INDONESIAN STUDENTS
Student demonstrations, and the threat of more to come, sealed the fate of General Suharto. Indeed, 1997 has much in common with 1966 when students forced the resignation of President Sukarno. The indications are that the students will not easily relinquish their political role as activists and shapers of public opinion. They will remain a volatile political force, acting as President Habibe's conscience until a more desirable regime and ideology is established.
Students created the concept of "Indonesia" and are committed to influencing its future. While the Abri (armed forces) always seem dominant, in reality it could not act alone against General Suharto. That would have appeared as a selfish coup d'état, and might have been the prelude to skirmishes within the armed forces; between the different regional commands of the Army, the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy and the Police. Nor would a coup d'état have won international approval.
Army rule has become unfashionable; regimes must appear to be representative, especially as in Indonesia's case it needs the support of international creditors. The regime needs also political legitimacy to win the support of the US, Japan and Indonesia's Asean partners. So the Abri allowed power to pass to Habibe, Suharto's deputy.
As in other underdeveloped countries, Indonesian students are traditionally accepted as legitimate political actors, whose consent is necessary for enduring rule. Normally their activities are confined to the campus, and their political role is usually passive. But it is always watchful, and, conscious of their historical role, students are prepared to erupt onto the political scene. Student dissent has caused the downfall of regimes in Indonesia, Korea and Thailand.
Students are occasionally effective even in Burma and China. But they are ineffective in seizing and holding power for themselves. Their views are listened to with great respect because they emerge at times of crisis, demanding that their complaints and visions be listened to. Their passion, and their patriotic fervour commands respect as it seems selfless and entirely in the public interest. At times of crisis, they become spokesmen for the inarticulate and powerless. Their statements and action compel attention because students act in an intellectual arena where the past and tradition is somewhat devalued. The pace of change of modernisation has been so fast that parents and grandparents have little to teach the young. Many are bewildered by change, the devaluation of tradition, uncertainty about current trends, and dread of an onrushing unknown future.
Society credits students with an understanding of the present - of its technology, mass culture, social change and political aspirations. The older generation has also a veneration for learning, and values students for their devotion to study. Perhaps they feel students represent a broader, less literate, population. Students seem to be the conscience of some societies. Nevertheless, it is the historical legacy of Indonesian student activity which now enhances their role as protectors of the nation. They claim that students fathered Indonesia.
The Dutch colonial regime had many deficiencies, especially in educational provision. The children of the indigenous elite went abroad for study, especially to Holland. Perhaps they went as Javanese or Samatrans or Balinese. Increasingly they resented being officially called "Indians". Gradually those domiciled in Holland, began to call themselves "Indonesians", and their country "Indonesia" rather than "Netherlands Indies". By 1923 there were calls for an independent Indonesia and the elimination of Dutch colonial rule. At home and abroad, students made this their aim.
By 1928 several parties and youth associations merged at a Second Youth Congress in Batavia (Jakarta). The Congress endorsed one common country - (Indonesia) - one common nation - (the Indonesian Nation) - one common unifying language - (the Indonesian language). Moreover, the young composer Soeratman played his song "Indonesia Raya" (Great Indonesia) which was adopted as the Indonesian anthem. A flag followed shortly afterwards. Their opportunity to create Indonesia came in 1947. Former student-leaders Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesia's independence.
The Dutch tried to hold their empire by military force, but many students organised themselves in military units (the Japanese Army had trained and armed them) which later formed the Seventeenth Brigade of the Indonesian National Army of the Republic. In 1947 student political activity also grew enormously. Significantly the enormous "Association of Islamic Students" (HMI) was formed, and all students had links to a Federation of Indonesia Student Associations (PPMI). Holland bowed out in 1949, and students considered their share in the victory was huge, and that the new republic would also be a liberal democracy. Gradually most student leaders turned more nationalist and accepted the governing national ideology or "Pancasila" and Sukarno's "Guided Democracy".
Students feel they protected the Indonesian revolution by their militancy in 1965-66. On September 30, 1965, communists apparently killed six generals and proclaimed a Revolutionary Council. The PPMI launched a physical attack upon the communists and convened a mass meeting on the University of Indonesia's campus on November 3, 1965. Students then demonstrated frequently on the streets, their demonstrations gaining fervour through the devaluation of the rupiah and steep rises in transport prices. By January 1966 the students demands had solidified into the abolition of the communist party (PKI), the removal of communists from Cabinet, and a reduction in prices. Their demonstrations against Cabinet were fired upon by the army, but the huge funerals of the martyrs affected army thinking and its support for Sukarno began to waver, as did that of the media. Sukarno responded by banning student activities and appointing a communist of Minister of Education.
On March 11, he also instructed General Suharto to take all necessary measures to keep peace and order. Armed with his Letter of Instruction, Suharto sided with the students and suppressed the communists. Thus Sukarno was swept aside in 1966 in a way remarkably similar to Suharto in 1998. Any familiarity with Indonesian students feeds the expectation that they will not desert the streets until they feel that the nation and government are in safe hands. But having said that, there is room for uncertainty of how their demands will be shaped. In the past there have been fissures in the student movement, especially between liberals, conservatives and socialists. The students who attend the elite schools in Jakarta are orientated largely to liberal and democratic ideas, but their enthusiasm for "western values" and modernity has been sapped by the fall of the rupiah and excesses of crony capitalism.
It is well to remember that most students are Muslim and it is possible that the continuing Indonesian revolution could now lurch toward Islamisation just as it lurched to the left in 1965, and to the market in the 1990s. Islam is more prominent because Amien Rais, the leader of the 28 million strong Muhammadiyal Party, is a university lecturer, and has aligned himself with the students, and now has an unrivalled hold upon them. Some degree of greater Islamisation seems inevitable.
Indonesians are bewildered by the collapse of their economy. The urban poor and the peasants were not great beneficiaries of crony capitalism. They are now wracked by rising prices and a vicious recession. They support Muslim political parties which claim more than 50 million members. Their demands can no longer be entirely overlooked. Perhaps students will be midwives of a shift in power towards Islamisation. The television coverage of the demonstrations in 1998 fascinated me for many students were in Muslim dress - I saw few such students a generation ago. A greater degree of Islamisation is then predictable.
There is also an outside chance that the trauma of the recent economic collapse could actually help foster the development of a fundamentalist Islamic regime on the lines of Iran. It is worth reflecting how quickly the modernising regime of the Shah of Iran was transformed into the totalitarian regime of the Ayatollah.
NEVILLE BENNETT
Christchurch, New Zealand
11 November 1998
Neville Bennett teaches "Japan and the World Economy" at the Canterbury Graduate School in New Zealand and writes a business column for the prestigious National Business Review. He is also a regular contributor to Le Metropole, www.lemetropolecafe.com and can be reached in New Zealand at 03-364-2086.
Also by Neville Bennett
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