CONFIDENTIAL J A-218 CONFIDENTIAL DEPARTMENT OF STATE INFO MEDAN SURABAYA Amembassy D1 AKARTA November 5 1966 T he Army T akes Hold in Ce ntral Java - Summary d E Accompanied by an Indonesian friend and the Djakarta correspondent for the New York Times the writer recenUy visited Central lava for four days and spoke with several military officers political party officials students educators and others The Army has imposed an ironclad qrip on the province but with basic security established it ls makinq an effort -at least in the lokjakarta area--to tackle some of the more basic problems which make the area potentially so troublesome There seems to be a surprisinq degree of familiarity with developments in Djakarta but In qeneral the province remains remote from the capital concentratlnq on ita own problems with the resources at hand Security On the night of October 20 the city of 1okjakarta was surrounded by Army roadblocks at which all travelers were obliqed to stop for an inspection of vehicle reqistration papers and personal idenUty cards and to underqo a weapons search of the trunk The military police commander 1n lokjakarta later explained that these checkpoints were part of a security program designed partly to net fuq1Uve PKI figures and partly to keep potential troublemakers in Central lava off balance He explained that the roacD locks never stayed lonq 1n one place those around lok jakarta disappeared two days later Group S CON FlDENTIAL POL ELBarberm dm 11 3 66 POL MV'l'rent CONFIDENTIAL Djakarta A-218 CONFIDENTIAL 2 Dur1nq a one-week trip to Central lava October 19-25 1966 the writer found that 1n this and other ways the Army has extended ironclad control over the entire political life o the province There is a general ban in J'okjakarta and Solo on meetings of more than five people unless permission has been obtained in advance from the local military commander according to students in both cities Residents of the J'okj akarta military district have been instructed to keep their identity cards current and surprise house-to-house searches are made by the military to find and identify those who have not complied It also was confirmed by the lokjakarta military police commander that one battalion of KOSTRAD troops and one and one-half battalions of RPKAD troops had recently arrived 1n his area although he said that these moves were part of the normal rotation program Such security measures had resulted in the capture just before the reportinq officer's visit of former PK Central Committeeman Sakirman and lesser fry in Solo lust after this visit was completed 1t was announced 1n Antara that the hermitage of Mbah Suro a mystic who disseminates communist and PNI propaganda 1n the guise of occult teachings had been closed on order of the Central lava military commander Maj Gen Surono The spreading of Mbah Suro' s teachinqs has been forbidden and the public now is prohibited from giving any assistance or facilities to any would-be pilgrims so that the spreadinq of propaganda will be prevented and so that the hermitaqe will not be used as a secret meeting place for o o o old order and Gestapu elements The J'okjakarta district commander remarked that in his district it is true to say as Gen Sumitro reportedly has said of East lava There is no pro- and anti-Bung Karno problem here because 1 say there is not o And What Else It ls apparent however that the Army in the 1okj akarta area is attempting to do much more than simply keep the lid on Its direct control extends oown to the village level and its activities have broadened from a ffajrs of basic security into the first staqes of an attempt to direct the area's political life toward more pos1t1ve channels than heretofore has been the case This became apparent when the reportJnq officer visited the villaqe of Gampinq west of J'okjakarta with the Djakarta correspondent of the New York Times who was c iatherlng material for an article on Central lava The visit had been CONFIDENTIAL A-218 Djakarta CONFIDENTIAL 3 arranged by the district commander Korem and occupied the better part of two days during which the local officials and most of the population showed themselves quite willing to meet and speak with Western visitors Gampinq is one of five villages encompassing some 30 000 people which are qrouped under a district assistant As is the case elsewhere this civilian official is assisted by a Lurah or headman 1n each of the five villaqes 1n his jurisdiction This governmental structure is duplicated by a military heirarchy under a lieutenant who also has five village assistants and who reports directly to the Korem 1n 1ok jakarta In at least one of the neiqhborinq villages to Gampinq the Lurah himself was a former military officer but in the other cases it appeared that the local military representatives although nominal ly equal 1n rank to their civilian counterparts would be distinctly more equal if there ever were a dispute between military and civilian approaches to a problem In the case at hand it was the Army lieutenant rather than the elderly district assistant who did most of the talking who seemed the more dynamic and who apparently had established excellent relations with the people whom he 1n effect qoverned and amonq whom he lived Aside from routine issues of security and local government the Army has two special programs 1n Gamplng One ls the BIMAS agricultural program under which a local demonstration pro3 ect run by students from the agricultural faculty of 1okjakarta' s Gadjah Mada University had nearly doubled the local averaqe rice yield This project unfortunately baa now been suspended due to a lack of fertilizer The other proqram is an effort to spread the results of the Bandunq Army Seminar and to encouraqe cooperation amonq disparate qroups throuqh a series of local seminars conducted by Army-sponsored teams in the vlllaqes These teams were composed of eleven members each drawn from the various political parties youth QrOups mass organizations etc as well as from the Army and the other armed forces The teams are said to start out once a month on circuits of two or three weeks to predesipted vlllaqes where they deliver speeches and enqaqe 1n question-and-answer sessions with the local populace on such subjects as the meaninq of the new order the Army's economic pr etc These seminars apparenUy have been conducted for the pa st few months and thus predate the Bandunq Army Seminar itself CONFIDENTIAL A-218 Dj aks rta CONFIDENTIAL 4 A Political Truce The Army's efforts to keep the rival political parties and student qroups from each other's throats have taken some novel turns 1n J'okjakarta city After last lune's serious outbreaks of violence between students in J'okj akarta the Korem organized a sort of military police auxiliary composed of representatives from KAMI GMNI Ansor and the other student organizations now represented in the area This detachment was issued unitorms helmets etc --but no weapons--and given the responsibility for policing their own member orqan izations and preventinq further violence This tactic alonq with the ban on meetings of more than five people seems to have succeeded in establishinq unusual tranqulllity among J'okjakarta students the headquarters of the various organizations and the campus of Gadjah Mada itself are quiet A similar approach was used to dampen the partisan passion of 1okja's pollUcians and the military police commander remarked that this group had done its job so well that it will soon be disbanded All throuqh Central lava the deqree of political polarization judged by the number of party slqns 1n the villages seems to be considerably hlqher than in VJest 1ava No villaqe or town is without its prom1nenlly-marked branch and sub branch headquarters for PNI NU and former Masjumi-afflliated organizations--qenerally in that order of incidence KAMI XAPPI and Pantjaslla Front si s are almost never seen NU and Masjum1-oriented signs frequently can be seen 1n front of the same bulldinq retlect1nq the scarcity of meetinq space 1n many towns In spite of the proximity of so many rival q roups however the writer saw no si anywhere of party activity all headquarters looked almost deserted althouqh 1t is hi ely that they would remain 80 without the stern Army control Larger Issues Neither the Army nor the population is reluctant to talk with foreigners about the greatest event of the past year--the sudden removal of the PXI from their midst In Gampinq 1t ls said that Aidit and other leaders passed throuqh the town late 1n October tryinq to rally support and it is true that Gampinq was a center of PKI strenqth 1n the area The built of the inhabitants however are said to have rallied to the Army aqainst the communists In Kotaqede south of lokjakarta it 1s said that some 500 PKI members or sympathizers were rounded up CONFIDENTIAL A-218 Djakarta CONFIDENTIAL 5 but that the weapons they previously had possessed were not found The prisons in Solo and 1okja karta still hold large numbers of PKI prisoners 400 remain from an oriqinal 1 200 In one prison on the qrounds of the palace in Solo and 90% of a group o 6 000 are still held in 1okja Recent news accounts state that o2 000 are still under arrest 1n all of Central J'ava and extra investigators have been detailed from Djakarta by the Attorney General to help determine which should be released To judqe by Gamping's experience those who are released remain social pariahs for a few months then qradually are accepted again as normal members of society It appears that the Army's clampdown has not prevented some change in political ouUook from taking place in the province although it is difficult to perceive any chanqe when measured aqainst the frenetic pace of Djakarta Several individuals remarked that where they previously admired President Sukarno personally they now respect him as President only The Subandrio trial then in progress was followed and discussed in every villaqe since the Department of Information has distributed radio receivers one Muslim remarked that his Santri villaqe had been relieved when the prosecutor demanded the death sentence Some of the Muslims contacted includinq the 1okjakarta military information officer JU rdedly indicated their awareness that there were biqger issues at stake 1n the Subandrio trial and that justice might demand more trials But in the more secularist abanSJ B lavanese neiqhborhoods Subandrio is damned as the evil advisor who misled the President and the September SO A f fa1r was re lerred to offhandedly as Gestok -Sukarno' a term--rather than Gestapu Some Protestant Christian students were amonq those who said that they still admire Sukarno but as the President rather than personally All apparenUy aqreed however that the Ampera cabinet 111 proceedinq too slowly COMMENT In Gamp1nq the Army was of course showing off a villaqe which is particularly prosperous and 1n which its presence has been particularly effective A larqe part of this success must be credited to the resident lieutenant and his wife who obviously enjoyed notable rapport with their neighbors The Army here is attempting to put into effect a program of political paci icaUon and social and economic development which as yet is only outlined but far from implemented The political parties have been suppressed but the Santr1 Muslim and abangan sub-cultures which they represent are 8l1ll as separate as before and will demand some sort of organized political expression with or without Army control The process of CONflDENTJAL A-218 Djakarta CONFIDENTIAL 6 educatinq the villaqes into participation 1n the Army's program has just bequn and the writer heard repeated pleas from all quarters military and civilian for American magazines and books One of these pleas came from the Gampinq leader of the PNI youth qroup who classed himself and his friends as admirers of American culture in makinq his approach In summary 1t can be said that in Gampinq and 1okjakarta a qroup ot particularly ettectlve Army officers and their civillan allies have taken the 1 rst steps to work out the Army's new role as political arbiter economic innovator and local educator This role will larqely determine tho local ah ape of thlnqs and will be 1n a process of turther reftnement for several years to come GaEEN CONFmFN'I AL                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu