The nation of Indonesia. . . seems almost inevitably to
arouse in the observer the extreme reactions of enthusiasm or
of despair, or fluctuations between the two. Indonesia is
breathtakingly beautiful, immeasurably rich in both natural
and human reserves, altogether exhilarating in potentialities
as by far the biggest, most populous, most richly endowed,
most strategically located nation of South East Asia. Never-
theless the task of organizing, disciplining and developing
the nation has defeated to date the best efforts of everyone
who has attempted it. -- WILLARD HANNA ¹

WHEN I first arrived in Indonesia early in
June 1952, less than three years after the establishment of the In-
donesian Republic, the excitement of making a new country was
still in the air. The leaders -- Sukarno, Hatta, Natsir, Wilopo,
Sjaffrudin, Sumitro, Djuanda, Buwono -- who had so recently laid
aside their guns were now at their desks facing the huge problem
of making "Merdeka" (the new freedom -- independence) the smil-
ing reality they had promised the people; not only freedom from
the Dutch, but freedom from want, freedom from the moneylender,
freedom from land hunger that the mass of the people believed
would come to pass once the riches of the Dutch overlords were
shared among them.

The task was not an easy one, for Indonesia was in a state of
economic stagnation, with an annual per capita income below $100,
a population already exceeding 80 million people and increasing by
some 1½ million per year. The havoc wrought by the scorched-
earth policy of the Dutch when they retreated before the Japanese,

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