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Abstract
From 1945 until 1965, virtually all Indonesian political parties claimed to follow some version of socialism. What did ‘socialism’ mean in this context, though? In economics, party platforms promoted aspects of redistribution and collective ownership, but the application of such ideologies was limited. In international relations, Indonesia was dedicated to a third way between the capitalist and communist superpowers, meaning ‘socialism’ was not generally invoked for foreign policy. Where many Asian and African Marxist experiments have been characterised by utopian visions, in Indonesia the future was framed in more nativist than socialist terms. In the end, the fact that socialism had such a diverse spectrum of understandings in Indonesian politics allowed different political streams to claim the term for highly different purposes, and eventually President Sukarno claimed the mantle of ‘Indonesian Socialism’ for his personalistic regime from the late 1950s. After ‘socialism’ was rendered virtually meaningless, it was easy for the leaders of an army-backed coup in 1965–1966 to paint it as dangerous in the wake of their anti-Communist campaign. Thus, within a decade ‘socialism’ went from ubiquitous engagement with collectivist economic principles to meaningless rhetorical device to political pariah.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank Harry Verhoeven for shepherding this project from start to finish. The initial presentation also benefitted from the feedback of Uday Chandra, Jason Sumich and Imad Mansour. The final version benefitted greatly from advice by Matthew Woolgar and two anonymous reviewers for the journal. All remaining faults are the author’s alone.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 George McT. Kahin, “The Impact of American Foreign Policy,” 64.
2 Sjahrir, Indonesian Socialism, 30–1.
3 Kebede, Ideology and Elite Conflicts.
4 On the failed 1948 uprising, see Swift, Road to Madiun.
5 Roosa, Pretext for Mass Murder.
6 Key texts include Feith, Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia; Lev, Transition to Guided Democracy; Mrázek, Sjahrir: Politics and Exile in Indonesia.
7 Nasution, Aspiration for Constitutional Government in Indonesia; Ricklefs, Islamisation and Its Opponents in Java, ch. 3–4; Madinier, Islam and Politics in Indonesia.
8 Lin, “Sickle as Crescent”; Xie, “Estranged Comrades”; Subijanto, “Media of Resistance”; Woolgar, “Communism in Context”; Leksana, “Embedded Remembering”; Jamkajornkeiat, “Unsovereign Marxism.”
9 See eg Anderson, Java in a Time of Revolution; McVey, Rise of Indonesian Communism.
10 Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 404–5 (Partai Katolik); 483 (Parkindo).
11 Mrázek, Sjahrir: Politics and Exile in Indonesia, 409–12.
12 Feith, Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, 131–2; 144–5.
13 On the PKI, see Hindley, Communist Party of Indonesia, 1951–1963. For the results of the 1955 elections, see Feith, Indonesian Elections of 1955.
14 Azra, “Indies Chinese and the Sarekat Islam,” 38–41.
15 Fogg, “Indonesian Islamic Socialism.”
16 McVey, Rise of Indonesian Communism, ch. 2–3; Saich and Tichelman, “Henk Sneevliet: A Dutch Revolutionary,” 172–5.
17 Mrázek, Sjahrir: Politics and Exile in Indonesia, 76.
18 Helen Jarvis, “Introduction,” lxxxiv.
19 Benda and McVey, Communist Uprisings of 1926–27.
20 Soekarno, Nationalism, Islam and Marxism.
21 Shiraishi, An Age in Motion.
22 Hatta, “Sosialisme di Indonesia,” 104.
23 Mrázek, Sjahrir: Politics and Exile in Indonesia, 222–32.
24 George McT. Kahin, Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia, 157; Fogg, Indonesia’s Islamic Revolution, ch. 10.
25 Hatta, “Sosialisme di Indonesia,” 100.
26 Soepomo, Undang-Undang Dasar Sementara Republik Indonesia, 42.
27 Luiten van Zanden and Marks, Economic History of Indonesia, 248.
28 Soepomo, Undang-Undang Dasar Sementara Republik Indonesia, 42.
29 Sjahrir, Indonesian Socialism, 10.
30 Mrázek, Sjahrir: Politics and Exile in Indonesia, 411.
31 Pedoman Perdjuangan Masjumi, 35–9.
32 Sastroamijoyo, Milestones on My Journey, 315.
33 Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian Dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 26–42; Friend, Indonesian Destinies, 26.
34 Feith, Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, 85; Madinier, Islam and Politics in Indonesia, 195.
35 Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 34, 43 (PNI); 462 (Masjumi); 493 (PKI). Note that NU, the third largest party, is a bit hard to pin down because it did not publish a party programme in the 1950s. PSI, strangely, had a 10-point programme for farmers, but did not advocate land redistribution.
36 Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 35–6, 55 (PNI); 493 (PKI); 536–7 (PSI); Putusan Kongres P.P.I. Masjumi ke-VII, tanggal 23 s/d 27 Desember 1954.
37 Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 55 (PNI); 381 (PSII); 529 (PSI).
38 Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 43 (PNI); 461 (Masjumi); 493 (PKI); 536 (PSI).
39 Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian Dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 381.
40 Ibid., 537.
41 Ibid., 462.
42 Hatta, “Membangun Ekonomi Nasional,” 155.
43 See eg Feith, Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, 371.
44 Madinier, Islam and Politics in Indonesia, 196.
45 Pedoman Perdjuangan Masjumi, 63.
46 Suryomenggolo, Organising under the Revolution, ch. 5.
47 Redfern, “Sukarno’s Guided Democracy,” 96–112.
48 Madinier, Islam and Politics in Indonesia, 197.
49 George McT. Kahin, “Impact of American Foreign Policy,” 64.
50 Feith, Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, 294; Zulfikar Ghazali, “Upaya Masyumi Membendung Komunisme,” 184.
51 Quoted in Friedman, Shadow Cold War, 75, quoting a report of V. I. Likhachev, head of the Southeast Asia Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on “The Contemporary Domestic and Foreign Political Situation in Indonesia,” December 30, 1960.
52 Sutter, Indonesianisasi: Politics in a Changing Economy, vol. IV.
53 Hindley, Communist Party of Indonesia, 1951–1963, 22–6.
54 Efimova, “Stalin and the New Program for the Communist Party.”
55 Mortimer, Indonesian Communist Party and Land Reform, 51.
56 Madinier, Islam and Politics in Indonesia, 148–51; Hatta, “Sosialisme di Indonesia,” 102.
57 Mintz, Mohammed, Marx and Marhaen, 122.
58 Hatta, “Indonesia’s Foreign Policy,” 442.
59 Ibid, 444–5.
60 Imlay, “International Socialism and Decolonization during the 1950s.”
61 Sjahrir, Indonesian Socialism, 19–20; Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 56 (PNI); 460 (Masjumi).
62 Nasution, Aspiration for Constitutional Government in Indonesia.
63 Pedoman Perdjuangan Masjumi, 64; Kementerian Penerangan Kepartaian dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 43, 52 (PNI); 409–12 (NU); 491–5 (PKI).
64 McMahon, Colonialism and Cold War, especially 304–16.
65 Feith, Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, 198–207; Sastroamijoyo, Milestones on My Journey, 249–52.
66 Sjahrir, Indonesian Socialism, 15–6; cf. Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian Dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 525–6.
67 Abdulgani, Asia–Africa Speaks from Bandung, 19–29 and 31–9.
68 Ibid., 168.
69 Audrey R. Kahin and George McT. Kahin, Subversion as Foreign Policy.
70 Simpson, Economists with Guns, 145–6.
71 Sukarno, Dibawah Bandera Revolusi, vol. II, 652.
72 Friedman, Shadow Cold War, 140–5.
73 Westad, Global Cold War, 80.
74 Mrázek, Sjahrir: Politics and Exile in Indonesia, 276–7.
75 Sjahrir, Indonesian Socialism, 19.
76 Fogg, Indonesia’s Islamic Revolution, ch. 2.
77 Prawiranegara, Islam dalam Pergolakan Dunia, especially ch. 3.
78 Chasbullah, “Pidato Abdul Wahab Chasbullah,” 345.
79 eg Sukarno, “The Pantja Sila,” and “Marhaen, a Symbol of the Power of the Indonesian People.” The use of gotong royong as a principle in Indonesian politics began before Sukarno with the organization Budi Utomo in the early twentieth century; Sjahrir, Indonesian Socialism, 30.
80 Mintz, Mohammed, Marx and Marhaen, 57; Kementerian Penerangan, Kepartaian Dan Parlementaria di Indonesia, 26–42.
81 Ricklefs, Islamisation and Its Opponents in Java, 103–4.
82 cf. Anderson, Language and Power, 56–63.
83 The authoritative account of this process is Lev, Transition to Guided Democracy.
84 See, for example, Tumakaka, Sosialisme Indonesia, 9.
85 Gardner and Hanna, “Islamic Socialism,” 72.
86 Tumakaka, Sosialisme Indonesia, wrote the comprehensive account of the ideology, stringing together quotes and ideas from Sukarno, but the result is more confusing than enlightening.
87 Abdulgani, Api Islam ditengah-tengah Berkobarnja Revolusi, 78.
88 Roosa, Pretext for Mass Murder.
89 Robinson, Killing Season.
90 Simpson, Economists with Guns, introduction.
91 Hatta, “Sosialisme di Indonesia,” 106.
92 Anderson, “Rewinding ‘Back to the Future’,” 139.
93 Imlay, “International Socialism and Decolonization during the 1950s.”
94 Anderson, “Rewinding ‘Back to the Future’,” 137.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kevin W. Fogg
Kevin W. Fogg is Associate Director of the Carolina Asia Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work centres on post-independence Indonesia, particularly Islam and politics.