Jakarta – Tensions marked the second day of campaigning in several volatile areas across the country, including Pidie in Aceh, where hundreds of Geulumpang Tiga villagers attacked and burned a United Development Party (PPP) van to drive home the message that they do not want a general election but a referendum.
"What do we need elections for? The poll is only for Javanese," said Suleman, while hundreds of other residents shouted for a chance to determine their own fate through a referendum. Demands for a referendum or outright independence have intensified in the troubled province, while resistance against the planned June 7 elections has grown since the military shooting of North Aceh residents recently claimed at least 41 lives.
Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto responded to the unrest by sending out even more troops. Wiranto's instructions included ensuring a high voter turnout.
The PPP van was moving through the village announcing with loudspeakers that the party would campaign on Friday. The four occupants were left unharmed when the van was set ablaze at about 11am.
Hours before, in Kendal, Central Java, a group of unidentified people pelted the house of a local National Awakening Party (PKB) chief, Slamet Imron. No casualties reported.
In another Central Java town of Pekalongan on Wednesday, four Golkar supporters were seriously injured and three motorbikes damaged when crowds attacked their convoys. Hours later, four houses belonging to PKB officials were damaged in another attack, causing the authorities to beef up security in the area.
In the nearby town of Batang, local Golkar official Sunarto said on Thursday that about 2,500 Golkar flags in 12 different districts in the area were missing, some of them set on fire.
In Jember, East Java, supporters of PKB intercepted a convoy of PPP supporters in Kalisat district, but the two groups avoided a clash.
Meanwhile in Lubukpakam, 27 kilometers east of the North Sumatra capital of Medan, the campaign rally of Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid of PKB drew about 6,000 people.
Abdurrahman, who is among the country's top presidential candidates, told party supporters the new alliance between PKB and two other leading opposition parties – the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) – was the only way to block the remnants of the status-quo forces.
The alliance was evident on Thursday as hundreds of members of PDI Perjuangan's security force were seen at the three-hour rally.
Referendum
Abdurrahman was driven out of a university hall in Banda Aceh on Wednesday by students, who said he was against a referendum.
In Jakarta later on Thursday, Abdurrahman said he understood why the students chased him away. "They have seen their relatives shot," he said, referring to victims of military violence.
His most important impression from his visit, he said, was that it was clear that campaigns and the June 7 polls cannot be conducted in Aceh, where military operations to crush separatists lasted from 1989 to 1998.
Officials have been threatened and have not been able to sit on election committees, while people in civilian clothing walk freely with AK-47 and M-16 firearms, he said. Threats came from paid retired officers in the "Taliban Movement" as well as from the Free Aceh Movement, he said.
The PKB report regarding Aceh would be submitted to Gen. Wiranto, he said, "who I'm sure has only received pleasant reports" of security in the province. He spoke of reports of continuing terror.
The student body of the Syah Kuala University had conveyed apologies, he said, and had explained that students were "sick of parties only interested in votes without heeding demands of a referendum".
Abdurrahman also expressed his skepticism toward an intended alliance between PAN and PPP, saying he was not sure if PPP people could be trusted to uphold fair politics.
Separately, Wiranto called on political parties, the government, the military and the National Police to do what they could to make the June 7 general election a success.
"The elections are a gateway for the nation lift itself out of the prolonged crisis in a democratic and constitutional manner," he wrote in a speech delivered by National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) Governor Lt. Gen. Agum Gumelar on the occasion of the military think-tank's 34th anniversary. Meanwhile, in Yogyakarta, PKB chairman Matori Abdul Djalil spoke before about 15,000 supporters calling on Golkar to withdraw from the elections.
"Why did Golkar name B.J. Habibie as its presidential candidate, regardless of the fact that he was the student of Soeharto, and should be reformed?" Matori said.
In Purwokerto, 100 students rallied peacefully to support the alliance between the three top opposition parties to fight against the status-quo forces. "The coalition between pro-reform forces is needed to end the rule of the oppressor," student leader Harnoning said.
In the East Timor capital of Dili, hundreds of PDI Perjuangan supporters attended the party's campaign in the Matahari Terbit building on Thursday.