| |
| 1970s |
| |
| Indonesia's leaders sought closer ties to the West, abandoning their former left-wing orientation. Whereas Sukarno had championed anticolonial revolution, Suharto stressed anti-Communism and development. His regime, under the slogan “national resilience,” consolidated the New Order. Its emphasis on stability endowed the army with a dominant political and economic role. | 1 |
| Suharto's policies favored political passivity by the populace; his political structures, unlike Sukarno's, were designed to reduce political mobilization. Political parties were seen as too divisive. Instead he formed an organization known as Golkar, which organized the population by function—agglomerations of civil servants, the armed forces, intellectuals, women, youth, workers, farmers, veterans, and so on. | 2 |
| The New Order's foreign policy also reflected its goals of internal stability and economic growth. It broke with the Soviet Union and China. Instead, Suharto successfully allied his country with Japan and the West to acquire the aid and technical assistance needed. | 3 |
| |
| 1971 |
| |
| In elections, Suharto's party—dominated by bureaucrats, technocrats, and the military—won landslide victories. | 4 |
| |
| July |
| |
| The Golkar won 236 out of a total of 360 seats in the country's second national election. | 5 |
| |
| |
