The Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia

On the 15th of August 1950, the original proclaimed Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia was restored however, retaining a liberal democratic system of a cabinet answerable to the House of the People's Representatives, which became the source of frequent changes of cabinet or governments. This situation naturally could not be a firm basis for national development in a developing country, which had just become an independent state, where no political stability could be secured.
With the reinstatement of the Unitary State, the President became Chief Executive and Mandatary of the People's Consultative Assembly. He is to be assisted by ministers of his choice and at his discretion and who can not be discharged by the House.

The First Government of the Republic of Indonesia

The Dutch East Indies was since its unconditional surrender to the Japanese Armed Forces on the 7th of March 1942, occupied by Japanese occupation forces. The official surrender took place at 16.00 hours of that date in which the Dutch East Indies' Governor General, Mr. Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer and Dutch East Indies Armed Forces Commander, Ter Poorten signed the documents of surrender to the Japanese Commander, General Imamura. It was only after the 14th of August 1945, i.e. when Japan surrendered to the Allies after the atom bomb dropped at Hiroshima that a power vacuum existed in the Indonesian archipelago.

Earlier, Soekarno and Hatta had pressed the Japanese for yielding to
Indonesia's demand to set up a committee for the preparation of Indonesia's independence, consisting of 26 members comprising Indonesian nationalist leaders chaired by Ir. Soekarno. This forum provided ample opportunity for these Indonesian nationalist leaders to debate, weight and contemplate about the ideological basis, the structure of the state and the constitution to be, for a sovereign Indonesia. After hectic debates which went on and which were seldom not interrupted by extreme conflicting views, Soekarno emerged as the over-riding leading figure who won the acceptance of the "Pancasila" principles to be the ideological basis for a sovereign Indonesia. It was also at this forum that Indonesia's first constitution, the 1945 Constitution, was debated and ultimately adopted.

This power vacuum prompted Soekarno and Hatta to proclaim Indonesia's independence on the 17th of August 1945, followed by the election of Soekarno and Hatta as Indonesia's first President and Vice-President. On the same day, the Committee for the Preparation of Indonesia's independence dissolved itself.

The first year of the sovereign Republic of Indonesia under the Presidency of President Soekarno was marked by a war of defense against the Dutch who attempted to reinstate the former colony of the Dutch East Indies. The Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) disagreed with the principles of Pancasila and in 1948 staged an armed and bloody rebellion against the newly proclaimed Republic of Indonesia and unilaterally proclaimed a Communist "People's Republic" in the region of Madiun (East Java).

When the Dutch, due to Indonesia's armed resistance and pressed by world opinion as manifested in the UN resolution finally recognized Indonesia's independence, another armed rebellion flared up pressing for Islamic state under the leadership of Kartosuwirjo who coined his demand as "Darul Islam."

Since then many other armed rebellion emerged such as the "Queen of Justice" (APRA) rebellion led by an ex-Dutch Army Captain, Turco Westerling. Outside Java, other armed revolts were staged such as in Maluku where demobilized ex-colonial army-men faithful to the Dutch Crown proclaimed the Republic of South Maluku. In South Sulawesi ex colonial army-man, Andi Aziz also rebelled. In Kalimantan Ibnu Hadjar led another armed revolt, while in Sumatra and later linked up with North Sulawesi rebellions against the central Government demanded separation like the case in the South Maluku. At the end of this chain of armed rebellion emerged the second communist rebellion on 30rd of September 1965 led again by the Indonesian Communist Party manifested in an abortive coup attempt by kidnapping and murdering six top army generals of the Defense Department.

The first Republican Government under President Soekarno after the recognition of independence was marked by efforts to unite the Indonesian people and to claim the Dutch occupied Province of Papua. The political pattern which governed the new republic was a liberal parliamentary democracy based on a provisional constitution of the Federal Republic of Indonesia as imposed by the Dutch after its abandonment of the 17th of August 1950. Political strive was rampant due to the multi-political party system Indonesia copied from the then existing system in Holland. This system has not seldom led towards a dichotomy of extreme political and ideological view which found linkages between parliamentary and armed conflicts.

President Soekarno succeeded in carrying out Indonesia's first General Elections in 1955 in which 47 political parties contested to elect their representatives for the House of People's Representatives and for the Constituent Assembly, which was to lay down a new constitution for the Republic. This election was won by the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), the Nahdlatul Ulama Moslem Scholars Party (NU), the Muslim Majelis Sjura Party (Masyumi) and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Their elected representatives in the Constituent Assembly failed to reach a consensus on laying down a new constitution which compelled President Soekarno to dissolve the Constituent Assembly and the House which he was constitutionally entitled to and called for the reinstatement of the 1945 Constitution.