Indonesia's wars of occupation
While economic recession and growing political unrest face the Suharto regime that the Portuguese government is seeking to change this situation, clearing the way for UN recognition of Indonesia's annexation of the territory.
always sunced out this alone is ract foreign investment into labour-intensive
Most existing labour-intensive industry has developed through government-sponsored attempts at import substitution. Car assembly, building material manufacturing, food processing, cigarette manuat home, some 20,000 of its troops are involved in supressing two national liberfacturing and some electronics and clothation struggles in territories forcibly incorporated into Indonesia.
ing manufacturing are major employers other than the public
West Papua, officially the province of Irian Java was a part of the Dutch East
The economic recession has given rise
Indies not relinquished at the time of Indonesia's independence.
to a dramatic rise in labour disputes. The
"liberate" the mineral-rich territory, together with United States government pressure, ended in a UN-backed transfer to Indonesia in 1963. The "act of self-
"worker cases" in 1982. The full signifiedetermination" required under the terms of the takeover was carried out in 1969, ance of this figure is only realised when it but is widely regarded as having been farcical.
is revealed that there are near-spontaneous
Since then, the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has waged a political and military strikes and protests.
All unions are
The OPM estimates that up to 150,000 Papuans have
"yellow" - compulsory affiliates to the died in the struggle. The entire Papuan population is only about one million.
government-controlled union federation,
The Papuans are Melanesians and identify with the wave of nationalism now the National Federation of Labor Organsweeping the South Pacific, particularly Kanaky (New Caledonia) and Vanuatu. A isations (FBSI). (12)
mass exodus of some 10,000 Papuan refugees to neighbouring Papua New Guinea
These struggles are continuing despite followed an abortive uprising by the OPM last February.
brutal suppression by the armed forces.
The refugee situation has created an important political opening for the OPM
In March 1983, the former head of
Leaders of the organisation are concentrating on building international solidarity
Kopkamtib, Admiral Sudomo took over and working for unity of what has previously been a factionalised movement.
the Ministry of Manpower. He immed
The OPM claims the support of close to 90% of Papuans. This is reinforced by iately announced that his policy was to the overtly chauvinist attitudes of the occupation forces, which consider Papuans maintain a "peaceful" working climate.
To enforce this climate, Sudomo emp-
Guerilla attacks on Indonesian military outposts have taken place as recently as loys techniques he learned from Kopkamlast October. Indonesia has some 6,000 troops in West Papua, including some 450 tib. One month after taking office he set members of Kopassandha, crack "Red Beret" para-commandos.
up a Manpower Crisis
Management
An important issue is the Suharto regime's policy of "transmigration". This is a
Centre. It makes policy and runs Action
World Bank-funded program to resettle Indonesian peasants from highly populated
Force Groups whose duty is to "prevent islands like Java and Bali, in less-populated islands.
a dispute from spreading and to cope
250,000 settlers from Indonesia, mostly under this policy. Papuans fear that they with the dispute on the spot."
will become a minority in their own land if the program continues.
Committees for the Settlement of
Although transmigration is usually explained as an attempt to reduce population
Labor Disputes, a reform won by workers pressures, this flies in the face of the actual results of this program, which has cost in the 1950s are being replaced by industmillions of rupiahs in foreign aid. In the latest Indonesian development plan, Rep.
rial courts, and Sudomo has announced elita IV, it is described as a "vehicle to promote national stability and integration".
that Collective Labor Agreements are to
Most of the West Papuan transmigration camps have been set up in areas of
"This philosophy," he be phased out.
strategic importance militarily. Their role is analogous to the Zionist soldier-settler said, "places workers and employers in two conflicting camps, whereas Pancasila
So far, in all Indonesia, some 500,000 families have been transmigrated. Authordemocracy necessitates workers and empities plan to resettle 750-800,000 families over the next five years.
loyers to solve their problems through been talk of extending transmigration to East Timor, the other war zone.
rather than demonstra-
Ten years after some 30,000 Indonesian troops invaded newly independent East
Timor, a war is still raging in this former Portuguese colony.
Sudomo went on to urge workers not
Fretilin, the movement that led the independence struggle, is now fighting a to think of themselves as workers! The guerilla war, particularly in the eastern and central regions. It ties down 16-18,000
Indonesian term "buruh" (worker) is to
"katyawan"
be replaced with the term
From 1977 to 1980, Fretilin suffered several major setbacks, as it was defeated
"tenaga keria"
(employee) or in a number of set-piece battles forced on it as it sought to defend liberated zones
In February with large civilian populations. Additionally, a number of Fretilin leaders defected made an agreement with the FBSI to ban all slowdowns and strikes.
Fretilin gradually abandoned most of the populated liberated zones and adopted by some workers.
In June 1984, for guerilla tactics. This change in direction was consolidated at a 1981 congress. Since
395 workers at the PT Beta instance, then Fretilin has succeeded in strengthening its armed units and has built an extens-
Sarana
Steel plant in Tanjung Priok ive network of sympathisers and clandestine members. The organisation is said to struck for two days over the company's have people in the very top ranks of the pro-Indonesian administration in East refusal to respond to a wage demand.
The same month another 700 workers
Reports from the Catholic Church in the capital, Dili, indicate that the fighting went on strkie at an East Jakarta vehicle thousands of suspected Fretilin supporters are in concentration assembly plant over the company's refcamps. There are many reports of army atrocities, including torture, and a massacre usal to pay the annual bonus. (13)
The absence of real unions forces
A 1983 ceasefire was abrogated by the Indonesian regime, which has pledged to workers to turn to legal aid bodies and wipe out Fretilin to the last man and woman.
12.
For a detailed account of workers' struggles
The United Nations does not recognise Indonesia's claim to East Timor, and over the last five years see Indonesian Workers and Their Right to Organise, a publication of accepts Portugal as the legitimate administering power, but there are indications the Indonesian Documentation and Information
Centre.
Leiden.
The
Netherlands.
1981 with.
annual supplements since then.
13.
Inside Indonesia No. 3, October 1984.
18 campaign to struggle for independence.
to be "savages".
kibbutzim in occupied Palestine.
Indonesian troops at present.
to the occupation forces.
of up to 200 villagers in one recent case.
strong all around the country.
Sukarno's military
West Papua has received some
Support for Fretilin is still very
International Viewpoint 25 March 1985
protesters marched through the streets, the economic recession,
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• a moved in with tanks and troops, killing 11 protesters and injuring many more. General Sumitro fell after this.
The anti-Tanaka protests clearly revealed the twin dynamics of the students' protests of the period. Students were motivated by basic demands for justice but were manipulated by factions in the ruling group.
Three prominent student leaders were tried and convicted on subversion charges, but received fairly short terms of imprisonment. There followed a lull in student activity. The Islamic character of the opposition
In 1977, when the next elections were held, Golkar won overwhelmingly once
But student unrest followed the elections and continued into 1978. Once again the protests were against corruption development extend to the private sector the already Some students attacked Suharto dir- a government employee who exposed existing ban on strikes in part-owned or fully owned government enterprises.
While labour struggles are a dynamic part of the opposition in Indonesia, repression prevents them from being an open forum for full political discussion
This contributes to the fact that political opposition tends to focus on workers' immediate bosses, the government and Chinese businesses. imperialism's role in their country is not problem is exacerbated by the lack of political forums open to workers.
Another important part of the opposition traces its roots to several post 1965/ 66 waves of student and youth protests.
It wasn't long before some of the student movements which joined army in purging the left fell foul of the New Order regime.
As early as October 1966, the military was suppressing its former student allies with bayonets and rifle butts. There were allegations that students and some young officers were plotting to bolster Sukarno's
(While many students were anticommunist, they supported Sukarno, who they were told was being manipulated by the communists. This supposedly led to the repression and economic crisis of the early 1960s.)
The following year some students took up the issue of "corruption" number of generals close to Suharto. In 1969 the anti-corruption movement gained momentum writer Mochtar Lubi publication of the entitled "We want to know!" icles highlighted shady deals between several generals and Japanese companies.
In 1970 the attacks centred on General Suryo and the evidence was more than sufficient to go to court. Suharto refused International Viewpoint 25 March 1985 to act, and the matter was settled out of ectly, exposing his links with Chinese businesses (cukong). These allegations were reflected within the military itself.
The next year a 100% rise in the price of kerosene and a 49% rise in the price of petrol sparked off another student-led protest movement. Demonstrations were banned as the country went through its first elections since the military takeover. Anti-Tanaka
The elections were a farce. facto government party was Golkar, formally a "functional group" which "united" all occupational groups (including unions) and commanded the enforced support of all government employees, military and civilian. The opposition was a collection of small conservative parties. Intimidation and fraud were widespread.
In 1973, the government forcibly the opposition The United Development Party (PPP), a forced amalgamation of Islamic Parties; and the Democratic Party of Indonesia (PDI), including all the rest. The only effective opposition took the form of more student-led riots against Chinese business and Japanese invest-
Various factions in the New Order organising rival student groups in the leadup to a January 1974 visit by Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka. Among those involved were supporters of Kopkamtib head, General Sumitro, and Ali Murtopo's agents, who acted as provocateurs. Chinese business interests sought to encourage the students to turn their frustration against Japanese, rather than local Chinese, interests.
On the day of the visit, thousands of and repression. The actions around the trial of Sawito Kartowibowo, corrupt Suharto family deals around imposition of a levy on all air cargo movements in and out of the country. Proceeds from the levy went towards setting up a cargo airline, Bayu Air, partly owned by the Suharto family. Sawito got eight years' prison for "subversion"
Students again attacked the Suharto regime in the approach to the 1978 presidential election. On January 28, 1978, the regime struck. All student bodies were frozen, some 600 students were arrfour students were selected for trial the following year.
Since then, most campuses have been relatively quiet. But many of the veterans of the various waves of student revolt are now working in different sectors, organising workers, poor farmers or agitating in the mosques.
The most recent unrest in Java has sparked speculation about a revival of Islamic militancy in Indonesia. Last November's riots began when security officials forced their way into a mosque and tore down posters criticising the government.
Several people were killed were wounded in riots that swept through Jakarta's depressed port district of Tanjung Priok. In the following weeks bombs were exploded in a number of Chinese owned banks and businesses. At present a number of people are on trial for these
"Islamic" nature of the recent protests has also derived from recent changes forced on the two opposition parties, the PPP and the PDI.
These were prompted by militant demonstrations led by the Islamic alliance (PPP) supporters, in the leadup to the 1982 general elections (which predictably were won by Golkar). Apart from
strations were inspired by the worldwide wave of Islamic radicalism which began wich the Iranian revolution in 1979. Unlike the Iranian Shiites, Indonesian Muslims are mostly Sunnis.
With about 90% of the population at least nominally Muslim, it is not surprising that Islamic values and ideals have a major influence on all the mass movements. The first-ever mass independence movement against Dutch rule was the preWorld War I Serikak Islam. (14)
After the 1982 elections Suharto announced that violence arose because all parties had accepted Pancasila as their sole political philosophy."
also attacked the rise of violent crime in the cities. This was a natural consequence of the recession and the government's austerity drive.
to both "problems" shocked
In 1983, hundreds of suspected criminals would be rounded up squads, dubbed "mysterious The next day their mutilated bodies would be discovered in rivers or
While the government did not admit responsibility, in rural death squads did not trouble to disguise themselves - they were members of the police and armed forces.
The obvious intention was to terrorise the population and dissidents in particular, many of whom were threatened and assaulted. Even members of the elite Petition of 50 group were assaulted. 20
The main effect of this death squad activity was to rally support for the government from the sizeable small-trader and petty-capitalist sectors. These people had suffered most from the crime wave.
However, the government's plans to further "reorganise" the opposition parties probably offset any benefit it might have gained from the death squad activity.
The reorganisation forced both the PDI and the PPP to adopt Pancasila as acquired three parties with the same
Their only formal differences are in their emblems. The PPP retains an image of the Ka'abah, the Islamic shrine in Mecca, while the PDI has the wild
At the same time, one of Suharto's followers was made head Golkar, which in turn adopted a more party-like structure. It may now become a training ground for New Order cadres.
The end result of these changes has been to close off the limited legitimate avenues of political activity. have contributed to the growing importance of mosques as centres for political
The mosques are effectively the only places where people can and do gather and hear speeches. The army has tried to as Tandjung Priok only class and poor peasant congregations are led by local preachers. In
Indonesian riot police (D.R.)
addition, there are the muballigh, a corps of itinerant lay preachers. The chairperson of this corps is Syafruddin Prawiranegara, a well-known older-generation Islamic politician who is known to favour restoration of democratic rights.
The "pesantren" Islamic education centres which operate independently of the government, have also been centres of some ferment.
may be approaching an important turning point. The pressure of the international capitalist recession has forced the military regime to rationalise
From here on, any further "savings" and cost cutting will have to be solely at the expense of workwho are already the poorest in the region.
process of rationalising itself, the New Order regime has alienated many of its former supporters. The system built by Suharto and his financial and military supporters increasingly resembles capitalism" Marcos in the Philippines.
A new generation of militants has emerged since the total destruction of workers' and peasants' organisations in 1965/66. These militants, together with disaffected sectors of the ruling class are now challenging the stability of the regime. To date no group has emerged as the clear political leadership of this opposition, and its politics remain in flux.
• Unrest" by Carmel Asia, November/December International Viewpoint 25 March 1985
USA.
ing their crops. This is the problem of about 300,000 farmers. They are the middle-sized operators who expanded in the boom years Unless they get help, most of them will be out of business this year or next.
The help they have been getting from