The Smile That Pays

"Why do people make allegations that I am going Communist?" When he put this rhetorical question to a Javanese audience a few weeks ago, Indonesia's President Sukarno knew the answer as well as his critics. Ever since he unveiled his konsepsi to turn the Republic of Indonesia into a "guided democracy" (TIME, March 4), Sukarno's loudest and most effective support has come from the Communists. The President argued that he was riding a three-legged horse unless the Communists (among the top four votegetters in Indonesia) were included in the government, and over a protest of other parties, Sukarno appointed a clutch of Communists and fellow travelers to the National Cabinet, his new super-Cabinet.

Last week, as Sukarno's opponents had predicted, the Communists began to convert presidential smiles into the hard currency of power. In the first of a series of local elections, Indonesia's capital city of Djakarta (pop. 4,000,000) voted in a new municipal council. Two years ago, in Indonesia's first general election, the Communists ran a poor fourth in Djakarta. This time, trading on Sukarno's almost mystic hold over the Indonesian masses, the Reds increased their vote from 96,000 to 135,000, ran second only to the powerful Masjumi (Moslem) Party. Said Surabaya's widely-read Dwaja Post: "This is a bitter lesson in peaceful co-existence."

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