The Indonesian Elite's View of the World and the Foreign Policy of Development

Indonesian foreign policy in the 1960's presented two sharply contrasting faces. Under Sukarno's leadership in the first half of the decade, Indonesia aspired to the leadership of a radical, antiimperialist international front. Sukarno condemned the prevailing international system as an exploitative order in which the old established forces (oldefos) of the world sought through economic, political, and military means to keep the new emerging forces (nefos) in subjugation. Nefos like Indonesia had to fight to perfect and preserve their independence, Sukarno declared. He led Indonesia into a foreign policy of militant confrontation against imperialism, first against the Dutch in West Irian and then against the British in Malaysia. Convinced that the exploitative international system had to be changed before Indonesia could develop economically, Sukarno exalted self-reliance and told the United States to "go to hell with your aid." Indonesia's withdrawal from the United Nations in 1965 was at least in part due to Sukarno's belief that the organization had become a symbol of a world order dominated by neo-colonialism and imperialism. Nor were the Communist nations, with whom Indonesia still had cordial relations, free from suspicion. Sukarno chafed at Soviet advice to ease the confrontation against Malaysia and pay more attention to economic needs; and as Indonesia drew closer to China in 1964 and 1965, he saw the Soviets grow cooler still. Even China, Djakarta's principal supporter in 1965, was viewed with some hesitation. For example, when General Yani, the army commander, declared in 1965 that the main threat to Indonesia was from the north, meaning China, Sukarno countered that the threat came from all sides; he made no effort to deny that China was a threat. There was really no one who could be trusted.