As the seventh year of Indonesian independence drew to a close, the world's fourth largest democracy (pop. 80 million) was behaving something like a banana republic. "I am certain," said Indonesia's handsome President Soekarno, in a sharp departure from his customary exuberance, "that if this sickly situation persists, conditions will become ripe for a revolution."
The Cabinet of goateed Premier Ali Sastroamidjojo was all but impotent, its members amounting to little more than messenger boys for the bosses of eight bickering political parties. Grafting had become so much of a public scandal that...
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