Indonesia's first parliamentary general election was held on 29 September 1955. The candidates were seeking to be elected to the 257-seat People's Representative Council, which would replace the existing provisional legislature. Despite hopes that the election would bring about political stability, the legislature elected only lasted four years before being dissolved by presidential decree.
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia, between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the world's largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands, and at 1,904,569 square kilometres, the 14th largest by land area and the 7th largest in combined sea and land area. With over 261 million people, it is the world's 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of the country's population.
The People's Representative Council, alternatively translatable as the House of Representatives or as the House of People's Representatives, is one of two elected national legislative assemblies in Indonesia.
The Presidential Decree of July 5, 1959 was issued by President Sukarno in the face of the inability of the Constitutional Assembly of Indonesia to achieve the two-thirds majority to reimpose the 1945 Constitution. It was army chief of staff Abdul Haris Nasution who concluded that this would be the only way to bring about the reintroduction of a constitution that paved the way for the military to play a greater role in the running of the state, ushering in the period known as the "guided democracy" (1959-1966).
Parties that had been officially registered in Indonesia in 1954.
The first elections were originally planned for January 1946, but because the Indonesian National Revolution was still underway, this was not possible. After the war, every cabinet had elections in its program. In February 1951 the Natsir cabinet introduced an election bill, but the cabinet fell before it could be debated. The next cabinet, led by Sukiman did hold some regional elections [1] Finally, in February 1952, the Wilopo cabinet introduced a bill for voter registration. Discussions in the People's Representative Council did not start until September because of various objections from the political parties. According to Feith, there were three factors. Firstly, legislators were worried about losing their seats; secondly they were worried about a possible swing to Islamic parties and thirdly an electoral system in accordance with the Provisional Constitution of 1950 would mean less representation for regions outside Java.[2] Given the fact that cabinets had fallen after introducing controversial measures, there was reluctance to introduce an election bill and there were concerns about possible political conflicts caused by electioneering.[3] However, many political leaders wanted elections as the existing legislature was based on a compromise with the Netherlands (the erstwhile colonial power) and as such had little popular authority. They also believed elections would bring about greater political stability.[4] The "17 October 1952 affair", when armed soldiers in front of the palace demanded dissolution of the legislature, led to greater demands from all parties for early elections. By 25 November, an elections bill had been submitted to the People's Representative Council. After 18 weeks of debate and 200 proposed amendments, the bill passed on 1 April 1953 and became law on 4 April. It stipulated one member of the legislature for 150,000 residents and gave the right to vote to everybody over the age of 18, or who was or had been married.[5] Once the bill had passed the cabinet began appointing members of the Central Electoral Committee. This was to have one member from each government party and an independent chairman. However, the Indonesian National Party (PNI) protested that they had no members on the committee, and this dispute was still unresolved when the cabinet fell on 2 June.[6]
The Indonesian National Revolution, or Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcolonial Indonesia. It took place between Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Netherlands' recognition of Indonesia's independence at the end of 1949.
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God, and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. It is the world's second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24% of the world's population, most commonly known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, unique and has guided humankind through prophets, revealed scriptures and natural signs. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the verbatim word of God, and the teachings and normative example of Muhammad.
The Provisional Constitution of 1950 replaced the Federal Constitution of 1949 when Indonesia unilaterally withdrew from the union with the Netherlands agreed at the Round Table Conference and returned to being a unitary state. It came into force on 17 August 1950. It was abrogated on 5 July 1959 when President Sukarno issued a decree dissolving the Constitutional Assembly and restoring the 1945 Constitution of Indonesia.
On 25 August 1953, the new prime minister, Ali Sastroamidjojo, announced a 16-month schedule for elections starting from January 1954. On 4 November the government announced a new Central Electoral Committee chaired by PNI member S. Hadikusomo and including all the parties represented in the government, namely Nahdatul Ulama (NU), the Indonesia Islamic Union Party (PSII) the Indonesia People's Party (PRI), the National People's Party (PRN), the Labor Party and the Indoneisan Peasant Front (BTI), as well as the government-supporting Islamic Educators Association (Perti) and the Indonesian Christian Party (Parkindo).[7]
Campaign
Various large election-campaign posters of participating political parties, with their symbols (amongst many, the PSII, the PNI, the PKI and Masjumi) being shown big on display in the run-up to the election.
According to Feith, the first phase of the election campaign began on 4 April 1953 when the election bill passed into law, and the second phase when the Central Electoral Committee approved the party symbols on 31 May 1954.[8]
At the time the bill passed into law, the cabinet was a coalition of the Islamic-based Masjumi and the nationalistic PNI. The next two successive cabinets were coalitions led by one of the two aforementioned parties with the other in opposition. Therefore, the main issue of the campaign was the debate between these two parties over the role of Islam in the state. Masjumi denied aiming for an Islamic state while the PNI emphasized that their pro-Pancasila stance was not anti-Islam as Masjumi sought to portray. The other two main and major Islamic parties, the NU and the PSII, supported Masjumi in this debate. A third factor was the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), which campaigned on such significant issues like poverty and the poor of the national population due to the continued imperialist-leaning/-influenced nature of the government's cabinet policy. Masjumi tried to draw a clear line between the PKI and other political parties, accusing it of being a puppet element and a tool of Moscow in the country (seeking to influence and then spread the communist ideology across Indonesia).[9]
Pancasila is the official, foundational philosophical theory of Indonesia. Pancasila comprises two Old Javanese words originally derived from Sanskrit: "pañca" ("five") and "sīla" ("principles"). Thus it is composed of five principles and contends that they are inseparable and interrelated:
Belief in the One and Only God (in Indonesian "Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa"),
A just and civilized humanity (in Indonesian "Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab"),
A unified Indonesia (in Indonesian "Persatuan Indonesia"),
Democracy, led by the wisdom of the representatives of the People (in Indonesian "Kerakyatan Yang Dipimpin oleh Hikmat Kebijaksanaan, Dalam Permusyawaratan Perwakilan")
Social justice for all Indonesians (in Indonesian "Keadilan Sosial bagi seluruh Rakyat Indonesia").
The Communist Party of Indonesia was a communist party in Indonesia that existed throughout the mid-20th century. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world prior to being eradicated in 1965 and banned in the following year. The party counted 2 million members in the 1955 elections with 16 percent of the national vote and close to 30 percent of the votes in East Java. During most of the period immediately following independence until the eradication of the PKI in 1965, the PKI was a legal party operating openly in Indonesia’s political system.
Party programs were rarely widely discussed during the campaign. Party symbols with or without campaign slogans were displayed on most streets and thoroughfares in cities, towns and villages all across the country, as well as on private homes, public buildings, buses and trains, trees and even calendars. The PKI made extraordinary efforts to promote its symbol, as seen in their displaying it everywhere, from political posters to simple graffiti to newspapers, to make sure people everywhere see and notice it and were not to forget or remain ignorant of it. The PKI's election campaign was based around social activities (to gather together as much people for their party's source of mass support in the upcoming election) such as organizing tool-sharing programs for farmers and leading and directing the building of irrigation canals and channels for agriculture and the peasantry. As mentioned earlier, the party was looking beyond the election to build a permanent basis of widespread and large-scale support throughout Indonesia.[10]
The electoral regions Indonesia was divided into for the 1955 elections.
In the last few months of the election campaign, the major parties focused on educating and mass-informing voters in areas where they had managed to establish village-level influence, organization and control. This phase included persuasion as well as threats.[11]
All through September, party leaders were constantly travelling around the country to promote, amongst many of their agendas, goals and objectives, their parties, themselves and their political ideologies. Daily party-newspapers and magazines were printed in constantly-increasing numbers and given away to the masses for free. The articles in such political-dailies and media like these attacked rival parties and extolled their own together with its ideology and political aims. In the villages across Indonesia, the emphasis shifted from large-scale mass rallies to small-scale meetings and gatherings and house-to-house canvassing of political support.[12]
Although in April 1954 the Central Electoral Committee had announced that the election would be held on 29 September the following year, by July and early August, preparations had fallen behind schedule The appointment of members of polling station committees planned to start on 1 August did not begin in many regions until 15 September. In his independence day address on 17 August, President Sukarno said that anybody putting obstacles in way of elections was a "traitor to the revolution". On 8 September, the information minister said that elections would be held on September 29 except in a few areas where preparations were not complete. Eventually, as a result of "feverish activity", polling station committees were ready on election day.[13]
In the run up to polling day, rumors spread, including a widespread poisoning scare in Java. There was also hoarding of goods. In many parts of country there was a spontaneous and unannounced curfew for several nights before polling day.
On polling day itself, many voters were waiting to cast their ballot by 7 am. The day was peaceful as people realized nothing bad was going to happen. A total of 87.65% of voters cast a valid vote and 91.54% voted. Allowing for deaths between registration and polling, only about 6% did not vote.[14]
Results
The share of the vote. Four parties won almost 80% of the vote
The election was a major success for the NU, which saw its number of seats in the People's Representative Council increase from 8 to 45. A surprise was the poor showing of Masyumi, the Socialist Party and Murba. There was a large gap between the "big 4" (PNI, Masjumi, NU and PKI, with more than three-quarters of the vote shared among them) and the rest of the parties, but contrary to expectations, the number of parties actually increased - there were now 28 with seats in the legislature as opposed to 20 before the election, with the largest party holding only 22% of seats.
The distribution of votes was uneven across the country. The PNI won 85.97% of its vote in Java, the NU 85.6% and the PKI 88.6%, despite the fact that only 66.2% of the population lived on Java. Conversely only 51.3% of Masjumi's vote came from Java, and it established itself as the leading party for the one-third of people living outside Java.[15][16]
Acoma Party (Partai ACOMA / Angkatan Communis Muda)
64,514
0.2
1
R. Soejono Prawirosoedarso & Associates
53,305
0.1
1
Other parties, organizations and individual candidates
1,022,433
2.7
1
Total counted
37,785,299
100%
257
Aftermath
The poor showing of the parties in the cabinet of Prime Minister Burhanuddin Harahap was a major blow. The parties who did better, such as the NU and the PSII were "reluctant" cabinet members with a weak standing. This left the government with the choice of making major concessions to the NU and PSII or seeing them leave the cabinet. With no clear electoral verdict, it was back to inter-party politicking and bargaining. The lack of a clear outcome discredited the existing political system.
The new People's Representative Council convened on 4 March 1956. It was to last four years. In his opening speech, President Sukarno called for an Indonesian form of democracy, and over the next few years, he would speak more about his concept (konsepsi) of a new system of government. In 1957, the era of Liberal Democracy came to an end with the establishment of Guided Democracy. Indonesia would have to wait until 1999 for its next free national elections.[16][17][18]
Related Research Articles
Nahdlatul Ulama is a traditionalist Sunni Islam movement in Indonesia following the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence. NU was established on January 31, 1926 in Surabaya as a response to the rise of Wahabism in Saudi Arabia and Islamic modernism in Indonesia. The NU is the largest independent Islamic organization in the world with membership estimates ranging from 40 million (2013) to over 90 million (2019). NU also is a charitable body funding schools and hospitals as well as organizing communities to help alleviate poverty.
Guided Democracy was the political system in place in Indonesia from 1957 until the New Order began in 1966. It was the brainchild of President Sukarno, and was an attempt to bring about political stability. Sukarno believed that parliamentarian system implemented during the liberal democracy period was ineffective due to Indonesia's divisive political situation at that time. Instead, he sought a system based on the traditional village system of discussion and consensus, which occurred under the guidance of village elders. With the introduction of this system, Indonesia returned to the presidential system and Sukarno became the head of government again.
The Constitutional Assembly was a body elected in 1955 to draw up a permanent constitution for the Republic of Indonesia. It sat between November 10, 1956 and July 2, 1959. It was dissolved by then President Sukarno in a decree issued on July 5, 1959 which reimposed the 1945 Constitution.
The Masyumi Party was a major Islamic political party in Indonesia during the Liberal Democracy Era in Indonesia. It was banned in 1960 by President Sukarno for supporting the PRRI rebellion.
Indonesia's second legislative election, and the first under the New Order regime, was held on 3 July 1971. There were 10 participants; 9 political parties and the "functional group" Golkar.
The first Amir Sjarifuddin Cabinet was the fifth Indonesian cabinet and was in office from 3 July to 11 November 1947.
The second Amir Sjarifuddin Cabinet was Indonesia's sixth cabinet and was the result of a reshuffle to allow for the entry of the Masyumi Party, which gained five posts. The cabinet lasted only two months and eleven days, from 12 November 1947 to 23 January 1948, after Masyumi withdrew its ministers in protest at the Renville Agreement the government signed with the Dutch.
Islamic Association Party of Indonesia was an Islamic political party in Indonesia. In 1973 it was merged into the United Development Party.
The First Ali Sastroamidjojo Cabinet was an Indonesian cabinet named after the Prime Minister, and also known as 'Kabinet IV', that served from 1 August 1953 until 24 July 1955.
The Second Ali Sastroamidjojo Cabinet was an Indonesian cabinet that served from 26 March 1956 until 14 March 1957.
The Djuanda Cabinet, or "Working Cabinet" was an Indonesian cabinet that served from 9 April 1957 until 5 July 1959, when it was dissolved by a decree from President Sukarno.
The Acoma Party was a communist party in Indonesia. It evolved out of the Young Communist Force. Acoma was converted into Partai Acoma on August 8, 1952. Acoma/Partai Acoma was led by Ibnu Parna.
The National People's Party was a nationalist political party in Indonesia. The party was initially called Indonesian National Party - Merdeka ('Freedom'), and was formed in July 1950 after a split within the Indonesian National Party (PNI). The divisions with the PNI had appeared at the party congress in May the same year, when Sidik Djojosukarto's followers had emerged victorious. Dr. Djody Gondokusomo was the chairman of the party.
Murba Party was a 'national communist' political party in Indonesia. The party was founded by Tan Malaka, Chairul Saleh, Sukarni and Adam Malik in 1948. The history of the party was largely intertwined with that of the powerful Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI). Initially relations between PKI and the Murba Party were fluid, but gradually the two parties developed into each other's arch-enemies. The Murba Party continued to exist under the New Order, but was merged into the Indonesian Democratic Party in 1973.
Kiai Haji Zainul Arifin was a politician Nahdlatul Ulama started out as (NU) youth leader since the colonial period Netherlands He had been active in youth organizations NU, GP Ansor and built up his careerfrom there as politician for NU to be the Speaker of the Parliament or DPRGR (1960–1963) before he died.
The League of Supporters of Indonesian Independence was a political party in Indonesia established by former Army head General Abdul Haris Nasution as a vehicle for the Indonesian Army to enter the realm of politics. It was influential in persuading President Sukarno to introduce Guided Democracy in Indonesia and return to the 1945 Constitution.
Local elections were held in parts of Indonesia in the second half of 1957 to elect provincial and regency and city councils. The Communist Party of Indonesia won a larger share of the vote than it had in the 1955 legislative election, the only major party to do so. The PKI's success, and the declining or stagnant support for other parties, caused concern that the PKI might dominate the planned 1959 national legislative elections, one reason these did not take place.
The Great Indonesia Unity Party was an Indonesian political party established in 1948. It was founded by a group of dissenters who broke away from the Indonesian National Party (PNI). Its chairman was Wongsonegoro, governor of Central Java. The party aimed to be based on neither religion like the Masjumi or a western policitcal outlook.
References
Bibliography
Feith, Herbert (2007) The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia Equinox Publishing (Asia) Pte Ltd, ISBN979-3780-45-2
Feith, Herbert (1999) Pemilihan Umum 1955 di Indonesia (Translated from The Indonesian Elections of 1955) Kepustakaan Popular Gramedia ISBN979-9023-26-2
Friend, Theodore (2003). Indonesian Destinies. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN0-674-01834-6.
Sekretariat Negara Republik Indonesia (1975) 30 Tahun Indonesia Merdeka: Jilid 2 (1950-1964) (30 Years of Indonesian Independence: Volume 2 (1950-1964)) No ISBN
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
