Previous Study Review of Historical Background

12 2006 grants that the New Order quickly “ended Sukarno’s confrontation with Malaysia” p. 167. The next review attempts to relate the confrontation with its consequences regarding the economic matter in Indonesia. Crouch 1978 examines that the economic downturn approaching 1965 was the result of political tensions between Indonesia and the Western Bloc when Sukarno launched a military campaign to crush the Malaysian Federation p. 57. Rotter 2010 explains that the United States US was involved in this confrontation because the United States “schemed to keep Malaysia under British control” p. 273. As a financially influential country, the United States played the role to overcome the situation. Washington threatened to cut off all aid unless Sukarno ceased the confrontation. Haplessly, the situation became worse since Sukarno challenged the Washington’s threats p. 273. As Weinstein 2007 notes, Sukarno adamantly continued the confrontation and took the risk for losing the economic assistances p. 219. Later, as Beeson 2006 explains that Sukarno’s Go to hell with your aid was a clear decision that confrontation had to be continued. Consequently, the decision had made Indonesia withdrawn from “the World Bank, the IMF, and the United Nations p. 166. Furthermore, this economic downturn has also caused another problem; food shortages. As stated by Rosin, Stock, and Campbell 2012, during the early 1960s, a combination of drought, a rat plague on Java, the destruction of crops due to the eruption of the Gunung Agung volcano on Bali, and imprudent economic policy resulted in large-scale food shortages across the 13 archipelago p. 147. Although it was not the only cause of the famine that hit Indonesia in 1964, the food shortages are the result of the combination between the economic downturn and the poor condition of the nature. Rotten 2010 adds that due to the worsening political situation between Indonesia and the Western Bloc that resulted in the economic downturn, Sukarno openly moved to the left politically p. 273. In conclusion, Malaysia confrontation is actually the impact of the flourishing PKI and the Indonesian revolution in opposing the Western bloc’s political strategy during the Cold War. It has significantly contributed to the escalating tension of the Cold War especially in Southeast Asia when Indonesia openly drifts the politics to the Eastern bloc due to the faltering economy.

b. The Indonesian Communist Party

This review starts from a matter of color usage in politics. Color may represent anything because it has special meanings and a kind of impression. In politics, a party designs the flag including the symbol and the choice of colors in it. For instance, Zhu 1998 associates the red color with Communism: If someone were following the traditional pattern of trying to join Communist Party to become a government official, it was said that this person was taking the “red” road, because red was the color for communism p. 232. Kim 1996 supports the association that during the Cold War “ideology also repeatedly indoctrinated us by identifying the color red with communism”. Therefore, Communists were called “Reds” p. 49. Meanwhile, in Indonesian politics, it is called as the PKI Indonesian Communist Party. Simply, as Saull