Jack Brad

Readers of Labor Action Take the Floor ...

Policy on Indonesia

From Labor Action, Vol. 13 No. 26, 27 June 1949, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

To the Editor:

An agreement has been reached between the Dutch imperialists and the Indonesian Republican government by which the republic has, in effect, accepted a position of autonomy within the empire. This has been the Dutch formula for its own creature in the East Indies: the so-called United States of Indonesia. The decisive terms of the new relationship have been left to future negotiations under conditions of Dutch ascendancy. This also was part of the original Dutch plan. Whatever decisions are reached, an independent and free Indonesia will not emerge from these discussions.

The leadership of the governmental parties resumes the disastrous course of compromise on an issue which cannot be compromised – national freedom. This leadership has failed again. It is necessary to forge a new leadership for the republic. Only those who loyally fought in the republican war can make the claim for such a new popular leadership. That was the meaning of the policy I advocated in Labor Action.

R. Magnus, who up till yesterday saw the main enemy to be the republican leadership, in a letter two weeks ago in Labor Action writes: “once, despite its compromises and capitulations [this leadership], represented in a distorted way the need and aspirations of the people ...”

But the conclusions drawn by R. Magnus are sectarian and dangerous.

The government of compromisers is not a “Dutch puppet regime” any more than Nehru is a British puppet because he has just reunited India with the empire.
It is irresponsible to give “political and material support to the Proletarian Party headed by Tanmalaka.” Not enough information is available for such a serious commitment. We do know that the republicans assassinated Tanmalaka in April, probably as part of their preparation for capitulation. Just what policy Tanmalaka pursued during the war or what the PP is doing now under the new conditions, I have not been able to ascertain. It is therefore impossible to say that we are in agreement.
For example, does the PP hold to the crucial proposal of Magnus for continuing the war against the Dutch and extending it to war against the Republic? For my part I reject the identification of this miserably compromised republic with the foreign imperialists and cannot advocate a common program against both. The former remains an arena of struggle.

The central question for socialists in Asia is not even seen by Magnus as a problem: the reconstruction of a revolutionary leadership and party. Our relations to social-democracy in Indonesia, as in India, should be determined by this overriding consideration.

Jack Brad

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