Indonesia's usually cocky President Sukarno seemed tired, nervous and uncertain. While his government's reckless campaign to seize The Netherlands' vast commercial holdings continued apace, Sukarno made his rounds screened by a phalanx of bodyguards, armored cars and secret servicemen. In Surabaya, Sukarno exhorted a rally of 100,000 Indonesians to prepare for hard times. "We must dare!" he cried. "We must start from the bottom. In the next few years we may be short of food, short of clothing." But Sukarno's flamboyance was gone, his melodramatics unconvincing. His audience listened, unmoved.
Each day brought reports of new seizures of Dutch properties. Thirty Dutch-owned steamships were seized in Indonesian waters. Dutch property transfers were placed under stringent control. In Djakarta the Nederlandse Cultuurbank and the last of the "Big Five" Dutch export-import firms were taken over by Indonesian management. The central government ordered some 500 Dutch agricultural estates throughout the islands (sisal, palm oil, spices) placed under the supervision of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture.
Stern Warning. The first seizures had often been carried out by workers from SOB SI and other Communist-led unions encouraged by Sukarno's inflammatory denunciation of the Dutch for their refusal to hand over West Irian (the western portion of New Guinea). But in the crisis' second week, the Indonesian government made clear that when there was seizing to be done, the government would do it. Premier Djuanda sharply toned down Sukarno's "hate-the-Dutch" campaign, said that Dutch citizens and Dutch properties would receive full government protection. SOBSI agitators were told by army and government officials to keep hands off. One summary Djakarta pronouncement put all Dutch enterprises in east Java, central Sumatra and the southern Celebes under direct army control. "This was done," said a central Sumatra Command spokesman crisply, "because the Communists might have tried to create confusion."
However illegal the seizures,, were, by last week the government was clearly determined to give them some ex post facto cover of legality. Indonesian politicians of all parties emphasized that there would and could be no turning back, that the Dutch hold on Indonesia's economy would be broken, no matter what the cost. West Irian had only provided the occasion for a break they considered inevitable.
The cost will be high for Indonesia, as well as for the plundered Dutch. Government officials admitted that they expected an immediate 20% cut in foreign-exchange earnings from seized Dutch agricultural properties. They admitted just as candidly that they would proceed anyway.