756D.13/3–2751
Memorandum by the Director, Office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs (Lacy) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Subject: Indonesian Cabinet Crisis
The following are salient features of the Cabinet crisis in Indonesia:
(1) The Natsir Government fell ten days ago when it tried to obtain revision of the Hadikusumo law passed by Parliament sometime ago. This law abolishes the local councils. Under the pre-existing law, unless a party was organized locally before a certain date, it could not put up a slate of candidates for the local councils. As a result the Masjumi, established almost everywhere on the local basis, swept the several elections which had been held.
(2) Natsir was unable to get a vote of non-confidence as Parliament simply walked out on him. The fact that he was outmaneuvered may have stemmed partly from the fact that Sartono, the Speaker of the Parliament, is a member of the PNI.
(3) Sartono has now been designated by the President to form a Cabinet. He is considering the Presidential request, but even if he accepts it, he has indicated he will not be a member of the Cabinet. As [Page 628] announced last week, the PNI platform provides for the implementation of the Hadikusumo Resolution, the repeal of the sales tax (which Sjafruddin, Masjumi Minister of Finance, insists is necessary), repeal of the antistrike ban passed on February 15 and passage of the Kusnan1 Resolution to abolish the statute of the Union and to revise the RTC Agreements.
(4) The PNI platform is at this juncture not acceptable to the Masjumi. There are indications that the PNI and the Masjumi are trying to negotiate to a common position on the four items outlined in paragraph 3 above. Should they succeed, a Masjumi PNI coalition is likely. Such a coalition would, of course, have to have additional parties to obtain the requisite majority support of Parliament.
(5) Should the negotiation between PNI and the Masjumi fail, the former may try to form a Cabinet alone. Such an attempt would entail obtaining the adherence of practically all the left wing parties, and would probably result in the presence of at least one Communist in the Cabinet. Such a coalition Government, however, would be more unstable than the Natsir Government which was based on the Masjumi.
(6) There doesn’t seem to be anything we can do at this juncture to effect a Masjumi PNI alliance which is preferable to a Cabinet built solely around the PNI.
- Rahendra Kusnan, member of the Indonesian Parliament.↩