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ABC News: President Sukarno faces political unrest, 1967

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Cars surrounded my military police
ABC News: President Sukarno faces political unrest, 1967

SUBJECTS:  Civics and Citizenship, History

YEARS:  9–10


How long can a president last in the top job when those in the government want him out?

In this 1967 news clip, Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, is faced with political opposition. While he is still popular with the people, politicians speculate that he may not be in the job for long.

Although Sukarno puts on a brave face, reporter Phillip Koch points out that 'President Sukarno's position is not normal'.


Things to think about

  1. 1.What sort of official response would you expect to see if a political opponent called Australia's Prime Minister 'the supreme clown'? Why might so many political demonstrations begin at Universities?
  2. 2.How does the reporter appear to view President Sukarno? What two insults did the Minister for Information level at the president? What precautions did President Sukarno take to protect his life when visiting the hospital, and what does this suggest about the state of his leadership at the time? What actions does the reporter suggest might be taken against the president by the People's Consultative Congress in the month to follow?
  3. 3.Did President Sukarno visit the hospital just to visit an unwell friend? What other reasons does the clip suggest Sukarno had for making this visit? Do you think this visit was successful?
  4. 4.

    Although he seemed popular with the Indonesian people, President Sukarno was removed from office within weeks of this news report. Analyse a current news report on a politician. How might that politician be using the report to present a certain point of view?



Date of broadcast: 2 Apr 1967


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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