A Report that Shook the New Order

ONLY a few copies of Laporan MPRS 1966-1972, a record of parliamentary activities in Indonesia since independence, are believed still in existence. The bookall 120 volumeswas destroyed by order of the government in the early years of the New Orders rule. A copy of the book, which has since drawn great interest among scholars here and overseas, was recently acquired by TEMPO. An Australian university has written to Abdul Kadir Besar, former Secretary-General of the Provisional Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPRS) and the man who compiled the documents, for permission to translate portions of the report into English. More than just a record, the report bears witnesss to the turbulent relationship between MPRS speaker Abdul Haris Nasution and President Suharto and to the consolidation of power by the emerging dictator during the period 1966-1972a period Western scholars have called a creeping coup. Many view the destruction of the report as a tragedy.