Emerald of The Equator: An Indonesian TL

[SkylineDreamer]

The Nine Blue Years: An American Game Changer

21st Nov 1975 - 20th Jan 1985​

James Earl Carter was a newcomer for Washington D.C, intended to arbitrate between the coalition government between the old foes of Republican and Democratic Party, Carter has grown himself to mature as the nation’s Chief. Series of occurrences befell in 1976 marked his way towards the presidency, and surpassed the 8-year limit of the Constitution.

As a replacement for Haldeman's inevitable resignation, Carter entered the White House with the nation under gloom. A president had been assassinated, and the replacement had regressed all his plans, only to expose a disgrace later on. The nation had been destabilized because of the prevailing events. Campaigns overseas are halted with a lack of management from home. In-home itself, the economy was transforming into disorder. A slowdown was happening, and the public had no spirit.

Carter’s first aim was to cut off any extraneous expenses. The first he did was deregulation in several sectors. Airline Act opened up the sector to the public entirely, while the trucking industry was privatized gradually. Carter also slowly managed the instability dilemma, rallying Democrats and Republicans to unite, slowly forming the new party system against the Conservatives.

The election of 1976, albeit very close, was Carter’s ticket to resolve all issues. He announces Home Anew, a series of domestic policies that would shape America thoroughly. He reduced military spending and redirected the money to combat the vulnerable economy. He extended the public works, giving vocation to 5 million who lost their positions. Moreover, the Americans civil engagement in Palestine caused the embargo of oil from the UASR. The oil price had soared up, and the energy crisis happen.

Different from how Carter solved monetary problems, he disentangled the energy crisis much sharper. He rapidly pushed for an Energy Act. The act expected the dangers of reliance on conventional resources, and quickly adapt to find new alternative ways to overcome. He campaigned for solar and wind energy in America. He concluded that alternative sources, such as nuclear, could alleviate the energy crisis while figuring out various car fuels for consumption. Providentially, several farmers from Tennessee discovered that biomass could be transformed into a fuel similar to crude oil. They called this ‘biofuel’ and realised that this alone could clear the crisis instantly. Carter, a former farmer himself, supported wholeheartedly this idea and promptly passed the Biomass Act to establish biofuel refineries. One slight catch for biofuel was the car engines were not designed to drink biofuel for combustion. Therefore, Carter announced the following regulations to increase blue-collar employments to convert several car specs necessary so that it could use biofuel.

Carter signing the Biofuel Act

Carter campaigning for Solar Energy​

Coming off to 1980, Carter’s accomplishments in the Energy Crisis was outstanding. With relatively small flow from Iran and the Gulf States, America could replenish its oil consumption. Uniquely, the United States became the forefront in green energy, inventing power plants that use wind and solar power. Likewise, the nation’s economy was rebuilding itself. Albeit lagging a bit, the economy had recovered. Carter commended East Asia’s booming growth that America’s economy could return to the pre-stagnation era.

The President acclaimed his landslide victory in 1980, was not determined not only the success domestically, but also in foreign relations. The Democrats had become a vanguard for promoting the newer, revised, version of the Monroe Doctrine. Under the Peanut Farmer’s name, Jimmy Carter reshaped America’s interventionist and superiority movement. He put military and defence for domestic shielding against foreign powers. Abroad, America would sell campaigns as a business, giving nations protection while demanding compensations. In Iran, a strong military presence was maintained with a steady flow of oil. In Indonesia, the government reduced strict laws for Americans to migrate or work there. The States, once again, find friendly allies in Latin America. Even without backed coups, interventions, or political movements, the US managed to ally most of South America in his first term. Her pragmatic opinions, no matter socialist or liberal, appeal to nations that once previous administrations despised. By Carter’s last term, Nicaragua had become a small dot of resistance against the US, almost on the brink of destroying itself.

The US, also, tried to visit African nations to join the American sphere. As the continent was flooding with West Red* or East Red**, America had gotten a horrible glimpse that the continent may dislike America. After the calamitous South African War, America retried to befriend newly independent Angola and Mozambique. In the East, Carter talked with dictators of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. In France’s backyard, Carter tried to infiltrate from agitated pro-independent Moroccan separatists or secure liberated nations like Ghana, Benin and Biafra.

Carter's visit to Biafra​

Carter also considered an alliance in democratic European partners obligatory, while attempt not to bring forth the continent into another global war. By the end of Carter’s term, he secured the EA as American allies. Nations like Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands conduct close relations with the US. Regarding France, Carter maintained his plan to dissolve the nation from being too powerful. Conveniently, the Germans have been funding nationalist movements, which gain traction due to a scare for extreme multiculturalism.

Nevertheless, his later presidency was marked with controversies, as he pushed for several socialist laws. He restructured the taxes, the rich would pay more while the poor were subsidized. Public education was mandatory for all citizens, despite in the Deep South private Christian schools thrived. He passed the National Health Insurance, a mix of private and public healthcare. This was mainly because the Democrats keep criticizing Carter’s pro-left behaviour. However, his last campaign was a successful one; revoking the space race spirit.

Carter’s excellent administration really helped the party to win the government once again. After Reagan’s withdrawal from politics due to ailing age, William Buckley Jr. attempted to beat Carter-Church in 1980. He failed humiliatingly, the worst in Conservative history. in 1981, Vice President Frank Church passed away from pancreatic cancer, Carter picked the astronaut-politician John Glenn as the successor. In 1984, John Glenn campaigned for the presidency. He battled with James R. Schlesinger from the Conservative Party, a close aide of Nixon and Reagan himself. In the election, John Glenn won with a considerable margin, securing another 4 years in the White House.

John Glenn
==================================​

Here is the American Update I've longed to post. Next up we would jump into another continent.

*=France
**=the Soviet Union

1984 Election Results

 

[SkylineDreamer]

The Atlantic Pact

Everywhere in the world, nations either conjoined collectively to form an association, or fought together to devise a massive mess in the region. France, the Soviet Union, and the United States consolidate to gain influence. France holds its base indefinitely in most of the Middle East, Thailand, and North Africa. They also swayed Yugoslavia and some Warsaw Pact members, shown as more appealing rather than the authoritative Eastern brother. The United States controls the Pacific Sea, and attempting to securing the Indian Ocean from Indonesia and Australia, and securing the Atlantic from a network of influence to West African sovereigns. The 1970s was a time to pick a side for everyone, yet in several cases nations weren’t desired to be sided on. Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom were three particular nations. A mixture of ultra-nationalism and liberalism, these nations couldn’t find a superpower to befriend, so they befriend themselves.

The Spanish Civil War in 1936 resulted in a victory for Franco and his nationalist faction. Franco formed a Spanish State with himself as the dictator or caudillo. The era of Franco meant extensive political repression, which shaped the dark history of the Spanish State. By the start of the 1950s, Franco's state had become less violent. However, his rule was still strict and powerful, as almost all political oppositions were heavily suppressed with police enforcements.

As the nation was on the brink of bankruptcy after the civil war, Spain was convinced to adopt a free market economy. The United States threatened an economic embargo if the planned economy was adopted. As both France and the Soviet Union had sour ties with the Mediterranean nation, Spain finally relented and push for fewer regulations. At the end of the 50s, the Spanish State suffered massive inflation due to the free market. Franco decided that searching for allies in Europe was vital. West Germany was appealed to with a Spanish market and opted to support the nation. From then on, Spain resumed on to an economic boom which was continuing until Franco’s death.

The 142m high Torre de Madrid, an icon for the "Spanish Miracle" ​

Another factor of why the Spanish State continued to survive was because of the Red Scare. Portugal at that time went communist in the early 50s. With France also went communist in the 60s, Spain was wedged by hostile neighbours. Franco, meanwhile, determined this as an opportunity. It was an opportunity to eradicate Spain’s entire communist sympathizers which still dominated Catalonia. Kennedy shrugged with Spain’s purges, and Nixon thoroughly supported in favour of a Spanish friend in Europe. Yet, as Shafer rose to the presidency, everything would change for Spain.

Shafer’s radical democratic view changed Franco’s opinion about the US. Formerly, it was a hegemon that needed Spain to endure to maintain Europe’s fragile anti-communist nations. As Germany and her Central European allies kept on defending their grounds, Spain was a perfect tool to counterbalance the trend. Spain, deemed the US untrustworthy, decided to contact a rival of the Empire, the United Kingdom. In the 60s, the United Kingdom was having its downturn. The Wars in Indonesia was not going in favour of the nation, let alone the US intervened against the UK. Indeed, by 1966, almost the entire Empire disintegrated. Leaving some dominions in America and Africa to cherish. Prior's Cabinet, later on, proved to have a mutual interest in Spain, and the UK-Spanish relation blossoms.

Francisco Franco’s untimely death in 1978 forced Luis Carrero Blanco to succeed as the nation’s Caudillo, requested by Franco itself. Blanco was a navy officer, and native to the Northern Regions, most loyal Franco supporters. However, upon rising as Franco’s second man, Blanco saw the heartbreaking atrocities which shouldn’t have happened and determined a slow change into democracy. Upon his rule, Blanco firstly appointed a Carlist claimant, Juan Carlos I, as Blanco’s successor. It fixed a Spanish transition into a monarchy one more, a perfect government system to preserve traditions and cultures adopted by Franco. Moreover, Blanco opened restrictions on political parties, opening them slowly by granting free speech and less police oversight.

Caudillo Blanco with Juan Carlos, Prince of Spain​

Blanco promised his nation a general election by his projected abdication in 1988, ten years after the death of Franco. He opened restriction on political societies in universities, gaining favour in youths. He slowly cut extensive and destructive military influence in the bureaucracy, which formed corruption. Crooks which have proven to harm the Spanish administration are punished orderly, and Blanco persisted for a reliable government. Following the German Model, Blanco massively promotes a liberal governmental system, which silenced separatist groups in Catalan and Basque can finally express their ideas. His reformist attitude, ultimately, caused a swell in popularity among the youths, while causing a massive uproar to the elderly.

Recent developments around Morocco caused Blanco to pay attention to Spain’s colonial holdings. Still controlling Spanish Equatorial Guinea and Spanish Sahara, Spain went with France’s path of retaining all colonies. Equatorial Guinea was affected dearly by the Ebola epidemic happening in Congo and nearly devastated Spain if not for Franco’s immediate island quarantine. The native population struggled heavily from the pandemic. Yet, Spanish migrants entered in the aftermath of the epidemic, and the sole purpose of isolating Equatorial Guinea had been clear; wiping off the native population. Unfortunately, as the United Nations only noticed the virus on the continent, the native population can’t protest while the white percentage in Equatorial Guinea rises.

In the Sahara, Spain was lucky that France kept their colonies. The Moroccan separatists, and also irredentists, had been contained by the French communist government and was kept so that indirectly helped Spain’s control in Africa. However, as the United States started to fund Moroccan separatists by the middle 70s, Franco has caught a fear that maybe this colony would not withstand the decolonization wave. Blanco, meanwhile, had already proclaimed that if Morocco is granted independence under the time of his administration, the Spanish State would negotiate with the Moroccans to give some unwanted lands.

The Spanish State announced a possible alliance with the UK and Portugal officially in 1978. They named the alliance ‘Atlantic Pact’, and their main purpose was to protect tradition and preserve the imperial legacy. Although Spain is the main character of this alliance, the formation would be impossible without the UK’s tumultuous road recently.

Arthur Kenneth Chesterton was appointed Prime Minister after the British Unionist Party secured a majority in the snap-election of 1972. However, he was not a politician supported by the house, his former ties with Mosley discouraged any. Despite his policies were decent, as time progresses Parliament underestimated his leadership and accuse him of yet a Mosley. He had stated that he split from Mosley after being disillusioned, but the Parliament remained opposed. Moreover, his isolationist stances got Britain to lost almost all of her colonies, a humiliation comparing to Communist France. Rather than plummeting the BUP’s popularity, his Cabinet was short-lived, and by 1974 he was ousted by his own party. The BUP was a young party, and have a sounding youth majority both in party seats and outside. However, juvenility was a benefit for Chesterton's contender. His contender, a former Conservative politician called James (Jim) Michael Leathes Prior, gained ranks inside the BUP. He later replaced Chesterton to rule the nation.

Jim Prior​

Jim Prior faced copious problems when ascended as Prime Minister. The country was in deep resentment, having lost the Empire and her dignity. Prior also faced with the nation’s economic downturn, as the United States provoke isolation to Britain, which only effective in American trading. Luckily, the United Kingdom forged a good relationship with the rising German power. The Queen had conversed with the Elected-King of Germany soundly, and a friendly relation ensues. Therefore, Jim Prior adopted a different path from Spain. Jim Prior reform the economy by maintaining the union powers. The government passed a planned economy for the first four years, effectively stomping British capitalism. Jim Prior passed more laws regarding monetary policy, devaluating the currency to appease foreign investors.

Jim Prior’s second tool was to use France as the driving spirit of Britain. Britain has protected France since the 1900s, but France decided to betray Britain’s democracy in the last few years. That alone, have provoked massive resentment, and late a spirit of revenge. Jim Prior exploited this spirit to push Britain to work harder, and cooperate better. The first four years proven to be a massive success, Britain had once again regained her economic health, and unemployment had shrunk to an all-time low.

Trade Unions in Britain. Trade Unions in the 70s were somewhat bolstered by Prior's policies, gaining support from Labourers.​

In foreign policy, Jim Prior was an ardent imperialist. He declared ‘Save the Empire at all cost, retreat not an inch’. He stubbornly kept Malta, Hong Kong, and some other British Overseas Territories. The US had seized all British possessions in the Pacific, except the Pitcairn Islands. Jim Prior worsened relations with the US after attempts of boosting the republican* movements in Canada and the East Caribbean. Also, in 1975, the Irish Revolutionary Army surged guerilla warfare in Belfast, igniting the Ulster Crisis.

Jim Prior was fully committed to staging direct warfare with Ireland itself. But the UN was seeing Britain’s actions. The US, the Soviet Union and France all wished for not another imperialist Britain and passed extreme measures to stale Britain. The public in Britain saw this as a massive provocation, and Jim Prior had the perfect tool to maintain dominance in the Parliament. Although the Ulster Crisis continues even until the 1980s, the BUP’s popularity increased to a whopping 76.3% in the nearest 1984 election.

Britain’s oldest and most loyal ally is Portugal. Although Britain had undergone massive changes in politics, the kingdom of Portugal maintained its best relations. Therefore, Britain asked Spain to invade Portugal in 1975, which made King Duarte Nuno return to his homeland. Despite losing Angola and Mozambique, Portugal was happy in having her last colonial empire with Spain and Britain as friends. Portugal reestablished free elections, with the communist party banned and heavily oppressed. Recently, the Liberal government has been pushing for an Iberian Customs Union, securing a free-pass in Spain and Gibraltar, still under the UK.

===========================​

* Not to be confused with the US Republican party, this is a pro-republican, meaning pro-presidential and anti-imperial movements.

We'll stay in Europe for a few upcoming posts because it would be essential for an important event.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

An Exceptional Balkans

Bismarck once had spoken that the Balkans was always the precursor for major wars. Yet, as the Cold War was getting transfixed with the battle between France, the Soviet Union, and the United States, this region was eerily tranquil.

Yugoslavia is the current largest nation in the Balkans. The nation was a union between ethnicities and religion, fragile terms of integration. In 1948, the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia split from the Soviet Union’s influence as their leaders fought in opinions. President Josip Broz Tito then consolidated his nation, granting autonomous status towards Vojvodina & Kosovo, then under the Serbian administration. A change in constitution renamed Yugoslavia into the Socialist Federal Republic. Tito tried to discuss with non-aligned nations a possible alliance. However, as he saw that those selected nations have already chosen, the President decided to be the Switzerland of the Balkans, at least for a moment.

Tito handled the presidency with an iron fist, he abused his powers to eliminate critiques. He cracked down nationalist youth movements, which gained prominence after the re-rise of a German monarchy. He increased police-oversight to regions that were high in resistance. Edvard Kardelj, a minister of his, was ousted due to criticisms against the government’s authoritative manner.

A Croatian protest against the Yugoslav government, 1974
​

As absolute powers corrupt absolutely, so tensions between rivals created thus. Tito’s minister debated themselves on a constitutional change by 1978, questioning the nation’s path towards more decentralization or centralization. Aleksander Ranković, Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia at that time, demanded a centralization effort. He suggested that giving more autonomy to regions could inevitably lead to a dissolved Yugoslavia, which was no interests of anyone. Ranković’s opposition, Stane Dolanc expressed his intentions to make Yugoslavia less Serbian, and more diverse.

The 1978 Constitution of Yugoslavia was amended to give power to the Federal government and received a more dominant stance of the central government. As a result, tensions to regions outside of Serbian control sparked sporadically. A small concentrated group of young rascals had turned into a decent political struggle. Bosniaks, Albanians, Hungarians, and Croats, before had a fair share of ethnic protests, now had a strong quantity. However, Tito’s methods of controlling these folklores simple: more police control.

On the 19th September 1980, the President-for-life of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, died. His death was an exciting one for suppressed protesters, and they could finally shout soundly. Moreover, as Tito’s death was unaccounted for, a power grab occurred between Ranković’s partner Marko Nikezić and Stane Dolanc. The Federal Parliament and the Federal Ministry halted into a complete stop because nothing would progress under the dispute between who will be the next president.

The succession crisis was proven to be a costly one for Yugoslavia. For some time, there was no executive to govern, and as they elected, they will be ousted soon by the divided parliament. The trend caused a substantial stagnation in Yugoslavia’s development, savaging the economy, stability and prosperity on the developing nation. Protests, not only ethnical ones, soon rose, they demanded a stable and proud government, mirroring an image to Tito’s previous administration.

Moreover, reported foreign interference also tried to make Yugoslavia as weak as possible. German spies contacted with underground separatism leaders, mostly Slovenes and Croats, to fight against this ‘weak Serbian government’. In Novi Sad, Hungarian activists were brewing their sly chance to reclaim lands. Unfortunately, Poland’s discrete far-right movement had gained engagements on destabilizing Yugoslavia. The Soviet Union was upholding Marko Nikezić and was giving every penny to the faction. As for Stane Dolanc, due to bad dialogue with French foreign minister during his visit, this centralization faction only weakens gradually in time.

Yet, another contender rose into the Yugoslavian government, which was Lieutenant General Veljko Kadijević. He joined the Yugoslav Partisans in 1941, following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia. In 1943, he joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). He was given the task of performing important duties almost immediately. He remained an active soldier after the war and became popular inside the military. He sought for a Defense Minister in 1980, months before Tito deceased, yet he was turned down due to insufficient ranks. He was later moved into Pristina, commandeering his rebel-stomping division.

General Veljko Kadijević, 1983
​

From his base in Pristina, Kadijević marched to the capital with his division. He had no Yugoslavian forces to immobilize his army. He arrived at Belgrade on 4th of March 1982. A military coup happened in the following weeks, and Kadijević instated a Bosniak politician Raif Dizdarević. Together with the self-promoted General Kadijević, Raif promoted a Yugoslavian identity superior to mere Serbian dominance. He promised of ethnic tensions no more. This certain President also affirmed for Yugoslavia to rise again, as a regional power, a Balkan dominance. Yugoslavia, after decades of abstinence in seeing other nation’s situation, finally noticed how different the Balkans are now.

President Raif Dizdarević
​

As Poland had become Soviet Union’s bolshie satellite. The Warsaw Pact was banking all the money into suppressing the perpetual far-right underground resistance and making sure that Warsaw Pact stays headquartered in Warsaw. Therefore, it made some changes in policy for member nations, one of them in Romania.

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej ascended as the nation’s leader after king abdication in 1947. From then on, he would push for a radical pro-Stalinist movement and make Romania be from an agrarian powerhouse to industrialist socialist country. He also pushed for more independence efforts, especially in his late rule, due to Khrushchev methods of De-Stalinization. Romania opened up trade with Western nations, particularly the United States.

In 1965, the president died of lung cancer in Bucharest. His next-in-line, General Secretary of the Communist Party and President Manea Mănescu did a total opposite of Gheorghe’s administration and pushed for inseparable relations to the Soviet Union. He restructured Romania’s Five Year Economic Plans, instead of pushing for the Comecon’s objective to Romania: a breadbasket of the communist world. It was only in late 1980, that Manea contemplated with the Party of Romania’s second industrialization attempt. However, the high production in harvest idled such haze manner.

The Danube-Black Sea Canal, apart from Manea's Government Plan of becoming Comecon's breadbasket
​

In Greece, the Kingdom of Greece outlawed any pro-Communist movements after a devastating civil war after WW2. Greece was included in the Marshall Plan and joined NATO until its disbandment. The parliamentary constitutional monarchy went as a stable government. In 1965, however, a failed military coup occurred. The Federal Kingdom of Germany befell to clinch enough influence to kill the power grabbers. The Greek Monarchy after the tried coup pushed for more liberalization and pro-German economy.

Greece also started to pay attention to events happening in Cyprus. As the nation finally left out from Turkish influence by 1973, Cyprus had become Greece’s small ally in the Mediterranean. Cypriot’s victory to the Turks also boosted Greece’s imperial ambitions, eyeing the prize towards the land lost for centuries, Konstantinopel. The Liberal Party, since 1958, has won every single election. Greece’s slow but steady growth assuage foreign investors and gained satisfying recognition to the United States. As the key to the Black Sea, Greece holds an important location to curb Russia’s maritime outreach, effectively killing the navy’s space.

A bizarre fate took place in another southern nation of Yugoslavia, Albania. The socialist republic had been Enver Hoxha since the end of WW2. Yet, the rule was divided into three distinctive phases. Before 1960, Enver was a close associate of the Soviet Union. It had become the Warsaw Pact’s access to the sea and beyond. Yet Hoxha split from the Soviet Union and became pro-France. The economy shifted from planned to liberalization efforts, similar to the French model. However, in 1976 the First Secretary pushed for more capitalization endeavour. He was intrigued by an economic relationship with the Germans. He deregulates the economy, opens up banks, and actually planned for diversification of the political parties.

Enver Hoxha during his rally in 1981
​

Yugoslavia seemed very isolated from all those turns of events. However, President Raif ascertained with this Balkan dominance, and it would start from weakening the Warsaw Pact itself.

============================​

Most of Europe is almost done, around two more chapters. After that, we would move continent.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Andropov Decade

This nation was originated after the bloody WW1 and became a contesting superpower against the United States by the end of WW2. The Soviet Union, the so-called leader of the socialist world, has now undergone massive turmoil as France was beginning to change the world’s view of the nation. Kremlin’s influence all across Europe was weakening as all those other members of the communist organization were intrigued by France’s superiority. However, Andropov's steps were surpassed the French initial objectives, moving the odds towards the other.

The KGB agent Yuri Andropov joined the Communist Party in 1944. In 1947, he was elected Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelo-Finnish SSR. He was ruthless in dissidents of the Soviet Union and continued to be a nightmare for democratic movements all across the Comecon. He took part in killing uprisings all across the Warsaw Pact, on the early eras of democratic protest in Poland and Hungary. Especially in Hungary, when demonstrators were brutally executed under an ‘anti-government’ pretence.

His rise was substantially caused by his cordial connection to Nikolai Ignatov. In party lobbies, Ignatov would mostly be the ‘good negotiator’, while Andropov became that certain strict politician. As Ignatov’s popularity grew, so does Andropov. In several occasions, Ignatov would disagree in Andropov’s stance on ruthless oppression against democratic youths; he was pragmatic after all. However, Andropov favoured Ignatov deeply because of the Secretary’s policies which reclaimed the Soviet’s prestige in the Space Race.

Domestically, Ignatov pushed for similar reforms as Khruschev did before. He passed laws on giving slight deregulation of business and less government control on factories. He finally ended concentration camps for political exiles, gulags as the other name, and finally put peace into the raging faction between radical Stalinist and ardent anti-Stalinist reformers. The Soviet Union was stabilizing itself from the caucus of authoritarianism and was gradually moving for a deregulated path.

Ignatov’s popular policies were essential to Andropov’s rule to be stable. So, he just continued his policies after succeeding the General Secretary. However, Andropov had his own ideas about the socialist world, and how to combat the increasing French influence into the red society. As France stabilizes herself, she has shown her posture as another socialist power in the world, bridging between the Soviet Union’s socialist ideologies with pro-business attitudes derived from the old liberal Western self. As France attempted to make the Wallonians into a French sphere, France has been stealing influence from Cominform members, effectively waning the Warsaw Pact, Comecon and everything the Soviet Union has established.

Comecon Flag​

The anarchist resurgence in Belgium also caused Poland to burn. As the fuel of abhorrence among Poles to the Soviet Union was extremely high, so does the spirit to abandon the Soviet’s sphere. Poland kept nagging the Soviet Union from the protestors, granting the nation as the most militarized location ever done by the Soviet Union. Andropov will not desert Poland, as it would hurt the Warsaw Pact’s significantly, let alone that the organization now has no definite purpose after NATO’s disbandment.

Obstacles continue to meet Andropov when more socialist nations underwent a wave of protesters. In Finland, another mob that demands the ousting of Soviet rule in the government became a proper issue both for the Soviet Union and the Finland government itself. Moreover, it was later proven that these protestors were supported by Sweden. In Hungary, another wave of protestors happened as Andropov was ruling; they don’t want that ruthless man. The Baltic states also happened to find troubles as they gained attention to German’s appeal to form their fantasy ‘The United Baltic Nation’. Indeed, as the Soviet Union is the monster for most of them, anything is preferable and fine for everyone, even the particular nation which probably will be another German satellite.

The proposed Baltic State by German monarchists, appeasing anti-Russian stance to secede from the Soviet Union​

Andropov realized that he needed to address the Soviet’s declining influence in the world. He noticed the United States’ brilliance in withdrawing NATO, effectively making the Soviet Union another rival, this time a rival with similar beliefs. So, after the Soviet Union has focused on the successful Moon Landing on 29 March 1971, Andropov shifted his views to build up the Soviet Union and the Comecon. On his speech in the week after the landing, he declared the Comecon to have 'extensive refurbishment' and kill 'all corrupt bureaucrats'.

Firstly, he introduced a series of reforms done inside the Soviet Union to attain trust and appeal to other Soviet Socialist Republics. He cracked down Soviet labourers that lack of discipline and full of tardiness, putting absentee employees into arrest. He opened criticism of the Soviet Union, economically, to the public, resulting in the populace be able to share opinions about methods of solving the stagnation. He also promoted a farmer’s incentive to increase their productivity. For several years, crop productivity in the Soviet Union decline due to a series of bad management. Furthermore, irrigation in some parts of the Soviet Union was reported to be wasteful and ineffective. In almost five years, Andropov travelled throughout the Soviet Union, fixing the irrigation system that deemed prodigal. He ordered some reconstruction of the Karakum Canal, making them less porous and faster.

Karakum Canal 1966, before the reconstruction by Andropov​

Secondly, he issues a massive 'thirty-year plan' for Comecon members to improve the organization's among each other. That meant specialization on some nations. They unquestioned Romania's arable farming land, granting them the 'new breadbasket', succeeding Ukraine. In Bulgaria, Andropov exploited the nation's pseudo-liberal policies to make them the 'technology valley' of Comecon, funding more scientific projects for the Warsaw Pact's military, or the second round of Space Race between the United States. For each of the Baltic States, they given projects regarding their excelled resources, Estonia's timber and commercial market with Latvia's and Lithuania's agricultural farmlands. Poland, meanwhile, was not mentioned in any of those Comecon plans, as Andropov was uncertain of the promise it can be done with Poland after continual insurgence movements.

Bulgarian seaside resorts, also part of the Comecon's grand strategy '30 year plan'​

About the fight against the United States and France, the Soviet Union did something that predecessors haven’t had done before; become completely silent. During the first five years of Andropov’s plan, he programmed calculated political strategy, confirming their dominance in the Red Sea with Eritrea and Ethiopia. Also with a lucky Turkish Revolution in 1973. The Horn of Africa and the Bosphorus had enormous potential for the Soviet Union, to be as both market and posts for expanding the influence. Andropov has also increased relations with North Vietnam, forging ties with the Communist Party there.

Until 1979, the Soviet Union sequentially endured defensively. As problems in Poland and several key members kept emerging, Andropov paid extortionate security measures to secure the Iron Curtain. The nation was revamping its economy and foreign strategy. Called the Andropov Strengthening, the Warsaw Pact was bonded tightly, with large investments from the Soviet Union, making members more supportive of the communist nation.

The Andropov Decade occurred between 1969 and 1979. It marked the Soviet Union’s mainly absence in most of the current crisis. Thus, it manifested France as the second rival of the socialist power, both hungry and demanding of dominance. As the United States remain to confront the French Republic, the Soviet Union sat back and restructure its administration. Nicaragua and other communist movements in South America were rooted towards France, and luckily the situation there had gotten into a geopolitical stalemate, perfect for Soviet’s desires.

The Soviet Union continued its adventurous campaign in October 1979, when they backed the communist revolution in Afghanistan. Followed by an invasion, the Soviet Union succeeded in instating a friendly communist party in power, only to have radical Islamists to start conducting guerilla warfare. In Pakistan, the communist revolution did not go as planned as in Afghanistan with the US in full-front intervention about the ‘Karachi Hostage Crisis’. Fortunately, the Soviet Union finally had a ray of dawn as Jiang Qing announced the return of China into Soviet’s friendly alliance. China was the most valuable ally the Soviet Union may ever get, although Andropov was distressed with Madame Mao’s increasing cultist policies. Yet, as with China, India would also follow. By 1983, India had formally proposed joining the Comecon.

France was terrified as they lost their influence in China and also India, Indochina under Thailand’s small pact had become increasingly endangered with enemies on both fronts. As a result, France moderately pushing for both the Western and Southern Slav’s interests into France, as also reducing tensions with Germany.

The tables have turned for France, they needed to react fast. Yet, a response came first from Germany.

=======================​

Yeah, India is effectively a Chinese ally puppet
One more chapter about Europe, well you can already guess what it is about.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Germany prepares to Roar

Germany, a nation that suffered twice in a defeat, never attested himself a slight surrender towards predestination. The Fatherland has arisen once again, trying a new mixture of democracy and monarchy, blend the old system with the new culture. Germany, once again, was back on its track. Fate has stated Germany to lost both world wars and be divide, fate now says that Germany can be the nation it has wanted for.

The Monarchial Restoration in 1964 purged all radical left; the right had already gone after the Nuremberg Trials. This monarchy resolved to lead the nation under the basis of the old legacy, times where Germany can be a chap of its own, independent, and capable of choosing its own decisions. Now all unified and restructured, the Monarchial Restoration would continue to preserve Germany rapidly. First Interim Chancellor for the Federal Kingdom, Hans Weber, proclaimed the nation to unify itself from the scars of the Cold War. It was extremely tough, considering that now Germany must also consider additional Poles from East Germany’s plot with the Soviet Union.

He, with the CDU coalition, appointed Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia as the leader. Albeit objections from the Hapsburgs family, Germany needed a strong leader, and Prussia was their greatest option. This carried repercussions all the way into New York, France and the Soviet Union demanding sanctions from the United Nations. The organization, however, had its eyes too focused on situations in Africa. They neglected what was happening in Europe. Elected King Louis Ferdinand I, providentially, declared his first directive is not trying to restore this as another German Empire, but confirming democracy of the Bundestag. That created a relief in the international media, some even giving support. In 1968, after the new German Constitution had set, Hans Weber gave his position to Gustav Heinemann as Chancellor. Gustav Heinemann opened business widely to everyone, easing up all regulations towards business. Mittelsand, Germany’s greatest contributor to growth, was also being supported indefinitely from the government. The results were amazing, Germany doubled the average economic growth for almost 10 years, what was a mortifying wasteland had returned as Europe’s most important region.

Germany, not wanting another mistake, preferred to form an economical organization, rather than all those military pact build-ups the nation has done. That has intrigued the Lowlands nations, which saw Britain unfit as their main importer. Belgium also felt graceful with Germany’s interference to protect the monarchy, they whole-heartedly accepted being inside the economic pact which formed as EA later on. Gustav Heinemann resigned of old age in 1970, his successor Kurt Georg Kiesinger continued their policies of building the economy, as also strengthening ties with all other European nations. Chancellor Gustav also noticed profitable ties with the United States, along with the new market in South East Asia. Gustav Heinemann had also determined Indonesia to be Germany’s decent trading partner, trading raw goods with processed ones along with crafty experts.

Germany's automotive Industry
​

Gustav Heinemann, however, suffered massive discernment as he and his party have ignored the status of Saar for years. Belonged to France, the CDU never actually planned anything to reclaim what was rightfully German, and large portions of the population felt Gustav’s inaction as bad. His party proceeded to decline in popularity until in 1973 when the opposition leader, the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany took the government with their own coalition. Helmut Schmidt was announced the new leader of Germany, and events took a hard turn.

Instead of the usual passive mode that Germany has been developing throughout the years, Helmut Schmidt preferably tried for a more dynamic option. He revised the Constitution, making Germany officially a federation of kingdoms. He separated the government and the monarchy and even attempted to reduce monarchial already non-existent power. Yet, he needed the monarchy because of their image of a strong and stable Germany. So, he adopted another outline. The suitable elected Kings of Germany can only be decided from 5 ratified houses. A change of systems would demand the Parliament’s agreement and confidence. For better rotation better stability, King's reign would lengthen to 10 years. However, they must not be elected consecutively or not be elected after 10 years. It improved the stability of the nation, especially that Southern parts of Germany felt unfair from the Northern rulers, which caused the old Lesser German divide.

Helmut Schmidt openly confronted France about Saar and demanded to return with negotiation. France, during that time, was not eager to relent Saar, and tensions soon rose among the two nations again. Helmut Schmidt then openly announced the military to grow again, completely reverse all treaties after the Second World War. In 1980, after continuous growth, stability, and improvement. Germany was not the same as thirty years ago.

The Heart of Europe

Germany had officially surpassed France and the United Kingdom as the industrial powerhouse of Europe in 1981. France had been busy drawing tracks and roads on Africa, which proved France better in Africa. The United Kingdom had been declining since their defeat against the Indonesians. Germany was the Europeans best hope of trading partner, and most nations had already recognized that. Moreover, Germany had now increased its GDP for twice-fold, nearing a trillion dollars at the start of 1984.

Germany’s European Alliance had been Germany’s strong allies, if not last hope, against the growing communism threat East and West. Literally, Germany is surrounded on most sides, remaining Italy which currently ruled by a pro-French government. Despite the misery, Germany managed to pursue relations with the former neutral countries of Scandinavia. They joined Germany’s cause of maintaining democracy in Europe. Germany’s industry surpassed Japan by 1980, becoming the fastest growing nation in the world. Germany has improved its infrastructure accordingly. Extended highway, railway and shipway networks had been established all across the nation. The famous Rhine-Danube canal was being built for connecting ships towards the mountainous regions of Vienna. Germany’s industry also helped the other EA members, all of whom expected in one major sector.

The Netherlands became the forerunner on agriculture and hydroponics. Germany’s non-stop investment and trading for the nation had improved the Netherlands greatly. As most of the land is under the sea, the Netherlands focused on agriculture, improving productivity on limited land. Up north, Norway has established it’s the great fishing industry, becoming a prime example for maritime nations to copy, including Indonesia. In Sweden, the logging sector was thriving as well, giving wood to Germany, which had used it for building purposes.

Norwegian Fishing Industry​

After the death of openness in British culture, pop culture had been gradually moving towards the continent. The Netherlands created a new genre of rock. Strong guitar solos, heavy distortions of the audio, and loudness crept the entire continent. Starting from the 70s, these music references slowly moved from degrading England. A small Flemish band called ‘Malmedy’ promoted ‘Liberty’, which gained popularity among Germanic song-enthusiast, and even arrived on the United States. In Germany, local beer halls introduced more singers and bands, endorsing small music business to thrive. The other genre which gained prominence after the rock-hype was neo-Jazz. This genre, similar to the original Jazz in the United States, offer a new mixture between Jazz and slow rock. Slow upbeat with sad connotations brought the Germans an impression of their history, along with the Netherlands and Belgium. A strong sense of isolated on the continent, only to have a few selected friends shielding each other. The political conditions also helped the music to thrive in Europe, and become one of the greatest hits on the continent. It also spread towards France and Comecon nations, both of those condemned this art and pursed massive control towards this genre.

A Call

In 1979, condition on China and India emerged the Soviet Union the winner against France, formulating the second round of battle with France on the lower hand. General Secretary Andropov was attacking Mitterrand dearly, nearly stealing all of France’s friends in Asia. France tries to retaliate by funding Poland and Slavic nations of Eastern Europe, to try leaving the Russian sphere. Yet, the new Comecon plan had pressured France’s plan. Both the Soviet Union and France, however, needed the central of Europe to be secure, and both of them tries to negotiate with Germany.

From 1981-1984, both France and the Soviet Union tried to appease Germany on establishing a quid-pro-quo. The Soviet Union announced its support towards Germany’s annexation of Saar if Germany wished to befriend France. While France declared a promise of Germany’s 1914 Eastern borders to appease the nation. In addition to it, both of them pushed aggressively day by day, increasing division from the German government.

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, along with King Otto V of Germany from the Hapsburgs house, decided that his matter has become increasingly cataclysmic for the nation’s stability. They kept toying Germany as a must-be partner, while not noticing Germany’s friendship with their rivals, the United States. Helmut Schmidt finally agreed with King Otto that immediate measures must be done, and it was strongly opposed them all.

Prince Michael of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen​

The response of Germany towards the Soviet Union was pretty cunning. King Otto V invited Prince Michael of Hohenzollern of the Sigmaringen branch. He also invited Simeon from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which talked about the current predicament of their previous ruling nations. This angered the current government on Bulgaria and Romania, as both cause an increase in support for another monarchial restoration on these nations. Starting in 1985, King Otto V was now effectively trying to crush the Comecon. Helmut Schmidt’s another declaration to the people of Germany is they will finally convene with France regarding Saar, and possibly gaining a friendship on this long-bitter enemy.

================================​

Germany is on France's side, let's see what will France do.

Next segment we rush towards a new continent, two chapters about this same continent.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Biology wreaks havoc in Africa

The 1980s marked a decade of changes by the Soviet Union, stealing France’s rising status. Andropov reaffirmed his nation as the greater forces of socialism, and thus undermine France. Tensions in Europe is rising as due to this great rivalry between similar yet so different ideologies. Maritime Asia and the South Pacific marked a decade of peace and growth. Those societies neglected all those chaotic conundrums happening in Continental Asia. With East Asia restart a cordial relation between the Soviet Union, South Asia partly being under fire, and the Middle East which was starting to incite tensions also. Yet, in Africa, much of the situation revolves around war … and pandemic.

The partition of Belgian Congo has caused massive setbacks for society all across the region. The Democratic Republic of Congo had repeated itself with massive warmongering conflicts, needless insults and provocation to neighbouring countries, also with the widespread corruption, purge and mutiny for or against the communist government. The Republic of Kivu had always been Congo’s relentless plan of reclamation of the united Congo. Moreover, with the United Nation’s resolution of releasing the new states of Ruanda and Burundi, Kivu’s manpower and significance diminished. The Republic of Katanga, however, had been the most peaceful of those three, yet surrounded by conflicts do suffer the nation any chance of progress escaping from the vast problems.

In fact, more problems emerged from the chaos inside Congo. Extreme unhygienic conditions in northern parts of DR Congo caused people to ravage for food, including fruit bats. On the process, these fruit bats carried out a new strange disease. Called infamously as the Ebola virus, the virus became the deadliest VHF (Viral Hemorrhaging Fever) in the 1980s. The Ebola virus had early symptoms of cold and flu. But after seven days, the patient would soon suffer fever, sore throat, muscular pain and headaches. Untreated patients died after reaching the-point-of-no-return in 21 days. However, treated patients can be cured despite irreversible defect it may cause.

Ebola patients in 1978, Gabon​

The outbreak began with three simultaneous outbreaks around the Congo basin. The first being from a school teacher from Kananga. The town was close towards the border between Katanga and Congo. A second outbreak occurred inside a larger town of Kisangani. This city, capital of Kivu until 1978, was announced as the largest contributor city towards Ebola cases. Originated from teenagers who were small militants against the impending Congo war, they contracted those diseases only to spread fast in the populace. The last of it, being on the city of Bangui, the Ubangi-Shari Republic’s capital. Located exactly by the border of DR Congo, the first case being Lokela Mbotu, a Congo DR citizen.

These three hotspots aided the spread of the disease on Sub-Saharan Africa. Wars going on the area increase the risks of infection as hygiene was mostly abandoned during warfare. However, with this factor, the Ebola outbreak remained under the radar for so long. Moreover, the United Nations failed to observe any biological threats going on in Africa, as they were to overwhelmed with the wars occurring everywhere in the Continent.

First international recognition, was the death of Joseph Iléo, the prime minister of Congo during that time. Although the UN demanded an extensive investigation of this virus, the Congolese Communist Party blatantly accuse the Congo Republic to indirectly kill their prime minister. As a result, war soon erupted in the region, which the UN viewed as a massive headache. During that time also, Katanga stroke against the Congo DR. The Churchill’s partition had given cities of Mwene-Ditu and Mbuji-Mayi as DR Congolese, despite the region’s being part of Katanga in the Belgian administration. Moïse Tshombe had called for the liberation of those lands, deemed successful as the communist’s forces were attacking both the Congo Republic and Kivu.

In 1979, the Ebola outbreak had reached parts of Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Some of the citizens of Cameroon understand of the outbreak as inevitable due to the inefficient government, had persuaded them to move upwards towards Nigeria. This meanwhile created a massive population spike on Biafra. Soon, Ebola arrived there, and infections also spread slowly into the population. The chain of reaction had resulted in the virus to keep migrating westwards, arriving at French Dahomey in 1980 and Liberia in 1981. By 1982, most of the region had acknowledged Ebola cases with a high fatality rate due to bad healthcare.

Cemeteries in Equatorial Guinea due to Ebola​

Nigeria declared war on the contaminate regions Biafra and Benin in April 1979. Yet, this conflict had finally gained attention to the United Nations, which declared an economic and political embargo against the government of Nigeria. In June 1979, Nigeria announced an armistice of the barely withstanding nation of Biafra and Benin. Yet, after conditions in Angola and Mozambique wasn’t over yet, the United Nation slowly loss attention on the region. Later on, in December the nation continued its war efforts. However, the Fourth Biafran War had resulted in a massive victory for the underdog nation.

Nigeria by August had also suffered from Ebola, the backwater society in the lands of Sub-Saharan Africa had also caused similar troubles with the situation in Congo. Also with the influx of migrants keep coming from the East and South, governments become partly overran by wandering refugees. Biafra and Benin, however, had enacted a strict border control to fight against the incoming influx of population, while quickly expelled those who lingered in their soil. By November, most of the Ebola problems had been fixed by Biafra and Benin. They had prepared for war also.

The war lasted longer than the previous one, especially with a US backing towards the lesser nations. By around mid-1980, conditions had been nasty for Nigeria, as they had lost their sea-access from Biafra and Benin. Precisely a year after it started, Nigeria pled for a peace deal, a peace deal proven costly as the state must cede their only sea-port to the new state of Oyo. With also rising attention with the US on West Africa, this new state had been guaranteed by the other two nations of the West. Conveniently, they form a similar region, Southern Nigeria, an old colonial administration owned by the British. Further West, the French state of Dahomey had their case also rising. France, as the first global nation, was the first nation to eventually take notice of this growing virus. With almost 300 cases in 1982, France finally opened a serious discussion on Ebola to the United Nations.

French Dahomey Doctors, 1981​

In 1982, things had gotten very dim. Nearly all of central Africa west of Lake Victoria had encountered or was been hit by the Ebola pandemic. Congo had been ravaged, and governments had tried so hard to solve the problem. Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Congo were also badly hit, causing the governments to fall for military control. In Nigeria, chaos began after the government’s defeat from the Biafran War. With Ubangi-Shari and Chad also affected, it only took a few months until Ebola arrived in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and most of the East African nations.

Indonesia, effectively after reported that Ebola cases had emerged in Angola and Mozambique, immediately announced a withdrawal of intervention from these nations. Moreover, as LKY wasn’t eager to closing down business in Madagascar, any comers from Africa will have a strict background check, while illegal immigrants are deported immediately. Fortunately, the war was also ending in Angola and Mozambique, with 1983 as the closing point. Indonesia miraculously had no reported cases of Ebola by their campaigns and migrants.

Still, the United Nations addressed the issue with unanimous support from the Security Council. All five members agreed on resolving the Ebola Crisis by carrying extensive field hospitals and humanitarian aid towards these regions. Anticipated response from big superpowers had also been predicted; they helped those regions with the expense of expanding influence. The Soviet Union had been the most benefiting of them all, opening up networks in Nigeria, Ubangi-Shari, Chad and Cameroon. The French meanwhile, tried to sway Niger and Gabon, also with establishing proxy wars with the Soviet Union. The United States, being the less ambitious of them all, only concentrated its efforts in Biafra, Benin and Oyo.

The highest cases reported throughout the whole epidemic was in December of 1983 when Ebola had arrived in Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, cases had decreased after that. With the end of 1985, the pandemic had been handled, the crisis was averted.

============================
One more chapter of Africa, then we finally moved to Asia.

And for those who still curious about Germany, here is a simple post regarding it.

Federal Kingdom of Germany (1964-)

National Flag, popular widely but mostly in Southern Germany​

Federal Kingdom of Germany (FKG in short) is a federation of kingdoms located in Central Europe. The King is head of state and elected every 10 years with a limit of no consecutive terms. Currently, there are 5 candidates for the throne, House of Hannover, Prussia, Bavaria, Austria and Baden-Wurttemberg (Swabian Region). Because also of the new constitution, Parliament had 5-year terms instead of 4. They can't elect themselves, they have a separate body of Electors to vote for them. 69 lords, dukes and princes had been invited to be the Electors of the Kings, yet only 35 had accepted. Therefore, Germany added another 75 constituents originated from the Bundestag. Also, there is a proposed constitution that the King's election would be a 2-round system, the second being elected publicly. Yet, the system currently is still First-Past-The-Post (FPTP).

Currently, there are two alternative flag proposals by the people of Germany. The first one was the famous Second Reich Flag that symbolized the eclipse of German proud and prestige all across the world. However, the current flag was agreed by other houses, especially Austrian Hapsburgs, which symbolizes the unity of the German people. However, a small percentage of pro-hybrid followers, meaning pro-republic and pro-monarchy, has urged to use the Rhine Flag. It symbolized German's dream of retaking Saar once more, and reliving a Frankfurt Government similar to the dreams of the 1848 Revolution.

Flag Proposed by ardent Prussians, popular in North and East Germany

Flag Proposed by Hybrid followers, mostly derived from the Confederation of the Rhine Flag,
or the current Rhenish flag. Popular in West Germany​

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Strive for Equality: A Story of pro-African France

France’s status as being lesser of the three superpowers actually cemented them as the most intriguing nations to observe. Coming as an imperialist bigot that may have harmed a population of blacks into Catholicism or other stuff, France rapidly changed as true libertarians of the world. For the first time in history, it was the first European nation that fully incorporated Africans as a citizen. That radical change, nevertheless, slowly took its toll for massive cultural upheaval.

France’s part friend the United Kingdom had conducted her first nuclear testing in 1957. After the war in Indonesia, the nation had no more interests in developing nuclear power due to political instabilities frequently occur. Because of that, France became Europe’s sole nuclear power after detonated Gerboise Bleue at Algeria in 1971. For more consolidation among her biggest allies, France also shared nuclear technology with them. China and India launched their first nuclear tests in 1973 and 1975 respectively. As a result, France was accused of propagating a possible nuclear annihilation to the United States and the Soviet Union. Those superpowers felt threatened with France’s aggressive stance, so they pled the United Nation to intervene. A proliferation treaty ban was attempted but failed miserably. Yet, France backed off any belligerent manoeuvre as the Soviet Union and the United States were uniting against her.

Thorezian rule in France was filled with prestigious megaprojects. Ambitious mechanical engineers had launched the first high-speed train in Europe. It as well surpassed Japan in connectivity, bringing both French mainland and Africa to have decent routes of commute. Henry Bernard had proposed new urban planning for Paris, adopting from the modernist style of Corbusier while implementing new methods of glass skyscrapers. Plan Bernard expanded Paris into greater Paris while redesigning the whole resident in Saint Dennis. However, their most prestigious of them all is the construction of Trans Sahara Railway, completed in 1976. This railway connects Dakar and Algiers with a high-speed connection cutting through the desert.

Saint Dennis, part of Greater France in 2016. A legacy from Bernard's Plan​

French politics after 1960 revolved on a single purpose, revitalize healthier ties with the African locals. West Africa is abundant with metals and mineral resources, a perfect fit for a growing superpower. As they intended to extract the most beneficial way, a return for the locals was a thorough and extensive development of the regions. Much attention had been focused on the region for so long, that as mainland stagnated, West Africa had thrived exponentially.

Operation Joan of Arc is a failed diplomatic scheme plot by the United States. Yet, in any event, that operation set forth a perpetual conflict between locals and Paris. Algeria, Senegal and Mauritania were silent in any protests against the government, but local politicians in Dahomey, Niger and Togo demanded France to give them more. Nicéphore Soglo, a Togolese, preferred the Trans Sahara Railway to establish a small branch from Dakar to Porto-Novo. The French government noticed a potential in Dahomey, decided to agree on that insistence, giving more budget towards a second Trans Sahara project. This, however, demonstrated how biased the government had been towards Africans.

Georges Marchais leadership silenced any stance against Africa build-up. Furthermore, France’s economy was blossoming, and French culture had almost peaked another golden era after Louis XIV ‘Sun King’. Also, the African population is significantly equal to the French Mainland with projected faster growth in the future. Siding with them also meant absolute majority support for the rest of their lives. Also, for right-wing politicians such as Jean-Marie Le Pen, slight political relief came from French hardliners who migrated to Africa for remarkable business potential.

Pied-Noir family. This particular ethnic group grew in numbers since 1967​

However, Georges Marchais’ presidency was marked with troubles, particularly in his late-term. Algier achieved two million in population by 1977 with a white population of nearly 40%. Dakar meanwhile acquired spikes of an influx in 1967,1972 and finally 1978 with a population of almost half a million with an outright white majority. Transfers of citizens from Africa to Europe also took place. Berbers, Arabs and other West African tribes resettled different cities in French Mainland. These miscellaneous cultures affected livelihood in France also, creating a more diverse population. Southern proud Occitan France, however, had a strong conservative platform, therefore had a less welcoming attitude towards African citizens. Various newcomers inhabit Paris, Calais, Lyon and Bordeaux.

Ebola had caught up in Central Africa, and reports had anticipated a wave of migrants to arrive in Dahomey per 1977. Yet, the government was not keen on aiding seriously any of those nations. Paris only pushed for small cash or medical support for pro-French nations to mitigate the pandemic. Instead, Marchais’ domestic policies specifically focused on building the entirety of French West Africa. Problems emerged in February of 1978, when those anticipated asylum seekers contracted Ebola, and start spreading the population in Dahomey and Niger. Powerful officials immediately announced a lockdown into both regions. Health workers, volunteers, and practitioners from everywhere in France flooded the region to combat the rapid infection in the region. By 1979, conditions had slackened with decreasing everyday cases. France was clearing itself on Ebola happily until reports of extremist movements had ravaged Chad.

The Republic of Chad, after their independence from successful part of the Operation Joan of Arc scheme, had never attained stability in the region. General Wadel Abdelkader Kamougué launched a coup in 1977 after the government suffered a prolonged political deadlock between pro-French and pro-Soviet factions. Just as the junta was finishing its last stage of purging any impermanence of the system, Ebola arrived at the nation. They were caught a startling crisis, as bad living conditions increased the spread quickly in rural places. Government’s ponderous edicts for Ebola had resulted in a strong opposition to emerge, that was Chad Islamic Revolutionary Front.

Government military vehicles before the 1977 coup​

CIRF was an Islam fundamentalist movement originated from semi-arid Southern parts of Chad. It was an ardent anti-imperialist and had high hopes for Chad self-sufficiency. The government’s weak stance and control had enticed people to dream for a unified Islamic nation for West Africa. After the treatments from the West had begun to show limitations, CIRF intended to find alternatives from the Soviet Union. The Ebola conundrum did not weaken the movement’s supports, instead, it bolstered them. In 1980, CIRF controlled much of lush green Southern Chad after a year of civil war against the government. They spread their propaganda to Northern Nigeria, and eventually to Niger and Burkina Faso.

CIRF later was assisted by MAK, the secret service organization famous for its involvements in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A flow of Soviet weaponry started to arrive in CIRF after yet a Sudanese civil war erupted in late 1979. Propaganda demonstrated its effectiveness for the CIRF, as many supports had emerged from Niger and Burkina Faso. They indirectly caused another wave that France could not preempt. In the end, Ebola arrived in Paris, and the government panicked.

A political defeat for Marchais was also a rise for Mitterand. Mitterand, unlike Marchais, was nothing assuring for the Africans. He had seen most culture degeneration happening in Northern France, and was scaring Southern France. With paranoid citizens form high Ebola cases, white French population developed an exclusion for African migrants. It eventually led for distressed citizens, which caused massive political protest and chaos against the conservative neighbourhoods, endorsing the terror. Moreover, France was not fully prepared for integration, as in almost the entirety of Georges Marchais rule, the government had been to entitled for the well-being of people in Africa, not in Europe. Also, people in France were terrified for another European War, a move that Marchais was delightfully doing so.

Little Africa in Paris​

Mitterand’s ascension to the presidency caused protest inevitably on the opposing sides; the Africans. French expatriates in Africa expressed concerns as well, but Mitterand’s focus was stiffened with matters on Europe. For Mainland Europe, Mitterand was famous for de-escalating tensions to Germany and possible the United States. Mitterand also improved French well-being by improving the tax rules, farming and industry in French Metropolitan. To lessened African resentment, Mitterand opted to divide France into two Metropolitans: French Metropolitan and West African Metropolitan. West African Metropolitans is everything south of Algeria and Morocco. He hoped that by that way, France can share the budget fairly to two Metropolitans. Observantly, this political initiative may reduce the protest, for now, effectively helping the government which is still combating the pandemic.

Mitterand's meeting with Helmut Schmidt​

In 1983, much of the Ebola crisis has solved, and West African Metropolitan engaged with the Gambia. An annexation was followed after, and had fierce opposition from the United States and the Soviet Union, but not Germany. Pro-French sentiments occurred in Ghana. Yet, in a global stage, France was having problems after Andropov performed outstandingly in foreign policy. Currently, Mitterand is still developing a sound plan to fight the Soviet Union.

=========================​

This Chad Civil War is the Toyota War, but it would have a different background ITTL.
France is the saviour of West Africa, building them mercifully.
I don't think dictators in East Africa is needed to tell of at least for the 80s. I certainly do cover them later as they will have importance in the 90s. Nevertheless, Africa is now over, moving on to Asia.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Rise of Islamo-communism

Flag of the People's Republic of Turkey (1973-)​

The Republic of Turkey is a replacement for Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire by the first world war. Turkey set a neutral stance in WW2. Mustafa Kemal, the Atatürk, reformed Turkey into selected pioneers of Western advancement in an Islamic society. Advocating liberalism and free-thinking, the Atatürk promoted Kemalism. It embraced a modernist lifestyle and secularism ideas, declining radical thinking into society. During the Cold War, Turkey is among the few nations which maintain a balanced position between France, the Soviet Union and the United States. However, it all came into a big tumble after a mistake done by the government.

In 1969, the whole world gained scanty observation into the situation in the Middle East. The Cypriot Crisis was prompted through the rigid flight of Israeli people when their state was annexed by the UASR. An incident uncalled for the rest of the world, the Democrat Party of Turkey saw it as a disaster. As the Jews were flocking to Cyprus, many Turkish Cypriots were worried about their presence for the island. Some have blamed the Greek Cypriots of inviting the Jews, as Jews were mostly tolerant of the particular ethnic. As the immigrant population grew, the ethnic Turks bitterness grew also. The Turkish Mainland, Ankara, took a stand for stopping the immigration inrush to the island, and yet earned less of a reply from the young Cypriot government, currently dominated by Greek ethnicity.

Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, the President of Turkey since 1960 at that time, had a strong resentment towards ethnic Greeks and was involved during the Istanbul Pogrom in 1955. He sensed an opportunity to reclaim Cyprus, and he directly declared a war for Cypriots deliverance in 15th February of 1969. This announcement shocked the world, and the United Nations already introduced sanctions. Yet, due to the strong proxy war following between three global powers, the UN was ineffective because they involved not to maintaining peace, but to strengthening each of the three global powers' own domains.

Armed conflicts started to occur in March. The Turkish had given an outstanding blow to the Cypriot government. A complete Turkish regiment was departed from Iskenderun to Cyprus for aiding the Turkish Cypriot rebels. They General Cemal Gürsel had thought this war to be quick and decisive. It was confirmed by the end of the year, much of the Northern area of the island was secured by the Turks. However, the General was wrong.

The Turkish Regiments sent to Cyprus​

The act of aggression immediately gained the Cypriot government international recognition and sympathy. The Greeks act earliest, sending volunteers for the government. Germany, which was trying to appease the Hellenic government, also aided the government supplies of weaponry. The UASR, surprisingly, helped the government solely because they wanted Cyprus to keep the Israeli refugees as long as possible, releasing much concern for the integration of Palestine. France, although despised the Cypriot’s gradual allegiance to Germany, agreed on sending medical supplies for the government. Impartial factions by 1970 were the Soviet Union and the United States. The United States was eager to aid the Republic of Turkey for its highly democratic society. However, the Nixon Administration was more willing to reconcile with Europe, therefore abandoning any plans of helping. They acclaimed their abstinence on intervening in April 1969, saying ‘the United States has no business in Asia Minor’.

The longer Turkey was involved in the war; defeats continue to happen. The short-sighted victory ended with a humiliating defeat, the Turkish regiment even was encircled in a port. The Republic of Turkey finally drafted a peace to the Cypriot government. In 21st August 1969, the Treaty of Nicosia was signed. There would be no further Turkish interests allowed on the Cypriot soil. The Turkish ethnics will be forced to deport if any paramilitary activities happen after the peace was signed.

The peace deal resulted in many ethnic Turks in Cyprus to flee for the mainland. The government and the coalition were deeply flustered with the defeat, and after that dissatisfaction was sown to the Democratic Party of Turkey. The Democratic Party blamed the military to be poor organization. The aged General was obliged to resign, and the military opposed the government actions. In 1970, the military tried to regain their reputation with staging a coup. However, a small misdirection between the army officials failed the operation, and jeopardize the military’s strength even further. The government continued to lose their legitimacy, and soon factions were forming.

The Soviet Union was intrigued with Asia Minor destabilized. For all the nations, Turkey was the hardest for turning. The legacy of Atatürk prevented any anti-capitalism thoughts into fruition. The loss in the Cypriot War cracked all of those restrictions. In 1971, Andropov launched Operation Sinope, inspired with the Russian naval victory from the Crimean War. Operation Sinope infiltrated the Republic of Turkey with pro-communist partisans. That pro-social organization had functioned even during the Kemalist era, yet they finally had a chance to grow after Cypriot War.

In 1973, the communist party became the second-largest organization in Turkey, fallen behind the government party. The communist launch labour strikes, demonstrations and anti-government propaganda all across Anatolia. The Turkish Communist Party had obstacles in persuading Turkish Straits. The Constantinople Liberation Movement, a Greek separatist movement, had strengthened the local Turks’ support for the partly anti-Greek government. In Anatolia, especially on the heated region where Kurds were rising, the TCP gained massive traction.

As the leader of the TCP, Çetin wanted to topple the government peacefully. Even with the Soviet Union assistance, the TCP cannot suffer to be ashamed like the military did in 1970 if a coup must be done. Determined with success, Çetin Atlan demanded a referendum for the Republic of Turkey. Startlingly, the government agreed on a referendum, probably because of similar confidence of victory. In April 1973, just months before the appointed election in October, Turkey held a referendum.

The results were surprisingly close, and a shocking one. The TCP hold the largest share of the people, barely passing the majority percentage. The Democratic Party, and all of the other parties, had less percentage than expected. The government accused the TCP of voter fraud and other electoral crimes. They even prepared for a ban for the TCP. Yet, the TCP acted faster. Çetin Atlan became the President of the People’s Republic of Turkey. He immediately ordered a massive change for the government and giving reforms against the pro-banker predecessor. Çetin exploited the Islamic majority with socialist policies, combining to win the populace faster. Though core communist values were instilled, the government appeased the labour equally to the religious.

Women Supporters for the TCP, although their freedom was slightly restricted with pro-fundamentalist regulations​

Çetin Atlan, inclined with Atatürk’s motivation, decided to become the founding father of this new Turkey. He announced a Sharia-commune law, a hybrid judicial system between Islamic sharia law and pro-community law. As they have some striking resemblance, the code was ratified inside the Constitution. He banned banks and financial business that deemed too Western. He proposed a health and financial pension for workmen. Moreover, he intended to repopulate the Eastern Anatolia with more Turkish families. The transmigration policy inflated the Kurdish sentiments in the region and started the Kurdish War of Independence.

The People’s Republic of Turkey established itself as a new ideology for Islamic nations. The ideology is similar to the failed Masyumi experiment in Indonesia’s 1955 election. A merge between right fundamental Islamic values and left commune socialist norms, Islamo-communism has emerged gradually for Turkey. By 1982, the TCP had absolute control of the government and already appointed a Great Imam for the citizens to revere. With that, Turkey also had a decent relation with Saudi Arabia, although the royals didn’t like the Turkish form of government. The MAK as a whole endorsed the sharia-commune law, praising it as a future for Islam. Yet, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam disagreed with communism as a stereotype, giving that the TCP should disband to favour a more Islamic party. His friends, Osama bin Laden for example, really supported the hybrid ideology. Still, the government in Ankara is strongly inclined to Andropov government and continued to be currently.

======================​

Turkey is an ally for the Soviet Union after 1973. Also, the ideology of Turkey is adopting making it somewhat a bridge to Saudi Arabia. Turkey denounced Iran because of its pro-capitalist nature, while loathed the UASR because of secularist rules. After the Cypriot War, Turkey's hatred to Greece grows, although does nothing as a countermeasure.

Sharia-communism is a mixture of Islamism and communism, something I want to dive to as the TL's new wave of ideologies. OTL, the conditions and history forced Islamism and communism to not be applied at one, ITTL, I want to experiment. Islamo-communism is basically a stronger ideology to Islamo-socialism. OTL, Indonesia is considered as an Islamo-social nation, having socialist rules while still acknowledging Islam's beliefs. Islamo-communism basically is extremely anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism and anti-liberalism. Strong pillar for labour, while an equivalent enthusiasm also for religious. The balance is what makes the ITTL MAK leader upset. The MAK is OTL's most radical Islamic groups. As the hardline Middle East is allying the Soviet Union, unlike OTL the United States, they tend to build a middle ground between Marxist ideals with Islam.

I honestly didn't expect the chapter to be somewhat longer. I will skip America and Australia, as they would be more significant especially after 1988. As a result, I probably have two more chapters about Asia. After that, we finally return home.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

The Great Game 2.0

Arriving in the 1980s, the public had been fixated with the situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The latest offensive by the Soviet state, with also an American intervention in favour of the Pakistani, has escalated the tensions into a warming proxy war. Both contesting nations were proven to be costly for entering this new stage of the war, fighting among selves that carried nothing but destruction upon the lands. Despite similar openings, Pakistan and Afghanistan had a drastically different outcome.

Pakistan emerged on the international news when the newest communist revolution erupted in August 1979. The pro-democratic state was accused of inefficiency and constant stalemate on anything. The communist wing was funded by the Chinese government, after aligning themselves with communist India. After a slight Panic of 1978, which caused a slight national recession, the revolutionaries had decided that the moment was right, and overthrew the government.

By 15th of September, the communist revolutionaries had established the People’s Republic of Pakistan with Karachi as the nation’s capital. The Indian government announced an agreement regarding the Jammu-Kashmir once and for all, while the Chinese government started sending goods for the newly established regime. The General Secretary, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, published instant soothing efforts for joining the ‘Continentale’¸or basically China-India sphere.

Pakistani Islamic-Democratic Front posing in Northern Pakistan, almost 2 miles from the Afghan-Pakistani border, 1981​

The Karachi Hostage Crisis happened as due to the United States’ Embassy allegedly permitting democratic sympathizers to take refuge on the building. On December, nearly 300 pro-democratic politicians, including the then defence minister, stayed in the United States’ Embassy for asylum. In 1980, months before the US General Election, the Embassy was stormed by young revolutionaries. It took 32 US citizens hostage, while already killed 5 people. President Carter retaliated with a declaration of intervention, and saying the new leadership as ‘Terror Regime’. The implications were very convenient for Carter, as it boosted his chances of winning his first election. After the election, the United States announced support to the remnants of the old republic, now become a bunch of Islamic fundamentalists.

Unlike the previous administration, this communist rule declared the nation to relieve their hatred towards their Hindu brothers. Even though public sentiment still spared death than cooperation, General Secretary Zulfikar promoted more cooperation with China, and confidentially reopened ties with India. In the press, or around the nation, Zulfikar promoted close alignment to China, rather than Iran. This manipulated the public view and evaded any allegations of associating with the ‘demonic’ Indians. The communist revolutionaries were supported by Pakistani neighbours. The Soviet Union, which was already engaging in Afghanistan communists, declared also a support for the young body. China, as expected, had sent divisions to combat against the Islamic fundamentalists. India, meanwhile, had tried to stay silent, although still supported the regime like everyone else.

In Afghanistan, the Soviets intervened in the War after an Afghan Civil War erupted around the same time with Pakistani Revolutions. The kingdom was ousted in 1973 due to the democratization process, only to cause another revolution for the communists in 1978. In that time also, the Mujahedeen rebels, both Sunni and Shia, announced their detestation towards the new red regime and react with rapid insurgency efforts. As the United States intervened in Pakistan, they also aided military appliances to the Mujahedeen rebels. The Afghan communist power held their land astonishingly with the Soviet Union, despite the opposition hard blows and victories around the nation.

Soviet Troops in Afghanistan, 1982​

Shockingly, the short war had lengthened unto present day*. By early 1985, the Soviet had announced a direct invasion to Afghanistan for quenching the radical Islamic pockets all around the country. Not only supported by Western powers, but the Mujahedeen also supported by MAK, Saudi’s intelligence. The Soviet Union is extremely furious that an ally has supported the opposing faction. The Saudi’s remained silent, which was awaited because of their later events before the 90s came.

In Pakistan, the war also evolved into a slow but gruesome civil war. The public support of Pakistani communist government was waning after India’s direct involvement helping the government. Added with successful Islamist campaigns all over the region, this nation was predicted to end its war sooner than its northern neighbour.

India Stabilizes

EMS Namboodiripad became the official leader for India in 1966, tossing out Indira Gandhi after the North-South increasing tension across India. The communist party, along with the alliance, managed to reform the nation into a much more unified country, by doing what the Chinese did before. In 1970, Namboodiripad had revamped the nation into a one-coalition party dictatorship, although not as radical as Maoist rule. The Indian communist administration, however, adopted a very liberal economic relaxation, while locating the core division between North and South, thus mend them together again. He quietened the south sentiments of northern spoils by the government, while also maintaining the northern success in harvest, industry and economy. Basically, he intended to balance the nation. He invited French agriculturalists to examine the Indian crops while advising on further enhancement. Also, he began the construction of the Pan-Indian Highway, which basically looped India into a massive highway network.

French agriculture experts looking at Indian rice, 1971​

A partnership with France boosted India into a growing industrial power competing with China. Despite no innovativeness, as China did under Mao, India Socialist Republic remained industrious and skilled. The North, under the Indian National Congress, has unfolded with sophisticated rice farming with also growing heavy industry. Namboodiripad also enhanced rice production, although not extensively to create a massive inequality gap between two regions. Under Namboodiripad, the South’s plantation and agriculture were treated better, and by 1974 it had become the largest exporter of tea, cotton and sugarcane in the world. Rice production is slightly unappealing, a decent third below China and Indonesia. Yet, in terms of industry, India is growing rapidly. Even without other foreign assistance, India had grown likewise China, able to stand on their own feet. They had their counterfeit, less advanced Western products in the making, yet the people were never disappointed by the communist government. Invested by France, India had become France’s greatest trials for greatness. However, it changed when Namboodiripad decided to retire.

The General Secretary and Prime Minister decided to end his term by the new year of 1975. The successor was undecided by the outgoing politician. The Communist Party of India, with the coalition, must decide to pick their successor. They opted the second largest members of the coalition, the National Workers Party of India to pick. The NWPI voted for Rajmohan Gandhi. Rajmohan Gandhi, still left-leaning, is not particularly an ardent supporter of the communist regime. Living out in the States for a long time, Rajmohan Gandhi supported the West as Indira Gandhi did. This kind of successor gave problems to the communist rule, possible returning India to the previous system which the communist had strived not to return. However, his premiership was quite popular among the people. Fortunately for the communist party, his jurisdiction was not to deform the current establishment.

After his commencement, Rajmohan Gandhi visited the building Kra Canal and offered Thailand his own nation’s workers to help boost the construction into completion. In his rule also, he opened a good eye for the conditions on the East, such as Bangladesh and Myanmar. Bangladesh, after liberation in the early 70s, has become increasingly friendly to India regardless of attempts by the Indonesian government to sway against. In Myanmar, the Indian government was supportive of military control and even offered the business to arrive in Myanmar. Moreover, Gandhi also opened relations with Andropov, something that even his far-left predecessor even done.

Regardless of his initial success, his rule abruptly stopped when Janata’s resistance put a bullet on his head. The assassination shocked the nation as a whole, although not so in the world. Mogiligundla Baga Reddy followed him. Just like Namboodiripad and Gandhi are similar to Mao, Mogiligundla Baga Reddy was the Madame Mao.

Indian talks to promote Reddy's Anti-Caste Revolution​

After his ascension in 1977, Reddy announced the coalition to disband and join under the Communist rule. He also added the Anti-Caste Revolution, a similar Cultural Revolution-Esque by Madame Mao even before her climbing into her own nation. Reddy even proceeded to purge his military officials or doing covert operation allegedly or guiltily with the opposition. However, unlike Madame Mao did three years later, Reddy’s revolution was orderly paced, and was relatively acceptable to the people. He also ordered a massive campaign against the Janata's resistance. He swore to put an end for the Hindu radicals.

The years of communist rule did undermine Hindu’s thick religious models. After Reddy ascended to the leader of India, this was finally annihilated and noticeably outlawed. He envisioned equality without exclusions. This move was unprecedented by any politician, even the communists were not so adamant to change this before Reddy rose. However, the decade of red rule had given Reddy promising results; much more Indians have become atheists.

Temples, shrines and mosques remained intact especially influential ones like the Taj Mahal. However, practices of religion were highly repressed under Reddy, some even partly banned. The Anti-Caste Revolution did evolve successfully. By 1981, public opinion on Pakistan had gradually improved. Even harsher sympathizers even considering a condemnation to Janata Resistance, which still lingers on parts of South-Eastern India.

============================​

*present-day as in ITTL November-1985
India is growing quickly like China, while the US is busy with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Next up, we finally resolve the question of How the hell Hongkong still survive?

 

[SkylineDreamer]

The Red Nation

The death of Mao Ze Dong on 28th March 1978 shocked the core of communism in China. Not only it shone a new light on the Marxist ideology, but it represented a new way of thinking, centralized yet democratic, which put envy towards most nations all around. His image displays hope for a better People’s Republic of China. However, all those years of progress will be passed on to his wife, who has nothing in favour of her husband’s setup.

Before Mao Ze Dong’s death, his CCP was divided into two conflicting factions. The Reformist Clan, supported by Deng Xiao Ping, was the moderate wing for the CCP. It promoted Mao’s soft stance towards intellectuals, while also persuading him to privatize parts of the commercial sector. Although Mao never asserted any promises, he started to side with the Reformists. The clan also supported France’s new communist ideology and wished to maintain friendly ties to now the holder of the world’s oil.

The other faction is the Conservative Jiang Qing and her Gang of Four. Unlike the reformist, they perpetrated Mao’s friendly terms with intellectuals as reprehensible. The Western thinking that the intellectuals provided amidst their plans and designs pushed the nation into a force of democratization. Several youths began parading for more freedom, the KMT even infiltrated Fujian and Zhejiang, gathering sympathizers. For Mao, as long as the economy flourished, people will stay supportive of the ideology. Affirmative outcomes manifested widely in Northern and Western China. The Southern, however, remained defiant, even after decades of submission. Still, Southern China was getting keen on the Beijing government, and successfully influence the Pearl River Delta that Hong Kong citizens flocked towards the promising communist government. Especially after a recommended project about building the next megacity, empowering residents announced their encouragement for Mao Ze Dong.

Nevertheless, the conservative faction had enough, and havoc ensued. Her initial policy after her ascension was the Cultural Revolution. Jiang Qing proclaimed a revision of Chinese history, as well as serving the communist ideology as the martyr above all the previous governments. All she needed to bolster this effort was a failed intellectual project or anything that can undermine the influence of scholars and academia. That event happened just weeks after the paramount leader was changed.

The Banqiao Dam was constructed back in 1951 and finished in 1953. The construction of the dam was built by Chinese intellectuals, also by Soviet engineers. In 1969, the dam was evaluated by Chen Xing, stating that the dam was subjected to imminent disaster, and the government must proceed with pressing stratagem. Much to Chen’s surprise back then, Mao demanded reconstruction of parts of the dam. The dam was strengthened and adjusted, fixing the base and open more outputs for control water accumulation. In 1975, hurricane Nina 1975 passed through the dam regions, killing the residences around. Yet, the dam remained intact and had become one of the greatest success the government had conducted, as well as Mao’s confidence with the intellectuals. Sadly, in 1979, the dam broke due to extensive damage from decay and the hurricane.

Ban Qiao Dam Failure (1979)*​

Despite the faults not to be entirely the Chinese engineers. Jiang Qing couldn’t care less, as this was her perfect opportunity. She broadcasted the disaster nationwide, exaggerating counts and dramatizing the effects of the disaster. She blamed many of the scholars to cause the deaths of thousands from the flood and famine that followed. Expectedly, demonstrators increased due to being accused of something they never did. Jiang Qing took an iron heart and proceeded to purge according to her will.

At first, she revised the idea of Maoism to strengthen labourer and peasantry. Unlike Mao’s current thoughts of putting the scholars as to the third force, Jiang Qing sufficed in two, and actually promoted the two fundamental classes into soldiers of the communist thought. As for this to happen, Jiang Qing promoted the Red Front, a new youth movement that functioned similarly to a cult for Madame Mao. With the extreme planned economy, Jiang Qing pushed for becoming the literally supreme commander of the state.

Peasant Soldiers reading the Little Red Book, Jiang Qing's book doctrine about her**

Burning of scriptures, traditional clothes in Tibet**​

Then, the Cultural Revolution sought to change in four basic aspects. The Four Olds: Custom, Culture, Habit and Ideas, were provoked to be the obstacles of the People’s Republic. Propaganda arts produced substantially, indoctrinate a new generation to fight academics. Intellectuals protest in 1980 and were responded with massive crackdown and purges from the university. Pagodas, temples and ancient scriptures were either broken down, altered, or scraped in favour of the Paramount’s wishes. The people’s Republic of China had become a society worse imagined.

In 1982, the Great Famine happened in Southern China, and Jiang Qing blamed it also on the intellectuals. She appointed also her own supporters even into the lowers branches of government, and kill everyone against her. Unlike her husband, the proletariats were extremely frightened of her, even so criticizing her. Any negative content aiming at her was promoted as taboo. In the same year, Jiang Qing eradicated the entire reformist faction, either killed for treason, exiled, or silenced into extensive house arrest. The CCP had been entirely supportive of her.

The foreign policy of China became aggressive under Madame Mao. She declared the Great Scare and the Great Mission, both of this promised Chinese expansionism beyond borders. The Great Scare involved the United States, Japan and Korea; all of them threatening the survival of the regime. Therefore, in retaliation, China pursued relations with the Soviet Union and the Comecon, as well as inviting India to join the cause. The Great Mission, however, was China’s covert operations to influence Continental Asia. As France’s Mitterrand shouted for appeasement to Germany, China induced anti-France communist rhetoric to Indochina. Rival generals under the junta government of Thailand and Myanmar soon erupted into the domestic competition. By late 1984, Laos had evolved into a civil war between the militarist and communist militias. North Vietnam was secured by China. Starting in 1985, the Chinese funded Khmer Rouge and destabilized Cambodia.

The Last Crownland in Asia

Chinese domestic events had been very influential towards the Colony of Hongkong, especially after Australian Aggression. The 99-year lease will end by 1997, yet Mao had eyed for the colony ever since the British declined rapidly. Prime Minister Arthur Kenneth Chesterton had been delighted to abandon the colony and give to the Chinese yet sooner than scheduled. However, his meeting with the Queen enforced him to do otherwise. Queen Elizabeth II instructed the Prime Minister to retain the possession of the colony until the deadline. In a latter thought, Chesterton complied, as Hongkong may be a stepping corner for future revanchist wars against Indonesia. The colony had a few administrative changes involving the power of the General Governor. After simplifications of colonies into Dominions, Hong Kong endured as the last colony of the United Kingdom. However, the colony had a regional council, and a governor-general to administrate the land.

Pro-CCP protest emerged after 1972, possible after the BUP’s Afrophobia which may extend to Sinophobia. The Chinese citizens demanded a referendum for integration to the Chinese Mainland, which was flourishing in growth. Much of it also came from the scare of the Apartheid conditions of South Africa, imaging each native that Hong Kong will soon be one. Still, the BUP maintained harsh repression against the supporters. Hong Kong fears motivated them to emigrate from the nation. Some labours flocked to Mainland China, while businessmen moved to South Vietnam and Indonesia.

Another suggestion from the Royal Family, which the BUP agreed, was exiling a few hard-lined Conservative MPs there. The party, or the remnants of it, had moved into the BUP platform. Some of them, however, remained strict to the conservative values. One MP who had created troubles for the BUP was Margaret Thatcher. A strong advocate of liberalism, small government and privatization had become an impediment for strong government, nationalization BUP. After Jim Prior ascended into the premiership, he appointed Margaret Thatcher as the first woman, former party-affiliated, and politician Governor General of Hong Kong. In November 1974, she effectively moved her station to Hong Kong, and the region changed dramatically.

Upon arrival, Margaret Thatcher ended the dissonant relation between the Hong Kong Council and the Governor. Weak governance, obstinate racism and corruption-plagued the growth of the region. She effectively increased her control to rooted out all impartial defects from the old administration. Fortunately, as more conservative exiles arrived in Hong Kong, the Council had become effectively hers, she then pushed for her agendas.

Governor-General of Hong Kong Margaret Thatcher (1974-)****​

Privatization, liberalism and a free-market economy were reinforced in Hong Kong. The government in the UK shared a disappointment to Thatcher’s conflicting beliefs to be implemented there, yet Thatcher had brokered a deal with Jim Prior. Under Thatcher, the UK should give her self-governance and independence of will to Hong Kong. In return, Hong Kong will give a negotiable amount of revenue, also helping the United Kingdom out from the self-made isolationist stance after BUP’s rise. Jim Prior signed the deal, called the Thatcher-Prior Agreement, with confidence from the British Parliament.

The first ten years of her rule had become great progress for the citizens of Hong Kong. Business returned and thrive in Hong Kong. Japanese shipment came again to the port, and the city had returned its status as an Asian continental port, competing with Singapore. Relations with the United States was originally bitter under Shafer and the first Carter term. Yet, relations improved on Carter’s later second term, and Hong Kong thrived.

Margaret Thatcher, 1984​

In 1981, Thatcher announced Hong Kong as a tax haven, even appealing to more business to come to Hong Kong. The spending was so efficient that 25% of the profit was returned to the UK, which was derived to pay the welfare programs. In 1982, even Japan announced mutual assistance with the UK, as combating the Chinese attempts of expansionism and also improving business vice versa. In 1983, a secret agreement was made to Lee Kuan Yew, giving Hong Kong a profitable economic friendship with Indonesia’s Singapore. Jiang Qing threatened the region in March 1984 after many Chinese mainlanders fled to Hong Kong after the change of leadership. She backed down in 1985, thinking that Hong Kong will return to China by 1997. Currently, Hong Kong, even under the hated BUP Britain, was lovable by Western nations. Thatcher called this paradox Britain’s One Country Two Systems, expressing the Colony’s vastly opposing policy than the United Kingdom.

==================================​

*The Ban Qiao dam failed in 1975 OTL, but with intellectuals performing better under Mao, and also less repression, the dam withstood until 1979.
** The little Red Book OTL is about Mao's views. ITTL would be about Madame Mao's view and a mixture of Mao's old ones.
***Tibet is still under repression, and with India under China's friendly terms, Tibetans will never stand a chance.
**** Margaret Thatcher's OTL persistence maintain ITTL, she became one of the exiles to HK, and become one loved politician there.

We return to the domestic policy after this, covering few shifts under the PUP and Subandrio's administration.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Christmas Update

21 March 1980

One year ago, his weak body is still tough to smoke on the rattan chair at his house. This year, he is confounded on the premature death of his friend just a week before. Sukarno is disabled in the hospital bed of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital Jakarta. He had been diagnosed for kidney failure, and doctors have said that he should be worn a few months ago. Yet, his kidneys are still performing, despite how poorly it is. Mohammad Hatta passed away a week before, although perfectly fine a month before. The proclamator felt a large void in his chest after his friend’s passing. It seemed that God has cursed Sukarno to suffer slowly.

He always recalled his resignation as a major dilemma. In 1963, he discerned a rising tension between the military and the PKI. In the midst of the war, Sukarno saw that the farmers were willing not to help for the war effort, and trying to even destabilize our advancement. The PKI publicity had been very strong indeed, struggling for Indonesian pro-China management. Sukarno never craved for this, he just presumed that the Wilopo government had been too Western that a balance must be weighed.

In addition to it, Natsir worsened the problem. His Islamist agenda fueled discrimination and racial tension amongst ethnics. After his untimely demise, Sukarno already felt PKI’s immense pressure over him to do what Aidit solicited; a fully-fledged communist plot. Sukarno genuinely knew that doing that would jeopardize the entire war that Indonesia was winning. With Natsir gone, Sukarno will inescapably be constrained to perform PKI’s glorious revolution, especially when the military is occupied with a bigger problem. For the first time, the President was perplexed with what correct decision to adopt. He never encountered the predicament as intricate as this one. Alas, he thought up a much sudden solution.

Just days before 1st September, Sukarno invited Wilopo for a secret encounter. He revealed his intended resignation and asked Wilopo to appoint Nasution as a replacement. Nasution, at that time, was an upright man and will be a prominent statesman. Also, he needed a pro-American partisan that wasn't too leaning. He recalled Kennedy’s promise to Sukarno that in his party, Indonesia shall never be abandoned. After the Democrat’s return in US politics, Sukarno expressed relieve as Indonesia is Carter’s number one attention, decades after the embargo and difficulties caused by the previous administration. However, looking at the PNI-R, and also the PPP, Sukarno saw a worrying trend of Indonesia.

After Nasution has risen becoming the next president, he immediately accomplished what Sukarno’s young and reckless nationalist person have thought of before the Independence. He totally established a new sense of nationalism, annexing the Malaya, Papua, Solomon Islands, and even Madagascar Island. A growing divide on the political party that somewhat broken the military. Nasution’s zestful subordinate Suharto is hungry for the government, with Subandrio’s slow pace progress with broken neutrality promise. Moreover, Sukarno’s families involved with a pro-China communist scheme didn’t intrigue the first president very much. He despised of what happening in China, especially after Jiang Qing was appointed. Sukarno was afraid of the future, Indonesia’s future.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain from his lower abdomen. Probably the kidneys again, he thought. But then, what happened went extremely fast. He sensed his heart stopped beating. Nurses and doctors rushed for the ailing man. Sukarno determined that this pain is the last pain he will experience. And just that, his mind faded to black.

............

He woke up in his home of Pegangsaan Timur. However, unlike his house's dry setting a year ago, he views a different profile of his house. The structure was the same, but the surrounding lawn had been full of Dutch buildings, and monuments. All of his body and image. Just near the railway, Sukarno sees the old carriage that took him to Jogja, all same to the bags of dust. Even so, besides the railways, there’s another smaller rail that carries a strange shape of a train. It was smaller than what he has seen. The colour is ghastly light blue, with a white body. In the side of the train written in English and Indonesia, something about ‘Ring Rail’ and ‘Tourism’.

The vehicle draws to a stop on a narrow platform. The floor was concrete white, and there are weird machines that shoot out rations, but it looks like a drink. The station has a giant clock in the middle, with moving text saying that it is 15:10:45 and ticking. Sukarno then sees the moving vehicle more closely, seeing that the upper-half is transparent. There are not many passengers inside the train, but almost all of them are enthusiastic. Sukarno is delighted for a bit, seeing people coming gladly to his house is entertaining.

Sukarno notices a group of girls going out of the train. They all wear blue types of denim, which Sukarno connotes it as jeans.

“Hello, Bung?”

A familiar voice called Sukarno. He stopped his thoughts, knowing exactly who he is.

“Bung Hatta! You’re here.”

“Of course I’m here, I always am beside you.”

A surge of emotions struck Sukarno. He fully knows this is the afterlife. But, he never expected his afterlife to be so similar to his world. Sukarno hugged Hatta longingly, a friendship return. Hatta returned to his prime shape, around 40s. Seeing Sukarno’s reflection in the water, he also sees his form to be a younger, more dashing, version.

“Welcome bung, to this unique world,” Hatta said.

“Where are we?” Sukarno asks to resolve his guess.

“Let me explain.”

Hatta explains that the world they now see is Indonesia exactly fifty years after. Hatta informs Sukarno that the new Indonesia have very sophisticated technology. One involving looking the entire world in just a hand swipe called ‘smartphone’, or a Television that is so detailed that Sukarno thinks it is real. The cars are also uncanny too, looking at a sleek vehicle that doesn’t have an exhaust. Speaking of exhaust, Sukarno notices the air is cleaner too, and somewhat warmer.

Hatta then tours Sukarno around this first President's house. It seems that Nasution really reinforced his commitment to keeping Sukarno house as original as possible, as almost everything is the same. Outside of the house, is a different picture. Many bizarre buildings are constructed around his house, first, there is a gift shop, then a small gallery, in the far side there is also a large plaza where teenagers seem to like posing weirdly on their devices. And then there’s the podium where Sukarno proclaimed Indonesia’s independence. It looks the same, even with the bamboo flag pole.

“Why with bule* and totok** faces everywhere?” Sukarno asks Hatta. Sukarno never has used this slurs anywhere and anywhen during his lifetime. Yet, gazing at the people’s paler and yellower faces, he certainly needs more explanation.

“Well, after we died. Our successors benefited from immigration all across the world. Firstly, we have the first American movement, then the Europeans, then the Chinese, Jews and finally Koreans.”

“Jews too?”

“Indeed, I saw the history in National Library Center. I think our nation has minimized intolerance. Although I still see news about racial discrimination, it’s not so popular right now. Probably because the President is a Chinese descendant.”

“What!? Chinese?”

“Yes, Bung. Go take a look at the big TV over there.”

Hatta points the huge TV just on one of the buildings in my house. It is fully transparent and full of administrative papers. In the TV beside it, sees all of the president’s tribute to Sukarno. The numbers represented the order they ascended to the presidency. They have these weird numbers showing in order. This future President, Maximillian Bambang Hendarto, is the 13th.

“I believe Indonesia must never cease to honour the works of our first and foremost President. It is necessary not because of his birth of the republic, but also the democracy, Pancasila and its practices that we all can enjoy. As thinking further than any, Mr Sukarno has accomplished one of the greatest achievements to the people of Indonesia.”

Sukarno and Hatta conversed about the things that they have done in the past, as well as what this future entails. Looking around his house, the environment is rather European, as Hatta says. It reminds him of his exile in the Netherlands. Sukarno supports his argument; the number of bikes, lush trees and clean sidewalks are something that backs in the 80s are still impossible.

“Oh yeah. I also discover that Jakarta isn’t our capital anymore.” Hatta adds.

“Really? Where is it then? Singapore? Bandung?” Sukarno asks.

“No, it is in Nusakota, the city was built from scratch in the late 90s. It is not in Java but Kalimantan. You used to mention Palangkaraya as our new capital, Bung. They now have one in Kalimantan.”

Sukarno never thought that wild dream wish would come true. In the early talks, Sukarno only conceived that Indonesia should have a more centred capital, somewhere Kalimantan is his foolish pick.

A few hours and many discussions later, the sun is setting on the horizon. Sukarno felt really excited about Indonesia’s fifty years to come. Yet, so much to read in the timespan that Hatta felt every overwhelmed discussing it. A lot has happened for fifty years, and words cannot express how innumerable the events are. Overall, Sukarno feels a great satisfaction for Indonesia and his successors particularly.

“Bung, I think it’s time for you to go. I’ll accompany you.” Hatta finally interrupts Sukarno deep thoughts.

“You accompany me?”

“Yes, Bung. He sent me to accompany you. Your achievements were noble in the eyes of Him, He wants to see you soon.”

Sukarno and Hatta walk to the setting horizon. There emerges a white door that opens a blinding light. Sukarno, presently, is not afraid. He feels that his job is done for the world, and awaits the afterlife to come.

========================================​

Merry Christmas everyone! As a gift, I post another update.
*Bule is a local slur on white people by Indonesians. If a bule had a mixed Indonesian child, the child would be an Indo.
**totok is also a local slur, but for mongoloid race, especially directed to China Mainland. However, it is unnecessarily a Chinese origin, as Singaporeans and foreign Chinese borns are sometimes mistaken as totok.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

14 June 1985

Premier Lee Kuan Yew has now matured as a part of Indonesian politics for twenty years. Yet, he never comprehended the mechanism of it even until momentarily. Back then, administrating mere few millions of Singaporean citizens was simple. Now, he governed almost 181 million people. Nor that the population was Chinese, it was fiercely diverse. Adding opportunist immigrants from Europe and the United States, or the rising Jewish people in Madagascar had become Lee Kuan Yew’s bonus demography.

Politics in Indonesia is absolutely unconventional than the ones in British Malaya, or Singapore in particular. The parties uphold each specific interest, either in economic, social or military issues. In Jakarta, politics turned out to become more … personal. Islamists are allying with the alleged-communist, the coalition is so grotesque that even hell didn’t want to contribute in. Current PNI-R is nothing crossed to PRD’s Golkar Faction. It broke solely of internal military conflicts and Suharto devotees. The PRD and the PPI were also similar, their strong posture of favouring the workers forced both parties to compete on the same target. The compromise which has established is that the PPI gathered more farmers than PRD did in labours.

Premier walked in the long corridors of the National Assembly. The structure was aesthetically modernist. Simple pillars and wall formation is decorated with milestones of the Indonesian government. He passed Wilopo’s portrait, the second man of Sukarno, which shaped the early era of Indonesia. Lee Kuan Yew finally arrived at his destination, a large door with inside a rectangular shaped meeting board. The chairs were all sat by his cabinet without the President.

“Good morning, gentlemen. I believe we have a second quarter evaluation to proceed,” Lee Kuan Yew greeted the audience. He can see his entire cabinet; some he deemed likeable, some other contributed his debates. Emil Salim was LKY’s newest Minister of Economy after Trihandoko’s own commitment to managing his BUMN creation. This man was also an aide to former Premier Suharto, advising most economical issues that implemented quite decently.

“I would review our economy, Emil?” LKY signalled Emil to start the briefing first.

“Sir, our economy currently is going extremely well. Our GDP growth has maintained a 10% increase, and after the rising of oil and rubber prices, our GDP per capita has grown 745%, barely reaching $4000.” Emil explained.

Indeed, LKY has seen a glimpse of the economic growth in all parts of Indonesia. In his hometown, the island had grown with multiple apartments complexed organized by state constructors while high-rise offices are being built around the city centre. In Jakarta, even pre-planned housing complex, predated back before Nasution’s presidency, was finished and have thrived. Cideng has become new Menteng essentially, paving for the new elites. Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta’s nearest neighbour, has become a city of its own in the South. Government officials never tried to merge Jakarta with Kebayoran Baru, despite no apparent borders that can separate them. LKY even doesn’t know why.

Nasution’s construction projects, fortunately, have also contributed to this government’s success. Easy connection, both by road or rail, has become an entrepreneur’s easy ticket to establish factories even beyond city limits, boosting the local economy. Even though urban population exploded, it had resulted from a high influx of foreign entry. The real condition was that people more eager to flee to the suburbs, or even back to his/her hometown. The last Lebaran*, Jakarta and Kebayora Baru in total lost more than 50 thousand people due to emigrating to Tangerang, Bekasi, or the newest sprawl in Walini.

“Spectacular,” LKY responded. “How about our resource management?”

This time, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources spoke. This man, is Josef Manuru, a Kotabaru descendant. After the boom in Papua, Josef Manuru has become one of the richest men on the island. He owned the Jaya Papua Mining, a private local corporation for coal and other stones. Competing with US’ Freeport, Jaya Papua Mining was bought by the government in 1980, he has become our Minister of Energy ever since.

“We have great accomplishment regarding the energy sector. As apart from substantial discoveries of reserves all across Indonesia, foreign corporations are drooling against our huge blocks. Pertamina is selling approximately 2 million barrels per day. As with increasing oil production, the big oil nations; Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UASR, and others have invited us to join OPEC**.”

“We’ll be delighted, Josef, register us in.”

“All right, I will negotiate with the Arabs. Our second-largest oil company in Indonesia, Chevron Pacific, has also increased in size and giving us cordial friendship with the Americans. In fact, what made the Americans loved us very much is because of the profit we give for them. Meanwhile, our greatest commodity is not oil, but rubber and wood. Especially after the rubber’s increasing demand for high-tech products, Perkanas has expanded its profit greatly, perform better than Pertamina itself.”

Frederik Trihandoko interjected Josef with a cough. “Pertamina’s national asset has reached Rp 14.05 million***. There is another 2 million which was owned by private investors. Pertamina sells 2 million barrel per day with a relatively lower price than the global market, this was caused by trade agreements in the US and Japan. With estimation, the net selling was around 1.7 million barrels. We should have produced more than 3 million barrels, but as we should share with Chevron and Total…”

Premier Lee Kuan Yew acknowledged Trihandoko’s distaste on foreign companies profiteering from Indonesia’s seas. Unlike his pragmatic issue of ‘as long the economy grows’, Trihandoko prefer to nationalize all of the vital resources, especially oil and mineral resources. Sadly, President Subandrio made those precise sectors a bargain for foreign powers. LKY only supported the initiative due to fact that the Japanese willing to share their technology under those circumstances.

Both Frederik and Josef added each other about our export production. The Temasek holding is becoming a large shipment chain globally. Their rival, unfortunately, is Pelni, the state-owned shipment company. Logging industry also flourished, cutting woods in Kalimantan and Sumatra, producing wood products.

After they finished their briefing, Emil Salim concluded.

“We also have an inflation rate of 3.9%, which is not excellent but still delicate. As healthy our economy may seem, we need to also fix the growing chasm between the North-West and South-East. Java and the East had significantly more medium-sized companies, while the North Malaya had large multinationals. The South prefer equal outcome while the North prefer equal shot. With the Singapore Stock Exchange and Jakarta Stock Exchange opened, we will see less unity in our economy, which we should pay attention to. We already know that even with Indonesia’s best shape, we still have predicaments in the Defense Department.”

Lee did not notice Salim’s subtle message to review the defence and instead ask for agriculture, education and social situation in Indonesia. Suherman, the Ministry of Agriculture, stated that crop production is slightly worrying, with multiple catastrophes that had happened in Indonesia. The farmers had been less cooperative with the government, and keep implementing their destructive monoculture system in their fields. Yet, LKY is more interested with the booming fishing industry, as Sutedjo stated ‘we exported more fish than Japan itself’.

“I think we should import more rice from Vietnam and the Philippines to combat this agricultural mess. We haven’t succeeded in swasembada for almost two years. I think the PPI has something to say here.”

Soon, the cabinet discussed more the steadily rising in literacy and education. Especially with the success of Fuad Hassan’s national curriculum. People have become increasingly tolerant and less racist. The population diversification is also helping, as growing emigration leaving Java and Malaya to other places; immigration to cities and Jewish settlers in Madagascar helped to loosen radicalism in Indonesia.

“Currently, we are predicting a total of 750 thousand Jewish migrants from the jumble in the Mediterranean. More than 250 thousand resided in Northern Madagascar. 75 thousand of them moved to cities in Malaya, Indonesia and Sumatra. 90 thousand of them scattered evenly in Papua, and the rest live mostly in Javan cities. Besides rural West Java, East Java, and West Papua, we have no reports of any civil protest about the increasing refugees.” Minister of Interior Musa Hitam explained.

The meeting continued for another two hours, argue about infrastructure, cultural and finally military issues. Defense Minister Try Sutrisno is unsatisfied with the government’s attention deficit to his sector, despite having intervened in two wars already. LKY did not address his frustration and instead of telling the minister that no troops will be sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan until President Subandrio said so.

The meeting finished just before noon, LKY returned to his office for a homemade lunch cooked by his wife. He reflected himself,” The nation is definitely booming, why should our party be very unstable?” This question had nagged LKY for years, even with growing support for the party, the internal members can’t even be unified. Some Golkar ministers disagreed with Subandrio’s reluctance on intervention. The PRD disagreed with LKY’s postponement of wage raise. Even his own Liberal faction, Musa Hitam, debated with their own party about social issues. Luckily, LKY compromised with Musa Hitam and established a strong pact. He hoped that he can survive for another 5 years. However, his feeling has suggested that he wouldn’t.

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*Lebaran is another Indonesian term for the Eid-al-Fitr holidays or during that time. It starts about a week before Eid-al-Fitr and ends a week after.
**ITTL OPEC was established around the 1970s, with members of UASR, Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE. It's a loose organization to control the oil price globally, although the UASR sells their only to France's sphere only.
***The same equivalent to OTL 2020 Rp 379 Trillion.

The next update will cover about Subandrio.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Subandrio: The Inconspicuous President
2 August 1985

There are notably three men ever lived, or living in Medan Merdeka Utara Street No.3, Subandrio is the latest resident. Unlike him, his forerunner never stops exhibiting their charisma, power and service to the Indonesian people. Subandrio, ever since beginning office, has his influence weakening. The constitution of 1969 indulges a strong presidency if the man in charge is powerful. If not, the movement of the nation would ultimately seat for the second-high command, the Premier.

That is exactly what happened to Subandrio. Upon his moderate views about socialism that mixed with liberality, Subandrio launched famous reforms about education and welfare. As those were extremely successful, their importance fade as time went by. Modern trends of appraisal by the people, is the booming economy, Lee Kuan Yew’s climax of his career. The popularity of the latest election put Lee Kuan Yew the most accountable for winning the election. Subandrio is delighted, obviously, but he felt his loved ideology robbed by Lee Kuan Yew himself.

Subandrio sighs as he put on another cigarette. What happened to the idea of socialism? The last time he was young and vigorous, he advocated the ideology of the Soviet Union. He endorsed the principle of the means of production. Furthermore, he promoted the idea of allying with China. Adam Malik, the successor of Hatta’s socialist policies, has shown similar concern about this. The PPP politician criticizes the lacklustre of Koperasi strengthening and much of the social welfare stagnated. Especially after 1982, Lee Kuan Yew and Trihandoko, pushed for various government companies to explode on the people, triple in personnel and quadruple in assets.

Moreover, Subandrio also sees the looming retreat of Javanese companies. As Malayan and Singaporean companies have more strategic importance, more capitals and more organization than the local Javanese, they tend to overtake the Javanese branches in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Except for Aceh, the entire Sumatra island has been influenced directly or indirectly by Malayan companies. The same goes with Kalimantan. Luckily, people on Java had been particularly interested in Papua, and haven’t recognized the dire situation they are in. LKY's response is simple, the Javanese companies are not strong enough to kick start the necessities for a booming economy. Give the more expert businessmen in charge and we will train the Javanese later on.

Migratory courses are gradually displacing also. Nasution’s government open Sumatra, Papua and Borneo for Javanese farmers. Overpopulation has been a worry for the former President Nasution, the rice stockpile in the island alone cannot suffice for sustainable growth in the populace for another five years. After transmigration policies, not only does Indonesia succeeded in rice self-sufficiency, so does corn, ubi, and cabai. After Subandrio’s ascension, transmigration policies are still underway. But after a few years, Papua has become Javanese’s only destination as Sumatra and Borneo are giving in to another type of migrants: Jews.

Surely this revelation must have shocked at least a few in Jakarta. But nobody cared! The economy is thriving everywhere, and most people are appealed mainly to the money that comes. People can buy adequate homes, better food and spares for a leisurely vacation. Air and boat tourism travels have increased by 300%, and Pelni and Garuda Indonesia are low strugglings to manage their money. Also, not all of LKY’s policies are harmful or immoral according to Subandrio. His meritocracy attitude has become the standard in Jakarta and has reduced corruption massively in the government. In five years, the government has managed to recover some of his money from foreign tax-evaders or money launders, all rooted in Nasution’s crooked cronies.

Subandrio brave opposition from the PPP clan started when he ordered no more attack on his watch. After the expedition in Angola and Mozambique that went utterly nowhere for Indonesia. Angola fell under civil war after independence and Mozambique had its government toppled by a military dictatorship. Most of the party wanted Subandrio to intervene in Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying that it would boost the economy of Indonesia. Do they have a conscience? Subandrio despised the party’s oblivious distress for the death of thousands and the destruction of homes and lives of those who lived there.

General Susilo Sudarman arrived in the Presidential Palace. Adam Malik convinced Subandrio to have a thorough talk with the general. The General sat down on the other sofa of the room. He has a mature yet affectionate figure, a hidden gem for his charismatic behaviour. Out of all things, he tidies up his hair, and proceed to introduce himself.

“Mr President, I’m sorry that I have to do my usual routines. I’m General Susilo Sudirman. You can call me Susilo,” the general offers him his hand.

“Welcome Susilo,” Subandrio shakes his hand. “And congratulations to your promotion, General.”

“Thank you, President. You’re so kind.”

Subandrio opens any etiquette that talks usually do. General Susilo Sudarman was born in Cilacap, Banyumas State, but he currently lives in Ponorogo, Majapahit State. He participated in the last military adventure in Mozambique as the 3rd Army Reserve leader after almost a defeat of Indonesian forces facing the South Africans. Fortunately, his tactics on guerilla warfare saved the Mozambique campaign adjacent to the US air superiority. Mozambique became independent, yet now suffered an undemocratic military coup.

“Weirdly enough, as President of Indonesia, I grew fond for the United States. Especially the Democratic Party, which upholds its commitment to the Pacific approach. Kennedy, Carter and now Glenn is still aiding especially Indonesia for her growth.”

“The Democratic Party is not the state’s single ruler, though. Mr President. If the Conservatives came to be in power, we will see some hard negotiations to prepare.”

Subandrio hears Susilo’s opinion about the United States. In the 70s, after the rise of McGovern, a new movement, the New Left, has risen across urban sprawls on the East Coast. The New Left is a reactionary organization that opposes the United States’ perpetual intervention all across the world. The small Democratic faction also abhorred the government’s welfare stagnation under Carter while supporting Carter’s green movement. The movement appeased the very young and the very old, supporting free schools and free retirement respectively. Observing the manifesto, Susilo criticized it as weak and partly hypocrite. Not because they sought peace, but because they demand the eradication of religious importance in the government and allowing immoral actions like homosexuality and free sex*. Susilo thought that the war in this organization is diverted elsewhere; War for Religion.

Subandrio sensed a strong and supportive admirer to this general. After explaining his stance of the Ali Sadikin vs Suharto military division, Subandrio loves him more. Susilo didn’t like Suharto’s authoritative demeanour. Suharto’s little cult supported the defence industry and the military cooperation, a longer definition of the Military-Industrial Complex. However, Susilo also distasted Nasution’s strong favour for strengthening Dwifungsi ABRI, which now failed under Subandrio’s administration. A corporatist interference to military strategies and diversification of military duties is not Susilo’s main objective. Susilo, on the other hand, read Edi’s Back to Basics, his personal view for the future of the Indonesian military. It was a shame that Edi supported Mbak Tutut**, but his writings depict the exact belief for the military.

The next two hours of discussion is delightful for both Subandrio and Susilo. Not that they have similar opinions, but they have a similar objective; to spread the wealth for Indonesians. They also discussed the growing inequality between the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. Nevertheless, their small talk must end as by noon Subandrio needs to discuss with Anwar and Try.

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Adam Malik was the former foreign minister before LKY sacked him in favour of Anwar Ibrahim. He became the youngest foreign minister, age 38 upon appointment. The ascension of General Alex Kawilarang in 1984 as the Commander of the Army forced a big change of leadership on the Commander of the Armed Forces. Alex Kawilarang is a friend of Ali Sadikin, therefore completely against Suharto and his followers in power. After the indecisive warfare in Africa, General Alex reshuffles the Army Chief of Staff, giving new faces for the ones in Jakarta. General Bambang Wiranto has been reassigned to be Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army, while his Kopassus Organization is restructured.

The Executive Order made by Subandrio in 1983 reorganized Indonesia’s Regional Military Command into 19 Regions. All of those are renamed numerically according to Earth's Longitude, with westernmost North Madagascar as 1st Regional Military Command. There are some exceptions, however, Jakarta Region is called Jaya and Aceh Region is called Iskandar Muda Regional Military Command. The regional command is led by a Major General. After the African intervention, Alex demanded an extra 5 reserve divisions to be stationary active for any incoming demand from the government. That extra five now stays in 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th and 18th ***. Each region has one division; two if they have reserved. The Kopassus is now commanded by a Lieutenant-General and commands three division, stationed in Bintan, Jakarta and Kotabaru. They are usually the ones to be sent abroad for intervention or peacekeeping activities, but mostly the former.

The change of structure did bring repercussions especially from Umar and Try, as Jakarta’s power is weakening by the more decentralized commander and even Kopassus. Moreover, the Defense Minister now has a difficult time in cooperating with the Army, considering that Alex hated him. Fortunately, the 3rd Regional Military Command, under Major General Muhammad Binsar is a close aide. He can cooperate to strengthen the border against Thailand.

Also, for Foreign Minister, the events hit him differently, although negatively too. Alex swapped the 1st and 2nd Regional Commander to a friendlier, leaning officer. And that has given problems about the rising Jewish refugees. Especially the 1st Regional Command, they have rejected tens of thousands of refugees, mostly young men of their twenties with questionable intention. Although their allegation was unprovable, Subandrio understands the concern behind the action.

Still, for Subandrio, General Alex is the lesser evil against those close to him. The interventions have revealed some of the inconsiderate, heartless politicians. It is such a disgrace that those politicians are none other than the PPP itself. Defence industries are thriving happily for another intervention which Subandrio blocked for any attempts.

Subandrio’s Secretary, Sabam Sirait, called Subandrio, “Mr President, I think you need to see the news.”

Subandrio opened the TVRI News Channel, and unexpectedly the news opened with a hot one.

“The LKY Government is under fire as whistleblower Andri Nurtansetya give an almost 500 pages’ proof of government’s blackmailing, suppression and collusion against the local manufacturers in West Java and East Java in favour for Singaporean corporations. Andri Nurtansetya is an agent of BIN that also reported the government’s authoritative measures on economic decisions, which make Indonesia’s economy completely under the hands of LKY, not the people of Indonesia. There is also damaging deforestation that continues to give nothing for the locals in Riau and Banjar State.”

Subandrio sighed in desperation. This term would be troublesome.

=====================================​

*1980s Indonesia never acknowledges same-sex and homosexuality ITTL and OTL. I need to cover this so there would be no misunderstanding of me having bigotry or prejudice against the specific member.
**Mbak Tutut is Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, daughter of Suharto
***1st Regional Military Command (RMC) is in North Madagascar, station in Antsiranana
3rd RMC is in Malaya, station in Kuala Lumpur
6th RMC is in West Java, station in Bandung
8th RMC is in East Java, station in Surabaya
18th RMC is in Western Papua (OTL Indonesian Papua), station in Kotabaru

We'll see LKY's side on the next post.
Another spoiler, I have determined the Indonesian and the US Presidents until 2033, and I can guarantee you only one OTL President each (one US, one Indonesia) that become ITTL Presidents.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

The Gresik Scandal

LKY enacted Undang Undang No. 21 Tahun 1978 that settled a more novel, much easier license for industries to build within a specific area or zone. In before, 1950, 1955 and 1970 laws that predecessors adopted were omnipotent for the government; any objection from one of the bureaucrats would mean no license, vulnerable for bribery and lobbying. The 1978 law, however, pushed for a more meritocratic form of licensing for the industrial zone. The company that has an assuring future, reliable background and superb experience would be chosen foremost. This system, however, proven to be discriminative overall and caused the ruckus during the year 1985.

Firstly, the Surabaya Industrial Zone is located in Gresik to raise Majapahit State’s potential for sustainability and a new spring of income. The government allowed chemical and electronics firm to be installed in the zone, essentially to build competition with Japan and Korea in terms of electronic potency. The zone was opened in 1980 and has attracted thousands of enterprises all across Indonesia. The local Surabaya Chemical Group and Maspion Group were notable contestants that Surabaya locals craved for. Their vast employment network in Majapahit State appealed the populace to support these firms. On the contrary, the government executed without people's consent. In 1981, the government invited Mitsui Chemical and Nanyang Chemical*. Mitsui Chemical is within the Mitsubishi Group, while the Nanyang Chemical is under Singaporean’s Temasek Holdings. Surabaya Chemical Group and Maspion, however, upon final settlement wasn’t given any permit.

In January 1983, a small protest appeared in front of the DPR, Jakarta, about this topic. The small demonstration consists of Maspion and Surabaya employees, managers, and even director who concern their conflict with the government’s final determination. Gresik locals, that would be running on the industrial complex, also joined in for the protest. The government, at first, disdained the protesters. But after months and months of the relentless rally in front of the DPR, LKY decided to appear. The government pressured the Maspion and Surabaya Chemical Group for protesting. LKY stated that these companies are lazy and guilty for imperilling the economy growth of Indonesia. In March, the government audited scrutiny on the two companies, and later squeezed for flaws and mistakes on the administration. In one occasion, LKY even spoke these companies as loafing pribumi. Nevertheless, Maspion and the Surabaya Chemical shut down in 1984 for bankruptcy, giving way for other pro-government companies as puppets of power.

The second scandal that emerged from the Surabaya Industrial Zone, is the low regulation of forestry exploitation in Indonesia. The Surabaya Industrial Zone chopped 30 hectares of forest and rice fields. Andri Nurtansetya investigated the obvious contortion the lack of law could have. The BIN agent surveyed Riau and Banjar State. What he found was truly shocking. Strengthened with hidden documents BIN stored regarding the ruthless deforestation of corporations, Andri Nurtansetya not only found significant companies that exploiting and stealing the local resources in favour of money, but also most of these companies came from Singapore and Malaya, with small significant others of foreign companies.

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15 August 1985

Thirteen days after the news, LKY finally received the worst reception ever in his political profession. Most of the scandal was excessively embroidered in favour of news uncovering, yet most of the fact given is right. LKY is confused about the fitting reply for the indictment. Sitting on the Premier office, LKY can only slam his fist to the desk that Indonesians must perceive this earlier.

LKY never thought his strong criticism towards a local venture could be so devastating for his presidency. Maspion and Surabaya Chemical were very unlikely for the government candidate because of its inefficiency. LKY only intended to maximize profit while reducing time dilation. The locals were hard to teach, and educate them with sufficient and sophisticate business management is much costlier than to give better companies to establish there. The blackmail and threat from him is specifically quick intimidation to finish Maspion and Surabaya Chemical from protesting and start to work to help continue the improving economy.

Now, LKY bore not only the reverberations by Andri discovery but also the insults and prejudices the majority has towards LKY and the Singaporean community. The last interview of SCTV with the Semarang businessman involve ‘greedy Chinese’ and other racial slurs. Demonstrations also occurring in Surabaya that opposed the LKY’s authoritative government. Although the economy is booming, not his popularity. Subandrio openly stated yesterday that he had no involvement in this appalling finding, and vowed to resolve this issue to the core. That is a bad report for LKY indeed, as most of his cabinet selections, all are wholly or partly responsible for the illegal deforestation and the Gresik Scandal.

One thing is certain though, LKY felt blameworthy for the deforestation on Riau and Banjar. He had seen reports of illegal clearing for almost 7 years, yet aren’t punished as the companies are willing to credit more for the government’s benefit. The illegal logging did add a little boost of the government’s surplus especially for the last 3 years, but what LKY was infuriated was the companies had been giving community reward to the locals that lived there; a deal that LKY had arranged. Moreover, LKY also neglected parts of the area to satisfy Javanese and Malayan taxpayers.

Currently, Andri has left to Australia for political asylum. The government has approved of the asylum and that slightly damaged Indonesia’s relation to Australia. President Glenn of the United Stated urged the government to resolve the current crisis quickly. The worst response, came from Japan, as they have one of their companies targeted. An anti-Japanese sentiment all across Indonesia also rose as Andri also revealed much deeper plots that also involved most Japanese companies. LKY’s response was simple, the Japanese were far more superior in technology and still is. It was the government’s effort to boost the economy quickly while preparing the citizens for better education and skillset.

BUMN Minister Frederik Trihandoko entered to LKY’s office. He then sat down and offered LKY a cigarette. LKY refused but the minister still smokes anyway. He inhales a few tries until he finally broke the silence.

“Our local investors are pulling out from the BUMN shares. These conglomerates joined hands with the opposing Golkar, which is gaining traction due to Andri’s revelation to the public. Also, we fully understand that Andri himself is part of the Mbak Tutut’s friendlies?”

“I don’t think Golkars failed at this. We surely have done something wrong and got caught, although those mistakes can be beneficial to the fate of Nusantara. Those opportunists have tried to crack down the PNI-R, now they’re crumbling down the PPP.” LKY replied.

The aftermath of the news is truly destructive for LKY’s government. Part of the future European investment in Indonesia is halted, and the present ones are not prolonged. The Japanese government, aware of their businessmen money greatly borrowed for Indonesia, has now stressing Indonesia to cover the issue. The American companies, fortunately, are not involved in the scandal, probably because most of them contributed to the defence and mining industry, the forte of Golkar’s highest contributors.

LKY’s leadership focused solely for advancing Indonesia faster to pace with the growing acceleration of technological innovation in the world. Integrated circuits, store-programs and transistors have become the trend of the decade and has become a widespread phenomenon in Japan and the United States. Arpanet, a breakthrough of faster internet connection in the United States, has successfully been constructed. For the cabinet, progress needed to be done and fast.

LKY conversed with Trihandoko about the possible consequences about their position and their lives. Trihandoko realized that the scandal may ruin all the work he has done to increase state-companies into the current state. Pelni, Samudera Indonesia, and few others have their investors dropped while Pertamina and Perkanas still steadily remain. The stock exchange hasn’t been affected by the crisis, but the government should expect a drop if not taken care of.

LKY sighed, two days later and the government will hold the Independence Day Celebration. The 40th anniversary of Indonesian independence must be gloomed with scandal; most of it still uncovered.

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Jakarta, 15 August 1985

Dedi Hariman Kusumaningrat is an alumnus from the Gajah Mada University in Jogjakarta. He lived in a decent noble family with a modest income for his living. A family of three children, Dedi is the middle child, with older brother Rudy and younger brother Sugeng. His family told him of possible blood relation with the Sultan himself, Dedi wasn’t keen on the topic, and instead, prefer he wasn’t from the nobility.

The man is currently working as a postman for Wonosari Regency. He, along with twenty others, is responsible for 500 thousand residents on that Regency. He loved his job, connecting face to face with the people. Villagers always ask him why to bother being a postman, the nobility is famous for their connections with the highest officials. A young man like Dedi could have become something important than the postman. Dedi refused to use his family’s connection, starting from rock bottom is his motto.

Living on a rented house just on the suburbs of Jogjakarta’s capital, Dedi has been living there ever since. His hometown, Klaten, he preferred Jogjakarta. After 5 years of planning, the Sunanate of Surakarta planned a Mataram Metropolis Scheme, uniting the divided kingdoms of Mataram; 4 of them; into a megapolitan place. This program, unlike any other, involved large swath of eco-friendly parks and recreations, preserved cultural heritage of sites and temples, traditionally constructed homes and residents, and restriction of a high-rise in the town. The Metropolis Scheme would make southern Central Java as one big suburban area from Jogjakarta to Surakarta.

The Gresik Scandal has occupied his mind for a while. The LKY government, as angelic and pure as it looked on the inside, was a great menace. Even intentions were as transparent as it seemed in the early days of the campaign, LKY government has been corrupted by greed. Dedi endorsed hard work and perseverance, he thought that given the chance, Maspion and Surabaya Chemicals would have succeeded better although it cost more time.

His criticism of the government is what caused him to stay in Jogja rather than Klaten. He is an activist of PNI-R, the slump party, shadowed by its greatness. He currently a part-time staff of Fransiskus Xaverius Aryo Ardianto**, the Sleman Regent. He hopefully wishes for a return of PNI-R, at least after what the Golkars have done was senseless. He would anticipate more from them though.

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*Nanyang Chemicals is entirely alternate that I've made.
**The first Catholic Regent in Java, not OTL real person.

Two posts in two days? Surprising eh? I got more time to invest myself ITTL.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

22 August 1985
New York City, USA

Nugroho Wisnumurti is the replacement of Deputy Permanent Representative for the United Nations per 21 August 1985. His antecedent retired of old age, and have given Nugroho a recommendation to the Foreign Ministry. Just in his mid-forties, his staunch passive stance and less interaction with the heated debate on the United Nations is what made him possible for an upcoming promotion perhaps four years later. However, fitting a Permanent Representative for the United Nations is not an easy assignment. Just after Subandrio’s presidency, almost periodically Jakarta must appoint new Permanent Representative for the United Nations. Nugroho couldn’t fathom a difficulty the job may seem, he has substituted for a few occasions, none of which overwhelmed him. However, he might conjecture why people left working in the United Nations, probably because of all the nuisance in the council.

Dean Rusk stepped down as the Secretary-General for Phạm Hùng, a North Vietnamese politician. Both the French and the Soviet Bloc approve of this socialist politician into the rise of the Security Council, which upset the Americans. However, naïve President Shafer confirmed no veto for the appointment of the seat. The reelection in 1980 that finally, the United States vetoed Phạm Hùng out for reelection. A French Moroccan nationalist, Mehdi Ben Barka, was picked by the United States. France, comprehend this selection as part of the American struggle for African decolonization 2.0, has initially denied. However, France and the United States had a unanimity that Mehdi’s party, the National Party of Morocco, will be dispersed effectively after the ascension. Nonetheless, any consensus seemingly failed to happen after that, especially in the General Assembly, where civil sessions may end up with a tense conclusion or even violent fights. Shouts, insults and slurs are now common in the annual session of the United Nation. Perhaps, that was the reason for many Indonesian diplomats’ resignation: unpreparedness of such barbarity.

The recent session briefed about the Afghanistan and Pakistan Civil War, and how that may erupt a global conflict. Much of the audience agreed, but they started to lose concurrence after the Assembly convened of how the United Nations should resolve the issue. Much of the American Bloc, including us, issue a national referendum that would decide the populace choosing a communist or revolutionary government. Naturally, the Soviet Bloc denied these referendums, stating that the communist government was the people’s plea and the legitimate government in the region. The French Bloc then started condemning the violent purges and repression happening under the communist government. Ultimately, the cycle of shouts never ends.

Indonesia’s international stance wasn’t in her most excellent. Sukarno’s reign was the height of Indonesia’s podium, loved by both sides of the Cold War, then three sides. Only the British and the Commonwealth hated Indonesia, but mostly because of a justified war that was happening. Nasution ended relations with the Soviet Bloc, and Subandrio currently weakening the French friendship by nationalizing their companies first. The progress is scaring Nugroho, looking at Indonesia’s network slowly closing for just one superpower. Moreover, Indonesia is all but a Japanese source of market. The American influence is waning for a larger Japanese influence, and that has probably caused the scandal that he just read yesterday.

Nugroho isn’t keen on Subandrio ideals, either. He was hopeful for the president, but lack of leadership bothered him deeply that Jakarta is now governed by Singapore. Ironic, the land that was annexed has become the master. Lee Kuan Yew, despite outstandingly good achievements, still has small authoritative laws that may turn Indonesia into a despotic state. A ‘meritocratic regime’ is what now youths are offending the government. Moreover, an overrepresentation of Malayans in the DPR has been noticed. Heck, even the Palembang Representative is a Malayan entrepreneur. The Umar Faction, or simply a continuation of Golkar Faction, was the government’s ardent opposition despite being in the coalition. They have been more vocal than it used to, also using stronger connotative speeches that dissuading the government while campaigning for themselves. However, as long as the Madagascar Faction still support the Liberal, while Hatta’s Faction remained small, Nugroho thinks the government can survive.

The man rests on his bedroom’s recliner with the remote TV on his hands. He searches the local East Coast channels; President Glenn has announced the continuation of the NASA program. Typically, the astronaut president pushes for space programs. A bold initiative indeed from the president, saying that ‘we will put a man on Mars by the end of the millennia’. Nugroho sees the current President’s space speech trying to imitate former President Kennedy, who had sadly passed away in 1977. Nugroho feels no vivacity, but at least Indonesia will partially involve in space’s newest exploration.

Nugroho reaches for the telephone next to his seat, and call for his family in Surakarta. He has a lovely wife and two children, a daughter Imelda and son Bima. After briefing the local Long-Distance Operator for pinpointing his house number, Imelda picked up.

“Hello, this is Imelda Wisnumurti speaking. To whom am I speaking to?”

Nugroho couldn’t fathom how well mannered his daughter has become, how long has he left for New York. Two or three years? It seems like a long time. He called home a few months ago, but mostly his wife would pick up. “You grew up so much, Imelda.”

“Dad! It’s been so long. How is New York? Mom has told me a lot, but I want to hear from you.”

Nugroho talked with his daughter about Central Park, a massive park that made him love New York. For him, running around the park is a luxury that home regrettably hasn’t had. He also tells his daughter of the famous landscapes of Big Apple, from the Twin Towers, Empire State Building, to the Statue of Liberty. He wished his family could see them directly, but money and work have prevented Nugroho from fulfilling that. Even though the economy has helped the family, they still can’t afford long-term flights, which is still ridiculously expensive. Nugroho also talks about the people and culture. For the diplomat, New York is similar to Singapore. It is extremely diverse that no corners of the community seem dull. He visits the Italian restaurants with the European diplomats, the food is wonderful. Little Greece and little Cuba also fascinated him, educating him on new cultures, cuisines and people.

Nugroho then asks Imelda about the situation at home. She says that Surakarta is growing massively, and the government is making new urban development that sustains and prepare growth for nearly fifty years. That involves a new city bus transit, that currently drives Imelda to her high school. The Sultanate is bonding closely also, by making the distinct commuter line between Surakarta and Jogjakarta. Closer partnerships are being conducted on these two states, improving various sectors especially tourism and the environment. Imelda has seen her home state to be greener than other growing industrial places. It seems that the regional autonomy granted by Nasution and PPP’s ties with the royals help the sultans in Java not becoming one of LKY’s transformation initiatives.

A long conversation with Imelda needs to end after Nugroho asks her to contact the daughter’s mother. He can hear Imelda calling mother from a distance, then with a reply from the wife with a pace towards the telephone.

“Hello, dear. How’s been New York?” Unlike his vibrant daughter, Nugroho’s wife is calm and much more controlled. Age and maturity have changed most of Nugroho and his wife. Even Nugroho before was proactive and relentless. Now, he prefers to go with the trend, keeping his life as passive as possible. A diplomatic task avoids attention so objectives can be met faster. Creating a scene causes people to see you, choking space for movement.

“Lovely, my dear. How’s work?” Siti Wisnumurti is working at the local independent newspaper that endorses scientific progress. Bangkit Solo! is the print’s catchy name that lingers much of Purwosari residents. Even though the citizens of Solo have been unanimously voting yellow for almost twenty years, there has been a growing development of PRD and the PPI in the lower class of the folks. The PRD, obviously, targets the shop owners and commerce. Nugroho’s wife was persistent in improving livelihood within much of Untung’s ideals. A weakening voter share for the PPP has been ongoing all across Java’s metropolitan, all because of the Gresik Scandal and lack of fire from the agitators. Nugroho wishes for Hatta’s politicians to revive the old PPP, but he thinks it’s too late. The dye is cast.

=================================​

I decide to close the year with humble information about Indonesia according to the eyes of abroad and within. As the last post of this year, I wish everyone a great new year. I apologize first that unlike the Christmas Update, there won't be any New Year Update.

As for next post, we are going to cover the Golkar's perspective of the Gresik Scandal, and what others may they have on their sleeves.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

31 August 1985

Premier Lee has pushed too far on accelerating progress on the Indonesian soil, that that progress becomes meaningless to the Indonesian people. This corporates, almost all Japanese, have been profited and given Indonesia practically money only. Most of the money also stopped on the pockets of LKY’s trusted partnerships. Moreover, most of the Singaporean conglomerates are ultimately siding for the foreign powers. We have been colonized, dear Indonesians. We must fight back!

The Vice-Chairman of Partai Rakyat Demokratik, Umar Wirahadikusumah, glared profoundly at the Suara Indonesia exempt on the front page. He knew Andri Nurtansetya, Lieutenant General Edi Sudrajat introduced him a few years back. He has been an associate of that particular Deputy Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army. He met him during the appointment of the new Commander of the Armed Forces. After a staff reshuffle performed by the General Alex Kawilirang, he resigned just last month, leaving the space to Admiral Hendro Darmawan. The choice has been controversial for the Armed Forces. Hendro is the first Admiral Commander, a new trend for rebuking the Army's dominance. Also, considering Edi Sudrajat wasn’t rightfully appointed, much more Army officials objected it. Moreover, Hendro Darmawan’s little genealogy has traced him back to a Nicholson family, a Dutch lineage of almost four generations above him. Nevertheless, as the former leader of the 4th Fleet, Hendro was famous for combating pirates from Africa. Nasution and Ali Sadikin also endorsed him for the position, which makes him victorious.

BIN is essentially an intelligence bureau independent from the military but responsible to the Defense Minister. However, the trend becomes that BIN has been associated like Army troopers. Last intention from Try Sutrisno also demanded agents to be part of Indonesia’s fifth branch of the armed forces, but the president refused. Nevertheless, BIN agents have constantly come to the party with berets, especially the Army. Andri Nurtansetya was no nobody, Umar knows him as Vice Chief of the Audit Sector of the Intelligence. His job includes analyzing patterns, numbers and charts that may seem suspicious. The man told that Gresik Scandal was uncovered because of him looking at Mitsui’s finance records, which had shown a big number of capital towards ‘effective productivity’, which means cutting trees beyond the contract validates.

The PRD is definitely on the rise as the government’s alternative voting platform. As the PPP’s becoming entangled with this scandal, PRD luckily wasn’t affected, yet. The news kept saying that the defence industry may also have violations. Umar can detect that PRD’s deep relations with defence businesses may cause this blame, but he can confirm unconditionally that there is no such offence. The newspaper has been using Suharto’s authoritative character as the narrative of bad Golkar’s features. Umar and friends are certainly jingoistic, but it’s just another form of approach for improving the nation.

“It’s the damn PUI. Bustami Djalid has given him the green light for publishing. We never told him to do that, it would be shooting ourselves in the foot.” Golkar Faction spokesperson Murdiono says.

Indeed, Umar thinks likewise. PRD is with PPP for goodness sake. If the scandal was given too early at the moment, not only it would destroy the PPP, but the entire coalition. Try Sutrisno is one, they tried to ruin his career during the fiasco in Jakarta. Umar considers of abandoning the ship, but that would make people reminisce the PNI-R split, which would, in the end, make Golkar Faction a blatant opportunist. Bustami Djalid has also contacted Andri from Golkar’s inner circle. They discussed several topics, some of them they support indefinitely; like the fear of rising secularism, and less power of the religious.

To undermine PPP’s Malacca Faction, Umar needs to hit the target precisely where it can hit most, but not extensively. It’s like opening a coconut; you must hit hard to slice open the hard skin while gentle to avoid splashes that reduce the coconut’s inner solution. An equilibrium of precision and severity is what Umar thinks of, unlike the Gresik Scandal. Not only that Gresik Scandal would halt the nation as a whole, but also reduce investments to Indonesia’s defence company, most of it was aided by none other than Japan. About this ‘attack’, Umar has stored one specific event to be covered, but it needs to wait.

Just at the outskirts of Poroporo, the Melanesian State, a growing number of American Christian settlers living there. Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, as the leader Jim Jones has named, has increased the number of settlers there for a few months. They said that the intentions are pure, to establish a non-fiscal paradise. Apparently, Jim Jones has accumulated the community a large sum of money, possibly three million dollars, to the government budget. The community has attracted middle to rich fundamentalists that wished to abandon money for faith. A noble initiative, Umar reflected, but extremely naïve. Almost fifteen hundred people are living there. The community has been secretive of its activities since its foundation, but more settlers mean more money for the government. Moreover, Jim Jones has probably keep transferring money to the Indonesian government from the declining parishes he has made in the US. The gradual diminishment is caused by reported revolting controversies from the religious organization.

Umar Wirahadikusumah has had a gut of uneasiness regarding the PTAP. He sensed a calamity on the verge of contact shortly, but he wasn’t sure what would it might be. That is why Umar have called local Melanesian party, the Melanesian Alliance Party headquarters in Honiara to monitor the situation. This, if happens, will be PRD’s greatest weapon to steal PPP voters into the PRD base, while maybe accomplish the riskiest political manoeuvre in Indonesian history; a Premier impeachment.

Despite the plans, the gentleman wasn’t particularly optimistic. Andri Nurtansetya had opened a new disaster for the Prosperity Coalition. Golkar’s greatest fundraiser, the defence company, will be in ruins after a national malaise. Moreover, it would benefit the PPI more, who is attempting their second iteration on Sukarno-ism vigour. Guntur Sukarnoputra has been considerable in reproducing his father’s energy. Observing the other candidates, Guntur by far is the most chosen from the people.

“He shouldn’t have. He published it too early for our benefit. This is advantageous for the PUI party, which is advocating the PPI for the upcoming election. Both the Muhammadiyah and the NU are not retreating for another Islamo-communism.”

Umar then retreats into looking outside of his office, where he can see the city highway Nasution had constructed before. Nearly a decade has passed, and the highway is busy, but not full. He contemplated watching the highway being constructed, a marvel of its time Now, it seemingly lost beneath the economic miracle of the Subandrio party. It was unfair. Nasution has cleared the path for Subandrio to take the credit, yet he couldn’t blame him as PNI-R was faltering apart partly because of him.

The PNI-R, or what is left currently, has been conducting themselves to appease mixed voters. Nasution firstly adopted this method as he promised for a non-discriminatory society. Much of his generals, especially frontline soldiers opposed this effort by trauma. They mostly sought no more Australian Aggression anymore, which is reasonable. Cipto Robinson, the son of Tjalie Robinson, has been appointed Walini’s PNI-R city council. Djambi’s family in Jakarta has also been contacting Ali Sadikin. Djambi has been a controversial clan. The head Idjon Djambi was kicked out from Kopassus because of the Australian Aggression because of his skin, but Nasution has exerted huge efforts to patronize him. Luckily, Indonesia’s society in the 80s has been friendly again to foreigners, therefore fewer measures were extracted for his family. Djambi’s family house in Cideng is also secure by tolerant and educated communities.

Subsequently, Umar talks with Murdiono about the faction’s status. The weakening General Untung has been beneficial for the Golkar faction to expand, with appointing Try Sutrisno as the party’s icon. Although the people weren’t ready for Try, especially for what he had done as a military officer, Umar has been trying relentlessly to appease voters and recover Try’s name. The growing heir, Mbak Tutut, has also become a decent queen maker, establishing good relations with everyone she meets. Umar, now suffer elderly issues, has been lacking the cognitive capabilities of his golden days.

====================​

Next, a new problem emerges, and Golkar will be the first to respond.
I was occupied with OTL stuff that I haven't realised this thread has been ongoing for a year now. Thank you all for reading it, and please comment on constructive suggestions.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

Condone Agronomy: Complications of a Fast-paced Industrialization

When LKY was inaugurated on 20 October 1978, his initial impression was to depart Indonesia from the deteriorated economy from Nasution’s infatuation to upgrade national connectivity into sustaining for decades too far ahead to come. Although LKY esteemed Nasution for his foundation that has developed Indonesia as it is, he restrained further economic incentives for infrastructure projects, and divert it towards blue-collar industries.

Nasution’s economy has been placed into two sectors: agriculture and public debt. The agriculture has become the presidency’s marvellous achievements, acquiring swasembada for almost half of his time in office. Production of crops, plantations and cloth flora have substantially grown all across any land. Rice, singkong and ubi were Nasution’s main focus for achieving the government’s swasembada target, while the others have lesser but significant objectives. In his era, industrial plantations like coffee, vanilla, rubber and woodlands were expanded to prepare the next phase of developing the secondary sector. Nasution’s second approach, however, may have cost him his presidency with other factors as the public debt rose significantly. With main lenders from the United States and Japan, the money lend were all for agriculture surplus. Especially on his late reign, he has been lending more money into foreign powers to fund for his prestigious projects. Almost a 1700% debt increase from the time Sukarno's resign to Nasution's departure from the palace. Luckily for Nasution's successor, inflation hadn’t been ignited as the national debt kept increasing. That problem was stopped and immediately taken for, by the next administration.

LKY had been implacable of quickly flying Indonesia from its agrarian state. With the PPP slogan of ‘being better than the Chinese’, LKY wanted to imitate Mao’s ingenious stratagem while upholding Western advancement. Subandrio, as president, has been observant on the educational shortage for a nation's rapid maturity. Therefore, he was agreeable to work with LKY for improving education while industrialising the islands. Yet, money was shorting in 1978 with more extensive problems like the increasing housing crisis in urban centres. LKY resorted into one simple method: nationalise and sell.

Nationalisation throughout LKY premiership has been a tough call. Seizing profitable industry from inadequate local vendors, like rubber and oil, was beneficial as it became efficient. However, LKY should consider not to antagonize foreigners too much, or most of Indonesia’s aid will cease to flow. Subandrio is responsible for selling part of Indonesia's lowest-income sectors towards foreign companies, which they have significantly increased the value with good performance. LKY meanwhile appointed Trihandoko to be the ruthless BUMN minister on persisting buying companies as a state enterprise. Subandrio, as Trihandoko’s opposite, still emphasises on negotiating sectors to be privatized or transferred partly to foreign firms. In between these two, LKY will always be as a mediator, therefore establishing a balance between two radical approaches.

The secondary sector, ultimately, will cost the government numerous labour for it to function. With service workers involuntarily downgrade for working in the production, farmers took the mantle and have been moving towards suburban as labours. Needless to say, the prosperity for the first Subandrio term has re-intrigued rural societies to return for cities as manual labour. What once a frantic trauma of city bombings has been cured into a loving and prosperous landscape. More than five million have moved to satellite cities that have emerging factory complexes, another five will move for the next two years.

Johor Car Factory (Toyota), 1984​

Such immediate population explosion into cities was handled well by city municipals. Especially large metropolis, public transports predated the current premiership has prepared for such influx. The Jakarta Metro Blue Line is almost finished, planned in 1974, the Blue Line will divide Jakarta into two while accommodating travels into two largest subsidiary towns: Cengkareng and Bekasi. Singapore has also established two metro lines for citizens to travel across the island. In Kuala Lumpur, they had innovated Monorail, used mainly in recreational parks, to be utilized publicly. Operational estimation time, however, is still under debate as government funding stays low. Also, a large scale Metro connection linking Kebayoran and Jakarta is being explored. In Bandung, a small light-rail connection cut through downtown is being built. Surabaya, Medan and Semarang have their Industrial Complexes connected with two regular lines, along with one light rail loop around being constructed in the suburban areas.

Singapore MRT, 1983

Cakung Station, Jakarta, 1985​

LKY’s rapid action towards increasing the secondary workforce is responsible for the economic boom on Subandrio’s first term and caused more people to study facing modern growth. With government housing construction also proceed parallel with careful urban planning, cities not only became much more sustainable and profitable but also efficient and neat. The PPP’s Hatta Faction, the more of traditionalist socialist group, has been pushing off a less industrious sense and favoured protecting parts of nature in cities. Their notable presence especially in metropolitan politics has maybe caused the largest of the urban sprawl to have been greener rather than lower, less populous ones. However, all of these development has erupted a problem in the rural; the lack of job applicants to cultivate farming.

Before the election, farmers have been protesting the government to be fully supportive of the industry rather than agriculture. Some plantations and crops are bulldozed for factories; desolate natural forests all chop down for advantageous species like palm oil, acacia, rubberwood and mahogany. Even the little portion of some resort in drastic actions; cutting off more than it can grow. Nevertheless, those industries have absorbed the agricultural jobs, and as a result, food production decline.

The first indication of the decline in agricultural manpower is the rising of rice imports after 1983. Last year, 50 thousand tons have been imported from Bangladesh. In 1986, numbers are expected to go even higher from the decline of agricultural productivity. Next, Indonesia has fallen from five highest tea and coffee producers into seventh and eighth respectively. The routine disasters in Indonesia also worsened the damage. This year, if another flood strike Java, it would be a famine. Moreover, Indonesia is limited to import partners, as most of them are enemies of the United States or had been insulted by Indonesia’s friendly stance with the United States. China, India and Thailand simultaneously shrank any trade partnerships with Indonesia that endangers our food supply.

The first domino fell by LKY’s delinquency for agriculture happened on September 13, 1985. The entire island of Lombok and Flores has been hit a drought which caused a regional famine. LKY failed to contribute food for them, as in other regions food stocks are decreasing. In the three-days span, LKY has negotiated with additional food imports from Bangladesh and the Philippines. In addition to it, a graceful Mozambique farming miracle has given the small share of rice surplus. But, after arrival, almost twelve hundred people have died of hunger. And it’s getting worse.

Job crisis has occurred in the livestock industry as in agricultural. Chicken and cow have dropped 10% for the last seven years. As industries are growing, lack of regulation has killed many of the mammals to die by pollution. The chemical industry in Jember has poisoned three hundred goats by water, smokes from Demak textile industry suffocated around five hundred cows. In Sumatra and Kalimantan, an entire hectare of forests may be chopped down without environmental concerns, killing off native biodiversity, also recurring man-made disasters like landslides and floods on nearby towns. Even with money pouring in, the government has been secretly making a time bomb in endangering areas.

Indeed, more and more rural citizens have protested against the government. Villagers are becoming infused with intriguing PPI’s campaign, pushing for a return in Indonesia’s agricultural golden era. The previously large contribution for PNI-R success has been drifted for PPI’s Sukarnoputra crusade for the peasants. PNI-R is still holding too, Nasution’s legacy has maintained a healthy percentage for the party winning in some seats, albeit minor.

In July 1985, Njono Prawiro, formerly the General Secretary of Indonesian Labour Organization, has written a book ‘We’re too fast.’ It criticizes LKY’s rapidness and speed on industrialization while damaging the agricultural sector, written as the ‘bane of civilization’. The book detailed the declining production in plants, also the dangers one might unfold. After publication, urban taxpayers have noticed the looming threat from kampungs. They started to notice the government’s fond of entrepreneurs, most of them written as ‘guilty of greed’ from the books. Kadir Sulardjo, the Deputy General Secretary of the PPI, has also invoked public dialogue extensively for promoting the party.

However, a much more recent, and the powerful response came from the PRD. Both the Untung and Golkar Faction have announced their critic towards the PPP LKY government. They blamed the government to selfishly strengthened one’s base while reducing the other. From the rapid growth on the industry, PPP has politically accumulated a large voter base as factory residents are mostly sympathetic towards the PPP. Akbar Tandjung, a PRD representative, declare his concern with an ‘Investigation Speech’

My dear Indonesian brothers and sisters. For almost seven years, the government has neglected one sector in favour of the other for economic growth and money. The fabrics of society have been tarnished with the avarice of individuals, whom the government protection for their large sums of capital exert. Our ideologies of Pancasila have been shifter for LKY’s hidden liberalistic values and ideals, all of which has caused harm for our farming sector. Gresik Scandal has exposed the leadership into the questioning of whether this kind of new procedure is suitable for Indonesia’s expansion into a proud and stable government. For the sake of that stability, I believe we demand a transparent and public investigation about the government’s actions for the past years.

An investigation wished by Akbar Tandjung was no vaguely described, but Golkar officials Ikbal Rahmanto explained it likewise an unofficial independent public service. For most of the representative, this amateur action was the beginning of an impeachment procedure for LKY. The cause, unfortunately, wasn’t strong enough for the public to support. But, by 21st October 1985, the Golkar had all they need for public support, as a tragic event happened in Melanesia.

=======================​

Akbar Tandjung is an OTL Golkar politician who was Former Chairman of the party (1998=2004) and Former Speaker (1999-2004)

 

[SkylineDreamer]

The Bloody Melanesian Month

Barely twenty years of incorporation, the State Republic of Melanesia has been formally member of the Indonesian government with a better fusion than Aceh or Perak. Born under the presidency of Nasution, and grow within the Subandrio administration, the archipelagic island greeted the new ruler as fair and compatible. Some might consider the old British rule as a better colonizer. Accurately, Indonesia isn’t one, but the nation has invested to improve the economy all across Indonesia, including this state.

The difference between Melanesia and the other republics is Melanesia is relatively barren of raw mining resources. With ineffectual areas of land, industrial construction was not worthwhile for the state. In 1972, Premier Suharto had passed a regional agriculture law, which strengthened the farmer’s power so the productivity of the crops will increase. During that time, they produced coconuts, palm kernels, rice potatoes, and some other kinds of vegetation. Suharto also noticed the potential fishing industry, which he passed the 1972 National Fishery Law which affected nationwide; the islands had been benefited by it.

Melanesia Postcards resembling the old name and fishing vessels,1980​

Then Premier Subandrio, ironically enough, agreed with the policies enacted by his antecedent. Although Subandrio never visited Melanesia until his early presidency, he was hopeful of Melanesia’s growth and quite certain of no separatist associations emerging to declare sovereignty. However, the premier wished to improve industry on the state, regardless of the terrain and landscape. He would then promote immigration to the island, inviting particular Javanese to blend in with the fellow Austronesians.

Premier LKY, instead of the passive action conducted by both predecessors, has proven to be very aggressive on boosting the island's economy. With the motto of expanding Indonesia’s national economy, he would tirelessly push to improve the prosperity in all regions, including Melanesia. In Melanesia, he attracted investors to the fishing industry and started to make complexes of fishing plants on the island. Honiara has evolved into a boomtown of 25000 inhabitants, almost thirty per cent of which is not native.

The premise of LKY’s characteristics of premiership is definitely apparent on the island. The economy is brewing, yet inequality has increased over time. Although people could buy better goods with affordable money, industrialist has profited the most. It seems that ‘the poor are rich, the rich are richer’ connotation has been people’s catchphrase for LKY. But then, this slight negativity has not impacted the dearest on the state’s stability. LKY’s other policy, immigration, has.

Controlled immigration program was LKY’s greatest tool of increasing the nation’s economic power. He appealed foreign middle households of European or American nations, most of which can be considered the wealthy in Indonesia perspective, to a program called ‘permanent tourism’. This tactic was finally uncovered under the pressure of the Gresik Scandal. The ‘permanent tourism’ includes a group of targeted homesteaders to tour a destination, and then dwell the area for a few months, until the local government naturalized the citizens so they can stay there forever. Indonesia, surprisingly, has its economy revamped by this method. The number of settlers came due to tackle the underemployment of crafty factories, most of which needed educated labours that Indonesia is still trying to produce.

In 1984 alone, nearly thirty thousand settlers have moved or naturalized as Indonesian citizens. Most of it came from Europe, which was brewing its hot war after Germany’s confrontation with the Soviet Union. Those settlers, either lived in secluded migrant neighbourhood towns or mixed with older European settlers which had lived here even before the independence. Naturally, big cities have ‘little Europe’ in the making. However, one small town in Walini, Pasundan State, has become these migrant’s prime destination. After a special economic zone policy dated back in the 50s, Walini’s administrative history has given the region great attraction for all migrant settlers who wished to live in Indonesia. This day, approximately 20% of the population is Caucasian folks, greater than anywhere on Indonesia.

In Melanesia, there are two controlled immigration programs. The first one came from small Norwegian settlers. These came from a family fishery firm of the said nation, Hallvar Lærøy AS. Around three hundred fishermen families arrived at San Cristobal Islands because of the abundant tuna resource in the surrounding seas. They come in two-wave, the first happened in 1981 of around one hundred people. After the success of fish catches, the rest moved in on 1984.

This group is relatively peaceful with the residents. In fact, most of the natives are amicable with the Nordic newcomers. The restless group, the one which caused native concern, is the second group. The second group is the religious settlers of The People’s Temple Agricultural Project. Originated from the United States, this group has no clear-cut purposes that would benefit the indigenous population. Instead, the group was antagonistic to any outsider and wished to maintain their isolation as pure as possible. No one that came in can leave the place. The citizens of Poroporo are repelled of this group. Not only of their unnatural attitude, but it has also drawn terror to regional children. Mostly their intentions are consistent; converting the local populace to their cause.

The local Partai Aliansi Melanesia (PAM), under the chairmanship of Peter Kenilorea, have been trying to investigate this dangerous group. The central government, however, dissuade the party for any federal assistance due for its great contributions in the nation’s surplus without even demanded a return. Any attempts will be caught by federal representatives on the area, threatening the local party punishment in the verdict of defying the federal orders. Despite hard frictions against their own government, PAM has genuine reasons for the investigation, because one United States’ Representative has been monitoring the group. The representative of the 9th District, Don Edwards, was sent by the government for the group’s allegation of cultist rituals that may endanger human rights. The Conservative politician has contacted PAM numerous times to coordinate a possible joined operation uncovering the group’s actions. With meetings almost every three months, Don Edwards is preparing himself to arrive in the settlement on 21st of November, 1985.

Representative Don Edwards, A Conservative Representative of California 9th District​

Meanwhile, the month of November has been devastating for the Melanesian State. A demonstration against a Japanese fishing company happened in the 2nd. The fishery was allegedly stealing fish quotas, and have been manipulating local fishermen to pay less than the actual fare. The demonstration has regressed into a showdown against the police after provocateurs invade that particular company’s office in Honiara. It had injured 15 people during the fight, but the federal government stayed unnoticed of the instability. In 10th of November, a rouge typhoon hit Santa Cruz Islands. It was unexpected by everyone, even the clever local fishermen that have learned the weather since birth. It killed almost three hundred people during the storm, another 78 heavily injured.

Two reporters, three PAM officials and Don Edwards arrived on the Poroporo dock at 21st morning. They arrived at the settlement, which was full of American housing. The community was friendly to the new arrivals. Jim Jones had greeted them gracefully and arrived with a gathering. During Don Edward’s chat with parishioners, however, he discovered that few of them were intending to leave the small town. Don Edwards promised the three defectors that the can escape from his envoy.

The next morning, just by the docks of Poroporo, Don Edwards was attacked by Temple armed men. The preacher has discovered the defector’s disappearance, and have sent few men to kill. Without any defence, all of Edward’s companions, even the reporters, was shot to death on the dock. The shot alerted few passersby of local city dwellers, whom the bodyguards kill three of them. On the same time, Jim Jones has assembled the entire community into a Friday mass. That day was gloom and dark because Jim Jones induced his congregation a concoction of cyanide-laced, grape-flavoured Cool-Aid. 1345 people, 315 of them are children, have died en masse in the town.

The Mass Suicide of The People's Temple Agriculture Project, or simply called the Tragedy of Poroporo​

Back in the United States, the response had been very drastic, especially for the families of the victims. The Temple headquarters was flooded with journalists and angry relatives. The situation in Indonesia, however, was grimmer. Poroporo inhabitants were traumatized with the mass suicide happening on the same island. A massive debate happened in the local representative body in Honiara. The members there unanimously agreed on one thing; the federal government is responsible for this atrocity to happen.

After this day, the LKY administration never came back to the initial eclipse. They were going down faster, and unsurprisingly, the PRD made a move first.

=======================​

Next sub-chapter would definitely be another PRD Golkar Chapter, they will plan their opportunity immediately. We're definitely closing the LKY era, and the 1988 Election will soon hype up.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

The First Snowball: December Sessions

Alarming signals had notified the Subandrio Presidency and LKY Administration that dark clouds would wander onward. The Gresik Scandal exposed the other surface of the booming marketplace while also publishing the farmer’s approaching fate for exceeding urban expansion. Immigration, a troubling one for native patriotist, prompted mixed views pro and against. The setback, however, attained from the horrors of Poroporo. That has driven the DPR to congregate again in December for an Extraordinary Congress.

The upcoming months had been enriching for the Indonesian people to study law because this was the time that the 1973 Constitution was tested completely and considerately in the DPR. Most of the early periods, the current Constitution’s few comparisons with the older ones have averted critiques to petition. That had moved away, and the people were witnessing the 1973’s valour. Chapter II of the 1973 Constitution declared that any urgent event that needed a government assemblage will be held under the Extraordinary Congress that seek participation from both the DPR Representatives and the DPD Senators. Beforehand, the DPD was not involved in any unusual cases that deemed the executive government. Also, it is the first time that the Congress Building will fill up fully.

501 over 555 Representatives and the complete 114 Senators have arrived in the building in 4th December of 1985. Their agenda was simple, to question the ruling party’s legitimacy for managing the government. So far, the government is constitutionally parliamentary. Therefore, the LKY premiership was responsible to the Parliament. Consists of four sessions in three days, the Parliament asked intricate questions which the Premier must answer if not suffer reverberations of screening honesty.

The first session debated about the economy. The one who wished for the Extraordinary Congress to be held, PNI-R Representative from Makassar Jusuf Kalla opened the session first with concerns on the money-oriented state. Jusuf Kalla mentioned the government’s lack of principle and keep going after cash. The interventions in Africa have become definite proof that Indonesia wanted more loans from Carterian America. Moreover, Japan has become too powerful in the Indonesian economy, granting them all power in appliances, electronic and minutely transportation industry. The PNI-R politician, probably briefed with Party leader and Batak DPD Nasution, along with Jakarta DPD Ali Sadikin, opened the economic talks with waning military influence. After the interventions, the government has withdrawn most of the nation’s military power for other sectors. Although a pro-Ali general had ascended as the Chief of Staff, it didn’t restrain the PNI-R militarist to cover the issue.

The response coming from LKY and the ministers in question were decently well replied. Defense Minister Try Sutrisno, shockingly to LKY’s observation, defended those interventions as an effort of democratization in Africa. He explicitly stated that Africa is no more a European colony, and every place on that particular area deserve independent rule. He brought up Pancasila that reinforce freedom of occupation. It gained positive remarks from the entire congress, but still stern faces from PNI-R and PPI politicians. BUMN Minister Frederik Trihandoko and Economy Minister Emil Salim both supported the money scheme, stating that it had helped improve a nation by a ton. They stressed the audience should not overlook the negative sides, as those were minuscule comparing to the benefits. In conclusion, LKY responded that the government promised for augmentation of Indonesia’s national culture after the economy has improved. The military question was cunningly avoided by LKY to answer, as his true intentions were simply reducing the military to non-influential into any legislative or judicative body, which they had. Enthusiastic clapping and nods from representatives ended the first session.

Next, the second session opened the debate with the same topic, but with a harsher and more aggressive question from the PPI party. DPD from Banyumas, Njono Prawiro, opened the debate about the economy that sacrifices the farmer’s productivity. He criticized the government’s extreme efforts of industrialization while waning the bane of Indonesia’s strongest sector; the agriculture. With approval shouts from his own party, Njono Prawiro also accused the government as overly reliant on Western relation. Sukarno was introduced in the chamber as pro-neutrality, and Subandrio with his apprentice LKY certainly have gone sideways.

Njono Prawiro’s deep attacks were improved with PUI Representative K.H* Maimun Zubair. The Ulema declared the government to undermine the harmonious religion of Islam. With rising population from all kinds of foreigners, including Jews alike, the Federal Republic of Indonesia has her Islamic population under threat. Considering long hatred with the Jews, he unintentionally moved the majority of Islam devouts to expel the entire nation out from Indonesia. He too explained of youth’s becoming much more secular than ever, evolving Indonesia into a secular state that Pancasila has blocked.

Still, the cabinet responded fairly impressive with all those strikes. One by one, the members shared their own views that tamed the ambush from both the PPI and the PUI. As expected, Religion Minister Muhammad Bin Zaini countered PUI’s attack with another blow, stating the party as entirely radical and wished the Jews for massive expulsion, which by humanity and goodwill was entirely wrong. On the Television, the PUI was roasted deeply from LKY’s response. The government once again was feeling quite secure. The second session ended with a good response, albeit the PPI and the PUI were still ardently opposed to giving in.

The 6th December 1985, a Friday, was deliberately scheduled by LKY. Not only because it was the end of the week, but Friday Prayers were also convened. Therefore, the government would face less opposition against the third ‘Tragedy of Poroporo’ Session. Also, this next debater would be one of PPP’s coalition partner, PRD. Umar would never jeopardize the coalition as it would be suicide. PPP’s success is also PRD’s benefit. However, considering this particularly deadly topic, LKY had convened its cabinet earlier about a proper response for it. Anwar Ibrahim, the Foreign Minister, has asserted his position and felt very confident. A Kedah politician, Yusof Bin Abdullah, became the initiator of the third session after lunch. He was influential among Malay politicians, even to bureaucrats in Sumatra and Kalimantan. However, the speech was utterly unexpected from LKY, as among the rest of others, the PRD has given the full force of the assault.

As a representative for the people whom I work arduously to, this government has forgotten the sense of humbleness and correspondence to our people’s will and need of a democratic government. The current cabinet has been engrossed with wealth and opportunistic slots for a prosperous nation without a prosperous society. The tragedy of Poroporo only unveiled the depths of the controversy that struck to the core. A blind desire so gullible that money may solve everything even originated from a lunatic. What happened last November has become a turning point from us, those who obviously is outside the circle, that change must be done into the government.

Almost thirty years ago, three military commandants, one notably Major General Suharto, has established Golongan Karya inside the army. Its initial purpose was to progress the army with considerable advice and commentaries from our own partners; the people of Nusantara. Scientists, economists, businessman and politicians alike, all united in one voice: to work the army to its best and serve the people. Golongan Karya has now become our PRD’s largest faction, and it will enlarge so because of the nation’s confidence to this new group.

Now, I believe it is the time that the Liberal Faction, the Malaya Faction, or the faction whose members supported the current administration, must leave from power before it has been too late. We are diving in into a dangerous future that the people are absolutely benefited none. I request the parliament, on behalf of the Federal Republic, to move a vote of no confidence effectively shortly.

Yusof Bin Abdullah, 1985

On behalf of his proposal, he introduced new groundbreaking secrets that have sieged the government far better than the PNI-R and PPI attacks. Secrets originating from BIN that uncovered numerous Japanese companies that have been consciously exploiting the regulatory laws. Ending by almost ten hours from the lunch break, the third session has received a well-mannered endorsement by those who watched in the television. Public increased their support for the Golkar party. Fidgeting from the government respondent also helped to ail the public view from confident to suspicious. More and more PRD stated more facts that the government felt overwhelmed to respond with.

Yet, radio listeners agreed to both the PPI and PNI-R who has seen this as another act from the faction who always feign their friends. It was because they saw the documents shown that television could, which most perceivers deflect those as entirely exaggerated. Furthermore, the youth are unnecessarily pleased with the Parliament either. They were between the most liberalist stance, which wholeheartedly supports LKY. On the other hand, other youths camped under PPI or PNI-R platform, giving the utmost socialism and nationalism respectively. The PRD has become a party for the olds, especially from the 65 generations.

Congressmen agreed to meet for the no-confidence vote by January. Each party conducted meetings amongst inner members to strategize carefully. With the PRD on the ‘goodies’, other parties should steal the attention also. In the end, all parties similarly agreed on something unconsciously, gathering masses by the first no-confidence session.

==============================​

A busy year ahead for Indonesians. LKY will cover some problems that unnecessarily his but will be blamed for.

 

[SkylineDreamer]

The First Snowball: Look into the Parties and Votes

Indonesia was ill-fated to have a political crisis as dire as in 1986. The last power contest was Nasution’s rise in 1963. Even that, news coverage was radio stations, times when one had yet received any visual information. People had been less informative and less keen on overseeing Parliament sessions. This current crisis had 15 million people watching from the table. Also, Nasution was not entirely fighting for survival, Sukarno eventually wanted to diminish PKI’s influence from the executive government. This time, all sides are trying to shoot the government down, maybe using the law to find their own path to leadership.

Indeed, much of the scandals coincided under Subandrio’s government signifies relative shock. Nasution had done worse, expanding the military with corruption towards the bureaucratic sector. Opening up lavish prestigious building to satisfy one’s prestige but not the economy, livelihood and prosperity of the people. For Sukarno, it was nothing better. The previous drafts helped Sukarno to form a pseudo-parliamentary system, that means the President control absolute authority. He deliberately maintained Wilopo’s premiership as he was the only willing minister that governs similar according to him. In that particular perspective, this premiership was not so bad after all.

However, the assumptions did nothing to loathe not the current government. Anywhere outside the government has grown to hate the administration, even for politicians inside the coalition. For the PNI-R platform, it was the growing Japanese influence that upsets both Nasution war hawks, or the Nationalist Youths. For the PPI, the lack of farming incentives was to blame, and the increasing government attitudes towards corporates had also agitated the poor to support the communist wing. The Islamist, had their own problems, the receding religious values that erode mostly in cities, and also the education’s curriculum which supports science unilaterally.

Still, the associations did not unite them, because there are countless other reasons why these factions cannot work together. After the decline of Nasution’s power, the Parliament evolved radically for one’s party. Cooperation has been difficult outside of the party. Although a 50% majority may help to pass laws, that will not last long as inner faction members would explode soon. PNI-R had suffered the Golkar split in 1983. Almost three years, that same men would ruin PPP’s cohesion.

The end year season was busy for all the representatives, they are gathering masses and fans all across the world. After the parliament agreed to pass a vote by January, back negotiations have spurn all across Indonesia. Each faction from MPR goes to local constituents, senators and local elderly.

Firstly, indeed, is the Malacca Faction. Truthfully, the faction was split between ousting LKY or keeping the man. Huge cities areas, such as Singapore or Jakarta, strongly believed in the government and wished to stay so until the end of the term. The leader, Musa Hitam, was LKY’s close ally during the war. While others in the Malay Peninsula and Sumatran islands aren’t so willing to spare aside. Mahathir Mohammad, a Kedah doctor, was an enthusiast to relieve LKY for someone else of his choice. The 229 Reps and 26 Senators have the same course, so an official split would not happen soon. Being the largest but not so united, the Malacca Faction suffered a significant blow in attempting to garner sympathizers. But then, the youth movement, particularly those who enjoy the freedom in cities, has vowed to support the government. An estimate of 750 young men would arrive to support demonstrations. Protests are not LKY’s preferable weapon, but it was required.

The Madagascar Faction, favourably after incorporation, remains firm under Malacca’s directive. They have been availed the most, having the island exhausted by the French into a sustainable farm and factory by the Indonesians. At least, Madagascar is the 9th poorest country if independent now, rather than the estimate of 1st if Madagascar is granted by the French back then. Building an entire nation larger than most islands in Indonesia is hard, but surely it was decent. The other PPP Faction, the Hatta Faction, was lagging but support Malacca anyway. Adam Malik, the current ruler, still believed that Subandrio was still good. Although they don’t like LKY, they promised not to impeach.

Although officially part of the Prosperity Coalition, PRD’s spokesperson Sudharmono has determined that the party will weight efforts to bring justice to the current government. Chairman Untung has given a Garis Besar Haluan Partai, or Broad Outlines of Party’s Direction, to mostly impose soft power to Indonesia by strengthening the army and its influence on the government. Moreover, there has to be an indivisible chain between defence, politicians, and executives. Unlike the opposition, PRD has no clear reason to withdraw its support from LKY apart from the Poroporo Incident. But then, with the hit they blew during December, they may harness ‘feeling good’ populace that wanted LKY out by humiliation without changing the government too much.

To survive, PPP also needed to fight PPI, the third-largest portion and the largest opposition. Different than PRD’s objective, PPI was blatantly trying to overthrow the government. This staunch faction naturally acquired from PKI’s far-left, which was the only party to encourage and defend the Comecon. Their adorned candidate Guntur Sukarnoputra, an extra two years of development, and most of Sukarno’s politically active family into the party had been the reasons why PPI can resurge after Untung’s split to PRD back then. This is their best chance to possibly win the forthcoming 1988 election, and certainly, PPI is showing full strength from its members, especially the youths, to shout enough for the state to run.

Less militant but substantial second-largest opposition was the old PNI-R. Now a shadow of its former self, PNI-R has increasingly grown to appease on both extreme sides of the age spectrum. Old guards, retirees, and revolutionary officers have friendly views of Nasution. However, the president had been waning it’s Dwifungsi ABRI dream to a more reasonable modernization the ABRI. This particular move was certainly Ali’s last attempt to sway Edi Sudrajat, one of PRD’s highest members. In the meantime, as the old 65 generations are probably inclined to Umar and his fellows, the younger, fresher, more active subordinates patronize the 2nd President. A notable member of which, is Colonel Abdullah Mahmud Hendropriyono, Intelligent Assistant of Jakarta Regional Military Command (RMC), Major Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Commander of Special Raider Infantry Brigade, Bali RMC and a half-Dutch half-Indonesian Captain Heri Sudiro Djambi, son of Idjon Djambi the first Kopassus commander. Still, the PNI-R can be persuaded, as they hated PRD and PPI more than the current PPP. LKY just needed leverage to prevent them from voting no confidence.

Last but not least, the PUI and BKDT who was allying behind the bigger PPI was also LKY’s problem to resolve. However, with two-thirds needed for a no-confidence vote, LKY needed not to attract the PUI again. If his own party was united, even bare 65% of it, LKY could escape without stepping down. He was confident in his break he enjoyed his winter in Singapore to once again allure Japanese investors.

Then, January hit LKY.

6th January is the first workday of 1986 and also the return of the Assembly for a session. Unsurprisingly, almost all members of DPR and DPD present as a yearly session would convene at that time. LKY and his cabinet arrived with confident faces, but still determined for protecting his picture. He would prepare for a few things to conclude his defence, and the vote on the DPR proceeded.

…
No-Confidence Vote
Should the government step down or resume its executive powers?
1. Yay
2. Nay

…​

Although the motion passed the raw majority, it didn’t pass the necessity to vote 2/3 for the proceedings to go on. Few of PPP Politicians, notably those Malayans who were against LKY, cast their ballot to the Yay side. The real problem that hit the government, was the happenings outside. The PPI demonstrators, already outside of the Parliament, opened up a fight against the PNI-R youths. Riot happened.

=======================​

I was trying to post this update about the riots. But because of the long overview of the parties. I guess that would be next week's update.

A few points to be mentioned, Nasution's power is waning that PNI-R essentially shifts from Dwifungsi ABRI to quality doctrine, with also influence from Djambi's clan. PRD, ironically, will inevitably become a part of that as the defence-politician-government triangle was central to Dwifungsi ABRI. Names are popping out as well, coming to the modern age which I master better. The Nationalist Faction under the PNI-R is basically those youths who wanted a Nasution government back and revisit the post-war ego and pride.

I also wanted to mention a few insights on what the hell happened between 54-66 as I covered those quite vaguely. Fortunately, I'm going to make the 50th Anniversary of Indonesia to summarize the entire 50 years domestically and foreignly.