Max Lane – Contrary to many predictions circulating in Jakarta during the last few weeks, the Indonesian capital remained calm after the Golkar-Central Axis-led majority in the House of Representatives voted to censure President Abdurrahman Wahid for a second time.
The pro-Wahid Islamic organisation, the Nahdatul Ulama (NU), called a mass prayer meeting on April 29 as a show of support for Wahid. More than 200,000 people attended.
Prior to the prayer rally, Golkar and Central Axis politicians had been running a scare campaign that the Wahid supporters would riot after the prayer rally. This scare campaign was aimed at pressuring Wahid and the NU leadership into blocking any attempt by the grass-roots NU leaders to mobilise the 200,000 NU masses against the censure motion or against Golkar itself.
Wahid and the NU caved in under this pressure and called for all those at the prayer rally to return to their towns and villages immediately. This decision caused a sharp debate between the NU heads and the grass-roots leadership, but Wahid's own opposition to the mass mobilisation carried the day. At least 90% of the NU masses returned home.
On April 30, 5000-10,000 NU members held a march and rally along the main Jakarta thoroughfare and rallied in Freedom Square. Under pressure from the NU tops, these maverick forces kept away from the parliament building, thereby avoiding any confrontation with the military and police.
Rightist attacks on PRD
In addition to their scare campaign against pro-Wahid mobilisations, the Indonesian right has escalated its pressure on the other wing of the anti-Golkar democratic movement – the emerging left-wing coalitions, frequently led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). These coalitions have been actively campaigning for the trial of Golkar for its role during the Suharto dictatorship, and for fresh general elections. They have mobilised mainly students but also factory workers from the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI) on some occasions.
Over the last three weeks, there has been a systematic national campaign of vilification and harassment of the PRD. The signal for this campaign was given in February when the PRD-led coalitions joined with pro-Wahid forces in angry demonstrations calling for the cleansing of the state apparatus of figures from the Suharto dictatorship. At that time, the head of Golkar, Akbar Tanjung, called for a review of whether the PRD was still operating "within the national consensus". This set the framework for the campaign against the PRD which has taken the form of demonstrations – mainly tiny – calling for the PRD to be banned for spreading "new-style communism".
In some cases the campaign has gone further than demonstrations. There have been attacks by armed gangs on the Jakarta office of the National Student League for Democracy, some of whose leaders are also PRD members. In one incident, the office was trashed and all the equipment and documents stolen. There have also been similar demonstrations and attacks in other cities, such as Jogjakarta, Solo, Lampung, Semarang and Macassar.
Prior to the censure motion in the parliament, there was a demonstration of 100 people held 30 metres from the PRD national office. The police had heard of the planned attack on the PRD office and provided security.
After the big 10,000 strong May Day rally, where the FNPBI participated with 6000 workers, another gang approached and threatened PRD chairperson Budiman Sujatmiko. The gang demanded he stop mobilisng people in Jakarta. A scuffle broke out and PRD activist Jokabus Kurniawan was stabbed and beaten.
Most of these tiny right-wing demonstrations and attacks have been carried out by known local gangs, whose services are for hire. In each city and for each activity, they use different organisational names. The campaign against the PRD does not actually reflect any real increase in active right-wing sentiment among the masses.
Wahid-Megawati deal?
Wahid's decision to block the anti-impeachment mobilisations was signalled beforehand with a national TV address before the parliament met which was very conciliatory towards Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
In his speech, Wahid stated that Megawati was the "rightful president" of Indonesia as her party had won the largest number of votes in the 1999 elections. He emphasised that he ended up as president because nobody else was acceptable to all parliamentary groups. Although he made a strong appeal to be allowed to continue as president, his statements acknowledging Megawati's right to the presidency can be seen as opening the way for some deal with her.
Megawati's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), used the censure motion against Wahid to call on him to resign or for there to be a special sitting of the parliament to impeach Wahid.
While the 460-member House of Representatives (DPR) can censure the president, an incumbent president can only be constitutionally removed by the 920-member People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
Unlike Golkar and the Central Axis, the PDIP leaders emphasised in their statements that they were supporting the censure motion as a means of forcing Wahid to improve his performance and not to unseat him.
On May 1 the PDIP took its first serious political initiative since Wahid came to power. It called for a meeting of the heads of all the major parliamentary parties. Such a meeting would include Megawati, who is chairperson of the PDIP, but not Wahid who holds no position in any political party.
The other major parties appear to be responding positively to the PDIP's call. It therefore seems that the PDIP may be manoeuvring to strengthen its position in any negotiations with Wahid.
At the same time, the capitalist media has begun speculating that Wahid has been asked to appoint a new cabinet which reflects the strength in parliament of the various parties. This would give the PDIP the largest number of cabinet ministers (and Golkar, the second largest number).