INDONESIA: Not So Sweety-Sweety

Presumably, all was matey, once again between Indonesia’s strong-willed President Sukarno and his disenchanted “Veep,” Mohammed Hatta. They had been urged back together at an unusual assemblage of 150 top Indonesian leaders—including rebel colonels from the hill—all worried by the political disintegration of their country (TIME, Sept. 23). Basking in the joys of reconciliation, Hatta and Sukarno flew off together to “Indonesia’s Arlington Cemetery” in Djokjakarta to purge their souls of rancor at the grave of General Sudirman, military hero of the revolt against the Dutch. For the first time since his resignation as Vice President last December, Hatta accepted a social invitation to the presidential palace, even joined Sukarno in leading lissome Moluccas maidens through the steps of the “sweety-sweety” dance, To cap the ceremonies, a troupe of Central Javanese actors put on an adapted 8th century Hindu morality play in which a pair of quarreling brothers are finally reunited by Ibu Pertiwi, the personification of the motherland.

In the glow of seeing the nation’s two great revolutionary heroes working together again, the rebellious young army colonels who had bloodlessly seized control of much of Sumatra, Borneo and East Indonesia pledged themselves to obey “unconditionally” the orders of a seven-man special commission headed by Sukarno and Hatta.

But as the week wore on, many Indonesians including Mohammed Hatta, began to be assailed by the uncomfortable suspicion that what was going on was just another of Sukarno’s morality plays. Among the things that had driven Hatta into opposition and the colonels into revolt were Sukarno’s campaigns to convert Indonesia into a “guided democracy” and to bring the Communists into its government. By joining Sukarno in a public pledge of amity, Hatta had, in effect, agreed to moderate his outspoken criticism of the President. But, Hatta discovered last week, cagey Politician Sukarno himself was making no move to moderate the very policies that had caused the trouble in the first place. A disappointed man, Hatta took off for a trip to Red China as a guest of Premier Chou Enlai. Steadfastly antiCommunist, Hatta did not expect to like Sukarno’s friends any more because of what he would see of their masters in Peiping.