British Intelligence Secret Operations That Also Fueled The 1965 G30S Tragedy

JAKARTA - The events of the September 30th Movement or G30S could not be separated from the clash of two ideologies that were fighting for influence at that time: communism versus liberalism. West block versus east block. In the western bloc there is England, which is quite strong in influence. So how did the UK influence the G30S event?

In the 1960s the world was wracked with ideological conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union. West and East blocks. As a result, proxy wars spread to various parts of the world.

The two superpowers made developing countries a political chessboard. This can be seen from the number of proxy wars. This decade recorded at least 50 such conflicts in the Cold War era.

Indonesia was another battlefield between the US and the Soviets. Starting in the 1950s, President Soekarno became the political prima donna that was contested by US President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet ruler, Nikita Khrushchev. At that time, Indonesia had become the biggest power in Southeast Asia and was starting to be reckoned with in the world.

President Soekarno and John F Kennedy (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

As quoted by Deutsche Welle, Soekarno, who felt that Indonesia was already strong enough, began to be considered more inclined to the Eastern block. Sukarno began to turn on the Moscow-Beijing-Jakarta axis.

This can be seen in the 1960s, the Soviets were listed as the largest aid provider to Indonesia more than any other country. But the political maneuver ended in fatal for Indonesia.

When Indonesia's political relations with the Soviets strengthened, the archipelago's diplomacy with the west was crushed. The US is known to have helped the PRRI/Permesta rebellion in 1958.

Sukarno replied. He ordered military aggression against Malaysia to oppose the formation of a commonwealth state by the British. We commemorate the event with the famous "Down with Malaysia" jargon. Soekarno at that time reasoned against neo-colonialism. In fact, he supported the Malaysian Communist insurgency in Sarawak.

British covert operations

The western block was increasingly worried that Sukarno, who was getting older, would inherit the throne to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Everything was done by the west to undermine the PKI. And despite Soekarno's animosity, the western secret services continued to maintain contact with the TNI, which was considered the only hope of eliminating communism in Indonesia. Until the incident 65, the US had trained at least 4000 TNI officers.

England also certainly did not remain silent. They started to make anti-Sukarno propaganda in the 1960s.

Paul Lashmar and James Oliver in the book Britain's Secret Propaganda War 1948-1977 said indications of British intention to get rid of Soekarno had been seen since 1962, after Soekarno openly opposed the plan to form a Federation of Malaya supported by London. Documents from the American intelligence agency, the CIA, noted British Prime Minister Maurice Harold Macmillan and US President Kennedy had agreed to "liquidate President Soekarno, depending on the situation and the opportunity".

As quoted in the October 5 2015 edition of Tempo Magazine, Soekarno considered the Malaya Federation project announced in 1961 to be a neocolonial plot. He suspected that the federation was just a trick of the British to continue to be entrenched in Southeast Asia.

According to Michael O. Billington in the June 8, 2001 issue of the journal Executive Intelligence Review, Britain welcomed the confrontation as an opportunity to destroy Indonesian nationalism. The UK Ministry of Defence's Chief of Staff has prepared a report proposing covert operations.

British Ambassador Andrew Gilchrist (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The operation was controlled by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British Ministry of Defense Chief of Staff who led London's efforts for the recolonization of Asia during and after World War II. However, according to Bellington, the intention to overthrow Sukarno was never achieved because Kennedy continued to refuse British requests to stop all assistance to the Soekarno government.

So after Kennedy was shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963, the British moved. While attending Kennedy's funeral, British Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Hume and US Secretary of State David Dean Rusk agreed to take action against Indonesia.

The British initially tried to undermine Sukarno by re-activating the separatist movement they had supported in 1957-1958. However, since James Harold Wilson assumed the seat of prime minister in October 1964, they changed tactics.

As written by Mark Curtis, quoted by Tempo Magazine, the British intelligence agent, M16, opened contact with key elements in the Indonesian army through the British Embassy. One of them was through Ali Moertopo who later became the head of intelligence under General Suharto. It was this British intelligence operation that allegedly contributed to the heating up of the 1965 riots.

*Read other information about HISTORY or read other interesting articles from Ramdan Febrian Arifin.