PARTAI KEBANGKITAN BANGSA (PKB, Rise of the People Party).

Founded in July 1998 with close ties to the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and the electoral vehicle of Abdurrachman Wahid, it was chaired by

H. Matori Abdul Djalil. In the 1999 elections its platform was pluralistic and nationalistic, advocating Pancasila and asserting that it served all In- donesians irrespective of race, religion, or profession. At least four other parties competed with it for the NU’s following (the Partai Solidaritas Uni Nasional Indonesia [SUNI, Indonesian National Solidarity Party], the Partai Nahdlatul Ulama [Partai NU], the Partai Kebangkitan Ummat [PKU, Awakening of the Muslim Nation Party], and the Partai Persat- uan Pembangunan [PPP]), each of them representing different factions within the organization. The PKB came in fourth in the 1999 elections, with its 13,336,982 votes concentrated mostly in the NU strongholds of East and Central Java. This meant that it gained fewer seats in the parliament (51) than its proportion of the votes would seem to justify. It coop- erated with other Islamic parties in parliament to ensure Wahid’s victory over Megawati Sukarnoputri in the struggle for the presidency in Sep- tember 1999. After his impeachment, Wahid remained as advisory chairman of the PKB (its chairman was now Alwi Shihab, former minister of foreign affairs), and he dismissed two PKB leaders from their positions in the party because of their support for his impeachment two years earlier. In April 2003 the Jakarta High Court upheld this action and prohibited the two from using the party’s flag, symbols, and anthem for the new splinter party they formed after their ouster. The PKB is likely to name Wahid as its presidential candidate for the 2004 election, although the names of NU head Hasyim Muzadi and former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have been mentioned as possible alternatives. [0765, 1010]

PARTAI KOMUNIS INDONESIA (PKI, Indonesian Communist Party). Founded on 23 May 1920 as successor to the Indische Sociaal- Democratische Vereeniging (ISDV) and initially named Perserikatan Komunis di Hindia (Communist Association of the Indies). The PKI was the first communist party in Asia outside the borders of former tsarist Russia and joined the Comintern in December 1920. Its leaders initially followed a “bloc within” strategy, joining the Sarekat Islam (SI) and attempting to shift it to the Left, but this led to bitter disputes within SI and in October 1921 PKI members were effectively expelled. The party then campaigned vigorously in its own right among Indone- sia’s small proletariat and via so-called Sarekat Merah (Red Unions) in the countryside. Encouraged by the party’s popularity and alarmed by

322 • PARTAI KOMUNIS INDONESIA the effectiveness of the colonial security forces in dismantling the

party apparatus (including the exile of Tan Malaka in 1922 and Se- maun in 1923), the leaders Musso and Alimin (1889–1964) planned an uprising but were strongly opposed by Tan Malaka. Intended as an In- donesia-wide rebellion, the rising fizzled out in revolts in Banten in November 1926 and West Sumatra (see MINANGKABAU) in Janu- ary 1927. The party was banned, and alleged leaders of the rebellions were exiled to Boven Digul. Thereafter Dutch repression kept the party small and underground, though it developed a remarkable re- silience that enabled it to survive, recruit, and campaign despite Dutch, and later Japanese, repression.

The party reemerged in November 1945, though it continued to work also through such parties as the Partai Buruh Indonesia (PBI) and the Partai Sosialis (PS), with which in 1948 it made up the Sayap Kiri. The party argued initially that the national Revolution should be safeguarded by making concessions to Western economic interests, but in early 1948 after the fall of the government of Amir Sjarifuddin the party took a radical turn, arguing in A New Road for the Indonesian Republic for so- cioeconomic reform as a condition for achieving independence. After the return of Musso from protracted exile in the Soviet Union in August 1948, the Sayap Kiri parties federated first into the Front Demokrasi Rakyat (FDR) and then into an expanded PKI. After the party’s sup- pression for its part in the abortive Madiun Affair, it resumed the strategy of divided parties under leadership of Tan Ling Djie (1904 to 1965–1966), but in 1951 strategy changed dramatically under a new party leadership of Dipa Nusantara Aidit (1923–1965), M. H. Lukman (1920–1965), Nyoto (1925–1965), and Sudisman (1920–1968).

The new leaders emphasized the party’s commitment to the legal political process and marked out a strong nationalist position, rejecting the continuing ties with the Netherlands and the privileges given to Western business. The lack of a large proletariat and of a clear poor peasant class was a strategic difficulty, but the party emphasized attitude rather than class origin and it pursued a mass education program through party schools, training courses, and a university, the Aliarkham Academy, using recruits to build up an organization second only to the army in purpose and discipline, though its strength was heavily concentrated among aban- gan Javanese. This effort was rewarded when the party came fourth, with

16.4 percent of the vote, in the 1955 elections. The growth of PKI support and influence was among the reasons for the PRRI/Permesta rebellion, and army commanders in many regions, remembering the party’s role in the Madiun Affair, put restrictions on its activities. Certain of in-

PARTAI KOMUNIS INDONESIA • 323 creasing its vote at future elections, the party was at first unhappy with

Sukarno’s proposals for a Guided Democracy. Facing full-scale sup- pression by the army, however, if it did not accede, the PKI became an enthusiastic supporter of the president, offering him the popular backing that he needed to balance the growing power of the army. In return the party received considerable freedom to operate on Java, building its membership to perhaps 3 million by 1965; affiliated organizations such as the Barisan Tani Indonesia (BTI) accounted for many millions more. Through its cultural affiliate, Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat (Lekra), it attempted to establish Marxist discourse as orthodoxy in cultural affairs. And under the principles of Nasakom, it was given an increasing say in legislative and other official bodies. It was never, however, given impor- tant executive functions, and Donald Hindley has argued that the party, for all its apparent strength, was in fact “domesticated”—implicated in a regime that failed to implement social reforms and that was losing con- trol of the economy, but denied access to the levers of power.

When the party attempted, moreover, a program of direct action (aksi sepihak) in rural Java to implement land reform laws in late 1963, it was swiftly curbed. The party remained generally aloof from the Sino-Soviet split, but in the mid-1960s swung somewhat to China, following Indonesian foreign policy. Opinions are still deeply divided on whether and to what extent the party was involved in the Gestapu coup of 1965, but the outcome of the affair was fatal to it. Within weeks, the army had begun to detain PKI cadres and to oversee the killing of party members and supporters (see MASSACRES OF 1965–1966). The party was formally banned on 12 March 1966. Sur- viving members attempted to begin guerrilla resistance in Blitar (East Java) and in West Kalimantan (see PONTIANAK), and a PKI analy- sis of its mistakes, called Otokritik, was prepared, but these movements were crushed by 1968, leaving the party represented primarily by scat- tered exile communities, the most prominent being the so-called PKI Delegation in China led by Jusuf Ajitorop.

In the closing years of the Suharto regime, the Indonesian government showed continuing concern over the alleged existence of PKI ele- ments in Indonesian society, and a number of acts of sabotage were at- tributed unconvincingly to the party. After the fall of Suharto, President Abdurrachman Wahid sought to loosen restrictions on the party, but these attempts were combated by the army and Islamic political figures, and the party remained an outcast in Indonesian society. [0621, 0667, 0674, 0683, 0695, 0798, 0836, 0858, 0904, 0917, 0921, 0931, 0991, 0992, 0994, 0997]

324 • PARTAI KRISTEN INDONESIA

PARTAI KEBANGKITAN BANGSA (PKB, Rise of the People Party).