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The Changing Pattern of Indonesia's Representative Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Justus M. van der Kroef*
Affiliation:
University of Bridgeport
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Extract

In the new states of Southeast Asia the idea of parliamentary government has usually been closely linked with the struggle for national independence, yet with the latter a reality in most of the area, there has come a curious disillusionment with the actual values of the former. Thus, during the 1920's and 1930's in what was then called the Netherlands East Indies, nationalists agitated on behalf of “Indonesia berparlemèn” (a parliament for Indonesia), but today we find leading Indonesian public figures, such as President Sukarno, declaring that Western-style parliamentary government has failed in Indonesia, and that what the country needs is a governmental system “in harmony with the Indonesian soul,” that is, a “democracy with leadership,” or a “guided democracy.” The following pages will seek to suggest some of the causes of this disenchantment with the principle of representative government in Indonesia, by focusing on its historic origins and functions during these, Indonesia's first, years of national independence.

When on August 17, 1945, Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, acting on behalf of “the people of Indonesia,” formally proclaimed the independence of their nation, they confronted a condition of widespread popular inexperience in the art of representative government. It was not until 1918 that a rudimentary parliamentary body for all of Indonesia (the so-called Volksraad, or People's Council) had been established, in line with the plans, in great variety and often confusingly contradictory, of the Dutch colonial policy-makers to give their East Indian possessions a greater degree of autonomy.

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Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1960

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References

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29 Such early decentralization laws as were implemented were characteristic more of an indiscriminate levelling of various structures of local and regional autonomy, many of them anciently founded in ethnic custom, than of a systematic creation of appropriate organs of local government. Cf., e.g., Böhtlingk, F. R., Staatsrecht in Indonesië, 1942–1952 (Leyden, 1952), passim.Google Scholar

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31 See, e.g., Böhtlingk, , “De Verhouding,” 78.Google Scholar

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34 Logemann, , Het Staatsrecht, 49.Google Scholar

35 The details of Sukarno's proposals and the means he suggested for realizing them were laid down in his speech entitled “Res Publica! Once More Res Publica!” to the Constituent Assembly in Bandung on April 22, 1959. For the complete text of this address see Indonesian Spectator (Djakarta), 05 1, 1959, 1014 Google Scholar; May 15, 1959, 15–19, 22; and June 1, 1959, 18–22.

36 Indonesian Observer, April 4, 1959.

37 For the text of the emergency law, which replaces but does not greatly modify earlier laws on the state of “war” and “siege” in Indonesia, see Lembaran Negara 1957–60, Tambaban Lembaran Negara 1485, and Mededelingen van het Documentatiebureau voor Overzees Recht (Leyden), VIII, nos. 8–9, 1958, 6179.Google Scholar In December, 1959, a new “state of war” decree shifted authority to the President.

38 Antara Daily News Bulletin, Sept. 17, 1959, 1.Google Scholar

39 See the comparison of seats in the provisional and elected parliaments in van Marie, A., “The First Indonesian Parliamentary Elections,” Indonesië, IX, 1956, 258.Google Scholar The Masjumi is the forum of Reform Islamic political life in Indonesia. The party is anti-Communist, mildly pro-Western, and has a following among intellectuals, business men, and, to a lesser extent, in organized labour. The P.N.I, is the old standard bearer of secular nationalism. It was founded in 1927, was repressed, and did not fully emerge again until the revolution, when it became briefly the monolithic structure of organized political opinion. Today, it draws its strength from the bourgeoisie, the bureaucracy, and much of the Javanese aristocracy. Masjumi is strong beyond the island of Java. The P.N.I, is weak there, but has a strong following in Central and East Java provinces. The N.U. is anti-reform Islam; it has a strong following primarily in the Javanese countryside, as has the Indonesian Communist party. Urban proletarian support for the Communists is also strong. Among the smaller parties the Socialists are influential among the intellectual élite in the country, but weak among the masses. There are also Christian confessional parties (both Protestant and Catholic), Muslim splinter groups and radical Marxist organizations. On these parties and their programmes see Kepartaian dan Parlementaria Indonesia (Djakarta: Information Ministry, 1954).Google Scholar

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44 Nieuwsgier, July 17, Nov. 27, 1954.

45 Ibid., March 28, 1955.

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50 See, e.g., Skinner, G. William, ed., Local, Ethnic, and National Loyalties in Village Indonesia: A Symposium (New Haven, New York, 1959).Google Scholar

51 To the Indonesian parliament as to the other national institutions applies the observation of an Australian student of regional and local government in Indonesia, that even though Indonesia is now a state free from colonial control, the government's task at the local level is not wholly different from that of an alien government that establishes and preserves its authority in a “subject” society. Legge, J. D., “Central Supervision and Local Government in Indonesia,” Australian Journal of Politics and History, III, 1957, 7995.Google Scholar

52 Cf., e.g., Wilopo, and Nitisastro, Widjojo, The Socio-Economic Basis of the Indonesian State, Modern Indonesia Project, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University (Ithaca, 1959).Google Scholar

53 Examples of semi-mystical rationalizations about the future development of the Indonesian state can be found especially in the utterances of Mohammad Yamin, a leading political figure and close associate of the President. See for instance Yamin's analysis of the “functional” revolution in Indonesia in Indonesian Observer, Feb. 20, 1959. It is this kind of political mystagogy that has contributed as much as any other factor to the postponement of constitutionally sanctioned practices of everyday government and thereby has so gravely impeded the development of parliamentary processes.

54 Indonesia: Review of Commercial Conditions, July 1951 (London: The Board of Trade, 1951), 34 Google Scholar; and Jiler, Harry, ed., Commodity Year Book, 1958 (New York, 1958), 286.Google Scholar

55 See generally Vlekke, B. H., ed., Indonesia in 1956: Political and Economie Aspects (The Hague, New York, 1957), 5392 Google Scholar; Paauw, Douglas S., “The High Cost of Political Instability in Indonesia, 1957–1958” in Vlekke, B. H., ed., Indonesia's Struggle, 1957–1958 (The Hague, New York, 1959), 2355 Google Scholar, and Higgins, B., Indonesia's Economic Stabilization and Development (New York, 1957).Google Scholar

56 In the provinces themselves the resurgent spirit of regionalism was variously attributed to continued subversion in the state by Dutch elements and to excessive centralization in Djakarta. As early as the middle of 1955 there was a movement in Northern Celebes to re-establish the State of East Indonesia and the federal structure of government throughout the country. See Nieuwsgier, Nov. 17, 1953, June 17, 1955.

57 See, by this writer: The Place of the Army in Indonesian Politics,” Eastern World (London), Jan., 1957, 1318 Google Scholar; Indonesia's Military and the State,” Far Eastern Economic Review (Hongkong), XXIV, 05 29, 1958, 683–7Google Scholar; and Instability in Indonesia,” Far Eastern Survey, XXVI, 04, 1957, 4962.Google Scholar

58 der Kroef, Van, “Instability in Indonesia,” 4962.Google Scholar

59 Nieuwsgier, May 29, 1957.

60 Antara Daily News Bulletin, Nov. 14 and 28, Dec. 16, 1958. See also Logemann, J. H., “De Staat van Oorlog en Beleg,” Mededelingen van het Documentatie Bureau voor Overzees Recht, VII, 1957, 912.Google Scholar

61 Antara Daily News Bulletin, Dec. 23, 1958.

62 For a critique of what the Indonesian Communist party calls the “negative aspects” of military power see the party's publication Material for the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Indonesia (Djakarta, 1959), 33.Google Scholar Of late the Communists have posed as champions of parliamentary democracy, which, though inadequate, “is better than fascism, better than military dictatorship or one man dictatorship.” Documents: Seventh Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Indonesia, Jacarta, November 19–21, 1958, Supplementary Issue to Review of Indonesia, no. 12, 1958, 10.Google Scholar Sukarno's “guided democracy” is seen as a step beyond parliamentary government, however, and for that reason the Communists have been willing to support it. In contrast to other parties the Indonesian Communist party has subjected itself to extraordinary self-criticism regarding its work in the rural areas and its increasing following in Java is at least in part based on this pseudo-scientific soul-searching. See, e.g. Lukman's, M. H. analysis of local legislative councils in the party's newspaper Hartan Rakjat, 04 5, 1958.Google Scholar

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64 der Kroef, Van, “‘Guided Democracy’ in Indonesia,” 113–24.Google Scholar

65 Early in 1959 the National Council proposed, with the concurrence of Sukarno, that 50 per cent of parliament should be made up of representatives of “functional” groups, and that they should be elected from a list drawn up, not by the political parties, but by the National Front for the Liberation of West Irian, an ultra-nationalist federation of functional group interests that is under military control. The parties bitterly protested this proposal, suggesting instead that “functionals” at the most comprise one-third of the total parliamentary membership and be elected from party lists. The conflict remained unresolved, though in his address to the Constituent Assembly on April 22, Sukarno, urging the return to the 1945 constitution, proposed that functional group and party candidates appear jointly on lists of candidates, that some functionals be appointed by the President, and that a new National Front (not the National Front for the Liberation of West Irian) be formed to assist in drafting the candidates' list. The exact number of functionals that would thus be elected to parliament Sukarno left undecided. The proposal satisfied few party leaders and it is not known if this dissatisfaction contributed to the defeat in the Constituent Assembly of Sukarno's proposal to return to the 1945 constitution. With the imposition of the 1945 constitution by executive decree it appears that Sukarno's proposal will be carried out when elections for a new parliament and People's Congress are held in the future.

66 On these and related constitutional questions see Logemann, J. H., “Constitutionele Ontwikkelingen in Indonesië,” Mededelingen van het Documentatie Bureau voor Overzees Recht, VII, 1957, 5765.Google Scholar

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71 Legge, J. D., “Guided Democracy and Constitutional Procedures in Indonesia,” Australian Outlook, 06, 1959, 93.Google Scholar

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73 On the nature of these charismatic tendencies and their influence on contemporary Indonesian life see by van der Kroef, Justus M.: “Racial Messiahs” in Thompson, Edgar T. and Hughes, Everett C., eds., Race: Individual and Collective Behavior (Glencoe, Ill., 1958), 357–64Google Scholar; and Javanese Messianic Expectations: Their Origin and Cultural Context,” Comparative Studies in History and Society, I, 1959, 299323.Google Scholar

74 See generally Wertheim, W. F., Indonesian Society in Transition: A Study in Social Change (The Hague, New York, 1956)Google Scholar, and Kroef, Justice M. van der, Indonesia in the Modern World (2 vols., Bandung, 1954–6).Google Scholar

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76 Indonesion Observer, Dec. 2, 1959.

77 Ibid., Dec. 17, 18.

78 Antara Daily News Bulletin, March 10, 1960.

79 Ibid., March 11.

80 See, e.g., the views of the chairman of the Indonesian Socialist party and former Sjahrir, Premier Sutan, “Nationalism at a Dead End: The Background of Indonesia's Crisis,” Socialist Call, XXVI, no. 1, Jan., 1958, 19–13.Google Scholar

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