By Sam King
JAKARTA — People's Democratic Party (PRD) activists took to the streets on July 2 to protest the previous day's brutal police attack on a 2000-strong rally outside the offices of the electoral commission (KPU). The 1000 demonstrators repeated their demands for the disqualification of the ruling Golkar party for election rigging and an end to the dual function of the military.
Most of the PRD members who rallied the previous day participated. Many others were unable to attend due to the injuries they suffered. They were either still in hospital, or could not walk the five kilometres from the Legal Aid Institute to the KPU.
Public and media interest in the rally was immense. The previous day's bloodshed had filled the front pages of every major newspaper in Indonesia, and received massive television and radio coverage. The media pack and on-lookers outnumbered the protesters. PRD branches organised solidarity actions in most major Indonesian cities.
The rally took the same route as the previous day but was unable to reach the KPU building, where hundreds of supporters from the mass student organisation Forkot and others were waiting, because the street was blockaded by hundreds of police and a water tanker.
After entering the street in which the KPU is located, the march was surrounded by more than 500 police who blocked all possible entrances and exits. The rally repeated the previous day's demand to be allowed to meet with KPU officials.
The PRD representative on the KPU, Aan Rusdianto, negotiated with KPU officials. Aan replaced Hendri Kuok as KPU representative because Kuok had been forced into hiding after police entered his office in the KPU the previous night and threatened to arrest him for his role in the July 1 action. Kuok ignored police directives to go with them for questioning and they left, perhaps fearful of the political repercussions of arresting a KPU member in his office.
KPU officials finally agreed to allow the rally to enter the building, however the police refused to let the rally pass. Eventually, the head of the KPU, Rudini, crossed the police lines to speak with the rally.
He admitted that widespread election fraud had taken place, but said that the KPU had no power to punish Golkar for cheating, even if anomalies were proven. Only the Election Monitoring Committee (Panwaslu) had the authority to take action. The head of Panwaslu, Todung Mulya Lubis, has been quoted in the Indonesian press as saying that only the police can take action against election fraud because it is a criminal matter.
Not disorientated by this bureaucratic volleyball, the rally remained determined and lively. Many of those injured the day before spoke, interspersed by songs and chants. Most of the injured speakers were PRD members from the provinces, who vowed to continue in their towns and cities the momentum created by the events of the last two days.
PRD speakers admitted that they alone could not overcome the police repression in the streets, the military's role in national politics or Golkar's manipulation. They vowed to continue to build the PRD's mass organisations and increase the people's political education to the point where the masses can force the disqualification of Golkar and complete the democratic revolution that started with the fall of Suharto.