INDONESIA: Budiman Sujatmiko: democracy is yet to be won
BUDIMAN SUJATMIKO, chairperson of Indonesia's People's Democratic Party (PRD), has been active in the movement for democracy in his country since 1988, when he was a student at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University. After having been jailed for more than three years by dictator Suharto's "New Order" regime, Sujatmiko was released in December 1999, six weeks after the election of Abdurrahman Wahid to the presidency.Sujatmiko, together with Timorese Socialist Party general secretary Avelino da Silva, visited Australia last month on a speaking tour organised by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (see advertisement on opposite page). Green Left Weekly's NICK EVERETT spoke to Sujatmiko in Sydney on April 12.
Since his election, Wahid has continued the reform of Indonesia's political system begun by his predecessor, B.J. Habibie. The reforms Habibie initiated — legislating for multi-party elections, reducing the armed forces' representation in parliament, withdrawing some repressive labour laws and instituting a UN-supervised referendum in East Timor — were forced by the growing strength of a mass anti-dictatorship movement demanding "reformasi total".
Since Wahid's election, the government has forced Golkar-appointed military commander General Wiranto out of the cabinet, released the remaining political prisoners and launched its own investigation into human rights abuses by the Indonesian armed forces in East Timor last September.
IMF 'reforms'
These reforms have been widely touted by Australian and other Western governments as proof of the new government's commitment to democracy. However, as Sujatmiko said: "These are just the minimum criteria for democracy."Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, these offer the chance for the majority to rule. But if those liberties do not actually result in majority rule, we do not have democracy in the true sense."
Sujatmiko conceded that Wahid, unlike his predecessors, "is not a bureaucrat". However, "he has no policy to deliver better living standards and end the threat of unemployment. His policies cannot deliver people-friendly outcomes."
This is most clearly demonstrated, Sujatmiko said, by Wahid's pursuit of an economic restructuring program imposed by the International Monetary Fund. "If the policies dictated by the IMF are fully implemented in the next three years, the majority of the people will have to bear the burden of an increased cost of living, driving them under the poverty line. The 1997-99 economic crisis resulted in 37 million unemployed; this figure will continue to rise if the IMF policies are implemented further."
"Wahid has given a commitment to the IMF that he will make cuts to state subsidies, resulting in increases in petrol, electricity and transport prices and increased education fees", said Sujatmiko. "He said he has to do this to reduce dependency on foreign debt and the IMF."
Mass opposition to the proposed price hikes forced Wahid to delay the fuel price increase.
Two poles
"Wahid is playing between two poles", noted Sujatmiko, "the IMF and the people. He wants to win sympathy from the people, but his concessions are still not enough. He has created anger by proposing to increase salaries for the first echelon bureaucracy by 2000%.The PRD believes that the Wahid government remains loyal to the dictates of the IMF and Western governments and that Wahid "is seeking to use his popular following to position himself to implement this austerity program", Sujatmiko said.
He explained that there is no serious opposition to this economic program emerging from the parliamentary parties. "The PRD is the only political party criticising this program."
"This is occurring "in unity with the student movement and trade unions. Workers and students have come to the parliament to protest the cutting of subsidies and teachers have mobilised in many centres in Indonesia demanding a 300% salary increase. Bus drivers, taxi drivers and others have taken action against the increase in transport costs.
"This has given confidence to the people: they can now act as political groups to put pressure on the government so that it must listen to the people."
Growing opposition to the IMF's demands has strengthened the PRD's advocacy of an alternative economic program. "We have already met with parliamentary members and presented our proposals", Sujatmiko said. He explained that the PRD advocates cancellation of the foreign debt, implementation of a progressive tax on high incomes, taxes on luxury goods, a reduction in the military budget and expropriation of the assets of Suharto (estimated to be worth US$16 billion), corrupt bureaucrats and military businesses.
"One of these proposals has been accepted already: taxes on luxury goods. These measures are required to create a fund for maintaining state subsidies for essential items and services."
Suharto
Commenting on the prospects of Suharto being tried, Sujatmiko said: "There are student protests almost every day in Indonesia now. These have included attempts to occupy Suharto's house and demand that he face a 'people's tribunal'. The students have no confidence in the Indonesian justice system.The PRD supports this demand. "A fair trial of Suharto, corrupt bureaucrats and the generals responsible for human rights abuses cannot possibly occur under Indonesia's current justice system", Sujatmiko said.
XN P Body Text al tribunal to try the generals responsible for the violence in East Timor, Sujatmiko observed: "The UN is not demanding an international tribunal, but is there any alternative?
"The campaign for an international tribunal not only has the potential to address past injustices, it will draw attention to the political role of the armed forces in Indonesia. While the factions in the parliament have agreed not to give seats to the armed forces in the next parliamentary term, the structural issue of the role of the military in the regional command has yet to be addressed."
Last month, Wahid indicated his intention to introduce legislation to un-ban communism, while retaining a ban on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Sujatmiko added that Wahid has issued a statement of apology to the PKI for the murder of more than 1 million PKI members and sympathisers following the Suharto regime's seizure of power in a military coup in October 1965. "Wahid has no phobia about any ideology and permits people to live with any faith or ideology in Indonesia; he is liberal-minded.
"However, both the conservative Islamic forces and the military are opposed to this, including forces inside the cabinet such as the Star and Crescent Party and Amien Rais [chairperson of the National Mandate Party]. Vice-president Megawati is silent on the issue. Opposition within Wahid's own cabinet pressed him to concede to maintaining the ban on the PKI."
Sujatmiko explained, "While the un-banning of communism would enable the distribution of Marxist literature, the question of whether we would openly campaign for socialism is a tactical one.
"We need to give a socialist perspective, not as something that is attainable in the near future, but as our longer-term objective. More immediately, we must continue to campaign for 'people's democracy' ... this lays the basis for raising consciousness.
People's democracy
What does the PRD mean by the term "people's democracy"? "The Indonesian economy, while capitalist, is dependent on imperialism", Sujatmiko replied. "That is, the economy is still dominated by foreign capital. Imperialism represses, contains the development of the Indonesian people."We cannot defeat imperialism and advocate socialism at the same time. It is not a question of delaying the tasks for achieving socialism, but ending the most reactionary elements of the present system.
"The challenge for us now is to understand how the workers and peasants could progress to managing our country, and to encourage the development of Indonesia's productive forces, which still cannot compete with those in the imperialist countries. The struggle for liberating Indonesia's productive forces from the domination of imperialist powers is a struggle which is still capitalistic in nature, in the sense of developing productive forces under the control of a people's revolutionary democratic government."
Reflecting on the repression the PRD experienced under New Order rule in Indonesia (its members have been hunted down, jailed, kidnapped and killed by the regime), Sujatmiko said, "Commitment [to the struggle for revolutionary change] is something that cannot be explained in a few words. It has to be explained in deeds. You have to look for the answer in practical experience."
He stressed, "For us, the existence of the PRD does not depend on the objective political situation. Democracy or not, we are still there.
"The new democratic space provides us with an opportunity to develop and disseminate our ideas, which have been discussed and debated since the founding of the PRD.
"Based on a solid theoretical and ideological standpoint, we believe that the struggle for democracy and socialism in Indonesia is a struggle that has to be based on the development of a working-class movement. That is why we have the slogan to give spirit to our cadres: 'Build the party, build the working class'.
"These are two aspects of one thing: rebuilding the movement. The party is the organiser of the working class and the working class is the class that gives the party its direction."
Sujatmiko explained that the PRD draws on the lessons of the revolutionary struggles against Dutch colonialism in Indonesia and of people's movements around the world. "If you want something worthy you have to pay for it", he said. "You may have to go without, to live in prison to win bigger freedom for the people you want to defend. If you live in a society where the exploitation is very naked and very repressive, your decision to fight for the greater liberty of all by reducing your own personal liberty is logical."