Nasution, Gen Abdul Haris (b. 1918). Nasution was pivotal in the foundation, development, and political activities of the Indonesian Armed Forces. A Muslim Batak from north Sumatra, his Bandung Military Academy education and Dutch colonial army service made him one of the few professionally trained officers in the nascent Indonesian military. He was a hero of the independence struggle and conceived and planned the overall strategy of the successful 1948-9 guerrilla war directed by Sudirman, which drove the Dutch to a negotiated handover.
Made army COS in 1950, he was forced out in 1952 when he requested new elections to overcome civilian opposition to an essential but unpopular military rationalization plan. His reappointment in 1955 and the implementation of his reforms provoked rebellions in Sumatra and Sulawesi, an abortive coup, and martial law. The latter saw the army assume key administrative, business, and political tasks in tune with Sudirman's ‘Middle Way’ idea of a ‘dual function’ (political and military) army, central to but not dominating the state. But the army's increasing political power under ‘Guided Democracy’ meant Pres Sukarno increasingly turned to the Communist Party (PKI) as a counterweight, setting him on a collision course with the anti-communist military. Somewhat marginalized after losing operational control of the army in 1962, Nasution escaped assassination in the abortive coup of 1 October 1965, but Sukarno dismissed him as minister of defence in 1966, thereby indirectly leading to his own removal. From 1966 to 1971 Nasution held the prestigious but powerless post of chairman of the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly. Widely respected (as well as distrusted) for his personal incorruptibility, he saw the army as an arbiter, but this led to outright military dominance of the state.
Bibliography
- Crouch, Harold, The Army and Politics in Indonesia (Ithaca, NY, 1988).
- Kahin, Audrey and George, Subversion as Foreign Policy (New York, 1995).
- Sundhaussen, Ulf, The Road to Power (Oxford, 1982)
— Dominick Donald
