Jakarta – Indonesians will be able to study and write about communism for the first time in more than three decades, but promoting Marxism-Leninism will still land them in jail, reports said Tuesday.
"Based on academic freedom and in respect of the principle of freedom, any academic research on those teachings is not banned," the Indonesian Observer quoted Justice Minister Muladi as saying.
Speaking at parliament, the minister, a former rector of the state Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java province, also said it would be acceptable to study communism at home, as long as noone preached it or published books about it.
But if a student wrote a thesis on the subject, it would be up to his university to decide whether or not it could be published, Muladi told legislators engaged in reviewing the country's criminal code.
The Observer did not however publish any comments by Muladi on whether universities would allow lecturers to teach the theory of Marxism-Leninism.
Under the 32-year-long regime of former president Suharto, which ended last year, communism and its teaching were strictly outlawed, with even possession of books on the subject liable to jail sentences.
Suharto outlawed the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), once the world's second largest after China, in the wake of an abortive 1965 coup which was blamed on the PKI and catapaulted him to power.
In the wake of the coup some 500,000 communists were killed, by official counts, and some 700,000 party members and those affiliated with organizations with party links were jailed for years.
A list of six articles of the criminal code currently under revision at the parliament, published by the Observer, showed any student wanting to study communism would be treading a dangerous line on the edge of the law.
The articles stipulate 20 years imprisonment for anyone wanting to replace the state ideology Pancasila – five democratic principles which also encompass belief in God – with communism.
Publishing teaching on communism is punishable by 12 years imprisonment, publishing communist teachings which spark mass unrest 15 years, following the teachings of Marx and Lenin 15 years, and organizing people under communist teachings 15 years.
The definition of communism and Marxism-Leninism in the criminal code encompasses "the teachings of Karl Marx, which were also adopted by Russian leaders Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung and others – which consist of teachings that contradict the religion and values of the state Pancasila ideology."