BY MAX LANE
On June 15 the Indonesian police kidnapped eight members of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and occupied and ransacked the PRD's West Java office. The PRD activists remain in police custody in Bandung and so far have been denied access to lawyers.
In Jakarta, the police have also been arresting student activists.
These attacks are an attempt by the police to re-establish their right to arrest activists at will. The only charges made by the police against the PRD activists in Bandung and the student activists in Jakarta is that they were handing out leaflets calling on workers to go on strike to protest a new ministerial decision abolishing some redundancy payments as well as proposed increases in fuel prices.
The PRD, along with other militant elements of the student movement, is being targeted because of its unrelenting campaign against the comeback of the New Order forces. The PRD's anti-New Order campaign has frustrated the rightists' attempt to redefine current political conflict as a struggle between the "democratic" parliament and an allegedly corrupt and dangerously "irresponsible" president.
The rightists have been using their control of key parliamentary positions to present themselves as the representatives of "democracy". Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung is the speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) and Central Axis leader Amien Rais is the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
However, the PRD's national campaigns calling for the disbanding of Golkar, for the removal of the pro-New Order forces from all positions of power in the country's civil and military administration, for the abolition of the "dual function" of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), and for the confiscation of the corruptly gained assets of the Suharto family and its New Order cronies have effectively countered the Golkar strategy.
The PRD's campaigns have taken different forms. They have included propaganda interventions into activities organised by organisations directly linked to President Abdurrahman Wahid, such as the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Nahdatul Ulama.
The PRD has also been part of united-front actions along with grass-roots members of the PKB and NU as well as liberal-democratic intellectuals and academics, plus some elements from Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP). There have also been anti-New Order protests by various student activist coalitions.
Opposing the New Order forces
There is a major disagreement between the majority of the Indonesian ruling class and its small liberal wing over what is the best method of rule: repression or concession and compromise. For the majority, with its base in crony corporations and a corrupt, tribute-collecting state apparatus used to unchallenged arbitrary rule, there can be no compromise on the necessity for strict authoritarian rule.
The struggle to prevent the full comeback of the rightist New Order alliance, represented by Golkar, the TNI, the Central Axis and the PDIP, is one of two main foci of struggle determining the present shape of Indonesian politics.
The police offensive against the PRD is taking place with the full support of the New Order alliance. Not a single voice from within these forces has been raised against the police violence or acts of repression. From within the government, only President Wahid has been criticising the police actions.
Knowing that they have the full backing of the MPR majority, the police have become increasingly arrogant in their actions and statements. Police spokespersons have answered allegations of torture from the PRD leadership by saying that perhaps the PRD activists had been beaten by frustrated workers who were also in jail. The police replied to criticisms of their occupation and ransacking of the West Java PRD office by stating that they occupied the office as a preemptive action to safeguard the office from a possible attack from an unnamed third force.
In Jakarta, police agents monitored university campus gates and arrested those students that their intelligence agents identified as "trouble makers".
The offensive by the police is, however, continuing to galvanise opposition. The largest moderate NGOs — INFID and WAHLI — have joined the PRD in challenging the June 8 police raid on the Asia Pacific People's Solidarity Conference. The National Human Rights Commission (Komnasham) has also indicated it will investigate the incident.
The police offensive is bringing together for the first time liberal-democratic and radical forces that have mostly worked separately in the past.
There are also signs that there are many members of the PDIP who are also starting to react against the offensive by the New Order alliance. There have now been three demonstrations in Jakarta by PDIP members supporting the plans by the new attorney-general, Baharuddin Lopa, to lay charges of corruption against PDIP parliamentary chairperson and former Golkar crony, Arifin Panirogo.
At the same time, the eastern Indonesia branch of Golkar has supported plans by Lopa to lay similar charges against Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung.
The appointment of Lopa as attorney-general has scared many in the New Order circles. Formerly with the Muslim United Development Party (PPP), Lopa is known to be untainted by corruption and unable to be bought off. The initial reaction of the New Order parties after the appointment of Lopa was to raise the possibility of bringing forward the MPR special session to hear impeachment charges against Wahid. They tried to depict any action by Lopa against Panirogo or Tanjung as politically motivated and not a genuine move against corruption.
However, the demonstrations and statements by dissident elements within the PDIP and Golkar undermined these moves.
There have also been a series of statements by almost all the most important independent sections of the legal profession attacking the DPR for refusing to take up issues of corruption involving Golkar or other New Order officials.
At the same time, the DPR majority has come under attack from the National Human Rights Commission for refusing to allow ad hoc human rights courts to investigate human rights abuses by the TNI and the police.
The New Order alliance has had to back off from speeding up the convening of the MPR special session.
Most consistent critic of Wahid government
While the Golkar-led New Order alliance has been manoeuvring against President Wahid as part of its campaign to regain power, some NGOs and especially the mushrooming number of left debating clubs, some made up of former PRD members, have taken up the issue of Wahid's neo-liberal economic policies, although only in discussion circles and on the internet.
These groups have been unable to put forward a consistent critique of Wahid's political positions due to their view that there is no real differences within the ruling class. They therefore abstain from demanding that Wahid live up to his democratic talk and join a united front against the New Order forces.
The PRD has been struggling to build a united front against the New Order forces while remaining the most consistent critic of the Wahid government, taking up both political and economic issues.
Again and again, the PRD has demanded that Wahid end his vacillations and take real action against those guilty of corruption and human rights crimes during the 30-year New Order regime. Again and again, the PRD has accused him of accommodating the New Order forces, including granting them positions in government.
The PRD has worked hard to convince as many as possible within Wahid's support base to join a united front against the New Order, often against the wishes of Wahid himself. The formation of the National Coalition Against the New Order (KNAOB) in May was the first united front that was able to mobilise both liberal intellectuals, student radicals, and PRD members alongside pro-Wahid forces, mainly peasants from eastern Java.
As the campaign against Wahid by the right has intensified, he has been forced to deal more seriously with the left-wing activists in the PRD. Wahid denounced the police's use of violent repression against radical activists and then attempted to sack the police chief.
Despite these gains in building an anti-New Order united front that includes pro-Wahid forces, the PRD was again at the forefront of criticism of the Wahid government over recent anti-worker legislation as well as the government's decision to increase fuel prices.
Between June 12 and 14, most trade unions in Indonesia launched strikes against a new ministerial decision which abolished many redundancy payments. In Jakarta, the demonstrations were organised by the May 1 Alliance, in which the PRD-led Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI) played a key role.
In Bandung, the FNPBI and PRD activists also played a key role, including helping to mobilise several thousand members of the All-Indonesia Workers' Union (SPSI) who were abandoned by their national leadership in the middle of the strike.
The PRD itself issued statements attacking the redundancy law and demanding its abolition. The PRD statement singled out Megawati Sukarnoputri as well as Wahid for specific criticism. This was the first time the PRD has aimed its fire at Megawati, who has so far escaped criticism for any decisions of the government. The PRD statement also demanded that Wahid act to repeal the ministerial decisions and end his silence on the issue. "Silence means compromising with the New Order", the PRD stated.
The size and militancy of the strikes against the redundancy decision shook the government. In Bandung, police provocation and the abandonment of the SPSI members by their leadership led to rioting.
The government went into emergency session to reconsider introducing fuel price rises. The increases were delayed one day. However, in the end they were put into effect, with Wahid making a statement that he assessed the people could still afford to pay the new prices.
The PRD called for national protests and for workers to go on strike again. More strikes and demonstrations then took place in many cities. They too were met with police violence. Wahid was forced to make a public call for the security apparatus to hold back and allow the demonstrations to take place.