WRITTEN TASK THE FIRST INDEPENDENT ELECTIONS HOW PKI (INDONESIAN COMMUNIST PARTY) RECRUIT FARMERS.

The first general election in Indonesia was held in 1955, ten years after the Indonesian declaration of independence in 1945, and five years after the temporary constitution of 1950 established a liberal representative democracy with a parliamentary system as its form of government. When the Republic of Indonesia was proclaimed in 1945, one of the first programmed espoused by its founding fathers was the holding of general elections. However, elections could not be held for several years while an independence war was waged against the Dutch colonial armed forces. In April 1953 an election bill was finally passed. The date for parliamentary Elections was later fixed for September 1955 and elections for a Constituent Assembly (Konstituante) to draft a permanent constitution were fixed for December 1955. The Jakarta politicians now began to work for the first time at building mass support which would deliver votes. In their search for popular support they used broad ideological appeals which contributed to communal tensions in the villages. Islamic party activists at lower levels called for a state based on Islamic law. The secular parties, most notably PNI and PKI, attempted to associate Masyumi with Darul Islam and turned Pancasila into a partisan anti-Islamic slogan rather than the umbrella philosophy Sukarno thought it to be. In the villages, PKI tried to attract the sympathy of the farmers by launching a populist-based program using their quasi organization. Parties attract people to come into their underbow organization, and then mobilize citizens to register and vote in elections. Many poor peasants joined, because PKI promised to defend their interests, but many joined for other reasons. PKI teams repaired bridges, schools, houses, dams, public lavatories, drains and roads; they eradicated pests and set up literacy courses, organised village sports and musical groups, and offered members support in times of hardship. As a community organisation PKI surpassed all others, and because it seemed non-violent and moderate, villagers flocked to it. Often it was led in the villages by teachers, headmen, middle and rich peasants, and even some landlords, who brought whole communities or groups of dependants into PKI with them.

The growth of PKI, was spectacular. Between March and November 1954 claimed party membership trebled from 165.206 to 500.000, and by the end of 1955 it was 1 million. PKI was now beginning serious recruitment of peasant members. Its Indonesian Peasant Front (BTI: Barisan Tani Indonesia) claimed 360.000 members in September 1953 but over nine times that number (3.3 million) at the end of 1955. Pemuda Rakyat (Peoples Youth), the successor to Pesindo of the Revolution, trebled from 202 605 members in July 1954 to 616 605 at the end of 1955, with 80 per cent of its members being peasant youths and the vast majority in Java.

Bibliography Croissant, Aurel (Ed), Electoral politics in Southeast & East Asia, Friedrich-EbertStiftung, Office for Regional Co-operation in Southeast Asia], Singapore, 2002, page 75-100 Feith, Herbert, The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, Cornell University Press, 1962 Ricklefs, M.C, A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1200 Third Edition, Palgrave, 2001. Sejarah Pemilu 1955, http://kpu.go.id/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=39