The origins of the New Order regime

The origins of the New Order regime

By Candra Gautama

JAKARTA (JP): When Soeharto stepped down from the presidency
on May 21, 1998, it marked the fall of the New Order. But some
anti-New Order circles say New Order supporters are still
striving for a comeback, especially through the legislature.

This sounds plausible given that Golkar, the former ruling
party, has the second-most seats in the legislature. Therefore,
anti-New Order crusaders are demanding that New Order supporters
be removed from the legislative body.

One of the latest signs of this anti-New Order crusade was the
strong opposition to the election of Golkar official Abdul Gafur
as North Maluku governor. Thousands of people from various parts
of North Maluku launched a demonstration against him and occupied
the local council building on July 6.

Despite all the uproar surrounding the New Order, those who
came up with the name, which is reminiscent of the Ordo Nuova of
Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in Italy, remain unknown.

The birth of the New Order began in January 1966, when people
demanded Sukarno step down from the presidency, following the
aborted coup of Sept. 30, 1965.

A symposium held by the University of Indonesia, the student
movement KAMI and the academician movement KASI in Jakarta from
May 6 to May 9, 1966, is regarded as one of the seeds of the New
Order, as is the rise of the 1966 Generation of student
activists.

A keynote speaker at the symposium, Yap Kie Hien, used the
word orde. In his paper What is torn down; what is waiting, Yap
discussed the situation of the "Old World" before the 1966
Generation made a breakthrough to the expected "New World".

He also said, "... based on all reasonable criteria, the
social 'order' of the old world is not more than a ...
conspicuous social and mental confusion". He spoke at length of
"old" and "new".

On June 27, Kompas quoted former military commander Gen. A.H.
Nasution as saying before thousands of people: "Develop a new
order, eliminate the old order." This was the first time the
terms were used in public.

Standing on an armored vehicle, he thundered: "There is still
no institution purely based on the 1945 Constitution. But let us
work for that purpose, and also for improvement in the Cabinet
composition and government programs as soon as possible. The new
order should be developed and the old order should be eliminated
thoroughly ..."

From this point on, the terms "new order" and "old order"
frequently came up in political discourses in Indonesia, but the
meanings remained unclear. On July 4, 1966, Kompas' editorial
read: "The new order does not mean people, but a framework of a
life order ... the old order is colonial, and the new order is
the national order ...."

About four months later a different interpretation emerged. On
Oct. 18, Kompas quoted Gen. Nasution, then speaker of the
Provisional People's Consultative Assembly, as saying that the
"Old Order" consisted of those actively advocating for the
communists before the Sept. 30 attempted coup, yelling support
for the national-religious-communist doctrine and for the
eradication of "capitalist bureaucrats".

The "Old Order" also included those fostering the cult of the
individual, who did not participate in crushing the
"contrarevolutionary group Gestapu/PKI ..." and those who opposed
the "People's Three Demands" at that time -- dissolve the
Indonesian Communist Party, purge communist elements from the
Cabinet and lower prices of basic needs. It aslo included those
still engaged as "political guerrillas and in contraoffensives
after the issuance of Supersemar -- a document transferring power
from Sukarno to Soeharto.

It is interesting to observe Sukarno's response to the two
terms as contained in Kompas published on Dec. 15, in an article
titled President Sukarno: Not Orba, not Orla, using the acronyms
of for the new and old orders, respectively.

The article read: "President Sukarno said ... the terms Old
Order and New Order have confused many people. Pointing
repeatedly at reporters and asking them to note his words, the
President said: 'I myself don't know what is New Order and Old
Order.' He said that once a foreign journalist asked him for an
explanation of the (terms) and he answered: 'I don't know
myself,' and further said that he belonged to the 'genuine
order', which he said originated from the objectives and sources
of the revolution."

"I am not La nor Ba. The terms don't come from my mouth,"
Sukarno said when receiving an art mission from Minahasa at the
Merdeka Palace.

So was the name "New Order" created by Gen. Nasution? If he
was only quoting someone, who was it? How far was the New Order
inspired by Mussolini's Ordo Nuovo?

The writer works with the Gramedia publishing house in
Jakarta.