ABSTRACT
The first 13 years of the PDI’s existence were above all marred by conflicts between different factions and leaders in the party, more so than the PPP.1
In the context of the two party mergers in 1973, the PDI was largely a residual category, in which the non-Islamic parties were lumped together, comprising parties based on socialist, nationalist and Christian ideologies. In addition to the ideological differences, the parties were also mutually suspicious of one another’s commitment and motives. The two Christian parties were seen by the other parties, and particularly by the PNI, as lacking commitment to the merger, and their Christian identity was associated with Dutch colonialism and imperialism and capitalism in general. The Christian parties, on the other hand, were suspicious of Murba’s socialist and alleged Trotskyist background, as well as of the PNI’s Marhaenist ideology and association with leftist politics under the Old Order. There were, moreover, suspicions that IPKI, because of its association with the army, had been planted in the PDI as an extension of the military’s influence.2 A further source of conflict in the early years was the differing visions as to what the new party should be. The smaller parties expected the PDI to become a new party, based on the integration of the five merging parties’ diverse ideological backgrounds and organisations. In the PNI, by contrast, the dominating expectation was that the PDI would be a continuation of the PNI, with the smaller parties assimilating and dissolving into the PNI’s organisation.3
