International Journal of Indonesian Studies Volume 1, Issue 2 | Page 11

International Journal of Indonesian Studies

Autumn 2015

Meanwhile, on June 29th 1954, relationships between Indonesia and the Dutch
became worse after the Dutch officially refused to talk about West Irian problems. This
Dutch intransigence led to the boycotting of several Dutch companies, the expulsion of
50,000 Dutch citizens in Indonesia, and the takeover of BPM (Batafsche Petroleum
Maatschapij) in 1958 (Snit, 1986, 52-53). Indonesia’s negotiation over the West Irian
problems met with deadlock and was an opportunity for Indonesia to arrange the United
States of America (John F. Kennedy), on one side, and the Soviet Union, on the other side, to
press the Dutch in the United Nations. Indonesia’s supporters included Asian-African
countries from the created Non-Alignment Movement, with Yugoslavia as an addition.
Indonesia’s capability in international diplomacy was supported by the Communists
and the PKI’s growing influence in domestic affairs after the Election in 1955. Aidit
(1959,419) wrote that Indonesia’s people along with PKI, nationalist-revolutionary,
President Soekarno Konsepsi, the August Revolution 1945, democracy and Indonesia’s
nationalist interest, and the shift to the Left adapted to the international situation which
moved to the Left also. Meanwhile, Mạsjumi/PSI were banned after being reputedly
involved in the PRRI-Permesta rebellion in 1958; the PNI was disposed to enjoy Ir.Soekarno’s
patronage. It can be concluded that in the early stages of the Guided Democracy, PKI’s
pattern and Indonesia foreign policies were always related to each other, for example
supported to and from the Afro-Asian nations, cooperation with the People’s Republic of
China, Cuba, Soviet Union, East Germany and North Korea: all identified as part of the
Eastern Bloc.7
The shifting of Indonesia’s foreign politics towards much closer alliances with
Communist countries resulted in Indonesia being more extensively counted as a new power,
one of the New Emerging Forces (NEFO). Indonesia was invited, alongside Egypt (Gamal
Abdul Nasser), Ghana (Kwame Nkrumah), India (Jawaharlal Nehru) and Yugoslavia (Josiph
Broz Tito) to be part of the Non-Alignment Movement declared in Beograd in September
1961. Basically, that movement was not part of the Eastern Bloc or Western Bloc, but the
growth of the Communist Party in Indonesia, as well as Ir.Soekarno’s leadership, had
enabled foreign policies that faciliated closer ties with the Eastern Bloc against the United
States of America’s nuclear program which involved the Cuban Nuclear Crisis in1961.

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personality in Nikita Kruschev’s speech in Cỏngess 20 CPSU/Soviet Union, which I argued were roots of the
Sino-Soviet split in the early 1960s (Roberts,1999, 45).
7
Dokumen-dokumen Kongres Nasional VI. Partai Komunis Indonesia September,7-14 1959. Djakarta: Jajasan
Pembaruan. The Congress also discussed not “choice one Bloc but operated foreign politic which advantages
Indonesian peoples”. On page 85, its document quoted Ir.Soekarno’s speech which said that in war and peace
problems, in imperialism and independence problems, we were not neutral but explicitly stood for peace and
independence, p.84-94. These conditions advantaged the PKI as the main supporter of the whole raft of
Ir.Soekarno’s ideas and policies, displaying enormous people power with a membership of more than 1,5
million which included youth, women, workers, peasants, artists and also the parliamentary DPR-GR (Bintang
& Merah,1960, 84-94)