25 BEYOND IDEOLOGY: China-Indonesia Engagement and the Making of the Guided Democracy, 1955-1959 KANKAN XIE*1 Abstract China’s engagement with Indonesia from 1955 to 1959 was neither ideologically oriented nor realpolitik, but somewhere in between. It happened not only because of the changing domestic political situations or completely subject to the shifting international environment, but was also closely associated with intrinsic social and historical issues that transcended geographical, ideological and ethnic boundaries within and across the two nation-states. To some extent, this effective engagement was not a result of Indonesia’s leaning towards the left, but a reason for it—not in the sense of direct political intervention, but through the pursuit of common identity and interest, which significantly shaped the making of Indonesia’s Guided Democracy. Keywords: Indonesia, China, overseas Chinese, Guided Democracy, Cold War Abstrak Hubungan antara China dengan Indonesia pada tahun 1955-1959 tidak selalu berorientasi ideologis atau politik semata, tetapi berada di antara keduanya. Hal ini bukan hanya dipengaruhi oleh perubahan situasi politik dalam negeri atau lingkungan internasional, tetapi juga terkait erat dengan permasalahan sosial dan sejarah yang melampaui batas-batas geografis, ideologis dan etnis antara dua negara. Pada titik tertentu, eratnya hubungan saat itu bukan disebabkan oleh kecenderungan Indonesia yang semakin ke kiri ataupun intervensi politik secara langsung, tetapi dikarenakan adanya kesamaan kepentingan dan identitas kedua negara yang secara signifikan mendorong berbentuknya Demokrasi Terpimpin di Indonesia. Kata kunci: Indonesia, Cina, Cina perantauan, Demokrasi Terpimpin, Perang Dingin * Kankan Xie is a Ph.D. student in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Email: [email protected] Copyright © 2016 The Author. © 2016 Deputy of Social Sciences and Humanities. All rights reserved. Printed in Indonesia. Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities (JISSH); Vol. 6, Issue 1, (2016), pp. 25–38. ISSN: 1979–8431 26 JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES (JISSH) INTRODUCTION interplay among the key players in the scene, namely the communist government of China, Despite various hardships, thebilateral relation- President Sukarno, the PKI, the army, the differ- ship between China (PRC) and Indonesia ent factionsof the overseas Chinese community, gradually entered a phase of substantial devel- and a wide variety of other political forces. opment after the 1955 Bandung Asian-African Conference. The friendly ties between the two Inthe dominant Cold War discourseof countries became further strengthened after the 1950s, the state-to-state relationship was Sukarno officially implemented the Guided usuallyseen as ideologically defined or socio- Democracy (Demokasi Terpimpin) in 1959. From politically determined.The China-Indonesia a pure diplomatic perspective alone, 1955-1959 interaction during this period, however, was was a critical period for the two countries’ close intertwined with many other issues such engagement. as ethnicity, the seeking of (inter)national identity and the rearrangement of domestic This timeline curiously paralleled with political structure, etc. The China-Indonesia the rapid power growth of the Communist relationship was so complex that the nation- Party of Indonesia (PKI) since the 1955 General state-based analytical framework of the Cold Election. Given the close ties between the PKI War diplomacy has its intrinsic limitations to and their ruling communist counterparts in be transplanted to scrutinize the nuances of China, many scholars—especially those who the two sides’ engagement. Ruth McVey (1968, wrote withanti-communist overtones (Dijk, pp. 357-94), leading scholar of Indonesian com- 1972; Zheng, 1960)—often make convenient munism, has rightly pointed out that “China has yet politically biased conclusions that (1) the been not one thing to the Indonesians but three: PKI served as an important proxy for the a state, a revolution and an ethnic minority”. Communist Party of China (CPC) to intervene within Indonesia; (2) Indonesian domestic More specifically, the interactions between politics became increasingly radicalized under China and Indonesia in the late 1950s could Sukarno’s left-leaning leadership; and (3) the be categorized as simultaneously following radicalization of Indonesian politics could three major intertwined strands: (1) between be largely attributed to the unprecedented two newly established regimes of independent popularity of the PKI. nation-states with similar self-positioning in international political arena but quite Similarly, the post-1965 mainstream different ways of articulation in ideology; discourse in Indonesia tends to interpret the (2) between a ruling communist party and a close engagement of Indonesia and China whole spectrum of political forces in which during this specific period from two major the communists played a somewhat important angles:(a) seeing Indonesia’s leaning towards yet hardly dominant role, and (3) between two China as an inevitable consequence of the “imagined communities” where “Chinese” and changing atmosphere of the country’s domestic “Chineseness” had very distinct implications politics; and (b) seeing the Chinese intervention (See Anderson 1991). in Indonesian domestic affairs as a result of China exporting its revolution and communist Relevant research on this topic has been ideology (see Mazingo, 1965).These two angles done by only a handful of Cold War historians might be useful lenses to examine the two sides’ (Simon 1969; Mozingo 1976; Dijk 1972; Zheng initial incentives to cooperate with each other. 1960; Sukma 1999) from outside of Indonesia But both angles are far from sufficient to explain and China, largely due to the fact that the the complex and unstable mechanism of the issue remains sensitive in both countries, and two countries’ relationship at that moment. it would be extremely difficult to conduct a In fact, any account on the Sino-Indonesia comprehensive study on this topic without bilateral relationship would be incomplete using credible sources from official archives. without paying close attention to the changing While most of the scholars noticed the three international political environment and the aforementioned strands, their assessments on BEYOND IDEOLOGY: China-Indonesia Engangement... 27 this issue are usually based on limited primary states. It was not simply through Sukarno, the sources and biased second-hand literatures. PKI, or the Indonesian Chinese community that With the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign the CPC-led Chinese government intervened in Affairs of PRC opening to the public, a large Indonesian domestic politics. Rather, as I will number of classified documents concerning show in this paper, Beijing’s engagement with the China-Indonesia engagement in the 1950s Indonesia went far beyond sheer ethnic and have become available, scholars are thus able ideological domains and reached an enormously to conduct more intensive research by using wide variety of interest groups in Indonesia, these materials. In 2011, Liu Hong published a including groups that had conflicting interests book on China-Indonesia interactions between and those anti-communist and anti-Chinese 1949 and 1965, which was the first monograph in essence. To a great extent, this effective on this topic that had effectively used sources in engagement is not a result of Indonesia’s leaning English, Chinese and Indonesian. However, due towards the left, but a reason for it—not in to the complex nature of this particular theme, the sense of direct political intervention, but a lot of nuanced issues remain undiscovered. through the pursuit of common identity and By utilizing primary sources such as pam- interest, which significantly shaped the making phlets, meeting minutes, public speeches and of Indonesia’s Guided Democracy. newspapers in both Indonesian and Chinese as well as secondary sources in English, I have ARTICULATING REVOLUTION IN tried to make sense of context by closely read- DOMESTIC POLITICS ing of a wide variety of texts. For propaganda Before Indonesia’s first parliamentary election purposes on both sides, some speeches were was held in 1955, the cabinet was led alternately originally given in Chinese and then translated by the nationalistic PNI (Partai Nasional Indone- into Indonesian or vice versa. The politics of sia, Indonesian National Party) and the largest translation (see Ricci 2011; Flood 2009) thus Islamic party Masjumi (Partai Majelis Syuro becomes a very interesting angle to investigate Muslimin Indonesia, Council of Indonesian Mus- the two country’s engagement. lim Associations)(see Ricklefs 1982; Feith 1962).23 This paper demonstrates that China’s The major debate between these two parties had engagement with Indonesia from 1955 to been constantly focused on the role of Islam 1959 was neither ideologically oriented nor in the state. As the vanguard of Indonesian 12 realpolitik, but somewhere in between. I argue secularism, the PNI always advocated the use that the improvement of the Sino-Indonesia of the state’s founding philosophical principle bilateral relationship during this period is Pancasila (the Five Principles) in dealing with not only because of the changing domestic conflicting issues among Muslims, nationalists, political situation or completely subject to Christians and other groups (see Department