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Murba Party (, Proletarian Party) was a '
national communist National communism is a term describing various forms in which Marxism–Leninism and socialism has been adopted and/or implemented by leaders in different countries using aspects of nationalism or national identity to form a policy independent ...
' political party in
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. Crouch, Harold A.
The Army and Politics in Indonesia. Politics and international relations of Southeast Asia
'. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1978. pp. 64–66
The party was founded by
Tan Malaka Ibrahim Simabua Datuak (posthumous) Sutan Malaka also known as Tan Malaka (2 June 1897 – 21 February 1949) was an Indonesian statesman, teacher, Marxism, Marxist, Philosophy, philosopher, founder of Struggle Union (Persatuan Perjuangan) and Murb ...
, Chairul Saleh,
Sukarni Sukarni Kartodiwirjo (14 July 1916 – 7 May 1971) was an Indonesian freedom fighter and activist who demanded independence for Indonesia during the Dutch colonial era and the Japanese occupation, and was the chairman of the Murba Party until ...
and
Adam Malik Adam Malik Batubara (22 July 1917 – 5 September 1984) was an Indonesians, Indonesian politician, diplomat, and journalist, who served as the third vice president of Indonesia from 1978 until 1983, under President Suharto. Previously, he serv ...
in 1948. The history of the party was largely intertwined with that of the powerful
Communist Party of Indonesia The Communist Party of Indonesia (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Partai Komunis Indonesia'', PKI) was a communist party in the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world before its Indo ...
(PKI). Initially relations between PKI and the Murba Party were fluid, but gradually the two parties developed into each other's arch-enemies.Mortimer, Rex.
Indonesian Communism Under Sukarno: Ideology and Politics, 1959–1965
'. Jakarta: Equinox Pub, 2006. p. 376
The Murba Party continued to exist under the New Order, but was merged into the
Indonesian Democratic Party The Indonesian Democratic Party (, PDI) was a political party in Indonesia which existed from 1973 to 2003. During the New Order era, the PDI was one of the two state-approved parties, the other being the Islam-based United Development Part ...
in 1973.


Founding

The 1948
Madiun Affair The Madiun Affair (), known locally as the Communist Party of Indonesia rebellion of 1948 (), was an armed conflict between the government of the self-proclaimed Republic of Indonesia and the left-wing opposition group ''Front Demokrasi Rakyat ...
had resulted in a severe backlash for the PKI. Across
Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
(except in Bantam), a political vacuum emerged on the political left. The followers of Tan Malaka sought to capitalize on this, and on 3 October 1948 the three main constituents of the Tan Malaka-led
Revolutionary People's Movement A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...
(GRR); the People's Party, Poor People's Party and the Independent Labour Party of Indonesia, declared that they would merge to form the unitary Murba Party. The merger was to be completed on 7 November 1948, the anniversary of the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
. The constitution of the party was declared on 12 November 1948. At the time of its foundation the new party had around 80,000 members. The GRR continued to exist separately though, with the Murba Party as one of its affiliates.
Kahin, George McTurnan George McTurnan KahinSometimes referred to as George Kahin or George McT. Kahin. Some, but fewer, sources may also cite him as George M. Kahin. (January 25, 1918 – January 29, 2000) was an American historian and political scientist. He was on ...
.
Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia
'. Studies on Southeast Asia, 35. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2003. pp. 313–314
Whilst Tan Malaka was highly influential in the party, he wasn't formally the leader of the party. At the time of the merger a leadership was formed consisting of Sukarni (president), Sjamsu Harja Udaja (general secretary), Maruto Nitimihardjo (vice president), Sutan Dewanis (second vice president) and Pandu Karta Wiguna (secretary). The Murba Party published two official newspapers, ''Murba'' and ''Massa''. Furthermore, there were guerrilla units linked to the party, which played an important role in the struggle against Dutch rule in
West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
and
Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...
.


Political profile

Although far smaller than the PKI, the Murba Party constituted an important rival to it. The leadership of the Murba Party was largely made up by leaders of mass movements. The young men who led Murba had often been leaders of guerrillas or mass struggles against the Japanese occupation. The party appealed to ex-guerrillas and workers, who were dissatisfied with post-independence developments.
Herbert Feith Herbert Feith (3 November 1930 – 15 November 2001) was an Australian academic and world leading scholar of Indonesian politics. Background Born in Vienna, Austria in 1930, Feith witnessed oppression of the Jews and witnessed Kristallnacht in 1 ...
labelled the profile of the party as 'extreme nationalism and messianic social radicalism (whose inchoateness was only mildly tempered by the Marxist and Leninist theory to which it laid claim), it was a citadel of "oppositionism", the politics of refusing to recognize the practical difficulties of governments'. The Murba Party was
secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...
, and wary of the possibility of increased
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
ic influence in government.


Early 1950s

In March 1951 the party joined the Consultative Body of Political Parties, a broad coalition initiated by PKI that soon became non-functional. During the following year, PKI-Murba relations improved significantly. At the time, Murba guerrilla units still roamed in West Java and held some territories under their control. In February 1952, the party supported a parliamentary motion calling for the opening of diplomatic relations with the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.


1955 elections

The Murba Party suffered a stark setback in the 1955 legislative election. The party obtained 199,588 votes (0.53% of the national vote), and won two seats from Java in the
People's Representative Council The House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia (, DPR-RI or simply DPR) is one of two elected chambers of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the national legislature of Indonesia. It is considered the lower house, while th ...
(down from four seats prior to the elections). After the election, the Murba Party MPs joined the
National Progressive Fraction The National Progressive Fraction was a parliamentary group in the Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. C ...
, a body of ten MPs from Java. In the 1955 Constituent Assembly election, the party obtained 248,633 votes (0.66%) and four seats in the assembly.


Guided Democracy

When President
Sukarno Sukarno (6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of the Indonesian struggle for independenc ...
introduced
Guided Democracy Guided democracy, also called directed democracy and managed democracy, is a formally democratic government that functions as a ''de facto'' authoritarian government or, in some cases, as an autocratic government. Such hybrid regimes are legit ...
in 1957, the Murba Party was the first to declare its outright support to the plan. The Murba Party became one of ten parties that were legal under the Guided Democracy. The Murba Party were highly supportive of President Sukarno during this period, and repeatedly sought to gain Sukarno's confidence and convince him to turn against the PKI. The Murba Party politician and Minister of Education Priyono, became the head of the Guided Democracy Committee. During the 1958
Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia (, PRRI) was a revolutionary government set up in Sumatra to oppose the central government of Indonesia in 1958. Although frequently referred to as the PRRI/Permesta rebellion, the Perm ...
(PRRI) rebellion, Murba Party cadres were seized by PRRI rebels and held at the Muara Labuh detention camp in
West Sumatra West Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. West Sumatra borders the Indian Ocean to the west, as well as the provinces of ...
.
Adam Malik Adam Malik Batubara (22 July 1917 – 5 September 1984) was an Indonesians, Indonesian politician, diplomat, and journalist, who served as the third vice president of Indonesia from 1978 until 1983, under President Suharto. Previously, he serv ...
, one of the founding leaders of the Murba Party, was named as the Indonesian ambassador to the Soviet Union and Poland. Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich, and Sergeĭ Khrushchev.
Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev. Volume 3, Statesman,1953–1964
'. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University, 2007. p. 943
In 1960
Chaerul Saleh Chaerul Saleh gelar Datuk Paduko Rajo (13 September 1916 – 8 February 1967) was an Indonesian politician who served as deputy prime minister during the Sukarno presidency. He was a close confidant of Sukarno, whom he had helped persuade to dec ...
of the Murba Party became chairman of the National Council. He also came to serve as chairman of the National Front.


International shifts

During the November 1962
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
, the Murba Party voiced its support for
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
and declared that the party was willing to send volunteers to help the Cubans. In 1959 the Murba Party had declared that
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
was the state in the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...
with whom it felt closest affinity but with the PKI-Soviet in 1963, the Murba Party reoriented itself towards building relations with the Soviet Union instead. Once it was clear that PKI had sided with the
Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
in the
Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the Cold War. This was primarily caused by divergences that arose from their ...
, one sector of the Murba Party began to negotiate with the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
regarding the possibility that the Murba-led mass organizations could replace PKI mass organizations in pro-Soviet international communist structures. The Murba Party, on its behalf, began calling for the inclusion of the Soviet Union into the Afro-Asian fraternity. These contacts were aided by the fact that the Murba leader Adam Malik had been stationed as ambassador in Moscow. In 1963 Adam Malik returned to Indonesia, and became Minister of Trade.


Conflict with PKI culminates

In April 1964 the Murba Party proposed that a
one-party system A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a governance structure in which only a single political party controls the ruling system. In a one-party state, all opposition parties are either outlawed or en ...
be introduced in
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
, seeking support from President Sukarno for the idea. The underlying purpose of the plan was to eliminate PKI as an independent political force. Parties like the
Indonesian National Party The Indonesian National Party (, PNI) was the name used by several nationalist political parties in Indonesia from 1927 until 1973. The first PNI was established by future President Sukarno. After independence, the new PNI supplied a number of pri ...
and
Nahdatul Ulama Nahdlatul Ulama (, , NU) is an Islamic organization in Indonesia. Its membership numbered over 40 million in 2023, making it the largest Islamic organization in the world. NU is also a charitable body funding schools and hospitals as well as or ...
protested against the proposal, and in the end the Murba Party failed to convince Sukarno to endorse the proposal.Mortimer, Rex.
Indonesian Communism Under Sukarno: Ideology and Politics, 1959–1965
'. Jakarta: Equinox Pub, 2006. p. 113
However, the proposal did gain some quiet support from sectors of the army. Later the same year, when President Sukarno expressed his willingness to include PKI in the government, the Murba Party was one of the parties that voiced its opposition. During this period, the Murba Party was publicly targeted by the PKI. In its anti-price hike mass campaigns the PKI singled out the Murba Party ministers Adam Malik and Chaerul Saleh as responsible. Issues that had aroused the fury of the PKI were the alliances of the Murba Party with
anti-Communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
sectors and anti-Sukarno army officers, the support of the Murba Party for
U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
film imports and the covert Soviet-Murba contacts.


Crackdown on the Murba Party

On 6 January 1965 the government declared that the activities of the Murba Party had been 'frozen'. Murba Party leaders were arrested. The 'freezing' of the Murba Party followed the ban by Sukarno on the 'Body to Promote Sukarnoism' (BPS, in which prominent Murba Party figures had played leading roles). Through its activities in BPS (directed towards the breaking the political influence of PKI), the Murba Party had moved outside the political boundaries of the
Nasakom Nasakom (), which stands for nationalism, religion and communism, was a political concept coined by President Sukarno. This concept prevailed in Indonesia from 1959 during the Guided Democracy Era until the New Order, in 1966. Sukarno's idea of ...
concept of Sukarno's Guided Democracy. Sukarno believed that the BPS campaign had been manipulated by the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
. Following the 'freezing' of the Murba Party, PKI continued ferocious attacks on the party. PKI declared that the Murba Party was a party of '
Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...
ites' and '
imperialist Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power ( diplomatic power and cultural imperialism). Imperialism fo ...
agents'. Demands were raised that the Murba Party ministers be expelled from the government, pro-Murba newspapers be closed and that Murba Party members be expelled from the journalists' union and other semi-official structures.


Under the New Order regime

After the 1965–1966 anticommunist genocide, the Murba Party continued its activities. It was able to retain small pockets of influence. In February 1966, Adam Malik became the Foreign Minister and a Deputy Prime Minister under Sukarno in the Dwikora II & Dwikora III cabinets until July 1966. Under Suharto's rule, the surviving political parties of the 'Old Order' were pressured to consolidate themselves into two political blocs, one Islamic and one 'secular'. The Murba Party was included in the latter category and in March 1970 the Democratic Development Group (''Kelompok Persatuan Pembangunan'') was formed, consisting of the Murba Party, Indonesian National Party (PNI), the
League of Supporters of Indonesian Independence The League of Supporters of Indonesian Independence (, IPKI) was a right-wing nationalist political party in Indonesia established by former Army head General Abdul Haris Nasution as a vehicle for the Indonesian Army to enter the realm of politics. ...
(IPKI), the Catholic Party and the
Indonesian Christian Party The Indonesian Christian Party (), better known as Parkindo, was a Christian politics, Christian political party active in Indonesia from 1950 until 1973, when it was merged to make the Indonesian Democratic Party. Founded by Johannes Leimena and ...
(Parkindo). The Murba Party took part in the 1971 parliamentary election. The party got 48,126 votes nationwide (0.1%), and failed to win any seats. On 10 January 1973 the Murba Party and the other members of the Democratic Development Group merged into the
Indonesian Democratic Party The Indonesian Democratic Party (, PDI) was a political party in Indonesia which existed from 1973 to 2003. During the New Order era, the PDI was one of the two state-approved parties, the other being the Islam-based United Development Part ...
.Fic, Victor Miroslav.
From Majapahit and Sukuh to Megawati Sukarnoputri: Continuity and Change in Pluralism of Religion, Culture and Politics of Indonesia from the XV to the XXI Century
'. Indonesia: the origin and evolution of its pluralism from the Hindu-Buddhist era, through the Islamic period to a modern secular state / Victor M. Fic, Vol. 2. New Delhi: Abhinav Publ, 2003. p. 174
After the New Order fell in 1998, a reincarnation of the party participated in the
1999 Indonesian legislative election Early legislative elections were held in Indonesia on 7 June 1999. They were the first elections since the fall of Suharto and end of the New Order, the first free elections in Indonesia since 1955, and the first and only free legislative electi ...
, but only received 62,006 (0.06%) votes and once more failed to win any seats.


References

{{Former Indonesian political parties 1948 establishments in Indonesia 1973 disestablishments in Indonesia Banned communist parties Communist parties in Indonesia Defunct communist parties Defunct political parties in Indonesia Defunct socialist parties in Asia National communism Political parties disestablished in 1973 Political parties established in 1948