Word: djakarta
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Indonesia last week had two Presidents. One was Parliament Speaker Sartono, who was sworn in as Acting President before a heavily guarded convocation of Djakarta dignitaries, and the other was President Sukarno himself, who kept saying he was going off to India for a rest cure, though he seemed more interested in hanging around to see how the Acting President would make...
Acting President Sartono had his work cut out for him. In the three weeks since Sukarno launched his campaign to seize Dutch-owned commercial enterprises and expel their owners, Indonesia's ever-shaky economy had deteriorated sharply. In the Djakarta port area alone, some 30,000 workers were idle. Imports were off by 80%. The price of rice had doubled. Already the government is dipping into its "iron reserve" of rice stores, nominally designated for use only in the event of war or national emergency. Djakarta printing presses were at work turning out 400,000 rice ration cards...
...seizing to be done, the government would do it. Premier Djuanda sharply toned down Sukarno's "hate-the-Dutch" campaign, said that Dutch citizens and Dutch properties would receive full government protection. SOBSI agitators were told by army and government officials to keep hands off. One summary Djakarta pronouncement put all Dutch enterprises in east Java, central Sumatra and the southern Celebes under direct army control. "This was done," said a central Sumatra Command spokesman crisply, "because the Communists might have tried to create confusion...
Nerves & Rumors. In Amsterdam, London and New York, investment bankers waited nervously for each new report from Djakarta. Then at midweek Premier Djuanda announced that Sukarno was tired and exhausted from overwork, would leave shortly for rest and recuperation in a friendly country, presumably India or Egypt. In Sukarno's absence, Parliament Speaker Sartono would serve as Acting President, working in cooperation with Premier Djuanda and Major General Abdul Haris Nasution, chief of staff of the Indonesian army. There was talk that former Vice President Mohammed Hatta, who resigned last year in protest against Sukarno's attempt...
Through the week there was no violence and there were no anti-Dutch incidents. In Djakarta Dutchmen lolled in rattan chairs on their verandas, purposefully ignoring the sump-oil insults smeared on their house walls a fortnight ago. To counteract charges that the Dutch were being physically hustled out of Java, the government refused to allow foreign airlines to lay on special planes, made clear that the ejection of the Dutch would be gradual and proper...