With the conclusion of Indonesia's long and arduous struggle for
independence most of its people believed there would be a rapid
improvement of social and economic conditions. During the early
years of independence some progress was made in this direction,
most prominently in education, and for the time being at least
Indonesian society did become somewhat more egalitarian than in the
colonial period. But the degree of improvement fell far short of
expectations, and disillusionment and frustration led increasingly
to an understandable tendency to blame the central government in
Jakarta for the inadequate measures taken to meet the expectations
that had been aroused during the revolution. For several years, in
Java as well as in the Outer Islands, disenchantment with the
central government was moderated by the widely held belief that the
first national democratic elections-finally actually held in
1955-56-could be counted upon to produce a genuinely representative
government disposed to take, and capable of implementing, the
decisive actions required to attain social and economic progress.
But in fact the elections brought little change; cabinet membership
was largely the same, the political parties no more disposed to
cooperate with each other, and governmental capacity to bring about
social and economic progress no greater than before. Once this
became clear, dissatisfaction and criticism of the central
government was no longer restrained and became more forcefully
articulated and pointed. Especially was this so in the highly
politically conscious areas of Sumatra and Sulawesi that felt
slighted and discriminated against by what they perceived to be an
increasingly Java-centric cast of national leadership in Jakarta.
The several movements for increased regional autonomy-culminating
in open rebellion in Sulawesi and Sumatra-dominated Indonesia's
political history from 1957 to 1959 and constituted a major
watershed in the country's political development. As Dr. Harvey
points out, they link the period between the last phase of
parliamentary government and the subsequent more authoritarian and
centralized system of Guided Democracy, and their ultimate failure
paved the way for the firm establishment of the latter system and
more generally for a substantial change in the overall pattern of
power. - George McT. Kahin
General
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