The Cutting Edge of Koti

"I don't want to be ignored," moaned President Sukarno last week. All but ignored he was, as Indonesia's high-riding soldiers relentlessly pressed their campaign to sweep Communist sympathizers out of positions of power and to reshape the nation's rickety economy.

A victim was pro-Communist Foreign Minister Subandrio, who held key positions not only in the Djakarta Cabinet's presidium, but in the Supreme Operations Command (Koti) as well. Abruptly last week the army bounced Subandrio out of Koti, stripped him of control over Indonesia's intelligence network. Suddenly it became clear that Koti was emerging as the key controlling body of the country, with powers in every field from economics to education. And into Koti's key post stepped General Abdul Haris Nasution, Defense Minister and No. 1 military strongman.

Bananas & Barter. Then came an effort to cope with Indonesia's chaotic currency. Since the coup attempt, the rupiah's black-market price has soared from 10,000 for one U.S. dollar to a still-climbing 30,000. Rice prices rocketed from 310 rupiahs per liter last summer to the current high of 2,000 rupiahs. The generals announced that over the next six months, all old rupiahs would be withdrawn from circulation and replaced by new rupiahs at a rate of one new rupiah for each 1,000 old. The move would have limited value, since the lopping off of three zeroes was a mere invitation to shopkeepers to adjust their prices accordingly, for all the government's admonitions against such action. Many merchants simply closed.

Koti's cutting edge would at least reduce the bulk of bank notes Indonesians have had to lug around with them. But far more was needed to revamp the entire price-wage structure and provide incentives to restore production to decaying plantations and mines. Though the peasantry survives happily enough on bananas, breadfruit and barter, few city dwellers today can make ends meet without handouts of rice, free housing and cash from their employers.

Friends & Enemies. One way to aid the economy would be to end the "confrontation" with Malaysia and Singapore, a Sukarno fancy that took 20% of Indonesia's 390 billion rupiah budget last year. That the generals are thinking of terminating the expensive program of armed hostility came out fortnight ago, when the Foreign Ministry casually offered to negotiate with the states of Malaysia and with newly independent Singapore. The offer was rejected by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak as an attempt to "disintegrate the unity of Malaysia," but Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew welcomed it warmly. "Malaysia's friends may be our friends," said Lee, "but Malaysia's enemies need not be our enemies." Encouraged perhaps by Lee's response, the authoritative newspaper Indonesian Herald published an editorial reiterating Djakarta's "position of flexibility" on the confrontation issue.

Whatever the fate of the negotiation offer, the confrontation has gradually withered away. No major incidents have occurred along the 971-mile Borneo border since last June, and the Malay Peninsula has been dead quiet. Last week the only confrontation Indonesia had in the Strait of Malacca was with the Helen Mar Reef. One of the Indonesian navy's Soviet-built frigates ran aground and remained stuck, despite the efforts of two other warships to tow her off. To a passing British patrol vessel, the frigate signaled sadly: "See you at the same place tomorrow."

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