Revolt of the Colonels

Indonesia's handsome President Soekarno professes to have no fear of Communists. This feeling stems from the premature 1948 Communist rebellion, which Soekarno's troops handily broke. Two years ago, thinking it a harmless sop to the political left, Soekarno picked an acknowledged Marxist named Iwa Kusuma-sumantri as his Defense Minister.

Kusumasumantri taught history in Moscow during the 1920s, and his family still lives there. Once exiled from Indonesia by the Dutch for Communist agitation, he was implicated in 1946 in a Red-led plot against Soekarno's young independent government. As Defense Minister, he has been busily spotting his own men in key army posts, against strong opposition from Indonesia's top army commanders, whose control in the provinces has been all that saved the country from anarchy at times. Fortnight ago, Kusumasumantri reached far down the army's hierarchy for his new Chief of Staff. Colonel Bambang Utoyo, 35, a Japanese-trained officer who lost his right hand several years ago in a grenade accident.

The army brass, unconsulted about the appointment, refused to have anything to do with it. Utoyo might not be a leftist, these colonels said, but he would certainly be putty in the Defense Minister's burly hands. They announced that they would not attend Utoyo's swearing-in ceremony.

"All we need is the man taking the oath, another to administer it, and a witness," answered Soekarno, and ordered the ceremony to proceed. Not one senior army officer showed up. Even the army band absented itself; Soekarno had to substitute the Djakarta Fire Brigade band.

But the new Chief of Staff's troubles were not yet over: he had no office. Acting Chief of Staff Zulkifli Lubis, a Kusumasumantri man who has since split with him, refused to budge from his chair. Kusumasumantri fired him and named another Deputy Chief, only to have the replacement decline the honor. With nary a soldier to heed his command, one-handed Chief of Staff Utoyo repaired to a room in the Hotel des Indes, where he could bark orders at bell boys to heart's content.

The revolt of the anti-Communist colonels was proving a major embarrassment to the government of Premier Ali Sastroamidjojo. With national elections coming up next September, there was even talk that Marxist Defense" Minister Kusumasumantri would have to go.

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