Vaudine England, Jakarta – While foreign activists at the Justice Ministry tried to avoid being fingerprinted, the prime local target of a police raid on a labour seminar last week was almost forgotten.
But Budiman Sudjatmiko, 31, labelled a communist and revolutionary by police and military, knew the raid was primarily aimed at him. "Police said they arrested the foreigners because the conference had no legal status and they were not permitted to participate because they only had tourist visas," Mr Budimen said. "They also tried to get the momentum to arrest me."
Police detained Mr Budiman on Friday but released him that night due to lack of evidence. Although he is free for the moment, he sees a larger plot at work. His parents' house has been mysteriously attacked twice in recent weeks.
Political controversy is nothing new to the man who admits to being a fan of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In 1994, when he founded the Democratic People's Party (PRD), he called for the introduction of multi-party politics, the elimination of a political role for the armed forces and for amendments to the constitution. Although hardly revolutionary by Western standards, the ideas were incendiary in former president Suharto's Indonesia.
Periodically forced underground, the PRD has survived as a small but legal political party. It contested the 1999 elections, failing to garner a seat. Mr Budiman ran his campaign from jail, where Suharto had put him for subversion.
He was released by President Abdurrahman Wahid late in 1999, but has remained a target of the military and police. Two weeks ago, the police chief threatened to arrest him for undefined crimes and police admit they have been following him for some time. The harassment is nothing new and has helped breed a culture of resistance.
Several activists rounded up in 1996 have disappeared or been killed, but despite claims by foreign activists at Friday's conference, Mr Budiman says he was not attacked by police or militant Muslim thugs during the raid. "Up to now there has been no problem," he said.