Massive repression of the new left
The military regime is trying to smash the PRD and intimidate the population. MORE THAN 20 MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLES Democratic Party (PRD) and associated organisations have been arrested since July 8 when the PRD and the Centre for Indonesian Labour Struggles (PPBI) led a strike and rally of 20,000 factory workers in Indonesia's second biggest city, Surabaya. The workers were seeking wage increases, improvements in health and safety conditions and an end to military intervention in union protests. Many
17 leaders and members of the PRD, PPBI and SMID, including the PRD President, Mr Budiman Sujatmiko, the PRD Secretary General, Mr Petrus Haryanto, the PPBI secretary-general Mr I Pranowo and several provincial leaders. They are all now threatened with being charged and tried under the 1962 Anti-Subversion Law which allows for a maximum penalty of death. Dita Sari and her fellow activists are also threatened with the same law. No person ever put on trial in Indonesia under political laws
Indonesia * members of the PRD. We are not on the defensive here, we are on the offensive. The Anti-Subversion Law will be used against them."
So far, however, only three national leaders of PRD have been captured, Budiman Sujatmiko, Petrus Haryanti, PRD secretary general and Pranowo, PPBI secretary-general. Seventeen other PRD Members have been captured, including leaders of the branch of SMID in the Jabotek working class area.
workers also carried placards defending the (ON FUSION a JAKARTA democratic rights of the leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is now no longer recognised by the government, and therefore the electoral commission, as the official leader of the PDI. Although the PRD and the PDI are different parties with different approaches to many issues, the PRD has taken a strong stand in defence of Megawati Sukarnoputri's and the PDI's democratic rights.
Not content with these arrests, the dictatorship began to escalate its black propaganda campaign against the PRD and affiliated organisations.
On July 27, the dictatorship also launched a military attack on the headquarters of Megawati's PDI. According to the National Human Rights Commission, originally set up by the dictatorship, at least
Shoot them!
Shoot all the troublemakers!
Even the ones that don't Look like
East Timorese?
74 people are still missing after this attack. In CHRyKAL 0608% ~ 315 the evening following the attack, when news of deaths spread among the community, spontaneous rioting occurred which lasted more that 24 hours. In the next stage of its campaign against the PRD, the regime has seized on the riots, which its own militaristic actions provoked, to further escalate its attack on the PRD.
The PRD was blamed for the riots although even six weeks after the riots, the regime was not been able to bring forward one PRD member arrested in the course of rioting. Accompanying these false accusations has been a campaign against the PRD associating with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI. The main point of this campaign is to frighten people with the memory of how the regime suppressed the PKI in 1965 - namely mass slaughter, with almost two million people killed.
The Armed Forces has ordered the arrest of all PRD personnel, thereby forcing the party's associated mass organisations, the PPBI, SMID, National Peasants Union (STN) and the Network for Peoples Art (JAKER) to continue the struggle for demo*cracy underground.
The dictatorship has been able to capture has been found innocent. In the past, political activists tried under such laws who have also been accused of being communists have been executed. The dictatorship's aim
It is clear that the dictatorship's aim is to destroy the PRD. The dictatorship has also arrested Mr Mochtar Pakpahan, a prominent labour advocate in Indonesia, whose arrest the PRD also condemns. The PRD headquarters in Jakarta and Surabaya have been raided by the military. The house of the head of SMID in Semarang has been attacked and that of a leader of textile workers in PPBI in Bogor has been physically attacked.
Meanwhile the state party, GOLKAR, has announced that it has mobilised its alleged millions of members to arrest the scores of leaders of the PRD still operating underground. The Armed Forces has ordered the arrest of all PRD members - an illegal order under Indonesian law which requires arrest warrants with specified crimes.
The Director General of Social and Political Affairs, Sutoyo, recently told the press, "The Armed Forces will go after all the
Budiman Sujatmiko, President of the PRD and thirteen 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 has already protested the illegal interrogation by unauthorised persons. Sujatmiko was arrested by BAIS, the chief military intelligence agency, and not the policed or attorney'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. In the meantime, the lawyers also complained that they were only allowed ten 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 Budimar and the other Jakarta PRD leaders and Max Lane is National Co-ordinator of Australia's Action for Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET).
October 1996 #281 13
* Indonesia members. A similar team has been formed in Surabaya to defend Dita Sari and other prisoners in East Java.
Meanwhile, the media is having a field day with the issue of "reviving communism". Tabloid and entertainment magazines have published pages and pages of articles on PRD and its leaders. The campaign against the PRD has made it a household word throughout the country. The widely circulated weekly magazine, Forum
Keadilan, published an eight page special supplement on the PRD. The daily press have made the attacks on the PRD the front page headline news. Newsboys are shouting "PRD! PRD!" as their papers are snapped up like hot cakes. By the end of the week, no party in Indonesia, not even the PDI, would have its prog ramme on wage rises, trade union rights, freedom of organisation, repeal of repressive laws, and a self-determination referendum in East Timor explained in detail to the Indonesian public to the same extent as the
Budiman Sujatmiko, Dita Sari and Andi Arief are on the verge of becoming folk heros. Long interviews with Budiman's parents have revealed that he was brilliant at drawing and won competitions, educated as a pious Moslem in his childhood, only knew communism from books, loved his mother and was a lover of former President Sukarno's ideas since he was ten. 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 the university everybody knew he was "dedicated 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 that *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 and 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 was the task of the nation to be vigilant against all those who speak in the name of democracy but teach communism.
The army newspaper, Berita Yudha (News of War) characterises the PRD as follows: "They operate in strategic areas, among students and workers, forming public opinion through leaflets and publications. Wherever there are leaflets and an action of over 1000 people, it's the PRD behind it. They are very clever and intelligent young people. They are not only very theoretically 14 International Viewpoint brilliant rivalling any scholar, but also throw themselves into the field. They are not only brilliant orators casting a spell over the people, but also understand the people in great detail." According to the newspaper, the PRD is run by young people. Quoting unnamed "activist sources" , the article said that the group probably had links with "left wing social democratic" forces overseas. An army intelligence report quoted in the newspaper said that the PRD was linked to the New Peoples Army in the Philippines, Amnesty International, the Asian Students Association and the Australian workers
The PRD was first formed in 1994 as the Peoples Democratic Union and transformed itself into a party in April 1996. It was formed by activists from SMID, PPBI, STN and JAKER. These organisations developed in the early 1990s when student activists joined up with workers and farmers in a series of joint campaigns for improvements in workers and peasants conditions. They developed a strategy of building their strength through mass mobilisation of workers and adopted a general program aimed at achieving a multi-party democracy, with the right to freedom of organisation for workers, peasants and all oppressed sections
PRD Chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko faces trial under the 1962 Anti-
Subversion Law. No-one accused under this law has ever been found innocent. Those accused of communism are usually executed.
On television, radio and in the newspapers the PRD has been attacked as attempting to revive communism and socialism in Indonesia and of using the PDI issue for its "own purposes". In a press briefing following the Politics and Security Committee of Cabinet, Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, General Soesilo Soedarman stated that "the unrest... was manipulated by a third party, called the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD)". He stated that they used "PKI methods". Holding up the PRD manifesto, he stated that the PRD does not mention the state ideology of Panca Sila anywhere, but states that it is based on "popular social democracy". He also explained to the press that the PRD program calls on the different sectors of society, such a students, workers and peasants, to oppose the "New Order dictatorship". "For me this is the same as the PKI," said General SoeDita's "diary" discovered
Intelligence sources have released quotes from the alleged captured diary of gaoled trade union activist Dita Sari. Sari, who is General Secretary of PPBI (Centre for Labour Struggles) was arrested during a demonstration of 20,000 factory workers on July 8, alongside Coen Hussein Ponto, a leader of the National Peasants' Union, and many other activists. Dita has been charged under Indonesia's anti-subversion laws.
According to these regime sources, Dita's notes on the 10,000 strong workers 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 tea, bought the papers. There is so much to do, and all must be done so quickly." Later the military seemed to be gleeful about her alleged comment that "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."
It has been announced that the military is in particular 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 ideologue of the PRD, though the military state no specific position he is supposed to hold. Gatra, quotes a source in the Armed Forces headquarters, stating that this Daniel was rained for two years in Cuba and masters English, German and Dutch. He is alleged to be so committed that one of his children is named Dipa, the first name of the former chairman of the PKI. Described a s light in colour, slim and with thick hair, he is alleged to have begun recruiting cadre in 1989 in the university city of Yogyakarta which became the embryo of the PRD. Gatra does not quote Armed Forces sources to say where the alleged Daniel is at the moment
The PRD has continued its activities even as these attacks unfold. On July 28, there was a joint protest by PDI and PRD in Surabaya; PRD led a 3,000 strike in Tandes on the same day; and a protests of 500 students in Yogyakarta. "As a defender of the sovereignty, as a party of the oppressed, the PRD] will continue to struggle with all its strength, ability, force and stamina to continue the struggle for social justice, peace and democracy," reads a statement issued on July 31. "Democracy is the bridge that can lead to a more civilised society, reflecting the peoples aspirations. The PRD believes that the voice of the people, is the voice of God.' And in the middle of the current repression, with the PRD's leaders being hunted down by the regime, in the midst of the witch hunts, we will continue this struggle."
One PRD leader told Green Left Weekly, that their reorganisation to work under the new severe repression is proceeding well. *