Pip Hinman – Since his election five months ago, the new president of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, has managed to create the impression that his is a people-friendly government. But how true is this?

Muhammad Ma'ruf, a leader of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and editor of its newspaper Pembebasan (Liberation), points to the Wahid government's economic program as evidence of the opposite. This is an anti-people government, he told Green Left Weekly.

"Gus Dur [Wahid] gave a commitment to the International Monetary Fund to continue along the same path as Suharto. That means this government has promised to implement the same neo-liberal austerity measures as did Suharto and Habibie: cuts to government subsidies, more privatisation and foreign investment, and more 'free' trade", Ma'ruf said.

"The impact of this latest deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be bad. Petrol prices will rise by 10% and electricity by 29%. Transport costs will increase by 50%, while services will be drastically cut, and education fees in public universities will rise by 300%. The cost of fertilisers and pesticides will rise. Inflation is predicted to rise by 29%", Ma'ruf said.

The PRD is linking its anti-cuts campaign to the need to force the military out of politics. "The government still allocates an immense amount of the national budget to the military", Ma'ruf said. "The PRD wants the government to maintain subsidies for public services and cut the military's budget.

"It has increased high-ranking public officials' wages by 80%, while the lower ranks received only a 30% increase, and ordinary workers an average of just 25%. We also believe that the government should not abolish the import tax on rice and sugar."

A successful national action on February 21 against the IMF's austerity measures, followed by many local PRD-sponsored actions, has put the PRD on the national political agenda as the opposition force to the government's economic plans. The party is preparing for demonstrations around the country on April 1, the day the subsidy cuts come into effect.

This could be a volatile time, because some 17 million people already don't have enough to eat, and the United Nations estimates that half of all Indonesian children are malnourished. As a result of the US$5 billion IMF loan agreement signed by Wahid in February, his government is about to slash subsidies on basic necessities and force ordinary people to pay for years of corruption, cronyism and the lingering economic crisis.

"We are also linking up with the anti-cuts campaigns being organised by the National Student League for Democracy (LMND) against the cuts to education", Ma'ruf said, "as well as the Indonesian National Front for Workers Struggle (FNPBI), whose protest in Jakarta on April 1 will demand a 100% increase in the minimum wage, and the small farmers' organisation, STN, whose focus will be on the fertiliser and pesticide price hikes".

Ma'ruf admitted that the Wahid government hasn't much room to move, given pressures from its Western backers, particularly the United States, and from the internal parliamentary "opposition", which is backing the pro-capitalist austerity agenda.

But, Ma'ruf continued, there are other ways of reducing the budget deficit. For instance, the PRD believes the government should cancel the foreign debt, cut the military budget, nationalise Suharto's assets (estimated at some US$16 billion) and stop the hand-outs to insolvent banks and businesses.

Old elites

Under the new IMF rules, which are primarily concerned with developing a more stable capitalist economy favourable to international investment, competition and a new level of transparency are being pushed.

However, this is being frustrated by sections of the old elites who want to hang onto their power and privileges, Ma'ruf said. For decades Suharto and his cronies, who include many currently serving senior military officials, had a monopoly on wealth creation.

"Some officials who dominate the military bureaucracy want to defend their own business operations," Ma'ruf claimed. "They use nationalist rhetoric to distinguish themselves from the government and its imperialist backers. For example they rejected the referendum in East Timor and its result.

"But the imperialists don't want to de-militarise Indonesia either. What they really want is for the military to be under the capitalists' control.

"Yet, at the same time, the anti-military sentiment among the people has escalated, and there is now a growing view that the murderous generals should be brought to trial," Ma'ruf added.

The government-military alliance has changed. While it's clear that the Wahid government wants to maintain good relations with the military, it also wants to rehabilitate the military's image.

"Gus Dur is in a dilemma", Ma'ruf claimed. "He is under pressure to be a 'democrat', but he is still not independent from the military. His government is a coalition which also comprises some Suharto supporters from the former ruling party Golkar and from the military", Ma'ruf stated.

"So he plays on so-called internal conflicts inside the military. He sacked Wiranto in February, and replaced him with an arch rival, General Agus Wirahadikusumah.

"But Gus Dur doesn't want Wiranto and friends to be carted off to prison. He has publicly stated that if Wiranto is found guilty, he will forgive him. He also said that he will forgive Suharto, as long he hands back some of his wealth."

Reformed military?

Ma'ruf doesn't believe Wiranto is a spent force. "The changes inside the military hierarchy reflect internal rivalries between cliques and divisions. It's not accurate to describe it, as much of the establishment does, as a conflict between the so-called 'liberal' or 'professional' military and the New Order [Suharto era] military.

"It's also wrong to suggest that there are some 'democratic' sections, or less repressive sections, inside the military, for example, the marines or the air force.

This illusion has been fed by Gus Dur's decision to award naval and air force officials higher government positions, whereas under the New Order these sections of the military were marginalised by the army."

Ma'ruf also criticised those, such as Megawati Sukarnoputri and Sri Bintang Pamungkas from the United Democratic Party of Indonesia (PUDI), who oppose attempts to bring the generals to trial and who have counselled Wahid not to sack Wiranto. "Sri Bintang said that during such difficult circumstances, we should not press the military, because they may retaliate with a coup."

The PRD is campaigning for the Indonesian generals to be tried in an international court of justice, rather than by an Indonesian court the exact nature and powers of which the government is still debating.

"We don't believe that an Indonesian court will really bring the murderous generals to justice", Ma'ruf said. "The juries of military trials are made up of a combination of civilian and military people. Since Gus Dur has already said publicly he wants to forgive Wiranto after the trial, it's obvious that he doesn't want to see justice done, he just wants to appear to be doing the bidding of the imperialists and meanwhile manipulate the people.

"Secondly, the military has committed massive human rights violations, which should be considered crimes against the whole of humanity, so the generals must be tried in an international court."

The PRD is calling for the government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the July 27, 1996, military attack on the offices of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) in Jakarta, in which a number of people were kidnapped and for which the PRD was blamed.

The party has also launched a campaign to investigate the whereabouts of "disappeared" and kidnapped comrades, including the well-known poet and artist Wiji Thukul. On this case the PRD is working closely with KONTRAS, the Commission for Disappeared People and Victims of Violence, as well as progressive lawyers.

Wahid is desperately trying to project to the world that he has everything under control. But that image, which is already becoming unstuck as military violence in Aceh and West Timor continues, may be even harder to sell after April 1.