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A first-person account of events in Indonesia by roving activist, Reko,
for
the alter-ee mailing list.
CAPTAIN'S LOG, PART I:
I just arrived in Djakarta a few hours ago after a truly proletarian
travel experience - 40 hrs. on a boat in "ekonomi kelas." I haven't
met any local activists yet, but here's a few first impressions from
this place.
By the look of things, popular support for Habibie & Co.'s government
seems to be at a minimum. Flags are on half-mast on practically all
buildings (apart from the govt. buildings) here in Djakarta to
commemorate the killed demonstrators. Occasionally you can also see
the symbols of Megawati and her PDI-party. The few discussions I've had
so far with the locals have confirmed the impression that the people
are thoroughly fed up with the current government. The official
English-language news broadcasts are a mix of facts and desparate
attempts at excusing what's happened. First, they showed pictures from
a hospital, where the doctors were explaining that the students died
from bullet wounds of such-and-such calibre and from beatings. After
this footage, the newscaster stated that "it is currently being
investigated whether or not human rights had been violated in
the incidents." On the verge of black humour there...
The people, however, are fully aware of what has happened, as last
Friday's incidents were shown practically live on nation-wide TV and
the press here is nowadays independent enough to tell the facts. The
government is apparently trying to work out a scheme at the moment to
put the blame on "a conspiracy of agents provocateurs" and has taken
opposition leaders into custody so they can be questioned about their
"revolutionary activities."
Yesterday was an islamic holiday, so at least in Djakarta the
demonstrators had a day of rest. But there's more on the way, as the
unrest has spread to other parts of the country. Walking around town
this morning you could see soldiers lounging about, carrying their
rifles, submachine guns and metre-long wooden sticks. I spotted a few
armoured cars as well. My guess is that Habibie's and Wiranto's fall
is just a question of time, or we'll see a re-run of the army coup
of 1965 with a million dead. Fortunately, the latter seems relatively
unlikely at the moment. More on the topic once I meet the local
activists.
------
Now I've spent a day hanging around with the local radical activists,
mainly from the PRD. The PRD (Partia Rakyat Demokratik - the People's
Democratic Party) is the only left-wing (as in anti-capitalist) party
in Indonesia, the Communist Party has been banned for decades. The
PRD is officially a social-democratic party, but clearly they have
spent some time reading Castro, Lenin and Guevara (for getting some
tips on revolutionary strategy, as they say). They said that they're
more radical than your average soc.-dem. party, but were opposed to
Troskyism, for example, as they're against a one-party dictatorship.
Their ideal is some kind of "democratic socialism," more of the
direct, participatory kind than the western parliamentary democracy.
Anarchism was not an unknown concept to them, and they've gotten some
texts from the internet, translated them, and circulated them amongst
their members. I didn't ask which texts they'd taken. Their party-
fixation seemed to be quite strong, perhaps because of the
circumstances. Their ideology seemed to be a general left-wing mixture
of sorts. In their opinion, Indonesia's main problems are capitalism,
militarism (i.e. the military junta) and the remnants of feudalism
which still exist.
I didn't get into any lengthy discussions about their ideological
stances, as those things are a bit of a minor issue in the current
situation. The revolution which is in progress here is a democratic
one, and the PRD doesn't even assume that it could lead to socialism
or communism. The PRD members are about the same age as Finnish
activists, i.e. between 18 and 26 yrs. The oldest one in the party
leadership was 30. The whole leadership has had its share of
imprisonment and torture. I myself feel a bit strange hanging around
with these people. Despite their situation, they're no more serious
about their activities than people back in Finland. "Sure we're trying
to make a revolution, but we'll throw a party at the office tonight."
And then every now and then someone mentions that this one or the
other has been kidnapped by the soldiers, has been tortured, or
someone's boyfriend has "disappeared," etc...
Currently, the Indonesian opposition is divided into radicals and
moderates. The main moderate groups are Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI,
Amin Rais' PAN (moderate islamic) and Gus Pur (also moderate islamic).
The moderate parties have about a million members, but their leadership
prefers to wait for next year's general elections rather than organise
demos. They're ready to make compromises with the military. The
radicals say that there's no point in talking about having free
elections for as long as the current government is in power, the
military hold on to its "dual role" in society and for as long as there
are political prisoners. The radicals consist of the PRD and its
affiliates (political groups consisting of the slum-dwellers, workers,
students, etc.), the various student groups, the radical social
islamists (they have a view of Islam similar to that of Latin America's
liberation theologists), and of course the resistance movements in
East Timor, Papua and Aceh.
The demands of the radicals are:
1. The military should give up its "dual role" in society, politics and
the economy. According to the Indonesian constitution, the army has a
dual role as a guarantor of external and internal stability.
2. An end to the official Pancasila-ideology.
3. All political prisoners are to be freed (Habibie freed about 100
last summer, officially there are 200 left, unofficially a lot more).
4. Suharto is to be tried in court.
5. A referendum on East Timor's independence (the moderates are keeping
quiet on this matter).
6. The formation of a temporary government based on a people's assembly
or local councils. This seems to be some sort of grass roots
democracy/workers' councils-type idea.
This grass roots democracy has already sprung up in some places.
Support for the radicals has been growing steadily, and the rank-and-
file members of the moderate groups have shown support for the
radicals' ideas, eventhough their leadership remains uncommitted.
The situation is getting increasingly tense at the moment. As far as I
know, there was a small demo here in Djakarta today with about 1000
people, "just to keep the flame burning." There were some bigger
demonstrations in other parts of the country, with students occupying
airports and other military buildings. The taking over of military
facilities is perhaps the most significant thing happening at the
moment, there have been similar occupations in dozens of towns and
there are more on the way. These actions are also the most risky, as
the military might resort to the use of their weapons. So far, however,
the military has been on the defensive and has retreated from the
demonstrators. The aim of the take-overs is to drive the army back
into its barracks and to end the military's grip on power in Indonesia.
Currently, there is a six-step military administration system in the
country, which extends into every town and village.
New mass demonstrations and perhaps even a general strike might be
coming up as soon as the various opposition groups (at least the
radicals) can come up with a united front. As far as I know, there
are continuous negotitations on the matter. The next few days will
presumably be relatively quiet, but after that anything can happen. The
PRD distributed some 200 000 leaflets in Djakarta today explaining
the demands of the radicals.
This brings us to what we can do back in Europe to support the
radicals. As can be expected, the radicals are chronically in need of
money, and this money would be needed for basics such as printing
leaflets. The PRD, which after all is the largest radical opposition
group in the country, only has one computer and one printer here in
Djakarta, which have had to be evecuated from the office as they can't
afford to lose them.
So, would anyone of you be interested in helping overthrow the fascist
government in Indonesia ? Getting the money transferred here is quick
and easy - if it's put on my account, I can use my VISA-card to take
it out and pass it on to the locals (and I can send you the receipt, if
you so wish). I've already pledged to support the opposition with one
million, a million rupiahs, that is (1 USD is about 7 500 rupiahs).
(i'll skip the rest, it's an internal finnish thing about fundraising)
>From our man in Djakarta,
Reko
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