their peace-loving spirit and their desire for friendship between the nations. It was at the same time proof of the fact that the many years long anti-Soviet campaign that has been waged in Indonesia had failed a campaign which recently reached its peak with the “Hungarian affair”.
Side by side with the further consolidation of the international anti-colonial and anti-war front, the situation with in the imperialist camp reveals growing splits and antagonisms, and during the recent period openly hostile attitudes have appeared between the imperialist states, especially between Britain and America.
Recently, the sharpest antagonisms between Britain and America have occurred in the Middle East. Britain’s total failure in Egypt was an excellent opportunity for America to kick out the British altogether from this extremely rich-in-oil and strategic area. In an effort to gain speedy control of the Middle East and to pursue its policy of aggression against the Soviet Union, the U.S. developed their so-called “theory of the power vacuum in the Middle East”, whereas the governments of the Arab states and the more than 70 million Arab peoples of the Middle East have never left their homeland. On the basis of this “theory”, they drew up the plan of aggression which they call the “Eisenhower Doctrine”.
However, even though the U.S.A. has succeeded in removing and replacing British domination in Baghdad Pact, it is not such an easy job for them to implement their aggressive doctrine. The influential ‘New York Times” has admitted that “if it is to succeed, it must have the support of Nasser and his allies”. But, the ‘New York Times’ goes on, this would only be possible if the U.S. were to give up Israel, a thing which is quite out of the question.
Jordan became the first target in the implementation of the Eisenhower Doctrine. U.S. intrigues within the court of King Hussein and among a group of reactionary army officers, accompanied by intimidations and military threats by the American 6th Armada armed with atomic weapons in Arab waters, forced the downfall of the democratic Nabulsi Government. And now, feudal-militarist elements are exerting, fascist power in the country. Jordan has been drawn a step closer to the Baghdad Pact.
In connection with the anti-colonialist struggle, the situation in Algeria requires our special attention. A large-scale colonial war is now raging in that country, have been launched by the French colonialist. Incomparable cruelties, camouflaged by such terms as “pacification movements”, are no different in their practices from the large scale massacres carried out by the bandit, Westerling, in South Celebes. These practices of the French Socialist Government have come up against the broad and firm resistance of the national independence movement in Algeria. The forces of anti-colonialism throughout the world are involved in winning victory for the struggle of the Algerian people by means of solidarity actions.
In the recent period, there are signs that the imperialists’ policy of intervention and subversion has led to difficulties in the inter-State relations in the Middle East, but there is no reason to say that cooperation based on the principles and spirit of Bandung has broken down. The facts show that there are still enough strong common interests for cooperation and for friendly ties on the basis of the Bandung resolution and spirit. King Ibnu Saud of Saudi Arabia and King Faisal of Iraq have, for example, stated jointly that they still uphold the decisions of Bandung and will continue to preserve Arab unity and solidarity to face aggression from Israel. The general world-wide demand for an immediate halt to all nuclear bomb tests represents a broad and real common platform for the countries of Asia and Africa. The common meeting points must be brought together and preserved as the basis of the Second Asian-African Conference.
In connection with the situation in the Middle East, note should be taken of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union which reveals understanding and genuine and resolute defence of the interests of the Arab peoples. The sharp warning issued by the Soviet Union succeeded in calling a speedy halt to British aggression against Egypt and also compelled Iraq to give up its plans for military aggression against Syria at the end of last year. The Soviet Union also firmly rejects the Eisenhower Doctrine and has suggested that the Great Powers should make a joint declaration that they will not intervene in the internal affairs of the Middle East but will leave these matters to the Arab peoples of the Middle East themselves. The Soviet Union’s consistent and selfless defence of the national interests of the Arab peoples is the strongest and most effective factor in bringing about the defeat of imperialist plans of aggression in this region. For this reason, it is surprising that all the phrase-mongering about “Soviet infiltration” finds no fertile soil in the Middle East. The experiences of the Arab peoples’ themselves proves the correctness of what President Nasser said, that “the enemy of the Arab peoples is not communism but imperialism”.
In Europe, the contradictions between Britain and the U.S.S. have assumed the form of a bitter struggle to gain control of the entire market of that continent. As part of its efforts to defend its own independence, Britain has rejected an American demand that it stops producing nuclear weapons and leave this to the Americans. In an effort to cover the costs of this nuclear rearmament policy, and contrary to American wishes, Britain is to cut the number of its troops in Europe and will thereby save itself more than £ 100 million a year. In other words, this withdrawal of troops is in no way prompted by peaceful intentions but by Britain’s own economic difficulties and by the nuclear rearmament policy which she is actively pursuing. Britain’s withdrawal of troops is not to the liking of the U.S.A. because that country needs mercenary soldiers for its aggressive plans. Last May, Britain, within the framework of this policy, carried out two hydrogen bomb tests of bombs which she had produced herself, in the Christmas Isles in the Pacific Ocean. The journal, the “Economic Digest” representing the defenders of the British Empire within the British Conservative Party, frankly stated that “once we have carried out an H-bomb test, Britain will have greater freedom within the alliance”, (by alliance is meant the British alliance with the U.S.A.).
Western Germany has gained much from the antagonisms between the imperialist states and is now a powerful imperialist force in Europe. This is in the first place the result of the U.S. policy since the end of the war aimed at restoring the economy and war potential of the German imperialist. The result is that America now completely or partially controls no fewer than 500 large enterprises in W. Germany. The W. German industrialists have now become a bridge for the American monopolists to extend their control over various branches of industry in other countries of Europe.
In this connection, mention should be made of the agreements signed last March by the six participating countries, W. German, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg establishing a European Common Market and EURATOM. These agreements will facilitate the further expansion of German and American capital in West Europe and in the colonial countries dominated by the European states. We should also take note of the fact that part of the territory of the Republic of Indonesia, West Irian, has been place within the region of the European Common Market Agreement by Holland. The Dutch Government is trying to find other countries to exploit West Irian together with it so as later on to be able to get them to defend Dutch colonial power in this region. It is a pity that the Indonesian Government has not yet protested against this.
By means of the Euratom Agreement, the German imperialist will be able to utilize the atomic potentials of Western Europe to compete with Britain in arming their troops with nuclear weapons.
It was in such circumstances that the NATO Council met in Bonn at the beginning of last May. The Western press itself said that, in this NATO of forces within NATO; whereas formerly, the nucleus had been an alliance between the U.S.A. and Britain, it had now changed to an alliance between America and W. Germany.
In Asia, America has been compelled to refrain from opposing or preventing Britain’s measures to relax its embargo on trade with the Chinese People’s Republic. But at the same time, America has been getting more and more aggressive in Asia.
The U.S. has already established an atomic base on the island of Taiwan, mainly as a base for guided missiles. This is unparalleled brazenness. Besides this, they continue unabated their subversive activities against those Asian states which refuse to bow to their wishes. The SEATO Council meeting in Canberra last March revealed that it was the neutral states which had become the main target for, SEATO’s subversive activities and intervention. In Indonesia, America failed to get a reactionary government into power thanks to the democratic forces of the people, but in Laos, American intervention forced the resignation of the Souvana Phouma democratic government and they are now striving to bring their own comprador, Sosarith, into power.
But parallel with all this, the anger and resistance of the Asian People over the brutalities of the American occupying troops is growing day by day in such places as Taiwan, Japan and elsewhere. The protests and actions of the Asian people against the testing of hydrogen weapons in the Pacific are expanding. Demands that these hydrogen bomb tests be stopped are also getting stronger in Europe and in all other parts of the world, including America itself, as is proven, among other things, by the democratic appeal of 2,000 America scientists made recently. The World Peace Council meeting held a few weeks ago in Colombo was a very important meeting in that it formulated the feelings and thoughts of the people of the world in condemnation of nuclear weapons.
Although the imperialist states led by the U.S.A. are doing all they can to intensify the cold war and start a hot war, a peace-loving atmosphere still pervade the earth. The U.S.A. was quite unable to turn down Soviet proposal made not long ago for a temporary suspension of all nuclear bomb tests for two or three years. Careful note should be taken of the developments in the meetings of the UNO disarmaments Committee which are now being held in London, taking place as they are under the strong pressure of the anti-atomic-weapon upsurge throughout the world.
The preservation and strengthening of the anti-colonial and anti-war international front throughout the world opens up favourable prospects for the Indonesian people to further develop their national struggle to realize the abrogation of the Round Table Conference Agreement in practice, to improve the economy and to incorporate West Irian into the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia.
We should pay constant heed to the fact that as imperialists’, and especially the American imperialists’, policy of intensifying the cold war and starting a hot war continues, we should be ever more vigilant of the intrigues and subversive activities of the imperialist and we should fight to foil every effort at imperialist intervention in the internal affairs of Indonesia. The struggle to resist intrigues and crush foreign subversion is an important part of the struggle to defend national independence and peace.
The contribution of the Indonesian people to the defence of peace must be increased. The Indonesian Government must firmly uphold the Bandung principles and spirit. We must improve actives and expand the movement to defend peace. The question of peace must become the cause of the entire Indonesian people because it directly affects the interests of the entire people, regardless of differences of religion, political conviction and social standing.
***
What is the internal situation in Indonesia at the present time?
At the Fourth Plenum of the C.C., it was stated that there are three forces within Indonesian society, the forces of the diehards, the forces of the progressives and the middle-of-the-roaders. It was also stated that sharp contradictions exist between these forces. The political line of the Party towards these three forces is: exert all efforts tirelessly to develop the progressive forces, unite with the middle-of-the-roaders and isolate the diehard forces. The Party has loyally upheld this line in giving leadership to develop the internal situation from the time of the Fourth Plenum up to the present. The correctness of this formulation and line has been tested in the revolutionary practice of the people.
The internal political situation during the period under review is marked by facts pointing to the growth of democracy and of the revolutionary movement of the people, the ever-growing unity of the progressive forces with the middle-of-the-roaders and the growing isolation of the diehards.
The Parliament elected by the people has shown that it is far more competent than the previous Provisional Parliament or the Parliament which was nominated on the basis of the Round Table Conference drawn up by Hatta and the Dutch. This is proven among other things by the adoption in July, 1956 of the Law on the Formation of Transitional Regional Assemblies and Transitional Regional Administrations and then the adoption of the Law on Regional Assemblies in September 1956, the adoption of the Basic Law on Regional Government in December, 1956, the adoption of the Law on the Distribution of Finances also in December, 1956, and the adoption of the Law on the Settlement of Labour Disputes in March, 1957 to replace the extremely reactionary Tedjasukmana Decree. The first of these laws became the basis of the liquidation of one-man government or totally undemocratic government in the regions, and of the setting up of Transitional Regional Assemblies with somewhat democratic regional administrations. The monopoly powers of the Masyumi in many regions were brought to an end.
The formation of Transitional Regional Assemblies was an extremely important political event in the Party’s struggle to develop and consolidate democracy. These legislative assemblies put an end to one man government or totally undemocratic government in the regions. In place of their former position of only receiving orders and of being deprived of the right to intervene in governmental affairs, the people, through their representatives, and especially through the Communists, got the chance to take part in deciding affairs of government in the regions.
The local representative assembly elections provide an important incentive to the Party cadres to get to know conditions in their Province, island, district or town better, as the prerequisite for drawing up Election Manifestations which are objective, realistic and which are in keeping with the feelings and thoughts of the masses of the people. It is very important to know the conditions in our respective regions in order to be able to improve the Party’s work there.
The Transitional Regional Assemblies are an important means of strengthening the cooperation between the C.P.I. and the other parties and groups via personal connections with the local leaders and through joint actions both within and outside the assemblies. The existence of these assemblies give the chance to the Party to prove to the people that, for the C.P.I., programme and deeds are one, to combine work in the ranks of the masses with work in the assemblies, to bring about a confrontation between the parties and the electors. If the Party representatives in the assemblies work well, the people’s confidence in the Party grows, the camouflage of those who only waveringly defend the interests of the people can be exposed and the diehards can be further isolated.
The formation of the Transitional Regional Assemblies and Transitional Regional Administrative Councils provides the people with a new weapon to strengthen their unity and to struggle for their everyday interests. From their own experiences the people will be educated to know who genuinely represents them and who are false representatives, to know who are the genuine leaders and who the false, to know who are their courageous defenders and who are the wavering defenders, to know which parties defend the people and which are anti-people. The experiences with the Transitional Regional Assemblies and the Transitional Regional Administrative Councils up to the present prove that the Communists are the loyal and genuine defenders of the interests of the people in the regions. On the other hand, the separatists, including the leaders of the Masyumi and the P.S.I., who yell about “defending the interests of the regions”, abuse the interests of the people in the regions.
The formation of Transitional Regional Administrative Councils based on proportional representation (according to votes received in the parliamentary general elections, Tr.) has completely undermined the policy of isolation of the reactionaries led by the Masyumi towards the C.P.I. in the regional governments. The establishment of such governments has strengthened the conviction of the people about the possibilities of forming a Gotong Royong (‘get-together’) Cabinet such as the President Sukarno Concept calls for. All this has made the people more enthusiastic about the forthcoming local representative assembly elections.
The formation of transitional legislative and executive bodies, the adoption of the Basic Law on Regional Autonomy and the forthcoming local representative assembly elections (already held, in Jakarta) has given rise to political activities among the broad masses and has raised the political consciousness of the people. The reactionaries greatly fear this, and this is why they do all they can to delay the formation of Regional Assemblies, to inactivate he existing ones or to prevent their formation altogether by means of military coup d’états such as occurred in Sumatra and South Celebes.
The inauguration of the Constituent Assembly on November 10th last year and the election of the Assembly leadership which can be said to reflect the balance of forces in the Assembly have made the people more confident in democracy. The Indonesian people will face a bitter struggle over the drafting of a democratic Constitution which guarantees the rights of the people and which can further strengthen the unity of the people. In preparation for the forthcoming sessions of the Constituent Assembly, an important part will be played by the Party’s activities to arouse the enthusiasm of the people to demand the drafting of a Constitution which, is spirit and content, is in harmony with the objectives that led the Indonesian people to begin the August 1945 Revolution, a Constitution for a State of the Republic of Indonesia which is united, fully independent and democratic.
The advances made by the people’s revolutionary movement are also proved by the upsurge of anti-colonialism among the youth and students and other masses of the people in the form of anti-foreign-subversion-demonstrations, in the form of support for the struggle of the Algerian people and against the French colonial war, in the form of demonstrations and strikes in support of Egypt and against Britain, France, and Israel.
In their fear of the democratic advances being made and of the growing spirit of anti-colonialism and the patriotism of the people, the reactionaries, led by Hatta, the Natsir-clique Mayumi leaders and the leaders of the P.S.I., are doing all they can hold back these advances.
Because they know that a Parliament elected by the people already and will go on producing results that encourage the growth of democracy and the advance of the revolutionary movement, the reactionary are striving to minimize the significance of the present Parliament and to lower its prestige, while at the same time they praise to the skies the former provisional Parliament which was set up on the basis of the R.T.C. Agreement and which included Dutch stooges via the “representative assemblies” of the Dutch-created puppet states.
Because they have no respect for the present Parliament, in other words, no respect for the 40 million voters and for the instruments of state power which ran the elections, Hatta, for one, is even bold enough to declare that the present Parliament is worse than the Provisional Parliament, that he would like to take office so long as the present Parliament is denied the right to bring about his downfall, in other words, so long as it is non-activated. In an effort to non-activist Parliament, the reactionaries are striving for the formation of a Presidential Cabinet. All this proves that the domestic reactionaries no longer have any confidence in the parliamentary democratic system, in the system for which they, together with others, once fought. Their political convictions have shifted from parliamentary democracy to fascism. The efforts of the reactionaries are of course opposed by all the democratic forces, by the alliance of the progressive forces and the middle-of-the roaders.
In their efforts to hold up the development of democracy, the reactionaries are trying by every means to split the unity of the people, among others, by means of setting the nationalities against each other, by setting one Army unit against another, by setting the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party against the religious parties, by setting the centre against the religious parties, by setting the centre against the regions, in short by every means possible to split the national forces so as to be able to restore their reactionary forces to power. For them, there are no such things as cooperation of gotong-royong between people of the same nation to defeat colonialism to the very roots. The only thing there is for them is cooperation between them and the colonialists and imperialists to split and dominate the Indonesian people in furtherance of their reactionary policies.
In harmony with the wishes of the foreign imperialists, the domestic reactionaries collaborate with the foreign subversive forces and utilize military persons under their influence to hold up the current of democracy and the people’s revolutionary movement. It was this combination of the foreign subversive forces with the activities of the domestic reactionaries and military persons under their control that led, among other things, to the outbreak of the “August 13th 1956 Affair” (the Lubis-inspired attempt to arrest former Foreign Minister Ruslan Abdulgani, Tr.), that led to Lubis’ attempt to carry out a coup d’état on November 16th, 1956, to the seizure of power in West Sumatra by the “Banteng Council” under Lieut. Col. Achmad Husein’s leadership, to the seizure of power in North Sumatra by the Col. Simbolon conspiracy and to the formation of the so-called “Garuda Council in South Sumatra, to the outbreak of the March 2nd, 1957 Affair in South Celebes and the proclamation of the Province of North Celebes without the approval of the Central Government. The reactionaries mobilized all manner of reasons including religion and local custom as well as the reasoning of their own reactionary policies, to justify their acts of treachery.
As a result of the destructive activities of the reactionaries, including the socialists, the Moslem persons and the Trotskyites, internal disorder became worse and worse. All this made it quite impossible to create the quality necessary for improving the country’s economy and cleaning up the State apparatus. There was not enough opportunity to build the armed forces of the Republic and educate their members as the indispensable prerequisite for consolidating the national forces so as the better to be able to face the possibility of armed attack from foreign imperialist states and to face foreign subversive activities and the activities of the Darul Islam T.I.I. armed gangs. The realization in practice of the R.T.C. abrogation, the drafting and implementation of a Five-Year Government Plan more or less beneficial to the national interests, the stamping out of corruption regardless of who is involved, the improvement of the personnel of government offices, measures to prevent wastage of State funds and other constructive measures all had to be put in abeyance by local seizures of power such as took place in Sumatra and Celebes which placed the Republic of Indonesia in jeopardy. The C.P.I. together with other democratic parties, strongly opposes the actions of the separatist rebels. The firm attitude of the C.P.I. on this question has won the broad sympathy of the masses of the working people and of all lovers of the Republic.
Right from the time the Ali Sastroamidjojo Government was formed, including as it did reactionary ministers, the C.P.I. had warned that these reactionary ministers were there not to strive genuinely for the implementation of the government’s program which had been unanimously approved by Parliament, but on the contrary, to sabotage the program from within the Cabinet. Subsequent events have borne the C.P.I.’s warnings out. The reactionaries outside the cabinet, including the separatists and the Darul Islam-T.I.I. gangs combined their activities within the Cabinet. A reactionary Finance Minister, to give but one example, pursued a policy of favouritism, throwing away State funds by hand-outs of credits to the members of certain parties, to his relatives or to other close acquaintances. What is the difference between the policies of this minister and the policies of the warlords in the regions who demand huge sums of money of the Central Government and yet refuse to submit to its instructions? They are both throwing away State funds so as to make the Republic of Indonesia bankrupt and completely impotent. Once it is bankrupt and impotent, so they think, it will be an easy matter to entice the Republic into the lair which the U.S.A. has made ready, on the pretext that we would have to join up with the American bloc because to go on living, our Republic needs to borrow money and, if necessary to borrow some of America’s authority. The slogan of the reactionaries is: “Better a Republic smashed to pieces than surrender to democracy and the wishes of the people!”
They combine their wastage of State funds by destroying sources of State finance with the activities of their armed gangs, with the organization of smuggling, with a toleration of bureaucracy and corruption in the State enterprises, with a policy of turning potentially profitable State enterprises into “public corporations”, turning them into companies and finally turning them over completely to private interests, just in order to serve the profit motives of a handful of persons in the direction of these enterprises. They already have such plans for ministerial departments such as the State Railways, the Postal, Telephone and Telegraph Office, the Radio, the Harbour Service, shipping, the Soda and Salt Warks, and the Department of Motorized Transport. Were these plans to be implemented, it would be at variance with the endeavours to change the balance of forces between the national economy and the colonial one. Such undermining of the economic strength of the Republic of Indonesia will greatly weaken its position, and must therefore be bitterly resisted by every patriot.
President Sukarno’s announcement of his Concept on February 21st, 1957, was an extremely important step towards preventing the dis-integration of the Republic. The demonstrations, mass rallies and other actions which were held in many places throughout the country in support of the President Sukarno Concept, including West Sumatra and South Sumatra which were by then under the domination of the separatist rebels were a manifestation of the strong patriotic and anti-colonialist desire for unity which can only be compared in the history of the independence struggle of the Indonesian people to the people’s actions in defence of the Proclamation during the first months after August 1945. An important difference was that at the time of the actions to support the President’s Concept, the masses of the people were already more conscious, better organized and better led than during the first months of defending the proclamation of independence. The actions in defence of the President Sukarno Concept represented an upsurge of the spirit of anti-colonialism of the broad masses of the people.
The announcement of the President Sukarno Concept which proposes the formation of a ‘get together’ cabinet, or in other words, a cabinet based on proportional representation, and the formation of a National Council, together with the widespread and enthusiastic welcome for the Concept by the masses of the people and the instrument of State power, including the Armed Forces and the Police, was a major victory for the progressive forces and the united front. The forces aroused by the announcement of this Concept were a great help is stemming a shift to the right during the time of the crisis following the resignation of the Ali-Idham Cabinet, it greatly helped to centralize power in the hands of the President (the proclamation of a State of War and Siege) and helped the formation of the Djuanda Cabinet, all of events of major significance in overcoming the disorders at home created by the separatist movement and foreign subversion, in stamping out corruption in all places and in smashing the Darul Islam-T.I.I. and other terrorist gangs.
The announcement of the President Sukarno Concept brought the middle forces closer to the progressive forces and further isolated the diehards. The Central Council of the P.N.I. came out in support of the Concept, that is, it officially stated that it agreed to the inclusion of Communists in the cabinet, while at the same time, in almost all regions, the C.P.I. and the P.N.I. cooperated in support of the Concept. Many leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the P.S.I.I. (small Moslem party, Tr.) and the Perti (Moslem party mainly influential in Wes Sumatra, Tr.) came out in support of the Concept, some of them give full support while others only supported certain parts. Conflicts arose in the parties of the diehards between those for and those against the Concept.
President Sukarno’s announcement of his Concept on February 21st, 1957, was an extremely important step towards preventing the disintegration of the Republic. The demonstrations, mass rallies and other actions which were held in many places throughout the country in support of the President Sukarno Concept, including West Sumatra and South Sumatra which were by then under the domination of the separatist rebels were a manifestation of the strong patriotic and anti-colonialist desire for unity which can only be compared in the history of the independence struggle of the Indonesian people to the people’s actions in defence of the Proclamation during the first months after August1945. An important difference was that at the time of the actions to support the President’s Concept, the masses of the people were already more conscious, better organized and better led than during the first months of defending the proclamation of independence. The actions in defence of the President Sukarno Concept represented an upsurge of the spirit of anti-colonialism of the broad masses of the people.
The announcement of the President Sukarno Concept which proposes the formation of a ‘get together’ cabinet, or in other words, a cabinet based on proportional representation, and the formation of a National Council, together with the widespread and enthusiastic welcome for the Concept by the masses of the people and the instruments of State power, including the Armed Forces and the Police, was a major victory for the progressive forces and the united front. The forces aroused by the announcement of this Concept were a great help is stemming a shift to the right during the time of the crisis following the resignation of the Ali-Idham Cabinet, it greatly helped to centralize power in the hands of the President (the proclamation of a State of War and Siege) and helped the formation of the Djuanda Cabinet, all of events of major significance in overcoming the disorders at home created by the separatist movement and foreign subversion, in stamping out corruption in all places and in smashing the Darul Islam-T.I.I. and other terrorist gangs.
The announcement of the President Sukarno Concept brought the middle forces closer to the progressive forces and further isolated the diehards. The Central Council of the P.N.I. came out in support of the Concept, that is, it officially stated that it agreed to the inclusion of Communists in the cabinet, while at the same time, in almost all regions, the C.P.I. and the P.N.I. cooperated in support of the Concept. Many leaders of the Nahdlatur Ulama, the P.S.I.I. (small Moslem party, Tr.) and the Perti (Moslem party mainly influential in West Sumatra, Tr.) came out in support of the Concept, some of them giving gull support while others only supported certain parts. Conflicts arose in the parties of the diehards between those for and those against the Concept.
On April 9th last, President Sukarno swore the Djuanda Cabinet into office to replace the Ali-Idham Cabinet which resigned not as a result of a non-confidence motion in Parliament but because of the disturbances created by the separatist rebels and because of the intrigues of a few reactionary leaders within the government parties. The Djuanda Cabinet was formed by the President himself and its program is: (1) To establish a National Council, (2) to normalize conditions in the Republic, (3) to continue with the realization in practice of the R.T.C. abrogation, (4) the struggle for West Irian, and (5) to intensify construction activities.
The Djuanda Cabinet is not on ‘get-together’. Cabinet or a cabinet based on proportional representation such as the President Sukarno Concept proposed. It was not possible to set up a ‘get-together’ cabinet was because of the diehard attitude of the Masyumi party and the wavering of the N.U. even though this cabinet is not a ‘get-together’ cabinet, the efforts of the reactionaries to form a rightist cabinet with Hatta as Prime Minister came too thought. More than that, as a result of its diehard attitude, the Masyumi was completely isolated from the cabinet.
The Party’s attitude towards the Cabinet is: unreserved support for those measures which benefit the people, criticism of the wavering measures, and opposition to those measures which are detrimental to the people. The emphasis is on support for the Cabinet and in the case of measures which go too far against the interests of the people, to seek a settlement by means of negotiation so as jointly to find a way out so that the people’s interests are not harmed and the government can continue in office with the support of the people.
Since the Djuanda Cabinet has been in office, a number of big corruptors have been arrested and investigated, with the active assistance of the leadership of the Armed Force. A number of plotters scheming to overthrow the Republic have been rounded up. Security conditions have gradually improved with the surrender of various armed gangs in West Java, East Sumatra, Borneo and elsewhere.
A beginning has been made in the settlement of various questions concerning the military uprisings in the regions, especially in the eastern part of Indonesia. Although there still remain a number of difficulties to be overcome, the settlement achieved so far is very important for the overall settlement. These measures have been welcomed by the people, as have too the steps taken by the Djuanda Cabinet, together with President Sukarno, to draw up the composition of the National Council.
Since the Djuanda Cabinet has been in office, there have been signs that the political and military situation is improving. The forces of democracy and the revolutionary forces have in general made progress, with the exception of a few places which have been under pressure because of the abuse of the State of War and Siege, especially those regions controlled by the separatist rebels.
Latest developments in the regions controlled by the separatist rebels reveal that there, too, the democratic forces and the people’s revolutionary forces are making progress. The diehard forces are still indeed very powerful, but the progressive forces and the middle-of-the-road forces as well as the unity between these two forces are growing.
Even though such people as Hatta come to the defence of the “Banteng Council” and other “private councils”, trying to create the impression that these councils are succeeding in carrying out so called “regional construction” it is clear that the people cannot be blinded to the facts. The emptiness of this entire demagogy about “regional construction, improving the condition of the people as speedily as possible” and “broad regional autonomy” is being more and more exposed in the eyes of the people. They have thus completely failed to draw the masses of the workers and peasants to their side. The general political strike of workers in South Sumatra on March 18th last is proof of the political maturity of the workers in face of the separatist rebels. Government employees in the regions controlled by the separatist rebels are more and more plucking up courage to their disagreement with the rebels. It is becoming clearer and clearer that the movement of ‘private councils’ has no roots, that it was only in the beginning that many people wavered because the rebels were able for a time to exploit to the full the people’s dissatisfaction with the deplorable economic situation.
The many promises un-kept and which the “Banteng Council” and the “Garuda Council” can indeed never keep are making the people critical of their demagogy. More and more, splits are breaking out within the “private councils” and also within the parties and organizations which support them. A left wing which orientates itself towards the central government is emerging within the “councils” and within the parties and organizations supporting them. The middle-of-the-road forces, especially their youth, are becoming bolder and can be more easily drawn into unity with the progressive forces.
The above facts show clearly that the internal situation during the past then months has been marked by a development of democracy and of the revolutionary movement of the people, by the growth of the progressive forces, by the growing unity between the middle-of-the-roaders and the progressive forces and by the growing isolation of the diehard forces.
The uprisings of the separatists in the regions are a reaction to the democratic advances and the development of the people’s revolutionary movement. The firm stand adopted by the C.P.I. against the separatist rebels has tremendously raised its prestige in the eyes of the people. This is among others proven by the brilliant victory won by the C.P.I. at the Jakarta local representative assembly elections held recently. The parties which defend the separatist rebels or which do not clearly oppose these traitors lost a considerable number of votes.
From the fact that the separatist movement and foreign subversion in the form of rebellion has not yet been completely wiped out, especially in West Sumatra, South Sumatra, Tapanuli and North Celebes, the conclusion must be drawn that the forces of the foreign imperialist which are united together with the domestic reactionaries, may not under any circumstances be taken lightly. In view of this, our Party must continue to raise its political vigilance and improve its organization; it must raise the courageousness, determination and military of its members.
As is proven by the C.P.I.’s policy towards the rebels in the regions, the C.P.I. agrees, wherever possible, to seek a settlement through negotiation bearing in mind that there are among the rebels persons who have only been drawn in through their naivety or because they hope for personal material benefit, without any conscious intention of destroying the Republic. But, since the persons leading the rebels, particularly those who stand behind these activities, clearly aim to establish political power in contradiction with the basic principles of the 1945 Proclamation Republic, then our Party and all patriotic people should indeed demand that the Djuanda Government, or in fact any government that wants to get the support of the people, realize the limits to which negotiation can go. Not to realize these limits is a sign of weakness and it can only drag out the disorders until in the end, they will become much more difficult to cope with.
The fact that the Colonel Simbolon uprising in North Sumatra could be defeated in a brief space of team, and the fact that the Armed Forces were able to foil the attempt to murder President Sukarno and K.E. Voroshilov in Rajamandala, is evidence of the capabilities of the patriotic forces within the Armed Forces. The steps taken by the Djuanda Government with the very great assistance rendered by the leadership of the Armed Forces in connection with military matter in the eastern part of Indonesia not only show that the government realizes the limits, but proves too that the situation can be brought under control. The improvements in the situation, including the situation in the regions under the control of the separatist rebels, have strengthened the conviction that things can be brought under control so long as the government realizes the limits of negotiation.
In the framework of overcoming internal difficulties, economic and financial questions in addition to also require special attention from anyone who wishes the Republic well, and especially from the government. In this connection, we do not make excessive demands of the government. We only demand that the government should earnestly implement one of the points in its program that is, continuing with the work of realizing the R.T.C. abrogation in practice. We demand that the government should, within the framework of this point on its program, take steps against the big Dutch capitalists that are of benefit to the people.
It is now clear that the success of the Djuanda Government depends above all on two things: firstly, the implementation of the point, the “normalization of conditions in the Republic” with main emphasis on military affairs; and secondly, the implementation of the point, “continue with the realization of the R.T.C. abrogation” with emphasis on economic and financial matters. If the government achieves success in these two questions, then it is a certainty that it will also achieve success in implementing the other parts of it program.
In keeping with our Party’s attitude of basically supporting the Djuanda Cabinet, it is the responsibility of all C.P.I. members to do all they can to assist in the implementation of the government’s program.
Especially as regards overcoming economic and financial difficulties, our Party must take a more active part; we must come forward with concrete and realistic proposals and must demand that the government should display courage in taking action against the big Dutch capitalists. In order to cope with the extremely difficult financial and foreign exchange situation at present afflicting the State, it would be good if the government were to recall the experiences of the export-import policy pursued by the First Ali Sastroamidjojo Cabinet which succeeded within limits in improving the State financial and foreign exchange position. This policy was based on the principle of controlling and regulating imports and exports by means of a system of bilateral trade agreements with other countries, including the countries of the socialist camp, side by side with a policy of establishing direct trade relations without going through the transit centres, Singapore and Holland. Such a policy provided the implementation and control is better that before, can help the Djuanda Cabinet to overcome the present financial and foreign exchange difficulties. If this system is adopted, the Djuanda Cabinet will have to take measures to prevent the special license practices which were indeed very harmful and destructive. It was because this system was advantageous to the national interests that it was abolished by the Burhanuddin Harahap Cabinet and replaced by a liberal system which conflicts with the interests of the Indonesian people.
The enlarged session of the Political Bureau held on February 20th, 1957 declared its “agreement with the Bung Karno Concept and calls on the entire Indonesian people to give this concept their full support and to work hard for its implementation. The Bung Karno Concept is democratic it guarantees unity and opposes splitting”. The President Sukarno Concept is a concept to unite all forces which can be united to complete the national revolution.
As President Sukarno officially explained at the State Palace on February 21st, 1957, the Concept includes two basic points, the first concerning the cabinet and the second concerning the National Council. On the cabinet, he said that a “gotong royong” cabinet should be formed “including all parties or fractions in Parliament with a sufficient number of seats”. This makes it clear that the President Sukarno Concept favours the formation of a cabinet based on proportional representation.
The President Sukarno Concept is just, realistic and guarantees unity because it does not a priori keep any group out of the cabinet. As regards the necessity for he C.P.I. to be in the Central Government, President Sukarno stated in his Concept that “we cannot go on ignoring a group which won six million votes in the general elections” and that it is a fact “that the C.P.I. has many followers among the workers”, a very important thing for construction.
In the framework of their efforts to defeat the President Sukarno Concept, the reactionaries, led by Hatta and Natsir, slandered the Concept as being in conflict with democracy. Just as if they were “true democrats”. The Indonesian people know quite well how “democratic” they are. The Indonesian people know from their experience that Hatta and Natsir are contemptuous of democracy. If the Concept were indeed in conflict with democracy, then the C.P.I. and the working people would be the most entitled to oppose it because this is the group which most greatly needs democracy. But in fact, the workers and other working people are its foremost supporters. The reason is that the President Sukarno Concept does not put an end to democracy; it does not undermine the parliamentary system and the party system. On the contrary, the Concept wants a more healthy democracy.
As distinct from Hatta who wants the Parliament elected by the people to be non-activated, President Sukarno stated that “Parliament continues to operate and the present Parliament is indeed the result of a general election involving the entire Indonesian people. But what we want to set up is not a cabinet of the old style such as we have experiences for the last eleven years, but a cabinet of a new style. A cabinet of a new style the ministers of which consist of persons from parties, all the parties and all the fractions in Parliament have obtained a sufficient number of seats”. (Quotation from the Concept) This is what President Sukarno calls “gotong royong (get-together) democracy” or “guided democracy” and what, according to President Sukarno, harmonies with the essence of the Indonesian youth pledge of October 28th, 1928 and the August 17th, 1945 Proclamation of Independence.
Concerning the National Council, President Sukarno proposed that in composition it should include representatives of the workers because, according the President Sukarno and his Concept, the workers represent a “tremendous functional group”, a representative of the intellectuals, the national businessmen, the Protestants and the Catholics, the Moslem religious teachers, the youth, the 1945 Generation, persons who can put forward the problems of the regions. Besides that, he proposed that the National Council should include the Army Chief-of-Staff, the Navy Chief-of-Staff, the Air Force Chief-of-Staff, the Chief of the State Police, the Public Prosecutor and certain key ministers. President Sukarno later declared that representatives of the artists and the minority citizens of foreign extraction would be asked to sit in the National Council. President Sukarno proposed that he himself should lead the National Council. The task of the National Council is “to give advice to the cabinet, whether or not such advice is requested”.
Why do we agree to the President Sukarno Concept, in other words agree to a gotong royong cabinet and a National Council?
As regards the gotong royong cabinet, our Party has for a long time called for the establishment of a National Unity Government or a National Coalition Government as the condition for unifying the entire national forces and mobilizing these to the maximum. At the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. in July 1956 we clearly formulated one of political demands as follows: “Defeat the anti-unity policy and the anti-Communist dictatorial policy of a section of the leaders of the Masyumi and the P.S.I. for the formation of a National Coalition Cabinet including the Four Main Parties (the C.P.I., the P.N.I, the N.U. and the Masyumi) together with other parties:. This demand is a political demand for the present stage, the stage of defending national independence and extending democracy. This is a manifestation of the feelings, thoughts and desires of the vast majority of the Indonesian people at the present time.
We can agree to the National Council because with such a Council, the President will be able to hear directly all the feelings, thoughts and desires of the masses of the people and to discuss all this collectively. As an advisory body, the National Council will greatly assist the government in its work, especially in ensuring that the basic lines concerning the policy of anti-colonialism, the policy of extending democracy and of defending world peace do not get blurred by getting drowned in a sea of detail of executive work. The National Council is a new political weapon in the hands of the people in the struggle against colonialism, to defend democracy and peace.
The President Sukarno Concept aroused the spirit of the people on a large scale, on a scale of great depth and extent. It has also drawn a clear dividing line between the camp in favour of anti-colonialist unity on the one hand and the camp of anti-unity and pro-colonialism on the other. The Concept has shown very clearly who are the friends of the people and who their enemies, who it is who places the national interests above all else and who is hostile to these interests, who are the democrats and who are not, who fights for unity and who carries out splitting activities. The Concept has given great political education to the masses of the people. Even though it has not yet been implemented, the mere announcement of the Concept has resulted in shifts in the balance of forces in society. A large section of the middle-of-the-road forces have openly sided with the progressive forces and there has been more cracking in the diehard parties.
The President Sukarno Concept is so reasonable, so just and so democratic that, were the diehard leaders simply to say “we don’t agree”, they would completely isolate themselves from their own masses. This is why they try to state their objections in such phrases as: "We agree to the Bung Karno Concept, but without the C.P.I.”, or “We agree to the Bung Karno Concept but Hatta must be Prime Minister”. Both these formulations are in essence a rejection of the Concept. Keeping the C.P.I. out of the cabinet means reject the gotong royong principle which is the very core of the Concept. The condition that Hatta should become Prime Minister means reject the C.P.I. because Hatta has stubbornly and shamelessly turned down the C.P.I.
Hatta, the Natsir clique of Masyumi leaders and the right-wing socialist leaders propose the formation of a Presidential Cabinet which is clearly in conflict with the Provisional Constitution and with the President Sukarno Concept favouring as it does a cabinet based on Parliament. By making such a proposal, they are making and all out attempt to defeat the President’s Concept and laying the basis for a government not based on Parliament, devoid of all control by the people.
Some people ask: What will be the program of the gotong royong cabinet proposed by President Sukarno? Indeed, the Concept does not discuss the question of program. We think it best for the cabinet program no to be raised because if it were, it would most probably distract attention from the basic questions of the Gotong Royong Cabinet and the National Council to questions of a program which can be discussed on some other occasion. But it is clear that the entire President Sukarno Concept is inspired by the spirit of anti-colonialist national unity, it wants “the Indonesian people to live as one great family which is free and sovereign, not as a divided family” (quoted from the Concept). One thing is clear and that is that if a gotong royong cabinet is formed, its program cannot possibly be less than the program of the Second Ali Satroamidjojo Cabinet, a cabinet which the C.P.I. supported although the C.P.I. was not in the Cabinet. The formation of the Djuanda Cabinet, even though it is not yet a gotong royong cabinet, shows that its program is not less than the program of the Second Ali Sastroamidjojo Cabinet.
The President Sukarno Concept, inspired as it is by the spirit of revolutionary national unity, clearly does not contain anything within it which would restrict freedom to express opinion in Parliament, in the Cabinet, in the National Council, or anywhere else. More than that, as regards the need for the expression of different opinions, the President’s Concept recognizes this when it says that “there will always be differences of opinions, and as a matter of fact, this difference of opinion will take us forward” and that “from an intermingling of this difference of opinion, truth will emerge” (quoted from the Concept).
Thus, the President Sukarno Concept in no way resembles, either in contents or form the concept of the defenders of the “Gajah Council” (N. Sumatra), the “Banteng Council”, the “Garuda Council” or any of the other counter-revolutionary councils, a concept which has been completely drawn up according to the recipe of fascism, which has come into being because the reactionaries no longer place any confidence in the path of democracy as the way of achieving their political aims. The counter-revolutionary councils were formed as a continuation of the separatist movement and the movement to expand the SEATO region, while the President Sukarno Concept is to strengthen the Republic of Indonesia and to resist every foreign attempt to destroy Indonesian independence and sovereignty.
In order to scare themselves and their group, the reactionary leaders spread the lie that the President Sukarno Concept came to birth “thanks to what people in the Communist countries had whispered in his ear”, countries which President Sukarno had visited a short time before. For those who can believe such stories, it is necessary to recall that in a speech before the “Body to Investigate Preparations for Independence” made about one-and-a-half months before the August 17th, 1945 Proclamation, or in other words, long before President Sukarno had visited the countries of the socialist camp, Bung Karno said that we must establish a state “not for one person or for one group, not for the aristocrats or the wealthy, - but all for all!” In the same speech, Bung Karno also said that “if we are seeking democracy, then let it not be Western democracy, but life-giving consultation, in other words, a policy of economic democracy which can bring us social prosperity”.
At the beginning of March 1957, the right-wing newspapers published an article by Hatta entitled “Review of the Bung Karno Concept”. We should discuss this article because, even though he made all sorts of promises to the people in his earlier days, for example, about his preparedness to fight for national unity, about economic democracy, prosperity and the like, Hatta, apart from being known as the “brains” of reaction has now come to the fore as the top-ranking political leader of the Indonesian reactionaries, assisted by Natsir and Sjahrir. This article show that Hatta is not yet satisfied with the murders committed when his government was in office and on his full personal responsibility during the Madiun Affair. He still cherishes hopes of starting a civil war on the model of the Madiun Affair to “smash the Communists” or at the very least to “stem the Communist tide”; he still regards this work of the imperialists as his own work. He would like more again to bash his head against the wall of history.
In order to make the reader belittle the significance of the President Sukarno Concept, Hatta, in this article, first concentrates on lowering Sukarno’s prestige by a “psycho-analytical” study of “Bung Karno’s soul”. Besides being a politician and a leader, says Hatta, Bung Karno has the soul of an artist burning in his breast and he therefore lives in a dream world. “As a devotee of the arts, he wants to see everything in a state of beauty, in harmony, in one complete whole. This is why unity is for him the be-all and end-all of everything”, writes Hatta. Hatta hopes in this way to demonstrate the “childishness” of Sukarno who is unable to distinguish between means and end. And yet, it is Sukarno who frequently reiterates that unity is the means to achieve the end. This shows not only that Hatta does not understand Sukarno but at one and the same time it reveals just how distorted his own understanding of an “artist” is. For Hatta, anyone who is an artist is not a realist, or in other words, is synonymous with a dreamer. And, since Sukarno is an artist, he too is a dreamer, and it therefore follows that his Concept is unreal, pure fantasy. Thus, Hatta exposes himself for all to see as a “profound analyst”!
In the same article, Hatta also states that he did not agree with Bung Karno’s efforts to establish the PPKI, a body for cooperation between various parties and organizations, in 1927. Hatta did not agree because “it was not allowed in the PPPKI to put forward basic points on principle conflicts of opinion between the members, for example, between religion and non-co-operation”. From this, we can see how distorted is Hatta’s understanding of the policy of unity. He does not understand or deliberately refuses to understand that, when pursuing a policy of unity, it is the duty of all who want to unite to seek out the common meeting points and not to find the points of principle that can lead to a split. It is based on such a distorted view that Hatta, in his article, disapproves of cooperation within the cabinet between the religious, nationalist and Communist parties. People who can accept such distorted ideas are themselves even more distorted in their views!
Hatta says, Bung Karno lives in a dream-world with the result that Bung Karno “has got stuck in the rut of reality, both formerly and now”. What he means to say is that the Bung Karno Concept is also stuck in the rut of “reality”. What Hatta means by “reality” is the diehard attitude of the Masyumi leaders of the Natsir clique and Hatta’s own diehard attitude of obstinately turning down the President Sukarno Concept, or in other words, turning down anti-imperialist unity. If this is what he calls “reality”, then only the foreign imperialists will be able to gain from it, and this exposes quite clearly what exactly Hatta’s own “reality” is.
After declaring that Bung Karno is not a realist and that the Bung Karno Concept is a fantasy, Hatta then goes on to propose of course as a “realist”, that the provisions of the Constitution should be trampled upon by setting up a Presidential Cabinet and that the practices carried out in Jogjakarta in 1948 should be revived. In this way Hatta implies that the National Council is not necessary and that his methods of “wiping out Communism” in 1948 are correct. He is dreaming of his golden era, his harvest of Communist and non-Communist patriot lives, of the lives of the best Indonesian of the Javanese, Batak, Maduranese, and other nationalities.
According to the “realist” Hatta, a gotong royong cabinet is only possible “if all the parties in Parliament have the same objective”. In other words, so long as the C.P.I., the P.N.I., the N.U., the Christian Party, the Catholic Party and other parties do not have the establishment of a “Darul Islam” states for their aim like the Masyumi, it will be impossible to set up a gotong royong cabinet. This is “reality” according to Hatta! In order to prevent the achievement of unity and to defeat attempts to have a gotong royong cabinet, Hatta deliberately drags up matters of principle and distracts attention from the concrete facts of today, namely that the Indonesian people of various religions and political convictions are all anti-colonial, they do not want a new war, and can therefore unite to defend national independence, to defend the Proclamation Republic and to defend peace.
The above facts make it clear that if national unity is not achieved, if a gotong-royong cabinet cannot yet be established, if the people continue to live in deplorable circumstances as is the case at present, then the first person responsible for all this is Hatta.
Furthermore, in order to prevent the establishment of a gotong royong cabinet, Hatta without turning a hair, proceeds to repeat all the slanders of van der Plas and the officials of the American State Departments about “the Communists in all countries placing the interests of the Soviet Union above the interests of their own country”. Hatta states this without offering the slightest proof. Would it not, therefore be better if Hatta started investigation himself, and realizing that his efforts to defeat the unity of the people, to defeat the Bung Karno Concept is striking evidence of the act of an agent of the Dutch colonialists and American imperialists.
Hatta stubbornly maintain his out-dated view that an opposition is indispensable to democracy. So difficult is it for him to ignore the C.P.I. as a political factor that he is forced to write that he would “like to see” the C.P.I. as the opposition. According to Hatta, the C.P.I. should become a good, strong opposition in Parliament so as, among other things, to be able to combat corruption within the government parties, and in this way to play its part in improving political morals which have now sunk so low. If Hatta genuinely recognizes the C.P.I.’s right to exist and if he really has hopes of it carrying out such a great task in Parliament, then why should the C.P.I. not be in the cabinet to do this, whereas other much smaller parties should, according to him, be there? How utterly confused are the ideas of this unrealistic realist!
The Indonesian reactionaries have already and will continue to mobilize all moral and physical forces to defeat the President Sukarno Concept. Hatta, the “brains” of the Indonesia reactionaries, has likewise mobilized all the “scientific reasoning” he can. And yet, despite all this, the truth of the Concept not only does not become less convincing but rather, becomes more convincing. The fact that the concept is opposed by Hatta and by the Natsir clique in the Masyumi is proof that it will be good for the Indonesian people.
The President Sukarno Concept correctly answers the urgent political problems now being faced by the Indonesian people. It is a scientific truth. If it is not yet possible to implement the concept, or not yet possible to implement it in it’s entirely, this is not because it is not correct but because of another factor, the factor of the balance of forces. This is the same as was the case with the demand “Free Indonesia Now” made by the Indonesian people during former Dutch colonial times. If, when this demand was first raised, Indonesia did not become free immediately, this was not because the demand “free Indonesia now” was wrong but because the balance of forces did not yet make it possible. Just, as “free Indonesia”, a just and correct demand, has now become a fact, so too, the President Sukarno Concept will surely become a fact. This is why actions of the Indonesian people demanding the implementation of the Bung Karno Concept are righteous and correct actions. It is because these demands are righteous and correct actions. It is because these demands are righteous and correct that the Indonesian Communists together with the Indonesian people will go on making this demand and carrying out actions for the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept.
Propaganda for the President Sukarno Concept must be made without stop, the forces of the people must continuously be organized and the balance of forces must continuously be changed as the condition for the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept. We do all this because we shall thus be uniting the people and mobilizing them for a political concept which is to their benefit. Side by side with this, it is still the task of our Party to carry out propaganda for the General Program of the Party, a Program for the complete realization of the demands of the August Revolution in their entirely.
In connection with the tactics of the Indonesian revolution, the President Sukarno Concept is of very great significance. Its full implementation will represent a big jump forward towards realizing the strategic aim of the revolution, namely the complete realization of the demands of the August 1945 Revolution in their entirely.
The international and internal situations are both favourable to the President Sukarno Concept. The times are on the side of those who work for the realization of this Concept!
Comrades, our Program states that the way out of the present situation which we do not what “lies in changing the balance of forces between the imperialists, the landlord class, and the comprador bourgeoisie on the one hand, and the forces of the people on the other. The way out lies in arousing, mobilizing and organizing the masses, especially the workers and the peasants”. This means that, besides the great variety of Party work, the most important work, under all circumstances, remains the same, that is, to arouse, mobilize and organize the masses. In the course of being busily engaged in everyday organizational and educational work, some Party cadres often forget this, especially now that we are busy with our Three Year Organizational and Educational Plan. We cannot succeed in carrying out this Plan if it is not combined with mass work.
Our comrades must not forget that the sole aim of the Party’s organizational and educational work is to bring about an improvement in the Party’s leadership of the masses so as to change the balance of forces. Neither should they forget that only if the progressive forces are mighty, the result of persevering mass work, will we gradually be able to draw the middle forces into the united front and will the diehard forces become more and more isolated. In the case of the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept, too, the question of changing the balance of forces is the key.
On this occasion, let us examine in broad lines what we have achieved and what still remains to be done by the Party to change the balance of forces.
1. The Masses of the Workers.
The masses of the workers or the trade unions are at present facing among other things the questions of the abuse of the State of War and Siege, mass dismissals, minimum wage regulations, and social facility regulations. In facing these various questions, some significant progress has been made in building workers’ unity with the establishment of the R.K.S. (Cooperation Meeting) and B.K.S. (Body for Cooperation) between the trade unions of government employees and workers of the foreign enterprises respectively.
Revolutionary trade union activists generally now recognize the correctness of the importance of consolidating workers’ unity by means of action, but they still crop up against numerous difficulties and constantly need the leadership of the Party to overcome them. It is a very important fact that, in the recent period, the question of the size of the various trade unions is no longer raised as a problem in building cooperation between the trade unions. All trade unions, so long as they want to unite regardless of how big or small they may be, are being united to carry out a concrete joint, program.
Experience shows that, at times, one particular trade union which is indeed small in terms of members plays a political role which cannot be ignored, and it is therefore important to call upon it to unite in action. Along these correct lines of unity, all efforts of the splitters have generally been defeated and workers’ unity has become stronger.
Whereas some time ago, the utilization of the right to strike was still something foreign to the trade unions of government employees not affiliated to SOBSI, this is no longer so now, as a result of the bitter experience of social-economic demands not acceded by the government. The P.G.R.I. (Teachers’ Union), the Trade Union of Justice Ministry Employees, and others have already had strike experience, while the Trade Union of Home Ministry Employees, the Trade Union of Information Ministry Employees and the Union of Prosecutors have all threatened action. All this is important to raise the consciousness of the workers.
Political strike action, for example in support of Egypt and against Britain, France and Israel, greatly raised the political consciousness of the workers and helped greatly to unite the Indonesian workers and raise their consciousness. This was the case, too, with the workers’ action in opposition to the Strike Decree No. 16, their actions around the West Irian question, their anti-foreign-subversion actions, and their actions to defeat Col. Simbolon’s attempted coup d’état in North Sumatra and the political general strike against the separatist rebel power in South Sumatra, the workers’ threat of action to prevent the formation of a rightist cabinet and other actions, have all united the workers and raised their political consciousness. It was possible in all these actions to create a broad, workers’ front and workers’ unity with other masses of the people.
In order to face the social-economic and political tasks of the workers in the period to come, a very important question is that of raising their understanding and consciousness by means of education, the question of expanding workers’ organizations throughout the length and breadth of the country, the question of better coordination of workers’ actions, the question of preventing the abuse of the State of War and Siege, of defending the rights of trade unions, of improving the conditions of the workers and government employees, of strengthening the unity of trade union leaderships either their basic organizations and with the masses of the workers. In the period to come, the Indonesian working class, in keeping with its position which is now rather strong, must take a more active part in the efforts to strengthen international working class solidarity, especially solidarity between the workers of Asia and Africa.
2. The Peasant Masses.
In their struggle to get land to till, the Indonesian peasants must now deal with the foreign plantations, the forestry departments and the native landlords.
In connection with the foreign plantations, the peasants at the present stage only demand that they get for cultivation those plantation lands which are not being cultivated or which are being left to lie fallow. This is just, not only from the viewpoint of the peasants that should have land to till but also from the viewpoint of the national need for an increase in the production of food.
As regards privately-owned lands, the struggle should be continued for the government to buy up these lands at a price and with means of payments fixed by the government, in accordance with its financial ability. The arable lands among these formerly privately-owned lands should be divided out to the landless and poor peasants.
As regards the forest lands, the peasants only demand that they be allowed to work those lands not required for hydrological purposes or for exploitation by the forestry department to cultivate timber for exports. The peasants only demand those forest lands which can indeed be worked by the peasants. They in general understand that the lands really required for hydrological purposes must be kept afforested. As regards forest lands which have long been settled and cultivated by the peasants, but which now turn out to be genuinely required for hydrological purposes, the peasants are prepared to vacate these lands after they have the assurance of a new place to live and of an allowance to cover removal costs. The matter of hydrology is of direct concern to the peasants because they themselves would not like to have their land spoilt by landslides and floods. As for the forest lands really needed to grow timber for export, the peasants only demand that while the trees are still small, they should be permitted to cultivate certain crops between the trees free of the extortionate terms of certain individuals in the forestry department. This demand does not harm the forestry department, while it provides a livelihood for the peasants and helps expand food production.
But frequently, these modest peasant demands which directly benefit the national interest because they will lead to an increase in food production, are not understood by local officials and they often bring local state instruments of power in to deal with the peasants, and sometimes even bring the peasants face to face with the government at the centre. It was because certain government officials do not understand these just demands of the peasants, together with the fact that certain of these officials are indeed hostile to the peasants, that the Minister of Agrarian Affairs in the Second Ali Sastroamidjojo Government (of the Catholic Party) issued the reactionary Emergency Decree No. 1, 1956. According to this reactionary decree, all cultivation of plantation lands and forest lands is regarded as an infringement of the law, without consideration of whether the peasant concerned really needs land to till, or of whether the land taken by the peasant is indeed available for distribution and of whether the increased cultivation resulting means an increase of production. It is the duty of the people’s representatives in Parliament and in the regional assemblies, the duty of the mass movement of the people and of the mass movement of the peasants in particular to demand the repeal of this reactionary decree and demand the introduction of a democratic Agrarian Law.
Peasants’ actions demanding a reduction in the deposit rates and rates of interest to the landlords, just as is the case with the agricultural labourers’ actions to demand higher wages, have become quite extensive during the recent period. Initially, and because deposit rates and rates of interests are indeed much too high, the landlords themselves in Java and Sumatra often consider that it would be better to meet the demands of the peasants rather than get involved in all “that trouble”. But in some places, the landlords act like diehards and call the state forces in to exert pressure on the peasants making these demands. Because, however, these peasant demands are indeed very just the landlords do not always succeed in getting the state forces to oppress the peasants.
Outside Java and Sumatra where the peasants’ movement is not yet very advanced where the landlord influence among the state forces is still quite strong, the landlords frequently succeed in getting the latter to oppress the peasants; examples are in Sumba, Flores, Makale Rantepao (Celebes) and elsewhere. Under such circumstances, the peasants offer up bitter resistance and in the course of this they have gained experience, their consciousness has been raised and their organization has expanded and strengthened. In the course of action against the landlords, the peasant organizations expand and become steeled!
In order to put an end to one-man government in the villages, peasant actions demanding the formation of somewhat more democratic district and village assemblies via elections must be developed as an important step towards the formation of third stage (below the province and the district, Tr.) autonomous government, a question about which the C.P.I. in Parliament is demanding legislation.
In view of the increasingly heavy tasks which have to be carried out, the question of a thorough study of agrarian relations in the villages assumes even greater importance, as does too the question of political and organizational education for peasant cadres, the questions of educating large numbers of cadres who really understand the problems of the peasants and the village, the question of discovering simple forms of organization and of being able to mobilize the masses of the peasants rapidly on a broad scale, the question of expanding the revolutionary peasants organization and of its membership the question of improving the central leadership of the revolutionary peasant organization, the question of convening regional conferences for districts that are facing similar problems as a platform for exchanging experiences of peasant actions.
All members of our Party must always uphold the view that without the participation of the majority of the peasants in the united front, this front cannot possibly be strong and our Party will not be based on reliable foundations.
3. The Masses of the Women.
The ever-growing political activities of the masses of the people has also give rise to activities in the women’s mass movement. The women are active participants, although no yet in sufficiently great numbers, in the anti-colonial actions and in the actions to defend peace. But; as is the case with other sections of the masses of the people, so too with the women, besides demands which are nationwide and general in character; they have their own demands which should also become the demands of the whole progressive and democratic movement.
In the recent period, the masses of the women have been actively demanding the repeal of Government Regulation No. 19 (a regulation recognizing the right of government employees to receive pensions for more than one wife and thereby encouraging polygamy, Tr.), they have opposed forced marriage in connection with the Maisuri Affair (a young girl who was forcibly married to an elderly man who already had several wives, while her own marriage to the man of her choice was annulled by custom law, Tr.), they have carried on activities in the “Body to Settle Marriage Disputes and Divorce”, and around various social and educational questions, while also propagating and waging a struggle for a democratic marriage law.
If the above-mentioned tasks are to be implemented, it is very important to educate the cadres of the women’s organization, expand the organization of progressive women throughout the entire country and establish unity among the women’s organizations regardless of differences of religion, political conviction, and regardless of the size of the organizations involved.
As a step towards improving Party work among the women, Conference of Communist Women has been held in a number of provinces and in the not too distant future, the First National Conference of Communist Women will be convened.
4. The Intellectuals and the Masses of the Youth and Students.
In connection with the work among the intellectuals, it should be noted that we have made some progress in the field of the arts, philosophy and science. Whereas two or three years ago, there were still many adherents in Indonesia of “art for art’s sake”, “philosophy for philosophy’s sake” and “science for science’s sake” in all their numerous variations, today, there are far fewer people who would deny that there is a relationship between the arts, philosophy and science with life, with the people. In fact, it is now generally recognized that the arts, philosophy and science must all be useful to the people. In other words, the popular principle, the principle of serving the people has won victory. This has been achieved as a result of the persevering work of our intellectual cadres and cultural workers in general.
The Party hopes that our cultural workers will continue to hold high these principles and that they will skilfully and convincingly oppose all principles in the arts, philosophy and science which are harmful to the people. They should consolidate the victory already won by producing creative works of high quality. In this, they will have to base themselves on the developments taking place in the people’s arts, in the people culture in general which have, during the recent period, proven to be of tremendous vitality. Our artists should more intensively and earnestly unearth our ancient arts so as to gain possession of and develop art expressions which are useful for the people.
The Fourth Plenum of the C.C. asserted that the masses of the Indonesian youth and students have remained faithful to the ideals of the August Revolution 1945 and have been actively opposing the deeds of the compradors and corruptors. The period since the Fourth Plenum has borne out everything that was said and has been a period of further development of the progressive characteristics of the youth and students. This explains why the youth and students, with the exception of course of those who have already been poisoned by the reactionaries, were among the most enthusiastic to welcome the President Sukarno Concept, a concept which opens up hopes to them of taking our homeland along a new path, the path of anti-colonial national unity, the path of democracy and peace, where compradors, corruptors and bureaucrats will no longer be able to rule the roost.
Although the Party has made some progress in giving leadership to and helping the youth and students, both in their struggle for their economic and cultural interests and in raising their political consciousness, it is strongly felt that what the Party has done so far is far from adequate.
The favourable objective conditions existing in the youth and students’ movement, especially during the period of the upsurge of the spirit of anti-colonialism in the form of the anti-foreign-subversion movement, the movement in support of the struggles in Algeria and Egypt, the movement in support of the President Sukarno Concept or in all the other forms that have appeared, have not yet been led, organized and fully utilized in such a way as to enlarge the progressive forces. Much improvement is still required in the Party’s work among the masses of the youth and students, both at the centre and especially in the regions. Above all, at times when the counter-revolutionaries want to force a fascist system upon the country, the youth and student factor is exceptionally important and sharply-felt.
It often happens that members of Party Committees are rather one-sided in the way they divide their attention, paying attention only to the workers and peasants and ignoring work among other groups, including the youth and students. They have not yet drawn the lessons from the experience of the revolutions in colonial and semi-colonial countries and from the experience of the Indonesian revolution itself, namely that the factor of the youth and students is extremely important in winning victory for the revolution.
The Youth Festival held in Surabaya at the beginning of February this year was very important for the development of our youth and students’ movement. This event should encourage our Party to improve its work among the ranks of the youth and students. The Party Committees must pay full attention to the nucleus organizations, and to cooperation between youth organizations, and to cooperation between youth organizations, scouts’ organizations, organizations of middle-school students, and organizations of university and college students. The objective conditions for development in all these spheres are very favourable. Whereas in former years, the right-wing socialists held a virtual monopoly in the student movement, it is now evident that they can no longer maintain this position because they are unable to indicate the correct way which accords with the feelings, thoughts, and demands of patriotic, democratic and world-peace-loving pupils and students.
The People’s Youth, the organization of progressive youth which is organizationally independent but which unreservedly accepts the Party’s policy for completing all the demands of the August Revolution in their entirety, must be given serious assistance by the Party, especially in questions of education and the practical difficulties which this organization faces. There are signs that this is not sufficiently appreciated by the leaders of our Party. Another problem which it is very important to solve is that of cooperation between the People’s Youth and other youth organizations.
5. The Veteran Masses.
One sector of the masses of the people which runs into hundreds of thousands but which still does not get sufficient attention from the Party is the veteran masses, the former armed fighters. And yet the problems of the veterans are in no sense new problems of the veterans are in no sense new problems nor can they be solved in a short period. Ever since the Hatta Government in Yogyakarta carried out mass demobilization of armed fighters without first creating bodies to arrange for their rehabilitation, the problem of the veterans has been with us. Up to today, there is still no official concept of how to solve the problems of the veterans integrally, although recently the authorities concerned have, it is true, begun to show some rather concrete results for their work.
The demands of the veterans at the present time are to obtain an Ex-serviceman’s Certificate, to be granted the right to wear uniform with the epaulets of their final rank at national and military ceremonies, the right to free treatment when they fall ill and the right to free education; the right to get rehabilitation allowances, bonuses, pensions and relief money; the right of invalid veterans to receive a pension which is at the very least the same as the pensions paid to former members of the Dutch colonial army, KNIL. These demands are just, and the government is showing a certain amount of goodwill towards them.
But the extent to which these just demands of the veterans will receive attention from the government depends in the first place on the struggle and unity of the veterans. For this reason, our Party’s policy right from the start has been to simplify and cut down the number of veterans’ organizations until such time as a fusion is possible. If the veterans are not united, it will be easy for political adventurers, corruptors and other criminals to do what they like with them. In the interests of veterans’ unity, our Party welcomed the Congress of veterans’ organizations held in 1951 which resulted in a fusion of 149 central and local veterans’ organizations and gave birth to the All-Indonesia Union of Former Armed Fighters (Perbepbsi). But this fusion did not mean that all veterans’ organizations had merged. We must welcome the success achieved in December last year by the All Indonesia Veterans’ Congress which gave birth to the “Veterans’ Legion of the Republic of Indonesia”. This Veterans’ Legion means provides the veterans with a better weapon to struggle for their demands, and it is no longer so easy for the political adventures, corruptors and other criminals to make use of them for their own ends.
There will always be a veterans’ problem as long as there is a regularly army. The servicemen now in the forces will in time become veterans. This is why it is a mistake for the authorities concerned, for prominent persons in society and for Communists not to pay due attention to this question.
Our Party’s duty to give leadership to the masses is not only confined to the masses of the workers, the peasants, the women, the youth, the students and the veterans. There are many other sectors, such as the artists, the small tradesman, and the poverty-stricken kampong dwellers in the towns, the fishermen, the craftsmen and others, which should be assisted by the Party in their everyday struggle for their economic, political and cultural rights. In the case of the members of the state forces, too, including the members of the Armed Forces, more attention must be paid to improving their conditions and to helping them remain loyal to the August 1945 Revolution, to remain patriotic, democratic and anti-colonial in spirit. Our Party’s position in Parliament must be utilized in the best possible way for this.
The entire apparatus of the Party, both within the mass organizations and within Parliament, the regional assemblies and in all other spheres, must be mobilized to develop the Party’s mass work. There must be no group of the people to whom the Party does not pay attention. This is the condition for changing the existing balance of forces, the conditions for the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept, the condition for forming a Gotong-Royong Cabinet and democratic regional governments.
Comrades, the question of improving the Party’s leadership of the masses cannot be separated from the question of improving the Party itself, the question of consolidating the Party in the ideological, political and organizational spheres, the question of making our Party a party which extends through-out the length and breadth of the country and a party with a broad mass character. All members must take part in building such a Party.
The decisions of the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. on the First Three-Year Plan on Organisation and Education are extremely helpful in building such a Party. The fact that our Party has a plan which must be implemented over a rather long period of time, such as this Three-Year Plan of ours, is a new experience for our Party, and it has proven to be a very gratifying and good experience. This plan educates Party cadres not only to be good at work based on short-term plans, such as we have already become accustomed to, but also to be able to work on the basis of a rather long-term plan. A rather long-term plan makes our cadres look rather far ahead in the work of building the Party within the framework of which they themselves play a part day by day in leading these developments towards achieving the targets of the plan. The Three-Year Plan covers many questions, with the emphasis on organisation and education; it will educate Party cadres to do many types of work at once within a certain period of time and this will mean that they will no longer be one-sided in the way they carry out Party tasks, it will teach them not to get confused if they have to do a great variety of things all at once.
Our Three-Year Plan has not yet been in operation for one year and we cannot yet draw conclusions on the results achieved nationally. What we have done so far is to investigate the way in which the plan is being implemented by means of thorough discussions with almost all the Party Committees directly under the leadership of the Central Committee. These investigations at the initial stages of implementing the Plan are very great importance in ensuring that the good experiences gained in one place can quickly be spread throughout the Party while on the other hand ensuring that mistakes made in one place can speedily be rectified and not repeated elsewhere.
The Three-Year Plan has met with an enthusiastic and joyful welcome by all those members and candidate-members to whom the Plan has been explained, especially by those cadres responsible for leading Party Committees. Now that we have this national plan, our whole Party right down to the smallest units are trying to fit into it, each endeavouring to draw up a plan for their own unit within the framework of the national plan. Everyone is convinced that the implementation of this plan will bring with it a growing authority and prestige for the Party, which also means authority and prestige for the Indonesian people.
In general, Committees have been able to work out the national plan in detail according to the responsibilities and capabilities of each respective region. In most cases, the plan has been worked out in detail down to the Sub-section Committees, and in some cases this has gone on down to the basic organisation committees. This means that the Sub-Section Committees and the basic organisation Committees concerned have their own special plan within the framework of the national plan. The Major Regional Committees and the Island Committees concerned have their own special plan within the framework of the national plan. The Major Regional Committees and the basic organisation committees concerned have their own special plan within the framework of the national plan. The Major Regional Committees and the Island Committees have already set themselves targets which must be achieved during the three-year period, while the Section Committees and Sub-Section Committees have worked out the plan of the Major Region and of the Island into further detail, setting themselves targets for a 6 months or 3 months period in relation to the whole plan. In some places, there are signs that committees are still making plans subjectively, they are often on too grand a scale, beyond the abilities of the organisation concerned, whereas in other cases, the plans are too limited.
A plan which is too grand, which is beyond capabilities will result in things being done hurriedly, as if people were “being chased by a ghost”, with the result that the work is done carelessly and with insufficient intensity. If the “being-chased-by-a-ghost” atmosphere prevails right from the start of the plan, then clearly many mistakes will be committed. The result will be that much time will have to be spent later on rectifying these mistakes, and in the end it will not be possible to fulfil the plan. The question of the “start” is vital to the implementation of any plan. A correct start made on the basis of thorough and mature discussions during which the capabilities of the lower cadres and masses of members have been fully taken into account and placing full confidence in the creative genius of the people, means going a long way towards implementing the plan. Working according to a plan does not mean working to achieve miracles, to achieve the impossible. A plan helps to achieve something which is indeed achievable by dint of regulated work.
There are some committees that are working just as if they were “being chased by a ghost”, holding two Party Schools in too short a period and it is virtually certain that both have failed. This does not mean that all this has been of no avail. Formally, the Committee has over fulfilled the plan, two Party Schools have been held in less than the time fixed. But in actual fact, this committee has not achieved its target in the time fixed. We are not formalist, and that’s who we stick to the facts, to the actual results. This committee has lagged behind in implementing one part of its plan. Not only that, the committee must work hard to correct the effects of its mistakes. It must bear the consequences of students of these rush-rush Party Schools; for example, they may not have absorbed the teaching given and yet they consider that they have completed a course at a Party school; they feel disinclined to study Marxism-Leninism because, from their experiences in the Party School, they came to regard Marxist-Leninist study as being something very difficult; they in their turn exert pressure downwards to implement the plans under their own leadership. On the other hand, if the plan is too small in scale, the atmosphere prevailing is that of “doing nothing” and as a consequence there is no spirit of “busy activity and hard work” in the Party, there is no clan and no power of mobilisation. All this means that close attention must be paid to the start of the plan’s implementation, the atmosphere of “being chased by a ghost” must be prevented, as too the atmosphere of “doing nothing” and what must be created is an atmosphere of “busy activity and hard work”.
In connection with the implementation of the plan, it not infrequently happens that when the Committees are suddenly confronted with some very important work, the plan is forgotten, pushed aside for the time being and is suddenly remembered again when that work has been completed. It is quite inexcusable for the plan to be executed in fits and starts for then it will surely fail. Sudden work outside the plan, things which are important and must be done if the Party is to lead the developments, will undoubtedly crop up frequently. Therefore the Party Committees must prevent the plan from being executed in fits and starts. It is, in the first place, the task of the C.C. Organisational Department and the Organisational Sections of the lower Committees to pay special attention to this matter.
An extremely important question to which attention must be paid in connection with the execution of the organisation; al plan is that of the grouping of members and candidate-members, the grouping of women Communists, and the question of raising candidate-members to the status of members. Special attention should be paid, in the matter of grouping, to the basic organisation committees to ensure that they are able to stand on their own feet as a leading body. Practical directives must be given to put life into the group, for example directives on how to elect the leader of a group, how to arrange groups of women or mixed groups, how to raise the status of a candidate-member to that of a member, on the need to oblige higher cadres to attend the discussions of the group; the higher committees must give practical instructions and examples of how to carry out the work, of how to arrange group discussions that are attractive to the members (for instance, discussions about an article in the Party newspaper, discussions about the situation). The groups must take part in the mass actions being carried out in its locality and must eventually be raised to a level where it will be able to take the initiative in mobilising the masses around it.
Thanks to the organisational plan, the grouping of members is in general proceeding smoothly although it is better in some places that others. Party cadres are now conscious of the fact that the success of work in the organisational sphere greatly depends on the question of grouping. Experiences from the regions where white terror is raging, such as in Wes Sumatra and South Sumatra, reveal that the role of the group is vitally important, besides the fact that the Party’s organisational work in such regions must be completely brought into harmony with the local conditions there.
Some reports received show that a serious mistake has been made with regard to the question of grouping; the matter is arranged solely from behind the desk. The names of the members in the locality of the basic organisation are gathered together by the basic organisation are gathered together by the basic organisation committee, divided up in what is thought to be the best way, and then the whole matter is regarded as being finished and a report made to the higher committee. Comrades who work like this, formalistic comrades as they are, are not organising Party members at all. On the contrary, they will disappoint the masses of the members whose organisation is being ignored and who therefore cannot possibly give leadership, and they have been guilty of making incorrect reports to the higher committees. A speedy end must be put to these methods of the “desk organisers” where they still exist.
The Organisation Plan also includes the question of intensifying the collection of subs from the members and candidate-members by the Committee concerned, and the depositing of the subs collected with the Sub-Section Committee who in turn ends the money directly to the Provincial Committees and the Central Committee, in accordance with the provisions on the division of funds. This plan is now working but standards vary from place to place. We must more firmly cultivate the understanding that the foremost source of Party finances is from the members. In general, it is so that where the group is really alive, the collection of subs and voluntary or compulsory contributions do not crop up against any difficulties. The new tradition of having what came to be known as “Party trees”, “Party gardens”, “Party chickens”, “Party goats” and so on, which grew up in the course of the campaign to collect money for the first parliamentary elections, must be continued and extended so that it becomes a firm tradition in our Party. This is not only a source of money for the Party but it also helps to strengthen the Party spirit not only among the members concerned but also among the persons in their immediate surroundings, especially in their families.
In the recent period, we have only very infrequently and irregularly organised competition to increase the output of Party work. In connection with the implementation of the Three Year Plan, we must start holding such competitions again between regions, between units and between members.
Comrades, at previous Plenums of the C.C., we have stressed the importance of collective leadership if we want to achieve success in our work. In general, our Party committees are giving collective leadership. In the course of so doing, the committee members have held critical discussions; have carried out criticism and self-criticism. They have welcomed all criticism; criticism and self-criticism is no longer “seasonal” and it is aimed at the most important target, the work of the members of the collective and the work of the collective as a unit. In a word, the Committees are in general working along the lines we have urged. Then why is it that this collective leadership still commits serious mistakes in leading the implementation of the Three Year Plan? Investigations will show that the collective leadership which commits mistakes is subjective collective leadership, it is not realistic neither is it based on the mass line. In the process of fixing targets for the Plan in their respective region, they are indeed very busily discussing, and busily holding all sorts of meetings. But in their discussions they do not take into account at all or insufficiently take into account the thoughts and capacities of the lower cadres and of the mass of the membership. And yet, is it not the lower cadres and the mass of the members that will become the direct executors of the Plan? This is why we are not in error to call the collective leadership of such comrades subjective and unrealistic. This means that if the Plan is to succeed, if all the mass work of the Party is to succeed, the collective leadership must under no circumstances be divorced from the mass line; there must be a closer relation between the two so that they become welded into one. This is what we mean by objective and realistic collective leadership, collective leadership that is perfect, powerful, and competent and with a continuously growing authority.
These are some of the conclusions that can be drawn concerning the implementation of the organisational section of the First Three Year Plan. Basically, the execution of this Plan has started in the way we wanted, in some places with special experiences which must be developed; there are mistakes which have to be rectified and new directives to be given to ensure better execution in the future.
In connection with the educational section of the First Five Year Plan, we must stress again and again that this must be carried out in keeping with the decisions of the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. We must therefore make a serious study of the documents of that Plenum, especially the documents concerning education. I am raising this, Comrades, because I have the impression that this matter is not sufficiently understood, and I have got this impression from the fact that there are still responsible comrades who quite easily alter the decisions taken by the Fourth Plenum on education and for no really strong reason; for example, the decision concerning the order of the subjects at Party schools and Party courses, the decisions on how to run Party Schools and Courses, the methods of teaching, the methods of studying and so on. Thus, even though we already have a plan and the comrades concerned say they are executing the education plan, in actual fact they are working in just the same was as they did at the time we had no plan. The best thing would be for the matter to be discussed with the comrades concerned so that they speedily realise their mistakes and revert to the decisions of the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. and to the actual plan.
Comrades, we can say that the question of Party education is as old as the Party itself. Ever since our Party was founded, it carried out education. But the education carried out formerly was not in conformity with our Party’s needs either then or even less now. This means that the question at the moment is not to carry out education in the Party but to carry out education which conforms with the size, the abilities and the needs of our Party today. We must systematise our Party education so as to ensure that we achieve what we hope to achieve through education, namely that education should be an ideological preparation to ensure that the Party’s tasks can be implemented properly without any ideological obstacles.
The General Report which was approved at the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. stated among other things on education that “education in the Party must be regarded as ideological preparation and as on endeavour to eliminate ideological obstacles so as to ensure that the tasks of the Party can be executed well”. If our comrades keep this warning in mind then they will not easily do the things they do, for example, teaching groups of Communist student about the Building of the Party and then instructing them to teach this subject to lower Party cadres before they themselves have been given instruction on the History of the Development of Society and on the Basis Questions of the Indonesian Revolution. This is logical for indeed how can these student comrades convince others of the importance of building the Party if they themselves have not been convincingly taught that revolution in general is an inevitability, is something that is quite logical, that the Indonesian Revolution is also an inevitability, something quite logical, and if they do not yet know anything about the tactics and perspectives of the Indonesian Revolution? In order to know and convince others of the logics of revolution in general and the logics of the Indonesian revolution in particular, they must be given instruction on the History of the Development of Society, whilst in order to know the tactics and perspectives of the Indonesian revolution, they must be given instruction on the Basic Problems of the Indonesian Revolution. In fact, it would be even better if they were first given instruction on the United National Front, that is, instruction on the most important tactic of the Party at the present time, before they are taught and instructed to teach others about the Building of the Party. This is just one example to show how important it is for us to stick firmly to the order of subjects at Party Schools, Party Courses and Political Schools.
Although her and there, major or minor mistakes have been committed in the way of the Education Plan is being executed, the reports from almost all Major Regional Committees and Island Committees indicate that there is an upsurge in the spirit to study and in study activities since the time the execution of the Education Plan began. The Education Plan has opened up a new page in the history of our Party. Already now, we can foresee that the proper execution or this Plan will have an exceptionally great influence on the development of our Party, on the efforts to solidify thinking in our Party, on the Party’s policy and on its methods of work. All this will mean new successes for the Party and for the Indonesian people in the struggle for the implementation of the President Sukarno Concept and then in the struggle for the realisation of the demands of the August 1945 Revolution in their entirety.
The Education Plan will not only strengthen the Party’s ideology, it will not only improve the political and organisational work of the Party, or in brief, it will also forge ever more closely the theory of Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Indonesian Revolution. The forging of Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Indonesian Revolution will give birth to good theoreticians and educators in our Party. It will be an important factor in the efforts to perfect our Party.
In general, the attention paid to education of higher and middle cadres of the Party is already rather adequate. But the education for the masses of the members and candidate-members that is the holding of Political Schools is still far from adequate. Many members and candidate-members still feel that their desire for education is not yet being met, and yet they have a very strong yearning for education from the Party. This therefore means that at the same time as continuing and improving the education for higher and middle Party cadres, more stress must be placed on educating all the Party members and candidate-members. The publication of the book “Guidance in the Campaign to Combat Illiteracy” and the book “The Significance of Combating Illiteracy” which were written by a commission set up by the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. are of very great significance for the tremendous task of educating the mass of illiterate members and candidate-members of whom there is a very large number. These books are an important contribution to expanding Party activity in the campaign to combat illiteracy among the ranks of the masses outside the Party.
These are some of the conclusions to be drawn concerning the First Three Year Plan on Organisation and Education. Basically, this Plan is being of great value to our Party, to the expansion and intensification of its growth.
***
Comrades, with a Party that is continuously expanding and winning the love of the masses of the people because of its correct policies and because of its services to the people, with cadres educated in the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism, in the viewpoint of the working class, in the outlook and methods of the working class, we are convinced that our Party will be able to work well for the people and the homeland, for peace and humanity. With such a Party in the midst of the great and heroic Indonesian people, we are convinced that the President Sukarno Concept which has not yet been fully implemented will in time be implemented, constituting a great jump forward in the struggle to realise the demands of the August 1945 Revolution in their entirety.
Let us go on strengthening the unity within our Party, something which is already and will continue to be the pride of us all, as the condition for strengthening the unity of the working class, the unity of the masses of the working people, the unity of the entire people and the unity of the entire Indonesian nation. This unity is our infallible weapon to change the balance of forces in society as the indispensable condition for implementing the President Sukarno Concept, the golden bridge to the realisation of the demands of the August 1945 Revolution in their entirety, for a better and more beautiful future for the Indonesian people and homeland. The times are on our side!
__________
After discussing the General Report submitted by Comrade Aidit on behalf of the Political Bureau, “Change the Balance of Forces For the 100% Implementation of the President Sukarno Concept”, the Fifth Plenum of the Central Committee of the C.P.I. is of the opinion that the political line pursued by the Political Bureau since the Fourth Plenum of the Central Committee is correct, and therefore the Central Committee has decided to give its approval to this General Report.
The C.C. fully approves of the attitude of the Political Bureau supporting the president’s Concept and the C.C. stressed the importance of improving the work among the masses, especially among the workers and the peasants, and also among the masses of the women, the urban poor, the youth and students, the veterans, the intellectuals, and artists, the fishermen, and other sections, so as thus to be able to change the balance of forces for the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept.
The C.C. considers it extremely necessary for the entire membership of the Party and for all revolutionaries to be educated to understand that although there is no doubt that victory will be achieved, the struggle of the Indonesian people will take a long time, will need much hard, correct and persevering work; this is necessary because ideas about “finishing everything all at once” and “winning a quick victory” are incorrect and dangerous.
As the Resolution of the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. states, the Communist Party of Indonesia is now a great Communist Party. But it should not be forgotten that although it is now great, the Communist Party together with its followers still account for only a minority in present–day Indonesian society. This means that, side by side with further solidifying the unity within the Party, and side by side with forging more firmly the general truths of Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Indonesian Revolution, the Party must constantly raise its vigilance.
Concerning the international situation, the Fifth Plenum of the C.C. confirms the analysis made by the Political Bureau to the effect that, in the period which has just elapsed, the pro-peace and anti-colonial forces of democracy, both within the socialist camp, in Asia and Africa as well as in other parts of the world, have further consolidated and strengthened their ranks, have further strengthened collaboration one with the other, and have intensified their resistance to imperialist aggression and intervention. This is what has happened on the one hand. On the other hand, the imperialists are unceasingly carrying out provocations and intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. But the resistance put up by the peoples of Asia, of the Middle East and of North Africa to this colonial aggression and expansion has to a great extent, frustrated the intentions and plans of the imperialists. The victories achieved by the people’s resistance to imperialist aggression in Egypt and Hungary have succeeded in saving national independence in these two countries and in safeguarding the world from the catastrophe of a more extensive war. The growing personal links between leading statesmen, the increasing number of exchanges of friendship missions, the Indonesian-Soviet Joint Statement, are all great contributions to the cause of relaxing world tensions.
The Plenum came to the conclusion that, in the period which has just elapsed, the anti-war and anti-colonial international front has made further progress and has further expanded. Besides this, the Plenum affirms that it is certain that the imperialists, especially the diehards in power in America, will continue with their war policy, will continue with their intervention and aggression against other countries, and will continue to create new tensions in the world.
The Plenum came to the conclusion that, at the present time, a sharp struggle is taking place between the imperialist states, each struggling to further its own interests. The expansion of German imperialism in Europe, encouraged by the American imperialists, represents a direct threat to the economic conditions of the working people and directly endangers peace in Europe. Peaceful living in Asia is also being disturbed as a result of the expansion of imperialist states, particularly America. The entire world is now threatened by the consequences of the nuclear arms race. The Plenum calls for the greatest possible vigilance and calls on the movement in defence of peace to further expand and intensify its activities.
The Plenum also calls for the greatest possible vigilance of imperialist subversive activities being carried out by SEATO against the independent countries of South East Asia, particularly against those of them which are called neutral. This SEATO subversive movement represents direct intervention in the internal affairs of other countries, the objective of which is to undermine and overthrow the national independence of the countries concerned from within. Our Republic of Indonesia has been made into one of the most important targets of these SEATO subversive activities.
In such an international situation, the Plenum holds that Indonesia’s independent and active foreign policy must be further developed in the form of concrete measures on the part of the government in the diplomatic and economic spheres for the cause of Indonesian independence and progress, for the cause of the victory of world peace. It hopes that the Indonesian Government will more actively and consistently carry out the decisions of the First Asian-African Conference held in Bandung.
The Plenum of the C.C. approves the attitude taken by the Political Bureau which, in leading developments of the internal situation, has resolutely stuck to the political line drawn up by the Fourth Plenum of the C.C., that is: with all strength and tirelessly to develop the progressive forces, to unite with the middle-of-the-road forces and isolate the forces of the diehards. The facts today point to a development of democracy and of the revolutionary people’s movement, a further growth of the progressive forces, growing unity with the middle-of-the-road forces and growing isolation of the diehard forces. The Parliament elected by the people, which has shown itself to be more competent that the Provisional Parliament, has succeeded in introducing a number of items of legislation which are democratic or rather democratic.
The formation of regional legislative assemblies has put an end to the Masyumi monopoly and has ended totally undemocratic one-man government in the regions. But there are still some cadres who do not realise just how important this event is. The regional legislative assemblies are an important means for strengthening cooperation between the C.P.I. and other parties and groups, both within and outside the assemblies, by developing joint actions and personal contacts. They also provide an opportunity to prove to the people that the C.P.I. is the real defender of the interests of the regions and that, for the C.P.I., program and deeds are one, to consolidate work within the ranks of the masses and in the assemblies, to bring about a confrontation between the reactionary parties and their electors.
The Party Committees in the regions must be more skilful in making use of the Party’s position in the regional legislative assemblies and in the regional administrative councils so as to struggle for the interests of the peasants and to improve the cooperation with other parties and groups, in brief, to improve the conditions of the people and the work for the united front. The committees in the regions should also make greater efforts to fully understand the situation and problems in their region, so as to be able to correctly lead the developments.
Furthermore, the formation of the regional administrative councils on the basis of proportional representation has convinced the people of the possibility of forming a gotong-royong cabinet in accordance with the President Sukarno Concept. It has also given rise to a great spirit among the masses in the period preceding local representative assembly elections; it has increased the political activities of the masses and raised their political consciousness. The reactionaries are afraid of this process. This is why they have, by means of military coup d’états in Sumatra and Celebes, suspended these representative assemblies or prevented their creation altogether.
The Plenum agrees with the Report of the Political Bureau that the inauguration of the Constituent Assembly and the election of a leadership which reflects the balance of forces within the Assembly further increase the confidence of the people in democracy. In preparation for the bitter struggle which will have to be waged to draw up a democratic Constitution which guarantees the rights of the people, which can further unite the people, and which in content and spirit accords with the outbreak of the August 1945 Revolution, it is necessary to increase the people’s confidence in and enthusiasm for democracy.
The Plenum joyfully takes note of the fact that, within the ranks of the working masses, especially among the youth and students, there has been an upsurge in the spirit of anti-colonialism, for example in the form of anti-foreign-subversion demonstrations and demonstrations in support of the struggle of the Egyptian people.
The Plenum takes account of the fact that the reactionaries which are led by Hatta, by the Natsir-clique Masyumi leaders, by the federalists and other reactionaries, who are afraid of the progress made by the people’s revolutionary movement and who are trying to hold it back, have passed on from the parliamentary struggle to fascist methods. The attack on President Sukarno in Radjamendala (at the time of the visit of K.E. Voroshilov to Indonesia, Tr.) and the grenade attack on the Party C.C. Headquarters and the SOBSI Office only confirm this. Besides this, they are trying to split the unity of the people and do not stop at anything that may divide the national forces. They collaborate with the foreign subversive forces, they are making use of militarists, and they are trying to carry out central and local coup d’états. Apart from their separatist and coup activities, they are trying to weaken the Republic of Indonesia in the monetary sphere. Their attempts to paralyse state finances include such measures as corruption and bureaucracy, sharing out state funds in unreasonable credits, smuggling, establishing their own foreign relations and so on.
The Plenum confirms the declaration in Comrade Aidit’s Report to the effect that it was extremely correct for President Sukarno to announce his Concept as a means of preventing the destruction of the Republic of Indonesia. The President Sukarno Concept which was welcomed with great enthusiasm and on a wide scale by the people and the organs of State, which is a great victory for the progressive forces and for the united front, has given rise to forces which have been tremendously helpful in preventing a shift to the right.
As regards the fact that the gotong-royong cabinet has not yet been formed and as regards the formation of the Djuanda Cabinet, the Plenum confirms that this is indeed because of the diehard attitude of the Masyumi and because of the wavering attitude of the Nahdlatul Ulama, but the most important things is that the P.N.I. clearly supports the Concept, that it was possible to prevent their formation of a reactionary cabinet led by Hatta, and that the Masyumi, because it was so diehard, has become isolated. The Plenum approves of the attitude towards the Djuanda Cabinet that is of unreservedly supporting all the measures it takes which benefit the people, of criticising its wavering measures and of opposing those of its measures which are harmful to the people.
Now, a start has been made in stamping out corruption and the normalisation of conditions in the Republic has begun to be realised. Military affairs in the Eastern part of Indonesia are now in the process of being settled although there are still some difficulties which have to be overcome. The Plenum is of the opinion that only by changing the balance of forces, only by reducing the forces of reaction and increasing the national forces will it be possible to push the Government into taking firmer measures.
The Plenum happily takes note of the development of the democratic forces in the regions still controlled by the rebels. The rebels have failed to attract the workers and peasants because their promises have turned out to be pure demagogy. On the contrary, the workers of South Sumatra have given evidence of their political maturity by waging a political strike on March 18th last. Government employees are more boldly coming out in opposition against the rebels. Splits are also taking place within the (rebel) councils and within the parties and organisations supporting them. Right in their midst, a progressive wing, orientating itself towards the Central Government, is appearing. The middle-of-the-road forces, and especially their youth, are becoming bolder and it is becoming easier to draw them into unity with the progressive forces. In order to speed up this process, the Plenum considers it extremely important to develop a solidarity movement in other regions. Furthermore, in order to overcome the current internal difficulties, economic and financial problems, in addition to military problems, are important. The Plenum has decided to increase the mass actions demanding the further implementation of the Round Table Conference agreement abrogation so as to push the government into meeting these demands.
The Plenum of the C.C. fully confirms Comrade Aidit’s report to the effect that the President Sukarno Concept is just, democratic, that it guarantees unity and opposes splitting. The Plenum is of the opinion that the spirit of the gotong-royong cabinet proposed by the President is in conformity with the C.P.I. program at the time of the Parliamentary elections two years ago, formulated as the National Coalition Government, that is, a cabinet including the four major parties and other parties.
The Plenum is of the opinion that at the present time, the gotong-royong cabinet is a concept which reflects the natural feelings, thoughts, desires and demands of the Indonesian people under circumstances where they are defending the integrity and safeguarding the national independence of the Republic of Indonesia, and that it also provides a type of democracy which fits Indonesian society at the present stage.
As regards the National Council, the Plenum can approve its establishment because it will be a new political weapon in the hands of the people in their struggle against colonialism, to defend democracy and peace. By means of this body, the President will be able to hear at first hand the feelings, thoughts and desires of the people so as to be able jointly at the sessions of the National Council to draw up conclusions on matters concerning the interests of the State and the people.
The Plenum is of the opinion that the President Sukarno Concept has simplified all existing conflicts, that is, it has drawn a demarcation line between the camp of pro-unity and anti-colonialism on the one side, and the camp of anti-unity and pro-colonialism on the other. The President’s Concept has made very clear who it is who are the friends of the people and who are their enemies who it is who promotes the national interests and who are hostile to these interests, who are democrats and who not, who it is who struggles for unity and who it is who splits, who are the Republicans and who are not. Yes, the Presidents Sukarno Concept has drawn a demarcation line between the people, who agree with the Concept and the anti-people who oppose the Concept.
The President’s Concept which fits in with the times and with the course of history and which, in the opinion of the Plenum, was announced at just the right time was therefore welcomed by the people with a sigh of relief as the way to overcome the great catastrophe confronting the Republic. In contrast with the spontaneous joy with which the people have welcomed it, Hatta and Natsir, representing the domestic reactionaries, are opposing the Concept as strongly as they can, and making use of all means at their disposal and with everything that they can muster.
The Plenum further holds the opinion that the confrontation between-those who are pro and those who are anti the Concept has given extremely important political education to the masses of the people and has greatly assisted the work of building a united national front. The fact that the President Sukarno Concept has not yet been implemented 100% is not because the Concept is incorrect but because the balance of forces is not yet ripe enough for its realisation. Nevertheless, the announcement of the Concept has brought about a change in the balance of forces to the advantage of the pro-Concept forces.
On the basis of the above points, the Plenum came to the conclusion that the most important political task at the present time is to educate and mobilise the masses to further change the balance of forces for the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept.
The 100% implementation of the President’s Concept will mean a great leap forward on the road to completing the August Revolution in its entirety.
The Plenum agrees with Comrade D.N. Aidit’s Report that changing the balance of forces means arousing, mobilising and organising the masses, especially the workers and the peasants. It will not be possible to draw the middle-of-the-road forces into the united front and implement the President’s Concept 100% unless mass work is developed, unless the progressive forces are expanded and in that way, the balance of forces changed. In this connection, the Plenum considers it necessary to stress that the anxieties being shown by the national bourgeoisie firmly opposed to colonialism.
The Plenum is of the opinion that in order to improve the Party’s work among the masses of the workers, peasants, women, intellectuals, among the masses of the youth and students, the veterans, the urban poor and the fishermen, it is very important to carry out ideological, political and organisational education of the Party cadres who are working in the mass organisations.
The Plenum is very pleased to see the progress made by the workers’ movement, especially as regards building workers’ unity is concerned, including unity between SOBSI and the trade unions outside SOBSI regardless of the size of the respective unions, and as regards the mobilisation of the masses of the workers in anti-subversive political actions, in support of Egypt, etc. In this connection, the Plenum feels that the most important thing now for the workers is to raise their consciousness by means of education, to spread their organisation throughout the length and breadth of the country, to coordinate their actions better, to defend trade union liberties and to further strengthen the unity between the leaders and the masses of the workers.
The Plenum considers as being extremely just the actions undertaken by the peasants in their struggle for land to till, demanding plantation lands which are not being worked, demanding formerly privately-owned arable lands and forest lands which are not required for hydrological purposes. These demands are national demands because they will directly bring about an increase in food production. In order to win fulfilment for these national demands, the mass movement of the peasants and of the people in general to demand the repeal of the openly reactionary Emergency Decree No. 1, 1956 and the introduction of a democratic agrarian law must be intensified. In addition, actions must be increased demanding that legislation on the formation of third stage autonomous government be democratised by demanding elections of village chiefs and administrators, by activating the village assemblies demanding the formation of village councils and so on. Further, the Plenum bears out the conclusion that peasants’ organisation will become great and steeled in the course of struggle against the landlords. It is extremely important to develop peasant actions against the landlords. Investigations into agrarian relations in the villages, political and organisational education for the peasant cadres, the expansion of revolutionary peasant organisation and the convening of regional peasant conferences are all very important ways of improving the work among the masses of the peasants, conscious of the fact that without the majority of the peasants, the national front has no meaning and the Party has no base.
The masses of the women who are intensifying their activities are carrying out two basic tasks, that is actions in defence of the rights of women, such as demanding the repeal of Government Regulation No. 19, opposing forced marriage and opposing sexual crimes, defending of the rights of children, and the like, and secondly, political actions such as opposing colonialism and defending world peace. So as to ensure that these tasks are carried out better, the Plenum calls for the education of women cadres, and also for efforts to simplify and spread out the women’s organisations, for the building of unity between the women’s organisations and for greater attention to be paid to the anti-illiteracy campaign among the masses of the women. The Conferences of Communist Women which have already been held in many places have enabled the Party to draw correct conclusions about the women’s movement, and the Plenum considers it very necessary for the First National Conference of Communist Women to be convinced in the not too distant future.
The progress achieved in the work among the intellectuals is marked by the victory won by the people’s principles over the outmoded “art for art’s sake”, “science for science’s sake” and “philosophy for philosophy’s sake” trends. The Plenum backs up the hopes expressed by the Political Bureau that the cultural workers will uphold these people’s principles, that they will oppose trends in art, science or philosophy which are detrimental to the people, that they will develop the victory already achieved by producing high-standard creative works, and that further they will increase the vitality of people’s art which has its roots in the ancient arts by further creatively developing it.
The masses of the youth and students, ever faithful to the ideals of the Augusts 1945 Revolution, in addition to their active struggle for their economic and cultural interests, are also taking an active part and playing an important role in the anti-colonial political struggle, such as actions in support of the President’s Concept, opposing the subversive movement, opposing separatism, etc. The Plenum therefore decided to put a speedy end to the lack of interest shown in the work among the youth and the students by certain Committees and to unsatisfactory leadership success achieved by the Youth Festival held at the beginning of this year and regards the foundations laid at this Festival as being very important to the further development of the united youth front. Of great significance, too, is the Statement on Cooperation between the Youth and the Army. The Plenum also approves the attitude of giving greater assistance to the People’s Youth, especially on questions of education and in overcoming the practical difficulties it is facing.
The veterans’ masses, that is, the masses of former armed fighters which comprise a great and ever growing number of people, also need greater attention and better leadership from the Party. We must help them to win their just demands. In order to achieve this, their organisations must be simplified and in this way strengthened.
The Plenum is also of the opinion that Party leadership of the artists, the small tradesmen, the urban poor, the fishermen, the craftsmen and others must be improved, not to forget the defence the Party must put up for the economic and cultural interests of the members of the State organs, including the Armed Forces, as well as the Police. To achieve this, the Party must make the best possible use of its position in the representative assemblies.
In short, the entire Party apparatus both in the mass organisations and in the People’s Representative Assemblies at the centre as well as in the regions must be mobilised to develop the mass work of the Party in such a way so that not a single section of the people is being ignored. This and this alone is the condition for changing the balance of forces for the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept and for the formation of gotong-royong governments in the regions and especially at the centre.
The Fifth Plenum of the C.C. fully agree with the conclusion drawn in Comrade Aidit’s Report that the First Three Year Plan on Organisation and Education is of tremendous benefit to our Party as a means of expanding and deepening its growth.
The foremost task of every cadre, member and candidate-member of the Party is to contribute a great share to the successful fulfilment of this Plan so as to ensure that the Party becomes evenly spread out through the country and so as to give it a broad mass character. Experience has shown that a rather long-term plan helps the Party cadres to see rather far ahead, it educates the cadres to do many types of work and it encourages the entire Party right down to the smallest unit to draw up a plan for its own unit within the framework of the national plan. In general, the Plan has been worked out in detail down to the Sub-section Committees and, in some cases, even down to the basic organisation committees.
However, that may be, the Plenum is of the opinion that certain committees are still being subjective in drawing up their plans, for example, they make plans on too great or too small a scale. The Plenum agrees with Comrade Aidit’s Report when it stressed that the question of the start is vital. Apart from this, a matter to which great attention must be paid is the need for committees to carry out periodic control of the implementation of the Plan and to give practical directives. As regards activising the groups, it must be stressed that they must gradually take an active part in the mass actions in their locality and they must be raised to the standard of being able to take the initiative in mobilising the masses surounding them. A serious mistake is being made in the question of groups, that is working out the grouping from behind the desk. An imedate end must be put to the methods of the “desk organisors”.
The Plenum fully confirms the importance of intensifying the collection of subs, of further intensifying the depositing of subs by the Sub-section Committees directly with the Major Regional Committees and with the Central Committee, and the need for expanding other financial activities. Competitions to increase the output of Party work must be held again, between regions, between units and between members, with the provision that these competitions should not be forced or hurried so that they lack objective, etc.
As regards collective leadership, the Plenum is of the opinion that in many cases the collective leaderships are still subjective, not realistic and not based on the mass line. Collective leadership must not be divorced from the mass line, there must be a close link between the two, they must be closely welded together so that the capabilities and the authority of the collective leadership will constantly rise.
In connection with the implementation of the educational section of the Plan, the Plenum confirms the conclusions drawn by Comrade Aidit that this must be in accord with the decisions of the Fourth Plenum of the C.C. which means that it is felt necessary to study these decisions properly once again, especially those parts concerning education. Experience shown that there are responsible comrades who are, altering the provisions laid down for no good reason, or in other words, deviating from the decisions taken. This must speedily be ended and rectified.
The Plenum approves of the stress made in Comrade Aidit’s Report on education as ideological preparation to ensure that the Party’s tasks can be carried out well without any ideological obstacles. The Plenum agrees with the declaration made by Comrade Aidit to the effect that the successful fulfilment of the Education Plan will have an exceptionally great influence on the development of our Party, on the efforts to solidify thinking in our Party, on the Party’s policy and on its methods of work. This Education will also encourage the forging of Marxist-Leninist theory with the practice of the Indonesian Revolution. In the future, attention must be paid to the organisation of education for the mass of members and candidate-members which comprise great numbers of people, or in other words, for the organisation of Political Schools. In the course of this, primary attention must be paid to combatting illiteracy among the masses of the members as well as among the masses outside the Party. The combatting of illiteracy among the masses of the people is also important to the work of changing the balance of forces.
The Fifth Plenum of the C.C. confirms Comrade Aidit’s Report when it says that with a Party that is growing ever broader and more and more winning the love of the masses of the people because of its services to them, with cadres educate in the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism, in the view-point of the working class and in the outlook and methods of work of the working class, we are convinced that our Party will be able to work well for the people and the homeland, for peace and humanity. In order to ensure that these glorious tasks are fulfilled, a call is made for us continuously to strengthen the unity within the Party, a thing which has always been and will continue to be the pride of us all, the condition for the growing unity of the working class, the unity of the working people, the unity of the entire Indonesian nation. This unity is an infallible weapon to change the balance of forces for the 100% implementation of the President Sukarno Concept, the golden bridge leading to the completion of the demands of the August 1945 Revolution in their entirety. Times are on our side!
Jakarta, early July, 1957.
Fifth Plenum on the C.C. of the Communist Party of Indonesia.