First Hatta Cabinet

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First Hatta Cabinet
Kabinet Hatta I

7th Cabinet of Indonesia
1948–1949
Date formed29 January 1948 (1948-01-29)
Date dissolved
  • 19 December 1948 (1948-12-19) (arrested)
  • 4 August 1949 (1949-08-04) (reshuffled)
People and organisations
Head of stateSukarno
Head of governmentMohammad Hatta
No. of ministers16 ministers
History
PredecessorAmir Sjarifuddin II Cabinet
Successor
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Mohammad Hatta

The First Hatta Cabinet (

Dutch military aggression, when the republican capital of Yogyakarta
was seized and most of the cabinet arrested, much of the cabinet was captured and sent into exile, although it was not formally disbanded. After the political leadership returned effective 13 July 1949 the cabinet continued its mandate until it was reshuffled on 4 August.

Formation

The

leftist leanings.[3]

The cabinet was formed on 29 January 1948, with Hatta serving concurrently as vice president and

military, Hatta worked to reduce leftist influences in the armed forces, which had been exploited during Sjarifuddin's cabinet.[7] However, Hatta's work was greatly weakened by continued division over the Renville Agreement.[8]

The Indonesian legal scholar and politician Bibit Suprapto writes that the Hatta Cabinets were not truly parliamentary, as Hatta continued to serve in/ the executive branch of the government, but also not truly presidential, as Hatta formally held the title of prime minister.[4]

Composition

The initial composition of the First Hatta Cabinet

Several changes to this line-up were made during the course of the cabinet. Juanda was replaced as Minister of Public Works on 13 April 1948 by Herling Laoh. Hamengkubuwana IX replaced Hatta as Minister of Defence on 15 July 1948. Supeno died in on 24 February 1949 and was not replaced.[9]

Events

The First Hatta Cabinet was marked by an increase in international recognition of the country. Yemen and the Soviet Union, for example, recognised Indonesia's independence in May 1948.[10]

Internal dissent

The former prime minister, Sjarifuddin, did not accept the fall of his cabinet; leftist forces had controlled the cabinet since

Communist Party figure Muso, he formed the People's Democracy Front (Front Demokrasi Rakyat, or FDR), which opposed the Hatta cabinet and called for a new, leftist, cabinet. In early February 1948 they were already meeting and discussing how to handle the new cabinet.[12]

The FDR surmised that the cabinet, which prominently featured the Muslim-backed party Masyumi, would be unable to fulfill their mandate and what projects were completed would be against the needs of socialists and communists.[13] They gave the cabinet the titles "Masyumi Cabinet" and "Bourgeois Cabinet". Throughout early 1948 the FDR criticised Islamic groups and the groups in power; they also led several strikes and called for the Hatta Cabinet to unilaterally renege the Renville Agreement.[10] In response, the government freed Tan Malaka and other political prisoners beginning in mid-August; although those freed were also communist, they were staunchly opposed to the FDR and worked at subverting the FDR's work.[14]

This dissent culminated in the Madiun Affair, in which FDR forces, under the command of Muso, Sjarifuddin, and other leftist figures, seized the city of Madiun, East Java, on 18 September 1948; the FDR razed homes and killed more than a thousand people, mostly Islamic figures. Four days later the Indonesian Army deployed to retake the city. The first troops arrived on 30 September and began fighting the following day, retaking the city. FDR members spread out over the area, leading to the army spending several months hunting them. Muso was killed in early October, while Sjarifuddin was captured on 29 November and executed the following month.[10]

Dutch pressure

Following the Renville Agreement, the

Pasundan.[10] Numerous skirmishes occurred along the line, incurred by both Indonesian and Dutch troops.[15] The Dutch forces also continued to block the Indonesian archipelago, preventing supplies from reaching the people.[16] As such, by December tensions between the two forces were high.[15]

Fall

During Operation Kraai, a Dutch assault on the capital at Yogyakarta which began on 19 December 1948, the cabinet and President Sukarno were captured and exiled. An emergency cabinet, under Sjafruddin Prawiranegara, was established in Sumatra; however, the Hatta Cabinet was not formally disbanded.[15] After the political leadership was released and returned to Yogyakarta, Prawiranegara returned control of the country to Hatta's cabinet effective 13 July 1949; the Hatta cabinet retained its line-up until 4 August 1949, when it was reshuffled, again with Hatta as prime minister.[17]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Suprapto 1985, p. 78.
  2. ^ Suprapto 1985, p. 80.
  3. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 134.
  4. ^ a b Suprapto 1985, p. 79.
  5. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 135.
  6. ^ Suprapto 1985, p. 81.
  7. ^ Imran 1980, pp. 42–45.
  8. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 148.
  9. ^ Secretariat, Kabinet Hatta I.
  10. ^ a b c d Suprapto 1985, pp. 81–84.
  11. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 136.
  12. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 143.
  13. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 144.
  14. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 154.
  15. ^ a b c Suprapto 1985, p. 85.
  16. ^ Muljana 2008, p. 137.
  17. ^ Suprapto 1985, p. 86.

Bibliography

  • "Kabinet Hatta I" [First Hatta Cabinet] (in Indonesian). Cabinet Secretariat of Indonesia. Archived from the original on 29 May 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
  • Imran, Amrin (1980). Panglima Besar Jenderal Soedirman [Commander in Chief General Soedirman] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Mutiara.
    OCLC 220643587
    .
  • Muljana, Slamet (2008). Kesadaran Nasional: Dari Kolonialisme sampai Kemerdekaan [National Awakening: From Colonialism to Independence] (in Indonesian). Yogyakarta: LkiS Pelangi Aksara.
    ISBN 978-979-1283-57-1
    .
  • Suprapto, Bibit (1985). Perkembangan Kabinet dan Pemerintahan Indonesia [Development of Indonesian Cabinets and Government] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Ghalia.
    OCLC 13555282
    .
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