By Max Lane
Democracy activists defy Suharto
Budiman Sujatmiko, president of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and 13 other PRD prisoners held in Jakarta have refused to sign the reports on their interrogation. This is the first time political prisoners in Indonesia have refused to sign these reports, which are later used in trial proceedings.
Sujatmiko earlier protested his illegal interrogation by unauthorised persons. Sujatmiko was arrested by BAIS, the chief military intelligence agency, and not the police or prosecutor's office. BAIS has no legal authority to make arrests.
According to Bambang Wijoyanto, one of Sujatmiko's lawyers, the prisoners can not be legally detained if they do not sign these papers. The lawyers complained that they were allowed only 10 minutes with their clients and were not allowed to leave any books or documents.
Thirty-three lawyers have volunteered to form the Indonesian Justice and Law Defence Team (TPHKI) to defend Budiman and the other Jakarta PRD members. A similar team has been formed in Surabaya to defend Dita Sari and other prisoners in East Java.
Meanwhile the state party, Golkar, has announced that it has mobilised its claimed millions of members to arrest the scores of leaders of the PRD still operating underground. The armed forces have ordered the arrest of all PRD members — an illegal order under Indonesian law, which requires arrest warrants listing specific crimes. So far, however, only three national leaders of PRD have been captured: Sujatmiko, PRD secretary general Petrus Haryanti and Pranowo, secretary general of the Indonesian Centre for Workers' Struggle (PPBI). Seventeen other PRD members have been captured, including leaders of the branch of Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy (SMID) in the Jabotek working-class area.
Many other national PRD leaders remain free and operational, including Andi Arif, chairperson of SMID. Despite the hunt for him, he still is able to organise media interviews. In the national weekly magazine Gatra of August 24, an article on the rise of discussion groups and interest in Marxism in the university city of Yogyakarta began: "Andi Arif still speaks explosively". It goes on to quote him one month after the arrest order: "I'm still here in Yogyakarta, heh, quite secure you see".
He had arranged the meeting with the journalist somewhere in Yogyakarta and had got there safely"wearing a T-shirt with the word democracy on it, and a picture of a person holding up a red fist".
Arif confirmed to the journalist that student activists had indeed discussed Marxism, even communism, as a part of their studies. "Discussion about Marxism, the new left, was free on our campus. The vice-chancellor allowed us to study whatever we liked." The article went on to document how a number of activists involved in these discussions were later arrested and jailed for circulating the books of the great Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
Arif told the Gatra journalist, "We have issued instructions that SMID activists should not surrender ... The government should follow the rule of law. Let's see them prove PRD's involvement in the [July 27] rioting. They shouldn't just be lashing out like this."
Assisting the PRD's going efforts to speak to the public, Gatra also reported the statement sent to the press via email from his hidden headquarters by the head of the PRD's propaganda department, I Gusti Anom Astika: "Don't waste the sacrifices that have already been made in the struggle to restore the people's sovereignty. Close ranks, consolidate, produce leaflets ... continue the struggle!"
Meanwhile, the media are having a field day with the issue of "reviving communism". Tabloid and entertainment magazines have published pages and pages of articles on the PRD and its leaders. Budiman Sujatmiko, Dita Sari and Andi Arif are on the verge of becoming folk heroes.
Long interviews with Budiman's parents have revealed that he was brilliant at drawing and won competitions, was educated as a pious Muslim in his childhood, knew communism only from books, loved his mother and was a lover of former President Sukarno's ideas since he was 10. SMID leader Garda Sembiring's sister, in an interview in the mass tabloid Detectives and Romance, explained that Garda always knew by instinct when his mother was sick and would come home and that ever since he entered university everybody knew he was "dedictated to the defence of the people and the struggle for justice and truth".
In Surabaya, Major General Soebgyo Hadisiswoyo, accompanied by several other high-ranking military, informed the press: "From captured documents it is clear that the activities of the PRD group are not as simple as previously thought. It is obvious from its manifestos that the thinkers and planners of the PRD are very intelligent people who have a very great understanding of the course of Indonesian political developments."
"Because of this", they went on to say, "it is the task of the nation to be vigilant against all those who speak in the name of democracy but teach communism".
Intelligence sources seem to have released quotes from what is alleged to be the captured diary of Dita Sari, president of the PPBI. Notes on the 10,000-strong strike at Tandes read, "The Tandes Rally at the Parliament. Agitation at the parliament — a success! Success! Almost clashed with the police. Spent the night at Tunjangan. Drank dawet [herbal drink], bought the papers. There is so much to do, and all must be done so quickly."
Later the military seemed to be gleeful about alleged quotes that read: "The party has been established. Well, 31 years buried, slaughtered, humiliated, banned, kept under constant surveillance, betrayed. Now it is being built again. God, please bless our struggle. Is it not your promise to raise up the poor, so that some day they lead the world?"
The regime's propaganda has also focused on other alleged PRD leaders. It has been announced that the military is looking for "Daniel Teacoli alias Kusuma". Described as a 36-year-old former history student at the University of Indonesia, he is alleged by the military to be the "conceiver and ideolgue" of the PRD, though the military states no specific position he is supposed to hold. Gatra quotes a source in the armed forces headquarters, stating that this Daniel was trained for two years in Cuba and speaks English, German and Dutch. (Presumably Spanish too.)
He is alleged to be so committed that one of his children is named Dipa, the first name of the former chairperson of the Indonesian Communist Party. He is alleged to have begun recruiting cadre in 1989 in Yogyakarta. These cadre are then alleged to have become the embryo of the PRD.
The publication Monas, also broadcast on the internet, has quoted an unnamed SMID activist commenting on statements by Megawati Sukarnoputri, the popular chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) , no longer recognised as such by the dictatorship.
Interrogators have been trying to link Megawati to the "Budiman case". Budiman had been a regular speaker at the democratic forums held at the PDI office. She told interrogators that she did not know Budiman. According to Monas, the SMID spokesperson said that SMID "did not know Megawati".
According to SMID, she had not outlined her vision for the future while she was in parliament and had rarely spoken out. Asked why SMID members supported Megawati, the SMID activist answered: "That is part of our commitment to democracy. We saw that the action by the military against PDI ... was not something that we could keep silent about. Our support for Megawati's PDI is a part of our overall response to abuse of power by the military, such as in the case of the Ujung Padang [massacre], Priok [massacre], Lampung [massacre], East Timor struggle and many others."
Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly has also been contacted directly by the PRD leadership with a message that their reorganisation to fight the regime under tightened repression is proceeding well.
Stop press
Hendrik Sirait, a PIJAR (Centre for Information and Action for Reform) activist arrested in Jakarta at a small protest action in solidarity with Megawati Sukarnoputri after July 27, has reportedly been released and has returned to his family.
Defence appeal.