Communists of Indonesia beloved by the people (Tribune, 23 Mei 1962)

Tribune (1962-05-23) - Communists Of Indonesia Beloved By The People Source: Trove, National Library of Australia - https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236252402 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 23 May 1962 - COMMUNISTS OF INDONESIA BELOVED BY THE PEOPLE Tribune (Sydney, NSW: 1939 - 1991), Wednesday 23 May 1962, page 9 COMMUNISTS OF INDONESIABELOVED BY THE PEOPLEBy Laurie Aarons Political Committee Member oj the Communist Party oj Australia who attended the Congress of the ICP, as a fraternal delegate.IT was a magnificent experience and a great honour to represent our Party at the Seventh Tnnnress of the CommunistParty of Indonesia. In the very short time of six days, one was able to learn directly of the aspirations, trials and dedication to revolutionary struggle of the whole Indonesian nation of 96 million people — our closest neighbours. For there can be no doubt that the Communist Party of Indonesia is a mass party, which truly represents. the nation and the masses of peasants and workers. Every one of the 383 delegates at the Congress represented' 5,000 members, for the Party is two million strong. My mind naturally went back eight years, when I attended the Fifth Congress as a fraternal delegate. The Party had 150,000 members, and did not cover the farflung Indonesian nation of over 3,000 inhabited islands, being concentrated mainly in Java and Sumatra. Now, Party organisation is established and consolidated everywhere. For example, in Bali, which I visited for three days, the Party has now over 20,000 members. In 1054. there was nn Partv or p-nni Ra-tion in Bali. This Congress was made up of delegates from all the 32 main nationalities of Indonesia, including one from West Irian, Indonesian territory still occupied b. Dutch imperial -ran. The Congress was held to bring the Party's Constitution and Program into line with the Government regulations governing political parties, introduced to ensure they support the basic aims of the Indonesian Revolution ol 1545. Biggest party The reactionary forces in Indonesia long tried to outlaw the Communist Party. Of course, the Dutch imperialists suppressed the Party and savagely persecuted Communists. Even after national independence, tbe pro-imperialist, feudal and reactionary elements tried to ban and destroy the Party, stopping short of nothing — mass arrests, provocation and even assassination. Today the Party is firmly established, by far the biggest and most popular party in Indonesia. The Masjumi and the PSI, diehard reactionary parties, are prohibited because they were the political mainspring of the military rebellion inspired, armed and supplied by the imperialist powers and masterminded by SEATO. In 1954, the Masjumi had wide backing, mainly because it used religion as a clcaR lor its reactionary. armies. Today; the Masjumi has not a skerrick of popular support, and its former leaders who took part in the rebellion are either jailed or have fled to their masters, while those who took no direct part crept into some new front to cover their continuing l eactiOi ary aims. The Congress not only made the necesary manges to the Party's Constitution and Program. It also discussed the present political situation and adopted the s.ogan FOR DEMOCRACY, UNITY AND MOBILISATION as the guiding line of the Party's work. This was the theme of Chairman D. N. Aidit's general report to the Congress. This brilliant report, took over 9even hours to deliver.Comrade Aidit is a very impressive figure, who well expresses the revolutionary spirit of the Indonesian people. Young (not yet 40) he symbolises the ardent spirit of the nation; though young, he has spent 25 years in revolutionary struggle against Dutch and Japanese imperialist occupation.A A magnificent speaker, witty and down-to-earth, he is also. a real Marxist-Leninist, a political leader and theoretician. Like his people, he is gay and warmhearted, fond of singing and joking, but steel firm in the struggle. Firmly united Chairman Aidit is the leader of a firmly united, young and capable collective leadership, which has the support of the whole Party and tens of millions of people. The mass organisations led by the Party include the BTT (peasants' organisation) with a membership of 4 million, the SOBSI (trade union movement), with 35 million members, Pemuda Raikat. fvnnfh isGerwani (women — 15 million). The Party has also strong influence in the cultural sphere, where there is gieat development, and among thv intellectuals.Councils in the enterprises to increase production and to combat thieving, corruption and bureaucracy. In the countryside, the Party fights for the carrying out of the Government law which stipulates that 50 per cent of. the product should go to the peasant (whereas in some places the landlord gets up to 70 per cent) arid for distribution of landlords' land to the peasants. The forces responsible for economic difficulties are threefold — imperialist exploitation direct, and indirect (Indonesia's main resources are still controlled! or manipulated by foreign capital); the feudal landlords; and a newly-emerged class, the bureaucrat capitalists. The bureaucrat capitalists are de-suiiueu. tJy uxxiiaue xxxuxi> wius. "Those who have become capitalists by using their position in the controlling apparatus or in State enterprises, or thanks to their connection with high officials in the con-The use of martial law to restrict democracy is opposed. Similarly the Party is opposed to the undemocratic Di aft Law on general elections, which pxovides for only one-third of seats Lo be elected and two-thirds nominated. The Party demands a Gotong-Rojong (get-together) Cabinet, in which all patriotic forces are truly represented. At present, two Communists (Aidit and Lukman) are Cabinet members, but without portfolio. Chairman Aidit said about this: "...if one is to be considered as being responsible for all the actions taken by the Government, then this question must first be answered: Do the Communistsget the opportunity to take part in deciding upon the policy and in implementing the program oi Government?" Defeat imperialism The Communists work for a really representative Government, which will carry out a program in the interests of the workers and peasants, to defeat imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. Basing itself firmly upon the worker-peasant alliance, the Party works for national unity with all anti-imperialist forces. Their success in this work is great. Baring the Congress, this was shown.11 many ways.Messages of greetings came from Ministers, including First Minister Djuanda, Foreign Minister Suban-drio, and even the darling of the foreign capitalist press, General Nasution. President Sukarno spoke at the public rally which ended the Congress. This rally, packed out by 5,000 people inside and 10,000 outside, was also attended by many Ministers, representatives of the Armed Forces, the Mayor of Djakarta and others. This national unity is unity against imperialism, for national independence, for building up Indonesia's economy and solving the problems of the "pillars of the Indonesian revolution", the workers and peasants. The party of the workers and peasants, the communist Party, is the leading force in this national unity. The Indonesian Communist Party is a most powerful detachment of the international movement, a patriotic party of the Indonesian people, and a valiant upholder of proletarian internationalism.Its Its struggle for the completion of the Indonesian Revolution is in the interests of the Australian working people, bringing happiness to over 96 million close neighbours and ensuring peaceful and mutually beneficial relations between our two nations. (Other articles by Laurie Aarons on Indonesia will deal with West Irian and the Indonesian economic situation. Extracts from D. N. Aid-it's report will appear in July issue of Communist Review".)