Page 181 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE
IN INDONESIA

Meanwhile, various opinions emerged among the public, asking the go-
vernment system to return to the 1945 Constitution as its foundation. On
the other hand, various sessions in the Constitutional Assembly also af-
fected the political situation which became increasingly heated outside
the court due to various disputes. One of them was the conflict between
Muslim youths and communist youths in several areas.

In response to political developments, President Soekarno made a
speech at the Constitutional Assembly on 22 April 1959, which in es-
sence was to recommend a return to the 1945 Constitution. This pro-
posal was followed up by the Council by holding a vote. In three out of
three votes, the results did not meet the quorum. The deadlock situation
that occurred in this session led President Soekarno to conclude that the
Constitutional Assembly should be disbanded so that the political life of
the Government would be better.

To fulfill this desire, there must be mass mobilization to support it.
Soekarno’s policies included approaching and entering into an agreement
with the Communist Party of Indonesia, an approach that was deemed
appropriate because this party was one of the winning parties in the 1955
general election that did not have a representative in the executive.

Furthermore, President Soekarno also approached the Chief of the Army,
an organization that had a tight command system. These two approach-
es were carried out so that they could work closely together and hence
were willing to agree on dissolving the Constitu-
tional Assembly, so that the steps of the revolu-
tion would not be disturbed as a point of legiti-
macy of power.
Political stability during
the Guided Democracy era Both the PKI (Community Party of Indonesia)
and the military (Army) during the Guided Demo-
was highly dependent on cracy period tried to win sympathy so they could
President Soekarno’s role be closer to President Soekarno. This meant that

in regulating the balance there was a balance between the three pillars
of political power between Soekarno-PKI-Army.
between the two legs of a Between the Army and PKI later on, there was a

pyramid’s political power. political conflict with different ideological orien-
tations.

The consequence of this polarization caused
political tensions to reoccur between the Army

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