On Monday, August 10, the State Administrative Court (PTUN) in Jakarta announced the success of a People's Democratic Party (PRD) demand challenging the decision to ban the PRD issued by the Minister of Home Affairs, Yogie S. Memet last year. The decision is therefore no longer valid and the status of the PRD as a banned party has been withdrawn.

Meanwhile news is circulating (the truth of which must still be checked) that the chairperson of the PRD, Budiman Sudjatmiko, will be released on August 17 [Independence Day]. Other prisoners to be released are Xanana Gusmao and the chairperson of the [PRD affiliated] Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggle, Dita Sari.

It is a tradition in Indonesia for the government to give a "gift" to political and criminal prisoners on August 17. The gift can be amnesty, abolition or rehabilitation.

The withdrawal of the banned status of the PRD is empty talk if there are still PRD members in jail, or threatened with being jailed (hunted) and the PRD is not allowed to be a participant in the general elections. This means that there are still many task which demand hard work!

We cannot just be satisfied with the success of the PRD in being unbanned. The state was forced to make this decision because of the current situation.

The great intensity of the people's struggle for total reform has forced the government to make democratic concessions such as allowing the formation of political parties, the release of political prisoners, the withdrawal of the law requiring a licence to publish and the most recent decision to unban the PRD. The regime had to make these concessions because they themselves do not wish to be included [in the demands] by the demands of the reform movement as has happened to the Suharto family.

But remember, this concession is only cosmetic. Internationally the regime may be seen as democratic, but authoritarian character still exists. The "democracy" of the regime can pulled back at any time if they have the opportunity.

The recent regulations on the freedom to hold demonstrations, which is extremely repressive and curbs [the rights] of the people, is a very clear example. The authorities will always look for opportunities to wipe out democracy. This must not make us drop our guard [lit: fall asleep].

For us what is important is find ways so that mass actions by students, workers and other people again become vigorous and involve large numbers of people. Only through this mass pressure will the demands for democracy be won. Without real mass strength, the people's demands will be ignored!

[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski. On August 12, Kompas reported that the Minister of Home Affairs, Syarwan Hamid, has said that the government accepts the decision annulling the ban and that the PRD could register as a political party under the new laws which are to be submitted to parliament. He did insist however, that the PRD must have the state ideology Pancasila as its philosophical basis. This suggests that the law requiring that all organisations have the same "philosophical basis" in their constitution will not be repealed or revised.]