Out Goes the Sultan

The three-year-old Republic of Indonesia, which got its independence from the Dutch before it was ready for it, has a constitution (provisional) and an army (provisional). It has never had a general election. An election might make Indonesia more stable--if Indonesia were stable enough to hold an election.

One man who thought something should be done about this state of near-anarchy is handsome Hamengku Buwono, 40, Sultan of Jogjakarta and Indonesia's Defense Minister. A 24-carat Sultan with an impeccable anti-Dutch background and the strongest man in the government, he decided to pull together at least one corner of the disorganized fabric: the army. The Indonesian army is an unwieldy, unreliable mob of 250,000 poorly armed, badly disciplined ex-guerrillas who grabbed guns to fight the Dutch, stayed on as "soldiers." Enthusiastically backed by his professional high command, the Sultan ordered unfit ex-guerrillas dismissed and the army slimmed into a disciplined, modernized, Western-style force.

Three of its seven divisions promptly revolted against the Sultan Defense Minister while--to avoid charges of mutiny--professing continued allegiance to the chief of state, President Achmad Soekarno. Regiments fought within themselves and against each other.

Confronted with this rebellion, the weak government fired the Sultan's pros, promoted the insurgents, and virtually handed them the army. Overwhelmed by futility, the Sultan last week resigned. History, he said, would judge whether he had been right.

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