Which Way Out?

As the seventh year of Indonesian independence drew to a close, the world's fourth largest democracy (pop. 80 million) was behaving something like a banana republic. "I am certain," said Indonesia's handsome President Soekarno, in a sharp departure from his customary exuberance, "that if this sickly situation persists, conditions will become ripe for a revolution."

The Cabinet of goateed Premier Ali Sastroamidjojo was all but impotent, its members amounting to little more than messenger boys for the bosses of eight bickering political parties. Grafting had become so much of a public scandal that last week Indonesia's Attorney General brought charges against Foreign Minister Roeslan Abdulgani, whom the press accused of having accepted $130,000 in bribes.

Incensed by governmental corruption and by the irregularity and inadequacy of its pay, the republic's husky (168,000 men), well-equipped army was openly restive. In mid-November, when 500 troops started a march on Djakarta, the capital was paralyzed with fear, and though the coup was called off at the last minute and several commanders relieved of their posts, the rebellious leader, former Army Deputy Chief of Staff Colonel Zulkifli Lubis, was still at large last week.

Thought from Russia. President Soekarno, who for eleven years has exercised an almost mystical sway over Indonesia's masses, was confident he knew the cure for what ailed his nation. "I don't want to become a dictator," said he. "I am a democrat, but it is not democratic liberalism that I want. What I want is guided democracy. All political parties must be buried."

Vague as it was, Soekarno's proposal sounded suspiciously like something he might have picked up during his recent visits to Russia and China, where he was bothered by the lack of freedom but impressed by the way that vast work projects were organized. Such notions did not suit Soekarno's old friend and Indonesia's longtime Vice President Mohammed Hatta, whose remedy is to replace Indonesia's multiparty parliamentary government with something more like the U.S. system. Four weeks ago, fed up with Soekarno's refusal to listen to his ideas, respected Mohammed Hatta resigned the vice-presidency.

Last week, in his first interview since his resignation, Hatta told TIME Correspondent Paul Hurmuses: "There is great unrest and uneasiness throughout Indonesia today. We are democratic in Indonesia today all right--ultra-democratic . . . We have got to have a strong government." (One suggestion for a stronger government came from the fugitive Colonel Lubis, who offered to surrender if Soekarno would make Hatta Premier and fire the army's chief of staff.)

Buffalo Revolt. Reeling under the combined disapproval of Soekarno, Hatta and much of the army, leaders of eight non-Communist parties last week closeted themselves in the home of Djakarta's mayor to come up with a "housecleaning program." To most politically savvy Indonesians, however, it appeared doubtful that the parties were in a position to make reforms sufficiently drastic to restore their shattered reputations. "A Cabinet crisis now," said one political boss, "would mean the end of democracy here."

This was a prospect which did not seem to faze President Soekarno who, reiterating his belief in "guided democracy," said: "It is for the purpose of purifying democracy that I'm seeking a solution." How much time the President had left in which to find a way out was open to question.

Less than 24 hours after he spoke came news that 4,000 men of the army's Banteng (Buffalo) Division had seized control of Central Sumatra in a bloodless revolt. Organizer of the coup was Lieut. Colonel Ahmad Husein, an ex-guerrilla leader who was called "the Tiger of Central Sumatra" for his exploits against the Dutch during the revolution. Husein turned over titular authority of the region to 37-year-old Colonel Simbolon, a Dutch-educated Protestant who only a year ago was Mohammed Hatta's candidate for chief of staff. Simbolon announced that he would rule Central Sumatra independently until the central government " met "the people's demand for economic improvement."

At this, hapless Premier Sastroamidjojo's Cabinet went into late night sessions, and President Soekarno broadcast a nationwide appeal to military and political leaders to stand by the government. "The medicine at this critical time of transition in Indonesia," said Soekarno hopefully, "is that everyone mind his own business."

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