Book Review: Far East: The Decline of Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Author | B. B. Hering |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900139 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REvIEws
119
Physically,
Eric
Chou
has
already
escaped.
After
spending
most
of
the
time
between
1953
and
1957
in
communist
jails
on
the
mainland,
he
finally
managed
to
persuade
his
masters
that
he
was
sufficiently
loyal
to
the
communist cause
to
carry
on
his
work
as
a
journalist
for
a
communist
newspaper
in
Hong
Kong.
But
from
1957
he
still
remained
enmeshed
in
communist
intrigues
in
Hong Kong,
until
in
1961
he
flew
to
London
to
get
away
from the
haunting
fear
that
Chinese
communist
officials
can
instil
in
those
who
have
been
prisoners
of
the
Peking
regime.
With
Mr.
Chou,
a
likable
journalist
known to
many of
the foreign
community
in
Hong
Kong,
the
Chinese
brainwashing
techniques
did
not
succeed.
He
could
not
drown
out
his individualism
for
the sake
of
the
Chinese
communist
state.
He,
like
many men
who
have
escaped
from
the
mainland,
believed
firmly
that
the
communists
had
done
a
better
job
than
the Nationalist
regime
of
Chiang
Kai-shek,
but
he
could
not
come
to
terms
with
communism
because of
the fantastic
political
pres-
sures
that
are
brought
to
bear
upon
the
individual
by
this
totalitarian
system.
The
weakness
of
A
Man
Must
Choose
is
the
endless
passages
describing
in
minute
detail
Mr.
Chou's
ordeals
in
jail.
He
obviously
suffered
so
much
mental
anguish
during
the
years
away
from
his
wife
and family
that
it
was
impossible
for
him
to
view
China
under
commu-
nism with
any
real
objectivity.
But
the
strength
of
the
book
is
that
it
bears
out,
once
again,
the
one
and
only
undeniable
fact
about
China-
that
this
land
is
many
things
to
many
people.
Toronto
FREDERIcK
NossAL
THi
DmCLLNR
OF
CONSTITUTIONAL
DEMOCRACY
IN
INDoNEsIA.
By
Herbert
Feith.
1962.
(Ithaca:
Cornell
University
Press.
Toronto:
Thomas
Allen.
xx,
618pp.
$9.50)
In
the
past
four years
Indonesia
has
steadily
retreated
from
par-
liamentary
government
toward
a
form
of
thinly
veiled
dictatorship
euphemistically
called
"guided
democracy".
During
the
closing
decades
of
Dutch
colonial control
the
demand
for
a
truly
representative
parliamentary
body
had
always
been
para-
mount
with Indonesian
nationalists.
After
the
demise
of
Dutch
power
a
new
provisional
constitution
reflected
the
primary
importance
attached
to
Parliament
and
the
executive's
responsibility
to
it.
But
after
a
period
of
economic
retrogression
and
provincial
insurrection
President
Soekarno
has
come
to
embrace
the
idea
that
Western
parliamentarian-
Ism
is
unsuitable
for
Indonesia
and
that
instead
a
system
more
in
harmony
with the
Indonesian
character
should
be
established. Hence-
forth
Soekarno ordered
Parliament
dissolved
and
late
in
June
1960
installed
a
new
hand-picked
Parliament.
The
causes
of
this
growing
authoritarianism
in
Indonesia
are
exposed
with painstaking
detail
in
Dr.
Feith's
new
study.
In
the
author's
view
the
Wilopo
cabinet
forms
the
watershed
in
Indonesian
governmental
history
because
it
represents
the
crucial
point
To continue reading
Request your trial