Word: sukarnoism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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West Irian is the Indonesian name for a California-sized island of swamp and jungle that the Dutch call Netherlands New Guinea (the eastern part of the island is administered by Australia, whose rights there Sukarno so far has not disputed). To add muscle to his speech, Sukarno has assembled an invasion army of 16,000 (backed up by another 100,000) on a small group of islands near the coast of New Guinea, which is defended by some 5,000 Dutch soldiers and marines. For air cover Sukarno can use 60 MIG jet fighters and 26 TU-16 bombers...
Ruined Policy. To the extent that the conquest of Goa encouraged Sukarno to hope for a cheap victory of his own, it also caused widespread dismay in The Netherlands. Dutch Foreign Minister Joseph Luns, 50, a strong man in a weak, conservative Cabinet, had based his New Guinea policy on the belief that India's "peaceable" Nehru would never support military action by Indonesia, and that the U.N. would immediately act against aggression. Now his policy lies in ruins...
...cancerous dispute over New Guinea is almost entirely one of national prestige. Sukarno bases his claim on the 1946 agreement between Indonesian leaders and Dutch representatives that gave sovereignty to Indonesia over "the whole territory of the Netherlands Indies." There were loopholes, however, providing "special arrangements" for regions not wanting to join the Indonesian union. The Dutch did withdraw from some 3,000 islands inhabited by 95 million people, but under the treaty loophole held onto New Guinea, on the ground that the Papuan inhabitants are ethnically, linguistically and religiously different from the Indonesians and (claimed the Dutch...
...seemingly senseless struggle has cost both sides dear. In 1957 Sukarno brutally expropriated $1.5 billion in Dutch investments in Indonesia and expelled 50,000 Dutch residents. In addition, the Dutch government has had to sink nearly $30 million a year into New Guinea just to keep it economically afloat. Because of Indonesia's determination to regain its "lost" territory, Sukarno devotes a large part of his annual budget to arms, thus further wrecking the wobbly economy of his island nation...
...native Papuans to determine their own fate. Indonesians view the Dutch move as simply an attempt to give a "cloak of legality" to an illegal act. In a speech to a mothers' meeting last week, in which he urged them to put their sons and daughters in uniform, Sukarno cried: "I call on the whole world not to bother trying to get us talking about self-determination for West Irian. We definitely reject that sort of self-determination...