249. Telegram From the Embassy in Indonesia to the Department of State1
447. Following is summary of principal points made during three-quarter hour conversation this morning with Prime Minister Djuanda.
Prime Minister appeared not unduly alarmed at implications of President’s Independence Day speech. He admitted it could be interpreted [Page 415] as complete repudiation of parliamentary democracy but he believes it does not necessarily mean this. He referred particularly to passage in speech which refers to the decisions of the Constituent Assembly and which clearly implies that final form of Indonesian political system will be determined by Constituent Assembly and not by Sukarno individually. He stressed fact that while Sukarno had said that as far as he personally was concerned the National Council is not an experiment, nevertheless the members of the Constituent Assembly “may consider the establishment of the National Council an experiment.” Djuanda believes this means that National Council may be retained, it may be discarded entirely, or it might be turned into a senate. Prime Minister gave impression that Sukarno is still groping for best form of government for Indonesians and Djuanda believes it important that present government keep hard at work along present lines and feels that there is still chance, though not certainty, that Sukarno will give full cooperation.
As indication of willingness of President and his hand-picked National Council to go along with Cabinet when Cabinet produces definite suggestions, Djuanda told me in confidence of plans for calling national round table conference. Suggestion for such conference has been publicly discussed and according to Djuanda he feared that matter might get out of hand if government did not take action. Therefore, just prior to recent meeting of National Council Djuanda obtained Cabinet approval to submit following plan to Council: Round table conference would be under guidance of Cabinet and under chairmanship of Prime Minister. Participants in conference would be Cabinet and representatives from the provinces. These representatives would be the chief military commander and the chief civilian official in each province, each of whom might be accompanied by two or three advisers. In addition speaker and deputy speaker of Parliament and one or two representatives of National Council would be invited as observers, not participants. Most important point in my mind, however, is that two chief advisers to the conference would be Sukarno and Hatta. Djuanda told me that this proposal of his had now received Council approval as well as Sukarno’s approval and they hope to hold conference in Djakarta during first part of September as Hatta is leaving for Peking on September 12. In response to question Djuanda stated that by military commanders in the provinces he meant such as Husein from Central Sumatra and Sumual from northern Sulawesi. Prior to meeting of this round table conference Djuanda is inviting to Djakarta the dissident military commanders from the districts, such as Husein and Sumual, for private talks. He tells me he has received from them assurances that they will accept an invitation from him as Defense Minister but they made clear they would not accept an invitation from Nasution. However, [Page 416] Djuanda says he has cleared matter with Nasution who has agreed to this procedure. According to Prime Minister conference agenda will include the matters which have been in dispute between the provinces and the Central Government, including discussion of restoration of Sukarno–Hatta partnership. In Djuanda’s opinion the conference and the talks will be of supreme importance for if they fail he believes situation in country will speedily become critical. He expressed cautious optimism as to the outcome of the conference. Results of conference will be reported to Parliament with government request for appropriate action.
If the conference succeeds and if his hopes for active cooperation between PNI and Masjumi as result of recent Communist election victories are fulfilled, Djuanda said in extreme confidence that his government would resign and recommend to President formation of PNI–Masjumi Cabinet. He claims to have reason to believe that Sukarno would accept this.
Also in this connection Prime Minister referred to desire of the President to visit Latin America and India this autumn and said that Cabinet had not yet given approval for this trip. He said such approval would only be given if he, Djuanda, were honestly convinced that situation in country was on the mend and that there was real chance of progress being made in restoring relations between outlying provinces and Central Government. It would not be possible to make a judgment on this until conclusion of round table conference.
Djuanda reiterated in strongest terms at conclusion of our talk that in his opinion greatest single need of country was restoration of Sukarno–Hatta relationship. He again said he was cautiously optimistic that in time this would come about.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 756D.00/8–2057. Secret.↩