The Other Bank

After six years of provisional government, the Republic of Indonesia (pop. 80 million) got around to holding a general election last September. Five months later the ballots, from jungle villages and distant islands, were counted. Of the 172 parties contending for the 260 seats in the new Parliament, two finished in a dead heat: the Nationalists and Masjumi (Moslem) Parties, each with 57 seats. In fourth place, with a surprising 39 seats, were the Communists.

A coalition would be necessary, and President Soekarno assigned his old friend and protege, Ali Sastroamidjojo, to form it. Soekarno likes to say that "if the people are green, the government should also be green. If the people are red, the administration should also be red." Until the army broke up his opportunistic regime last July, Sastroamidjojo had handed over nearly a third of the top government posts to Communists or Communist sympathizers. But this time Sastroamidjojo showed no disposition to repeat his mistake. Ignoring the Communists completely, he formed a Cabinet largely drawn from the Nationalists, Masjumi and Moslem Teachers Parties.

Last week, anxious to keep his own position maneuverable, wily President Soekarno intervened four times in an effort to include a Communist or Communist-approved minister in the Cabinet. ("The President," said one diplomat, "is Indonesia's answer to the universal joint.") Each time, he ran into a solid wall of opposition from the Moslem parties. Finally he gave in, approved the Cabinet without change and without Communists. "In the past we've been on one bank of a river characterized by poverty, corruption and political instability," he told the new Cabinet. "Now we have changed our government and are crossing to the other bank, which we hope will mean economic prosperity and political stability."

One of the first orders of business for the new government: application for more aid from the U.S., after the assurance from visiting Secretary of State Dulles that U.S. aid did not imply any commitment to military alliance.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.