Joys and sorrows of Indonesia in the past year
Indische Courant voor Nederland, 7 Jan 1953, p. 3: year-in-review chronology for 1952 (selected entries translated). Mentions the August 1951 raids, the 17 October 1952 affair, release of East Java arrestees on 30 Oct, a goodwill mission to Kahar Muzakkar under Mrs Salawati (8 Apr), and Aidit and Njoto refused entry to
Documents of the Fifth National Congress of the PKI (Bintang Merah IX, 2-3), 1954
Special issue of Bintang Merah with documents of the PKI Fifth National Congress (Jakarta, 16–20 March 1954): congress report, greetings from sixteen foreign communist parties, and a 400,000-strong closing rally.
Harian Rakjat, 24 May 1954, p. 1
Harian Rakjat, 24 Mei 1954, hlm. 1. Front page with D.N. Aidit's 34th-anniversary message setting two tasks of the Fifth Congress: a national united front and party building; women are not mentioned.
Harian Rakjat, 26 May 1955, p. 1
Harian Rakjat, 26 Mei 1955, hlm. 1. Front page reporting the PKI's 35th-anniversary celebrations in Jakarta; Aidit's speech and greetings including from 'wanita' at home.
Harian Rakjat, 26 May 1955, p. 3
Harian Rakjat, 26 Mei 1955, hlm. 3. First instalment of D.N. Aidit's address 'Lahirnja PKI dan perkembangannja' at the PKI's 35th-anniversary reception; women and Gerwani have no place in the party's official history here.
Harian Rakjat, 27 May 1955, p. 3
Harian Rakjat, 27 Mei 1955, hlm. 3. Concluding instalment of Aidit's 35th-anniversary address: 1945–48 errors, Madiun 1948 as a Hatta provocation, the 1951 Sukiman raids and the post-1951 line of national united front and party building.
Harian Rakjat, 5 September 1955, p. 4
Harian Rakjat, 5 September 1955, hlm. 4. Advertisement page with a Jajasan Pembaruan offer to sell PKI literature at the 'Pesta Rakjat' and a list of 31 titles; no Gerwani item.
'The fathers are not pure': Mrs Fatmawati Sukarno: 'Let me form a cabinet'
Dagblad voor Noord-Limburg, 30 Mar 1957: Fatmawati, Sukarno's first wife, who left the palace after his 1954 marriage to Hartini 'to the great indignation of the Indonesian women's organisation', proposes in an open letter that a non-party woman form the new cabinet ('the fathers are not pure'). Page also covers anti-c
Masyumi leader warns against 'playing with fire'
Winschoter Courant (30 Mar 1957), news round-up. Relevant: Fatmawati Sukarno writes asking why a woman cannot form a cabinet, with a note that women's organisations took Sukarno's second marriage badly. Also Masyumi's Isa Anshary on cabinet formation, searches of Jakarta banks, and Aidit threatening a general strike un
Documents of the Sixth Plenum of the PKI Central Committee, 1958
English edition (Jajasan Pembaruan, 1958) of the PKI CC Sixth Plenum documents (Jakarta, 31 Mar–3 Apr 1958), chiefly D.N. Aidit's report 'The New Phase', delivered during suppression of the PRRI/Permesta rebellion. Background on PKI strategy.
Tribune (Sydney) p. 2: the Communist Party of Australia sends condolences to the PKI on the death of Bintang Suradi, a PKI Central Committee figure and private secretary to D.N. Aidit, who died on 22 June 1963 in a swimming accident while touring Indonesia with CPA's E. Bacon, aged 40. His wife Suwarti (Suwarti Bintang
Tribune (Sydney) p. 2: the Communist Party of Australia sends condolences to the PKI on the death of Bintang Suradi, a PKI Central Committee figure and private secretary to D.N. Aidit, who died on 22 June 1963 in a swimming accident while touring Indonesia with CPA's E. Bacon, aged 40. His wife Suwarti (Suwarti Bintang
Telegram 1025A (1591) to Secretary of State, 30 Nov 1965
US Embassy telegram, 30 Nov 1965, recording a Polish diplomat's claim that a PKI Central Committee member was 'elated' on 1 October and that only an Aidit-led 'special group' knew of the plot. Secondhand diplomatic evidence on PKI involvement.
Airgram A-373: Joint Weeka no. 46, 7 Dec 1965
US Embassy Joint Weeka no. 46 (airgram A-373), 7 Dec 1965: Aidit's capture and death, the fate of Politburo members, and a figure of 34,000 PKI prisoners in Java. Context on leadership elimination and detention scale.
Excerpt from Zhou Enlai's Conversation with Albanian Leaders, 27 June 1966
Excerpt (pp. 80-102 of 130) of Zhou Enlai's conversation with Enver Hoxha, Mehmet Shehu and other Albanian leaders, 27 June 1966 (Wilson Center Digital Archive; trans. Elidor Mehilli). Mostly on the Cultural Revolution, revisionism, Romania, Korea and Vietnam. One passage says Aidit, Njoto and Lukman are dead, Sudisman
Conversation between Khrushchev and Sukarno, 9 June 1961
Soviet record (top secret) of Khrushchev's 9 June 1961 conversation with Sukarno, translated by Angela Greenfield (Wilson Center). Khrushchev warns of US intelligence ties to rebels and army officers; Sukarno discusses banned parties, Nasakom, his backing for the PKI and consultation with Aidit, and distrust of Subandr
US Embassy English text of an Angkatan Bersendjata article (April 1966) presenting the 30 September Movement as a coup 'engineered in Peking', with invented meetings between Aidit and Mao. Example of Army anti-China propaganda (later shown to derive from a Hong Kong satire).
Night Walk of the Ghosts (Canberra Times, 14 April 1966)
Canberra Times, 14 Apr 1966, p. 2: first part of an anonymous Jakarta writer's anti-PKI reconstruction of 30 Sep-1 Oct 1965, casting Aidit and Untung as plotters and describing the murder of generals, with young Communist 'gangs of youths and girls' trained in camps. Gerwani not named; story continues next day. Cold Wa
Enclosure to A-666: The History of the Gestapu Abortive Coup, Engineered in Peking (Hong Kong, 1966)
US Consulate General Hong Kong telegram, 26 April 1966: the Angkatan Bersendjata article linking Mao to the 30 September coup reproduces almost word for word a fictitious satire from the Hong Kong fortnightly Look (16 Dec 1965). Documents fabricated Army propaganda.
Analysis of Responsibility: Sudisman's Defence Speech before the Mahmillub, 1967 (Pamphlet, 1975)
English pamphlet (Melbourne, 1975, trans. Benedict Anderson) of PKI General Secretary Sudisman's final Mahmillub speech of 21 July 1967, 'Analysis of Responsibility'. A leader's self-critical account of the PKI and the 30 September Movement.
Analysis of Responsibility (Sudisman, 1967; marxists.org Text)
Online English text (marxists.org) of Sudisman's 21 July 1967 Mahmillub defence 'Analysis of Responsibility': his choice of 'the path of death', PKI self-criticism and account of the 30 September Movement. Same speech as the printed pamphlet.
Dutch Diary, Thursday 13 Sept. (Willem Oltmans)
Willem Oltmans's 'Hollands Dagboek' in NRC Handelsblad (22 Sep 1973), entries 13-20 Sept. Covers his New Guinea/Luns campaign, Hatta, Pertamina corruption, Chile 1973 compared to Indonesia 1965 mass murder, and Nasution's letters about Aidit shared by Dewi Sukarno. Lists imprisoned Indonesian writers and journalists. N
Lubis' Land under the Rainbow: history with sloppiness, errors and bias
Joop Morriën's critical review in De Waarheid (6 June 1979, p.5) of Mochtar Lubis's illustrated history 'Het land onder de regenboog'. He faults its errors and 'virulent anti-communism', says it adopts Suharto's version of 1965, and notes the Madiun 1948 and 1965 killings of communists and Lekra artists' imprisonment.