Report from Indonesia

If somebody is wondering what all the fuss is about after Suharto is gone and elections are coming, I would say that the military regime is pretty much the same as before. In Indonesia the military is ruling very much like in an occupied country. The military has taken most positions in all levels of administrations (provincial governors, local administration, parliament, cabinet etc.) and it has official "Dual function", meaning that besides official role as guarding against "external threats" it also "guarantees internal stability". So there is no hope of any kind of democracy until this military regime in all levels if overthrown. Getting rid of "Dual Function" is the most important demand of radical democratic movement (others include freeing all of political prisoners, resignations of Habibie and forming a Transitional government, an East Timor referendum, getting Suharto on trial etc.)

More radical forces (like PRD) would like to see a Transitional government formed on the basis of people's committees/assemblies, which seems to be kind of grassroots democracy/workers councils idea (there have been some attempts to form these poeple's assemblies).

One dirty trick which the military is using is provocation of ethnic and religious riots. Yesterday I was myself witnessing how the "Islamic Defense Front" (fascist, pro-government group) was inciting people to kill Ambonese as hundreds of military were just watching by. Actually the "Islamic Defense Front" was using army trucks! Result: five Ambonese killed, lots of churches and Christian schools attacked and burned. Military claimed it was "Overwhelmed by rioters" but this was obviously bullshit, considering the very heavy military presence all over town, and small number of "rioters".

The idea behind this is:

  1. To divert attention from political issues to ethic conflicts
  2. Gain legitimacy as "much needed keeper of order"
  3. Isolate student movement from people. Many student movement groups want to have pure student demonstrations, because they fear riots if they call popular demonstrations. However, it is obvious that only by joining with workers and urban poor can the student movement win.
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, participatiry 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. 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 exists.

The revolution which is in progress here is a democratic one, and the PRD doens'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. Sure we're trying to make a revolution, but we'll throw a party at the office tonight. And 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 divied into radical and moderates. The main moderate groups are Megawati Sukarnputri'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 the next 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 as long as the currect government is in power, the military hold onto 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, West 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 oe 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, offcially 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 have been growing steadily, and the rank-and-file members of the moderate groups have shown support for the radicals ideas, even though their leadership remains uncommitted.

The situation in Jakarta is very hot again. The military killed one student demonstrator yesterday, so today all student groups (KOMRAD, FAMRED FORKOT, Front Jakarta, FKSMJ, FORBES etc.) had common demonstration which tried to get to parliament house. I got into place exactly when mostly KOMRAD people were clashing with riot police. Riot police fled soon and people started to run towards the parliament building, but then army troops started to shoot and a big panic spread. Officially they shoot just rubber bullets, but here you can never be sure. Besides rubber bullets are pretty nasty too. After initial panic there were three hours of fighting. Demonstrators used sticks and stones, soldiers shot teargas and rubber bullets (maybe real ones too?).

I heard that four demonstrators were killed, I don't know how many injured (I saw many who were carried away, but it was impossible to know how many altogether and how badly they've been hurt.)

Tomorrow there will be demonstration(s) again, nobody knows what will happen.

In solidarity

R.

P.S. Some good news too - according to newspapers Habibie has promised to release Dita Sari, union activist and PRD member. No doubt this is because of wide international pressure for her release.

Still there are many political prisoners also after this, including trade unionists and PRD members.