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Indonesia: Promise Her Anything

2 minute read
TIME

Indonesia’s President Sukarno has always had a lively interest in the ladies—both personally and politically. As his ramshackle nation of 90 million begins a new eight-year Socialist “development” plan, Sukarno, who has had a total of four wives and two divorces, confided that he could not “implement this task without the help of women.” In the rosy Socialist future, he promised, every Indonesian girl of marriageable age will have a husband, a radio and a modern kitchen (thus making a piker of Herbert Hoover, who in 1928 campaigned under the Republican slogan that merely promised U.S. women “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage”). Capitalism, Sukarno said disdainfully, is “a man’s world”; only under Socialism do women have plenty of time for “companionship, motherhood and love.” Under a capitalistic society, “marriage has become a difficult economic problem. Many men here would like to marry, but they haven’t the courage because their income is so small.”

Most women in his audiences responded with happy giggles, but a few dissenting voices were heard. In Djakarta a pretty girl sniffed: “I can get a husband without Sukarno’s help.” A disillusioned matron observed, “Sukarno doesn’t know his audience. The majority of Indonesians still have arranged marriages, so husbands are no problem. And I, for one, don’t think a modern kitchen comes with Socialism.” But there was strong evidence last week that Sukarno does know his audience, and especially his women. A poll was conducted to determine “the most popular man” among Indonesians. The easy winner: President Sukarno.

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