The New Konsepsi

Indonesia's President Sukarno seems to believe that a new Konsepsi can cure anything, even the ramshackle government and economy of his sprawling nation of 85.5 million people. In 1957 he proposed that Indonesia be purged of its innumerable troubles through "guided democracy," a procedure that he expounded repeatedly without ever quite explaining. Last week, unable to have his way, Sukarno was abandoning guided democracy for a new concept which, instead of "burying" the rival political parties, would only be intended to "simplify" them.

The problem is one that bothers every new nation -reconciling the need for system and order with democratic procedures when no one has much experience in such matters. Worked out in collaboration with his able Prime Minister Djuanda and National Council Chief Ruslan Abdulgani,

Sukarno's new plan aims at reforming the parliament before the next election. Of parliament's 300 members, half will be selected from "functional" groups (trade unions, business organizations, women's clubs, the armed forces), the other half nominated as prospective members of parliament by political parties. The functional list will then be screened by a government coordinating agency and passed on to Sukarno himself, who has the authority to arrange the order in which candidates will appear on the ballot.

Voters will cast two ballots, one for political parties (not individual candidates), the other for functional groups. In actual practice, Sukarno will have the authority to hand-pick half the members of parliament. The chief losers under the new system will be the Moslem Masjumi Party, many of whose leaders backed the "rebellion of the colonels" that still flickers in the outer islands, and the Communists. For the Reds the new Konsepsi is also a bitter blow, since under the old system they had been confident of winning the next elections and coming to power legally. But Red Boss D. N. Aidit was obviously under instructions from Peking not to go into opposition against Sukarno and the efficient Indonesian army under anti-Communist Lieut. General Abdul Haris Nasution.

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