Suharto's legacy: hatchet man for U.S. imperialism

Suharto—the Indonesian general who took power in a 1965 coup, massacred the left in his country and a decade later invaded and annexed East Timor—has died. His death has been the occasion for some admissions in the imperialist media about Washington’s support for his bloody military rule.

Anti-Suharto protest, Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan. 25.

Of course, it couldn’t be concealed. It was common knowledge.

In 1965 and 1966, while Suharto’s army was hunting down Communists and left nationalists and either murdering them on the spot or sending them to concentration camps, numerous editorials and articles appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post that basically said his methods were harsh but, all in all, it was a plus for Washington, a bright spot compared to the war in Vietnam.

It is sad, but perhaps not surprising, that even today, when CIA documents have been made public confirming the U.S. role behind Suharto’s bloody coup, and it has been acknowledged that the U.S. intelligence agency handed over to the right-wing generals lists of Indonesian Communists to kill, the liberal and even social democratic media here have nothing to say in defense of the million or so Indonesians who were slaughtered in this horrendous bloodbath. They note that it happened and then move on.

The PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party, bore the brunt of the pro-imperialist offensive that brought that vast country completely under the sway of Western corporations. Who were they and what had they accomplished before being crushed by the military coup?

The PKI, before the 1965 coup, was the largest communist party in the world outside the Soviet Union and People’s China. It was estimated to have 3 million members and to have built up mass organizations that encompassed another 15 to 20 million Indonesians.

It was responsible for organizing Indonesian workers into a national union federation. These unions carried out many strikes and other struggles, both during the period of Dutch and Japanese colonial rule and also after Holland finally recognized Indonesia’s independence in 1949.

It was the seizure of Dutch-owned plants by these unions in 1957 that finally led the government of independence leader Sukarno to nationalize foreign-owned businesses. It also prompted the first U.S.-supported attempt by the military to overthrow Sukarno, in February 1958.

That one failed, but in 1965 General Suharto’s successful coup crushed the unions and opened up Indonesia to the wildest exploitation by imperialist corporations—with a generous commission for himself and his cronies, of course. Many progressives in the West know that Indonesia’s magnificent hardwoods have been cut down for lumber at an alarming rate in recent decades, turning rainforests into deserts and destroying whole ecosystems. They know about the impact on climate change.

But what do they know about the bloody political reversal in Indonesia that made this wanton profiteering possible? Do they realize that the organized working class there, led by the PKI, had been a barrier preventing the wholesale rip-off of Indonesia’s natural resources?

Besides the millions in unions, many more millions of Indonesians were in progressive mass organizations representing women, peasants, youth and intellectuals—all organized by the PKI.

The PKI had survived Dutch and Japanese colonial rule. It had been outlawed for much of its existence and had to work underground. Its guerrillas had been crucial in the armed struggle for independence against the Dutch. It had lost thousands of cadres and many leaders over the years in repressive crackdowns. But always it had grown stronger—until the bloodbath of 1965-66.

Rivers ‘clogged with bodies’

There were few accounts in the U.S. media about what was going on. A notable exception—and one showing that the information was available—was a Time magazine article on Dec. 17, 1965, that captured the extent of the horror:

“Communists, red sympathizers and their families are being massacred by the thousands. Backlands army units are reported to have executed thousands of Communists after interrogation in remote jails. ... The killings have been on such a scale that the disposal of the corpses has created a serious sanitation problem in East Java and Northern Sumatra where the humid air bears the reek of decaying flesh. Travelers from those areas tell of small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies.”

As the months passed, estimates of the number of dead rose to 600,000 (The Guardian, April 7, 1966) and then a million. But the major capitalist newspapers let their readers know it was all okay. A column in the June 19, 1966, New York Times by editorial board member James Reston spoke of “the savage transformation of Indonesia from a pro-Chinese policy under Sukarno to a defiantly anti-Communist policy under Suharto.”

“Washington is careful not to claim any credit for this change in the sixth most populous and one of the richest nations in the world,” continued Reston, “but this does not mean that Washington had nothing to do with it.” The column was entitled “A Gleam of Light in Asia.”

Many years later, independent journalist Kathy Kadane was able to interview a CIA official who actually bragged of the agency’s role in these ghastly events.

Since then, Western corporations have sucked up billions in profits from Indonesia’s oil, copper, rubber, hardwoods and other rich resources, and today exploit millions of workers and displaced peasants there in low-paying manufacturing and assembly plants.

Ten years after the coup, and immediately after President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had enjoyed a state visit with Suharto, Indonesia sent its U.S.-armed troops to East Timor in a massive land grab that resulted in the deaths of an estimated third of the population of that small country.

Sudisman, one of the five top leaders of the PKI, was captured, tortured, put on trial in 1967 and later executed by the Suharto regime. He was asked by the judge if he “repented.” In his final speech, after reviewing errors he said had been made by the party, he added, “Out of respect for my communist beliefs, my communist responsibility, and solidarity with my dead comrades, Aidit, Lukman, Njoto and Sakirman, I have come to my decision.

“I do not repent.

“Moreover, aware that other victims have fallen, I as a Communist cannot do less than they.

“We live to fight and we fight to live. We do not live just for the sake of living. We live to defend life valiantly, to the death. ... Long live the Indonesian Communist Party!”

Griswold is author of the book “Indonesia: Second Greatest Crime of the Century,” which is available from leftbooks.com.

Online: workers.org/indonesia

E-mail: [email protected]