Kutip:
Hi Mr X.
I'm sorry for the delay in my reply, I've been busy with the coming exams and papers to write...
Your right about the suspicions on Soeharto. He was just a Kostrad leader, but the real issue is really the weakness of Soekarno, in my opinion. There was a general and widespread discontent at his rule, and even though he was still looked on by the commoner with his/her utmost respect, students, intellectuals and artists, not to mention strong parts of the community had already given up hope on him.
His Nasakom, the doctrine by which communists have succesfully infiltrated formerly non-communists areas of lives have provoked a large antipathy toward them, and thus toward him.
The economy was in shambles, with a 600 % inflation rate at the peak of the crisis and long rice lines in Jakarta and other cities. I think he realised what a precarious position he was in and thus had to act carefully.
I think why Nasution had not taken over the leadership, while he was in a position to do so, was the fact that he was not a Javanese. Indonesia had never had a non-Javanese president even til now. He might have thought that he could control the wily Soeharto. But as history proves, the president that has earned him the nickname 'the devious dalang (puppet master)' has outwit a lot of his enemies.
And there is something you have to say about Soeharto: he was pretty smart. Sure 32 years was helped by proficient amount of western funding and a stable and growing economy, but he had a lot of manouvering to do to place him in a position (a position that many consider as being less of an absolute despot, than some wily general that had to keep the power balance in order) as the dictator of Indonesia.
You've made some great argument on that, I have to do some research on it to answer you satisfactorily, so sorry for my sparse comment. It isn't my area of interest.
Yes, it is a very bizzare thing that happened to the communist. I think what happened was that they were stunned at the event and hadn't time to act in a very confusing and fast event.
Aidit, while supporting the 'coup', hadn't seemed to know what was going on. In fact, none of the top communists leaders seemed to have known what was going on. Unfortunately, Aidit was murdered in his home village, so the extent of the communist involvement is still in the dark (I don't think they had any, really).
But again, the resentment toward the communist was real and it was felt. During the days after the coup, communists were blamed a wide spectrum of the community. Their headquarter was burned down by a mob. It was a free for all for non-communist to attack (first using words) at the communist party. The Nasakom had made communist an enemy of many people, thus aside from the traditional muslims, they gained many socialists, nationalists, artists and other people as enemies.
As they knew that the situation was unfavourable to them, they might have thought it better to lay low. A strange thing was that there were a lot of communists elements (especially in central java) that had wanted to act right away, at least to try to defend the communists from the accusations spewed by their enemies. Unfortunately it wasn't fortcoming from the communist leadership, and the only one that had feebly defended the communists was Soekarno himself.
The shadowy event leading to the transfer of power from Soekarno to Soeharto, the Supersemar event, is still a very vague thing that historians are still unsure of.
There are some who say that Soeharto held a gun to Soekarno's head and demanded him to sign it. There are also some that say that the letter never existed (it doesn't exist now, lost somewhere as the formal answer). But the letter contained the effective giving of power to Soeharto and that was done in aftermath of the coup.
So while Soekarno stayed on for two years as 'president', he was ineffectual and shunned. Soeharto had managed to destroy the many communists then posted in many parts of the government and the military was the result of the fact that there was a great trust in him to clear the mess up by a large proportion of the community.
People had cheered for Soeharto because they feel that Soekarno has failed in producing a healthy and prosperous nation. Also because his cold-war politics were considered unproductive and hurtful to this poor nation.
We still love Soekarno, even when he was at his weakest, even when people had cheered at his downfall, the nation slowly wept also. So much so that Soeharto did not dare to touch a hand on him. He was confined to his palace and died broken-hearted and lonely.
Even today we still love Soekarno. How could we not, he was the founder of the nation. He is still looked on today as that 20s engineer graduate, that fiery orator that had defended the nation against the Dutch (when the nation did not even existed yet) in his trial for inciting hatred toward the authorities that had launched his political carreer, still brimming with passion and ideals, with that third world dream of nationality that had been such a failure for many...
And we could never love Soeharto, even though Soeharto had build the nation, even though under his rule the economy prospered and people got richer. He was like a snake, taking advantage of situations, with no respect toward anything ideal. He was just too pragmatic and cold hearted, no spark, no charisma...
