57-67REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL EDUCATION ISSN: 2146-0353 ● © RIGEO ● 11(5), SPRING, 2021 www.rigeo.org Research Article Management of Communism Issues in The Soekarno Era (1959-1966) Abie Besman1 Dian Wardiana Sjuchro2 Faculty of Communication Science, Universitas Faculty of Communication Science, Universitas Padjadjaran Padjadjaran [email protected] Abstract The focus of this research is on the handling of the problem of communism in the Nasakom ideology through the policies and patterns of political communication of President Soekarno's government. The Nasakom ideology was used by the Soekarno government since the Presidential Decree in 1959. Soekarno's middle way solution to stop the chaos of the liberal democracy period opened up new conflicts and feuds between the PKI and the Indonesian National Army. The compromise management style is used to reduce conflicts between interests. The method used in this research is the historical method. The results showed that the approach adopted by President Soekarno failed. Soekarno tried to unite all the ideologies that developed at that time, but did not take into account the political competition between factions. This conflict even culminated in the events of September 30 and the emergence of a new order. This research is part of a broader study to examine the management of the issue of communism in each political regime in Indonesia. Keywords Nasakom; Soekarno; Issue Management; Communism; Literature Study To cite this article: Besman, A.; and Sj uchro, D, W. (2021) Management of Communism Issues in The Soekarno Era (1959-1966). Review of International Geographical Education (RIGEO), 11(5), 48-56. doi: 10.48047/rigeo.11.05.05 Submitted: 20-01-2021 ● Revised: 15-02-2021 ● Accepted: 25-03-2021 Besman, A.; and Sjuchro, D, W. (2021) Management of Communism Issues in The Soekarno Era (1959-1966) … Introduction In every political system, political communication is an inseparable aspect and has effective dynamics to break the deadlock between interests. This dynamic occurs because of differences, similarities and interests between factions and even ideologies. The dynamics of political communication regarding an ideology often occur in Indonesia. These ideologies emerged from the days of the national movement and even continued to develop after Indonesia's independence. Socialism, Marxism, Communism, Nationalism, Islamism, Marhaenism and Pancasila are some of the developing ideologies (Winata, 2017). Power struggles both within a system and outside the system often occur in Indonesia. Several events from the time the Republic of Indonesia was born (1945) to the last general election held (2019) show several events that changed the structure of political communication in Indonesia, whether intentional or unintentional. This rivalry is dynamic and, on several occasions, found its way together. However, on other occasions, they suppress each other and even destroy each other, depending on the interests. Paul Ricoeur (1986) states that the ideology is a tool that has an integrated function, ideology has a role to maintain social identity and build social existence. Political ideology in Indonesia in several time segments has also shown that it is able to maintain a difference, while at the same time also contributing to unifying. The rivalry that usually occurs in Indonesia is between the ideologies of Pancasila, Nationalism, Religion and Communism (Nasakom) as explained by Soekarno (1963) in his article entitled Nationalists, Islamists and Marxists. The many differences and also the difficulty of uniting Indonesia are largely a reflection of the characteristics of the Republic of Indonesia, which consists of 17,504 islands and is an unification of various ethnicities, cultures and religions (Manuputty, Patittingi, & Ashri, 2015). The distinctive feature of Indonesia is the character of its unity which has so far been claimed not to be united by equality, but by difference, thus taking the official slogan of the Republic of Indonesia from the Sanskrit language "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika tan hana dharma mangrwa" (Santoso & Tantular, 1975) which can be interpreted as “these are divided, but one too. There is no confusion in truth”. In the 1945 Constitution, it is also explained that Indonesia is a democracy. Since Indonesia became independent and sovereign as a country on August 17, 1945, the founders of the state through the 1945 Constitution (which was formalized on August 18, 1945) have determined that the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI) adheres to the ideology of democracy, where sovereignty (the highest power) is in the hands of the People and is fully implemented by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). Thus it also means that the Republic of Indonesia is classified as a country that embraces the understanding of Representative Democracy (Marzuki, 2014). The pattern of democratic leadership in Indonesia cannot be separated from the party system. The policy of a president will be greatly influenced by the platforms carried by his party supporters. President Soekarno, for example, although initially one of the founders of the Indonesian National Party (PNI) in 1927, ended his government in 1965-1966 when he was supported by a party with an ideological basis opposed to the PNI, namely the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). These ideological differences make the potential for conflict always exist; polarization has become an issue of national political communication. The political elite uses the issue of polarization of power and negates the mandate that has been given by the people (Jaya Saputra & Besman, 2017). Indonesia needs a policy to manage the existing potential conflicts to make it a positive force in managing the country. Conflict management is intended to reach an effective compromise while finding a middle way (Wirawan, 2013). The concept of this middle way is one of the visions contained in the political aspect of Indonesia's national resilience, which includes all aspects of national life which is integrated. It contains tenacity and resilience which has the ability to develop national strength in facing all kinds of threats, disturbances, obstacles. and challenges both from outside and from within the country. This national resilience ensures identity, integrity, the survival of the nation and state, and the struggle to achieve national goals. The blueprint for the middle way communication pattern was actually given by Soekarno through the Nationalists, Religions and Communism (Winata, 2017). However, along with the end of communism by the New Order, the communication only left for the Nationalists and Religious, 49 © RIGEO ● Review of International Geographical Education 11(5), SPRING, 2021 although on various occasions, the Communism was re-awakened to gain electoral benefits. This research also opens the possibility of additional factions in the course of the research, including factions that are not included specifically in Soekarno's blueprint, such as the military and pressure groups. Harold Crouch (1971) researched the role of the post-coup military on September 30, 1965 in creating the new order politics. Crouch concludes that there are two basic elements to seeing how the attitude of the government has treated (communication) politics since 1967. First, he saw the government systematically allowing civilians to use political parties as a natural means of conveying expression and also connecting (as well as monitoring) its citizens. Second, the government actually uses political communication channels to prevent illegal political party from becoming a real threat to the ruling government authority. Examples of cases raised by Crouch include the treatment of the government at that time which held the leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) so that it automatically mobilized NU followers to support the new order. Automatically the government did not need to do much, because the Islamic political communication channels at that time were already controlled and NU followers were directed to take an anti-PKI attitude which was considered to be opposed to the religious community. According Lingga Winata (2017) Nasakom was an ideology that was tried to be applied during the guided democracy era, but Nasakom failed. Through the theory used as a unit of analysis in research, it can be seen that an ideology is said to be successful if it has three functions that run well. The first function is a distortion function, the second is a legitimacy function and the last is an integration function. The function of distortion means that ideology is used as a tool to maintain the power of a ruler, while the function of integration means that ideology is a tool to maintain the integrity of the nation and maintain the existence of the nation. Based on these two functions, the legitimacy function becomes a connecting function between distortion and integration. If these three functions work well, the ideology can be said to be successful. This is what the Nasakom ideology lacks. Nasakom failed because its legitimacy function did not work properly so that the distortion and integration functions could not go one way. Nasakom failed because there were pros and cons in its implementation which indicated the failure of the legitimacy process, this was also driven by the failure of the 30 September Movement events. In this incident, PKI was accused of being the mastermind behind the movement. The failure of Nasakom's legitimacy which had an impact on the legitimacy of Soekarno's power caused Nasakom to become a failed ideology because it was unable to achieve the integrity of the nation as expected from the integration function expected from an ideology. In general, this study aims to identify and identify the map of political communication that occurred in Indonesia, during the era of President Soekarno. This study examines the policies and strategies of political communication channels that occur in each regime then applies the results of these studies into a historical-based political communication system model so that it can be used as a guide for effective political communication.