Word: sukarnoism
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President Sukarno's ambitious attempt to resolve his country's chronic crises by executive fiat got off to a crackling start last week beneath the lofty colonial ceilings of the summer palace at Bogor, 30 miles up in the Javanese hills from the sweltering capital of Djakarta...
There, while herds of spotted mouse deer grazed on the lush green lawns, Sukarno summoned the country's military leaders and the slightly confused members of the 24-man Emergency Cabinet he had selected to lead the country out of chaos. "Brethren," said Sukarno, "I as President and Supreme Commander order you all to sit in ministerial council." And sit they did. But before the week was out, there were mounting signs that Sukarno's crackling start might end in a damp sputter...
There were two good reasons why Sukarno's plan seemed doomed to fail: first, he insisted on including Communist sympathizers or fellow travelers in the Emergency Cabinet; second was a rising crescendo of protest from separatist leaders in Sumatra, the Celebes and elsewhere, who decried the Emergency Cabinet as unconstitutional...
Were there any objections? Paper ballots were passed out forthwith to the politicians. Said Sukarno when the vote was tallied: "I am very happy and moved that a majority would accept appointment to an Emergency Cabinet post." Now he could get on with his promised introduction of what he calls "guided democracy," instead of the Western-style parliamentary democracy which had. admittedly, failed to govern the country effectively...
...Then Sukarno stepped boldly into the breach he himself had opened. As Djakarta's sunset gun heralded an end to the day's fasting for the Moslem Ramadan, Sukarno summoned 69 leading Indonesian politicians and 60 of his top-ranking military leaders through a driving tropical downpour to the vaulted, marble-floored State Palace. In one bank of chairs on one side of the hall sat the civilian politicians of all persuasions. Facing them across a space of 20 feet sat the military men-who are, to a man, disturbed by the politicians' bickering. With a proper...