By Max Lane
On August 10, Indonesia's State Administrative Court upheld an appeal by Budiman Sujatmiko, as president of the People's Democratic Party (PRD), against a ministerial regulation banning the PRD and its affiliated mass organisations.
The appeal was upheld on the grounds that the minister referred to the wrong authorising legislation in his regulation. The ban has been annulled.
On August 12, home affairs minister General Syarwan Hamid, who led the propaganda campaign against the PRD in 1996 when he was at armed forces headquarters, stated that the government would accept the decision of the court.
He added, however, that the PRD would be subject to new electoral laws currently being drafted and would be allowed to continue to operate only if it complied with those new laws. The draft laws are not yet known.
The Committee to Prepare for the Legalisation of the PRD (KEPAL-PRD) welcomed the court's decision, but expressed grave doubts about the regime's sincerity, given that PRD leaders such as Sujatmiko and Dita Sari are still imprisoned.
On August 17, the KEPAL-PRD, together with the East Timorese University and High School Students Association, held a 250-strong picket outside the Cipinang Prison to demand the release of all political prisoners. Sujatmiko and East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao were allowed to address the picket from the prison balcony.
On August 20, a Jogjakarta branch of KEPAL-PRD was launched. Supporters marched down the main street, led by young people waving PRD flags. The protest was not molested, but afterwards several PRD leaders were attacked by thugs who turned up at the PRD activists' meeting place.