Indonesia's swaggering President Sukarno almost never takes off his black military-cut pitji in public: he doesn't like to reveal the fact that he is getting balder as the years go by. But protective covering is not the only item in Sukarno's bag of political tricks. If Indonesia is in mild difficulty, Sukarno blames "Western colonialism"; if the country's difficulties begin to cause visible concern at home, he produces hair-raising tales of Dutch, English and U.S. sabotage; and when things really get bad, he trots out the tired, threadbare but ever-serviceable issue of Irian Barat (Dutch New Guinea).
Last week things were as bad in Indonesia as they have been at any time in the nation's eight years of independence. True to form, Sukarno sent his goon squads out into the street to whip up indignation over the Dutch refusal to hand over Dutch New Guinea. (Says Sukarno: "I don't get it. The Dutch have given us the main building, but they still cling to the garage.") Organized bands of hooligans smeared blood-and-thunder signs on cars and the walls of Dutch-owned shops and Australian homes from one end of Djakarta to the other.
"Sukarno Must Go." The cost of living in Indonesia has shot up 36% in the past six months, 96% since 1953. Cotton textiles are up 40%, the price of rice higher than it has been at any time in 30 years. From Sumatra to Amboina, dissatisfied military leaders stirred in near rebellion. Lieut. Colonel Ventje Sumual, onetime Sukarno favorite who now leads dissident forces in East Indonesia (Celebes, Lesser Sundas and Moluccas), says 'flatly: "Sukarno must go." From Sumatra last week came word of a Communist-inspired attack on Indonesian regular army units stationed in the town of Siantar, 80 miles from the port of Medan.
The attack occurred one night a month ago, but all news of it had been blacked out by censorship. A young pro-Communist lieutenant colonel named Wahab Mocmour, who has recently armed some 1,500 plantation workers, launched a 300-man detachment in a fullscale, all-night attack against the headquarters of the 2nd Regiment of the First Military District. Rebel casualties: 48 killed, an unknown number wounded. The 2nd Regiment lost two dead.
"Startle the World." With the West Irian question soon up for debate at the U.N., the Dutch fortified their case by issuing a joint statement with Australia pledging their governments to cooperate in the administration of their territories on the huge island of New Guinea, "to promote an uninterrupted development" toward self-determination. Warned Sukarno darkly: "If the United Nations fails us we will resort to methods which will startle the world."
This did not seem to impress even his fellow Indonesians. Said Mohammed Natsir, chairman of the powerful Masjumi Party: "A prerequisite to claiming Irian Barat is for us to prove our ability to run a country."
The paint-splashing mob is still faithful to their hero. But among Indonesia's leaders, Sukarno, alienated from his old comrades in arms, sharply challenged by his opponents, is walking an increasingly lonely path, with only the enthusiastic Communists and a handful of docile yes-men for company.