Soekarno is Indonesia’s first president that took up the role as the head of the country as well as the head of the government at the early times of post-proclamation. He was described as an individual with extraordinary spirit and independent character, proven by his popular ideology “berdiri di atas kaki sendiri” which translates to standing on our own feet. In fact, Soekarno — whom led us to Indonesia’s independence — mocked the United States as one of the leading capitalist country with the striking sentence “go to hell with your aid”.
From Bung Karno’s point of view, it is important for developing countries to come together and lend each other’s helping hand. He, as a matter of fact, embraced the capability of his own country as an independent source to build itself. This eventually became one of the reasons of Soekarno’s dismissal as a president.
Soekarno, with his own hands wanted our natural resources to be managed by his nation’s descendants. Moreover, according to one of the United States’ embassy, it was stated that in September 15th, 1965, a team that was led by Chairul Saleh in Cipanas Mansion was preparing the draft of various foreign companies’ nationalization in Indonesia.
Soeharto, who had just known the surprising fact, immediately stated his opposition to Soekarno’s new policy. Soekarno had never been seen that brave to shout a policy which could trigger controversies among the army forces. Thus, there were a lot of outside parties’ effort to bring Soekarno and his position down.
Soekarno himself stated that foreign capitals will eventually be allowed when our people are ready to manage it with their own hands. He did not want Indonesians — whom at that time were low educated — to be monopolized by foreign nation.
Written in Probe Magazine, an article titled “JFK, Indonesia, CIA and Freeport”, March-April 1996 edition, Lisa Pease wrote in early November 1967, that Williams, as chairman of the Freeport board of directors, had contacted his superiors, asking for Freeport’s readiness to perform exploitation in Papua. Wilson — who knew Soekarno’s anti-western principle — could not believe the statement.
Pease then explained that the purpose of that information is that, there are going to be a possible coup d’etat to Indonesian communist parties. This was done so that the army had a credible reason to step on Partai Komunis Indonesia’s prestige and at the same time, to have Soekarno — who was at that time suspected of being a pro-Communist — also arrested.
In the end, through a secret telegram from the United States Ministry of Foreign Affairs to United Nations in April 1965, it was then stated that Freeport had declared the agreement on starting to mine on top of Erstberg Mountain in Papua.
Some of the individuals who are pro to foreign companies, based on a telegram coded Cinpac 342,21, on 9.48 PM, January 1965, were proven to have carried out discussions among the Indonesian Army’s officials, plans that were going to take place if Soekarno managed to step down from his position.
It then seemed that this group that was led by General Soeharto was one step ahead of the game. He began pushing the army to take the government over without ‘waiting’ for Soekarno’s dismissal. This was done with the help of September 30th PKI movement, known as G30SPKI.
Supersemar — surat perintah sebelas Maret — or practically known as the written order of March 11th was mentioned to be the beginning of the collapse of Soekarno’s regime. Since the September 30th movement, Indonesia has been seen to take a major maneuver to shift their policies. Freeport’s effort to make an entrance to Papua is easier than before. The ratification of Freeport’s investment law in Indonesia was directly signed by Soeharto in 1967, just a year after his appointment as Indonesia’s leader.
According to the contract of work that was valid since December 1991, Freeport only contributes as little as 1% to Indonesian government. While according to the 2003 Government’s Law Number 45, it was stated that we are given only 3.75% of the total amount of gold’s sales done by Freeport.
What a drastic difference if these policy are to be compared to Soekarno’s principles.
*This article was written and translated from the original article I wrote in Bahasa to fulfill my Bahasa Indonesia assignment during my time in 12th grade.*
https://suarapapua.com/2015/05/21/fk-indonesia-cia-dan-freeport/
