Surabaya – The supporters of President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid continued on Thursday to vent their rage against what they see as a conspiracy to unseat the President by vandalizing another Golkar Party office, this time in Lamongan, situated some 40 kilometers northwest of here.
Thousands of people marched to the Golkar office while yelling anti-Golkar slogans and started pelting the building with stones. The building's windows were shattered and some of its roof tiles were dislodged.
The protesters also vandalized the Lamongan regency offices in an effort to force the regency secretary Ena Sumarna to sign a statement acknowledging that the Golkar building belonged to the people. Police managed to disperse the crowd before further violence took place.
In Yogyakarta, at least 350 protesters sealed the Yogyakarta Golkar offices on Jl. Jenderal Sudirman here on Thursday. Braving a downpour, they urged the police officers guarding the building to let them "quarantine" the offices.
After long negotiation, the protesters managed to approach the building and posted up a piece of black paper which read, "This office is sealed off by the people".
Similar actions were reportedly also conducted by Abdurrahman's supporters in the town of Nganjuk and in Sampang, Madura Island, both in East Java. The mobs also threw stones at the Golkar offices in both towns before being brought under control by the police.
Thursday's actions reflected the anger felt by Abdurrahman's supporters in East Java. They had earlier vandalized the Golkar offices in Gresik and torched the Golkar offices in Surabaya, Malang and Mojokerto.
Meanwhile, Surabaya City Police chief Sr. Comr. Suharto said that eight people had been arrested for the looting and torching of Golkar's East Java headquarters in Surabaya on Wednesday.
According to Suharto, seven of the suspects were being detained by the Surabaya City Police, while another suspect was being held by the South Surabaya police precinct. "They were all caught in the act."
Reports from Bandung said that some 800 police officers had been sent to East Java on Wednesday to help the East Java Police deal with the demonstrations. Deputy National Police chief Sr. Comr. Panji Atmasudirdja admitted that the officers should have been sent days before the Golkar offices in Surabaya were burned down.
Enraged by the spate of attacks on Golkar offices, a deputy chairman of Golkar, Mahadi Sinambela, accused President Abdurrahman and the People's Democratic Party (PRD) of being involved in a conspiracy to destroy Golkar offices.
Mahadi, accompanied by East Jakarta Golkar chairman Ridwan Isyam, said that several kyai (ulemas) were also involved in the acts of vandalism. Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung, who is also House Speaker, said on Thursday that the President should have condemned his supporters' actions.
He further said that the anarchic actions perpetrated against Golkar offices were similar to those orchestrated by the Communists in 1965. "Physically, we can point to the People's Democratic Party [PRD], City Forum [Forkot], Student Action Forumn for Reform and Democracy [Famred] and City Network [Jarkot] as being the movements conspiring against us," he asserted.
In Makassar, South Sulawesi, a clash erupted between Golkar supporters and anti-Golkar students from the Makassar Students Forum and led to the arrest of two anti-Golkar protesters and five Golkar supporters.
In Semarang, some 40 women grouped in the Semarang Women's Forum took the streets demanding that President Abdurrahman and Amien Rais, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), join forces for the sake of the people.
Separately, 500 Abdurrahman supporters staged a protest at the gate of the Krapyak-Jatingaleh toll road, causing traffic congestion for four hours. They branded the politicians who wanted to topple Gus Dur as cowards.