Nationalism deposed

AN OUTSIDERS VIEW

Ken Fuller

06/16/2009

In his column in this newspaper on June 8th, Alejandro Lichauco refers to the “military nationalist revolution” led by “Suharto of Indonesia.” As much as it grieves me to disagree with the veteran nationalist, I feel I must do so, because the coup-cum-bloodbath by means of which General Suharto came to power can be described as neither “nationalist” nor a “revolution.” In fact, it deposed one of the most nationalist (in the anti-imperialist sense) regimes in the region.

According to the official account (this version can still be read on Wikipedia), Suharto came to power in 1967 after he thwarted a coup attempt instigated by the Indonesia Partai Komunis (PKI, Indonesian Communist Party) two years earlier. For some time, however, there have been serious doubts regarding the events of 1965.

While the PKI had adopted Maoism and therefore might have been expected to be prone to ultra-leftist adventurism, it had in fact pursued a path of peaceful struggle for several years and was virtually sharing power with President Sukarno, who had led the liberation struggle against the Dutch and was now vociferously anti-imperialist. In 1959 Sukarno had dissolved the constituent assembly and introduced “Guided Democracy,” entering an alliance with the PKI and bringing its members into government in 1962.

Sukarno seems to have been motivated by a combination of Marxism, nationalism and egotism, as in his statement that “as Great Leader of the Revolution, in the interests of economic growth as a whole, I cannot detach myself from the laws and dialectics of our Revolution.” He went on to say that it was these “laws and dialectics” that “determine the priorities absolutely needed for a proletarian revolution of the twentieth century.”

This was the man who was ousted by the events of 1965-67.

Writing in London’s Guardian Weekend on July 14, 2001, Australian journalist John Pilger cites the claim by Peter Dale Scott that “western politicians, diplomats, journalists and scholars, some with prominent western intelligence connections, propagated the myth that Suharto and the military had saved the nation’s honor from an attempted coup” by the PKI.

Former CIA operative Ralph McGehee has written (Philippine Currents, April 1991): “The documents, manufactured stories of communist plans and atrocities, and claims of communist arms shipments (from China) created an atmosphere of hysteria, resulting in the slaughter and the establishment” of the Suharto dictatorship. In addition, Pilger refers to evidence suggesting that, following the murder of six Indonesian generals, Suharto had “opportunistically exploited an internecine struggle within the army in order to seize power.”

A CIA source told Pilger that the Indonesian operation served as a model for the 1973 coup in Chile, revealing that the “CIA forged a document purporting to reveal a leftist plot to murder Chilean military leaders, (such as) what happened in Indonesia in 1965.”

That year, having shipped in a sophisticated US-supplied communications network from the Philippines to facilitate coordination of the anti-communist bloodbath, Suharto set about systematically murdering between 250,000 and a million PKI members. Decades later, it would be admitted that the CIA had handed the Indonesian military lists containing the names of thousands of PKI activists it had compiled over the previous two years.

A former BBC Southeast Asia correspondent told Pilger: “There was a deal, you see. In establishing the Suharto regime, the involvement of the IMF and the World Bank was part of it. Sukarno had kicked them out; now Suharto would bring them back. That was the deal.” After Suharto had eased Sukarno out and was seated as President, Pilger says that an “extraordinary conference,” sponsored by the Time-Life Corp., was held in Geneva in November 1967.

For a week, representatives of major Western companies and members of Suharto’s economic team “designed the corporate takeover of Indonesia.” Here, the Indonesian economy was simply “carved up” and the pieces awarded to Western and Japanese companies. “Real, and secret, control of the Indonesian economy,” writes Pilger, “passed to the IMF and the World Bank through the Inter-Governmental Group on Indonesia (IGGI), whose principal members were the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.”

Sound familiar?

q q q

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A “barista” is, you may have gathered, a person who works in a coffee bar, and the appellation has, I suppose, been coined to give the position a sexy Latin aura. If you’re a customer, maybe you think Starbucks is a pretty sexy company. Staff members (sorry, “partners”) call you by your first name. The stores have a very environmentally-friendly feel. Then there are those CDs on sale (youth culture for those who used to be young and, like the coffee and snacks, somewhat overpriced). And to top it all, the company is obviously literate, having named itself after the first mate in Melville’s Moby Dick!

If, therefore, you view the Seattle-based company as progressive and “right on,” you may be surprised to learn that in its home country it has recently settled the sixth complaint in three years regarding its violation of workers’ rights. Basically, it’s a union-busting company.

A visit to a new Web site — StopStarbucks.com — is instructive. For example, Starbucks boss Howard Schulz ordered a human resources director to discard all job applications from those who had ever worked on a union job. When she refused, he fired her. That alone cost the company a $165,000 settlement.

Please note, however, that Starbucks stores in the Philippines are licensed to the Rustan Coffee Corp., and thus are not directly operated by Starbucks.

(Feedback to: outsiders.view@yahoo.com)

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