MALIK MIAH is a member of the US socialist organisation Solidarity and of the International Association of Machinists who visited Indonesia at the time of the recent elections as part of a Global Exchange delegation. He was interviewed for Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly by JO BROWN.
Question: Could you tell me a bit about the Global Exchange program and the purpose of your visit to Indonesia?
Global Exchange is an organisation based in San Francisco. Its purpose is to express solidarity with people in Third World countries through "reality tours". The idea is that you get people to go to countries where people are fighting for democracy against a dictatorship and see the struggle; you're not there to go to beaches or resorts or even museums.
We organised a tour with the cooperation of KIPP, which is an election-monitoring group, and SBSI, the independent trade union led by Muchtar Pakpahan.
We met human rights groups, and non-government organisations, including two feminist organisations which focus on issues for working-class women. Another was a group of women lawyers that does a lot of work with women who work for companies like Nike, which pay women workers less.
We also met with trade unionists from the official trade union SPSI, which is basically yellow unions, although the two people we met were in local chapters which seemed to want to fight, which is unusual for the SPSI.
We met with the SBSI, which is not recognised as a trade union, and a lot of the SBSI people are under attack by the government.
We were able to meet with the PRD [People's Democratic Party], who are banned and forced to work underground. We also met with the two PRD members on trial, Anom and Wilson.
Then there is an organisation called PUDI [Indonesian United Democratic Party], which is led by a former parliamentarian of the Muslim PPP [United Development Party], Sri Bintang. Bintang is jailed on charges of insulting Suharto in Germany in 1995 and now faces charges of subversion for writing greeting cards calling for an election boycott.
Question: Could you tell me about the discussions with the trade unions?
One of the more interesting meetings that SBSI organised for us was with a group of women workers from Nike who have recently had a strike.
The government had just raised the minimum wage after strikes and pressure by workers. A lot of companies, including Nike, resisted it, and actually applied for an exemption. Nike in one factory agreed to the wage increase but then took away a lot of allowances.
Workers in general are striking over economic issues, and 70-80% of strikes are wildcat strikes; they're not sanctioned by the local union. The local union has to catch up.
I didn't get a chance to meet with the other independent union, the PPBI.
Question: Did you meet with the PDI (Indonesian Democratic Party)?
We met with no-one from the official PDI, the Suryadi PDI. We did meet with Megawati's PDI. We were unable to meet with Megawati, but we met with her number two and number three.
Like most other people we met, they don't believe that there is democracy in Indonesia. The question is just what to do about it. Most people are very cautious about how far to push things. Most of the official groups are not calling protests yet. That's true with Megawati and her PDI.
Did you get a sense of what future role the PPP is likely to play after the elections? In the media here there is a lot of talk about the PPP as a new Islamic bloc against Suharto.
In Indonesia, Islam is not like the Middle East. I call it more progressive. The PPP calls itself Islamic, but a lot of the people in it don't see their vision in those terms. They are looking to Megawati and the democratic opposition.
One way that you know this Islam is different is the role of women. Women are not as put down in the PPP as you would expect in the Middle East.
Question: Did you meet with the PRD?
I was able to meet the comrades underground. It became clear that a lot of the political ideas raised in the PPP rallies and Megawati rallies were ideas that the PRD raised consciously, "joining with the masses" as they put it. They were trying to relate to the masses' anti-Suharto sentiment.
Simultaneously they raised the demands of repeal the political laws, new election and a real multiparty system. So they were combining a very classic conception of the united front approach to the broader mass organisations and intervening with their own perspectives in this mass activity.
A lot of the statements they made through Budiman in prison, and were able to keep the organisation's name in public profile. They put 200,000 leaflets out for the elections, as well as doing a lot of graffiti on the walls in working-class areas, calling for the election boycott.
Question: You were able to go to the trial of Anom and Wilson. What was that like?
It was a very moving experience. The two prisoners would come in wearing T-shirts saying "Boycott elections" and put a big scarf on that said "Free East Timor", and pass out statements in the court waiting room.
There were closed doors and guards, but the reporters could go up and interview them, and they passed out statements from Budiman and Xanana Gusmao, the East Timorese leader, who was supposed to be a witness in their trial but was prevented from appearing by the government.
In the courtroom they gave their speech, denouncing the government and calling for an election boycott. There was a packed courtroom with the international media and the PRD supporters who all identified with Anom and Wilson.
Question: What's your impression of PUDI?
They say the government calls them liberal and they call the PRD left. I think that's because they're more openly calling for a form of liberal parliamentary democracy, and the PRD calls for a more radical popular multiparty democracy.
The people I met who have been arrested and harassed seemed to be shifting to the left. Politically they are closer to the PRD than I expected, and it was positive to see people beginning to move left.
Pijar are another organisation, a student organisation, who are more in the PUDI camp. They have had people beaten up and arrested. Forty of them turned in their voting card to protest the elections. There are layers of people who are mainly young who are moving in a radical democratic direction.
Question: What is your view of the immediate future?
There is a dictatorship that's been in power 32 years, and the people want Suharto gone and they want more democracy. That's clear. But it's hard to really understand the psychology of the people unless you have a better appreciation of the workers themselves, and of the rural population, who are 70% of the population.
The rural population are not involved in a lot of this process because the government keeps the political parties out of the villages, although industrialisation and foreign investment have led to rapid change in the countryside, particularly women and the family.
The key will be the youth, which is why the PRD is so important. The youth don't accept the old rules, and they are willing to challenge the existing order.
Those in their 30s, 40s and 50s tend to be more accepting because they saw the terror of the regime. People in their 60s or 70s or older who knew what Sukarno was and lived through the terror of the 1960s are also optimistic, so there is an alignment of the older people with the younger people.
The middle classes, the educated in the middle age group, are clearly democrats. They want democracy, but they're not as hopeful. They tend to underestimate how fast things can change. The youth have less to lose, they go out and protest and riot.
The workers are not politically involved but are fighting around economic issues, particularly the women. It's just a matter of time before the political issues become bigger, because the economic issues can't be resolved, and many of these young workers will become more politicised.
Question: The US government has been taking a rather different position on the situation in Indonesia than the Australian government.
The US government has traditionally been one of the main backers of Suharto. But the US is aware that things can happen fast. They're worried about the succession and who's going to take over. So they're being more critical, and that criticism carries some weight.
Big business in Indonesia is 100% supportive of Suharto, so you have a contradiction. A new organisation was set up two years ago, the US-Indonesia Society, just to put pressure on the government not to change course.
The AFL-CIO, which is the US equivalent of the ACTU, has an office there called Asian American Free Labour Institute, which has historically worked with the CIA but today the head of this office is very friendly to independent unionists and even the PRD. They are testing out the opposition. My view is that the US government is not going to make any shift despite this concern.