Max Lane – The Indonesian political elite is becoming increasingly fearful of a radicalisation of the country's masses, which is being provoked by a right-wing campaign to destabilise President Abdurrahman Wahid's government. It's turning to trusted methods: like threatening to repress the left-wing People's Democratic Party, the PRD.
Almost one million Wahid supporters, mainly peasants and urban poor, mobilised on February 7. What started as a pro-Wahid rally evolved into an anti-Golkar rally, with the masses calling for the disbanding of Golkar, the party of former dictator Suharto and the political symbol of his "New Order" regime.
During a day of mobilisations in different parts of Surabaya, the East Java headquarters of Golkar was burned down.
On February 8, Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung accused the PRD of being behind the burning. He was backed by a statement from Wahid's defence minister, probably reflecting the position of the armed forces and the police.
President Wahid also hinted he held the same views but later clarified that he was "joking".
On February 12, East Java police chief General Bimantoro held a press conference to accuse the PRD of being behind the burning. Between February 8 and 12 several other Golkar figures also made direct or indirect attacks on the PRD.
Then Tanjung escalated his attack by calling for a review of the PRD's existence.
"If the PRD is no longer in accord with the national interest, its existence should be reviewed", Tanjung told reporters during a visit to West Papua.
In addition to the new attacks on the PRD, the right is also continuing its campaign against Wahid. The youth and student organisations associated with the Central Axis parties, such as the Islamic Students Association and the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Union, have been mobilised to demand Wahid resign.
Intellectuals who had worked for former president BJ Habibie have also issued statements against Wahid. Members of the Muslim organisation Nahdlatul Ulama from Central Axis-dominated regions, such as West Java, have called on Wahid to resign.
The Supreme Advisory Council, a non-constitutional body full of Habibie appointees and headed by an ex-general, has advised Wahid to transfer head of government power to vice-president Megawati Sukarnoputri. A range of conservative intellectuals have joined the chorus.
PRD responds
In a statement issued on February 13, the PRD rejected Bimantoro's accusation, pointing out that the party was a participant in a different mass demonstration, outside the East Java parliament, at the same time as Golkar offices were being burnt.
The PRD has been backed by representatives of more than 20 other organisations that participated in the demonstrations. The deputy secretary-general of Wahid's National Awakening Party (PKB), Chotibul Umam Wiranu, also made a statement on February 14 claiming that Golkar people burned down their own offices in order to discredit Wahid's supporters.
PRD general chairperson Budiman Sujatmiko led a delegation to police headquarters in Jakarta to lodge criminal libel charges against Akbar Tanjung.
The PRD's primary response is, however, political. "We will continue to spread our call for the trial before a people's tribunal of the Golkar party," PRD deputy chairperson Moti told Green Left Weekly. "It is the masses themselves that are calling for the disbanding of Golkar. This call is coming from there, not from the PRD. But we support this general sentiment and will not end our struggle for the destruction of the old New Order forces.
"There can be no progress on achieving of total reformation while these forces have not been defeated," Moti added. "The masses are just angry that nothing has been done to bring the Older Order criminals to justice."
New radical coalitions
Demonstrations calling for Golkar to be brought before a people's tribunal have occurred in many cities and towns since February 8, forcing Tanjung to defend Golkar's very existence several times.
Many of these demonstrations, including in Jakarta, are being organised by new radical coalitions and it was the role of just such a coalition in the February 7 demonstration in Surabaya that has sparked the elite's new fears and its attack on the PRD.
When hundreds of thousands of urban poor and village supporters of Wahid rallied outside the East Java parliament, they were joined by a contingent of several thousand people from the Total Reformation Front (FRT), a coalition of at least 14 organisations, including student and urban poor organisations linked to the PRD, Nahdlatul Ulama and various campus activist groups.
The FRT speakers were able to eventually speak to the masses immediately outside the parliament building and introduced the slogan: "The people united to bring Golkar to justice". This slogan was taken up by big sections of the rally who also chanted "Disband Golkar". A rally where the initial slogans were confined to pro-Wahid chants quickly transformed into a militant anti-Golkar rally.
The FRT distributed large numbers of leaflets explaining their demands, which include a people's tribunal for Suharto and Golkar; cleansing the state apparatus of all pro-Suharto elements and their investigation for crimes against humanity and corruption; the nationalisation of the wealth of corrupt officials and conglomerates; the abolition of the "dual function" of the military, which allows intervention into political affairs; a 100% wage increase; jobs and cheap housing for the people; subsidised education and health and improved welfare for soldiers and their families.
Similar coalitions have developed in other cities, including Jakarta. "In Jakarta, there has been a real breakthrough in building links between all the radical groups", Moti said.
"The links between the PRD, the Student League for National Democracy, the friends from the Indonesian Islamic Students Association, and almost all the radical cross-campus activist collectives have never been better. We have had three demonstrations over the last several days but more importantly we are now setting up joint action command posts on several campuses, as well as in some urban poor neighborhoods."
Similar coalitions have organised actions in Lampung, Medan and Jambi in Sumatra as well as Yogyakarta, Bandung and even Bali.
Pressure on Golkar is also developing from other quarters. Various non-government organisations have raised demands for investigations into major cases of corruption during the Suharto and Habibie periods.
The most recent was the call by Indonesia Corruption Watch for an investigation into the alleged transfer of US$9.4 million to Golkar for its 1999 election campaign. The group's director, Teten Mazduki, also demanded that the attorney-general, Marzuki Darusman, be removed from involvement in the case, as he was a deputy chairperson of Golkar at the time.
Meanwhile the leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama and the PKB seem unable to determine a clear strategy to respond to the Golkar offensive.
President Wahid himself is trying to contain the conflict with Golkar to within the elite and to contain any mass action radicalisation. At the same time, he has issued a series of statements emphasising that mass anger must not be directed at the institutions of the Suharto period but only individuals. Other leaders make various contradictory statements in the same vein.
However, there are two key consistent policies that have developed in practice: Nahdlatul Ulama has not put any obstacles in the way of its youth and student organisations joining the new radical coalitions and it has issued a formal statement that it will take no responsibility for the actions taken by the parliament against Wahid.
'Disband parliament, call new elections'
The political process unfolding is pitting mass sentiment more and more against the parliament, which is dominated by Golkar, the Muslim rightist Central Axis and Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP).
As Tanjung holds the post of chairperson of the house of representatives (the DPR) and the Central Axis' Amien Rais holds the presidency of the People's Consultative Assembly (the MPR), the Golkar-Central Axis combination is able to take political initiatives to destabilise the Wahid government almost at will.
But, as a consequence, both the DPR and MPR themselves are more and more being seen as representatives of the New Order forces.
This pressure is starting to impact on the PDIP which has been playing an opportunist game, trying to position itself to take advantage of Wahid's fall while at the same time distancing itself from Golkar's campaign.
PDIP members supported the February 2 censure vote against Wahid but Sukarnoputri then spoke out against any attempt to get rid of him. As the parliament becomes more and more identified with the New Order, however, PDIP figures have been forced to add their support for action to be taken against cases of corruption from the New Order period.
The PRD has now begun to call for a dissolution of the parliament and new elections to be organised by a provisional government comprising representatives of the anti-New Order forces. The reality is that if the mass call for the dissolution or trial of Golkar continues to spread it will inevitably put the masses in confrontation with the parliament.