Jakarta – Former Army Strategic Reserves Command (Green Berets) Chief of Staff retired Major General Kivlan Zen says that three of the political parties supporting incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo are cooperating with China to foster communist teachings.
Zen said that there is cooperation in the caderisation of communist ideas which being forged with the Chinese Communist Party by the ruling Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Democrat Party (NasDem) and the Golkar Party.
"The PDI-P has signed a caderisation cooperation [agreement], NasDem has also joined with the Chinese Communist Party to carry out caderisation", said Zen at a discussion titled "Differentiating the Political Agenda of Communism and the Caliphate in the 2019 Presidential Elections" in Jakarta on Saturday October 13.
"Golkar also joined in after [former chairperson Setya Novanto] went to jail [after being convicted on corruption charges]. Together they have signed a caderisation [agreement] with China. How could a state [based on the ideology of] Pancasila cooperate with a communist country", continued Zen.
I addition to this, Zen also accused Widodo of getting an injection of support in the 2019 presidential elections from a group which he referred to as the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Without showing any concrete evidence, he related how this group, which he referred to as the PKI, visited Widodo during the 2014 presidential election campaign five years ago.
At the time the group was prepared to support him by providing 15 million votes for Widodo. Zen said this support was provided on the condition that Widodo represented the state in issuing an official apology to the PKI.
"I read the draft of the 2015 RAPBN [proposed state budget] speech, after being inaugurated on October 20, 2014, he wanted to include it [in the speech], we obtained the concept (the draft speech), [it included] an official apology and providing compensation [to the PKI]", claimed Zen.
He said that the apology was to be included in the final part of the speech although in the end this section was not read out by Widodo. "Fortunately Jokowi didn't want to, if he'd wanted to, it would have been all over", he said.
This is not the first time Zen has made such accusations. On March 6 he claimed that the PDI-P is accommodating former members of the PKI. And, on several occasions Zen has made a noise about the revival of the PKI [see original article for info graphic on this].
Pursuing legal channels
Responding to these accusations the Widodo camp says it will not remain silent. Widodo's national election campaign team spokesperson Mohamad Guntur Romli said that they will take legal action against people who spread hoaxes about communism, Widodo and his supporters.
Romli said that firm action will be taken against hoaxes claiming Widodo is part of the PKI. "Of course [we will take] legal measures, whoever commits defamation, spreads hoaxes, links Pak [Mr] Jokowi with the PKI, they will have to face the law", said Romli.
[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article was "Kivlan Zen Tuduh Tiga Partai Pendukung Jokowi Gandeng Komunis".]